Aritotle's Topics of Value

Aristotle's Rhetorica is both a system of rhetorical analysis and a method of invention. As a method of invention it provides a series of lists of propositions out of which one can build enthymemes and enthymemes out of which one can build arguments.

Remember that an enthymeme is basically a debate-worthy assertion followed by some reason to believe it is true. Often the reason rests on a further reason readily supplied by the audience and left unsaid by the speaker so that he or she isn't perceived as tedious or too precise and so that the audience can feel smart because it can fill in the gaps on its own and by doing so it is owning the argument, participating directl in it, and therefore starting to believe it.

E.G.:

Assertion: A graduate degree is more valuable (a greater good) than an undergraduate degree

Reason: because undergraduate degrees are more common [a less tricky assertion would be, because graduate degrees are less common, but by inverting it we make the audience think of a second without running much of a risk of them getting confused or losing the train of thought.]

Unspoken reason: and what is rarer is better than what is more common

We could add weigth by adding topics. What is harder to achieve is more rare; what takes a great deal of time and money is more rare; what is possessed by a small group of sellect people is more rare; etc. The more ways in which something is rare, the more rare people will tend to think it is and thus the closer to unique. And people think that what is unique is more valuable, especially if it is unique to them. That's why your dog is a family member and other people's dogs are dogs.

Create an enthymeme for each of the following topics or subsitute others from chapter 6, book one. For those that are already enthymemes, like number 3 below, extend it enthymeme.

1. That is good of which the contrary is bad
2. That which is greater than it should be is bad
3. That also is good on which much labour or money has been spent; the mere fact of this makes it seem good, and such a good is assumed to be an end -- an end reached through a long chain of means; and any end is a good.
4. Any end is good.
5. Good, too, are things that are a man's very own, possessed by no one else, exceptional; for this increases the credit of having them
6. Good also are the things by which we shall gratify our friends or annoy our enemies;
7. and the things chosen by those whom we admire.
8. [We value those things] for which we are fitted by nature or experience, since we think we shall succeed more easily in these.

Ok. So how does Aristotle's Rhetorica function as system of rhetorical analysis? [Analysis of what, Pullman? Of rhetorically available circumstances. Of arguments already presented by someone else. ]