The Enthymeme
The orator's everyday weapon — a syllogism that wins assent by leaving one obvious premise unspoken for the audience to supply.
The enthymeme is Aristotle's name, from the Rhetoric in the 4th century BCE, for the rhetorical cousin of the logical syllogism: a persuasive inference that usually rests on probabilities and signs rather than certainties, and that often drops a premise the audience will fill in for themselves. Aristotle called it the 'body' of persuasion, the central tool of practical argument in courts and assemblies — the workhorse of reasoning wherever proof is impossible but conviction is needed.
How it traveled
- RhetoricChalcis · -335explains
- De InventioneFormiae · -84explains
- TopicaFormiae · -43explains
- Institutio OratoriaRome · 95explains
- In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium—explains
- Suidae lexicon—explains
- Odysseus [attributed]Athensexplains
- Περὶ εὑρέσεως [Sp.]—explains
- Libro de Elocutione—explains
- Ad AmmaeumRomeexplains
- De ThucydideRomeexplains
- Peri SophistonAthensexplains
- Ars rhetorica [attributed]—explains
Key passages(20)
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam