The Topics / Commonplaces
The orator's idea-bank: ready-made lines of argument — from cause, from opposites, from precedent — you can apply to any subject to find something to say.
Topoi ('places,' Latin loci) are the standard strategies, or general headings, from which arguments can be generated on any topic: argument from definition, from comparison, from cause and effect, from greater and lesser, and so on. Aristotle treated them in his 'Topics' and 'Rhetoric' (4th c. BCE) as a systematic inventory for invention, the first stage of building a case, and Cicero and later rhetoricians expanded them. These 'commonplaces' became a fundamental tool of rhetorical and dialectical training and shaped how arguments were composed for centuries.
How it traveled
- RhetoricChalcis · -335explains
- TopicaChalcis · -322explains
- HistoriesMegalopolis · -118explains
- De InventioneFormiae · -84explains
- In C. VerremFormiae · -70explains
- On OratoryFormiae · -55explains
- OratorFormiae · -46explains
- TopicaFormiae · -43explains
- Partitiones OratoriaeFormiae · -43explains
- Institutio OratoriaRome · 95explains
- Quaestiones ConvivalesChaeronea · 120explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium—explains
- Ars rhetorica [attributed]—explains
- Ars Rhetorica—explains
- In Aristotelis Topicorum Libros Octo CommentariaAthensexplains
- Περὶ εὑρέσεως [Sp.]—explains
- Progymnasmata [Dub.]—explains
- Suidae lexicon—explains
- In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.]—explains
- Ars Rhetorica [attributed]Smyrnaexplains
Key passages(20)
In Aristotelis Topicorum Libros Octo Commentaria · Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Topicorum Libros Octo Commentaria · Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam