Dialectical and Rhetorical Uses of Topoi

Aristotle, as has been shown, originally developed the method of τóπoι to enable speakers to argue in dialectical debates. Yet, in Topics΅ 2, 101a 25 – 101b 4 he explicitly admits that the treatise has a value outside the context of dialectical debates: «[…]the next point is to explain for how many and for what purposes this treatise is useful. They are three in number, training in disputation (πρòζ γυμνασíαμ), casual conversations (πρòζ τάζέυτεύξειζ) and the philosophical sciences (πρòζ τάζ κατά φιλoσoφíαν έπιστήμαζ).