Aristotle
have us believe) generically distinguishable from the dialectical;[65]
nor is Sophistic an art distinct from Dialectic while adjoining to it,
but an inseparable portion of the tissue of Dialectic itself.[66] If
the Sophist passed himself off as knowing what he did not really know,
so also did the Dialectician; as we know from the testimony of
Sokrates, the most consummate master of the art. The conflict of two
minds each taking advantage of the misconceptions, short-comings, and
blindness of the other, is the essential feature of Dialectic as
Aristotle conceives it; to which the eight books of his Topica are
adapted, with their multiplicity of distinctions and precepts both
for attack and defence. There cannot be a game of chess without
stratagems, nor a fencing-match without feints; the power of such
aggressive deception is one characteristic mark of a good player.
Those who teach or theorize on the game do not seek to exclude
stratagem, but furnish precautions to prevent it from succeeding.
Mastery of the art assumes skill in defence as well as in attack.
[Footnote 62: Topic. VIII. xi. p. 161, a. 24.]
[Footnote 63: Soph. El. iii. p. 165, b. 14.]
[Footnote 64: Compare Topic. I. ii. p. 101, a. 26-b. 4, with Soph.
El. xvi. p. 175, a. 5-16.]
[Footnote 65: Soph. El. ii. p. 165, a. 32; xxxiv. p. 183, b. 1.]
[Footnote 66: Plato, Apol. Sokrat. p. 23, A.
Compare this with Aristot. Soph. El. i. p. 165, a. 30.]
Doubtless there are rules that require to be observed in the
dialectical attack and defence, as there are rules for all other
matches such as chess or fencing. I should have been glad if
Aristotle had given a precise and tenable explanation what these
rules were. He describes the Sophist as one who plays the game
unfairly; but we have already seen that the ends pursued by the
Dialectician generally are hardly at all distinguishable from those
aimed at by the Sophist. If we look to the account of the means
employed by one and the other, we shall in like manner fail to see
how any real line can be drawn between them.
Thus, one proceeding declared to be characteristic of the Sophist
is--that he puts multiplied questions apparently at random, without
any visible bearing on the thesis; practising a sort of fishing
examination, in order to obtain some answer of which he may take
advantage.[67] But, when we turn to the Eighth Book of the Topica, we
find Aristotle expressly recommending the like manoeuvre to the
Dialectician; advising him to conceal as much as possible the scheme
and intended series of his questions--to begin as far as possible
apart from the thesis, to put the questions in a succession
designedly incoherent and unintelligible, and to obtain (what, if
obtained, ensured complete success) the full extent of premisses
necessary for his final refutative syllogism, without the respondent
being aware that he had conceded them.[68] The questioner is farther
advised to throw the respondent off his guard by affecting
indifference whether each question is answered affirmatively or
negatively, and by occasionally taking objection against himself, in
order that he may create the impression of a strictly honest
purpose.[69] If we compare the interrogative procedure which
Aristotle recommends to the Dialectician with that which he blames in
the Sophist, we shall find that the former is even a greater
refinement of deception than the latter.
[Footnote 67: Soph. El. xii. p. 172, b. 9-25.
Aristotle treats the Sophists as guilty of dishonourable proceeding
herein--[Greek: du/nantai de\ nu=n ê(=tton _katourgei=n_ dia\ tou/tôn
ê)\ pro/teron.] The very same charge was urged against the dialectic
of Sokrates by his opponents: Plato, Hippias Minor, p. 373--[Greek:
a)lla\ Sôkra/tês a)ei\ tara/ttei e)n toi=s lo/gois kai\ e)/oiken
ô(/sper kakourgou=nti.] Compare Plato, Gorgias, pp. 461, B., 482, E.,
483, A.]
[Footnote 68: Topic. VIII. i. p. 155, b. 1.-p. 155, b. 30; p. 156, a.
5-22. Compare Analyt. Priora, II. xix. p. 66, a. 33.]
[Footnote 69: Topic. VIII. i. p. 156, b. 3, 17. Compare VIII. i. pp.
155-156, with Soph. El. xv. p. 174, a. 28.]
The next trick which we find ascribed to the Sophist is--that he
conducts the train of interrogation in such manner as to bring it
upon a ground on which his memory is abundantly furnished with
topics. Aristotle adds that this may be done well and honourably, or
ill and dishonourably.[70] From his own admission we see that this
practice was not peculiar to Sophists, but was common also to those
whom he calls Dialecticians: like every other part of the procedure,
it might be done well or ill; but wherein this difference consisted
he does not further explain. Indeed, when we recollect that the
elaborate details and classification of the Topica are mainly
intended to furnish the memory with an abundant store of premisses
well-arranged and ready for interrogation,[71] we may be sure that
every Dialectician who had gone through the trouble of learning them
would be impatient to apply them; and would make an opportunity for
doing so, if none were spontaneously tendered to him. But, if the
answers obtained were totally irrelevant to his final purpose of
refuting the thesis, they would be nothing but embarrassment to
him.[72] We must, therefore, understand that the questions put would
be such as tended ultimately to introduce that refutative Syllogism
which the questioner was bound to conclude with. If they were not, he
was of course punished by failure.
[Footnote 70: Soph. El. xii. p. 172, b. 26. In Topic. III. i. p. 116,
a. 20, Aristotle prescribes the same procedure to the Dialectician.
See also Waitz's note on the passage.
Alexander (in Scholia, p. 267, b. 8) tells us that it was customary
for the Sophists to put questions lying away from the thesis, and he
shows this by mentioning the Platonic Protagoras, in which he says
that the Sophist Protagoras does so. But the illustration here
produced does not serve Alexander's purpose. The Sophist Protagoras
(in the Platonic dialogue so called) is represented, not as shifting
dialectic from one point to another, but as running away from it
altogether into long discourse and continuous rhetoric (Plato,
Protagor. pp. 333, 334, 335). In respect to the thesis started for
debate, the dialectic of Sokrates departs from it as widely as that
of Protagoras, and this is acknowledged at the close of the dialogue,
p. 361. Compare 'Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates', Vol.
II. pp. 53, 59, 70.]
[Footnote 71: Topic. I. v. p. 102, a. 13; I. xiii. p. 105, a. 22;
VIII. xiv. p. 163, a. 31-b. 2.]
[Footnote 72: Aristotle himself observes this, Topic. II. v. p. 112,
a. 14.]
A third manoeuvre treated as peculiar to the Sophist is--that he
takes account of the particular philosophical sect to which the
respondent belongs, and endeavours to bring out by interrogations
whatever there may be paradoxical in the tenets of that sect.[73] But
would not any expert Dialectician do just the same? What else would
be done by Sokrates, if cross-examining an Anaxagorean or a
Herakleitean? or by Aristotle himself, if interrogating a Platonist?
[Footnote 73: Soph. El. xii. p. 172, b. 29.]
Another proceeding treated as peculiar to the Sophist is--that he
seeks to drive the respondent into a paradox, by bringing out in
cross-examination certain well-known antitheses or contradictions
which subsist together in the opinions of mankind. Thus, men profess
in their public talk high principles of virtue; but secretly and at
the bottom of their hearts they desire to get wealth or power _per
fas et nefas_. Again, there are two kinds of justice: one, that which
is just by nature and in truth, such as wise men or philosophers
approve; the other, that which is just according to law or custom,
such as the multitude in this or in in some other society approve.
There is, also, conflict between the authority of a father, and that
of the wise; between justice and expediency; and as to whether it is
more eligible to suffer wrong or to do wrong.[74] All these
antitheses are presented to us in the Platonic Gorgias, to which
(_i.e._, to the speech of Kallikles therein) Aristotle here makes
reference; and he numbers it among the vices distinguishing the
Sophist from the genuine Dialectician--to dwell upon such antitheses
for the purpose of forcing the respondent into paradoxical answers.
But, surely, the antitheses here fastened upon that obnoxious name
are of a class utterly opposed to the class of _pseudo-probabilia_,
which he tells us are the peculiar game of the litigious Sophist,
though every man of ordinary intelligence detects them at first sight
as fallacies. They are all real and serious issues,[75] having
plausible arguments _pro_ and _con_, debateable without end, and
settled by every man for himself according to his own sentiment and
predisposition. They are exactly the subject-matter best fitted for
the acute Dialectician. No man would be allowed by Aristotle to
deserve that title, if he omitted to raise and argue them, the thesis
being supposed suitable.[76] Aristotle himself speaks often of the
equivocal sense of the term justice--of the distinction between what
is just by nature and what is just according to some local or
peculiar sentiment.[77] The manoeuvre which Aristotle imputes to the
Sophist being exactly the same as that which Kallikles imputes to
Sokrates in the Platonic Gorgias,[78] it is Sokrates, and not
Kallikles, who serves here as illustrating what Aristotle calls a
Sophist. Indeed, if we read the Gorgias, we shall find the Platonic
Sokrates there represented as neglecting the difference between what
is probable (conformable to received opinion) and what is
paradoxical. He admits that he stands alone in his opinion, against
all the world, and his opponents even imagine that he is bantering
them; but he confides in his own individual reason and consistency,
so as to be able to reduce all opponents dialectically to proved
contradiction with themselves.[79] Himself maintaining a paradox, he
constrains his respondent by acute dialectic to assent to it; which
is exactly what Aristotle imputes to the Sophists of his day as a
reproach.
[Footnote 74: Ibid. b. 36-p. 173, a. 30.]
[Footnote 75: Rhetoric. II. xxv. p. 1402, a. 33: [Greek: oi( me\n
ga\r sullogismoi\ e)k tô=n e)ndo/xôn, dokou=nta de\ polla\ e)nanti/a
a)llê/lois e)sti/n.]
A disputant who argued about these memorable ethical antitheses, must
be allowed [Greek: kata\ to\ pra=gma theôrei=n ta\ koina/], which is
the characteristic feature assigned by Aristotle to the Dialectician,
as contrasted with the Sophist (Soph. El. xi. p. 171, b. 5), in so
far us I can understand the words [Greek: kata\ to\ pra=gma]. See
note b p. 394 supra.]
[Footnote 76: Topic. I. iii. p. 101, a. 5-10. [Greek: e)k tô=n
e)ndechome/nôn poiei=n a(\ proairou/metha.]]
[Footnote 77: Topic. II. xi. p. 115, b. 25. Ethic. Nikom. V. x. p.
1134, b. 18; I. i. p. 1094, b. 15. Rhetoric. I. xiii. p. 1373,
b. 5.]
[Footnote 78: Plato, Gorgias, pp. 482-483. [Greek: o(\ dê\ kai\ su\]
(Sokrates) [Greek: tou=to to\ sopho\n katanenoêkô\s kakourgei=s e)n
toi=s lo/gois, e)a\n me/n tis kata\ no/mon le/gê|, kata\ phu/sin
u(perôtô=n, e)a\n de\ ta\ tê=s phu/seôs, ta\ tou= no/mou.]]
[Footnote 79: Plato, Gorgias, pp. 470, 472, 481, 482.]
Some predecessors of Aristotle had distinguished arguments or
discourses into two separate classes--those addressed to the name,
and those addressed to the thought.[80] This distinction Aristotle
disapproves, denying certainly its pertinence and almost its reality.
There can be no arguments addressed to the thought only, apart from
the name: all of them must be addressed to the name, and through it
to the thought.[81] Whether an argument is addressed to the thought