E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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Ἡ ῥητορική ἐστιν ἀντίστροφος τῇ διαλεκτικῆ is translated by Cicero, ex altera parte respondere dialecticae, Orat. XXXII 114. ‘Vox a scena ducta videtur. Chori antistrophe strophae ad assem respondet, eiusque motus ita fit, ut posterior in prioris locum succedat...Significat ex altera parte respondere et quasi ex adverso oppositum esse; id quod etiam in antistrophen cadit.’ Trendel. El. Log. Arist. § 14 p. 74: and to the same effect, Comment. ad Arist. de Anima, II 11 5 p. 408. ‘ἀντίστροφον dicitur quod alius rei quasi partes agit eamque repraesentat;’ Waitz, Comm. ad Anal. Pr. I 2, 25 a 6.

The term is borrowed from the manoeuvres of the chorus in the recitation of the choral odes. Στροφή denotes its movement in one direction, to which the ἀντιστροφή, the counter-movement, the wheeling in the opposite direction, exactly corresponds, the same movements being repeated. Müller, Diss. Eumen. p. 41. Hist. Gr. Lit. c. XIV § 4. Mure, Hist. Gk. Lit. Bk. III. c. 1 § 15. Hence it is extended to the words sung by the chorus during the latter of these evolutions, and signifies a set of verses precisely parallel or answering in all their details to the verses of the στροφή. And thus, when applied in its strict and proper sense, it denotes an exact correspondence in detail, as a fac-simile or counterpart.

Hence in Logic ἀντιστρέφειν is used to express terms and propositions which are convertible, and therefore identical in meaning, precisely similar in all respects. On the various senses of ἀντιστρέφειν and its derivatives in Logic, see Waitz, u. s. In this signification, however, ἀντίστροφος does not properly represent the relation actually subsisting between the two arts, the differences between them being too numerous to admit of its being described as an exact correspondence in detail; as I have already pointed out in the paraphrase (Introd. p. 134).

It also represents Rhetoric as an art, independent of, though analogous to, Dialectics, but not growing out of it, nor included under it. The word is of very frequent occurrence in Plato (Gorgias, Republic, Philebus, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Leges), who joins it indifferently with the genitive and dative; and he employs it in this latter sense; as likewise Isocrates, περὶ ἀντιδ. § 182; and Aristotle himself in several places; Polit. VI (IV) 5, 1292 b 7, καὶ ἔστιν ἀντίστροφος (corresponding) αὕτη ἐν ταῖς ὀλιγαρχίαις ὥσπερ ἡ τυραννὶς ἐν ταῖς μοναρχίαις. c. 6 ult. 1293 a 33. c. 10, 1295 a 18. de part. anim. II 17 ult. ἐν μὲν οὖν τούτοις τοῖς ζῴοις ἡ γλῶττα τοιαύτη τὴν φύσιν ἐστίν, ὥσπερ ἀντιστρόφως ἔχουσα τῷ μυκτῆρι τῶν ἐλεφάντων.

Lastly, Waitz, u. s., points out a peculiar signification of it, ‘res contraria alteri quam potestate aequiparat,’ in de Gen. Anim. II 6, 743 b 28. τὸ ψυχρὸν συνίστησιν ἀντίστροφον (as a balance) τῇ θερμότητι τῇ περὶ τὴν καρδίαν τὸν ἐγκέφαλον. Trendelenburg, Comm. ad de Anima u. s., after defining ἀντιστρέφειν as above, adds, ἀντίστροφος ex eadem chori similitudine significat ex altera parte respondere (this is from Cicero, u. s.) Arist. Rhet. I 1; quod non significat, rhetoricam in dialecticae locum succedere (i.e. can be substituted for it, step into its place, as a convertible term), sed quasi ex adverso esse oppositam (stands over against it, as a corresponding opposite in a συστοιχία, two parallel rows of coordinate opposites, like the partners in a country dance). Quintilian, Inst. Orat. II 17, 42, specie magis quam genere differunt.

The term ἀντίστροφος therefore applied to the two arts, seems to represent them as two coordinate opposites, or opposites in the same row (see Spengel on the study of Rhetoric, Munich 1842, p. 21). They are sister arts, with general resemblances and specific differences; two species under one genus, proof: both modes of proof, both dealing with probable materials, but distinguished by the difference of the two instruments of proof employed: the one concluding by the formal svllogism, and by the regular induction, assumed complete; the other drawing its inferences by the abbreviated, imperfect, conversational enthymeme, never complete in form, and by the single example in the place of the general induction.

Rhetoric is afterwards described as παραφυές, μόριον and ὁμοίωμα (infra c. II § 7). παραφυές and μόριον both express in different ways the relation that Rhetoric bears to Dialectics as the off-shoot, branch, or part; a species or variety of the general art of probable reasoning: παραφυές as a subordinate shoot, growing out of the same root with the larger plant or tree,—a term so far corresponding with ἀντίστροφος, but differing from it in making Rhetoric subordinate. μόριον reduces it to a still lower level in comparison with the other. ὁμοίωμα implies no more than a mere general resemblance.

In Sext. Empir. adv. Math. VII 6, occurs an explanation of ἀντίστροφος, quite in character with the ordinary Greek etymologies, ῥητορικήν, ἧς ἀντίστροφον εἶναι τὴν διαλεκτικήν, (not referring apparently to this passage, but most probably to the συναγωγὴ τεχνῶν) τουτέστιν ἰσόστροφον, διὰ τὸ περὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ὕλην στρέφεσθαι (versari circa), as Homer called Ulysses ἀντίθεον instead of ἰσόθεον. Alexander (infr.) gives the same explanation.

Bacon Adv. of learning Bk. II IX 3, has antistrophe for ‘correspondence’, “and it hath the same relation or antistrophe that the former hath.”

The points of correspondence and difference between the two arts have been already fully explained in the Introduction, p. 90 foll.: I will here give a summary of them from Alexander's Commentary on the Topics, p. 4. They are 1. that both of them are μὴ περὶ ἕν τι γένος ἀφωρισμένον; that is, that neither of them has any special subject-matter, like the sciences, but argues or perorates upon any thesis or subject whatsoever that can be presented to it. 2. τὸ δἰ ἐνδόξων καὶ πιθανῶν, no proof or conclusion, or principle, that they employ is more than probable; exact demonstration and necessary conclusions are excluded from both alike; πίστις, belief, the result of mere persuasion, and not ἐπιστήμη, the infallible result of scientific demonstration, being the object aimed at. 3. μὴ δἰ οἰκείων ἀρχῶν, they have no ‘special, appropriate’ first principles, such as those from which the special sciences are deduced; though they likewise appeal to the τὰ κοινά, the κοιναὶ ἀρχαί, the ultimate axioms and principles common to all reasoning, which are above those of the special sciences, and from which the latter must be deduced. And, 4. they are ὁμοίως περὶ τὰ ἀντικείμενα ἀλλήλοις; they argue indifferently the opposite sides of the same question, and conclude the positive or negative of any proposition or problem; unlike science and demonstration, which can only arrive at one conclusion. Where the materials and the method are alike only probable, every question has, or may be made to appear to have, two sides, either of which may be maintained on probable principles; in Dialectics and Rhetoric no certainty is either attained or attainable. The chief points of difference between them are, that Dialectics deals practically as well as theoretically with every kind of problem or question that can be submitted to it; proceeds by question and answer, in the way of debate, and its discussions are of a more general or universal character; whereas the subjects of Rhetoric are practically, though not theoretically, almost absolutely limited to Politics; it follows a method of continuous narration or explanation (διεξοδικῶς), and deals in its conclusions rather with individual cases than with general principles or universal rules, maxims and axioms.

Alexander, in a preceding passage, gives the following very extraordinary account of the derivation and original meaning of ἀντίστροφος: τὸ γὰρ ἀντ. ἀντὶ τοῦ ἰσόστροφόν τε καὶ περὶ τὰ αὐτὰ στρεφομένην καὶ καταγινομένην λέγει.

κοινὰ ἁπάντων] See Introd., p. 87, and the Paraphrase, pp. 134—5.

ἀφωρισμένης] ‘marked off, separated by a limit’, from every thing else about it; and so ‘definite, special’ (§ 7). 1, 2, 1 περί τι γένος ἴδιον ἀφωρισμένον, opposed to περὶ τοῦ δοθέντος. Polit. I 13, 1260 b 1 ἀφωρισμένην τινὰ δουλείαν (a definite, limited, kind of slavery). Ib. IV (VI) 4, 1290 b 25 ἀποδιορίζειν. ἀφορίζεται (ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς δύναμις) πρὸς τὰς ἄλλας δυνάμεις τῷ ἔργῳ τούτῳ, “this capacity of the soul is marked off, separated, distinguished, from all the rest by this function,” de Anima II 4, 9, 416 a 20. The preposition is similarly used in the compound ἀποβλέπειν, which is ‘to look away, or off’, from all surrounding objects, so as to fix the attention on one particular thing, or turn it in one particular direction. Comp. Lat. definire, determinare.

Parallel passages, in which this same characteristic of Rhetoric and Dialectics is noticed, are cited in the Introd. p. 75. See also Quintilian, II 21, 16—19, on the province of the orator.

ἐξετάζειν...λόγον] Note 1, Introd. p. 135. ἡ διαλεκτικὴ ἐξεταστική, Top. A 2, 101 b 3.