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Top. IX. ἐκ διαιρέσεως] the topic of division. This is the division of a genus into its εἴδη or species; as appears from the example, the three motives to crime, from which the inference is drawn. Finitioni subiecta maxime videntur genus, species, differens, proprium. Ex his omnibus argumenta ducuntur. Quint. V 10. 55. Top. B 2, 109 b 13—29. Γ 6, 120 a 34 [Grote's Ar. I p. 435]. On διαίρεσις in demonstration, use and abuse, see Anal. Pr. I 31. Trendel. El. Log. Ar. § 58, p. 134 seq. Cic. Topic. V 28, XXII 83, de Orat. II 39. 165, Sin pars (rei quaeritur) partitione, hoc modo: aut senatui parendum de salute rei publicae fuit aut aliud consilium instituendum aut sua sponte faciendum; aliud consilium, superbum; suum, adrogans; utendum igitur fuit consilio senatus. Quint. V 10. 63, 65 seq. Ad probandum valet, et ad refellendum, § 65. Periculosum; requires caution in the use, § 67. The example, which illustrates the topic by the three motives to crime or wrong-doing, pleasure, profit, and honour, is taken from Isocrates' ἀντίδοσις, §§ 217—220, as Spengel points out, Trans. Bav. Acad. 1851, p. 20, note. All the three are successively applied to test the accusation (of corrupting youth) that his enemies have brought against him, and all of them are found to be unsuitable to explain the alleged fact. He therefore concludes by the method of exhaustion, that having no conceivable motives, he is not guilty. It must however be observed that Ar.'s διὰ δὲ τὸ τρίτον οὐδ᾽ αὐτοί φασιν, is not supported by anything in Isocrates' text. The causes and motives of actions have been already divided in I 10, with a very different result. The same terms are there employed, διελώμεθα § 6, and διαιρέσεις § 11. For an example of this topic, see II 23. 22 in the note. On the inference from ‘disjunctive judgments’, see Thomson, Laws of Thought, § 90, p. 160.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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