The common topics and commonplaces

This chapter was a bit challenging for me to comprehend, however I did find some things interesting about it. It was interesting that rhetoricians from ancient times would refer to common topics and commonplaces as actual places literally and interestingly enough they would imply that they were kept away somewhere hidden. These topics, or “topos” were used to provide a basis and reason for the argument a rhetorician was making. The chapter speaks of how common topics are used and how the use of some questions allow for the understanding and grasp of a topic to form. For example, Aristotle’s three questions he used for common topics were conjecture, degree, and possibility. Basically, if something has or hasn’t happened, if something is greater or smaller than something else, and if something is or isn’t possible. The very interesting thing about conjecture is that it is based on the individual and their view of the situation. For example the reading cited a case in which President Obama and Sarah Palin had differing conjectures about the same issue. Palin claimed that Obama created “death panels” with his new healthcare bill and it was her conjecture that led her to believe that this was the case. However when Obama explained himself he explained that the rumor was merely a misinterpretation of the fact that he was allowing people to bill insurance for death counseling. This wasn’t a death panel, but he was helping the people by allowing insurance to cover things related to dying that wouldn’t otherwise be covered. Thus, his conjecture was that he believed the death panels did not happen. The topic of degree was one that was also very interesting because it instantly made sense to me once I read the quote from Aristotle about the golden mean. “we know that which is great, he wrote, when it is compared to the normal; likewise for that which is small” (Crowley 92). The third common topic of Aristotle’s is possibility, and this in my opinion leaves the most room for personal speculation. It may be a very good determinant of topics and help in order to explain and or answer a question, but it didn’t completely make sense to me how it is put into practice. I understood the conclusions of arguments being based on possibility, but the only way I see the question of possibility helping or hindering a rhetoricians argument is in the conclusion of said argument.  

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.