Enthymème

In Rhetoric, the enthymème is a figure of direction resting on a Syllogisme and which received two significances successively.

Aristotelician definition

According to the aristotelicians, the enthymème is a syllogism rhetoric based on the probable one, i.e. from what the public thinks. It is about a deduction whose value is concrete in opposition to an abstract deduction founded on the analysis. In this meaning, the enthymème gets persuasion and not the demonstration, because according to Aristote, the enthymème is founded on the probable character of its Prémisse S and thus constitutes a public reasoning handled easily by uncultivated men.

Contemporary definition

According to Quintilien and Boèce, the enthymème is a syllogism which one removed one of the two premises or the conclusion because the reality of this proposal is undeniable and of this fact kept in the spirit. According to the Logic of Port-Royal, the enthymème is a syllogism perfect in the spirit but imperfect in the expression, and thus constitutes an accident of language.

Enthymematic premises

The enthymème is thus a reasoning of which one of the premises, i.e. one of the stages of the reasoning, is eluded because it is held for certain. This certainty is human and not scientist, and could not thus raise of any epistemological step. According to the nature and the origin of this certainty, one distinguishes the tekmérion , the eikos and the séméion .

The tekmérion

The tekmérion (of the Greek τεκμήριον, “sign of recognition” from where “convincing proof by the reasoning”) is a sure index, that quiest-EC-which is and which cannot be differently. This premise rests on the universality of certain experiments. Roland Barthes thus indicates the childbirth of a woman like tekmérion of a sexual relationship with a man.

The eikos

The eikos (of the Greek εἰκώς, “similar, suitable” from where “probable”) is an index based on the vraisembable, “a general idea that were made the men by imperfect experiments and inductions”. Capital concept for Aristote, the eikos rests on two cores:
  • the idea of statistically determined human “general” by the opinion of the greatest number;
  • the possibility of contrariety, because if the enthymème is perceived by the public like an unquestionable syllogism, the probable one admits compared to science an opposite.

The séméion

The séméion (of the Greek σημεῖον, “sign, distinctive mark”) is an ambiguous index, less sure than the tekmérion : it is a sign whose polysemia ceases according to a context of other concomitant signs. Roland Barthes indicates like example of séméion :
“ Of the traces of blood makes suppose a murder, but it is not sure: blood can come from a nosebleed, or a sacrifice. ”

An example of enthymème: " Suddenly a drunkard crossed in zigzag the pavement; - and in connection with the workmen, they started a political conversation. Their opinions were the same ones, although Bouvard was perhaps more libéral". (Flaubert " Bouvard and Pécuchet" Chapter I. Quoted by Georges BAILLY in " Flaubert and Socialists - Why so much of hatred? " Master's paper of letters of the University of Rouen)

Bibliographical references

  • Roland Barthes, “old rhetoric” in the semiological adventure , Editions of the Threshold, Paris, 1985.

Jorge Juan VEGA there VEGA, Enthymème. History and topicality of the inference of the speech, Lyon, University Presses of Lyon, 2000.

See too

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