The argumentative orientation of an utterance can be reversed by the substitution of one morpheme for another, for example, by substituting little for a little, S. Orientation; Orienting words. The adverb precisely, in one of its uses, can also operate a reversal of argumentative orientation:

S1: — Peter does not want to go out, he’s depressed.
S2: — Well, precisely, he would breathe the clean country air, it would clear his head.

“He is depressed” justifies the decision not to go out; precisely accepts the fact that Peter is depressed, but re-orients it towards the opposite conclusion: Peter should go out (Ducrot 1982), by applying to it the different rule: “When one is depressed, one wants to stay home” vs. “Going out is good for depression”.

The orientation reversal is based on the letter of what the S1 says; S2 replies to S1 “Your argument does not support your claim, it even points to the contrary; you give arguments against your position”. S2 opposes to S1 his or her own saying, and thus affects his conversational face. This can be considered to be a typical reply “to the letter” (ad litteram), a strategy of discourse destruction, S. Matter; Destruction; Objection; Refutation.

Classical rhetoric has identified many phenomena of reversal of the same order, such as irony:

Everything is possible with the SNCF (French Railway Company), that is the best slogan you ever found!
Said by a traveler to a train conductor when the train had been held between two stations for two hours.

The slogan is oriented towards “the SNCF is capable of being incredibly positive and pleasant for you”; the circumstances show that “the SNCF is capable of being incredibly negative”, S. Irony.

Some of these strategies have been identified and named in rhetoric:

— Exploiting the various acceptances of a term to reverse its argumentative orientation: antanaclasis.
— Turning over an expression, to the same effect: antimetabole.
— Reversing the qualification of an act: antiparastasis.
— Reversing the orientation of a term by substituting another quasi-synonymous term or description: paradiastole.

1. Antanaclasis

Antanaclasis is a phenomenon of repetition of a polysemous or homonymous term or expression. In its second occurrence, the term has a meaning and a direction different from that which it had in the first occurrence. In other words, the signifier S⁰ has the meanings Sa and Sb. In its first occurrence S⁰ has the meaning Sa with the orientation Oa and, in the second occurrence the meaning Sb with the orientation Ob.

The resumption of the signifier S⁰ must take place in the same discursive unit, whether a statement, a paragraph, a turn or pair of turns. It can be performed either by the same speaker in the same speech unit or by a second speaker in a second turn.

Within the same-speaker intervention, the antanaclasis introduces an ambiguity, since the same word is used to designate different things. In a syllogism, the antanaclasis introduces in fact two terms under the cover of the same signifier S⁰, and thus produces a syllogism not of three but of four terms, that is, to a paralogism.

In interaction, the two meanings of the term are used in two consecutive turns of speech, the second invalidating the first. The antanaclasis is a kind of ironic echoing and aggressive retaliation. The word tolerance refers to a virtue; the French expression maison de tolérance, “house of tolerance”, refers to a legal, licensed… tolerated brothel:

S1: — A little tolerance please! (tolerance is a virtue)
S2: — Tolerance, there are houses for that (tolerance allows vice).

In French une foire refers to “a fair”, a commercial exhibition; or “a mess”, a state of general noise and confusion.

S1: — We could not book you a hotel, all are fully booked, there is a foire (“a fair”) downtown
S2: — It seems that it is often la foire downtown. Fr. foire = “mess”

In the second example, the second term reorients what was said as an excuse to a reproach: “you cannot get organized”; this word-for-word resumption undermines S1’s speech. The use of derivative words authorizes maneuvers of this type. The one who finds his work aliénant (F), that is “alienating” (as in “assembly line work alienates workers”), is accused of being an aliéné (F), that is an insane person:

The ideological policeman of collectivism can say almost the same to the opponent: “For those who come to protest against alienation, in our society we have lunatic asylums (F. asiles d’aliénés)”. (Thierry Maulnier, [The Meaning of Words], 1976[1])

The antanaclasis reorientation differs from that operated by precisely. This adverb takes a statement oriented towards a given conclusion, grants the statement (accepts the information), and transforms it in order to make it back the opposite conclusion. In the preceding case, it could be “Well, precisely, the fair was announced a long time ago, you should have taken precautions.” The antanaclasis does not take the excuse seriously, it disorients the discourse.

2. Antimetabole

Like antanaclasis, the antimetabole is a language ploy used to dismantle the opponent’s speech. The discourse is resumed and restructured syntactically so as to make it lose its orientation, or even to give it an opposite orientation. Dupriez quotes the determined / determining permutation mechanisms, by which a discourse on “the life of words” can be ironically destroyed by the affirmation of a preference for “the words of life” (Dupriez 1984: 53-54 ):

We do not live in a time of change, we live in a change of time.
These announcements effects (F. effets d’annonce) will quickly reduce to ineffective announcements (F. annonces sans effets)

S. Refutation; Prolepsis; Destruction; Converse.

3. Antiparastasis

This word refers to the stasis theory. A charge is laid against somebody; the accused acknowledges the fact for which he or she is blamed, but does not accept the blame:

L:     — You killed him!
L:     — Upon his request, I have ended his suffering.

The first statement is an accusation, “Shame on you, you deserve a condemnation!”; the second introduces an argument that cancels this orientation “what I have done is an act of courage”, or even reverses the accusation: “what I have done deserves every respect”, S. Motives.

This form of counter-argumentation gives the same fact two opposite orientations. The antanaclasis is a pseudo-acceptance and an implicit reversal, whereas the antiparastasis explicitly reverses the negative orientation given to the fact by the opponent.

This choice of defense gives the speaker a militant or rebellious ethos. Such situations based on radically opposite values have a high dramatic potential, for example, the confrontation between Antigone and Creon in Sophocles’ play Antigone enacts such a situation of antiparastasis.

4. Paradiastole

The term paradiastole originates from a Greek word expressing a movement of expansion and distinction. In a monologue, the paradiastole “establishes a system of nuancing and precision, generally developed upon parallel statements” (Molinié 1992, Paradiastole). The Latin term distinguo refers to a similar operation. The paradiastole refines the definition of a concept or establishes a distinction between two close concepts that, from the point of view of the speaker, should not be confused: “sadness is not depression”. In a dialogue, paradiastole rejects a partner’s word as inadequate, and substitutes for it another word, considered to be contextually more adequate, which reorients the discourse. Depression and sadness may be semantically close, but they can nevertheless be opposed as in:

L1:   — I’m depressed, I have to see a shrink.
L2:   — No, you’re not depressed, you’re sad, and sadness is not a medical condition.

Discourse constantly builds up such anti-oriented pairs, S. Orienting words.

All lovers, as we know, boast of their choice; […] The chatterer [is] good humored; the silent one maintains her virtuous modesty (Molière, [The Misanthrope], 1666[2])

(What is presented as) the true strongly negative description of a person as a chatterbox or a stupid person is opposed to how she appears in her lover’s eyes, as good humored or maintaining her virtuous modesty. The following example shows that this situation is generalized to discourse, where paradiastole no longer operates strictly between two terms, but between two discourses, opposing two points of view:

L1:   — He’s brave.
L2:   — I would not say that. He knows how to face danger, okay, but it seems to me that to be truly brave you also need a system of values, a clear sense of what you are fighting for​​… may be he is more of a hothead?

Starting from a mere nuancing, paradiastole can evolve into a term-to-term opposition:

L1:        — This is just ignorance
L2:        — No, it is simply bad faith.

[1] Thierry Maulnier, Le sens des mots, Paris: Flammarion, 1976, p. 9-10.
[2] Molière, Le Misanthrope, II, 4. Quoted from Moliere, The Misanthrope. Ed. by, Girard KS: E. Haldeman-Julius, 1922, p. 26-27. https://archive.org/details/misanthropecomed00molirich (11-04-2017).

The concept of orientation (argumentative orientation, oriented statement or expression), combined with the correlative concept of argumentative scale (Ducrot 1972), is fundamental to the theory of Argumentation within Language (sometimes referred to as AwL theory) developed by Oswald Ducrot and Jean-Claude Anscombre since the 1970s (Anscombre, Ducrot 1983, Ducrot 1988, Anscombre 1995a, 1995b, etc.). In this entry, the word discourse will refer exclusively to (polyphonic) monologue, not to dialogue or interaction.

The following equivalences can be helpful to grasp the general concept of meaning as argument, that is orientation towards a following statement, having the status of conclusion:

He said E1. What does that mean?
He says E1 in the perspective of E2
The reason why E1 is said is E2
The meaning of E1 is E2
E1, that is to say E2

1. But and the grammar of orientation

The stimulating case of but, has played a pivotal role in the construction of a grammar for argumentation. The privileged construction chosen to analyze this conjunction is schematized by “E1 but E2”:

The restaurant is good, but expensive.

The basic observations are as follows: E1 and E2 are true (the restaurant is good and expensive); but refers to an opposition; this opposition is not between the predicates “to be good’ and “to be expensive”: one knows that “everything good is expensive”, and tends to think that all expensive restaurants are necessarily good. The opposition is between the conclusions drawn from E1 and E2, functioning as arguments: if the restaurant is good, then, let’s have dinner there; if it is expensive, let’s go to another place; and the final decision is the latter. But here articulates two statements oriented towards contradictory conclusions, and retains the conclusion derived from the second argument.

Under such analysis, the meaning of but is instructional: connectives provide guidance for the interpretation of the speeches they articulate. They give the receiver the instruction to infer, to reconstruct from the left context E1 a proposition C opposed to something, not-C, that can be inferred from the context to the right of E2 (following E2). It is up to the listener to rebuild an argumentative opposition.

In the context of dialogical argumentation, these “instructors” themselves fall into the scope of an argumentative question, conditioning the reconstruction of the conclusions derived from E1 and E2. The preceding but came under a question like “Why not try this restaurant?”. If the question was “Which restaurant should we buy to make the best investment?”, the interpretation would be totally different: “This restaurant is good (= “delivers outstanding financial performance”) but is expensive (to buy)” the inferred, implicit conclusion would be “so, let’s invest our money somewhere else”. The argumentative question structuring the text creates the field of relevance and provides the interpretive constraints. This question and the relevant conclusions – answers are said to be “implicit” only insofar as the data supporting the analysis of but are generally limited to a pair of statements, the analyst considering that intuition can supply the missing context.

2. Linguistic constraint on the {argument, conclusion} sequence

As classical approaches, this theory considers argumentation essentially as a combination of statements “argument + conclusion”. The crucial difference lies in the concept of the link authorizing the “step” from argument to conclusion, that is the “topic”. The coherence of discourse is attributed to a semantic principle called a topos which binds the predicate of the argument to the predicate of the conclusion.

Ducrot defines “the argumentative value of a word” as “the orientation that this word gives to discourse” (Ducrot 1988, p. 51). The linguistic meaning of the word clever must not be sought in its descriptive value of a capacity measured by the intellectual quotient of the person concerned, but in the orientation it gives to a statement, namely, the constraints it imposes on the subsequent discourse. For example:

Peter is clever, he will solve this problem

is opposed to the chain perceived as incoherent:

* Peter is clever, he will not be able to solve this problem.

Such an argumentation is convincing indeed, because its conclusion, “solving problems” belongs to the set of predicates semantically correlated with “to be clever”. A set of pre-established conclusions is already given in the semantic definition of the predicate of the statement used as argument.

The two argumentative morphemes, little / a little give opposed argumentative orientations to the statement they modify, S. Orienting words:

he has taken a little food, he is improving
he has taken little food, he is getting worse.

Building upon such intuitions, Ducrot defines the argumentative orientation (or argumentative value) of a statement as “the set of possibilities or impossibilities of discursive continuation determined by its use” (ibid.).

The argumentative orientation of a statement S1 is defined as the selection operated by this statement among the class of statements S2 likely to follow it in a grammatically well-formed discourse. Theoretically, a first statement S1 can be followed by any other statement S2, both being independent linguistic units. According to the Argumentation within Language theory, the use of the first statement S1 introduces restrictions imposing certain characteristics upon the second statement S2; that is, it excludes some continuations and favors others.

The linguistic constraints imposed by the argument upon the conclusion are particularly visible on quasi-analytical sequences, such as “this proposition is absurd, so it must be rejected”. By the very meaning of words, to say that a proposition is absurd, is to say that it must be rejected. This apparent conclusion is a pseudo-conclusion, for it merely expresses the definiens of the word absurd, “which should not exist” as testified by the dictionary:

A.- [Speaking of a manifestation of human activity: speech, judgment, belief, behavior, action] Which is manifestly and immediately felt as contrary to reason in common sense. Sometimes almost synonymous with the impossible in the sense of “which cannot or should not exist”. (TLFi, [Absurd]).

In a formula as famous as it is objectionable, Roland Barthes wrote that “language is neither reactionary nor progressive; language is quite simply fascist; for fascism does not prevent speech, it compels speech” ([1977], p. 366). Barthes’ perspective is certainly different from Ducrot’s. Nonetheless, in Ducrot’s perspective, the argument literally compels the conclusion — playing with words, one might say that the inference is compulsive. This is common argumentative experience, in ordinary language, hearing the argument is enough to guess the conclusion.

Ducrot’s theory is constructed on the linguistic observation that, regardless of its informational content, any statement specifies its possible continuations and excludes others. Not just any statement can follow any other statement, not only for informational reasons, but also for semantical and grammatical reasons. There are semantic constraints on discourse construction.

At the sentence level, this idea is expressed in the purely syntactic language of the restriction of selection. In its non-metaphorical use, the statement “Pluto barks” assumes that Pluto is a dog. Literally taken, barking carries a restriction of selection determining the class of entities it admits as subject. Similarly, but at the discourse level, S1 operates a selection upon the class of the statements S2 that can succeed it. An argumentation is a pair of statements (S1, S2), such that S2, called the conclusion, respects the orientation conditions imposed by S1, called the argument.

3. Meaning as intention

The AwL theory rejects the conceptions of meaning as adequacy to reality, whether logical (theories of truth conditions) or analogical (theories of prototypes). It is built on a quasi-spatial conception of meaning as sense, direction: what the statement S1 (as well as the speaker publicly) means, in a specific context, is the conclusion S2 to which this statement is oriented. The art of arguing here is the art of managing discourse transition.

The relation “argument S1 – conclusion S2” is reinterpreted in a language production perspective (Fr. perspective énonciative) where the meaning of the argument statement is contained in and revealed by the next statement. The understanding of what is meant by the statement “nice weather today!” is not developing a corresponding mental image or cognitive scheme, but accessing the intentions displayed by the speaker, that is, “let’s go to the beach”. This is in perfect agreement with the Chinese proverb, “when the wise man points to the stars, the fool looks at the finger”.

The meaning of S1 is S2. The meaning here is defined as the final cause of the speech act. The AwL thus updates a terminology referring to the conclusion of a syllogism as its intention. This reflects the fact that a reformulation connector such as that is to say can introduce a conclusion:

L1:   — This restaurant is expensive.
L2:   — That is/ you mean / in other words/ you do not want us to go there?

The theory has developed in three main directions, argumentative expressions, or orienting words; connectives as argumentative indicators; and the concept of semantic topos.

4. Some consequences

4.1 Reason in discourse

Tarski maintains that it is not possible to develop a coherent concept of truth within ordinary language, S. Probable. In Ducrot’s vision of argumentation, the question of the validity of an argument is re-interpreted as grammatical validity. An argumentation is valid if the conclusion grammatically agrees with its argument (if it respects the restrictions imposed by the argument). It follows that the rationality and reasonableness attached to the argumentative derivation are no more than an insubstantial reflection of a routine discursive concatenation of meanings, or, as Ducrot says, a mere “illusion”, S. Demonstration. This is coherent with the structuralist project reducing the order of discourse to that of language (Saussurian langue). Ordinary discourse is seen as unsuited to expressing truth and reality. It follows that discourse is denied any rational or reasonable capacity.

4.2 A re-definition of homonymy and synonymy

As the theory is based exclusively on the concept of orientation, and not on quantitative data or measures, it follows that if the same segment S is followed in a first occurrence of the segment Sa and in a second occurrence of the segment Sb that contradicts Sa, then S does not have the same meaning in these two occurrences. As we can say “it’s hot (S), let’s stay at home (Sa)” as well as “it’s hot (S), let’s take a walk (Sb)” we have to admit that the statements “[are] not about the same heat in both cases” (Ducrot 1988, p. 55). This is a new definition of homonymy. By analogous considerations, Anscombre concludes that there are two verbs to buy, corresponding to the senses of “the more expensive, the more I buy” and “the less expensive, the more I buy” (Anscombre 1995, p. 45).

Conversely, we can assume an equivalence between statements selecting the same conclusion: if the same segment S is preceded, in a first occurrence by the segment Sa, and in a second occurrence by a different segment Sb, then Sa and Sb have the same meaning, because they serve the same intention: “it’s hot (Sa), I’ll stay at home (S)” vs. “I have work (Sb), I’ll stay at home (S)”. It is a new definition of synonymy, in relation to the same conclusion.

Finally, “if segment S1 only makes sense from segment S2, then sequence S1 + S2 constitutes a single utterance”, a single linguistic unit (Ducrot 1988: 51). One could probably go a step further, and consider that they make up a single sign, S1 becoming a kind of signifier of S2. This conclusion reduces the proper “order of discourse” back to that of the statement, even of the sign.

5. Orientation and inferring license

Ducrot opposes his “semantic” point of view to what he calls the “traditional or naive” view of argumentation (Ducrot 1988, p. 72-76), without referring to specific authors. Let’s consider Toulmin’s layout of argument.

— Argumentation is basically a pair of statements (S1, S2), having respectively the status of argument and of conclusion.

— Each of these statements has an autonomous meaning, and refers to a distinct specific fact, each of these facts being independently assessable.

— There is a relation of implication, a physical or social extra-linguistic law between these two facts (Ducrot 1988, p. 75).

This concept of argumentation can be schematized as follows. Curved arrows, going from the discourse level to the reality level, enact the referring process.

This conception may be “naive” insofar as it postulates that language is a transparent and inert medium, a pure mirror of reality. This is not the case for natural language (Récanati 1979); such conditions are only met by controlled languages ​​like the languages ​​of the sciences, in relation to realities that they construct as much as they refer to them.

Contrary to this view, the AwL theory emphasizes the strength of purely linguistic constraints. The orientation of a statement is precisely its capacity to project its meaning not only on, but also as the following statement, so that what appears as “the conclusion” is only a re-formulation of the “argument”. For the AwL theory, discourse is an arguing machine, systematically committing the vicious circle fallacy.

To sum up, the AwL theory opposes ancient or neoclassical theories and practices of argumentation, as a semantic theory of language opposes theories and techniques of conscious discursive planning, operating according to referential data and principles. For classical theories, argumentative discourse is likely to be evaluated and declared valid or fallacious. For semantic theory, an argumentation can be evaluated only at the grammatical level, as a concatenation (E1, E2) that is acceptable or not, coherent or not. In this theory, the compelling character of an argument is entirely a matter of language. It is no different from the coherence of discourse. To reject an argument is to break the thread of the ideal discourse. This position redefines the notion of argumentation; Anscombre speaks thus of argument “in our sense” (1995b, p.16).

6. Natural reasoning combines the two kinds of inferences

The transition from argument to conclusion can be based on a natural or social law or on a semantic coupling of the argument with the conclusion. These two kinds of inferences are currently connected in ordinary discourse:

You talk about the birth of the gods (1). You say, then, that at one time the gods did not exist; so you deny the existence of the gods (2), which is a blasphemy and punished by the law. So you will be punished (3) a pari, according to the law punishing those who speak of the death of the gods.

First, a semantic law deduces (2) from (1), S. Inference; second, a social law, having nothing to do with language or discourse, goes on from (2) to (3), the punishment being finally determined by an a pari alignment. Social law can be naturalized by somehow integrating the meaning of the words:

You are an impious man, impiety is punished with death, so you must die.

It is difficult to tell to what extent the very meaning of the word impious has integrated the law “impiety is punished with death”. Nonetheless, the link with social reality is clear: if I wish to reform the legislation, my revolt is not a semantic revolt. S. Definition; Layout.

1. The topos

Pragmatic argument is described by argument scheme n^o 13 in Aristotle’s Rhetoric:

Since in most human affairs the same thing is accompanied by some bad or good result, another topic consists in employing the consequence to exhort or dissuade, accuse or defend, praise or blame. (Rhet., II, 23; Freese, p. 311)

Thus, since positive and negative effects can always be attributed to any action plan, public or private, under discussion or already partly implemented, the plan can always be directly supported and eulogized by emphasizing its positive effects (actual or alleged), or attacked and blamed by emphasizing its negative effects, (actual or alleged).

Pragmatic argument presupposes a chain of argumentative operations:

(0) A question: Should we do this?

(1) A cause-to-effect argument: the intended action coupled with an alleged causal law, will produce some mechanical effect.

(2) This effect is positively or negatively valued.

(3) Taking this consequence as an argument, an effect-to-cause argument transfers to the cause, that is the planned action, the positive or negative assessment of the effect,

— to recommend it, if the value judgment carried on it is positive: answer Yes to the question
— or to reject it, if it is negative: answer No to the question.

With reference to this last operation, pragmatic argumentation can be considered to be a kind of effect to cause argumentation, S. Consequences. In fact, it is very different from a diagnostic argumentation reconstructing a cause from a consequence. Pragmatic arguments do not reconstruct causes; they transfer to the cause value judgments already cast upon the consequences.

In scientific fields, pragmatic arguments are based upon established facts, “You smoke”; they rely upon a statistical-causal law “smoking increases the risk of cancer”; and thus lead to a conclusion “your smoking increases your risks of getting lung cancer”. As nobody likes to have cancer, negative judgment retroacts on the cause “I (should) quit smoking”.
In socio-political fields as in everyday reasoning the causal deduction characterizing stage (1) is reduced to a series of vaguely plausible correlated elements, that is to say, to a kind of “causal novel”, and, commonly to a mere metonymic transfer “this will result in that”; S. Metonymy.

2. Against pragmatic arguments

The effect is the end, the measure corresponds to a means to this end, and evaluation made on the ends is immediately transferred to the means: in other words, the end justifies the means. As a consequence, the pragmatic argument can be countered by an objection rejecting the means on a priori moral grounds.

Pragmatic arguments are currently refuted by arguments about their adverse and perverse effects.

Nouvel Observateur[1] — A. C., in the book you publish with C. B., “The Domestic Dragon”, you support the legalization of drugs. Aren’t you afraid of being seen as working for the Devil?
AC. — Rather than legalization, we prefer to speak of domestication, as this implies a progressive strategy […]. It will not eliminate the problem of drugs. But it is a more rational solution, which will eliminate the mafias, reduce delinquency, and also reduce all the fantasies that feed drug taking itself, and are part of drug marketing.
J.PJ.— I believe that legalization would produce a pull effect, the consequences of which cannot be completely controlled. The more of a product is available on the market, the more potential consumers have access to it. This would result in a great many more people taking drugs.
Le Nouvel Observateur [The New Observer], 12-18 October 1989.

A.C. argues pragmatically, emphasizing the positive effects that the legalization of the drug will have, “eliminate the mafias, reduce delinquency, and also reduce all the fantasies”. She does not specify by which mechanism, but this is certainly not a fallacious move in a first speech turn, considering the constraints of length in interviews.

This claim could be countered by denying the postulated causal link, arguing for example, “legalization will not have such reducing effects but will just shift mafias and delinquents towards new occupations and fantasies towards new objects. J.-P. J. chooses to refute the claim by alleging this measure would have a perverse “pull effect”, diametrically opposed to the good intentions of A. C. (note the will / would opposition in the argument and in its refutation).
This effect is said to be perverse because unexpected, unintended by the person proposing the measure. The opponent credits her for that: J.-P. J. does not accuse A. C. of proposing this measure so that “many more people will take drugs”. Now, the evaluation of an effect as negative by one can be considered to be positive by the other.

L1:        — But this policy would blow up our research group!
L2:        — This is precisely the plan.

This case falls under Hedge’s Rules 5 and 6 (1838, p. 159-162):

1. 5. No one has a right to accuse his adversary of indirect motive.
   6. The consequences of any doctrine are not to be charged on him who maintains it, unless he expressly avows them.

To claim that the opponent’s policy would lead the country to downfall and chaos is a pragmatic refutation of the policy by its negative consequences. To claim that this policy is intentionally implemented by the opponents in order to lead the country to ruin and chaos, thus creating conditions conducive to their dictatorship, is to accuse them of conspiracy, and justify the use of violence against them. S. Norms; Rule; Evaluation.

This accusation of having a hidden agenda also refers to the strategy of refutation of public good reasons by hidden intentions. S. Motives.

Pragmatic argument is characterized by the fact that the evaluation of the measure is indirect. In the case of drugs legalization, a direct evaluation of the measure might be “this despicable trend to solve problems by legalizing anything and everything should be stopped. So, I don’t even want to consider your argument”.

A psychologist could object that drug addicts have a problem with law and moral prohibition. It follows that, legalizing the drug would in fact reinforce addiction.

[1] A French weekly political and cultural publication.

“Topic from the opposite » (Freese & Rhys Roberts); « from the contrary » (Ryan).
As the topos plays on two pairs of opposites, the plural « topos of opposites » can be used.

In a broad sense, the words opposition and opposite can cover a series of specific argumentative phenomena, S. Opposite terms; Contradiction

1. Topos of the opposites

Cicero recognizes the enthymeme based on opposites as the archetypal enthymeme, S. Enthymeme. The topos of the opposite is the first on Aristotle’s list of rhetorical topoi:

One line of positive proof is based upon consideration of the opposite of the thing in question. Observe whether that opposite has the opposite quality. If it has not, you refute the original position. If it has, you establish it. (Rhet., II, 23; RR, p. 355)

If courage is a virtue, cowardice is a vice

Ryan reformulates the Aristotelian topic as:

“1A — If A is the contrary of B, and C the contrary of D,
then if C is not predicated of A, then D is not predicated of B

1B — If A is the contrary of B, and C the contrary of D,
then if C is predicated of A, then D is predicated of B” (1984, p. 97)

We follow Freese and Rhys Roberts and use the label “topic from the opposite”. Ryan uses the equivalent word “contrary” in his discussion of the topic.

The clause “— is not predicated” can be read as “is not true, acceptable, possible…”. Applied to the logical implication, “P implies Q”, the topic validates the conclusion “not-P implies not-Q”; this conclusion is not quasi-logical, but plainly false, as a case of a negation of the antecedent (modus tollens), S. Deduction.

The problem here is that logical negation applies to a predicate saying something about its subject, but not to a name. A bottle and a gloomy thought equally qualify as non-cows. As the argument from the opposite is formulated in ordinary language in a given situation, the application of negation to any word is open-ended and debatable. But whoever wants to discuss that point becomes vulnerable to the accusation of “trying to pick up a senseless quarrel over semantics”.

2 A dialectical resource

The topos of opposites is a dialectical resource,  used to test claims such as A is B, “courage is a virtue”. If the proponent holds that “A is B”, then the opponent can examine what is going on with the opposites of A and B. In a dialogue format:

Confirmation:
The test procedure using the method of opposites develops as follows

Question: Is courage a virtue?
Topos of the opposite:
Opposite of courage: cowardice
                    Opposite of “— being a virtue”: “— being a vice”

Let’s predicate the contrary of virtue upon the contrary of courage:
                    “cowardice is a vice”
This proposition seems undisputable. So, let’s conclude that courage is indeed a virtue.

Argumentation: “Courage is (indeed) a virtue, since cowardice is certainly a vice”.

Refutation:
Let’s submit the claim “pleasant things are (intrinsically) good” to the same test.

Question: “are pleasant things good?”

Topos of the opposite:
Opposite of pleasant: unpleasant
Opposite of “— being good”: “— being bad”
Derived claim: “Unpleasant things are bad”

New question: “Are unpleasant things always bad?”
The answer is no, because cod liver oil is quite unpleasant to drink (in its natural state) and nonetheless good for the health.

Conclusion: (not all) pleasant things are not (intrinsically) good.

Argumentation:
          “pleasant things are not intrinsically good, since unpleasant things can also be good”

The topos of opposites can also be used to suggest practical actions:
     Inhaling black coal dust made the miners sick, they will recover their health if they drink white milk
If the cold rain has given him a cold, a hot tea will do him good.

2.3 Generic linguistic form and logical form of the topos of opposites

The topos of opposites is expressed by Aristotle in a language that is both ordinary in its construction and technical in its use of a specialized vocabulary: rhetorical terms like topos or enthymeme, or grammatical ontological terms like subject or predicate. These terms are indeterminate, that is, taken in their broadest intension: « a subject (a being), a property (a predicate) ». This corresponds to a generic formulation of topos.

Since the topos expresses a structure common to a set of enthymemes, it can be defined as their common logical form. The logical form of the topos of opposites is very simple which is not the case for all topoi.

According to Ryan’s formulation (1984, p. 97, cf. supra), it is written:
                    1A – If A is the opposite of B, and C the opposite of D,
                    Then, if C is not predicated of A, then D is not predicated of B.

                    1B – If A is the opposite of B, and C the opposite of D,
                    then if C is predicated of A, then D is predicated of B.

The clause “— is not predicated” can be read as “is not true, acceptable, possible …”.

According to the formulation of Walton & al. (2008, p 107) the argument « from opposites » argument has two forms:

Positive form:
                    The opposite of the subject S has the property P
                   Therefore, S has the property non-P (the opposite of the property P)

Negative form:
                    The opposite of the subject S has the property non-P
                   Therefore, S has the property P (the opposite of the property non-P)

In practice, the « logical form » is obtained by replacing the indefinite terms (the variables), by letters. The initial proposition is noted in the standard form of the analyzed propositions « A is C » (Ryan), or « S is P » (Walton). This writing abbreviation, very useful because it avoids the tortuous formulations sometimes necessary to correctly express the coreference.

A « logical form » in the strong sense would be a form capable of being used in a logical calculation. But the only operation here is the actualization of the generic form (topos) into a specified form (enthymeme).

1.3 Is the topos of opposites intrinsically fallacious?

1.3.1The topos of opposites is logically invalid

Applied to the logical implication, « A implies B », the topos validates the conclusion « not-P implies not-Q ». A sufficient condition is taken as necessary and sufficient. The conclusion is not « quasi-logical », but simply false, as a case of a negation of the antecedent (modus tollens), S. Deduction.
Logical negation applies to a predicate insofar as it asserts or not something about a subject, but does not apply to a noun. A bottle and a gloomy thought equally qualify as non-cows.
Moreover, since the topos occurs in natural speech and situation, the true meaning of negation applied to one of the components of a sentence is open-ended and debatable. But whoever who would venture to discuss that point would be dismissed as “trying to pick up a meaningless quarrel over semantics”.

1.3.2 The topos of opposites is conditionally valid

Let us consider a non-transparent box; we know that1) It contains two kinds of objects, cubes and balls; 2) These objects are red or green (or exclusive); 3) Objects of the same shape are of the same color.
The observer draws an object from the box, for example a ball, and sees that it is green. In this case, a ball is a non-cube; and the non-green is red. We can safely conclude that the balls are green; and that the non-balls (cubes) are non-green (i.e., blue).

1.4 Topos of the opposites in literature

Corresponding to a semantic rule, the topos of the opposites can be found in literary passages, where it serves poetic oratory amplification without losing its argumentative value of confirmation.

Satan leads the war against the angels, and has just undergone a cruel defeat. He calls “His potentates to council”, and explains to their assembly how a new weapon of his invention — powder and gun — will permit them to take their revenge.

He ended, and his words their drooping cheer
Enlighten’d, and their languish’d hope reviv’d
Th’invention all admir’d, and each how he
To be th’inventor mifs’d; so easy’ it feemed
Once found, which yet unfound moft would have thought
Impossible.
Milton, Paradise Lost, [1667], Book VI, 498-501; (My italics) [1].

The same conclusion applies to Columbus’ egg: « what seemed impossible before seems easy after« .

2. How the topos applies

In the preceding cases, the topos is quite easy to apply, because it operates on an elementary linguistic structure “A is B” (as in previous cases), easily transformed into “Not-A is not-B”.

The topos is also easy to identify, when the final formulation of the argumentation “A is B, then non-A is non-B”, leaves the topical relation transparent.

In other cases, the topos is more deeply embedded in the discourse, and its perception and reconstruction are more complex. In all cases, simple or complex, an argument is needed to show that such and such a passage corresponds to such and such a type of argument, S. Waste; Type of argument. For example, how can we decide if the following passage is structured by the topos of opposites (corresponds to an occurrence of the topos of the opposites)?

It took billions of years and ideal conditions before humans appeared on the planet, maybe one global warming will be enough to make it disappear

This is clearly an inferential structure, progressing from a categorical assertion about the past to a restricted assertion about the future:

E1, maybe E2

The corresponding Toulminian structure is « Data, SO, Modal, Claim« . The two connected statements have the same structure, and express consecutions. This parallelism augurs well for an occurrence of the topos of the opposites.
The structure to be considered for the operation is not the simple grammatical structure « S is P », but the consecutive structure:

« Conditions, Result », « C resulted in R », « C (resultative) R »

Do these C and R contain opposite predications on opposite subjects?

“It took billions of years and ideal conditions before humans appeared on the planet”
it took B before A = B has been necessary for A
billions of years and ideal conditions result humans appeared on the planet
[condition C1] billions of years and ideal conditions [result R1] humans appeared on the planet

“may be one global warming will be enough to make it disappear”
may be W will be enough for D
one global warming result [makes] it disappear
[condition C2] one global warming [result R2] [makes] it disappear.

The contraries are to be looked for not on a simple predicative structure, but on the two parallel structures “C [results in] R”. The results R1 and R2 are clearly opposites:

humans appeared on the planet
to make [humanity] disappear

Are their respective conditions in the same relationship? Condition C2 “one global warming” cannot be self-evidently opposed to condition C1 “it took billions of years and ideal conditions”. Nonetheless, their argumentative orientations are clearly opposed.

(i) C1, it took billions of years and ideal conditions before …

— billions of years is oriented towards conclusions like “that’s a long time”
— ideal conditions is oriented towards conclusions like “it’s rare, difficult to obtain”
— The construction “it takes X to Y” is oriented towards “it’s a lot”.

These three orientations converge to give rise to the global inference “this is a very complex process”.

(ii) Conversely, C2 is oriented towards a class of conclusions of the type: “this is a very simple process”:

— the determiner “one” is oriented towards unicity, “just one”, and simplicity;
— will be enough is oriented towards a limitation “no more than”, maybe “less than expected”, for such and such accomplishment.

If this reconstruction is acceptable, then the following argumentative structure is attributed to the discourse:

It has been really complicated to produce R
so, maybe, it will be very easy for R to disappear.

Such examples also suggest that the classical Aristotelian formulation of the topos may be oversimplified.

3. Trivial and non-trivial conclusions delivered by the topos

The application of the topos of opposites is a semantic reflex. Reasoning from opposites is a basic way of thought, in much the same way as causal reasoning, or reasoning by analogy or by definition. Reasoning from opposites may seem to deliver commonplace conclusions, empty because analytical reformulations of the original sentence when both terms are equally obvious.

Nonetheless, even in this case the topos does help to clarify the meaning of the words, which is no less necessary in philosophy than in general disputes:

Temperance is beneficial; for licentiousness is hurtful. (Aristotle, Rhet., II, 23; RR, p. 355)

There are, however, cases where the “opposite reflex” may, or must, be inhibited: If a prayer says “Peace to the people who love you”, should we apply the topos and conclude something like “War on those who don’t”?

Let us consider the following argumentations based on the opposites:

If war is the cause of our present troubles, peace is what we need to put things right again. (Ibid.)
Those who sank the country into the crisis are perhaps not the best suited to get us out of the mess.
We cannot trust the same failed market mechanisms to successfully steer the country out of this crisis (after Linguee, 25-10-2015)

These conclusions are met with the argument that « we have failed for lack of determination and radicalism »:

If we are in trouble, it is because we just have waged a limited war; this limited war is the cause of our present troubles, an all-out war is what we need to put things right again; only an outright victory will bring us peace.
Our policy did not fail, you prevented us from actually implementing it

The conclusion of the following example is not trivial:

For even not evil-doers should / Anger us if they meant not what they did / Then can we owe no gratitude to such / As were constrained to do the good they did us. (Aristotle, Rhet., II, 23; RR, p. 355)

The following one is also quite suggestive:

Since in this world liars may win belief, / Be sure of the opposite likewise — that this world / Hears many a true word and believes it not (id., p. 357).

The a contrario reflex is a typical example of how argumentation leads us to contemplate things from a different perspective, under a different wordings; or, as Grize would say, in a different light, S. Schematization.

4. A transcultural topos

The application of the topos from opposites is a semantic reflex that combines well with analogical reasoning. Like the topos a fortiori, the topos from opposites has cross-cultural validity. The following two examples come from the Chinese tradition.

Wang Chung, Four Things to be Avoided. [2]

There are four things which, according to public opinion, must be avoided by all means. The first is to build an annex to a building on the west side, for such an annex is held to be inauspicious, and being so, is followed by a case of death. Owing to this apprehension, nobody in the world would dare to build facing the west. This prohibition dates from days of yore.  […]
On all the four sides of a house there is earth; how is it that three sides are not looked upon as of ill omen, and only an annex in the west is said to be unpropitious? How could such an annex be injurious to the body of earth. or hurtful to the spirit of the house? In case an annex in the west be unpropitious, would a demolition there be a good augury? Or, if an annex in the west be inauspicious, would it be a lucky omen in the east? For if there be something inauspicious, there must also be something auspicious, as bad luck has good luck as its correlate. […]

Han Fei Tzu. “Precautions within the palace”. [3]

Moreover, whether one is ruler of a state of ten thousand chariots or of a thousand only, it is quite likely that his consort, his concubines, or the son he has designated as heir to his throne will wish for his early death. How do I know this is so? A wife is not bound to her husband by any ties of blood. If he loves her, she remains close to him; if not she becomes estranged. The saying goes, “if the mother is favored, the son will be embraced”. But if this is so, then the opposite must be, “if the mother is despised, the son will be cast away.”

5. A contrario

Lat. Contrarius, “contrary”. Two constructions might be used to refer to the argument, with the same meaning:
— the Latin proposition a: argument a contrario sensu, “by opposite meaning”
— or, less commonly, the Latin preposition ex: “complecti ex contrario” “conclude on the basis of the opposite meaning” (Cicero, quoted in Dicolat, art. Complector).
S. Latin labels

The label “argument a contrario” can be used with the meaning of “inversion”, to refer to the various kinds of argumentations which draw on contradiction, S. Contradiction.

Argumentation from the opposite corresponds to one kind of argumentation a contrario. In law, an a contrario argument is defined as:

A discursive process according to which a legal proposition being given which asserts an obligation (or other normative qualification) of a subject (or a class of subjects), for want of any other express provision, we must exclude the validity of a different legal proposition, which asserts this same obligation (or other normative qualification) with respect to any other subject (or class of subjects)” (Tarello 1972, p. 104). Thus, if a provision obliges all young men, who have attained the age of 20, to perform their military service, it will be concluded, a contrario, that young girls are not subject to the same obligation. (Perelman 1979, p. 55)

If a rule explicitly concerns a category of things, then it does not apply to the things that are not part of this category. The rule applies only in the defined area, to all the specified things, and only to them. This is an application of Grice’s Rule of Quantity, stipulating that the speaker must provide just the necessary amount of information, no more and no less.

This rule assumes that the system of law is well made and stable. In a period of social change and revision of the law, the argumentation a pari will be opposed to argumentation on the opposites. Women engaged in a battle for gender equality will refuse to oppose their status to men’s status, and will demand that laws be applied a pari, be it beneficial (right to vote) or quite possibly less attractive (military service).

There is no paradox in the fact that a pari / a contrario argumentation can apply to the same material situation. Political issues are not unanimous, and cannot be solved by an automatic application of an algorithm; their discussion brings in historical considerations, values and affects.

[1] Edinburgh: Donaldson.
[2] Wang Chung, Four Things to be Avoided. In Lun-hêng, “Balanced discussions”, Book XXIII, Chap. III, 68. Translation and notes by Alfred Forke., Leipzig, 1906. Reprint by Paragon Book Gallery, New York, 1962. (p. 793-794)
Quoted after http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/wang_chung/lunheng/wangchung_lunheng.pdf
[3] Han Fei Tzu. Basic Writings. Section 17, “Precautions within the palace”. Translated by Burton Watson. New York, London, Columbia University Press, 1964. P. 84-85.

 1. Refutation by the observation of the opposite

Two opposite predicates cannot simultaneously be attached to the same subject. In other words, if an individual says something and one can see and show that the opposite is true, what the first speaker has said is rejected. This is a clear application of the principle of non-contradiction, two opposites cannot simultaneously exist in the same subject. This topic, as trivial as it is effective, is consistent with the view the facts are the best argument: “You say this, but I can see the opposite.” Example:

1. 1. Claim: Peter has white hair.
   2. Actual observed reality: Peter has black hair
   3. Rule of opposites: “white” and “black” are opposite properties (here of contrary opposite, they cannot be simultaneously true but can be simultaneously false, for example, if Peter has red hair).
   4. Conclusion Peter has white hair is false and must be rejected.

This argument has very broad scope when it comes to the refutation of factual assertions; it is actually the standard rebuttal scheme. If we are able to call upon a case in which an opposite property can be predicated of the same subject, the opponent’s claim in refuted.

The refutation predicates an opposite term of the subject, so we will use the singular, “refutation by (the predication of an) opposite”. In the quite different case of the topic of the opposites, the word is used in the plural. S. Opposites.

The condition of belonging to the same family of opposites is necessary: « Marie has a cat” (claim) is not refuted by stating, “Marie has a rabbit”.

The same procedure works for contrary and contradictory opposites. In the traditional system of genres, the claim “Mary is a man” is denied by the observed contradictory fact that Mary is a woman. Similarly, if two terms are in a relationship of possession / deprivation, (another form of opposites). If I am accused of having ripped off someone’s ear, I can refute the accusation by asking that person to come to court and show that he still has both his ears.

2. Facts against theories

The scheme applies to predictive discourse, somebody predicts that event E should happen, but, in due time, anybody can see that not-E, as is often the case in practical discourse.

In science, the scheme is involved in the Popperian concept of experimental refutation (Popper, 1963). When the predictions made by the theory are clearly false, the theory should be rejected or seriously revised. But at least in the humanities, the finding of the opposite is much less conclusive than it appears to be in the previous examples. The theory asserts, directly or indirectly P. Yet, common sense urges rather to notice and report Q, excluding P. How can we solve the dilemma? Several solutions are available:

— Rejecting the theory, a costly and painful solution.

— Minimizing and marginalizing the inconvenient fact, by opposing the mass of facts explained by the theory, that support, confirm the theory.

— Reform the intuition, and decide that the theory is brilliant, precisely because it makes us see things “differently”, so richer and deeper, and that in fact P is a kind of deep structure underlying the elementary intuition expressed by Q. The refutation can be resisted by choosing to reform the internal hypotheses (the theory) or the external hypotheses (what counts for a fact).

3. Refutation by the impossibility of the opposite

Refutation by the impossibility of the opposite rejects a judgment about a person, arguing that it is not possible for this person to be the subject of contrary opinion: “To be praised for his sobriety, he must have the opportunity to be intemperate”; it is ironic to praise poor people for their sobriety.

This is the topic “he cannot say otherwise”, so what you say makes no sense. Suppose that the Proponent says of Peter that “he is kind”. This quality has an opposite, “to be mean”. In order that the statement makes sense, the quality can be attributed to the individual only if, in another state of the world, the attribution of the opposite quality to this same individual would also make sense:

L1: — Peter acted in a friendly manner (so you have to be grateful to him)
L2: — To say that, still he would have to have the possibility of not being friendly (i.e. of being mean), I definitely owe him nothing

For a statement to contribute real information in a given situation, it is necessary that the opposite information be meaningful, “everyone agrees, how not to agree”.

In Le Figaro today the CEO of EDF asserts that the French nuclear park is in a very good state; well, it is difficult to see how he could have said the contrary. (France Culture Radio News, 04-18-2011; the CEO of EDF is in charge of the French nuclear park)

The relation of opposition broadly corresponds to the lexical relation of antonymy. The term “opposite” covers a series of lexical oppositions such as:

male / female: terms in a bi-dimensional opposition
mandatory / allowed / forbidden: terms in a multi-dimensional opposition
sight / blindness: terms in a relation of possession / privation
mother / son: correlative terms

These various relations of opposition are exploited in different argumentative maneuvers, bearing on terms and propositions containing opposite terms.

— Negation, S. Denying

— Rhetorical figures of opposition, Opposition

— Opposition between words S. Correlative terms

— Opposition between propositions: S. Contradiction; Contrary and contradictory

— The argument scheme of the opposite predicates a contrary predicate upon a contrary subject, S. Opposites; Argumentative Scale.

— Refutation by the observation of the opposite, rejects a predication “A is P” on the basis of the observation that a predicate, Q, is actually true of the same subject, A, and that P and Q are opposite, S. Refutation.

In the same way as refutations, objections are reactive, non-preferred second-turn interventions, opposing the conclusions of the first turn, the target discourse.

From the point of view of their contents, objections can be seen as politely mitigated refutations, which nonetheless have the full strength of a refutation; the choice of presenting a refutation as an objection would be an insignificant price which logic pays in the name of civility.

Objections can also be seen as weak, indecisive refutations, which are easily disposed of. To refute is to shoot down, while to object is just an attempt to stop, at best to weaken, the position under scrutiny.

The status of a rebuttal as an objection or a refutation depends on the kind of dialogue which develops between the participants. In a logical language game, I cannot claim that all swans are white and simultaneously concede that this particular swan is black. Conclusive counter-arguments do count as refutations. In ordinary language, I’ll argue that all swans are indeed white, while conceding the existence of black swans as exotic exceptions.

The same kind of argument can be treated as a refutation or as a concession. In the same way as a refutation, for example, an objection might underline a negative consequence of the interlocutor’s proposal:

— But if you build the new school here, the students’ commuting time will be half an hour longer.

This counter argument can be contextually constructed as a refutation:

— This is clearly unacceptable, classes begin at 7.30, and some students who commute already have to travel for more than an hour. The new school cannot be built here!

or as an objection:

— We’ll have to create a new bus line for commuter students, but this remains the best place to build our new school!

Objection and refutation essentially have different interactional statuses; objections are cooperative, while refutation is antagonistic. The objecting party is a dialectical figure, essential in cooperative everyday argumentative dialogue.

While refutation seeks to close the debate, without even listening to the answers, objections keep the dialogue open; they are in line with the problematic of the discourse under discussion, which are accepted as a working hypothesis. Objections are framed as quests for answers, they seek explanations, precisions and modalizations; they accept, as the case may be, to be only partially answered or integrated.

The ethos and emotional states displayed via refutation and objection are quite different. The former wants to have the final say and is associated with aggression, whilst the latter evokes a spirit of measure, collaboration and openness.

In a proleptic discourse, referring to possible negative observations, the speaker mentions “objections”, not “refutations”, typically using a but structure:

It could be objected that P [anti-oriented discourse], but R [answer to the objection, discourse reinforced]

S. Refutation; Concession; Prolepsis

The concept of object of discourse (Fr. “objet de discours”; also translated as discursive object or discourse object) was introduced by Jean-Blaise Grize, in relation to the schematization process. An object of discourse is basically a thing, a situation, as characterized by its plasticity, that is to say, permanently re-designed throughout the discourse or the interaction.

1. Cluster of a word

At the language level, the cluster of an object [“faisceau d’objet”] is investigated on the basis of the word designating that object. It is defined as:

[The] set of aspects normally attached to the object. Its elements are of three kinds: properties, relations and patterns of action. So the cluster of “rose” brings together properties like ‘to be red’ […], relationships like […] ‘to be more beautiful than’, patterns of action like ‘to fade’.” (Grize 1990, p. 78-79)

The cluster attracted by an object is defined at the notional level and does not coincide either with linguistic categories such as those used in semantic analysis (id., p. 79), with lexicographical elements used in dictionaries, with elements psychologically associated with the object, or with ontological features claiming to grasp the being of the object, S. Categorization. The cluster of a word results from an aggregation of discourses using this word (id., p. 78), S. Orientation; Words as Arguments; Inference; Polyphony. This concept can be compared with the stereotypes associated with a word, or, better, to the set of its favorite linguistic collocations, as established in corpus linguistics.

2. Cluster of an object of discourse

At the discourse level, the elements which make up the cluster attached to a specific object of discourse are not known a priori, but are empirically constructed, on the basis of the examination of the actual discourse under analysis. A specific object of discourse is developed via the progressive aggregation of the contextual properties attributed to it, the beings it is associated with, the events in which it participates, etc.

The study of objects of discourse focuses on their plasticity, as they are progressively produced and transformed in discourse: their mode of introduction, the evolution of the contexts to which they are attached. It overlaps with the grammatical study of designation paradigms (Mortureux 1993); a designation paradigm is the set of words and expressions constituting the anaphoric chain related to an evolving object of discourse. It is part of the study of textual cohesion and coherence, and overlaps essential observations of the rhetoric on the displacements of meaning.

Objects of discourse may be opposed to “logical objects”. Classical logic references stable objects; according to the principle of identity every occurrence of the sign (signifier) “a” is strictly equivalent to another one. As a consequence, any variation in the scope of the reference of “a” introduced in the development of discourse are considered fallacious. S. Fallacy; Ambiguity.

3. Objects of discourse in argumentative situations

A discourse may concern a large number of objects, and to study the development of each one might turn out to be unworkable; boundaries must be set. As far as argumentation studies are concerned, they must focus on the most relevant objects, that is on conflicting objects, and primarily on those mentioned in the formulation of the argumentative question. Just as peaceful, undisputed, affirmations are considered to be true, undisputed objects are considered to be real and stable in their reference.
Conflicting objects are associated with conflicting claims. The observation of their discursive development, and the correlative establishment of their contrastive characterization is a simple and practical method used to expose their argumentative relevance.

The following data is taken from a discussion between students, and concerns the conditions a person must fulfill to obtain French citizenship; the key question “who? who can obtain French citizenship?” immediately structures the debate. The two antagonistic positions taken by the participants are clearly mirrored by the two systems of designations they use to construct this “who?”.

— All the students agree that there is an unproblematic group, who should have an automatic right to French citizenship, that being, “the persecuted”.

— One group of students supports the claim that “the process of obtaining citizenship should be facilitated”. Immigrants are constructed as people having a right to French citizenship; this group is further specified as:

workforce; people who came to work in periods of prosperity
people we asked to come;
people we welcomed;
people who have been there for a very long time
their relatives
their children     – born in France – born in another country

— Another group of students support the claim that “the process of obtaining citizenship should be toughened”. In this set of co-oriented discourses, immigrants are constructed as people having no right to French citizenship, and these individuals are referred to as:

undocumented immigrants
people with problems; having or creating problems
illegal immigrants;
immigrants by “practicality” (economic migrants)
“anyone”, (that is indiscriminate foreign people asking for citizenship).

In reality, one can certainly observe that among the people applying for French citizenship there are certainly both undocumented people and people who came to France many years ago in order to work. Despite this, each group of students schematizes immigrants (as a group) as either one or the other.

For another example of diverging constructions of causality as an object of discourse, S. Cause — Effect.

This method shows how a specific light is cast on an object of discourse, how it is “spotlighted” (Grize), or given a discursive “presence”, in Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca’s terminology ([1958], 115-120).

1. In logic

In logic, the non-contradiction principle prohibits the affirmation of contradictory propositions. In other words:

— The conjunction “P and not-P” expresses a contradiction, and, as such, is a self-destructing statement, which is necessarily false.
— The disjunction “P or not-P” is necessarily true.

One of the two propositions P and not-P must be true, both cannot be true simultaneously. The same thing cannot be and not be. This principle is considered by classical logic as a law of thought, and as an axiom by contemporary logicians. A logical system respecting the principle of non-contradiction does not contain any antinomies; it is said to be consistent.

Negation — Using the truth-table method, the negation operator is defined as follows:

This table expresses the principle of the excluded middle. It reads:

line 1: “when P is true, then not-P is false”
line 2: “when P is false, then not-P is true”

2. In natural language

The application of the non-contradiction principle to everyday language is complex, because it presupposes that P is plainly true or false, not far from true or practically false, not true or not according to the circumstances.

Many argumentative forms appeal to the non-contradiction principle, albeit under different names: S. Ad Hominem; Dialectic; Contradiction; Consistency

The non-contradiction principle applies not only to logical, argumentative discourse, but also to any kind of discourse; inconsistent narrations or descriptions for example, are rejected as such.

According to the basic Aristotelian dialectical rule, any discourse resulting in a contradiction is irrational and must be abandoned. Hegelian dialectic sees in the ongoing treatment of contradictions the motor of History. The cynical politician can lay claim to Hegel to hide his opportunism:

Stalin’s speech on the five-year plan serves as an ardent apology for contradiction as a “vital value” and an “instrument of struggle”. One of Lenin’s great strengths was his ability never to feel a prisoner of what he had preached as true the day before […] Mussolini’s famous word “Let us beware of the mortal trap of coherence” could be signed by all those who intend to pursue a work within currents they cannot foresee.
Julien Benda, [The Betrayal of the Intellectuals], [1927][1]

The affirmation of a paradox as an oxymoron makes it possible to withstand the contradiction: “O wound without scar!”. Such paradoxical assertion is not seen as absurd or fallacious and eliminated as such, but triggers a quest to identify the deeper, symbolic meaning of the words wound and scar used in this context.

[1] Julien Benda, La Trahison des Clercs, [1927]. Excerpt from the Preface to the 1946 edition. Paris: Grasset, 1975, p. 78-79.

A natural sign is a perceptual datum, an actual material fact or item, materially linked, necessarily or ambiguously, to another fact or item or state of things not perceptually accessible.

A natural sign is typically an indisputable fact, “as certainties, we have, in the first place, what is perceived by the senses, as what we see, what we hear, as signs [signa] or indications” (Quintilian, V, 10, 12).

A natural sign is quite different from a linguistic sign, for which the link between signifier and signified is social and arbitrary. It is not a global analogon of the thing it “represents”, as in the case of analogical thinking. Nor is it a symbolic representation of the associated phenomenon.

The natural sign is just a part of the phenomenon through which the observer can access the whole phenomenon. The link between the present natural sign and its absent counterpart can be:

The very first manifestation of a phenomenon: a red setting sun / rainy weather tomorrow
A remnant of something disappeared: the leftover / the meal
A part of a whole: a hair / a person
An effect to its cause: being tired / having worked

1. Natural signs, clues and traces

Clue is an accurate synonym of material sign, since to look for clues, one must necessarily have to deal with some “intricate procedure or maze of difficulties”, or be seeking “to find something, understand something, or solve a mystery or puzzle” (MW, Clue). These description fit well with exploratory argumentative situations. Generally speaking, an argument is indeed a clue to a conclusion; etymologically, a clue is ‘a ball of thread’; hence, one used to guide a person out of a labyrinth” (OD, Clue). Clues are typically looked for “in the detection of a crime”; “police officers are still searching for clues” (ibid.). Yet clue is also used to refer to a “piece of information” given to someone; and this is not a natural sign in the sense discussed in this entry.

Traces, such as fingerprints (necessary sign), or tire marks (probable sign), are a special kind of natural signs, but, insofar traces are leftovers, “a mark […] left by something that has passed”, not all material signs are traces; smoke is not a trace of fire, whereas ashes are.

Index, indication, indicator can also be used with the meaning of “natural sign”.

2. Reasoning on probable and necessary signs

The relation of the natural sign to its counterpart is inferential in nature:

Anything that when it is, another thing is, or when it has come into being the other has come into being before or after, is a sign of the other’s being or having come into being.
(Aristotle, P. A., II, 27; my italics for the sign and underlining for the counterpart).

In the Aristotelian system, enthymemes are developed from natural signs and probabilities (P. A., II, 27); S. Enthymeme; Probable.

These inferences are exploited in concrete argumentations such as:

I can see smoke, the house is on fire
Peter’s face is flushed, he must have a fever

The quality of the argumentation depends on the nature of the link it exploits. If the sign is necessary, the argumentation is conclusive; if it is probable, the possible claim is slightly more probable that it would be in the absence of the argument; probable signs reduce uncertainty, S. Abduction.

Probable signs are distinct from human and social probabilities.

— A necessary sign (tekmerion) is associated with a material being or state of affairs. It corresponds to a material, empirical necessity (not a logical necessity):

A scar, an ancient wound
Callous hands, being a manual worker
Smoke, fire
Footprints on the sand, humans on the island

Such signs thus have the force of proof, the associated syllogism is valid, as in the following propter quid argument, S. A priori

Law (major): A woman who has milk has given birth (if M, then B)
Sign (minor): This woman has milk.
Conclusion: This woman has given birth.

— Probable (contingent) signs (semeion) may correspond to several associated realities. Contingent signs are ambiguous, whereas necessary signs are unambiguous

tiredness is a possible sign of having worked
being flushed is a possible symptom of having a fever

Typically, peripheral indicators are non-necessary signs: “he has a guilty look so he feels guilty, so he is guilty”, S. Circumstances. The associated syllogism is not valid:

Law:                Women who have given birth are pale.
Sign:               This woman is pale.
Conclusion:    This woman has given birth.

A necessary condition is taken for sufficient: one might simply have a naturally pale complexion, or one might be pale because one is ill. The probable sign brings only one piece of evidence (judicial); it can support a suspicion, it is not a proof.

The human body is an inexhaustible source of natural signs; white hair and flexibility of the skin are natural signs indicative of age and the global physical condition of the person. In medicine, co-occurring non-necessary signs are grouped in a syndrome, that is to say “a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition.” (MW, Syndrome). For example, the Samter’s syndrome

Samter’s Triad or Aspirin Sensitive Asthma, is a chronic medical condition that consists of asthma, recurrent sinus disease with nasal polyps, and a sensitivity to aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).[1]

This grouping of signs is the basis of conclusive medical reasoning: if a patient suffers from asthma and is sensitive to aspirin, then he would very probably also has a problem with nasal polyps. He should be checked for this third condition.
When grouped, a series of separately non-conclusive signs might constitute a body of conclusive evidence. An area of ​​the body may be red, because it has been rubbed; hot, because of incipient sunburn; painful or swollen because of an accidental blow. But if it is at once red, painful, hot and swollen, then, we can say that it is inflamed, S. Convergent argumentation.

To guess the intentions of the enemy, the soldier observes their acts and movements and then reasons from a cluster of converging signs:

The writer Roland Dorgelès had “the singular privilege of baptizing a war”, as “the Phony War”, which refers to the strangely calm situation on the front between September 3rd 1939, the date of the declaration of war, and May 10th 1940, the date of the invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France by Nazi Germany. His book, The Phony War, brings together a series of reports on the front during this period. In April 1940 he was in Alsace, at an observation post.

Seen from above, it looks as though the enemy lines are dominated as if from a balcony. […] The sergeant who never loses sight of them, now knows their habits, knows where they come from and where they go.
‘There, he points out, they are digging a sap. Look at the stirred earth… This gray house has certainly been consolidated… look at the embrasures… And those tiles over there? Their workers at this moment are mainly occupied there. This morning I counted sixty of them, returning from the building site, with lamps: so they must be digging underground.’
From dawn to darkness, our watchmen remain leaning over the telescope.
Roland Dorgelès, [The Phony War], 1957[2]

The whole art of Sherlock Holmes resides in the observation, interpretation and combination of clues, S. Deduction. The clue is a trace of the action from which a modus operandi can be inferred. If the window panes have been shattered into pieces, and these are found lying inside the drawers which have been torn from the cupboards and thrown onto the room, then we can be sure that the room was first ransacked and the windows were then fractured to give the false impression that the window had been broken to enable entry into the room. So, they entered the room through the door; so they had a key. Who has the keys?

Certain individuals exploit and investigate clues is a professional capacity. Sign-based arguments are field-dependent. On the basis of a clue, the detective knows how to reconstruct the scenario of a crime; the historian knows how to judge the authenticity of a document; the archeologist knows how to reconstruct the city map, the paleontologist knows how to determine the age of the skeleton (Ginzburg 1999). The informed reasoning of these professionals should be considered to be exemplary of practice-oriented argumentation studies.

[1] https://aerd.partners.org (08-31-2017)
[2] Roland Dorgelès, La Drôle de Guerre 1939-1940. Paris: Albin Michel, 1957, p. 9; p. 194.