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Article dans une revue Memorie dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino - Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche Année : 2000

Gellio e la dialettica

Résumé

Modern researches on the history of the ancient linguistic thought frequently quote isolated passages of Gellius, but in general they do not attempt to determine the role played by dialectics in the education of the intellectuals of the 2nd century. This study aims to find a coherent position on dialectics traced by isolated remarks in noctes Atticae, specifying and to some extent rectifying the common opinion which tends to a rejection of abstract logic, in favour of the main role which ethics holds, compared to the other parts of philosophy. With reference to the theories per‹ dunat«n, per‹ lÒgvn, per‹ éjivmãtvn, per‹ ˜rvn, a special attention is paid not to the widely known Greek sources, but to the reasons which led Gellius to insert in his work extracts and summaries on this subject. The first chapter examines the topics received in a deformed or incomplete way. First, the modalities of possible, of necessary and their opposites (Gellius 7.2: 1§1) arose interest only for their ethical and ontological consequences, but not for their logical nature. Second, the paradoxical arguments (an exhaustive exemplification of which is supplied in Gellius 2.7; 5.11; 7.2. 13; 18,1s.: 1§2) are quoted out of the theoretical context of the confuting speech. They rather seem rhetorical riddles, in which the adversary’s reasoning still holds its own also when it is used by the opponent in his favour. In the last paragraphs the convertible arguments (Gellius 5,10s. and 9,15s.: 1§3) and the problems of language ambiguity (Gellius 11.12: 1§4) are also taken into account. In the second chapter it is observed that dialectics is recovered in the grammatical sections of noctes without regard to a particular concept of truth and that it becomes a ground theory for the analysis of literary texts. Remarkable is the interest for simple and complex propositions (Gellius 16.8: 2§1), as well as for speech acts, which are used as a theoretical pattern for a taxonomy of the functions of quin (Gellius 17.13: 2§2). Firstly, however, these kinds of lektã are understood only as superficial expressions on the utterance level; furthermore, their isolated components are regarded as meaningful units also outside the proposition. The third chapter examines the consequences of this turning point. In the etymological researches, which are based on the methods of division and definition (Gellius 4.1: 3§1), the recovery of dialectics is explicitly recommended, since it allows the recognition of a univocal sign, avoiding language ambiguity. Also in this case, however, as well as in the one of paradoxes, the rhetorical dimension is strictly connected with the more properly philosophical one. In conclusion, with reference to the constitutive and valuational parameters of Latinitas, it can be affirmed that Gellius pays attention, besides the auctoritas, also to the rational parameters which contribute to explain a linguistic phenomenon (3§2). His method – to use his words – non ex... magis est philosophia quam ex grammatica (4,1,14). The present study tries to present a detailed reconstruction of this intermediate stage between the speculations of the ancient Greek philosophers and the applications of the late Latin grammarians.

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halshs-01168970, version 1 (26-06-2015)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-01168970 , version 1

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Alessandro Garcea. Gellio e la dialettica. Memorie dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino - Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, 2000, 24, pp.53-204. ⟨halshs-01168970⟩
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