Topos τόπος
A topos (plural topoi, in Latin locus) is a “place” where arguments can be found: a pattern of thought where the speaker can take up position to see which arguments are available. The doctrine of topoi belongs to inventio, the part of rhetoric concerned with finding arguments.
Lookout points for arguments
The word topos simply means “place”. The image behind it is that arguments are not invented out of nothing by a solitary genius. They already exist, in what the audience knows and believes, and the speaker only needs to know where to look. A topos works like a lookout point: from there one can survey a landscape of existing arguments and pick out those that fit.
Aristotle discusses topoi in several works. In the Topics he starts from dialectic, the conversation between two people who both master the rules of inference. In the Rhetoric he lists 28 topoi on which enthymemes can be built, since rhetoric’s arguments are addressed to a broad audience and must be simpler than those of dialectic.
Common topoi
Common topoi, topoi koinoi, can be used in all kinds of speeches. Later rhetoric arranged them in groups:
Definition
What is the thing, and to which genus and species does it belong? “Corruption is the abuse of power for personal gain.”
Comparison
Similarity, difference and degree, the greater and the lesser. “Sweden should do as Denmark does when it comes to …”
Division
The whole and its parts. “You cannot improve schools without first improving teachers’ conditions.”
Relation
Cause and effect, consequences and contraries. “Lower taxes increase consumption, which in the long run drives up inflation.”
Circumstance
The possible and the impossible, what has happened and what will happen. “The country has come through financial crises before, so we will do so again.”
Testimony
Authorities, statistics, laws and precedents. “The central bank expects inflation to stay close to two per cent.”
Naming
What the thing is called and how the word relates to it. “This is not about chasing profits, but about freedom of choice.”
Person
Origin, profession, age and experience. “As a trade union activist, I know that …”
An older and simpler version is the seven questions: who, what, where, when, how, why and by what means? They are still used, not least in journalism.
Special topoi
Special topoi belong to a particular genre of speech. In the forensic speech they concern right and wrong, guilt and innocence. In the deliberative speech, the advantageous and the harmful, the good and the bad. In the speech of praise or blame, virtue and vice, the honourable and the shameful. Read more about the three rhetorical genres.
Loci communes
The doctrine of topoi also gave rise to loci communes, “common places”: prepared phrases and lines of thought that can be used in many different situations. They include maxims (“grasp all, lose all”), sayings attributed to an author (“democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried”) and proverbs with no author (“no use crying over spilt milk”). This is where the English word commonplace comes from.
Topos today
Today topos is also used of recurring themes and motifs, in literature as well as in politics. To say that “the little man against the system” is a topos means that it is a place from which many stories and arguments start, and which the audience already recognises.
The doctrine of topoi is one of the most useful tools for finding arguments for a speech of your own. We use it in my courses.
Questions
What does topos mean?
Topos is Greek for “place”. In rhetoric it denotes a place where arguments can be found: a pattern for how an argument can be built.
What is the difference between topos and topics?
Topics, after Aristotle’s Topica, is the doctrine of topoi. A topos is a single place of argument.
What is an example of a topos?
“The greater and the lesser” is a classic topos: if the difficult thing is possible, the easy thing is possible too. “If we got through the pandemic, we can get through this.”
Sources
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.23 and Topics
Cicero, Topica
Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 5.10