Abstract
Aristotelian dialectic went through a real renaissance in the first half of the sixteenth century in Italy. Thanks to the recovery and Latin translations of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ and Averroes’ commentaries, Agostino Nifo recovered the ancient meaning of dialectic as the art of conducting a structured debate between a questioner and an answerer: “Peirastic” dialectic serves to test claims to knowledge, and to prove principles to someone who denies them. Aristotle’s Topics was also the basis for several treatises on the dialogue form by Carlo Sigonio, Torquato Tasso, and Sperone Speroni. Finally, the recovery of Aristotelian dialectic spurred the birth of a new dialectic, incorporating important parts and concerns of rhetoric, in continuity with humanist approaches to reasoning and philosophy against Medieval dialectic.
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Spranzi, M. (2018). Dialectic in the Renaissance. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_444-1
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