Boethius's in Ciceronis Topica (Cornell Classics in Philosophy) [Paperback]

Eleonore Stump (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

In Ciceronis Topica and De topicis differentiis are Boethius’s two treatises on Topics (loci). Together these two works present Boethius’s theory of the art of discovering arguments, a theory that was highly influential in the history of medieval logic. Eleonore Stump here presents the first English-language translation of In Ciceronis Topica. Noteworthy as a dialectical text, In Ciceronis Topica is also a rich storehouse of information on Stoic logic and Roman law and rhetoric, as well as on Boethius himself and the thought and culture of his period. Stump’s Introduction supplies essential information about In Ciceronis Topica, Boethius’s life, and the tradition of dialectic; her detailed notes explore the many philosophical problems in Boethius’s text.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Latin (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle, S.J., Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. She is the author of several books, including Dialectic and its Place in the Development of Medieval Logic and Aquinas. She is the coeditor of Aquinas’s Moral Theory, also from Cornell.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801489342
• ISBN-13: 978-0801489341
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Contribution to the Scholarship of Classical Logic, February 17, 2006

By 

Dean C. Broome Jr. MD (Blackshear, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Boethius's in Ciceronis Topica (Cornell Classics in Philosophy) (Paperback)

Professor Stump's translation of the In Ciceronis Topica, by Boethius, deserves high praise, not only because it makes available to English readers an important Latin treatise on the logic of the topics, but also because of its erudition, bountiful notes, and explanations of this somewhat arcane (at least to modern readers) part of classical logic.

Boethius stood (c. 500 AD) at the cusp between the ancient world and the medieval world, and his works occupy a unique position in philosophical history because of the light they shed upon classical (Greek and Roman) philosophy. He is a writer both eloquent and easy to follow. Medieval philosophers (e.g. Aquinas) made frequent use in their commentaries of the writings of Boethius.

This commentary of Boethius deals with "topics", which are pointers indicating the pathways to dialectical argument - they are described as "seats" of arguments - "places" where arguments are found hidden. The text of Boethius comments the Ciceronian treatise that enumerates, describes, and orders "the topics", in the tradition (nominally, at least) of Aristotle. Professor Stump, in turn, masterfully comments at length and in detail on the Boethian text, leading the reader to a more profound and orderly appreciation of what a topic is supposed to be, how the topics are divided into species, and to what uses topics may be put. (It is noteworthy that the concept of a "topic" is not precisely the same for Aristotle, whose ancient - and highly opaque - treatise bears the name "The Topics", and for Cicero, who was directing his writing to a legal expert attempting to garner expertise in the topical art for judicial purposes.)

The professor's translation itself flows and reads easily, and is replete with parenthetical help to the reader. Although I have not scrutinized the Latin text, it seems apparent that this translation also closely approximates the style and vocabulary of Boethius, and it is not so "loose" a translation as to lose the original content to nuances of modern idiom.

The extra materials and chapters included by way of historical and philosophical commentary cast much-needed light on the meaning of the text itself, and are of tremendous value to anyone who approaches as a neophyte this area of logic.

I purchased the paperback version last year and have been very happy with the quality of the pages and binding.

I also purchased Professor Stump's translation of De Topicis Differentiis (likewise by Boethius), and have been as equally delighted by that book as by the present (the In Ciceronis Topica is a much longer and more detailed work, inasmuch as it is apparently Boethius' introductory treatise on the subject). It is very useful to have and read both books, since the De Topicis Differentiis translation also includes a number of expository chapters by Professor Stump -- chapters which aid the reader in philosophical terminology and overall context.

Although I have never had the opportunity to meet her, I am profoundly grateful to Professor Stump for publishing these illuminating translations (I hope she will also translate Boethius' treatise on hypothetical syllogisms one day). She has made available to modern readers the conceptual underpinnings of an art which, but for the devotion of a few wise scholars, is now almost lost