Pre-Aristotle Aristotle Reading...

In preparing for the aristotle presentation I also read some of quintilian. Quintilian talks about common topics by saying that, "[topics are] the secret places where arguments reside, and from which they must be drawn forth".

It is easy to forget that these old rhetoricians we read about really didn't write much down, and they used memory cues to help themselves remember what came next in their speech. I understood that but never really thought of it until I read the quotation above.

Despite the fact that we as a society have separated ourselves from the old 'oral culture', I still think the idea of memory cues so to speak comes into play. Think of it this way, the people we associate with more than likely experience more or less the same type of world we do everyday. We eat the same food, listen to the same music, read the same news, and watch the same shows. (Obviously people do not all do the same things, but they are mostly aware of all of the things mentioned). So, the same topics and the same arguments arise over and over. Generally speaking, most arguments or topics I encounter involve topics and arguments that I have had at one point or another along the way. That being said, it is somewhat the same as the 'old style' because you know what works, what doesn't , what the best arguments were and how to present them. Also, after you argue the same point numerous times, you become well aware of the opposition and how to combat it.

However.

It is without a doubt that that we as a society are so far beyond an oral culture most people don't even know what that means anymore. Now with blackberry's and computers and all that stuff, information is literally at our fingertips. So, we don't need to memorize. Cicero says, "It is easy to find things that are hidden if the hiding place is pointed out and marked; similarly if we wish to track down some argument we ought to know the places or topics". I know he is talking about using one topic to track down arguments into another topic, but can we think of that sentence in another way today? "It is easy to find things that are hidden". Wikipedia. "Track down some argument..." Google. One cannot deny that we have become reliant on technology, but is it a bad thing? Now, instead of tracking down topics from people we know, we can track down topics, read blogs and forums from people in every corner of the earth. No we normally do not have this stuff memorized, but the amount of information we can 'track down' is unfathomably greater than a single person can have. So, while common topics exist, are they as prevalent today since we can become experts on anything at the click of a button?