The power of proof: On verosimile and probabile in ciceronian Rhetoric
Abstract
Among the Ciceronian texts that address the complex relationship between falsum, verum and the problem of knowledge, Academica stands out in a special way. The possibility of achieving proof for beliefs is essential because it enables a series of concepts which, paradoxically, have little correspondence with maintaining the opposition between what is true and what is false. Through the study of Cicero’s vocabulary, we examine the semantic peculiarities of verosimile and probabile and we revise the rhetorical re-elaboration operated by this author in relation to the concepts of εἰκός and πιθανόν, respectively, in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Two hypotheses support our research: first, thanks to the categories of neoacademic reflection, Cicero manages to delimit the features that are characteristic of Latin rhetoric; second, in order to be rigorously elucidated, these concepts must be inscribed in the epistemological horizon that links the possibilities and the scopes of the concept of truth to evidence and proof and, consequently, to the favorable approval of the audience.
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