The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

I should have a
statue, you would have given me one. Will you not give me one now
that I have done the deed? You must not make promises when you are
expecting a thing to be done for you, and refuse to fulfil them
when the thing has been done.’ And, again, to induce the Thebans to
let Philip pass through their territory into Attica, it was argued
that ‘if he had insisted on this before he helped them against the
Phocians, they would have promised to do it. It is monstrous,
therefore, that just because he threw away his advantage then, and
trusted their honour, they should not let him pass through
now’.
    6. Another line is to apply to the other speaker what he has
said against yourself. It is an excellent turn to give to a debate,
as may be seen in the Teucer. It was employed by Iphicrates in his
reply to Aristophon. ‘Would you’, he asked, ‘take a bribe to betray
the fleet?’ ‘No’, said Aristophon; and Iphicrates replied, ‘Very
good: if you, who are Aristophon, would not betray the fleet, would
I, who am Iphicrates?’ Only, it must be recognized beforehand that
the other man is more likely than you are to commit the crime in
question. Otherwise you will make yourself ridiculous; it is
Aristeides who is prosecuting, you cannot say that sort of thing to
him. The purpose is to discredit the prosecutor, who as a rule
would have it appear that his character is better than that of the
defendant, a pretension which it is desirable to upset. But the use
of such an argument is in all cases ridiculous if you are attacking
others for what you do or would do yourself, or are urging others
to do what you neither do nor would do yourself.
    7. Another line of proof is secured by defining your terms.
Thus, ‘What is the supernatural? Surely it is either a god or the
work of a god. Well, any one who believes that the work of a god
exists, cannot help also believing that gods exist.’ Or take the
argument of Iphicrates, ‘Goodness is true nobility; neither
Harmodius nor Aristogeiton had any nobility before they did a noble
deed’. He also argued that he himself was more akin to Harmodius
and Aristogeiton than his opponent was. ‘At any rate, my deeds are
more akin to those of Harmodius and Aristogeiton than yours are’.
Another example may be found in the Alexander. ‘Every one will
agree that by incontinent people we mean those who are not
satisfied with the enjoyment of one love.’ A further example is to
be found in the reason given by Socrates for not going to the court
of Archelaus. He said that ‘one is insulted by being unable to
requite benefits, as well as by being unable to requite injuries’.
All the persons mentioned define their term and get at its
essential meaning, and then use the result when reasoning on the
point at issue.
    8. Another line of argument is founded upon the various senses
of a word. Such a word is ‘rightly’, as has been explained in the
Topics. Another line is based upon logical division. Thus, ‘All men
do wrong from one of three motives, A, B, or C: in my case A and B
are out of the question, and even the accusers do not allege
C’.
    10. Another line is based upon induction. Thus from the case of
the woman of Peparethus it might be argued that women everywhere
can settle correctly the facts about their children. Another
example of this occurred at Athens in the case between the orator
Mantias and his son, when the boy’s mother revealed the true facts:
and yet another at Thebes, in the case between Ismenias and
Stilbon, when Dodonis proved that it was Ismenias who was the
father of her son Thettaliscus, and he was in consequence always
regarded as being so. A further instance of induction may be taken
from the Law of Theodectes: ‘If we do not hand over our horses to
the care of men who have mishandled other people’s horses, nor
ships to those who have wrecked other people’s ships, and if this
is true of everything else alike, then men who have failed to
secure other people’s safety are not to be employed to secure our
own.’ Another instance is the argument of Alcidamas: ‘Every one
honours the wise’. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in
spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not
their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman;
the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate,
though they are the least literary of men; the Italian Greeks
honoured Pythagoras; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave