Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

I find it stated in many authors that some rhetoricians only recognise one kind of basis, the con-

v1-3 p.425

jectural. But they have not mentioned who these rhetoricians are nor have I been able to discover. They are however stated to have taken this view on the ground that all our knowledge is a matter of inference from indications. On this line of reasoning they might regard all bases as qualitative, because we inquire into the nature of the subject in every case. But the adoption of either view leads to inextricable confusion.

Nor does it matter whether one recognises only one kind of basis or none at all, if all causes are of the same nature. Coniectura is derived from conicere

to throw together,

because it implies the concentration of the reason on the truth. For this reason interpreters of dreams and all other phenomena are called coniectores

conjecturers.

But the conjectural basis has received more names than one, as will appear in the sequel.

Some have recognised only two bases. Archedemus [*](Fr. 11, Arnim.) for instance admits only the conjectural and definitive and refuses to admit the qualitative, since he held that questions of quality take the form of

What is unfair? what is unjust? what is disobedience?

which he terms questions about identity and difference. [*](i.e. the question may be stated Does it conform to our conception of injustice or is it something different? Questions of quality are regarded as questions of definition. )

A different view was held by those who likewise only admitted two bases, but made them the negative and juridical. The negative basis is identical with that which we call the conjectural, to which some give the name of negative absolutely, others only in part, these latter holding that conjecture is employed by the accuser, denial only by the accused.