Dialectics and rhetoric in Peter Abelard

Abstract

Abelard is acknowledged as a dreaded arguer. In this paper we try to demonstrate how the refinement of his argumentative technique associate intimately and find a theoretical justification in his work. Thus, the resources (like the reduction to the absurd) that seem just to guarantee the success and survival of the itinerant master point to the philosophical defense of the independence of language; therefore, those resources not only denounce the philosopher's extreme insertion in his historical context and his concern about his specific public, but they also condense elements of his intellectual autonomy and pioneering spirit.