One-Premise Arguments: Jean Wagemans’ Periodic Table of Arguments, a Revival of Aristotle’s Topics?

Abstract

Jean Wagemans has proposed an analysis of arguments as consisting of one premise and conclusion and their classification in a Periodic Table of Arguments. This strikingly resembles Aristotle’s pre-syllogistic analysis of one-premise arguments in his Topics. It is analyzed to what extent Wagemans’ concept of the ‘lever’ of an argument as inference-warrant and classificatory criterion bears analogies to Aristotle’s analysis of one-premise arguments according to set-theoretic modifications of subjects or predicates from premise to conclusion.