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A taxonomic criterion of  the genera causaum  of rhetorics refers to the degree of defensibility of the cause,  establishing a series of possibilities ranging from the easiest causes to defend to the most difficult: the first is the so-called “honest cause”, which in no way contradicts the common sense of the audience; whereas, at the opposite pole,  the “admirablecause” would defend the indefensible, confronting widespread opinion. Between both is the “dubious cause”: “as if accusing or defending an adulterer who killed the tyrant,” Nebrija writes. Defending the indefensible is frequent matter on the history of literature (from Socrates’ apologies to those of Flaubert, Baudelaire, Wilde, Joyce, or Cuesta); however, it is not frequent to use a two-faced reasoning for this defense, such as the constitution of a dubious cause. Here I will to present the conclusions of an approach to the constitution of dubious causes in two defenses of paradigmatic criminals: the Simone de Beauvoir’s defense of Marquis de Sade in Should Sade be burned?, and the John Milton's defense of Satan in Paradise Lost; both mean intellectual procedures with epistemological roots; because here doubt is, as Descartes wanted, a principle of knowledge as well as a rhetorical tool.

This document is an effort to support, by way of preliminary notes, the relevance of multimodal argumentation in the field of bioethical deliberation. In this sense, the central argument of our article postulates that: if bioethics is essentially a deliberative practice and said practice is capable of being framed in a model of argumentative analysis, such as the one proposed by Michael A. Gilbert. Then, the multimodal argumentation through the scrutiny of the modes of reasoning provides a series of aspects that make said model a pertinent structure in the framework of bioethical deliberation; as a model of argument analysis that can be applied in deliberation processes. In the first place, we will have to place the deliberative practice in the field of bioethics, so that in a second section some generalities regarding deliberation within the models of argument analysis are presented; thereby allowing us to recover some of the main functions around the set of provisions that make up the multimodal argumentation program presented by M. Gilbert. Finally, we will close our reflection, placing the feasible relevance of multimodal argumentation in the context of a deliberative bioethics typical of Hospital Ethics Committees; that is, as a possible tool to improve their deliberative processes and with it, decision making.

This study aims to analyze, from a diachronic perspective, the different meanings that have been associated with the term "dialectic". Through a historical journey, I will show that the conceptions about the dialectic have undergone multiple changes that are associated with the philosophical positions of the different authors and philosophical schools; Specifically, these changes respond to two fundamental problems: the semantic problem and the inferential problem. As we will see in the following lines, dialectics began as a method to clarify concepts (Plato) and became an all-encompassing metaphysical system (Hegel). But we will review the most recent developments in dialectics, linked to the theory of argumentation. I will try to show that it is these latest developments that vindicate the dialectic of the excesses derived from Hegelianism.

This work discusses some aspects of the processes of word formation in Latin, from a perspective based in Historiography of Linguistics (HL) on the subject of prefixation. Our objective is to show different metalinguistic approaches about morphology and about the phenomenon of prefixation. In the historiographical plan, we focus on some testimonies by ancient authors, especially those by Latin grammarians (Grammatici Latini – GL). Later, we emphasize reflections by authors of Latin grammars, such as Ernesto Faria (1958) and Maurer Jr. (1959), and we trace a historical parallel on the aspect of morphological analysis in the postulations present in Marouzeau (1921) and Câmara Jr. (1989 [1941], 1972 [1970]). We anchor our theoretical and methodological observations in the texts of Law (1990, 2000, 2003) and Swiggers (1992, 2000). This study demonstrates that grammarians did not treat the phenomenon of prefixation homogeneously over time, what lead us to conclude that the metalinguistic aspect present in each of the authors should be studied and interpreted in the light of their own production context.

Hermias of Alexandria in Platonis Phaedrum Scholia 164,16 – 167,12 presents some certainties and some doubts about how to interpret the scale of souls found in Phaedrus 248c-d. Hermias is the oldest systematic commentator on this dialogue (5th century AD), but the two interpretative solutions he presents, despite adding interesting elements, do not include a full or definitive explanation of the passage. Hermias presents two possible interpretations, each according to different parameters and how, at the end of this journey, he calls into question how Plato harmonized, or put into symphony, the nine levels of lives presented in the scale. We will also present the complete translation of the studied excerpt.

The goal of this paper is to introduce and elucidate the concept of “productive ambiguity” for the study of Homeric poetry and other literary texts. After the introduction, I present a theoretical elucidation of the concept, starting from a general notion of ambiguity and identifying three features of productive ambiguity: its irresolvable character (no alternative can be ruled out on textual or linguistic grounds), its persistence (both alternatives are appropriate to the context and contribute to the interpretation of the text), and its productivity (the ambiguity itself contributes to the interpretation of the text). In the third section, I analyze four passages from Iliad 2: 2.73, 285, 340-9, and 807, studying in each the source of the ambiguity and demonstrating that it fulfills the three features to be considered productive.

The love motive plays an important role in the definition of the novel as a genre in Antiquity since some of its oldest instances are intimately attached to the idealization of love relationships. Another class of works that also take part in the corpus of the Ancient Novel, the realistic comic novels, deal differently with the erotic drive, often displacing it to a secondary level of the narrative, therefore approaching love in a non-idealized way. Through the analysis of the representation of eros in two novels, An Ephesian Tale, by Xenophon of Ephesus, an example of the idealized fashion, and The ass, by Pseudo-Lucian, on the realistic comic side, I will seek to establish distinctive ways of dealing with the love matter in this genre.