Influence
De inventione dialectica was very influential in creating a proper place for logic in rhetorical studies, and was of great significance in the education of early humanists. It is a highly original, critical, and systematic treatment of all ideas and concepts related to dialectics. "The significance of De inventione dialectica for the history of argumentation is that it assimilated the art of dialectic to that of rhetoric. Argumentation focused not on truth but on what might be said with reason. Accordingly, Agricola focused on the Topics rather than the Analytics of Aristotle and on Cicero, but also on the writings of historians, poets, and orators. Thus, for Agricola, dialectic was an open field; the art of finding 'whatever can be said with any degree of probability on any subject' (Hamilton, David. "From Dialectic to Didactic"). Agricola's De formando studio - his long letter on a private educational programme - was printed as a small booklet and thus influenced pedagogical insights of the early-sixteenth century.
Erasmus greatly admired Agricola, eulogizing him in "Adagia" and calling him "the first to bring a breath of better literature from Italy." Erasmus claimed him as a father/teacher figure and may have actually met him through his own schoolmaster Alexander Hegius (most probably one of Agricola's students) at Hegius's school in Deventer. This is a demonstration of Agricola's real legacy: his importance should not be measured so much by what he wrote, but rather by his personal influence over others, and his powerful stimulus - he was truly a great teacher and model humanist. In addition to Hegius, Agricola's students include Conrad Celtis (in Heidelberg). Nevertheless, Erasmus made it his personal mission to ensure that several of Agricola's major works were printed posthumously.
Agricola's 'De inventione dialectica' has a huge impact on the Deaf community. He held that a person who is born deaf can express himself by putting down his thoughts in writing. The book was not published until 1515. His statement that deaf people can be taught a language is one of the earliest positive statements about deafness on record (Gannon, 1981).
Read more about this topic: Rodolphus Agricola
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