Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca (1899–1987) was a Belgian academic and longtime co-worker of the philosopher

Chaïm Perelman Chaïm Perelman (born Henio (or Henri) Perelman; sometimes referred to mistakenly as Charles Perelman) (20 May 1912, Warsaw – 22 January 1984, Brussels) was a Polish-born philosopher of law, who studied, taught, and lived most of his life in ...

. She volunteered in 1948 to support his work and developed several aspects of the ''

New Rhetoric New rhetorics is an interdisciplinary fieldAndreea Deciu Ritivoi, ''Rhetorics: New Rhetorics'', in Wolfgang Donsbach (ed.), ''The International Encyclopedia of Communication'', approaching for the broadening of classical rhetorical canon.New and A ...

'' independently in later years.

Life and work

Olbrechts-Tyteca was born into an important family of Brussels in 1899 and studied several humanities and social scientific methods at the University of Brussels without seeking a career. She married the statistician Raymond Olbrechts, eleven years older than herself, and lived an academical and social quiet life until she met Perelman in 1948. Olbrechts-Tyteca and Perelman worked together between 1948 and 1984. During this time they worked out an influential contribution to

argumentation theory Argumentation theory, or argumentation, is the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be supported or undermined by premises through logical reasoning. With historical origins in logic, dialectic, and rhetoric, argumentation theory, incl ...

. Their opus magnum ''Traité de l'argumentation : La nouvelle rhétorique'' led – together with Toulmin's ''The Uses of Argument'' published the same year – to the end of argumentative

logicism In the philosophy of mathematics, logicism is a programme comprising one or more of the theses that — for some coherent meaning of 'logic' — mathematics is an extension of logic, some or all of mathematics is reducible to logic, or some or all ...

. The concrete contribution of Olbrechts-Tyteca to this and the other joined works is disputed among scholars but prevailing opinion is that she contributed to the vast illustrative part, while Perelman outlined the abstract-theoretical aspects.
The Belgian academic established herself as an independent scholar with a work on rhetoric and comics, ''Le Comique du Discours'', in 1974.David A. Frank; Michelle Bolduc: ''Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca's New Rhetoric'' in Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 96 No. 2, 2010, p. 160.

Work

* with Chaïm Perelman: ''Rhétorique et philosophie.'' Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1952. * with Chaïm Perelman: ''Traité de l'argumentation : La nouvelle rhétorique.'' Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1958. English: ''The new rhetoric: A treatise on argumentation.'' (J. Wilkinson and P. Weaver, Trans.). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. * ''Le Comique du Discours'', Brussels Press, 1974.

Literature

Barbara Warnick Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously ...

: ''Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca's Contribution to The New Rhetoric'' in: Molly Meijer Wertheimer (Ed.): ''Listening to Their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historical Woman''. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997; pp. 69–85. * Noemi Mattis-Perelman: '' Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca: A Personal Recollection''. Letter to Ray D. Dearin, August, 11. 1994. See. Gross/Dearin: ''Chaim Perelman'', 2003; p. 153. * David A. Frank; Michelle Bolduc: ''Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca's New Rhetoric'' in Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 96 No. 2, 2010, pp. 141 – 163.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucie Belgian academics Rhetoricians 1899 births 1987 deaths