Proslepsis

Proslepsis (from Greek, meaning 'something taken in addition') in rhetoric is the pretence of passing over a subject while at the same time describing it fully. For example,

"I will not dwell on the senator's shady history with the criminal underworld, or on her alcoholic son... such issues should not be brought up in a reasoned debate."

It is an extreme form of paralipsis.

In logic, proslepsis, as described briefly by Aristotle and in detail by Theophrastus, is a type of proposition in which the middle term of a syllogism is implied. Such a syllogism is then described as a prosleptic syllogism, of which Theophrastus defined three kinds or figures.

References

• Encyclopedia Britannica, "History of Logic"

See also

• Prolepsis