Apophasis is a rhetorical figure of speech wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Rhetoric (from Greek ρητωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar). ... A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetorical figure or device, or elocution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. ... Adolf Hitler: layered visual irony? Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. ...

The device is typically used to distance the speaker from unfair claims, while still bringing them up. For instance, a politician might say I don't even want to talk about the allegations that my opponent is a drunk.

The most common English construction is the phrase "not to mention," as in She is talented, not to mention rich. This construction is so common that it has lost much, if not all, of the device's rhetorical power. "Not to mention" no longer serves here as a device to separate the speaker from the claim of richness, but is just another way of saying "and."

Apophasis was originally and more broadly a method of logical reasoning or argument by denial, a way of telling what something is by telling what it is not, a process-of-elimination way of talking about something by talking about what it isn't. Logic (from ancient Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, but coming to mean thought or reason) is the study of arguments. ... Reasoning is the act of using reason to derive a conclusion from certain premises. ... Argument may refer to: (in logic) a logical argument, that is, an attempt to prove a demonstration of the truth of a conclusion based on the truth of a set of premises (in mathematics) at least three different things: a parameter or independent variable that is the input to a...

A useful inductive technique when given a limited universe of possibilites, the exclusion of all but the one remaining is affirmation through negation. The familiar guessing-game of "Is it bigger than a bread box?" is an example of apophatic inquiry. Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of reasoning in which the conclusion of an argument is very likely to be true, but not certain, given the premises. ... An affirmation (from Latin affirmare, to assert) is the declaration that something is true. ... Negation, in its most basic sense, changes the truth value of a statement to its opposite. ...

This denotation has generally fallen into disuse and is frequently overlooked, although it is still current in certain theological contexts. Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality; or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... Negative theology, also known as the Via Negativa (Lat. ...

External links

• Figures of rhetoric: (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/A/apophasis.htm) Apophasis
• A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices: (http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm#Apophasis) Apophasis