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. 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. 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 humor,
Le Comique du Discours, in 1974.
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 ==