Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca (1899–1987) was a Belgian academic, sociologist and longtime co-worker of the philosopher Chaïm Perelman.
She volunteered in 1948 to support his work[1] and developed several aspects of the New Rhetoric independently in later years.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
[4] The Belgian academic established herself as an independent scholar with a work on rhetoric and humor, Le Comique du Discours, in 1974.