Fundamentals of Critical ArgumentationFundamentals of Critical Argumentation presents the basic tools for the identification, analysis, and evaluation of common arguments for beginners. The book teaches by using examples of arguments in dialogues, both in the text itself and in the exercises. Examples of controversial legal, political, and ethical arguments are analyzed. Illustrating the most common kinds of arguments, the book also explains how to analyze and evaluate each kind by critical questioning. Douglas Walton shows how arguments can be reasonable under the right dialogue conditions by using critical questions to evaluate them. |
Contents
FIVE DIALOGUES | 172 |
Persuasion Dialogue | 173 |
Commitment in Dialogue | 179 |
Other Types of Dialogue | 183 |
Simple and Complex Questions | 191 |
Loaded Questions | 199 |
Responding to Tricky Questions | 203 |
Relevance of Questions and Replies | 211 |
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| 65 | |
| 69 | |
| 75 | |
| 82 | |
| 84 | |
Argument from Popular Opinion | 91 |
Argument from Analogy | 96 |
Argument from Correlation to Cause | 100 |
Argument from Consequences and Slippery Slope | 104 |
Argument from Sign | 112 |
Argument from Commitment | 116 |
Ad Hominem Arguments | 122 |
Argument from Verbal Classification | 128 |
Summary | 132 |
FOUR ARGUMENT DIAGRAMMING | 138 |
Single and Convergent Arguments | 139 |
Linked Arguments | 141 |
Serial and Divergent Arguments | 146 |
Distinguishing between Linked and Convergent Arguments | 148 |
Complex Arguments | 153 |
Unstated Premises and Conclusions | 157 |
Diagramming More Difficult Cases | 162 |
Summary | 169 |
Summary | 215 |
SIX DETECTING BIAS | 218 |
Loaded Terms | 219 |
Point of View and Burden of Proof | 225 |
Biased Argumentation | 232 |
Verbal Disputes | 239 |
Lexical Stipulative and Persuasive Definitions | 245 |
Philosophical and Scientific Definitions | 251 |
Normal and Troublesome Bias | 257 |
Summary | 264 |
SEVEN RELEVANCE | 266 |
Probative Relevance | 267 |
Dialectical Relevance | 272 |
Relevance in Meetings and Debates | 274 |
Relevance in Legal Argumentation | 278 |
Fear Appeal Arguments | 283 |
Threats as Arguments | 286 |
Appeal to Pity | 290 |
Shifts and Relevance | 293 |
Summary | 296 |
EIGHT PRACTICAL REASONING IN A DIALOGICAL FRAMEWORK | 299 |
Practical Inferences | 300 |
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions | 303 |
Disjunctive Reasoning | 306 |
Taking Consequences into Account | 309 |
The Dilemma | 314 |
The Closed World Assumption | 318 |
Lack of Knowledge Inferences | 321 |
Real World Situations | 327 |
Summary and Glimpses Ahead | 330 |
Index | 335 |
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Common terms and phrases
abortion accept appeal to expert appeal to pity argu arguer argument from consequences argument from ignorance ARGUMENTATION SCHEME asking assumption attack bias Bob's Brant County chain of argumentation chapter cited claim classified closed world assumption course of action critical argumentation critical discussion critical questions deductively valid defeasible defined dialogue on tipping disjunctive Douglas Walton Euathlus euthanasia evaluate evidence example fear appeal argument following argument form of argument genetically modified foods give given goal Helen hominem argument identify important inductive argument issue kinds of arguments Leona Helmsley lexical definition logic meaning ment move negative consequences participants party person persuasion dialogue persuasive definition positive practical reasoning premises and conclusion premises are true presumptive problem proponent proposition put forward reason to support reply respondent rules Santa Claus SCHEME FOR ARGUMENT side statement supposed text of discourse thesis thing tion type of argument type of dialogue viewpoint word wrong
Popular passages
Page 279 - Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.
Page 245 - round," the majority seemed to think that the distinction had assuaged the dispute. I tell this trivial anecdote because it is a peculiarly simple example of what I wish now to speak of as the pragmatic method. The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable. Is the world one or many?— fated or free?— material or...
Page 108 - To conclude that the Government may permit designated symbols to be used to communicate only a limited set of messages would be to enter territory having no discernible or defensible boundaries.
Page 228 - A is writing a testimonial about a pupil who is a candidate for a philosophy job, and his letter reads as follows: "Dear Sir, Mr. X's command of English is excellent, and his attendance at tutorials has been regular. Yours, etc.
Page 116 - Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded. Clearly in Afghanistan.
Page 245 - depends on what you practically mean by 'going round' the squirrel. If you mean passing from the north of him to the east, then to the south, then to the west, and then to the north of him again, obviously the man does go round him, for he occupies these successive positions. But if on the contrary you mean being first in front of him, then on the right of him, then behind him, then on his left, and finally in front again, it is quite as obvious that the man fails to go round him, for by the compensating...
Page 245 - This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that never a glimpse of him is caught. The resultant metaphysical problem now is this: Does the man go round the squirrel or not? He goes round the tree, sure enough, and the squirrel is on the tree; but does he go round the squirrel?
Page 245 - WHAT PRAGMATISM MEANS SOME years ago, being with a camping party in the mountains, I returned from a solitary ramble to find every one engaged in a ferocious metaphysical dispute. The corpus of the dispute was a squirrel — a live squirrel supposed to be clinging to one side of a tree-trunk ; while over against the tree's opposite side a human being was imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel...
Page 256 - BUT if art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen...