Trudy Govier argues inThe Philosophy of Argument that adversariality in argumentation can be kept to a necessary minimum. On her account, politeness can limit the ancillary adversariality of hostile culture but a degree of logical opposition will remain part of argumentation, and perhaps all reasoning. Argumentation cannot be purified by politeness in the way she hopes, nor does reasoning even in the discursive context of argumentation demand opposition. Such hopes assume an idealized politeness free from gender, and reasoners with inhuman or at least highly privileged capabilities and no need to learn from others or share understanding.
Abstract: Trudy Govier défend dansThe Philosophy of Argument que l'esprit d'opposition dans l'argumentation peut se maintenir à un minimum nécessaire. Selon son compte rendu, la politesse peut limiter l'esprit d'opposition auxiliaire d'une culture hostile, mais un certain degré d'opposition logique reste un aspect de l'argumentation, et peut-être de tout raisonnement. La politesse ne peut pas purifier l'argumentation de la façon qu'elle espère et le raisonnement dans le contexte discursif de l'argumentation n'exige pas une opposition. Ses espoirs supposent une politesse idéalisée détachée des sexes, et des raisonneurs doués de capacités inhumaines ou au moins très privilégiées et sans aucun besoin d'apprendre des autres ou de partager leur compréhension.
This special issue of Informal Logic brings together two important areas of philosophy that have shown significant development in the last three decades: informal logic and feminist philosophy. A significant innovation they both share is new thinking about practices of argumentation and related practices of reasoning. Feminist theorizing supporting social and political change foregrounds “reasoning for change” in a way that draws attention to the contextual and rhetorical dimensions of argument and thus connects with significant developments in informal logic.
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