Logic, Reasoning, Argumentation: Insights from the Wild

Abstract

Abstract. This article provides a brief selective overview and discussion of recent research into natural language argumentation that may inform the study of human reasoning on the assumption that an episode of argumentation issues an invitation to accept a corresponding inference. As this research shows, arguers typically seek to establish new consequences based on prior information. And they typically do so vis-à-vis a real or an imagined opponent, or an opponent-position, in ways that remain sensitive to considerations of context, audiences, and goals. Deductively valid inferences remain a limiting case of such reasoning. In view of these insights, it may appear less surprising that allegedly "irrational" behavior can regularly be produced in experimental settings that expose subjects to standardized reasoning tasks.

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“…Thus, the persuasive agenda of the narrative was not that different from the goal of a sermon. As the preacher declares, he seeks to "tend to the Glory of our Redeemer, and the Increase of his Triumphs, carrying on of the Design of said History, containing Accounts of the Revival and Propagation of Religion in this remarkable Day of Grace" (7). Blair's perspective is that of the sacred history-in which the revival is an event that propels the advancement of religion in the period before the second coming of Christ and messianic deliverance.…”

“…Of the three, the time honored rite permeated the neo-conservative revision of the past, bypassing anything slightly hinting at niebłagonadiożnost (political incorrectness). 7 6…”

“…He has very little of the platonic lover that Wolper wants us to believe the protagonist to be. Moreover, Madeline Fabray also has a premarital liaison, which the producer prefers to suppress as she falls into a category of "long suffering martyrs, " the first of the two available alternatives for female characters in the 1980s miniseries, according to Nina C. Leibman (7). Madeline fits this category perfectly: married to a sadist, she is one of many brutalized wives that made their way to the TV screen in the 1980s.…”

“…Some scholars have separated arguments from individual reasoning, while others have found the norms of reasoning and argumentation to be related. 7 Some have viewed arguments as structures, while others have seen arguments as processes. 8 Some have emphasized that the role of argumentation is to inform, while others have stressed that argumentation serves to persuade.…”

Schemes, Critical Questions, and Complete Argument Evaluation

“…Viewing arguments as organisms, Toulmin (1958Toulmin ( [2003) 13 observed that different fields use distinct argument evaluation criteria, but the same argument layout, or model (Conley 1990, 294-296;Hitchcock and Verheij 2006;van Eemeren et al 2014, 203-256;Zenker 2018). In fact, Toulmin's model became so influential as to widely "replace the old concepts of 'premises' and 'conclusion' with the new concepts of 'claim', 'data', 'warrant', 'model qualifier', 'rebuttal' and 'backing'" (van Eemeren et al 2014, 204).…”