The Pragmatic Force of Making an Argument

Advocacy and Enactment: Exercitives and Acts of Arguing

“…To better see what is at issue here, it is worth considering other claims advocated by the suffragists. According to Goodwin and Innocenti (2016), they also defended the following claim: C. No state can abridge women's right to vote.…”

“…In enactment, it is worth considering whether the effects can be assessed in a similar manner. Remember that, according to Goodwin and Innocenti (2016), a speaker making arguments can have the "mode of action" of making reasons apparent; and even if this action were unlikely to have an impact on the intended addressees, the mere making apparent of reasons might accomplish other individual and social tasks. In the cases they study, the suffragists' acts of advocacy could not have the intended effect on their addressees (that of gaining their support for the suffragists' cause).…”

“…In an insightful paper, Jean Goodwin and Beth Innocenti (2016) have contended that giving reasons may be a form of enactment, where a claim is supported by the very activity of making the claim. Following their study of two egregious cases of suffragist women defending the right to vote, they conclude that these women showed, by giving reasons in the public sphere, that they were rational beings, able to think and reason.…”

“…This paper takes Goodwin and Innocenti (2016) as a point of departure, and respectfully aims to contribute to the line of thought that they have opened. I am indebted to their joint reflection, which I find challenging and in many respects illuminating in what concerns the historical import of the early suffragist movement.…”

“…In connection with this, I will suggest, in section 5, that the required authority the speaker needs for her exercitive is granted to her, precisely, in virtue of her act of putting forward reasons in support of her position. Section 6 applies the proposed view to a reflection on the connection between advocacy and enactment, which is further illustrated in section 7 by taking into account Goodwin and Innocenti's (2016) case analyses. Section 8 briefly considers the notion of acts of arguing, before coming to certain conclusions (section 9).…”