Such a contextual framework is shown to be crucial in determining whether an argument has been used correctly.

This book works through some of the theoretical issues that have been accumulating in informal logic over the past 20 years. At the same time, it defines a core position in the theory of argument in which those issues can be further explored. The underlying concern that motivates this work is the health of practice of argumentation as an important cultural artifact. A further concern is for logic as a discipline. Argumentative and dialectical in nature, this book presupposes some awareness of the theory of argument in recent history, and some familiarity with the positions that have been advanced. It will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the disciplines of logic, rhetoric, linguistics, speech communication, English composition, and psychology.

The basic question of this monograph is: how should we go about judging arguments to be reasonable or unreasonable? Our concern will be with argument in a broad sense, with realistic arguments in natural language. The basic object will be to engage in a normative study of determining what factors, standards, or procedures should be adopted or appealed to in evaluating an argument as “good,” “not-so-good,” “open to criticism,” “fallacious,” and so forth. Hence our primary concern will be with the problems of how to criticize an argument, and when a criticism is reasonably justified.

Provides a systematic survey, clarification, and assessment of the different tests currently used to carry out tasks involved in argument identification, and presents new methods for determining missing premises, determining whether an argument is linked or convergent, and deciding whether a given test of discourse contains an argument or not. For courses in informal logic, critical thinking, argumentation, and logical reasoning. Also of interest to those in speech communication, rhetoric, discourse analysis, and education. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Such a contextual framework is shown to be crucial in determining whether an argument has been used correctly.

In the past forty years there has been a revolution in logic. There is a widening consensus that mathematical logic has not been a satisfactory theory of argumentation, where argumentation is taken as a means of rational belief-revision and conflict resolution. It is also widely held that the traditional informal fallacies are inadequately analyzed in standard accounts found in the logical writings of the period 1950-1970. Here in nineteen chapters are the classical papers of Woods and Walton published in the decade 1972-1982, and constituting the so-called Woods-Walton Approach to fallacy theory. Originally published as a collection in 1989, the book is now re-issued with a new Forward by Dale Jacquette. Woods and Walton are recognized for their seminal role in reviving the fallacies project in logic and giving to the fallacies research programme much of its evolving character and emphasis. It is one of their principal contentions that the fallacies respond best to theoretical pluralism and that different analytical tools are needed for different fallacies. Again conveniently available in a single volume, these papers are indispensable reading for a new generation of researchers in informal logic, argumentation theory, critical thinking, computer science, linguistics and cognitive psychology. John Woods is also author of The Death of Argument: Fallacies in Agent-Based Reasoning 2005. Douglas Walton is author of A Pragmatic Theory of Fallacy 1995.

Second edition of the introductory guidebook to the basic principles of constructing sound arguments and criticising bad ones. Non-technical in approach, it is based on 186 examples, which Douglas Walton, a leading authority in the field of informal logic, discusses and evaluates in clear, illustrative detail. Walton explains how errors, fallacies, and other key failures of argument occur. He shows how correct uses of argument are based on sound strategies for reasoned persuasion and critical responses. This edition takes into account many developments in the field of argumentation study that have occurred since 1989, many created by the author. Drawing on these developments, Walton includes and analyzes 36 new topical examples and also brings in work on argumentation schemes. Ideally suited for use in courses in informal logic and introduction to philosophy, this book will also be valuable to students of pragmatics, rhetoric, and speech communication.