University of Alabama Press, 2009 Paper: 978-0-8173-5568-5 | Cloth: 978-0-8173-0096-8 Library of Congress Classification BC177.W54 1983 Dewey Decimal Classification 121.3
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Seeks to suggest more productive ways of understanding some of the key issues in argumentation theory
A follow-up volume to Willard’s Theory of Argumentation”, Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge seeks to suggest more productive ways of understanding some of the key issues in argumentation theory.
Most importantly is the premise that the precise and useful sense of the term “argument” is a form of social interaction, a kind of interaction in which two or more people maintain what they believe to be incompatible positions. The investigations in this book specify argumentation’s self-definition as a scholarly field and its empirical agenda. Arguments are aimed at theorists, researcher, and critics within the discipline, at the same time endeavoring to prove that argument studies are fundamental to other lines of inquiry as well
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Charles Arthur Willard (born 1945) is an American argumentation and rhetorical theorist. He is Professor and University Scholar at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
REVIEWS
"[An] important book. . . . Indeed, revolutionary."
--Jahrbuch Rhetorik
"As a distinctive philosophy, religious humanism emphasizes man's place in an unfathomed universe, reason as an instrument for discovering the truth, free inquiry as a condition for discerning meaning and purpose, and happiness as a fundamental value.
"Man's uniqueness emerges partly from homo sapiens' capacity to employ symbols effectively. For this reason, Willard's provocative book is not a celebration of controversy but a sophisticated study exploring the grounds of man's knowledge. Drawing upon phenomenologists such as Alfred Schultz, psychologists such as George Kelley, and argumentation philosophers such as Stephen Toulmin, Willard makes a genuine contribution to intellectual inquiry by extending essential consideration about human knowledge. The [author] demonstrates how 'secular sources' provide a fundamental resource in developing religious understanding from argumentative interactions.
"Highly insightful and intellectually refreshing . . . Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge provides thought-provoking reading for humanists concerned with rational inquiry, communication theory, religious philosophy, and liberal education." --Religious Humanism
"A departure from the traditional orientation that conceived of argumentation as applied logic. . . . [This book] exhibit[s] a concern for the social knowledge generated by a practice of communication in real situations[,] provide[s] suggestions for interpreting interactions in which incompatible ideas come into conflict, and attempt[s] to explain how human beings thus come to know." --Philosophy and Rhetoric
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1.
The Nature of Argumentation
2.
Argumentation and Rationality
3.
The Nature of Argument Fields
4.
Criticism: The Epistemics of Argument and the Argument of Epistemics
University of Alabama Press, 2009 Paper: 978-0-8173-5568-5 Cloth: 978-0-8173-0096-8
Seeks to suggest more productive ways of understanding some of the key issues in argumentation theory
A follow-up volume to Willard’s Theory of Argumentation”, Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge seeks to suggest more productive ways of understanding some of the key issues in argumentation theory.
Most importantly is the premise that the precise and useful sense of the term “argument” is a form of social interaction, a kind of interaction in which two or more people maintain what they believe to be incompatible positions. The investigations in this book specify argumentation’s self-definition as a scholarly field and its empirical agenda. Arguments are aimed at theorists, researcher, and critics within the discipline, at the same time endeavoring to prove that argument studies are fundamental to other lines of inquiry as well
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Charles Arthur Willard (born 1945) is an American argumentation and rhetorical theorist. He is Professor and University Scholar at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
REVIEWS
"[An] important book. . . . Indeed, revolutionary."
--Jahrbuch Rhetorik
"As a distinctive philosophy, religious humanism emphasizes man's place in an unfathomed universe, reason as an instrument for discovering the truth, free inquiry as a condition for discerning meaning and purpose, and happiness as a fundamental value.
"Man's uniqueness emerges partly from homo sapiens' capacity to employ symbols effectively. For this reason, Willard's provocative book is not a celebration of controversy but a sophisticated study exploring the grounds of man's knowledge. Drawing upon phenomenologists such as Alfred Schultz, psychologists such as George Kelley, and argumentation philosophers such as Stephen Toulmin, Willard makes a genuine contribution to intellectual inquiry by extending essential consideration about human knowledge. The [author] demonstrates how 'secular sources' provide a fundamental resource in developing religious understanding from argumentative interactions.
"Highly insightful and intellectually refreshing . . . Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge provides thought-provoking reading for humanists concerned with rational inquiry, communication theory, religious philosophy, and liberal education." --Religious Humanism
"A departure from the traditional orientation that conceived of argumentation as applied logic. . . . [This book] exhibit[s] a concern for the social knowledge generated by a practice of communication in real situations[,] provide[s] suggestions for interpreting interactions in which incompatible ideas come into conflict, and attempt[s] to explain how human beings thus come to know." --Philosophy and Rhetoric
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1.
The Nature of Argumentation
2.
Argumentation and Rationality
3.
The Nature of Argument Fields
4.
Criticism: The Epistemics of Argument and the Argument of Epistemics
Notes
References
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC