front cover of Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge
Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge
Charles Arthur Willard
University of Alabama Press, 2009
Charles Willard's provocative Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge is not a celebration of controversy but a sophisticated study that explores the social basis of human 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. He insightfully demonstrates how "secular sources" provide a fundamental resource in developing religious understanding from argumentative interactions.
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front cover of Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge
Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge
A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy
Charles Arthur Willard
University of Chicago Press, 1996
In this witty and provocative study of democracy and its critics, Charles Willard debunks liberalism, arguing that its exaggerated ideals of authenticity, unity, and community have deflected attention from the pervasive incompetence of "the rule of experts." He proposes a ground of communication that emphasizes common interests rather than narrow disputes.

The problem of "unity" and the public sphere has driven a wedge between libertarians and communitarians. To mediate this conflict, Willard advocates a shift from the discourse of liberalism to that of epistemics. As a means of organizing the ebb and flow of consensus, epistemics regards democracy as a family of knowledge problems—as ways of managing discourse across differences and protecting multiple views.

Building a bridge between warring peoples and warring paradigms, this book also reminds those who presume to instruct government that they are obliged to enlighten it, and that to do so requires an enlightened public discourse.
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front cover of A Theory of Argumentation
A Theory of Argumentation
Charles Arthur Willard
University of Alabama Press, 1989

Establishes a theoretical context for, and to elaborate the implications of, the claim that argument is a form of interaction in which two or more people maintain what they construe to be incompatible positions

The thesis of this book is that argument is not a kind of logic but a kind of communication—conversation based on disagreement. Claims about the epistemic and political effects of argument get their authority not from logic but from their “fit with the facts” about how communication works. A Theory of Communication thus offers a picture of communication—distilled from elements of symbolic interactionism, personal construct theory, constructivism, and Barbara O’Keefe’s provocative thinking about logics of message design. The picture of argument that emerges from this tapestry is startling, for it forces revisions in thinking about knowledge, rationality, freedom, fallacies, and the structure and content of the argumentation discipline.

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