Argument, Inference and Dialectic

by Pinto, Robert C.; Hansen, Hans V.

• ISBN13: 9780792370055
• ISBN10: 0792370058
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This volume contains 12 papers addressed to researchers and advanced students in informal logic and related fields, such as argumentation, formal logic, and communications. Among the issues are attempts to rethink the nature of argument and of inference, the role of dialectical context, and the standards for evaluating inferences, and to shed light on the interfaces between informal logic and argumentation theory, rhetoric, formal logic and cognitive psychology. The volume contains a concluding chapter that interrelates and qualifies the ideas developed in the individual papers.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	ix
Hans Vilh. Hansen
Overview of Chapters 1-12	ix
Retrospective: Logic, Dialectic and the Practice of Rational Criticism	xx
Dialectic and the Structure of Argument	1	(9)
Introduction	1	(1)
Presumption and Burden of Proof	2	(2)
Do there have to be ``objective standards'' for assessing arguments?	4	(4)
Conclusion	8	(2)
Generalizing the Notion of Argument	10	(11)
Doxastic attitudes other than belief	11	(4)
Propositional attitudes other than doxastic attitudes	15	(2)
Nonpropositional objects of conscious attitudes	17	(2)
Conclusion: further questions	19	(2)
Logic, Epistemology and Argument Appraisal	21	(11)
Introduction	21	(2)
Appraising premisses	23	(3)
Suitability of inferential link	26	(5)
Conclusion	31	(1)
The Relation of Argument to Inference	32	(14)
Arguments and inferences	32	(7)
Inference	39	(4)
Logical pragmatics, argumentation theory and the evaluation of inference	43	(3)
Inconsistency, Rationality and Relativism	46	(10)
Why is inconsistency a fault?	46	(3)
How serious a fault is inconsistency?	49	(2)
When is it reasonable to tolerate inconsistency?	51	(3)
What about relativism?	54	(2)
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc	56	(8)
Logic, Coherence and Psychology	64	(9)
Logic, Coherence and Psychology Revisited	73	(8)
Introduction	73	(1)
Understanding a domain as necessary background of any reasoning	74	(1)
Is the understanding of a domain susceptible of propositional or sentential representation?	75	(3)
Understanding, coherence and rationality	78	(3)
Logical Form and the Link Between Premisses and Conclusion	81	(17)
Preliminaries	81	(4)
Semantic entailments	85	(4)
Inductive inferences and Goodman's paradox	89	(6)
The effect of pragmatic considerations on the validity of inductive generalization	95	(1)
Conclusion	96	(2)
Argument Schemes and the Evaluation of Presumptive Reasoning	98	(7)
In what sense does presumptive reasoning/argument constitute a sui generis class?	98	(2)
Are there normative argument schemes?	100	(5)
Presumption and Argument Schemes	105	(8)
Presumptive reasoning	105	(3)
Argument schemes	108	(1)
Do argument schemes have normative force?	109	(2)
What is the point of identifying argument schemes?	111	(2)
Cognitive Science and the Future of Rational Criticism	113	(13)
Cognitive science at the extremes	113	(4)
What if the eliminativists are right?	117	(9)
Logic, Dialectic and the Practice of Rational Criticism	126	(15)
Introduction	126	(2)
The nature of the undertaking to which these papers are devoted	128	(2)
Revisiting ``Dialectic and the Structure of Argument'' - the role of dialectic	130	(4)
Revisiting ``Dialectic and the Structure of Argument'', - relativism	134	(6)
Conclusion	140	(1)
References	141	(4)
Index	145