Giving Reasons

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Argumentation and Its Study

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 1-15

3. Why Do We Need a New Theory of Argumentation?

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 17-51

4. Acts of Arguing

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 53-80

5. The Logical Dimension of Argumentation

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 81-116

6. The Dialectical Dimension of Argumentation

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 117-137

7. The Rhetorical Dimension of Argumentation

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 139-164

8. Argumentation Appraisal

   • Lilian Bermejo-Luque

   Pages 165-200

9. Back Matter

   Pages 201-209

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This book provides a new, linguistic approach to Argumentation Theory. Its main goal is to integrate the logical, dialectical and rhetorical dimensions of argumentation in a model providing a unitary treatment of its justificatory and persuasive powers. This model takes as its basis Speech Acts Theory in order to characterize argumentation as a second-order speech act complex. The result is a systematic and comprehensive theory of the interpretation, analysis and evaluation of arguments. This theory sheds light on the many faces of argumentative communication: verbal and non-verbal, monological and dialogical, literal and non-literal, ordinary and specialized.
The book takes into consideration the major current comprehensive accounts of good argumentation (Perelman’s New Rhetoric, Pragma-dialectics, the ARG model, the Epistemic Approach) and shows that these accounts have fundamental weaknesses rooted in their instrumentalist conception of argumentation as an activity oriented to a goal external to itself. Furthermore, the author addresses some challenging meta-theoretical questions such as the justification problem for Argumentation Theory models and the relationship between reasoning and arguing.

• Argumentation
• Argumentation Theory
• Argumentative Value
• Burden of Proof
• Cognitivism
• Deductivism
• Deep Relativism
• Dialectics
• Douglas Walton
• Formal Logic
• Frans H van Eemeren
• Indirect Judgements
• Inference
• Informal Logic
• Instrumentalism
• Interpretation
• Justification
• Logical Possibilities
• Nature of Logic
• Normativity

From the reviews:

“Bermejo-Luque’s book Giving Reasons has the ambition of developing a new theoretical approach to argumentation that integrates logical, dialectical and rhetorical aspects. The author uses speech act theory to realize her ideal of ‘a linguistic-pragmatic approach’ to argumentation. … provide a coherent, systematic and comprehensive model for argument analysis and evaluation which overcomes the shortcomings of the current models and approaches to argumentation. … Giving Reasons will be of interest to argumentation theorists, as it raises some important issues.” (C. Andone, Argumentation, Vol. 26, 2012)

• , Instituto De Filosofía, Centro De Ciencias Humanas Y Sociales Cs, Madrid, Spain

  Lilian Bermejo Luque

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