About the Book
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.
Table of Contents:
1. Chapter 1: A New Model of Argument, p1; 2. 1. Introduction to the Fallacies, p3; 3. 2. Some More Fallacies, p9; 4. 3. Fallacies Combined in Realistic Dialogues, p11; 5. 4. What is an Argument?, p16; 6. 5. Criticism as Challenge and Response, p22; 7. 6. Basic Categories of Argument Study, p26; 8. Notes: Chapter 1, p31; 9. Chapter 2: Hot Rhetoric and Argument, p33; 10. 1. Appeals to Popular Sentiment, p33; 11. 2. Appeals to Force, p39; 12. 3. Appeals to Pity, p42; 13. 4. Overly Personal Argumentation, p45; 14. 5. The Rhetorical Debate, p48; 15. 6. Case Study: Parliamentary Debate, p51; 16. 7. Conclusion, p60; 17. Notes: Chapter 2, p61; 18. Chapter 3: The Logic of Propositions, p63; 19. 1. Deductive Validity, p63; 20. 2. Formal Logic, p65; 21. 3. Classical Propositional Calculus, p68; 22. 4. Applying Deductive Logic to Arguments, p73; 23. 5. Invalidity and Fallaciousness, p77; 24. 6. Relevance and Validity, p79; 25. 7. Subject-Matter Relatedness, p82; 26. 8. Relatedness Logic, p84; 27. 9. Semantics and Pragmatics, p88; 28. 10. What is a Fallacy?, p93; 29. Notes: Chapter 3, p96; 30. Chapter 4: Logical Dialogue-Games, p97; 31. 1. Different Approaches to Formal Dialogues, p98; 32. 2. The Ad Ignorantiam Fallacy, p105; 33. 3. Fallacies of Question-Asking, p108; 34. 4. The Fallacy of Many Questions, p110; 35. 5. Demanding Direct Answers to Questions, p113; 36. 6. Misconception of Refutation, p115; 37. 7. Case Studies of Political Debates, p118; 38. 8. A Game with Dark-Side Commitments, p125; 39. Notes: Chapter 4, p130; 40. Chapter 5: Enthymemes, p133; 41. 1. The Tradition of Enthymemes, p133; 42. 2. The Objectives of Dialogue, p136; 43. 3. Veiled Commitment-Sets, p142; 44. 4. Strategy and Plausibility, p145; 45. 5. The Problem Resolved, p146; 46. 6. Order of the Premisses, p150; 47. 7. Multiple Premisses in Complex Arguments, p154; 48. Notes: Chapter 5, p156; 49. Chapter 6: Longer Sequences of Argumentation, p157; 50. 1. Sequences of Argumentation, p158; 51. 2. Graphs of Arguments, p160; 52. 3. Case Study: Argument on Sex Education, p162; 53. 4. Case Study: Circular Argumentation, p167; 54. 5. Plausibility Conditions on Arguments, p170; 55. 6. The Missing Links, p176; 56. 7. Conclusions on Circular Arguments, p180; 57. Notes: Chapter 6, p183; 58. Chapter 7: Fallacious Arguments From Authority, p185; 59. 1. How Appeals to Authority Can Go Wrong, p185; 60. 2. Plausible Argument, p188; 61. 3. Where Experts Disagree, p190; 62. 4. Expertise and Legal Dialogue, p192; 63. 5. Dialogue and Expertise, p194; 64. 6. Conclusions, p199; 65. Notes: Chapter 7, p201; 66. Chapter 8: Various Fallacies, p203; 67. 1. Inductive Fallacies, p203; 68. 2. Deductive and Inductive Arguments, p205; 69. 3. Post Hoc Arguments, p206; 70. 4. Slippery Slope, p209; 71. 5. Equivocation, p212; 72. 6. Amphiboly, p213; 73. 7. Composition and Division, p214; 74. Chapter 9: Arguments Against the Person, p217; 75. 1. Poisoning the Well, p217; 76. 2. The Sportsman's Rejoinder, p222; 77. 3. Evaluating Ad Hominem Disputations, p227; 78. 4. Four Types of Circumstantial Ad Hominem, p230; 79. 5. Rhetorical Context of Ad Hominem Attacks, p233; 80. 6. Positional Defensibility, p236; 81. 7. Conclusion, p238; 82. Notes: Chapter 9, p240; 83. Chapter 10: Equivocation, p241; 84. 1. What is Equivocation?, p242; 85. 2. Vagueness and Criticisms of Equivocality, p245; 86. 3. The Problem of Subtle Equivocations, p249; 87. 4. Deep Deception and Equivocal Dialogue, p254; 88. 5. Many-Valued Logic for Equivocators, p259; 89. 6. Priests's System LP, p261; 90. 7. Applying LP to the Fallacy of Equivocation, p266; 91. 8. R-Mingle as a Logic for Equivocators, p273; 92. 9. RM and Equivocation, p276; 93. 10. Conclusions, p283; 94. Notes: Chapter 10, p287; 95. Chapter 11: Informal Logic as a Discipline, p289; 96. 1. The Role of Formal Logic, p291; 97. 2. Dialectic as a Theory of Argument, p294; 98. 3. Function of Why-Questions, p297; 99. 4. Subject-Specific Nature of Arguments, p302; 100. 5. Case Studies on Circular Reasoning, p305; 101. 6. Conversational Pragmatics, p314; 102. 7. Pedagogical Directions for Informal Logic, p320; 103. Notes: Chapter 11, p322; 104. Bibliography, p323; 105. Index, p331
