Argumentative Reasoning Patterns

Abstract:     
This paper is aimed at presenting a preliminary study on argument schemes. Argumentation theory has provided several sets of forms such as deductive, inductive and presumptive patterns of reasoning. The earliest accounts of argument schemes were advanced in Arthur Hastings' Ph.D. thesis at Northwestern University (1963), and in Perelman and Obrechts-Tyteca's work on the classication of loci in 1969. Other scheme sets have been developed by Toulmin, Rieke, Janik (1984), Schellens (1985),van Eemeren and Kruiger (1987), Kienpointner (1992) and Grennan (1997). Each scheme set put forward by these authors presupposes a particular theory of argument. Each theory, in turn, implies a particular perspective regarding the relation between logic and pragmatic aspects of argumentation, and notions of plausibility and defeasibility. The history of argument schemes begins with the concepts of topos and locus.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 4

Keywords: argumentation schemes, inferences, argumentation, rhetoric, dialectics. topoi

working papers series