A Theory of Argumentation: The Case of Ethical, Political, and Utopian Thinking

Abstract

A relevant problem in political philosophy and political theory is the distinction between political and utopian arguments. The boundary between these two types of argumentation may be blurred, which leads us to the point when we often deal with contaminations of both ways of thinking in individual positions. This involves, for example, presenting a utopian argument as a political argument and vice versa. The main purpose of the article is to organize these issues by applying the argumentation model developed by Stephen Toulmin to the analysis of both theoretical approaches. The three main problems of this work are: 1) the distinction between political and ethical arguments; 2) identifying the proper structure of political argumentation; 3) evaluation of the coherence of the idea of a realistic utopia (proposed by John Rawls).