Prying Open the Window of Opportunity: Some Rhetorical and Social Scientific Dynamics to Argumentation

Abstract

Social scientists' arguments integrate both rhetorical and scientific features. Our belief is that analysis of these integrated arguments offers an opportunity to distinguish between the peculiarly rhetorical and scientific components of social scientists' argumentative efforts to resolve problems of inquiry. Our analysis shows that rhetorical forms combine with special empirical contents in problem-solving arguments that aim ultimately to establish what we call reasoned facts about social phenomena under empirical investigation. We conclude that neither purely rhetorical nor purely scientific features of argument are sufficient to account for social scientists' efforts to induce acceptance of their claims as resolving problems of inquiry.