Argumentative Strategies Research Articles

Virtual Reality and Technologically Mediated Love.

An emerging line of research in bioethics questions whether enhanced love is less significant or valuable than otherwise, where "enhanced love" generally refers to cases where drugs (e.g., oxytocin, etc.) are relied on to maintain romantic relationships. Separate from these debates is a recent body of literature on the philosophy and psychology of "Virtual Reality (VR) dating," where romantic relationships are developed and sustained in a way that is mediated by VR. Interestingly, these discussions have proceeded largely independently from each other. This article considers whether and to what extent philosophical arguments leveled against the value of enhanced love in the pharmacological case extend to cases where loving relationships are technologically mediated via VR rather than pharmacologically mediated. It will be argued that, while some worries about the pharmacological case do not extend over in a way that will be particularly problematic for VR, two (of the four arguments considered) are more prima facie serious. I conclude by suggesting why even these stronger argument strategies are not insurmountable and, thus, that there is reason to be cautiously optimistic that VR-mediated love can largely withstand variations on the bioconservative critiques that target pharmacologically enhanced love.

Exploring the Argumentation Level in Inquiry Learning of Force and Motion

One of the learning methods that is proven to be able to develop and improve students' critical thinking skills is to apply an argumentation strategy with ADI (Argumentation-Driven-Inquiry). This study aims to investigate the level of student argumentation on the subject of motion and force. This study focused on identifying the level of student argumentation after the ADI model was applied. The research population was students of Physics Education, Surabaya State University, whose year class is 2020. The sample selection used a random sampling cluster technique. The used instrument consisted of a multiple-choice test with 10 questions and 2 essays to determine the level of student argumentation. The results showed that the students' arguments were at level 3, namely the ability to analyse problems related to motion and force. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the argumentation abilities of students who do not contribute to give argumentation or who are at level 1, are not able to answer analytical questions about motion and force phenomena properly. Meanwhile, students who are at level 2 are still fixated on one concept or method, and still have difficulty when trying to apply other methods to solve problems. Students whose argumentation are at level 3, 4, and 5 have been able to fulfil all the characteristics of critical thinking, but some still have weaknesses, namely the ability to analyse motion and force problems.

The Myth of Choice in Maryam Lee’s Unveiling Choice

Malaysia has witnessed Islamic revivalism since the 1980s and its Islamisation is exemplified in the normalisation of hijab . Although the adoption of hijab is often cited as a choice in Malaysia, Maryam Lee’s controversial book Unveiling Choice presents an alternative portrait of choice in a society where hijab is a predominant practice. Using Wodak’s (Reisigl & Wodak, 2005, 2017; Wodak, 2001, 2018) Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), this paper explores the argumentation strategies used against women, particularly Maryam in challenging and delegitimising her de- hijabbing decision. The findings revealed how hijab is not only indoctrinated from childhood but the choice of removing it is delegitimised using linguistic means of topoi ; more specifically topos of authority, threat and consequence. This paper concludes by highlighting the implication of these topoi to women’s agency pertaining to hijab in a society where the pressure to wear it is indoctrinated and forceful, resulting in hijab becoming a tool of hegemonic gendered practice that works toward sustaining the patriarchal status quo in Malaysia.

Understanding experts’ conflicting perspectives on tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes: An interpretive policy analysis

The growing use of e-cigarettes has been condemned as a significant health crisis by some and welcomed as an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate combustible tobacco by others. Seeking to better understand the contestation and range of perspectives on this issue, this article employs an interpretivist approach to identify how experts communicate their perspectives on these issues. This debate is examined through interviews with twenty one tobacco and harm reduction experts. Our findings indicated that the majority of meanings attached to tobacco harm reduction were rooted in values, ideology, politics, and opinions, rather than straightforward disagreements about the scientific evidence. Respondents had different ideological positions on the War on Drugs, the role of the private sector and the tobacco industry, social justice principles, the inevitability of nicotine use, and the acceptability of addiction. Throughout, experts struggled and disagreed with precisely where and how to define “harm reduction." Overall, this study significantly expands on past literature by delving more deeply into the broader ideological contexts in which these policy disagreements occur, and the argumentative strategies employed within them.

L’ARGUMENTATION DANS LE DÉBAT TÉLÉVISUEL

The argumentative process in the analysed corpus starts from contradictory answers to common questions. The confrontation is based on the divergence of points of view, on the rejection and the attack of the other’s arguments. The conclusion will be drawn by the ultimate recipients of the message. The audience has a horizon of expectations and a certain cultural experience, to which the personal experience of each viewer is added. Consequently, the argument in the televised message will receive a plurality of readings. The goal of each participant, through the used argumentative strategies, is to make the public support his/her thesis.

Revisiting the Proof-Structure of Kant’s Transcendental Deduction

AbstractThere is no consensus concerning how to understand the ‘two-step proof structure’ (§§15–20, 21–7) of the Transcendental Deduction in the B-edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. This disagreement invites a closer examination of what Kant might have meant by a ‘transcendental deduction’. I argue that the transcendental deduction consists of three tasks that parallel Kant’s broader project of a ‘critique’ of pure reason; first, an origin task to justify reason’s authority to use them; second, an analytical task that determines the conditions under which this authority can be legitimately exercised; and third, a dialectical task to determine the conditions under which this authority cannot be legitimately exercised. So long as we continue to read the B-Deduction solely in terms of its two-step proof structure, we overlook how Kant’s notion of ‘critique’ constitutes the real grounds for his argumentative strategy there.

Argument From Position to Know: The Problem of Identification and Evaluation

The article shows how, by changing the formulations of habitual premises and critical questions for pre­sumptive argumentation schemes, one can evaluate an argument even before its type has become known. The argument from position to know is used to justify the possibility of detecting types of classical pre­sumptive schemes when we take into account the type of speech act used to implement them, and the speaker and listener’s awareness of each other’s propositional attitudes. The types of argument from posi­tion to know are distinguished with respect to their epistemic and illocutionary variety. Following Austin one of these types can be considered a performative argument from position to know. The article describes the principles of its usage and outlines the evaluation procedure.

On deducing ethical egoism from psychological egoism

AbstractA familiar question is whether psychological egoism (suitably supplemented with plausible further premises) entails ethical egoism. This paper considers this question, treating it much more thoroughly than do any previous treatments. For instance, it discusses all the most common understandings of ethical and psychological egoism. It further discusses many strategies and arguments relevant to the question addressed. Although this procedure creates complexity, it has value. It forestalls the suspicion, aroused by so many treatments of this subject, that the results stem largely from leaving stones unturned—for instance, from ignoring many natural argumentative strategies and many familiar understandings of the views discussed. The paper's conclusion is that psychological egoism (suitably supplemented …) does not entail ethical egoism.

‘Go home to the second wave!’: Discourses of trans inclusion and exclusion in a queer women’s online community

As the visibility of trans movements has increased in recent years, so too has the antagonism between trans rights supporters and some sections of the feminist and lesbian communities (Phipps, 2016; Hines, 2017, Pearce et al., 2020). This antagonism is especially pronounced in digital spaces, where online discussions have fuelled an increasing polarisation of the debate (Hines, 2017). This paper examines the representation of trans identities on Autostraddle: a popular entertainment, news and lifestyle website for lesbian and bisexual women. It focuses on the longest and most controversial comment thread in the 2-million-word Queer Women’s Advice Corpus. The thread is a response to a guide to dating trans women for cis women. Using a combination of critical discourse analysis, sociocultural linguistics and corpus linguistics, I unpack the argumentation strategies (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012) that commenters use to construct stances on the inclusion of trans women in the queer women’s online space. The major strategies include persuasive definitions of lesbian, imaginaries about trans women’s hypothetical bodies and the illegitimation of trans-exclusionary commenters as bad feminists and community outsiders. I find that that trans inclusion is successfully negotiated on a community level, but that trans women are still problematised on an intimate level due to their (imagined) genitalia. Trans women are ‘hyperembodied’ in the data, with the presence or absence of a penis acting as the focal point for inclusion and desirability.

Сочетаемость аргументов разных функциональных групп в научных текстах

The study aims to determine the compatibility of arguments from different functional groups in a collection of scientific texts. The study is novel in that it develops a functional classification of argumentation schemes and identifies the features of using arguments from different functional groups in the collection of Russian-language scientific texts (it is the first time that such an analysis of functional compatibility of arguments has been carried out both for texts of the scientific genre and for texts in Russian). Based on a comparative analysis of the semantics of arguments and the functional features of their use, a classifi-cation of argumentation schemes has been developed differentiating four methods of proof (from authority, from practical value, through elaboration or causal analysis). The use of arguments from four groups has been investigated using a set of 1030 reasoning sequences extracted from expertly annotated scientific papers on linguistics and computer technology. It has been shown that the analysed papers are characterised by an active combination of arguments from different functional groups with their uneven positional arrangement in some sequences, depending on the emphasis in the proof. The work includes the following parts: argumentation modelling, a functional comparison of argumentation schemes, presentation of reasoning through functional blocks, a compatibility analysis of such arguments.

‘The lady ghost’ in the Recoleta Argentinian graveyard: dark tourism and ghostly narrative itineraries

ABSTRACT This article deals with the legend of ‘The lady ghost’ connected with the supernatural apparition of a young woman in Argentinean graveyards. This legend, similar to other ones which can be found in different parts of the world, presents an interweaving with historic events, such as the tragic decease of real Argentinian women, whose funeral monuments attract dark tourism. Some of these monuments are placed in the Recoleta cemetery, which can be considered as a cultural landscape of Buenos Aires city. Such funeral monuments are part of touristic itineraries that offer ways of exploring how different societies deal with emotional issues such as early deaths discourse analysis provides methodological guidelines to analyse the discursive structure of the legends, whose metaphoric symbols serve as argumentative strategies to convince the audience about the verisimilitude of the narrative discourse, connected with a ‘rhetoric of believing’. This approach leads us to conclude that narratives whose protagonists are haunting girls express both intimate experiences regarding supernatural contacts with the dead and collective experiences regarding social life in different contexts. It shows as well how ghost lore functions as an identity marker of social groups who share knowledge concerning the supernatural in heterogeneous living cultures.

The Inclusion of Women in the Curriculum of Philosophy: Challenges and Solutions

Abstract Recently, an overwhelming amount of philosophical works by women has been made available by historians of philosophy. However, this (re)discovery is not adequately reflected in the curricula of philosophy departments in general. This paper discusses which argumentative strategy is most feasible in order to include significantly more women in the philosophy curriculum. In From the Exclusion of Women to the Transformation of Philosophy: Reclamation and its Possibilities (2014), Sarah Tyson identifies four reclamation models, which feminist scholars have utilized to contend why and how women should be included in the philosophy canon. It is shown that the key difference between the so-called corrective and transformative model is whether misogyny is considered an intrinsic feature of philosophy or merely an unfortunate development. It is argued that regardless of the ontological status of the philosophical discipline, both strategies promote engagement with women’s work in a way that revolutionizes current philosophical practice.

Post-Enquiry and Disagreement. A Socio-Epistemological Model of the Normative Significance of Disagreement Between Scientists and Denialists

ABSTRACT In this paper we investigate whether and to what extent scientists (e.g. inquirers such as epidemiologists or virologists) can have rational and fruitful disagreement with what we call post-enquirers (e.g. conspiratorial anti-vaxxers) on topics of scientific relevance such as the safety and efficacy of vaccines. In order to accomplish this aim, we will rely and expand on the epistemological framework developed in detail in Ferrari & Moruzzi (2021) to study the underlying normative profile of enquiry and post-enquiry. We take it that our analysis provides an effective explanation of why standard argumentative strategies such as fact-checking and debunking cannot work in the context of disagreement between scientists and denialists unless they are coupled with a discussion of the values that are endorsed by the scientific community.

O debate presidencial de 2021 entre Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa e André Ventura: estratégias de argumentação e de persuasão

We are looking at a linguistic-discursive analysis of the most recurrent strategies of argumentation and persuasion in the TV debate of January 6, 2021 for the 2021 presidential elections in Portugal. In this debate, two candidates are opposed, namely Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa - President of the Republic at the time, and in the meantime elected for a second term - and André Ventura, deputy of the Assembly of the Republic and candidate for the Chega party.
 Our analysis focuses on the manipulation strategies used by both speakers and candidates. The images that the political opponents build of themselves and of their opponent in and by discourse, the emotions that their words arouse, the predominant discursive topic, the main axiological values of the lexemes and expressions used, and the ways of refuting facts and views conveyed in the different verbal exchanges are studied. 
 The present work is part of the perspective of discourse analysis (Kerbrat-Orechioni, 2005 and 2014), as well as within the framework of the study of argumentation, namely argumentation in the political discourse, in the path of Amossy (2000) and Plantin (1996), considering the contributions of Charaudeau (2005, 2008 and 2016) on the political discourse and Marques on the Portuguese political discourse (2009, 2013 and 2017).

IMPLEMENTING CONVINCIVE AND PERSUASIVE STRATEGIES IN THE DISCOURSE OF COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS (based on commercial letters of South African companies)

The article justifies the relevance of the study of convinciveness and persuasiveness categories in the commercial discourse. An attempt is made to analyze the genre «сommercial letter» in accordance with discursive strategies and tactics that promote effective business communication in the commercial activities. Based on the pragma-linguistic analysis of the written business discourse, the typological characteristics of commercial letters are defined. The ways of implementing convincive and persuasive strategies based on commercial letters of South African companies are considered. Strategies and tactics of convinciveness and persuasiveness are studied in the terms of the speaker’s influential potential and argumentation. The types of argumentative strategies in the commercial transactions’ discourse are differentiated and their classification is given. Linguistic and paralinguistic means of implementing the speaker’s convincive and persuasive influence are described.

What I cannot do without you. Towards a truly embedded and embodied account of the socially extended mind

Through a discussion of the socially extended mind, this paper advances the “not possible without principle” as an alternative to the social parity principle. By charging the social parity principle with reductionism about the social dimension of socially extended processes, the paper offers a new argumentative strategy for the socially extended mind that stresses its existential significance. The “not possible without principle” shows that not only is something more achieved through socially located processes of knowledge building, but also that, and more importantly, what is achieved is something that would not have been possible without social interaction. The social parity principle states that the result of an activity achieved via social interaction should be assumed functionally equivalent to a solitary investigation and is characterized by multiple realisability. Contrary to the social parity principle, the “not possible without principle” holds that the result would not have been achieved without the social interaction between (at least) two agents with specific existential needs. The socially extended mind never happens in a void. This means that the "not possible without" principle should be located in real-life, affectively charged, embodied experiences of skilful interactions between agents. This fundamental conceptual change via reference to the “existential necessity” that regulates socially extended processes is necessary in order to effectively lead the socially extended mind to a truly embedded and embodied account.

Persuasive Faith. Aquinas on Convincing and Its Apologetical Significance

Abstract This paper analyzes Aquinas’ understanding of persuasion and its impact for apologetics. It consists of three parts. The first explains the meaning of persuasion in his writings and the philosophical framework. The second explore the manner of convincing others towards truth. Finally, attention is drawn to Aquinas’ argumentative strategies and his recommendations on how to deal with contradicentes fidei. This permits to understand the theological value of gift of counsel as God’s persuasive manner to bring human being to the ultimate end. It demonstrates the dignity and freedom of rational creature that reach God in this way and imitate God whose will is not arbitrary force, but proceeds by reasons.

The Argumentative “Logic” of Humor

ABSTRACT The logic of humor has been acknowledged as an essential dimension of every joke. However, what is the logic of jokes, exactly? The modern theories of humor maintain that jokes are characterized by their own logic, dubbed “pseudo,” “playful,” or “local,” which has been the object of frequent criticisms. This article intends to address the limitations of the current perspectives on the logic of jokes by proposing a rhetorical approach to humorous texts. Building on the traditional development of Aristotle’s almost neglected view of jokes as surprising enthymemes, the former are analyzed as rhetorical arguments. Like enthymemes, jokes are characterized by natural inferences that can be represented as topics, and quasi-formalized in argumentation theory as argumentation schemes. Like rhetorical arguments, jokes express a reason in support of different types of conclusions and proceed from distinct kinds of reasoning and semantic relations.

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

Authority Argument Schemes, Types, and Critical Questions

Authority Argument Schemes, Types, and Critical Questions