| dc.description.abstract | Argumentation theory is a prospering discipline, with book series, academic journals
and worldwide big general conferences and more focused smaller conferences,
symposiums and research colloquiums. There is also a comprehensive Handbook of
Argumentation Theory that provides an up-to-date overview of the variety of theoretical
approaches to argumentation that have contributed to the current state of the
art. A short introduction to the theorizing that takes place in the discipline however
is harder to find. This book is written with the intention to fill this gap.
An extra motive for me to write this book is that an introduction into the theory
of pragma-dialectics, the theoretical approach to argumentation I have helped to
create since the 1970s, is also lacking. The insights developed in the various
components of the theoretical framework of this theory have been explained in a
number of separate monographs but an overview of how they hang together is not
so easy to be gained. This is why I decided to try to combine the fulfilment of the
two demands by writing an introduction into argumentation theory in which the
discipline is viewed from a pragma-dialectical perspective.
Argumentation Theory: A Pragma-Dialectical Perspective provides a general
introduction into argumentation theory, but it explains the theorizing about argumentation
in a pragma-dialectical way. This means that great emphasis is put both
on the pragmatic dimension of argumentation as a goal-directed verbal activity and
on its dialectical dimension as part of a critical exchange aimed at resolving a
difference of opinion. An advantage of choosing this approach is that in this way a
clear and coherent overview can be presented of what argumentation theory
involves. Another advantage is that it gives me the opportunity to explain systematically
in this theoretical complement of Argumentation: Analysis and
Evaluation, the practical textbook I co-authored with Francisca Snoeck
Henkemans, the connections between the various components of the
pragma-dialectical theory. | en_US |
