Abstract
Informal logic is a new sub-discipline of philosophy, roughly definable as the philosophy of argument. Contributors have challenged the traditional concept of an argument as a premiss-conclusion complex, in favour of speech-act, functional and dialogical conceptions; they have identified as additional components warrants, modal qualifiers, rebuttals, and a dialectical tier. They have objected that “soundness” is neither necessary nor sufficient for a good argument. Alternative proposals include acceptability, relevance and sufficiency of the premisses; conformity to a valid argument schema; and conformity to rules for discussion aimed at rational resolution of a dispute. Informal logic is a significant part of philosophy.
Bibliographical note: This chapter was first published in Informal Logic 20 (2000), 129–138. An earlier version was presented at the 20th World Congress of Philosophy in Boston, Massachusetts in August 1998.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barth, Else M., and Erik C. W. Krabbe. 1982. From axiom to dialogue: A philosophical study of logics and argumentation. New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Diogenes Laertius. 1925. Lives and opinions of eminent philosophers, with an English translation by R.D. Hicks. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
van Eemeren, Frans H., and Rob Grootendorst. 1984. Speech acts in argumentative discussions. A theoretical model for the analysis of discussions directed towards solving conflicts of opinion. Dordrecht/Cinnaminson: Foris.
van Eemeren, Frans H., and Rob Grootendorst. 1992a. Argumentation. communication and fallacies. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
van Eemeren, Frans H., and Rob Grootendorst. 1992b. Relevance reviewed: the case of argumentum ad hominem. Argumentation 6, 141–159.
Ennis, Robert. 1997. Critical thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Grennan, Wayne. 1997. Informal logic: Issues and approaches. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Hamblin, Charles L. 1970. Fallacies. London: Methuen.
Jackson, Sally, and Scott Jacobs. 1980. Structure of conversational argument: Pragmatic bases for the enthymeme. Quarterly Journal of Speech 66: 251–265.
Jackson, Sally, and Scott Jacobs. 1981. The collaborative production of proposals in conversational argument and persuasion: A study of disagreement regulation. Journal of the American Forensic Association 18: 77–90.
Jacobs, Scott, and Sally Jackson. 1981. Argument as a natural category: The routine grounds for arguing in conversation. Western Journal of Speech Communication 45: 118–132.
Jacobs, Scott, and Sally Jackson. 1982. Conversational argument: A discourse analytic approach. In Advances in argumentation theory and research, ed. J. Robert Cox and Charles A. Willard, 205–237. Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois Press.
Johnson, Ralph H. 1996. The rise of informal logic. Newport News, VA: Vale Press.
Johnson, Ralph H., and J. Anthony Blair. 1977. Logical self-defense. Toronto: McGraw Hill-Ryerson.
Johnson, Ralph H., and J. Anthony Blair. 1980. The recent development of informal logic. In Informal logic: The First International Symposium, ed. J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnson, 3–28. Inverness, CA: Edgepress.
Kienpointner, Manfred. 1992. Alltagslogik. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog.
Nisbett, Richard E., Geoffrey T. Fong, Darrin R. Lehman, and Patricia W. Cheng. 1987. Teaching reasoning. Science 238: 625–631.
Pollock, John L. 1990. Nomic probability and the foundations of induction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Schumm, George F. 1995. Soundness. In The Cambridge dictionary of philosophy, ed. Robert Audi, 756. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Toulmin, Stephen Edelston. 1958. The uses of argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Von Arnim, Johann. 1968. Stoicorum veterum fragmenta [SVFj. 4 vols. Stuttgart: Teubner. First published 1905–1924.
Walton, Douglas N., and Erik C. W. Krabbe. 1995. Commitment in dialogue: Basic concepts of interpersonal reasoning. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Woods, John. 1994. Sunny prospects for relevance? In New essays in informal logic, ed. Ralph H. Johnson and J. Anthony Blair, 82–92. Windsor, ON: Informal Logic.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hitchcock, D. (2017). The Significance of Informal Logic for Philosophy. In: On Reasoning and Argument. Argumentation Library, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53562-3_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53562-3_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53561-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53562-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)