Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Argumentation in Context
Vol. 8:2 (2019) ► pp.214–244

The strategic use of argumentation from example in re-evaluating a people

The case of Al Aswany’s pro-democratization columns

| Ain Shams University, Cairo

With the help of the extended pragma-dialectical theory, this paper aims to analyze how Al Aswany, an Egyptian political columnist who argued in favor of the feasibility of democratization before the Arab Spring, maneuvered strategically by argumentation from example in two of his columns in supporting the standpoint that the Egyptian people had become no longer politically inactive. The analysis is conducted in view of the institutional preconditions of political columns and the specific rhetorical exigency a columnist may face in this specific argumentative situation.

Keywords: argumentation from example, resort to hierarchically arranged examples, representativeness, strategic maneuvering, sufficiency
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The argumentative predicament of evaluating a political group by means of examples
    • 2.1Argumentation from example: An overview
    • 2.2Potential maneuvers in evaluating a political group
    • 2.3The characterization of political columns as a macro context
  • 3.The image of the Egyptian people and political activism in Mubarak’s era: A description of the rhetorical exigency
  • 4.The “Egypt Awakened” case
  • 5.“The Coming Civil Disobedience on April 6th.” Case
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.17031.oma
References

References

Arthos, J.
2003 Where there are no rules or systems to guide us: Argument from example in hermeneutic rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech 89(4), pp. 320–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aswany, A.
2011 On the state of Egypt. (J. Wright, Trans.). Cairo/NY: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Beinin, F.
2009 Workers’ struggles under ‘socialism’ and ‘neoliberalism’. In R. Mahdi, & P. Marfleet (Eds.), Egypt: Moment of change. (pp. 87–102). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Demon, K.
1997 A paradigm for the analysis of paradigms: The rhetorical exemplum in ancient and imperial Greek theory. Rhetorica 15 (2), pp. 125–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 In context: Giving contextualization its rightful place in the study of argumentation. Argumentation 251, (pp. 141–161). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eemeren, F. H. van & Grootendorst, R.
1984 Speech acts in argumentative discussions. Berlin / Dordrecht: De Gruyter / Floris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1992 Argumentation, communication, and fallacies: A pragma-dialectical perspective. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
2004 A Systematic Theory of argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2002 Strategic manoeuvring. Maintaining a delicate balance. In F. H. van Eemeren & Houtlosser, P. (Eds.), Dialectic and Rhetoric: The Warp and Woof of Argumentation Analysis. (pp. 131–160). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eemeren, F. H. van & Houtlosser, P.
2005 More about an arranged marriage. In C. A. Willard (Ed.), Critical problems in argumentation. Selected papers from the 13th Biennial Conference on Argumentation Sponsored by the American Forensic Association and National Communication Association August, 2003. Washington, DC: National Communication Association, (pp. 345–355).
2006 Strategic maneuvering: A synthetic recapitulation. Argumentation 201, pp. 381–392. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eemeren, F. H. van, Houtlosser, P. & Snoeck Henkemans, A. F.
2007 Argumentative indicators in discourse: A pragma-dialectical study. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eemeren, F. H. van & Snoeck Henkemans, A. F.
2002 Argumentation: Analysis, evaluation, presentation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Freeley, A. J., & Steinberg, D. L.
2013 Argumentation and debate: Critical thinking for reasoned decision making. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Garssen, B.
1997 Argumentatieschema’s in pragma-dialectisch perspectief: Een theoretisch en empirisch onderzoek. Doctoral dissertation. University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A.
1971 Selections from the Prison Notebooks. NY: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Jacobs, R. N. & Townsley, E.
2011 The space of opinion: Media intellectuals and the public sphere. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khatib, L.
2010 Arab film and Islamic fundamentalism. In J. Curran (Ed.), Media and society (pp. 316–334) London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Omar, A.
2016 Strategic maneuvering in supporting the feasibility of political change: A pragma-dialectical analysis of Egyptian anti-regime columns. Doctoral dissertation. University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Perelman, C. & Olbrechts-Tyteca, L.
1969 The new rhetoric: A treatise on argumentation. (J. Wilkinson & P. Weaver, Trans.). London: University of Notre Dame Press. (Original work published in 1958)Google Scholar
Plug, H. J.
2017 The strategic use of argumentation from example in plenary debates in the European Parliament. In F. H. van Eemeren & Peng, W. (Eds.) Contextualizing Pragma-Dialectics. (pp. 159–177). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salisbury, H.
1988 A time of change: A reporter’s tale of our time. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Shapiro, S.
2009 Revolution: Facebook-style. The New York Times Magazine. (22/1/2009). [Retrieved from: [URL]]
Soliman, S.
2011 The autumn of dictatorship: Fiscal crisis and political change in Egypt under Mubarak. (P. Daniel, Trans.) Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swedenburg, T.
2012 Imagined Youths. In R. Mahdi, & P. Marfleet, (Eds.), Egypt: Moment of change. (pp. 285–294). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Tabishat, M.
2012 Society in cinema: Anticipating the revolution in Egyptian fiction and movies. Social Research 79(2), pp. 377–396.Google Scholar
Tarouty, S.
2015 Businessmen, clientelism, and authoritarianism in Egypt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Younis, S.
2014 Hal Kanat al-Thawrah Tahwul Demoqrati: al-Dawlah wa al-Thawrah wa al-Demoqratiyyah [Was the revolution a democratic transition? State, revolution, and democracy]. al-Demoqratiyyah [Journal of Democracy] 61. Cairo: Markaz al-Ahram [Retrieved from: [URL]].