Informal Fallacies

Douglas N. Walton

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027250056 (Eur) | EUR 115.00

ISBN 9781556190100 (USA) | USD 173.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027278906 | EUR 115.00 | USD 173.00

The basic question of this monograph is: how should we go about judging arguments to be reasonable or unreasonable? Our concern will be with argument in a broad sense, with realistic arguments in natural language. The basic object will be to engage in a normative study of determining what factors, standards, or procedures should be adopted or appealed to in evaluating an argument as “good,” “not-so-good,” “open to criticism,” “fallacious,” and so forth. Hence our primary concern will be with the problems of how to criticize an argument, and when a criticism is reasonably justified.

[Pragmatics & Beyond Companion Series, 4] 1987. x, 338 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 14 November 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbcs.4

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A New Model of Argument | p. 1

1. Introduction to the Fallacies
2. Some More Fallacies
3. Fallacies Combined in Realistic Dialogues
4. What is an Argument?
5. Criticism as Challenge and Response
6. Basic Categories of Argument Study

Notes: Chapter 1 | p. 31

Chapter 2: Hot Rhetoric and Argument | p. 33

1. Appeals to Popular Sentiment
2. Appeals to Force
3. Appeals to Pity
4. Overly Personal Argumentation
5. The Rhetorical Debate
6. Case Study: Parliamentary Debate
7. Conclusion

Notes: Chapter 2 | p. 61

Chapter 3: The Logic of Propositions | p. 63

1. Deductive Validity
2. Formal Logic
3. Classical Propositional Calculus
4. Applying Deductive Logic to Arguments
5. Invalidity and Fallaciousness
6. Relevance and Validity
7. Subject-Matter Relatedness
8. Relatedness Logic
9. Semantics and Pragmatics
10. What is a Fallacy?

Notes: Chapter 3 | p. 96

Chapter 4: Logical Dialogue-Games | p. 97

1. Different Approaches to Formal Dialogues
2. The Ad Ignorantiam Fallacy
3. Fallacies of Question-Asking
4. The Fallacy of Many Questions
5. Demanding Direct Answers to Questions
6. Misconception of Refutation
7. Case Studies of Political Debates
8. A Game with Dark-Side Commitments

Notes: Chapter 4 | p. 130

Chapter 5: Enthymemes | p. 133

1. The Tradition of Enthymemes
2. The Objectives of Dialogue
3. Veiled Commitment-Sets
4. Strategy and Plausibility
5. The Problem Resolved
6. Order of the Premisses
7. Multiple Premisses in Complex Arguments

Notes: Chapter 5 | p. 156

Chapter 6: Longer Sequences of Argumentation | p. 157

1. Sequences of Argumentation
2. Graphs of Arguments
3. Case Study: Argument on Sex Education
4. Case Study: Circular Argumentation
5. Plausibility Conditions on Arguments
6. The Missing Links
7. Conclusions on Circular Arguments

Notes: Chapter 6 | p. 183

Chapter 7: Fallacious Arguments From Authority | p. 185

1. How Appeals to Authority Can Go Wrong
2. Plausible Argument
3. Where Experts Disagree
4. Expertise and Legal Dialogue
5. Dialogue and Expertise
6. Conclusions

Notes: Chapter 7 | p. 201

Chapter 8: Various Fallacies | p. 203

1. Inductive Fallacies
2. Deductive and Inductive Arguments
3. Post Hoc Arguments
4. Slippery Slope
5. Equivocation
6. Amphiboly
7. Composition and Division

Chapter 9: Arguments Against the Person | p. 217

1. Poisoning the Well
2. The Sportsman's Rejoinder
3. Evaluating Ad Hominem Disputations
4. Four Types of Circumstantial Ad Hominem
5. Rhetorical Context of Ad Hominem Attacks
6. Positional Defensibility
7. Conclusion

Notes: Chapter 9 | p. 240

Chapter 10: Equivocation | p. 241

1. What is Equivocation?
2. Vagueness and Criticisms of Equivocality
3. The Problem of Subtle Equivocations
4. Deep Deception and Equivocal Dialogue
5. Many-Valued Logic for Equivocators
6. Priests's System LP
7. Applying LP to the Fallacy of Equivocation
8. R-Mingle as a Logic for Equivocators
9. RM and Equivocation
10. Conclusions

Notes: Chapter 10 | p. 287

Chapter 11: Informal Logic as a Discipline | p. 289

1. The Role of Formal Logic
2. Dialectic as a Theory of Argument
3. Function of Why-Questions
4. Subject-Specific Nature of Arguments
5. Case Studies on Circular Reasoning
6. Conversational Pragmatics
7. Pedagogical Directions for Informal Logic

Notes: Chapter 11 | p. 322

Index | p. 331

Cited by (46)

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2022. Argumentation Skills for the Design of Formative Assessment Queries. In Design and Measurement Strategies for Meaningful Learning [Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design, ], ► pp. 1 ff.

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2016. Argumentation and education: notes for a debate / Argumentación y educación: apuntes para un debate. Infancia y Aprendizaje 39:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

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2015. Rhetoric in a Dialectical Framework: Fallacies as Derailments of Strategic Manoeuvring. In Reasonableness and Effectiveness in Argumentative Discourse [Argumentation Library, 27], ► pp. 403 ff.

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van Eemeren, Frans H., Bart Garssen, Erik C. W. Krabbe, A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans, Bart Verheij & Jean H. M. Wagemans

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2006. Poisoning the Well. Argumentation 20:3 ► pp. 273 ff.

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Eemeren, Frans H. van & Rob Grootendorst

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2002. L’argumentation rhétorique et l’enseignement de la langue de spécialité : l’exemple du discours juridique. ASp :35-36 ► pp. 121 ff.

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1996. The need for a dialectical tier in arguments. In Practical Reasoning [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1085], ► pp. 349 ff.

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1994. Les fonctions argumentatives de la référence aux personnes dans le débat politique télévisé: le débat Bourassa-Parizeau d'octobre 1992. Canadian Journal of Political Science 27:3 ► pp. 559 ff.

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1994. Begging what is at issue in the argument. Argumentation 8:3 ► pp. 265 ff.

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1993. Being unreasonable: Perelman and the problem of fallacies. Argumentation 7:4 ► pp. 385 ff.

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[no author supplied]

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[no author supplied]

2010. I. In A Companion to Epistemology, ► pp. 425 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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