The aims are (i) to clarify what sort of speech act is being performed when argumentation is advanced and what conditions may be deemed to have been fulfilled if that speech act is performed; (ii) to clarify the relation between the performance of the speech act of argumentation and the perlocutionary effect that the listener accepts or does not accept a given expressed opinion; (iii) to draw up guidelines for the analysis of argumentative discussions, and (iv) for making explicit unexpressed premisses; and (v) to formulate rules for a code of conduct for rational discussants.