In this project, we study the historical and systematic aspects of the concepts central to argumentation theory (e.g., ‘argumentation structure’, ‘argument type’, ‘statement type’, ‘stock issue’, ‘fallacy’). Regarding the historical aspects, we are particularly interested in reconstructing various contributions to the classical disciplines of dialectic and rhetoric. Concerning the systematic aspects, we focus on the modifications and extensions of traditional definitions of argument (e.g. to metaphor, narration, visual and multimodal argumentation, and polylogue) and their application to various genres of persuasive discourse (e.g., philosophical treatises, reasons for legal judgment, political debates). Apart from being valuable from a philosophical point of view, the theoretical insights from this project feed into the other LANCAR Research Projects, where they are used to further develop linguistically advanced models of argument processing, assessment, and production.
Student projects
Frank Goossens analyzes the “common core” of interpretative arguments in the motivations of judges in terms of the Periodic Table of Arguments and compares their reconstruction to Walton et al. (2008) ad hoc argumentation schemes on these interpretative arguments. This internship contributes to the systematic study of arguments in legal discourse.
Pilar Kurban combines the theory of stock issues with that of argument types to investigate the characteristics of debate contributions of politicians. She applies the developed analytical tool to annotate several motions on asylum policy proposed during plenary sessions in the Dutch parliament.
Roosmarijn Rentier studies the connection between Hinton’s (2021) procedural questions for evaluating arguments and the traditional names for fallacies. After assembling lists of procedural questions regarding the process, reasoning, and language of natural arguments, she uses ChatGPT as a heuristic device to create a systematic overview of the associated fallacy labels.
Ermioni Seremeta is developing linguistic models of the three types of statement (fact, value, policy). The results of this research internship feed into the next version of the Argument Type Identification Procedure (ATIP) and contribute to the Annotating Argumentation in the Wild project as well as the KRINO project.
The projects are supervised by Jean Wagemans and Dean McHugh.
Research projects
Who’s Afraid of Discursive Reasoning? Revisiting the Idea of Logic in Aristotle and Hegel (Jacco Verburgt and Jean Wagemans)
Famously, Bertrand Russell claims that “any person in the present day who wishes to learn logic will be wasting his time if he reads Aristotle or any of his disciples” (1946). This claim reflects a long-standing supremacy of “modern logic”, meaning symbolic or mathematical logic. In contrast, this research project explores the discursive virtues of more “traditional reasoning” by revisiting (a) Aristotle’s idea of syllogistic, notably his efforts at classifying the deductive forms of reasoning pertaining to both dialectic and demonstrative contexts, and (b) Hegel’s idea of logic as prima philosophia, notably his endeavors at providing a discursive groundwork extending throughout both the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of spirit. In doing so, the project aims to assess concrete examples of logical and philosophical argumentations from past and present.
Activities and publications
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2023). Identifying arguments without argumentative indicators. ISSA 2023 Conference. Leiden University, July 6, 2023.
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2023). Strategic omissions in arguments: Developing a tool for generating and analyzing enthymemes. RiS 8. University of Tübingen, June 3, 2023.
Seminar talk – M. Reijven (2023). Politainment as an argumentative genre. LANCAR Seminar. University of Amsterdam, June 16, 2023.
Journal article – Zenker, F., Laar, J.A. van, Cepollaro, B., Gata, A., Hinton, M., King, C.G., Larson, B., Lewiński, M., Lumer, Ch., Oswald, S., Pichlak, M., Scott, B., Urbański, M., Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). Norms of public argumentation and the ideals of correctness and participation. Argumentation. –> MORE INFO
Web content – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). The theoretical framework of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA). Published online February 16, 2023. URL = https://periodic-table-of-arguments.org/theoretical-framework
Seminar talk – E. Seremeta (2023). A rule-based computational model for statement type annotation LANCAR Seminar. University of Amsterdam, February 3, 2023.
Journal article – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). How to identify an argument type? On the hermeneutics of argumentative discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 203, 117-129. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – M. Hinton & J.H.M. Wagemans (2022). A procedural approach to fallacies. ECA 2022, 4th European Conference on Argumentation (ECA): The cognitive dimension of social argumentation. University of Roma Tre, Italy, September 28, 2022.
Panel organization – M. Hinton & J.H.M. Wagemans (2022) – Panel on ‘Contemporary approaches to fallacies’ at the 4th European Conference on Argumentation (ECA): The cognitive dimension of social argumentation. University of Roma Tre, Italy, September 28, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2022). The role of rhetoric in interpreting persuasive discourse. GTR 22, 21st edition of the Trento Days on Rhetoric. University of Trento, Italy, May 23, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Workshop – First ACLC-ILLC Workshop on Argumentation. University of Amsterdam, March 31, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Book chapter – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2021). The Philosophy of Argument. In P. Stalmaszczyk (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language (pp. 571-589). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. –> MORE INFO
Workshop – Argumentation and (X)AI. Third workshop of the RPA Human(e) AI project Towards an Epistemological and Ethically Explainable AI (TEEXAI). University of Amsterdam, November 18-19, 2021. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2021). Reformulating natural arguments into their canonical form. ONLINE, ARGAGE 2021, Université de Neuchâtel, November 11, 2021. –> MORE INFO
Journal article – Popa, O.E., & Wagemans, J.H.M. (2021). Stock issues and the structure of argumentative discussions: An integrative analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 186, 129-141. –> MORE INFO
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Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2021). On the hermeneutics of argument. ONLINE, Seventh International Conference on Philosophy of Language and Linguistics (PhiLang 2021). University of Łódź, Poland, May 15, 2021.
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