Argumentation

- the act or process of giving reasons for or against something : the act or process of making and
presenting arguments.
- The action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory:
The Classical Approach
The classical approach to argument is a model of argumentation invented by the famous Greek
philosopher Aristotle. It is best used when the purpose of your argument is to persuade your audience to
agree with your point of view, take your side on an issue, or make a decision in your favor. The classical
approach/Aristotelian model relies heavily on the use of ethos, pathos, and logos appeals. One of the
oldest organizing devices in rhetoric is the classical argument, which incorporates the five parts of a
discourse that ancient teachers of rhetoric believed were necessary for persuasion, especially when the
audience included a mixture of reactions from favorable to hostile.
The following is the typical organization pattern for this approach:

Introduction
State your case--Clarify your issue. Give any necessary background for understanding the
issues. Define any important terms of conditions here.
Propostion--State your central proposition or thesis. Present the subtopics or supportive points
to forecast your argument for your reader.
Refutation--Analyze the opposition's argument and summarize it; refute or address the points;
point out faulty reasoning and inappropriate appeals.
Substantiation and Proof--Develop your own case. Use ethos, pathos, and logos appeals to
make your case. Use good evidence such as examples.
Conclusion

Key Points:
1. A common, accepted order of parts, which help you to structure your argument.
2. Require concession, yet affirmation.
3. Places the argument in a rhetorical mode, which has a beginning and an end (intro/conclusion)
which the other types do not.
4. A way of thinking to help you cover the needs of your audience.
Biography
Synopsis
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, Greece. When he turned 17, he
enrolled in Platos Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander the Great. In 335, Aristotle founded
his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and
writing. Aristotle died in 322 B.C., after he left Athens and fled to Chalcis.
Early Life
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, a small town on the northern
coast of Greece that was once a seaport. Aristotles father, Nicomachus, was court physician to the
Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although Nicomachus died when Aristotle was just a young boy, Aristotle
remained closely affiliated with and influenced by the Macedonian court for the rest of his life. Little is
known about his mother, Phaestis; she is also believed to have died when Aristotle was young.
After Aristotles father died, Proxenus of Atarneus, who was married to Aristotles older sister,
Arimneste, became Aristotles guardian until he came of age. When Aristotle turned 17, Proxenus sent
him to Athens to pursue a higher education. At the time, Athens was considered the academic center of
the universe. In Athens, Aristotle enrolled in Platos Academy, Greeks premier learning institution, and
proved an exemplary scholar. Aristotle maintained a relationship with Greek philosopher Plato, himself a
student of Socrates, and his academy for two decades. Plato died in 347 B.C. Because Aristotle had
disagreed with some of Platos philosophical treatises, Aristotle did not inherit the position of director of
the academy, as many imagined he would.

After Plato died, Aristotles friend Hermias, king of Atarneus and Assos in Mysia, invited Aristotle to
court. During his three-year stay in Mysia, Aristotle met and married his first wife, Pythias, Hermias
niece. Together, the couple had a daughter, Pythias, named after her mother.
Teaching
In 338 B.C., Aristotle went home to Macedonia to start tutoring King Phillip IIs son, the then 13-year-old
Alexander the Great. Phillip and Alexander both held Aristotle in high esteem and ensured that the
Macedonia court generously compensated him for his work.
In 335 B.C., after Alexander had succeeded his father as king and conquered Athens, Aristotle went
back to the city. In Athens, Platos Academy, now run by Xenocrates, was still the leading influence on
Greek thought. With Alexanders permission, Aristotle started his own school in Athens, called the
Lyceum. On and off, Aristotle spent most of the remainder of his life working as a teacher, researcher
and writer at the Lyceum in Athens.
Because Aristotle was known to walk around the school grounds while teaching, his students, forced to
follow him, were nicknamed the Peripatetics, meaning people who travel about. Lyceum members
researched subjects ranging from science and math to philosophy and politics, and nearly everything in
between. Art was also a popular area of interest. Members of the Lyceum wrote up their findings in
manuscripts. In so doing, they built the schools massive collection of written materials, which by ancient
accounts was credited as one of the first great libraries.
In the same year that Aristotle opened the Lyceum, his wife Pythias died. Soon after, Aristotle embarked
on a romance with a woman named Herpyllis, who hailed from his hometown of Stagira. According to
some historians, Herpyllis may have been Aristotles slave, granted to him by the Macedonia court. They
presume that he eventually freed and married her. Regardless, it is known that Herpyllis bore Aristotle
children, including one son named Nicomachus, after Aristotles father. Aristotle is believed to have
named his famed philosophical work Nicomachean Ethics in tribute to his son.
When Aristotles former student Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323 B.C., the pro-Macedonian
government was overthrown, and in light of anti-Macedonia sentiment, Aristotle was charge with impiety.
To avoid being prosecuted, he left Athens and fled to Chalcis on the island of Euboea, where he would
remain until his death.
Death and Legacy
In 322 B.C., just a year after he fled to Chalcis to escape prosecution under charges of impiety, Aristotle
contracted a disease of the digestive organs and died. In the century following his passing, his works fell
out of use, but were revived during the first century. Over time, they came to lay the foundation of more
than seven centuries of philosophy. Solely regarding his influence on philosophy, Aristotles work
influenced ideas from late antiquity all the way through the Renaissance. Aristotles influence on
Western thought in the humanities and social sciences is largely considered unparalleled, with the
exception of his teacher Platos contributions, and Platos teacher Socrates before him. The twomillennia-strong academic practice of interpreting and debating Aristotles philosophical works continues
to endure.

The Toulmin Approach

This model of argument was developed by the British philosopher Stephen Toulmin. The Toulmin Model
is especially helpful when you try to make a case on controversial issues that do not have an absolute
truth as the Toulmin Model seeks to establish probabilities rather than truth.
The following is a typical organization for the Toulmin Model:

Claims--There're several different types of claims: claims of fact, claims of definition, claims of
cause, claims of value, and claims of policy. You can use any one or more of these claims to
introduce your issue and to establish your case.
Data--Information you use to support your claims.
Warrant--The assumption made by a writer in order for the claim to be true.
Backing--What you use to support the warrant.
Rebuttal--This is where you consider the opposing viewpoint and refute it.
Qualifer--Use language that seeks to qualify the claims you make in order to bring your argument
to a close.

An argument written in this manner unfolds to reveal both the strengths and limits of the argument. This
is as it should be. No argument should pretend to be stronger than it is or apply further than it is meant
to. The point here isn't to "win" or "beat" all the counter-arguments; the point is to come as close to the
truth or as close to a realistic and feasible solution as we possibly can. Note that opening structure of
"Data" leads to "Claim with qualifiers" is similar to the structure of a thesis in the form of an enthymeme,
in which [one clause presenting a reason or evidence] leads to [another clause presenting an
argument.] Toulmin's model reminds us that arguments are generally expressed with qualifiers and
rebuttals rather than asserted as absolutes. This lets the reader know how to take the reasoning, how
far it is meant to be applied, and how general it is meant to be.
Toulmin arguments are PRACTICAL rather than theoretical or philosophical arguments, and thus work
well with common, everyday situations.Theoretical arguments make inferences based on a set of
principles to arrive at a claim. (Aristotle, Plato, etc.) Practical arguments reverse the order--first find a
claim of interest, and then provide justification for it. Toulmin believed that reasoning is less an activity
of inference, involving the discovering of new ideas, and more a process of testing and sifting already
existing ideas by trying to justify them.
Key points:
1. Practical arguments--how real people argue, not the syllogisms of philosophers.
2. Begin with a claim, then justify the claim (i.e. defend the reasoning by which one arrives at the claim)
3. Toulmin is good for testing ideas and argument analysis (since they require the justification of every
step of thought).
4. Data, Claim and Warrant are always needed, and should always be stated clearly (in writing an
argument or analyzing another)
5. Qualifiers, Backing and Rebuttals may not be needed, but should be considered.
6. Toulmin arguments are a very useful tool for argument analysis.
7. Toulmin arguments are good for real arguments, about real things argued about by real people.
8. Not so much bridging the gap, but probing, carefully testing how you think of a claim, until you are
satisfied by the truth and strength of the claim.
Biography

Stephen Edelston Toulmin was born on March 25, 1922, in London. After graduating from Kings College,
Cambridge, in 1942, he worked as a scientific officer with the Ministry of Aircraft Production, posted to the
Malvern radar research center in Britain and later to Allied headquarters in Germany.
He returned to Cambridge after the war and studied philosophy under Wittgenstein and John Wisdom,
earning his doctorate in moral sciences in 1948. He then taught at Oxford and the University of Leeds and
in 1960 became the director of the Nuffield Foundations Unit for the History of Ideas in London.
Mr. Toulmins interest in the history of ideas, particularly scientific ideas, led to several influential books,
most notably The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction (1953) and a series he wrote with his second
wife, June Goodfield: The Fabric of the Heavens (1961), The Architecture of Matter (1962) and The
Discovery of Time (1965).
His most important work in this vein was Foresight and Understanding: An Enquiry Into the Aims of
Science (1961), a book often mentioned in the same breath as Thomas Kuhns Structure of Scientific
Revolutions. He later re-examined this subject more broadly in Human Understanding: The Collective
Use and Evolution of Concepts (1972), applying a Darwinian model, rather than Kuhns revolutionary
model of paradigm shifts, to explain changes in how the human mind forms representations of the world.
In addition to his son Greg, of McLean, Va., he is survived by his fourth wife, Donna; a sister, Rachel
Toulmin of Padua, Italy; three other children, Polly Macinnes of Skye, Scotland, Camilla Toulmin of
London and Matthew Toulmin of Melbourne, Australia; and 13 grandchildren.
Mr. Toulmins provocative ideas often encountered resistance at first, especially in Britain, and his work
on argument was no exception. He proposed, instead of formal logics three-part syllogism, a model of
persuasive argument consisting of six components. Some, he maintained, apply universally but others do
not. Arguments, in other words, do not unfold in a Platonic ether, but in particular contexts.
The Toulmin model proved to be highly useful for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of arguments.
It is commonly used in debate manuals, for example, but its applications have extended to the rhetorical

interpretation of literary texts, computer science and artificial intelligence. Mr. Toulmin moved to the
United States in 1965. After teaching at Brandeis, Michigan State University, the University of
Chicago andNorthwestern University, he accepted a professorship at the Center for Multiethnic and
Transnational Studies at the University of Southern California in 1993. He retired this summer.

The Rogerian Approach

This is a model of argument named after the psychologist Carl Rogers, who believed that people could
only resolve an issue or solve a problem once they found the "common ground." A group of rhetoricians,
Young, Becker, and Pike, then developed a model of argument named the Rogerian argument, which
advocates a way of argument that is less confrontational, less one-sided, and more compromising and
deliberately consensus-building. The following are the usual elements of the Rogerian approach:

An introduction that briefly and objectively defines the issue or problem

A neutral, non-judgmental statement of the opponent's position, presented within valid
contexts, that demonstrates the writer clearly understands it
A neutral statement and explanation of your position and the contexts in which it is valid
An analysis of what the two positions have in common and what goals and values they share
A proposal for resolving the issue in a way that recognizes the itnerests of both parties, or a
statement of how the opponent's position would benefit if he were to adopt elements of the writer's
position

Psychologist Carl Rogers developed a negotiating strategy to help people avoid such situations; he called
it "empathic listening". In an empathic position, the writer refrains from passing judgment on the
audiences ideas until he or she has listened attentively to the audiences position, tried to follow the
audiences reasoning, and acknowledged the validity of the audiences viewpoint (if only from a limited
perspective). By trying to understand where the audience is coming from and avoiding loaded or attacking
language that might put the audience on the defensive, the writer shows empathy for the audiences
viewpoint and opens the door for mutual understanding and respect. Because it focuses on building
bridges between writer and audience, and places considerable weight on the values, beliefs, and opinions
the two share, a Rogerian argument doesnt emphasize an "I winyou lose" outcome as much as classical
or Toulmin arguments do. Rather it emphasizes a "You win and I win too" solution, one where negotiation
and mutual respect are valued.
Thus, it is particularly useful in psychological and emotional arguments, where pathos and ethos rather
than logos and strict logic predominate.
Key points:
1. Rogerian argument is a negotiation strategy (everyone wins);
2. Useful in psychological and emotional arguments, where pathos and ethos rather than logos and strict
logic predominate.
3. Find common ground with audience, where you both might agree. Accept that the audience is right in
some ways.
4. Don't disagree with the audience's view, but explain how your viewpoint is valid in certain contexts.
5. Give ground--concede in order to reach an agreement. Facts (claims) and truth can often be
negotiated.
Biography
Early Life:
Carl Rogers enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1919 as an agriculture major, but later changed to
religion. After attending a 1922 Christian conference in China, Rogers began to question his career
choice. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1924 with a bachelor's degree in History and
enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary before transferring to Teachers College of Columbia
University to complete his master's degree. He completed his doctorate at Columbia in 1931.
Career:
After receiving his Ph.D., Rogers spent a number of years working in academia, holding positions at Ohio

State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. It was during this time that
Rogers developed his approach to therapy, which he initially termed "nondirective therapy." This
approach, which involves the therapist acting as a facilitator rather than a director of the therapy session,
eventually came to be known as client-centered therapy.
After a number of conflicts within the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin, Rogers
accepted a position at the Western Behavioral Studies Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla, California. Eventually,
he and several colleagues left WBSI to form Center for Studies of the Person (CSP). Carl Rogers
continued his work with client-centered therapy until his death in 1987.
Contributions to Psychology:
With his emphasis on human potential, Carl Rogers had an enormous influence on both psychology and
education. Beyond that, he is considered by many to be one of the most influential psychologists of the
20th century. More therapists cite Rogers as their primary influence than any other psychologist. As
described by his daughter Natalie Rogers, he was "a model for compassion and democratic ideals in his
own life, and in his work as an educator, writer, and therapist."