1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory
The Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory offers 43 chapters—written specifically for this volume by a team of leading international scholars—that survey a wide spectrum of research on the nature, purpose, and promise of argument and the associated practice of argumentation. Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art survey to help readers understand and engage with the field’s main ideas and problems.
The book is split into two parts:
- Part I covers orienting approaches in argumentation studies.
- Part II focuses on the main debates in argumentation theory.
The Handbook illustrates how different disciplines contribute to argumentation theory, integrating contributions from logic, epistemology, social psychology, political science, communication, rhetoric, and other fields. This volume thus provides researchers and students with a picture of the diversity and depth to the work in argumentation theory today. Throughout, it clarifies complex questions and methods in this evolving field of study. And references at the end of chapters and a comprehensive index at the back of the book provide readers with central resources for further work in this important area of research.
Introduction
Scott Aikin, John Casey, and Katharina Stevens
Part I: Organizing Approaches in Argumentation Theory
1. Landmarks in the History of Argumentation Theory
Michael Hoppmann
2. The Concept of Argumentation
Harald R. Wohlrapp
3. The Deductivist Approach to Argument Evaluation
Leo Groarke
4. The Rhetorical Perspective on Argumentation
Christopher Tindale
5. The Epistemic/Epistemological Theory of Argument
Christoph Lumer
6. The Pragma-Dialectical Approach to Argumentation
Frans van Eemeren and Bart Garssen
7. Normative Pragmatic Approaches to Argumentation
Jean Goodwin, Beth Innocenti, and Justin Eckstein
8. Psychology and Argument
Fabio Paglieri
9. The Informal Logic Approach to Argumentation
Pat Bondy
10. Contemporary Dialectical Theories of Argumentation
David Godden
11. The Virtue Approach to Argument
Andrew Aberdein
12. Argumentation Design
Sally Jackson and Scott Jacobs
13. Modes, Coalescence and Argument
Michael A. Gilbert
14. The Linguistic Normative Model of Argumentation (LNMA)
Lilian Bermejo-Luque
15. Intercultural Argumentation
LuMing Mao and Jianfeng Wang
16. The Language and Argumentation Interface
Steve Oswald
17. Experimental Approaches to Argumentation
Jennifer Schumann
Part II: Developing Debates in Argumentation Theory
18. Argumentation Schemes
Fabrizio Macagno
19. Charity and Argument Reconstruction
Marcin Lewiński
20. Critical Thinking, Argumentation, and Critical Thinking Education
Sharon Bailin and Mark Battersby
21. The Ethics of Argumentation
Katharina Stevens
22. About Fallacies
Hans V. Hansen
23. The Problem of Adversarial Argument
John Casey
24. Argumentation and Deep Disagreements
Scott Aikin
25. Feminism and Argumentation
Phyllis Rooney
26. Arguing with Pictures
Ian Dove
27. Ongoing Inquiry into Analogical Arguments
Marcelo Guarini
28. Argument and Narrative
Gilbert Plumer
29. Legal Argumentation
Fábio Perin Shecaira
30. Emotions and Argumentation
Cristián Santibáñez
31. Political Argumentation
Lucy Alsip Vollbrecht
32. Political Disagreement, Epistemic Autonomy, and Epistemic Interdependence
Casey Rebecca Johnson
33. Nommo and the Essence of African American Argumentation
Tempest Henning
34. Is argumentation knowledge-conducive?
Catarina Dutilh Novaes
35. Media argumentation and argumentation in the media
Jens Kjeldsen
36. Meta-argumentation
Scott Aikin and John Casey
37. A Pun, a Joke, and a Riddle Walk into an Argument
Daniel Cohen
38. Multimodal Argumentation
Gabrijela Kišiček
39. What is the Burden of Proof, and Who Bears It?
Petar Bodlović
40. Unlocking Unfounded Criticisms of the Nyāya Account of the Form of a Good Argument
Anand Vaidya
41. Munāẓara and Islamic Traditions of Argument
Rahmi Oruç
42. Argumentation and its theorizing in ancient China
Yun Xie
43. Argumentation & Natural Language Processing
Annette Hautli-Janisz
Biography
Scott Aikin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. He specializes in epistemology, argumentation theory, and ancient philosophy. He is the author of Epistemology and the Regress Problem (2011) and Straw Man Arguments, with John Casey (2022).
John Casey is Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, IL. He specializes in the history of medieval philosophy and argumentation theory. He is the author of Straw Man Arguments (in 2022 with Scott Aikin), among other articles on argumentative adversariality, autonomy, informal fallacies, and meta-argument.
Katharina Stevens is Associate Professor of Philosophy and an Argumentation Theorist working at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. She is a co-editor of the journal Informal Logic and a co-director of the University of Lethbridge's Critical Thinking and Citizen Engagement Lab. She publishes on Argumentation Theory, especially the Ethics of Argumentation and Precedent. She is also the author of The Ethics of Argumentation (2026).
“Leading scholars present the key approaches and debates shaping argumentation theory today. By examining the current state of research and offering their own reasoned perspectives, they show how the field thrives at the intersection of philosophy, communication, and rhetoric. This handbook serves as a guide for newcomers and marks an important advance in the discipline.”
-- Jan Albert van Laar, Professor of Philosophy at University of Groningen, Netherlands.
“The Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory is an indispensable guide to the interdisciplinary study of argumentation. It features a representative selection of senior scholars and emerging voices, who are mapping current debates while also charting new directions. The Handbook highlights the theoretical, empirical, and ethical stakes of argument in our time, addressing tensions between logic and rhetoric, cooperation and conflict, normative standards and practice. Rich in insight and range, it offers students, educators, and researchers a clear entry point into ongoing debates as well as a compelling invitation to further extend and refine the study of argumentation.”
-- Jean Wagemans, Professor of Cognition, Communication, and Argumentation, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
