Making Arguments: Reason in Context

Making Arguments: Reason in Context offers a new approach to the teaching of argumentation and debate.

Nearly all argumentation courses and textbooks tilt toward one of two extremes:

* Critical thinking/informal logic, in which the "laws" of reasoning are universal and not affected by audience or context

* Public speaking, in which adaptation to the audience and winning assent trumps logic and reasoning

At the first extreme are texts that stress flaws in arguments and how to discern them. Their...