The Argumentative Orientation in Conversation

Abstract

Currently, argumentation is viewed from the perspective of various theories, that start from different premises and have different goals. In logic – both formal and informal – a restrictive concept of argument is used, with mainly didactic purposes: encouraging an argument type considered as „standard”. Treating arguments from this perspective neglects the multitude of argumentation forms present in everyday conversation, which often have very little in common with formal argumentation structures. When we view argumentativity rather as an orientation of a conversation, independent of the form „arguments” take, the interlocutors’ attempts to persuade one another can be analyzed from other theoretical and methodological presuppositions.