The Role of Audience in Argumentation from the Perspective of Informal Logic

Philosophy & Rhetoric Nov 2013

The Role of Audience in Argumentation from the Perspective of Informal Logic

Ralph H. Johnson University of Windsor

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is something importantly right about an audience-centered approach to argumentation, but it raises questions. For example, when it is said that the argumentation is a function of the audience addressed, what does “audience” mean here? Who constitutes this audience? More important, how does the arguer gain this knowledge of this audience? And is acceptance by the audience really the best way to view the goal of argumentation? This article broaches these questions, turning to discussions of audience by Chaïm Perelman, Christopher Tindale, and Trudy Govier to ask how one comes to know one's audience and whether acceptance by the audience is the goal of argumentation.

Journal: Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published: 2013-11-01
DOI: 10.5325/philrhet.46.4.0533
Open Access: Closed
Topics: argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Riddick (2019)

Deliberative Drifting: A Rhetorical Field Method for Audience Studies on Social Media

Computers and Composition

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 3 works outside this index ↓

Finochiarro, Maurice. 2003. “Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument.”Informal Logic 23 (1): 19–51.

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Goodwin, Jean. 2002. “Designing Issues.” In Dialectic and Rhetoric: The Warp and Woof of Argumentation Analys…

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Nickerson, Raymond S. 1998. “Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises.”Review of …

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