Speaker Series Feb.5

Patrick Bondy
Friday, February 5, 2021 - 15:00

Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation & Rhetoric along with the PhD in Argumentation Studies at the University of Windsor invite you to a talk by

Patrick Bondy and David Godden

Wichita State and Michigan State

Rebuttal and Counter-Rebuttal in Argument

The standard forms of argument rebuttal are three: to argue against the truth of another argument’s premises; to argue against the adequacy of the connection between another argument’s premises and its conclusion; and to argue that there are better reasons for a contradictory conclusion. Defeasible arguments are uniquely susceptible to the latter two kinds of rebuttal, as given by Pollock-Pinto defeaters: overriders and undercutters. In this talk we present a model of rebuttal as counter-argument, understood as argumentation that somehow counts against some target argument. On this model, counter-rebuttal can then be modeled as a counter-argument of a counter-argument, permitting an exhaustive taxonomy of the kinds of rebuttal and counter-rebuttal. We close by speculating on how our model of rebuttal and counter-rebuttal might inform an answer to the question of when counter-rebuttal has a strengthening or merely a restorative effect on the strength of some initial, rebuttable, argument.

Friday, February 5, 2021

3:00pm

This talk is part of our Alumni Month!

Weekly presentations conducted via Zoom. All those interested in attending should contact crrar@uwindsor.ca

(519)253-3000