Research Catalog

Title

One-sided arguments : a dialectical analysis of bias / Douglas Walton.

Author

Walton, Douglas N.

Publication

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, c1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xix, 295 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"The book concedes the postmodernist premise that bias is quite normal in everyday conversational arguments, and that a finding of bias should not, by itself, constitute grounds for criticizing an argument as critically deficient or fallacious. But the book strongly disagrees with the postmodernist conclusion that no standard of rationality can be brought to bear to condemn narrowly interest-based or one-sided arguments as biased. It is argued that in some cases narrow, one-sided partisanship in an argument is justifiably a basis for negative criticism of the worth of the argument."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

SUNY series in logic and language

Uniform Title

SUNY series in logic and language

Subject

• Prejudices
• Reasoning

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-286) and index.

Contents

Chapter 1 Historical Background 1 -- 1. Plato and Aristotle on Dialectic 1 -- 2. Twentieth-Century Logic Textbooks on Bias 4 -- 3. Bacon on Idols of the Mind 7 -- 4. Arnauld on Sophisms of Self-Love, Interest, and Passion 9 -- 5. Watts on Prejudices of the Mind 11 -- 6. Bentham on Prejudices and Interests 15 -- 7. Kant on Prejudices and Provisional Judgments 17 -- 8. Beardsley on Suggestion and Slanting 19 -- 9. Psychologism in Logic 21 -- 10. Normative Reconstruction of Argumentation 23 -- Chapter 2 Dialectical Preliminaries 27 -- 1. Reasoning and Argument 27 -- 2. Persuasion Dialogue 29 -- 3. Commitment and Maieutic Insight 33 -- 4. Negotiation Dialogue 36 -- 5. Inquiry 38 -- 6. Deliberation 41 -- 7. Information-Seeking Dialogue 44 -- 8. Eristic Dialogue 46 -- 9. Mixed Dialogues 50 -- 10. Dialectical Shifts 54 -- Chapter 3 The Theory of Bias 59 -- 1. Initial Perceptions of Bias 60 -- 2. Objectivity, Neutrality, and Impartiality 62 -- 3. Point of View and Commitment 65 -- 4. Position Revealed by Argumentation 68 -- 5. Fairmindedness in Critical Thinking 70 -- 6. Critical Doubt 74 -- 7. Bias as One-Sided Argument 76 -- 8. How Is Bias Detected in an Argument? 79 -- 9. When Is Bias Harmful? 81 -- 10. Aspects of the New Theory 84 -- Chapter 4 Indicators of Bias in Argumentation 91 -- 1. Something to Gain 92 -- 2. Selection of Arguments 95 -- 3. Lip-Service Selection 98 -- 4. Commitment to an Identifiable Position 98 -- 5. Closure to Opposed Argumentation 100 -- 6. Rigidity of Stereotyping 103 -- 7. Treating Comparable Cases Differently 106 -- 8. Emphasis and Hyperbole 108 -- 9. Implicature and Innuendo 110 -- 10. Using the Indicators 112 -- Chapter 5 Biased Language 115 -- 1. Language Used in the Abortion Issue 116 -- 2. Influencing the Media through Language 120 -- 3. Defining 'Poverty' 122 -- 4. Defining 'Pornography' 124 -- 5. Biased Terminology in Scientific Research 127 -- 6. Origins of Concern about Slanted Terms 128 -- 7. The Fallacy of Loaded Term 130 -- 8. Question-Begging Appellatives 132 -- 9. Question-Begging Epithets 135 -- 10. Question-Begging Definitions 139 -- 11. Persuasive Definitions 140 -- 12. Stevenson's and Robinson's Analyses 144 -- 13. Context of Use of Arguments 147 -- 14. Uses of Slanted Terms 148 -- 15. Handling Persuasive Definitions 150 -- Chapter 6 Arguments in Sales and Advertising 157 -- 1. The Standard Treatment 158 -- 2. Appeal to Pity 161 -- 3. Appeal to Popularity 163 -- 4. Suppressed Evidence 166 -- 5. Sales Dialogue 168 -- 6. Forms of Advocacy 172 -- 7. The Mosaic Theory 174 -- 8. Infomercials 177 -- 9. Can a Good Argument Be Biased? 180 -- Chapter 7 Testing Allegations of Bias 185 -- 1. Evidence for a Charge of Bias 185 -- 2. Potential for a Charge of Bias 188 -- 3. Suspicions of Unconscious Bias 190 -- 4. The Last Battleground Case 192 -- 5. Defending against a Criticism of Bias 197 -- 6. Burden of Proof in This Case 199 -- 7. Harmful Bias and Duplicity 201 -- 8. Evaluation of the Case 203 -- 9. Raising Critical Questions 204 -- 10. How Bias Should Be Evaluated 205 -- Chapter 8 Bias in Legal and Scientific Arguments 209 -- 1. Bias in Legal and Scientific Arguments 210 -- 2. Bias as Attributed to Witnesses 212 -- 3. Bias as Attributed to Judges and Juries 216 -- 4. Balance in a Fair Trial 218 -- 5. Bias in Scientific Research 220 -- 6. Biased Statistics 224 -- 7. Use of Statistics by Advocacy Groups 227 -- 8. Bias in Polling 228 -- 9. Biased Questions 230 -- 10. Postmodernist Law and Science 233 -- Chapter 9 The Witch Hunt as a Structure of Argumentation 237 -- 1. The Inquisition 239 -- 2. Witchcraft Trials 240 -- 3. Initial Conditions 243 -- 4. Parasemotic Structure 247 -- 5. Evidence 249 -- 6. Nonopenness 251 -- 7. Reversal of Polarity 252 -- 8. Use of Loaded Questions 254 -- 9. The Sequence of Argumentation in the Witch Hunt 255 -- 10. Judging Cases 257 -- Chapter 10 Extending the Theory 259 -- 1. Summary of the Dialectical Theory 259 -- 2. The State of Formal Dialectic 261 -- 3. Multi-Agent Systems 262 -- 4. The Stronger and Weaker Notions of an Agent 265 -- 5. Characteristics of a Credible Arguer 266 -- 6. The Credibility Function 268 -- 7. Agent and Argument Bias 270 -- 8. Why Should Bias Matter? 271 -- 9. Three Ways of Evaluating an Argument 273 -- 10. Postmodernism and Bias 274.

ISBN

• 0791442675 (alk. paper)
• 0791442683 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^99015100^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library