Is the Theoretical Unity of the Fallacies Possible?

Authors

  • John Woods

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v16i2.2442

Keywords:

Concept-in-use, exemplar model, Woods-Walton Approach, fallacy theory, logicism, Lowenheim-Skolem theorem, neopythagoreanism, pragma-dialectic, reductionism, Stone representation theorem, summary representation, unification (one-way, two-way)

Abstract

Historically, the fallacies have been neglected as objects of systematic study. Yet, since Hamblin's famous criticism of the state of fallacy theory, a substantial literature has been produced. A large portion of this literature is the work of Douglas Walton and John Woods. This paper will deal directly with the criticism of that work which has been advanced by van Eemeren and Grootendorst, particularly the complaints found in their writings of 1992, concerning the disunification of the fallacies and the exemplaristic approach of Woods and Walton's theories. It proposes a unification of the theories of Woods and Walton with that of van Eemeren and Grootendorst, and suggests that such a unification could be advantageous to both theories, and highly interesting for fallacy theory in general.

Downloads

Published

1994-01-01

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (1994)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for each article published in Informal Logic belongs to its author(s). Informal Logic has the right of first publication. Permission to reprint any article that appears in Informal Logic MUST be obtained in writing from the author(s). In addition to any form of acknowledgement required by the author(s), the following notice must be added to the statement of copyright permission made in the reprint (with the appropriate numbers replacing the ellipses): [Article Title] was originally published in Informal Logic, [year], Volume ..., Number ..., pp. ...-... .