Viewing the Study of Argumentation as Normative Pragmatics

Abstract

The study of argumentation is often considered to be part of the discipline called logic, more in particular of informal logic. In our contribution we would like to make clear that the study of argumentation can also be constructively viewed as being part of pragmatics, more in particular of normative pragmatics. In doing so we start from the theoretical perspective on argumentation that is commonly known as the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation. For the sake of simplicity, in discussing the pragmatic character of the pragma-dialectical approach we focus in this contribution in the first place on the speech act dimension of pragmatics. Our central question can therefore be specified as: how can it be made clear that the study of argumentation can be constructively viewed as being part of (normative) pragmatics by pointing out that the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation benefits in various respects significantly from taking a speech act perspective?