The Relation of Argument to Inference

Abstract

I’m going to use the word inference for the mental act or event in which a person draws a conclusion from premisses, or arrives at a conclusion on the basis of the consideration of a body of evidence. I’m going to use the word argument for a set of statements or propositions that one person offers to another in the attempt to induce that other person to accept some conclusion. And I’m going to use the word argumentation for an interactive social process involving two or more people, in which the principal goal is to induce belief or agreement through the presentation of arguments.1