Analysing Practical Argumentation

Abstract

Argument analysis is a powerful tool for structuring policy deliberation and decision-making, especially when complexity and uncertainty loom large. Argument analysis seeks to determine which claims are justified or criticized by a given argumentation, how strong an argument is, on which implicit assumptions it rests, how it relates to other arguments in a controversy, and which standpoints one can reasonably adopt in view of a given state of debate. This chapter first gives an overview of the activities involved in argument analysis and discusses the various aims that guide argument analysis. It then introduces methods for reconstructing and evaluating individual arguments as well as complex argumentation and debates. In their application to decisions under great uncertainty, these methods help to identify coherent positions, to discern important points of (dis)agreement, as well as to avoid spurious consensus and oversimplification.