Strategic Maneuvering with the Burden of Proof

Abstract

According to Johnson (Argumentation & Rhetoric (CD-ROM). OSSA, St. Catherines, Ontario, 1998), to engage in the practice of argumentation is “to enter argumentative space.” The problem with this endeavor is that different theoreticians see this space in different ways. We, from our point of view, distinguish between two general meta-perspectives in the study of argumentation: a dialectical perspective focusing on critical debate, and a rhetorical perspective concentrating on the most appropriate means of persuasion in a certain context. This distinction, of course, corresponds with the well-known Aristotelian division.