Clarifying our ideas in persuasion dialogue

Abstract

Persuasion dialogue sometimes helps us to clarify our ideas; this paper attempts to find out what this kind of clarification consists in. After examining Walton's analysis of the maieutic function of persuasion dialogue it concludes that it offers little help in understanding the phenomenon in question and proposes that clarifying our ideas consists in replacing narrowly individuated views with ones which improve the coherence of one's views and retain elements of the earlier views. It also argues that the clarification of our ideas so conceived is not one of the main goals of persuasion dialogue but rather an accidental even if welcome side effect.