Inferentism vs Reasonism in the Analysis of Arguments

Abstract

Argument Dialectics is a reasonist and holistic theory of argument. It is a reasonist theory because it conceives arguing as presenting something as a reason for something else, and it is holistic because the conclusion is not primarily the conclusion of an isolated argument, but the conclusion of a discourse. To illustrate how reasonism works, and how it differs from the prevailing atomistic inferentism, we will analyse several arguments in both ways.