Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 

MAURICE A. FINOCCHIARO University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

Abstract: A critical examination of the dia-
lectical approach, focusing on a comparison 
ofthe illative and the dialectical definitions 
of argument. I distinguish a moderate, a 
strong and a hyper dialectical conception of 
argument. I critique Goldman's argument for 
the moderate conception and Johnson's ar-
gument for the strong conception, and argue 
that the moderate conception is correct. 

Resume: Un interrogatoire critique sur 
l'approche dialectical, qui concentre sur 
une comparaison des definitions 
d'argument illatives et dialecticales. Je 
distingue trois conceptions de I' argument: 
la moden!e, la forte, et la hyper. Je cri-
tique l'argument de Goldman qui supporte 
la conception moderee et celui de Johnson 
qui support la conception forte, et je 
pretends que la conception moderee est 
exact. 

Keywords: argument, argumentation, argument evaluation, dialectical, dialectics, 
definitions of argument, illative, informal logic, Ralph H. Johnson, Alvin I. Goldman. 

1. Introduction: Critique of the Dialogue Model 

For several years I have been exploring the nature of the dialectical approach to 
argument, its relationship to other approaches, its methodological fruitfulness, and 
its limitations. Although the precise meaning of the dialectical approach is part of 
the problem, I can say immediately that I mean it in the sense in which it is 
distinguished from monological or monolectical approaches, and not in the sense it 
is distinguished from logical and rhetorical approaches; for these two distinctions 
criss-cross each other, as is obvious from the work of many scholars that is both 
dialectical and logical (Barth and Krabbe 1982; Blair and Johnson 1987; Woods 
and Walton 1989). My main motivation stems from the fact that the dialectical 
approach has become the dominant one in argumentation theory. Now, whenever 
any approach in any field becomes dominant, there is always the danger that it will 
lead to the neglect or loss of insights which are easily discernible from other 
orientations; this in turn may even prevent the dominant approach from being 
developed to its fullest as a result of the competition with other approaches. 

Let us begin with a review of some background results from the relevant 
literature. One of the best examples of the dialectical approach is a work entitled 
From Axiom to Dialogue by Else Barth and Erik Krabbe (1982; cf. Barth and 
Martens 1982). A critical examination of this work reveals that their achievement 
is not really to demonstrate the necessity to move from the axiomatic to the dialec-

©Informal Logic Vol. 23, No.1 (2003): pp. 19-49. 



20 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

tical approach, by reducing the former to the latter; instead the structure of their 
proof is to demonstrate the equivalence of the methods of ax ioma tics, natural 
deduction, and formal semantics to the method of formal dialectics. However, as 
I have argued elsewhere (Finocchiaro 1995), the proof works both ways, so that 
the former methods acquire the merits of the latter, and the latter the limitations of 
the former; and the unintended consequence is that there is no logical difference 
between the axiomatic and the formal-dialectical method, and their difference will 
have to be located in some other domain. 

Another extremely important result is due to James Freeman's (1991) work on 
Dialectics and the Macrostructure of Arguments and Francisca Snoeck Henkemans' s 
(1992) work on Analysing Complex Argumentation. They have independently pro-
vided a dialectical analysis of complex argumentation, namely arguments where a 
conclusion is supported by more than just a single reason, either in the sense that 
two or more distinct reasons are given to support the conclusion, or in the sense 
that the reason which directly supports the conclusion is itself in tum supported 
by another reason. Their main accomplishment is to interpret arguments as the 
result of a hypothetical dialogue between a proponent or respondent and an oppo-
nent or challenger, a process during which the opponent asks various kinds of 
questions. However, as I have also argued previously (Finocchiaro 1995, 193-94; 
1999, 195-96), the questions asked are by and large evaluative questions, and so 
besides explicitly providing an illustration ofthe power of what might be called the 
informal-dialogical method, these authors have also implicitly suggested the evalu-
ative dimension of complex argumentation. They may also be seen as having stressed 
the importance of complex argumentation and suggested that the usual emphasis 
on simple arguments is an undesirable oversimplification. 

A move in this direction (toward evaluation and complexity) has also been 
independently made by J. Anthony Blair. In a paper entitled "The Limits of the 
Dialogue Model of Argument" (Blair 1998), he has distinguished thirteen levels of 
complexity of dialogues depending on the complexity of the argument allowed at 
each tum of the dialogue; the thirteenth level is the one which is the norm in a 
scholarly paper or commentary. Blair also distinguishes between what he labels 
"solo" arguments and "duet" arguments: in solo arguments the respondent and 
audience are physically absent; their identity may not be known or fixed; and the 
norms of the discussion are not settled but open to dispute. Then he argues plau-
sibly that to speak of dialogues for complex or solo arguments is metaphorical at 
best and probably distorting. Blair concludes with some theses that embody both a 
non-dialogical conception of the dialectical approach and of solo arguments. His 
words are worth quoting at length: 

It would be nice if the term 'dialectical' were reserved to denote the proper-
ties of all arguments related to their involving doubts or disagreements with 
at least two sides, and the term 'dialogue' were reserved to denote turn-
taking verbal exchanges between pairs of interlocutors. Then I could use this 
terminology to express the points that (I) all argumentation is dialectical, but 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 21 

by no means is all argumentation dialogical, and (2) the dialectical properties 
of dialogues, and the norms derived from the dialogue model, do not apply to 
non-dialogical argument exchanges, even though the latter are dialectical 
too. In other words, both duet arguments and solo arguments are dialectical, 
but only duet arguments are dialogues. [Blair 1998, 10] 

One final explicitly critical contribution deserves mention. Chris Reed and Derek 
Long have stressed the importance and pervasiveness of what they call "persua-
sive monologue." A persuasive monologue is not merely a soliloquy, which is "a 
record of a chain of reasoning" (Reed and Long 1998, 2); nor an internal dialogue, 
"in which the speaker plays both roles" (ibid.); nor a "tum in dialogue" (ibid.). 
Instead persuasive monologue has two main characteristics: "firstly, the intuitive 
'case building' of presenting arguments in support of the thesis" (Reed and Long 
1998, 3); and "secondly, there is the more complex technique of presenting 
counterarguments to the thesis propounded, and then offering arguments which 
defeat those counterarguments" (ibid.) Although these authors' main interest seems 
to be the formal analysis and the computerized modeling of persuasive mono-
logues, the point r would want to stress is that the second clause of their definition 
refers to replying to objections, and such criticism of counterarguments is a fea-
ture which many would not hesitate to call dialectical, in a sense of this word 
distinct from dialogical. 

The upshot of these preliminary remarks is as follows. Proponents of the dia-
lectical approach tend to presuppose a particular concept of dialectics, pertaining 
to dialogue or tum-taking; and they have produced results implicitly suggesting 
that dialogue may be dispensable (in favor of either deductive axiomatization or 
argument complexity and evaluation). Critics of the dialectical approach tend to 
stress monological argumentation, but in so doing they are quite sensitive to an 
aspect of argument which is dialectical in a sense other than the dialogical one (a 
sense pertaining to doubting with two sides and defeating counterarguments). 
With this literature and these reflections in the background, r now want to examine 
a particular problem, to try to understand the difference (if any) between a dialec-
tical and a nondialectical approach to this problem, and the implications (if any) of 
the respective solutions to the question ofthe relative merits of the two approaches. 
The problem is that of how argument is to be conceived. 

2. Concepts of Argument 

Let us begin with what may be called the traditional conception of argument, or to 
be more precise, a version of the standard textbook definition. As many authors 
have done (Walton 1990, 408-9; Johnson 2000a, 146; Hansen 2002, 264), I too 
find it useful to quote Copi's definition: "An argument, in the logician's sense, is 
any group of propositions of which one is claimed to follow from the others, 
which are regarded as providing support or grounds for the truth of that one" 
(Copi and Cohen 1994, 5). 



22 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

However, although many of the same authors (e.g., Johnson 2000a, 148) take 
this to be a structural definition, I find it improper and misleading to speak of 
structure here because the structure involved is too insignificant to merit the name. 
The traditional concept does indeed define an argument as an ordered set of pro po-
sitions, but the order introduced is simply that of designating one of the proposi-
tions as the conclusion; in other words, a distinction is made among all the propo-
sitions in the set, a distinction between the conclusion and the premises. However, 
such a single partition does not really yield a genuine structure, which for my 
sensibility would have to have at least two partitions; that is, the minimal order I 
would want before calling it a structure is three propositions interrelated in such a 
way that one is supported by the second, which is in turn supported by the third. 
Instead of calling it structural, one might call this aspect of the traditional definition 
relational. 

A second important feature of Co pi's definition is the reference to the intention 
or purpose of the arguer. Again, although many commentators (e.g., Johnson 
2000a, 148) have denied such a teleological character, it seems obvious to me that 
when Copi says that the conclusion is claimed to follow from the premises, he is 
saying that the arguer claims this. And when he says that the premises are re-
garded as providing support or grounds for the conclusion, he is saying that the 
premises are so regarded by the arguer; that is, the arguer intends to use the 
premises to support the conclusion. In short, the purpose of the argument is to 
justify the conclusion by means of supporting reasons. 

I am stressing that according to Copi's version of the traditional definition, an 
argument has function but no structure. I believe there is a term that conveys both 
features, namely the term illative, which I adopt from Ralph Johnson (2000a, 
150), who adopted it from Blair (1995). This traditional definition may thus be 
called the illative conception of argument. Illation is the special relationship that 
holds between premises or reasons and conclusion or thesis; it is not a purely 
abstract relation, but one that subsists in the mind of the arguer and of anyone 
trying to understand or evaluate the argument. 

Two other versions ofthe traditional definition are worth mentioning, one more 
and one less abstract than the illative conception. The more abstract one avoids 
any reference to purpose and defines an argument simply as an ordered set of 
propositions partitioned into two subsets. For example, in Choice and Chance, 
Brian Skyrms stipulates that "an argument is a list of sentences, one of which is 
designated as the conclusion, and the rest of which are designated as premises" 
(Skyrms 1966, 1-2). Those scholars who deny the teleological character of the 
traditional definition are probably thinking of this version, although of course it 
should not be equated with other versions such as Copi's. 

The less abstract (or more concrete) version of the traditional definition adds a 
rhetorical condition to the illative conception, namely an element of persuasion. 
This conceives an argument as an attempt to persuade others that a conclusion is 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 23 

true by giving reasons in support of it. An example of such a definition comes 
from Michael Scriven's book Reasoning: "The simplest possible argument con-
sists of a single premise, which is asserted as true, and a single conclusion, which 
is asserted as following from the premises, and hence also to be true. The fUnction 
of the argument is to persuade you that since the premise is true, you must also 
accept the conclusion" (Scriven 1976, 55-56) 

These three versions of the traditional conception are importantly different, 
and constitute a sequence of increasingly more complex and narrow definitions 
(as one moves from the purely abstract one through the illative one to the rhetori-
cal). But they also share some very important features. All three lack any reference 
to a complex structure, or structure worthy of the name, as I have already men-
tioned. And all three lack any reference to dialectical matters, which will be our 
focus. Thus, let us now tum to what we may call the dialectical conception of 
argument. 

The most natural version of the dialectical conception simply adds an element 
of criticism of objections to what I have called the rhetorical definition. We thus 
get that an argument is defined as an attempt to persuade someone that a conclu-
sion is acceptable by giving reasons in support of it and defending it from objec-
tions. The best known example of this is the definition found in Johnson's book 
Manifest Rationality: "An argument is a type of discourse or text-the distillate of 
the practice of argumentation-in which the arguer seeks to persuade the Other(s) 
of the truth of a thesis by producing the reasons that support it. In addition to this 
illative core, an argument possesses a dialectical tier in which the arguer dis-
charges his dialectical obligations" (Johnson 2000a, 168). 

There is no time here for me to repeat or summarize the various clarifications 
that have been made to Johnson's definition by Johnson (2002a; forthcoming) 
himself as well as by Trudy Govier(l998; I 999b; 2000), David Hitchcock (2002a), 
Hans Hansen (2002), and others (Groarke 2002; Leff 2000; Tindale 2002; Rees 
200 I; Wyatt 200 I), although I will say a little more later in the context of my 
analysis of Johnson's argument (section 6, below). However, I have already im-
plicitly incorporated many of these clarifications when I gave my own formula-
tion, before exemplifying it with Johnson's definition. In any case, a few remarks 
are in order and may be relatively novel. 

One thing I would want to point out is that by calling illative core the complex 
of conclusion and supporting reasons, Johnson suggests that the illative core is 
more fundamental than the dialectical tier. Now, this may very well be true; but it 
may not be. I would regard it as open question. Of this more presently. However, 
in order not to beg this question, I shaH speak of the illative tier or component 
rather than core. 

Another question I would want to ask is, why call dialectical tier or discharge 
of dialectical obligations such things as examination of alternative positions and 
reply to objections? What is the concept of dialectics inherent in such a termino-



24 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

logical decision, and how is such a conception to be justified? Is it enough to do 
some hand waving in the direction of Plato's dialogues? Johnson's concept of 
dialectics is the one inherent in the following explicit statement: "that argumenta-
tion is dialectical means that the arguer agrees to let the feedback from the other 
affect her product. The arguer consents to take criticism and to take it seriously. 
Indeed, she not only agrees to take it when it comes, as it typically does; she may 
actually solicit it. In this sense argumentation is a (perhaps even the) dialectical 
process par excellence" (Johnson 1996, 107; cf. Johnson 2000a, 16 I; cf. 
Finocchiaro 1999, 195). 

Third, besides Johnson's references to written text, argumentative practice, 
purpose, persuasion, and truth, it is important to note the reference to both the 
illative and dialectical components or tiers. This implies that a text with an illative 
tier but without a dialectical one is not strictly speaking an argument (as some of 
Johnson's critics have pointed out, thus yielding an alleged reductio ad absurdum 
of his definition); but Johnson himself prefers to say that such a text "does not fit 
the paradigm case of argument" (Johnson 2002a, 316). 

In the present context, however, the point I want to stress is that there is a 
natural way to moderate Johnson's double requirement by disjoining the two con-
ditions, in the sense inclusive disjunction. We thus get the following conception: an 
argument is an attempt to persuade someone that a conclusion is true by giving 
reasons in support of it or defending it from objections. This is a weaker dialectical 
conception than Johnson's definition, but it still is importantly dialectical because it 
does call attention to the potential need to discharge one's own dialectical obliga-
tions, and because the inclusive disjunction obviously allows for cases where the 
argument contains both illative and dialectical tiers. 

Such a more moderate dialectical conception has in fact been advanced by 
some scholars. If! understand him correctly, I believe Alvin Goldman does this in 
his book Knowledge in a Social World. He explicitly allows for what he labels 
monological argumentation besides dialogical argumentation, as can be seen from 
this passage: 

If a speaker presents an argument to an audience in which he asserts and 
defends the conclusion by appeal to the premises, I call this activity argu-
mentation. More specifically, this counts as mOllological argumentation, a 
stretch of argumentation with a single speaker. ... I shall also discuss 
dialogical argumentation in which two or more speakers discourse with one 
another, taking opposite sides of the issue over the truth of the conclusion" 
(Goldman 1999, 131). 

And for Goldman, a crucial principle governing dialogical argumentation is this: 
"when there are existing or foreseeable criticisms of one's main argument, a speaker 
should embed that argument in an extended argumentative discourse that contains 
replies to as many of these (important) criticisms as is feasible" (Goldman 1999, 
144). 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 25 

We thus have two versions of the dialectical conception of argument, a stronger 
one exemplified by Johnson that regards the dialectical or critical tier as necessary 
for any argument, and a moderate one exemplified by Goldman that makes the 
dialectical or critical tier essential for one type of argument but not for all. Al-
though these two versions of the dialectical conception are the most common and 
natural ones, there is actually a third version that deserves discussion and may be 
regarded as more strongly dialectical than Johnson's conjunctive version. This 
hyper dialectical conception would define an argument as an attempt to justify a 
conclusion by defending it from objections. According to this conception, reply-
ing to objections is both a sufficient and a necessary condition to have an argu-
ment; whereas for Johnson's strong dialectical conception, replying to objections 
is necessary but not sufficient; and for Goldman's moderate dialectical definition, 
replying to objections is sufficient but not necessary. 

Unintuitive as it may sound, the hyper dialectical conception has been advanced 
by some scholars. In a 1980 book by the present author, entitled Galileo and the 
Art of Reasoning, in the context of a number of theoretical considerations, we find 
the following theoretical definition: "We may then say that an argument is a defense 
of its conclusion from actual or potential objections" (Finocchiaro 1980, 419). 
More recently, in her review of Johnson's Manifest Rationality, Agnes van Rees 
has criticized his definition of argument for being insufficiently dialectical. Here 
are her revealing words: "According to this definition, producing reasons and 
discharging one's dialectical obligations are two different things. But in actual fact, 
if the notion of argument is indeed to be rooted in the dialectical practice of argu-
mentation, the two should coincide. In a truly dialectical account, argument per se 
would be defined as an attempt to meet the critical reactions of an antagonist, that 
is, to take away anticipated objections and doubt" (Rees 2002, 233). And besides 
these two explicit formulations, the hyper dialectical definition has a memorable, 
emblematic, and brilliant illustration; that is, an argument by Alan M. Turing pub-
lished in 1950 in the journal Afind, advocating that machines can think based 
primarily on a critique of nine objections to this conclusion. 

Once again, however, despite the differences among these three versions of 
the dialectical conception, my focus will be on what they have in common. Their 
common element is an emphasis on replying to objections or to criticism. It is 
such a dialectical component that provides an instructive contrast to the illative 
conception. And it is this dialectical tier that I want to understand better and evalu-
ate. With such an aim, the next step will be to examine various arguments that have 
been advanced in favor of the dialectical conception of argument. 

3. Arguments for the Dialectical Definition 

What we are faced with now is an exercise in informal logic and critical thinking, 
for what we want to do is to identify, interpret, reconstruct, analyze, evaluate, and 
criticize the arguments for the dialectical conception of argument. I shall focus 



26 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

explicitly on arguments advanced by Johnson and by Goldman, but implicitly un-
derlying my examination will be arguments suggested by the present speaker in the 
above mentioned 1980 book, and by John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty. 
There will be no time or space for me to elaborate my 1980 arguments for the 
hyper dialectical conception, or to search for Rees's argument for the same con-
ception, or to examine Mill's arguments, which will have to be done on some other 
occasion. However, one additional remark on Mill is worth making. 

Mill has already been injected into this discussion by an insightful interpretive 
hunch of Hansen (2002, 271), when he spoke of Mill's "dialectical method" and 
quoted a crucial passage from Mill's essay On Liberty. This reference led me to 
read Mill, and I discovered that the second chapter of his essay contains some of 
the strongest and most instructive arguments. Mill is ostensibly arguing for the 
thesis that freedom of expression of opinion is essential in the quest for knowledge 
and search for truth, but the connection with our topic becomes evident when we 
see that a key part of freedom of expression involves the freedom to express 
dissenting opinions, which in tum involves the toleration (and indeed the encour-
agement) of counterarguments; thus truth and knowledge require the understand-
ing and criticism of counterarguments. We can get a glimpse and flavor of the 
relevance and importance of Mill's considerations from the following striking as-
sertion: "When we tum to subjects [such as] morals, religion, politics, social rela-
tions, and the business of life, three-fourths of the arguments for every disputed 
opinion consist in dispelling the appearances which favor some opinion different 
from it" (Mill, On Liberty, ch. ii, par. 23; 1965,286-87). 

For now, let me focus on an argument that has been advanced by Goldman, or 
at least which I extract from Goldman; it deserves discussion because of its nov-
elty. What he intends to justify is "a general thesis about critical argumentation and 
the probability of acquiring truth ... that lively and vigorous debate is a desirable 
thing"(Goldman 1999, 144), desirable in the sense that it "has positive veritistic 
properties" (Goldman 1999,146). In other words, critical argumentation is likely 
to lead to the truth. The connection between this conclusion and the dialectical 
conception of argument may be elaborated as follows. Goldman (1999, 132) says 
that "critical argumentation is an attempt to defeat or undercut the proffered argu-
ment," and he contrasts it to "proponent argumentation [which) is a defense of the 
asserted conclusion by appeal to the cited premises" (Goldman 1999, 132). To this 
I add that if critical argumentation is a veritistically good thing, then it will also be 
desirable for the special case when the proffered argument is a critical argument, 
and so a reply to the critical argument is called for. Such a reply is precisely what 
the dialectical conception of argument stipulates. 

Next, Goldman distinguishes at least three SUbtypes of critical argumentation, 
one that denies the truth of a premise, a second that questions the link between 
premises and conclusion, and a third one which he calls "presenting a defeater" 
(Goldman 1999, 140). Then he formulates his argument for the special case of the 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 27 

latter, which is a notion he adopts from John Pollock (1986, 33-39; cf. Goldman 
1999, 138-39, 139 n .11, 144-45) and may be explained as follows. Given an 
argument with premises P-l through P-n and conclusion C, a defeater is a critical 
argument with the same premises plus one additional special premise D and con-
clusion not-Co A simple example given by Goldman himself is this: consider the 
argument that it will probably rain tonight because it was so stated last night in the 
local weather forecast of a reliable news medium; a defeater of this argument 
would be the counterargument that it will probably not rain tonight because al-
though it was so stated last night in the weather forecast of a reliable local news 
media source, it was also stated this morning by the same source that the forecast 
had changed and the new prediction was fair weather tonight 

I will label Goldman's argument the "truth-in-evidence" argument because it is 
based on a premise which he himself calls the truth-in-evidence (TEP) principle; it 
asserts the following: "a larger body of evidence is generally a better indicator of 
the truth-value of a hypothesis than a smaller, contained body of evidence, as long 
as all the evidence propositions are true and what they indicate is correctly inter-
preted" (Goldman 1999, 145). He points out that this principle is an epistemic 
version of the requirement of total evidence discussed in a methodological context 
by Rudolph Carnap (1950, 211) and Carl Hempel (1965, 64-67). Goldman also 
says that the principle is a generalization of Bayes' theorem. Although these are 
reasons of sorts, and although the principle has some inherent plausibility, Goldman 
(1999, 145-46) confesses that "I have no proof of this postulate." 

But how does this principle support his conclusion that critical argumentation, 
or at least defeater presentation, is conducive to truth? Clearly, a defeater argu-
ment does encompass a larger body of evidence than the argument being criti-
cized. So, Goldman's premise is indeed relevant. 

But is it sufficient? He attempts to articulate such sufficiency by commenting 
on the two provisos incorporated into the principle. The condition of truth for the 
evidence propositions could be somewhat relaxed (he says) by requiring merely 
that they be justified. The other condition was that what the evidence propositions 
indicate be correctly interpreted; this seems to mean that it be correct to claim that 
the premises of the defeater argument imply or support the denial of the conclu-
sion of the original argument. And Goldman himself suggests that in real-world 
cases such an implication would be itself controversial. The upshot of his articu-
lation seems to be that in order for a defeater argument to have positive veritistic 
properties in accordance with the truth-in-evidence principle, the defeater has 
itself to be a good argument, namely have true or justified or acceptable premises, 
and these premises have to really support its own conclusion; but in realistic situ-
ations such goodness would be controversial. 

Goldman seems to be aware of such difficulties, for despite his articulation and 
elucidation, what he claims about the premise-conclusion link of his argument is 
very modest. He says: "Suppose ... that (TEP) is correct. May we derive from it 



28 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

the veritistic desirability of engaging in defeater argumentation? In other words, 
does (TEP) imply that defeater argumentation usually has positive V-value? Al-
though I shall not attempt to prove it, I suspect that this does follow" (Goldman 
1999, 146). 

Another difficulty that could be raised stems from the fact that Goldman in-
tends his argument, which is specifically formulated in terms of defeater argu-
ments, to apply to other cases of critical argumentation. However, its relevance to 
these other cases is questionable. 

But to end on a more positive note, there are other valuable aspects of an 
argument besides such properties as truth of premises and validity of inference, or 
acceptability, relevance, and sufficiency of premises. Some of the additional val-
ues are what might be called suggestiveness or fruitfulness and novelty or original-
ity. And along these dimensions, I would rate Goldman's truth-in-evidence argu-
ment very highly. 

4. Johnson's Argument: Its Illative Tier 

Let us now examine Johnson's argument for the dialectical conception. As one 
would expect, his argument possesses an illative component as well as a dialectical 
tier, and the latter contains both replies to objections and criticism of alternative 
positions. The main alternative is what he calls the structural definition of argu-
ment, which (as suggested above) is not really structural and should rather be 
labeled the illative conception of argument. 

One of Johnson's key supporting reasons I locate in passages where he makes 
statements such as the following: 

Philosophers and others for whom argumentation is the principal methodol-
ogy routinely include in their own arguments a section in which they voice 
and then deal with objections to their position .... If.. .we look at the best 
practices of those who have the most at stake in this process, philosophers 
and logicians who have a vested interest in this practice, we will find that 
their arguments always take account of the standard objections .... Argu-
ments with a dialectical tier are found in nonacademic discourse as well. 
[Johnson 2000a, 165-66] 

Here we have an empirical argument, which some would call an induction by 
enumeration, and others more simply a generalization argument or an inductive 
generalization. Although in his book Johnson does not himself categorize this ar-
gument in this manner, I am encouraged to advance this interpretation by the fact 
that in one of his papers he does speak favorably of the "empirical turn" (Johnson 
2000b, 14-15). Moreover, such a strand of argument is also found in other dialec-
tically inclined authors. For example, Goldman, after defining an "extended argu-
mentative discourse" as a series of nested arguments that present and answer 
objections, states that "in science, scholarship, law, and other polemical realms, 
extended argumentative discourses are the norm. Scholars are expected to report 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 29 

existing findings and literature that form the basis of predictable objections" 
(Goldman 1999, 144). 

Also reminiscent of such an empirical argument is Mill's assertion, quoted 
earlier, that three-fourths of arguments involving human affairs consist of attempts 
to reply to objections. 

If and to the extent that Johnson's case for the dialectical conception of argu-
ment includes an empirical inductive generalization, then its evaluation would have 
to deal with questions such as the following. For example, if indeed the best 
examples of arguments by philosophers have a dialectical tier, should our conclu-
sion be that good philosophical arguments have a dialectical tier, or that all philo-
sophical arguments have a dialectical tier? In other words, that all philosophical 
arguments ought to have a dialectical tier, or that they do have a dialectical tier? 
Can our conclusion be that good arguments in general (whether philosophical or 
not) have a dialectical tier; in other words, from a sample containing information 
about philosophical arguments, how can we reach a conclusion about arguments 
in general? Do we not also need data about the characteristics of arguments in 
other disciplines, such a science and the law, as Goldman indicates? But if we 
gather such data about, for example, science, such scientific arguments that thus 
have a dialectical tier may happen to be those in special domains of scientific 
activity, such as in the context of peer discussion at the frontiers of research or in 
periods of scientific revolution; what are we then to say about other domains such 
as the context of scientific justification or the context of pedagogy or periods of 
normal science? And if indeed, as Mill states, three-fourths of arguments have a 
dialectical tier (indeed only this tier), should not the conclusion be qualified to 
make it a statistical rather than a universal generalization? And what are we to say 
about the other one-fourth of arguments? Finally, if we take seriously the possibil-
ity of an empirical inductive confirmation of the dialectical conception of argu-
ment, does not the above-mentioned evidence appear as merely anecdotal? Should 
we not attempt to devise more systematic and controlled tests or data gathering? 

Some scholars have indeed undertaken such attempts. I am thinking of 
Hitchcock's (2002b) sampling of scholarly arguments to test his theory of infer-
ence; of David Perkins's (1989; Perkins et al. 1983) studies of the difficulties in 
everyday reasoning; and of the present author's examination of arguments in Gali-
leo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (Finocchiaro 1980; 1994). I be-
lieve that by and large the relevant parts of such inquiries do support the thesis of 
the dialectical nature of argument. In fact, it was in the context of such an empiri-
cal investigation that the present writer drew the conclusion mentioned earlier and 
labeled the hyper dialectical conception of argument, namely "that an argument is 
a defense of its conclusion from actual or potential objections" (Finocchiaro 1980, 
419). 

Although such an empirical approach has also been appreciated or advocated 
by other philosophers (Barth 1985; Krabbe 2000, 4), it is unlikely that most phi-



30 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

losophers will have much interest in using such empirical argumentation to sup-
port their theories of argument; so let us go on to more theoretical and conceptual 
considerations, especially since we find such supporting reasons in Johnson's 
book. 

A second supporting reason in Johnson's illative tier is a premise about the 
nature of the process of arguing. He states that "the process of arguing includes, 
by its very nature, feedback from the Other. Nor does the process of arguing end 
there. Also included as part of the process must be the response by the arguer to 
those objections and criticisms, as well as any revisions made by the arguer" 
(Johnson 2000a, 157). If we recall that for Johnson an argument is the so-called 
"distillate of the practice of argumentation" (Johnson 2000a, 168), then the rel-
evance and sufficiency of this premise becomes obvious. What about its accept-
ability? Here we have to remember that Johnson is talking about one of several 
meanings of the word argue or arguing; and certainly for this particular meaning it 
is unobjectionable and true that the process of arguing does have such a dialectical 
component. 

However, this claim about the nature of the process of arguing is almost ana-
lytically true. So an unfriendly evaluator might at this point raise the possibi lity that 
Johnson's argument from the nature of the process of arguing begs the question. 
But a more friendly critic might point out that the function of this particular argu-
ment is to articulate a necessary connection between the process of arguing and 
the concept of argument, and the articulation of such analytic relations is a normal 
part of any theorizing; thus it is no defect of a theory of argument that at some 
point it has to explain the links among various elements of its conceptual structure. 
However, such friendly criticism may have a consequence that suggests some 
possible revision by the arguer. That is, some arguments do not have rational 
persuasion as their telos, but rather the analytic elucidation of conceptual relations; 
and this is one of those arguments. But if we defend this argument in this manner 
from the criticism that it begs the question, then one has to revise the teleological 
rhetorical aspect of Johnson's definition. This could be done by stating the defini-
tion by saying that an argument is an attempt to justify a conclusion instead of 
saying that it is an attempt to persuade others that a conclusion is true. 

Another way out might be to say that here both the friendly critic and the 
unfriendly evaluator are committing the fallacy of straw man, when they interpret 
these considerations about the nature of the process of argument as an argument 
in support of Johnson's definition; after all, he does not himself explicitly label 
them an argument. This denial of argumentative status would by itself be 
unproblematic, but it would begin to weigh if added to the previous unfriendly 
evaluation that Johnson's empirical inductive generalization was anecdotal. For 
one reply to that evaluation might have been that his empirical considerations should 
not be interpreted as a real or full-fledged empirical argument susceptible of evalu-
ation in terms ofthe adequacy, variety, and representativeness of the sample used; 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 31 

and then we would be saying that neither the empirical considerations nor the 
conceptual ones were arguments. However, this consequence would not be fatal 
because there is at least one passage in Johnson's book that seems to advance a 
supporting reason as explicitly as the practice of argumentation allows. To this we 
now turn. 

This is the passage where Johnson tries to ground the dialectical tier on the 
telos of rational persuasion. In his own words, "because the practice exists to 
achieve rational persuasion of the Other as a rational agent, the practice must also 
be dialectical" (Johnson 2000a, 160). To avoid straw-man problems, 1 quote this 
argument verbatim: 

Because the arguer's purpose is rational persuasion, a second tier is required 
as well. Why? I have shown that the practice of argumentation presupposes 
a background of controversy. The first tier (the illative core) is meant to 
initiate the process of converting Others, winning them over to the arguer's 
position. But they will not easily be won over, nor should they be, if they are 
rational. The participants know that there will likely be objections to the 
arguer's premises. Indeed, the arguer must know this, so it is typical that the 
arguer wiII attempt to anticipate and defuse such objections within the course 
of the argument. If the arguer does not deal with the objections and criti-
cisms, then to that degree, the argument is not going to satisfy the dictates of 
rationality; more precisely, to that very degree the argument falls short of 
what is required in terms of structure~never mind the content; that is, the 
adequacy of the response to those objections. For those at whom it is di· 
rected, those who know and care about the issue, will be aware that the 
argument is open to objections from those who disagree with its reasons, 
conclusion, and-or reasoning. Hence, if the arguer wishes to persuade Oth· 
ers rationally, the arguer is obligated to take account of those objections and 
opposing points of view. To ignore them, not to mention them, or to suppress 
them-these could hardly be considered the moves of someone engaged in 
the process of rational persuasion; thus, the process of persuasion must 
include a second-dialectical-tier in which objections and criticism are dealt 
with. [Johnson 2000a, 160; cf. Johnson 2000a, 165] 

This is a plausible argument, but I should like to point out that there are two, 
and not just one, final premises: the claim that the purpose of the argument is 
rational persuasion, and the claim that the process of argumentation occurs in a 
context of controversy. And the latter claim is both crucial and independent of the 
first. But as John Stuart Mill (On Liberty, ch. 2, par. 23; 1965,286) pointed out, in 
Euclidean geometry rational persuasion is achieved with just the illative tier. with-
out any need of dealing with objections. Hence, the dialectical tier is not a conse-
quence of just the telos of rational persuasion, but of this telos plus the controver-
sial origin of argumentation. 

In other words, Johnson gives the impression that the third reason of the 
illative tier of his argument for the dialectical conception of argument is the telos of 
rational persuasion. This impression is misleading because if this reason were the 



32 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

only premise it would be insufficient and because in fact Johnson himself com-
bines it with the premise about controversial origin. 

I suspect that Johnson's reaction to this criticism would be to insist that con-
troversy is presupposed by all argumentation and to regard geometrical proofs as 
not arguments but mere inferences or entailments. This move would strike me as 
arbitrary insofar as Euclidean geometrical proofs are typically attempts to per-
suade oneself or others of the truth of the theorem in question by rational means. 
Moreover, the move would be questionable from the point of view of Johnson's 
own principle of vulnerability because the restriction of the domain to that of 
controversial situations tends to make the conclusion true by definition; that is, the 
dialectical tier becomes necessary as an immediate consequence of the controver-
sial context. Then this third reason of Johnson's illative tier would basically reduce 
to his second reason. 

I believe the way to remedy this difficulty would be to revise the conclusion of 
Johnson's argument by weakening the requirement of the dialectical tier. For ex-
ample, instead of being regarded as a necessary condition to have an argument, the 
dialectical tier might be regarded as a sufficient condition. This would amount to 
replacing the conjunctive version ofthe dialectical conception with the disjunctive 
one mentioned earlier. 

5. Johnson's Argument: Its Criticism of Alternative Positions 

So far we have examined the illative tier of Johnson's argument for his dialectical 
conception of argument. We have identified, analyzed, evaluated, and criticized 
three supporting reasons. Let us now go on to examine the dialectical tier of his 
argument. This tier consists of two parts, criticism of the alternative traditional 
conception of argument, and explicit replies to explicit objections to his definition. 
The criticism of alternatives can be easily subsumed under the notion of reply to 
objections, by regarding that criticism as a reply to the objection that the traditional 
conception of argument is adequate (and constitutes an alternative to the dialecti-
cal conception); but it is useful to treat the two parts separately, as Johnson does 
explicitly in his book. 

Let us begin with a criticism that I have implicitly already examined and so can 
be dealt with relatively briefly. According to Johnson, "argument has its structure 
(reasons in support of a thesis, or premises plus conclusion) because of the pur-
pose it serves-rational persuasion. A significant limitation of the structural view 
is that it ignores this important aspect-purpose or function. The moral of the 
story is that if a satisfactory conceptualization of argument is to be developed, the 
purpose or function of the discourse must be referred to" (Johnson 2000a, 148, 
cf. 167). But earlier I pointed out that, although the purely abstract version of the 
traditional definition does lack any teleological aspect, the illative conception (such 
as Copi's) is teleological insofar as it does make the aim of argument the justifica-



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 33 

tion of the conclusion by means of supporting reasons. Although justification is 
indeed different from persuasion, this only means that the illative conception at-
tributes to argument a purpose different from the purpose attributed to it by 
Johnson's dialectical conception. Now, this conception (and even the rhetorical 
one) may very well be correct that the purpose is persuasion, and the illative 
conception incorrect that it is justification, but it seems unfair to criticize the latter 
for conceiving argument as purely structural without function. 

A second criticism advanced by Johnson (2000a, 147) is that "the traditional 
view ... must ultimately fail because it does not distinguish argument from other 
forms of reasoning." He discusses three problematic forms of reasoning: explain-
ing, instructing, and making an excuse. This criticism would be relevant and strong 
if this claim of confusion were true. But it is not. An analysis of Johnson's sup-
porting critical argument will show this. 

Johnson (2000a, 146) says, "1 offer reasons in support when I explain, 'The 
reason that your car won't start is that you have a dead battery, and also the starter 
is defective'. Here I am supporting one claim (your car won't start) by another 
(you have a dead battery) and another (your starter is defective)." This example 
and others given by Johnson involve a misconception of the notion of support 
used by the illative definition. In this example, the supporting reasons are not the 
ones mentioned but rather the observational reports (not mentioned) that after 
turning the ignition key nothing happened; the mentioned reasons are the causes 
offered to explain the observed fact. Correspondingly, in the quoted text, the claim 
that your car won't start does not function as a conclusion but rather as a presup-
position or premise of an argument aiming to support the causal claim. 

Besides this misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the notion of support 
used by the illative conception, Johnson's critical argument may involve an equivo-
cation on the term reason. Admittedly a reason can mean a premise helping to 
establish a controversial conclusion in an argument, or it can mean a cause or 
explanation helping to account for why a given non-controversial claim is true. So 
it would be correct to say that one offers reasons when one explains, in one sense 
of reasons, but not that one offers reasons in support when one explains. Thus, 
here it may be the critic (and not the proponent of the illative view) who is failing 
to distinguish argument from explanation. 

Johnson's remarks about the other forms of reasoning suffer from similar 
difficulties. He says, "I offer reasons when I instruct, 'If you want to get the best 
light for this shot, you are going to have to use a XDX-1000 filter combined 
with ... ' Here I offer a reason (you are going to have to use a XDX-l 000 filter) as 
support for the claim (if you want to get the best lighting), but the function of the 
discourse is not to persuade anyone that the claim is true" (Johnson 2000a, 146). 
Once again, there is no relationship of illative support between the two clauses, 
and there are not even two distinct claims; rather we have a single claim about a 
means-end connection between two things. 



34 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

Johnson (2000a, 146) also says, "I offer reasons when I make an excuse, 'I 
can't go to the show tonight because I have to study for my exam tomorrow'. 
Here we have the structure of an argument as defined, but that is not sufficient to 
qualify it as an argument." I would counter that here we are in the domain of 
motivation, which is subsumable under the general concept of explanation, al-
though it is also useful to treat it as an important special case. That is, one meaning 
of reason is that of motivation for an action. Clearly the quoted example is an 
explanation (of the speaker's not going), not an argument trying to persuade any-
body that the speaker is not going. But this is an interpretation reached in the light 
of the illative conception, which clearly has the resources to say that the need to 
study is the motivating reason why one is not going, not the evidence proving that 
one is not going. 

A third criticism advanced by Johnson is really a particular case of the second 
but deserves separate discussion and special attention. It claims that the illative 
conception presupposes an inadequate conception of a particular kind of reason-
ing, namely inference. This inadequacy has three overlapping aspects. First, the 
illative conception tends to conflate three forms of reasoning that ought to be 
distinguished, namely implication, inference, and argument (Johnson 2000a, 93-
95). Second, it conceives the illative core in terms of a model that ought to be 
discarded, namely what Johnson calls "the (P+I) model, the view that an argu-
ment should be seen as consisting of a set of premises, plus an inference from 
them to the conclusion. The inference is typically represented as a bridge or a link 
from the premises to the conclusion" (Johnson 2000a, 166-67). Third, it fails to 
properly distinguish between argument and inference (Johnson 2000a, 177-78). 

Much of this criticism is insightful and raises important issues. The key merit 
is to point out that the illative conception of argument has not been embedded in a 
wider theory of reasoning that would define, distinguish, and interrelate such con-
cepts as reasoning, argument, inference, implication, and explanation. However, 
the effectiveness of this criticism is limited by the fact that the dialectical concep-
tion of argument, or more generally, Johnson's own pragmatic theory of argu-
ment, has also not been embedded within a more comprehensive theory of reason-
ing. He himself constantly reminds us that the aim of a theory of argument is more 
narrow than that of a theory of reasoning, and that while the articulation of a 
theory of reasoning remains a desirable goal, it was not within the scope of his 
work on the theory of argument. Thus the crucial question is whether the theory 
of reasoning groped toward or adumbrated by Johnson's dialectical conception is 
more adequate than that presupposed by the traditional illative conception. 

With this aim in mind, I would point out some inadequacies in Johnson's ac-
count, besides the ones discussed in connection with the previous criticism in-
volving the relationship between argument, support, reasoning, and explanation 
(which would also be relevant to the present point). Johnson (2000a, 94) defines 
implication as "a logical relationship between statements or propositions, in which 
one follows necessarily from the others"; and he gives the following paradigm 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 35 

example: if it is true that ifP then Q and that if Q then R, then it is true that ifP then 
R. He gives this definition and illustration in a passage where he also defines and 
illustrates inference and argument, with the aim of showing how to distinguish and 
interrelate these three forms of reasoning. However, it seems to me that implica-
tion so defined is not a form of reasoning at all; it is an abstraction and not a form 
of mental activity. He is not defining implication as what might be called deductive 
reasoning, which instead is subsumed under his definition ofinference as a special 
case; instead he is defining implication in a way that places it outside the domain of 
reasoning altogether. 

In another passage, where he focuses merely on the distinction between infer-
ence and argument, he seems to come close to placing argument itself outside the 
domain of reasoning. In a summary extolling the advantages of the pragmatic 
approach, he says that one of these advantages is that "we can begin to get a 
handle on differentiating between arguments and inference. Arguments, as I have 
shown, are outcomes within the practice that are dialectical in nature and charac-
terized by manifest rationality. What is an inference? In chapter 4, I presented 
inference as in one important sense something that happens in the mind, an activity 
perhaps spontaneous, perhaps calculated, by which the mind moves from one 
thought to another" (Johnson 2000a, 177-78). After pointing some similarities, he 
stresses the following difference: "an inference can be what it is while remaining 
within the mind of the inferrer; this is not true of argument. One way of drawing 
this contrast is to say that inferring is monolectical, whereas arguing is a dialectical 
process. Moreover, argument must be seen within the practice of argumentation, 
but no comparable requirement exists for inference" (Johnson 2000a, 177-78). 
The only point I want to make here is that by conceiving an argument as a dialec-
tical process that subsists within the practice of argumentation and cannot remain 
within the mind of the arguer, Johnson seems to be saying that argument is not a 
form of reasoning; to be sure it originates in reasoning, but to become argument it 
has to metamorphosize into non-reasoning. Now, all this may be adequate, sound, 
and correct from various points of view, but it is clear that we need more than a 
theory of reasoning; the theory of argument would need to be embedded in some-
thing like a theory of action, or a theory of speech acts, or a theory of social 
interaction. 

There is at least one other criticism which Johnson advances against the illative 
conception, namely its "failure to give an adequate representation of the dialectical 
character of argumentation" (Johnson 2000a, 165). I hesitate to include this point 
under the heading of criticism of alternatives, in the dialectical tier of Johnson's 
own argument; for there seems to be some circularity or question-begging in 
objecting to a position P by saying that it fails to describe the matter at hand the 
way its alternative Q does; in fact this failure is guaranteed by P's being an alterna-
tive to Q and is an immediate consequence of that fact. In short, to point out this 
sort of thing is part of the clarification or elucidation of the two positions. How-
ever, Johnson is explicit that he regards this as a "limitation" of the traditional 



36 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

conception of argument, and so it deserves some attention. Moreover, it will turn 
out that the examination of this criticism is useful from a methodological, meta-
logical, or meta-theoretical point of view. 

As one might expect, to justify this criticism Johnson elaborates an argument 
trying to show that arguments must have a dialectical tier. But this argument is and 
can only be one of the positive reasons supporting his dialectical conception; that 
is, one of the elements ofthe illative tier of his argument. In fact, he repeats the 
third reason discussed above, namely the one trying to establish that the telos 
rational persuasion implies the necessity ofthe dialectical tier. Clearly, here I need 
not repeat my own criticism of that reason. Instead, I want to elaborate a meta-
theoretical point. 

I want to stress that a positive reason of the illative tier has become a critical 
reason of the dialectical tier. I believe this could always happen. In fact, consider 
the illative tier R-J through R-n of an argument whose conclusion is P; and con-
sider that part of the dialectical tier consisting of vari 0 us criticisms C-l through C-
n of alternative Q. Now, if and insofar as anyone supporting reason is relevant and 
sufficient, then it would be more or less true to say that, for example, if R-n is true 
then P is also true. Moreover, if and insofar as the various criticisms are cogent, 
then it would be approximately correct to claim that, for example, if C-n is true 
then Q is false; indeed any particular criticism of Q can be phrased in this manner, 
for that is what makes it a criticism. Next, note that the fact that P and Q are 
alternatives means that they are at least contraries (though they need not be 
contradictories), so that, for example, if P is true then Q is false. Finally, putting 
together the three claims expressed in my last three sentences, we get that if R-n 
is true then Q is false, and hence that R-n is a criticism of Q; but R-n was one of 
the supporting reasons in the illative core, and so any such reason can generate a 
criticism in the dialectical tier. 

My final comment here is that not all criticisms of alternatives are or need be 
dialectical rephrasings of illative supporting reasons. For example, Johnson's first 
three criticisms are not like that. Thus in discharging one's own dialectical obliga-
tions, it seems important to distinguish between criticisms that are independent of 
the illative tier and criticisms that are not. Only the independent criticisms would 
seem to add anything new to the argument, whereas the dependent ones may be 
useful rhetorically or pedagogicaJJy but add little to the logical strength of the 
argument. And this was the methodological, meta-theoretical lesson I wanted to 
elaborate. 

6. Johnson's Argument: Replies to Objections 

I have been analyzing Johnson's argument in favor of the dialectical conception in 
light of his own definition. To complete the analysis there remains to examine the 
second part of its dialectical tier, consisting of his explicit replies to objections. In 
his book Man~rest Rationality, he lists, numbers, and discusses five objections. 



Dialectics. Evaluation. and Argument 37 

The first objection (Johnson 2000a, 169-71) is that the definition is too restric-
tive because it disqualifies from the category of arguments discourses that lack a 
dialectical tier. Johnson's reply is that his definition is indeed restrictive insofar as 
it does imply this disqualification, but it is not excessively restrictive because this 
restriction is quite proper. The restriction is proper because it focuses attention on 
the paradigm and central instances of argument, rather than on the derivative 
cases that might be called "proto-arguments." 

My criticism of this reply is that Johnson's definition is indeed too restrictive 
because the desired redirection of focus can be accomplished equally well by the 
moderate, disjunctive version of the dialectical conception. Recall that that con-
ception states that an argument is an attempt to justify a conclusion that gives 
reasons in support of it and/or defends it from objections. 

The second objection (Johnson 2000a, 17 I -73) is that the dialectical tier is 
unnecessary in the definition of argument because the work it does could be ac-
complished in other ways: for example, one could make the dialectical tier part of 
the normative requirements of a good argument; or part of the definition of such 
more complex discourses as extended arguments, or cases, or supplementary 
arguments, or full-fledged arguments, and the like, as distinct from mere argu-
ments or ordinary arguments. Johnson's reply is that the first criticism would 
have difficulties distinguishing between arguments that are bad insofar as they 
lack a dialectical tier, and arguments that are bad insofar as their dialectical tier fails 
to reply effectively to objections. Similarly, the second criticism would lead to the 
question, when is it enough to give an ordinary argument and when is it necessary 
to present an extended argument? 

I agree that it is important to distinguish between the factual existence of a 
dialectical tier and the evaluative adequacy of it, and so it may be impossible to go 
through with the suggestion that the question of the dialectical tier belongs wholly 
to the theory of assessment, and can be removed from the theoretical problem of 
definition. However, regarding extended, supplementary, or full-fledged arguments, 
I do not see any difficulty, and that part of this objection seems to me to reinforce 
the moderate, disjunctive definition. 

The third objection is that the definition is circular because it defines argument 
in terms of argumentation, among other things (Johnson 2000a, 173; cf. Hitchcock 
2002a, 289). Johnson replies by admitting that there is a slight circularity, but 
claiming that the circularity is not vicious or objectionable. I agree with him, in 
part because I would add that the reference to argumentation is not necessary. In 
fact, my formulation of the three versions of the dialectical conception avoids 
such reference, without I believe any loss of generality, at least from the point of 
view of the contrast between the illative and the dialectical conceptions. 

However, another comment is in order. Even if we eliminate mention ofargu-
mentation in the wording of the dialectical conception of argument, this eliminates 
only a potential internal circularity; but this does not avoid what might be called a 



38 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

potential external circularity, that is a circularity in the justification of the definitional 
claim. In fact, we saw earlier that one of Johnson's supporting reasons in the 
illative tier of his argument was the one based on the nature of the process of 
arguing; that that argument could be criticized as begging the question; that that 
criticism could be answered only by making a revision in the definition; and that 
the revision was to broaden the concept to include justifications that did not aim at 
rational persuasion but at conceptual clarification. 

The fourth objection is that the definition is not novel because it is similar to 
that advanced by Stephen Toulmin, who used the notion of rebuttal (Johnson 
2000a, 173-74; cf. Toulmin 1958, 101). Johnson replies that his definition is in-
deed similar to Toulmin's, but has some novelty insofar as it is a generalization of 
it. I agree thatJohnson's definition has considerable originality, vis-a.-vis Toulmin's. 
Thus, we might say that the objection is false. However, I believe another issue 
needs to be raised here. 

That is, is this objection relevant? And if it is, why is it relevant? Neither the 
dialectical nor the illative conception of argument says anything about novelty. Nor 
do the traditional or Johnson's theories of assessment. In particular, his definition 
speaks of the truth of the conclusion, and it is the conclusion's truth that needs to 
be supported with reasons and dialectically defended from objections; it is not the 
conclusion's novelty or originality. In short, if this fourth objection were true, 
namely, if Johnson's definitional conclusion were not novel, why would that be a 
problem? I do not have an answer to this question, although my intuition tells me 
that such an objection is relevant, that novelty is important, and so that this is an 
important question. 

The fifth and last objection discussed in Johnson's book is that the problem 
addressed by the definition is one of "just semantics" (Johnson 2000a, 174-75) 
because the word argument has many meanings, and so it is arbitrary to choose or 
invent one particular meaning. johnson replies that although the problem motivat-
ing the definition is in a sense semantical, it is not "just semantics" in the sense of 
being unimportant. In the course of his reply, Johnson probably admits too much 
when he concedes some force to this objection and declares that his conception is 
a stipulative definition. For as Hansen (2002, 272-73) has argued and as Johnson 
himself (2002a, 313-14) later admitted, Johnson's thesis is really a theoretical 
definition; that is, a claim that is part of a theory of argument aiming to provide 
concepts and principles for the identification, understanding, interpretation, analy-
sis, evaluation, and criticism of arguments. 

Besides these replies to these five objections, contained in the book Manifest 
Rationality, since the book was published several scholars have advanced other 
objections and Johnson has replied to them (Govier 1998, 1999b, 2000; Groarke 
2002; Hansen 2002; Hitchcock 2002a; Leff2000; Tindale 2002; Rees 200 I; Wyatt 
200 I; cf. johnson 2002a, 2003). Thus a complete account or an extended discus-
sion of Johnson's argument would have to include these additional objections and 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 39 

replies. However, my aim here is theoretical rather than historical, and so my 
discussion of them here will be guided by their relevance to the problem under 
discussion, namely the nature and adequacy of the dialectical approach in general 
vis-a-vis the non-dialectical approach, and in particular the relative merits of the 
illative and dialectical conceptions of argument. 

To begin with, some of objections raised after publication had been anticipated 
by Johnson. This applies to the objections that his definition is too restrictive, that 
the dialectical tier is unnecessary, and that the definition is circular. However, 
needless to say, after the book's publication, new nuances and clarifications have 
emerged from these discussions. 

In regard to other objections, I wish to reiterate something I stated at the 
beginning of this paper. That is, when I introduced the dialectical conception of 
argument (section 2), I first gave my own formulation, and then I quoted Johnson's 
definition as an illustration. I also claimed that in giving my own formulation, I had 
attempted to incorporate the most important clarifications and most telling objec-
tions that had emerged from post-publication discussions. One example will have 
to suffice. 

Both Hansen (2002, 269-70) and Hitchcock (2002a, 289) have independently 
objected that Johnson's definition, as he words it, states or implies that to be an 
argument (at least in the paradigm sense of the concept) a discourse must contain 
all (and not just some of) the reasons that support the conclusion; plus only those 
reasons that actually support it, as contrasted to those that are intended to support 
it; plus replies to all objections and criticisms, and not just to some; and only 
actual replies, rather that attempted replies. Thus, they have suggested that when 
Johnson says that an argument presents "the reasons that support it [the conclu-
sion]" (Johnson 2000a, 168) the definition should instead speak of "reasons in 
support of the conclusion" or "reasons that attempt to support the conclusion." 
And when he says that in the argument's dialectical tier "the arguer discharges his 
dialectical obligations" (Johnson 2000a, 168), the definition should instead say that 
the arguer attempts to discharge some dialectical obligations. 

These revisions also take care of the infinite-regress objection advanced by 
Govier (1998, 8; I 999b, 232-37). This is the objection that if all arguments must 
have a dialectical tier, then a reply to an objection must also have a dialectical tier, 
since such a reply is or should be an argument; thus, a reply to an objection to the 
original conclusion must contain replies to the objections to the reply, and so on ad 
infinitum. Johnson's best reply to this objection involves "pointing out the parallel 
between the illative core and the dialectical tier. That is, the same line ofreasoning 
that prevents an infinite regress in the illative core can also be deployed to prevent 
the exfoliation of the dialectical tier" (Johnson 2003, section 3a). 

Johnson does not elaborate. I suppose what he has in mind is the following 
traditional difficulty: if an argument must have an illative tier containing "the" 
reasons that support the conclusion, it must contain not only all the reasons that 



40 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

directly support it (which is already an indefinitely long process), but it must also 
contain all the lower-level reasons that directly support those direct reasons and so 
indirectly support the original conclusion; but such indirect reasons must them-
selves be supported by further reasons, and so on ad infinitum. This well known 
infinite regress is usually stopped by saying that the illative tier need contain only 
those reasons that seem appropriate in the given context. 

The situation with the dialectical tier is analogous: one replies only to those 
objections that seem appropriate in the context. At the level of the formulation of 
the definition of argument, elimination of the definite article I believe does the trick: 
if we say that an argument is an attempt at justification which gives reasons in 
support of a conclusion or defends it from objections, this clearly means that it 
gives one or more reasons in support of the conclusion and/or defends it from one 
or more objections. 

7. Conclusion: A Moderately Dialectical Conception 

To recapitulate, Johnson's argument for the dialectical conception of argument is 
complex and multi-faceted. It has an illative tier that advances at least three sup-
porting reasons: empirical support reminiscent of an inductive generalization; the 
argument from the nature of the process of arguing; and the argument from the 
telos of rational persuasion. Johnson's argument also has a dialectical tier consist-
ing of two main parts, criticism of alternatives and replies to objections. He criti-
cizes the traditional conception of argument in at least four ways: that it conceives 
argument as having structure but no function; that it fails to distinguish argument 
from other forms of reasoning, especially explanation; that it presupposes an inad-
equate conception of inference; and that it fails to give an adequate account of the 
dialectical nature of argumentation. Furthermore, he replies to at least six objec-
tions that allege the following charges: excessive narrowness of scope, dispensa-
bility of the dialectical tier, vicious circularity, lack of novelty vis-a-vis Toulmin, 
triviality beyond semantical issues, and infinite regress. 

In light of this interpretation, reconstruction, and analysis of Johnson's argu-
ment, it is obvious that it satisfies its own definition. And given the stringent 
requirements ofthis definition, this satisfaction represents a considerable merit. In 
the course of my discussion, I have also assessed, evaluated, and criticized that 
argument. It would be too tedious to recapitulate these assessments, but it is 
important to point out that they have been partly negative, unfavorable, and de-
structive, and partly positive, favorable, and constructive. That is, they have been 
partly critical (in the ordinary sense of criticism connoting negativity), and partly 
critical in Johnson's (2000a, 217-23) own sense (connoting fruitful constructive-
ness). To add a further dimension to such constructiveness and to try to provide a 
synthetic overview of the forest after our long journey through its trees, I would 
suggest that the upshot of my assessments is that Johnson's argument is cogent 
insofar as it justifies the following thesis, and implausible otherwise. The thesis is 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 41 

the claim that an argument is an attempt to justify a conclusion by giving reasons 
in support of it or defending it from objections. 

I further claim that this is a moderately dialectical conception and that I have 
provided an argument in favor of this conception. A question now arises. What 
kind of argument have I provided? Is it self-referentially consistent? That is, does 
my argument fit my own definition? Is my argument an instance of its own con-
clusion? I believe it is. It may be viewed primarily as a defense of this moderately 
dialectical conception by means of criticism of Johnson's alternative strongly dia-
lectical conception. Such a defense would suffice to make it an argument (in the 
sense ofthe moderate definition), even though it is obvious that I have not explic-
itly defended the moderate conception from the other alternatives, namely the 
hyper dialectical, the illative, the rhetorical, and the purely abstract conception. 
But I have presumed that in the present context no such defense was needed. If 
this is correct, this point would further reinforce the moderate conception. On the 
other hand, my initial remarks about the dialogical model of argument may be seen 
as an explicit, if summative and sketchy, defense ofthe same moderate conclusion 
from the dialogue model. 

Moreover, although my moderately dialectical conception of argument does 
not require every argument to possess an illative tier, my argument may be taken to 
have such a tier, consisting of two supporting reasons. One is provided by my 
interpretation, reconstruction, and appropriation of Goldman's truth-in-evidence 
argument; the other consists of my suggested replacement for Johnson's empiri-
cal argument, namely my more systematic version based on the data base from 
Galileo'sOia/ogue. 

Finally, does my argument include replies to objections? I have already pointed 
out that the criticism of an alternative can be conceived as a reply to the objection 
that there is no reason to prefer the given conclusion to the alternative. This link is 
of course what enables my previous considerations to instantiate the moderately 
dialectical conception of argument. Furthermore, incidentally and in passing, these 
considerations also contain replies to possible objections. I would have to admit, 
however, that so far I have not presented explicit replies to explicit objections. I 
can also say that I welcome objections, although I do so with some hesitation. In 
fact, such welcoming leads to a paradox. 

The arguer's welcoming of objections is certainly important. And Johnson 
(2000a, 161, 165) has written eloquent words in this regard. But if this open-
mindedness is to be more that a desirable psychological trait, one would have to 
say that a good argument should elicit objections; indeed that an argument is good 
(in part) if and insofar as it generates objections. An argument should not fall on 
dead ears; if it does, more than being a sign of its conclusiveness, it is probably a 
sign ofits sterility. Of course, to be really good, an argument should also have the 
resources to answer or refute subsequent objections. So it is not really the exist-
ence of objections or the possibility of generating them that adds value to an 



42 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

argument. It is its ability to elicit refutable, implausible, or invalid objections. It is 
these that I welcome with open arms. 

To encourage this process, I end by volunteering some of these objections 
myself. The first one may be formulated as follows. It is undeniable that there is 
a difference between the conjunctive and the disjunctive dialectical conceptions: it 
is one thing to say that an argument is an attempt to make a conclusion acceptable 
by means of both reasons in support ofit and replies to objections; and it is another 
to say that an argument is an attempt to make a conclusion acceptable by means of 
either reasons in support of it or replies to objections. But this is a very small 
difference: sub specie aeternitatis, they are both dialectical conceptions; and even 
in the less Olympic earlier presentation of various conceptions of argument, both 
of these conceptions were treated as special cases of the dialectical conception 
and were regarded as having much more in common than they had differences, 
especially vis-a-vis the various versions of the traditional conception. So it is un-
clear what all the fuss is about; the difference is so minor as to approach triviality. 

My reply to this objection is that even the eternal gods who view these matters 
from Olympus need to cultivate their powers of discrimination and their ability to 
make fine distinctions. So there is no good reason to ignore the difference between 
conjunction and inclusive disjunction. The important point is that differences should 
not be magnified or exaggerated, but the other side of this coin is that they should 
not be minimized or underplayed. However, such balance has been precisely what 
I have stressed in this essay, by beginning to point out that these two definitions 
were versions of the dialectical approach, and by ending with the conclusion that 
the disjunctive conception seems to be preferable to the conjunctive one. 

A second objection one could raise is a criticism from the point of view of that 
I have called the hyper dialectical conception. This is the view that an argument is 
a defense of its conclusion from actual or potential objections. From the point of 
view of the hyper conception, the moderate definition is a step in a direction 
opposite to what is needed: presumably one should further strengthen Johnson's 
strong conception rather than weakening it into the moderate conception. And the 
important reason to take a step toward the hyper conception is the following: given 
any claim that has been asserted, one could always raise the question, what rea-
sons if any there are in support of the claim. This question may be regarded as the 
prime or minimal objection to any claim. If one anticipates it, one constructs the 
illative tier and gives the supporting reasons even before the objection has actually 
been raised. Or one can wait until after the objection has been explicitly raised. In 
either case, the illative component can be interpreted as a part ofthe dialectical tier. 

To answer this objection, I would begin by pointing out that if it cannot be 
satisfactorily answered, then I for one would have no difficulty with revising my 
conclusion by modifying the moderate into the hyper conception. But before re-
sorting to this revision, I would want to try the following reply. That is, in a way 
analogous to how this objection attempts to interpret the illative component in 



Dialectics. Evaluation. and Argument 43 

terms of the dialectical tier, one can perhaps try to do the reverse and reinterpret 
the dialectical tier in terms of the illative component. 

Consider an argument whose illative component consists of premises P-l though 
P-n and conclusion C. And suppose the argument also has a dialectical tier with 
objections 0-1 through O-k, respectively answered by replies R-l through R-k. 
Now consider the conjunction of an objection and its corresponding reply, (O-j & 
R-j), or some appropriately reworded phrasing of it that might be needed for 
grammatical propriety. It seems to me that such a conjunction would constitute a 
reason supporting the conclusion C. It would be like saying that one reason for 
accepting the conclusion is that if one objects to it in such and such a way, such an 
objection would be incorrect; or collectively considered, one reason for accepting 
conclusion C is that all objections against it fail, i.e. that there are no objections to 
it. In other words, an objection to a conclusion C may be seen as a reason against 
it, a reason for claiming not-C; and if a reason R for not-C is a bad reason, then the 
claim that R is a bad reason for not-C, may be seen as a reason for C. Of course, 
such a reason would not be a conclusive reason, and to claim such conclusiveness 
would be to commit a damaging version of the fallacy from ignorance; indeed I 
have already suggested that for conclusiveness or deductive validity, the question 
of objections does not even arise. But we are clearly dealing with reasons that, 
however strong, fall short of conclusiveness, and for such cases the explicit refu-
tation of an explicit objection may be viewed as a supporting reason. 

The upshot of these considerations is that while the presentation of supporting 
reasons may be regarded as a reply to a weak or minimal objection, the refutation 
of objections may be regarded as a weak or minimal supporting reason. There thus 
seems to be symmetry between the illative and the dialectical tiers, and this is 
perhaps another reason for giving them separate mention in the definition of argu-
ment, as the disjunctive conception does. 

A third objection to my argument involves Johnson's notion of manifest ration-
ality, by which he means the attempt to not only be rational, but also to look and 
appear rational. The objection would allege that in my reconstruction of his argu-
ment I have ignored the following element of its illative tier: that an argument must 
have a dialectical tier because ';argumentation [is] more than just an exercise in 
rationality" (Johnson 2000a, 163), it is also an exercise in manifest rationality; and 
"manifest rationality is why the arguer is obligated to respond to objections and 
criticisms from others" (Johnson 2000a, 163-64). This argument is hard to miss 
since it is being referred to in the title of Johnson's book; since it is given in the 
body of the work when the idea of manifest rationality is explicitly discussed 
(Johnson 2000a, 163-64); and since elsewhere (Johnson 2000b, 3) he explicitly 
presents it as an additional line of justification, besides the argument from the telos 
of rational persuasion. Moreover, the argument is apparently important because if 
it were cogent it would justify the strongly dialectical conception of argument, but 
not the moderate definition. 



44 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

My response to this objection starts with a criticism of the argument from 
manifest rationality. In regard to its premise that argument is an exercise in mani-
fest rationality, it may be deemed acceptable, but I do wonder whether its accept-
ability exceeds that of the conclusion. Moreover, I agree that the premise is more 
or less relevant, but I question whether it is sufficient. One reason for questioning 
its sufficiency is that, as we saw in the case of the argument from the telos of 
rational persuasion, an additional interdependent premise is needed, namely a propo-
sition about the controversial origin of argumentation; otherwise, as proofs in 
Euclidean geometry suggest, rationality can be achieved without replying to objec-
tions. 

A more specific and important reason for questioning the sufficiency of the 
present premise of manifest rationality is that it is unclear that it really adds any-
thing to the argument from the telos of rational persuasion. Johnson's key point 
here seems to be that whereas rationality as such might be taken to require that one 
answer only objections that are really relevant, manifest rationality requires that 
one answer objections that appear to be relevant, even if in reality they are not. But 
I would point out that the inclusion of apparent, as distinct from real objections, is 
required by the telos of rational persuasion, for it would not be persuasive to 
neglect objections that are believed (even if incorrectly) to be forceful. In other 
words, in Johnson's own account the two operative notions are manifest rational-
ity and rational persuasion, and these seem to me to be two sides of the same coin, 
rather than two distinct concepts. Although similar considerations have led Hitchcock 
and Hansen to conclude that Johnson's notion of manifest rationality is rhetorical 
after all, my own conclusion here is that this argument from manifest rationality 
has no force above and beyond the argument from the telos of rational persuasion. 

There is another conclusion I would want to draw. I originally did not include 
this supporting reason in my reconstruction of the illative tier of Johnson's argu-
ment because I judged it to be devoid of the additional force just mentioned. In 
doing so, I was operating, I believe, from the point of view of strict rationality, as 
distinct from manifest rationality. I was telling myself that, appearances to the 
contrary, and despite Johnson's own explicit statements to the contrary, he really 
had no distinct argument; so also using the principle of charity, I decided it was 
better to neglect these considerations, rather than interpreting them as an argu-
ment and then criticizing the argument as worthless. In that sense and to that 
extent, my previous neglect was justified, and hence the present objection has no 
force. 

However, in discussing this objection now, I was taking the point of view of 
manifest rationality at the metalevel. That is, given all the appearances (at the 
object level) that manifest rationality is one of Johnson's reasons in support of the 
dialectical tier, I explored whether these appearances correspond to reality; whether 
this reason, besides being meant to support his conclusion, does really support it. 
If and insofar as my doing so has added to the persuasive force of my own 



Dialectics, Evaluation, and Argument 4~ 

argument, then perhaps I have come closer to achieving my present aim of ration-
ally persuading you that the moderate conception is preferable. Furthermore, such 
rational persuasion has perhaps been enhanced by the fact that I explicitly included 
at least one objection which for me did not have even prima facie plausibility, but 
which might be plausibly advanced by Johnson or anyone taking his point of view; 
and this in turn may be taken to enhance the practical value of manifest rationality, 
practical in the sense of the practice of argumentation, even if it remains true, as I 
would hold, that theoretically speaking manifest rationality is an aspect of rational 
persuasion. 

A final objection now comes to mind. It is one from the point of view of the 
illative conception, and it is based on my criticism of Johnson's criticism of this 
conception. That is, if it is inaccurate to object, as Johnson does, that the illative 
conception lacks a teleological aspect and fails to attribute a telos to argument; and 
if it is inaccurate or unfair to object that the illative conception fails to properly 
distinguish between argument and other forms of reasoning such as explanation 
and inference; and if it is circular to object that the illative conception ignores the 
dialectical nature of argument; then does it not seem that the illative conception 
can survive Johnson's criticism, and is perhaps adequate? In other words, even if 
my critique of Johnson's illative tier and of his explicit replies to explicit objections 
shows that my moderate conception is preferable to his strong one, it does not 
show that the moderate conception is superior to the illative definition, especially 
when we recall my criticism of Johnson's criticism of the illative conception. 
Does not my argument need one other component, namely a criticism of the 
alternative illative position? 

Part of my answer to this objection lies in stressing two arguments discussed 
earlier: my reconstruction or appropriation of what I have called Goldman's truth-
in-evidence argument and of what I have called Johnson's empirical inductive 
generalization. Insofar as they support my moderate version of the dialectical con-
ception, they do not support the illative conception. I would also want to exploit 
my claim about the symmetry of the illative and dialectical tiers; insofar as that 
claim is correct, it suggests that even if the illative conception were otherwise 
acceptable, the moderately dialectical re-description of the situation would be more 
encompassing and therefore better. 

And this suggests that perhaps the best line of defense here is to question 
whether the illative definition of argument is really an alternative to the moderately 
dialectical conception. One reason to see that they are not really alternatives is to 
stress that the moderately dialectical definition as I phrased it and am defending it 
here at the end of my discussion speaks of justification rather than persuasion. 
This is a revision of the dialectical conception required by the difficulties that 
emerged when I discussed Johnson's argument from the nature of the process of 
arguing; that argument could not be regarded as a successful attempt at persua-
sion (since from the point of view of persuasion it may be begging the question), 



46 Maurice A. Finocchiaro 

but it was better regarded as a justification (insofar as it is an analytical conceptual 
elucidation in the context of theorizing). This move from persuasion to justifica-
tion raises the question of the precise relationship between these two notions, but 
this issue cannot be elaborated here; suffice it to say that I conceive justification 
partly as a weakening of the notion of proof, and partly as a requirement for 
rational persuasion. Thus my moderate conception incorporates an element of the 
illative definition. 

To be sure they are not identical, but they are not inconsistent either. In a 
sense, the illative conception entails the moderately dialectical one, since the latter 
is a disjunction of which the former is the first disjunct. But although this entail-
ment ensures their formal consistency, it perhaps points in a misleading direction 
because it suggests that the moderate conception is a special case of the illative 
one, whereas the opposite is more nearly correct. That is, the moderate concep-
tion is more general than the illative one, in the sense that it can subsume under 
itself all the particular instances that the illative conception subsumes, plus others 
that the illative conception does not subsume. If then, the proper relationship be-
tween the moderately dialectical and the illative conceptions is not one of compe-
tition or inconsistency, but rather compatibility or species and genus, then in argu-
ing for the moderately dialectical conception one need not reject the illative defini-
tion, but one should rather incorporate it. 

In short, the moderately dialectical conception of argument may be seen as a 
synthesis of the illative conception and of the strongly dialectical definition. And if 
the latter two alternatives are dubbed thesis and antithesis, then I may be allowed 
to end my analysis on this dialectical note. Of course such an ending is dialectical 
in a sense that is perhaps not in accordance with some people's idea of dialectics, 
but it is nevertheless suggestive of further work needed to clarify the meaning of 
the concept of dialectics. 

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Afaurice A. Finocchiaro 
Department of Philosophy 

University of Nevada--Las Vegas 
Las Vegas. NV 89154 

mauricef@ccmail.nevada.edu