The aesthetics of argument / Martin Warner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Warner, Martin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reasoning.

Logic.

Imagination.

Physical Description:

xvii, 318 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2016.

Summary:

Argument and imagination are often interdependent. The Aesthetics of Argument is concerned with how this relationship may bear on argument's concern with truth, not just persuasion, and with the enhancement of understanding such interdependence may bring. The rationality of argument, conceived as the advancement of reasons for or against a claim, is not simply a matter of deductive validity. Whether arguments are relevant, have force, or look foolish-or whether an example is telling or merely illustrative-cannot always be assessed in these terms. Martin Warner presents a series of case studies which explore how analogy, metaphor, narrative, image, and symbol can be used in different ways to frame one domain in terms of another, severally or in various combinations, and how criteria drawn from the study of imaginative literature may have a bearing on their truth-aptness. Such framing can be particularly effective in argumentative roles which invite self-interrogation, as Plato saw long ago. Narrative in such cases may be fictional, whether parabolic or dramatic, autobiographical or biographical, and in certain cases may seek to show how standard conceptualizations are inadequate. Beyond this, whether in poetry or prose and not only with respect to narrative, the "logic" of imagery enables us to make principled sense of our capacity to grasp imagistically elements of our experience through words whose use at the imaginative level has transformed their standard conceptual relationships, and hence judge the credibility of associated arguments. Assessment of the argumentative imagination requires criteria drawn not only from dialectic and rhetoric, but also from poetics. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 From Analogy to Narrative 1

1 A Parabolic Transition 1

2 Modes of Analogical Argument 11

2.1 Inductive modes 12

2.2 A priori modes 19

2.3 The metaphorical projection 29

3 The Resort to Narrative 37

4 Parabolic Finesse 47

2 From Self-Involvement to Judgement: The Potentialities of Plato's Phaedrus 60

1 The Language of the Cave 60

2 The Rhetoric of the Phaedrus 62

3 The Question of Judgement 70

3 Dialectical Drama: The Dynamics of Plato's Symposium 73

1 Drama as Dialectic 73

2 Rhetoric and Sensibility 74

3 The Dynamics of the Dialogue 77

4 Dialectic and Sensibility 86

4 Philosophical Autobiography: St. Augustine and John Stuart Mill 92

1 Underlying Concepts 92

1.1 Philosophical 92

1.2 Autobiography 94

1.3 Philosophical autobiography 97

2 The Confessions of St. Augustine 99

3 The Autobiography of John Stuart Mill 110

4 Story and Theory 116

5 The Fourth Gospel's Art of Rational Persuasion 119

1 Purpose 119

2 Criticism 121

3 Narrative 125

4 Judgement 130

5 Signs 133

6 Transformation 138

6 Philosophical Poetry: The Case of Four Quartets 152

1 Poetry and Belief 152

2 'Burnt Norton' 157

3 The Later Quartets 167

4 Understanding 168

7 The "Logic" of Imagery I: The Poetic Image 175

1 Imagination, Concept, and Argument 175

2 The "Romantic Image" 182

3 Image and Symbol 187

4 Imagery and "Movement" 196

8 The "Logic" of Imagery II: Logic, Argument, and Imagery 206

1 Exploring the Logical Analogy 206

2 Poetry and Argument 224

3 Beyond Poetry 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-310) and index.

ISBN:

9780198737117

0198737114

OCLC:

942849248