Are Humans Poor at Arguing? From the ‘Argumentative Theory of Reasoning’ back to a Rhetorical Theory of Argumentation

Abstract

Starting from Sperber and Mercier’s theory (2011) on the relationship between reasoning and arguing, we will try to rethink the link between rhetoric and argumentation. Using Aristotelian rhetoric as a theoretical framework, we will focus on two related features: 1) the nature and the role of argumentation inferences in classical models of rhetoric; 2) the role of normativity in assessing a naturalistic description of what we make when we argue.