{"id":5376,"date":"2021-10-23T10:41:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T08:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/?p=5376"},"modified":"2025-05-11T18:29:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T16:29:37","slug":"quasi-logical-arguments-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/quasi-logical-arguments-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Quasi-Logical Arguments"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>\u00ab\u00a0QUASI-LOGICAL ARGUMENTS\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Perelman &amp; Olbrechts-Tyteca introduce the class of quasi-logical arguments as the first of the three categories of \u201cassociation schemes\u201d ([1958], p. 191) (or <em>argument schemes<\/em>). Quasi-logical arguments can be understood<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by bringing them closer to formal thought, logical or mathematical. But a quasi-logical argument differs from a formal deduction in that it always presupposes adherence to non-formal theses, which alone allows the application of the argument. (Perelman 1977, p. 65)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Six schemes are analyzed in more details; they bear the same names as their logical counterparts:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Among the quasi-logical arguments, we shall first analyze those which depend on logical relations \u2014 contradiction, total or partial identity, transitivity; we shall then analyze those which depend on mathematical relations \u2014 the connection between the part and the whole, the smaller and the larger, and frequency. Many other relations could obviously be examined. (Perelman &amp; Olbrechts-Tyteca [1958], p. 194)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Definitions<\/em> are \u201ctypical\u00a0of quasi-logical argumentation\u201d (<em>id.<\/em>, p. 214):<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">When they are not part of a formal system, and when they nevertheless claim to identify the <em>definiens<\/em> and the <em>definiendum<\/em>, we shall consider them a form of quasi-logical argumentation\u201d (<em>id<\/em>., p. 210).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The label \u201cquasi-logical\u201d is symptomatic of the method of the <em>Treatise, <\/em>which rejects \u201clogic\u201d but constantly uses it <em>a contrario<\/em> to define argumentation in general and to characterize the \u201cquasi-logical\u201d super-category of argument schemes in particular. This category includes all the argumentative strategies involving phenomena such as negation, scales, relations and definitional stereotypes.<span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong> In practice, it is the <em>system of language<\/em> that is considered to be quasi-logical. Logic plays the role of an absent grammar.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The arguments in this category are defined by a common characteristic:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\">[Quasi-logical arguments] lay claim to a certain power of conviction, to the extent that they claim to be similar to the formal reasoning of logic or mathematics. <\/span>Submitting these arguments to analysis, however, immediately reveals the differences between them and formal demonstrations, for only an effort of reduction or specification of a non-formal character makes it possible for these arguments to appear demonstrative. This is why we call them quasi-logical. (<em>Id<\/em>., p. 193)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>According to the traditional definition, a fallacy is an argument that <span style=\"background-color: #ffff99;\">looks like a valid argument but is not.<\/span> There is a striking similarity between this, and the definition given in the <em>Treatise<\/em>: <span style=\"background-color: #ffff99;\">quasi-logical argumentation \u201cclaim[s] to be similar\u201d to formal reasoning, but is not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/fallacies-i-contemporary-approaches-e\/\">fallacies<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/logic-an-art-of-thinking-a-branch-of-mathematics-e\/\">logic<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/collections-iii-modernity-and-tradition-e\/\">collections 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00ab\u00a0QUASI-LOGICAL ARGUMENTS\u00a0\u00bb Perelman &amp; Olbrechts-Tyteca introduce the class of quasi-logical arguments as the first of the three categories of \u201cassociation schemes\u201d ([1958], p. 191) (or argument schemes). Quasi-logical arguments can be understood by bringing them closer to formal thought, logical or mathematical. But a quasi-logical argument differs from a formal deduction in that it always [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5376"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14246,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions\/14246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}