1. Home
  2. NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities
  3. Bachelor in Communication Sciences
  4. Optional Area of Cinema and Television
  5. Argumentation and Rhetoric

Argumentation and Rhetoric

Objectives

a. Have an adequate understanding of rhetoric as the study of rational and argumentative methods of persuasion.
b. Have an adequate understanding of the historical genesis of rhetoric, dialectic and logic as three disciplines of argumentation with specific methods and techniques of reasoning aimed at rational persuasion.
c. To possess adequate knowledge of the most relevant contemporary interpretations of the status and function of argumentation and rhetoric.
d. Be able to define the logical concept of argument as formal valid deduction from given premises and some of his main formal figures (e.g., modus ponens, modus tollens).
e. Be able to evaluate from a critical point of view the formal and informal conception of argumentative reasoning, its empirical and contextual limits.
f. Understand and identify failures of reasoning through the study of some more frequent fallacies.

 

General characterization

Code

01101645

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Mehmet Ali Üzelgün, Maria Grazia Rossi

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

None.

Bibliography

Aristotle. (2007). On rhetoric: A theory of civic discourse. Trans. by G.A. Kennedy. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Lewinski, M., & Mohammed, D. (2016). Argumentation Theory. In K. B. Jensen, R. T. Craig, J. D. Pooley, & E. W. Rothenbuhler (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (pp. 1-15). Wiley-Blackwell.


Perelman, Chaïm. (1982). The Realm of Rhetoric. Trans. by W. Kluback. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. (Original work published 1958.)


Weston, Anthony. (2017). A Rulebook for Arguments. 5th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.


Texts and further bibliography will be announced during class.

Teaching method

The UC uses teaching methodologies that guarantee the fulfillment of the learning objectives through the active involvement of the participants. Debates and discussions will complement the presentation of academic texts. In addition, participants will give group presentations.

Evaluation method

60% - In-person written exam


40% – Group presentation

Subject matter

- Rhetoric and Argumentation: basic concepts
- Logic, Dialectics, and Rhetoric
- Rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos; three genres of rhetoric: deliberative, judicial, and epideictic
- Rhetorical situation
- Formal arguments
- Informal arguments
- Fallacies
- Repair strategies in public argumentation