Description
Book SynopsisThis book presents reflections on the relationship between narratives and argumentative discourse. It focuses on their functional and structural similarities or dissimilarities, and offers diverse perspectives and conceptual tools for analyzing the narratives’ potential power for justification, explanation and persuasion. Divided into two sections, the first Part, under the title “Narratives as Sources of Knowledge and Argument”, includes five chapters addressing rather general, theoretical and characteristically philosophical issues related to the argumentative analysis and understanding of narratives. We may perceive here how scholars in Argumentation Theory have recently approached certain topics that have a close connection with mainstream discussions in epistemology and the cognitive sciences about the justificatory potential of narratives. The second Part, entitled “Argumentative Narratives in Context”, brings us six more chapters that concentrate on either particular functions played by argumentatively-oriented narratives or particular practices that may benefit from the use of special kinds of narratives. Here the focus is either on the detailed analysis of contextualized examples of narratives with argumentative qualities or on the careful understanding of the particular demands of certain well-defined situated activities, as diverse as scientific theorizing or war policing, that may be satisfied by certain uses of narrative discourse.
Trade Review“Narration as Argument is an excellent and informative book that can spur trans-disciplinary conversations with scholars in Black studies, Marxist and feminist theories, literary studies, and media studies, just to name a few.” (Charles Athanasopoulos, Argumentation and Advocacy, Vol. 56 (3), 2020)
“It seems clear that Paula Olmos has succeeded in her aim of exhibiting the wide range of approaches to the relation between narration and argument, given the variety of approaches to narration as argument exhibited in these twelve chapters. … She has reserved a table for everyone and bade them sit down side by side, in the hope that they will all begin to talk to one another. It’s a start.” (J. Anthony Blair, Argumentation, Vol. 33, 2019)
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Narratives, Narrating, Narrators; Paula Olmos.- Part I Narratives as Sources of Knowledge and Argument.- Chapter 2. Narratives and the Concept of Argument; Christopher Tindale.- Chapter 3. Arguing with Stories; Floris Bex and Trevor Bench-Capon.- Chapter 4. Narrative Fiction as a Source of Knowledge; Mitchell Green.- Chapter 5. Analogy, Presupposition and Transcendentality in Narrative Argument; Gilbert Plumer.- Chapter 6. Parables: Crossroads Between the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor and Argumentation Theory; Eduardo de Bustos.- Part II Argumentative Narratives in Context.- Chapter 7. Narratives and Pragmatic Arguments: Iven’s The 400 million; Paul van den Hoven.- Chapter 8. The Sample Convention, or, When Fictionalized Narratives. Can Double as Historical Testimony; Leona Toker.- Chapter 9. From Narrative Arguments to Arguments that Narrate; Adrien Frenay and Marion Carel.- Chapter 10. Narrative as Argument in Atul Gawande’s. “On Washing Hands” and “Letting Go”; James Phelan.- Chapter 11. On Thought Experiments and other Narratives in Scientific Argument; Paula Olmos.- Chapter 12. How to Win Wars: The Role of the War Narrative; Tone Kvernbekk and Ola Bøe-Hansen.
