The Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory offers 43 chapters—written specifically for this volume by a team of leading international scholars—that survey a wide spectrum of research on the nature, purpose, and promise of argument and the associated practice of argumentation. Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art survey to help readers understand and engage with the field's main ideas and problems.
The book is split into two parts:
- Part I covers orienting approaches in argumentation studies.
- Part II focuses on the main debates in argumentation theory.
The Handbook illustrates how different disciplines contribute to argumentation theory, integrating contributions from logic, epistemology, social psychology, political science, communication, rhetoric, and other fields. This volume thus provides researchers and students with a picture of the diversity and depth to the work in argumentation theory today. Throughout, it clarifies complex questions and methods in this evolving field of study. And references at the end of chapters and a comprehensive index at the back of the book provide readers with central resources for further work in this important area of research.