Chapter Three: The Place of Informal Logic in Logic
by James B. Freeman
…Informal logic attempts to present generic tools for argument
analysis and evaluation, as opposed to tools specific to particular types or families of
arguments. We can construct a circle and arrow diagram to represent the structure of any
argument, deductive or inductive. By contrast, it might make little, if any, sense to ask
about the truth-functional structure or syllogistic structure of an argument by analogy,
or to attempt to see some disjunctive, hypothetical, or categorical syllogism as
instantiating the pattern of analogical arguments. It would make even less sense to use
truth-tables or Venn diagrams to evaluate arguments by analogy, or, vice versa, to
appraise various deductive syllogisms by the comparative standards developed for
analogical arguments. But for arguments of all these sorts we can ask how the component
premises and conclusions fit together. We can also ask for any argument whether its
premises are rationally acceptable or relevant to the conclusion.…
Chapter Twelve: Informal Logic and Applied Epistemology
by Mark Weinstein
…Arguments are embedded in discourse frames to different degrees. Without
intending to commit to a linear array, the spectrum of degrees of embeddedness includes,
at the deep end, theoretic arguments in physics, statistical arguments in social sciences,
and arguments in the various genre of literary criticism. The shallow end includes
descriptive narratives and persuasive arguments offered for general consumption, relevant
to, for example, political debates, social policies, health and medicine, and personal
economics. Arguments found in college textbooks in many subjects, and the schema that
underlie students’ analytic prose written in response to classroom assignments, are
somewhere in the middle.
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