Logic and theory of legal and political argumentation, Part 1

Duration

20h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Bruno Leclercq

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course will be centered around the problems of defining criteria allowing to distinguish between correct and incorrect reasonings (especially legal reasonings). It will also be a question of identifying typical errors of reasoning.
First chapter will be about deduction as an ideal of perfectly rigorous rationality. Second chapter will deal with dialectical and rhetorical aspects of daily argumentation. Third chapter will be concerned with argumentation schemes and fallacies.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

Good command of a few theoretical notions of logic and argumentation theory.
Ability to identify the logical structure of reasonings
Ability to identify their argumentation schemes as well as to estimate their correction on the ground of relevant critical questions.
Ability to create short reasonings in accordance with some logical forms, dialectical principles or rhetorical figures of speech.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Secondary education. Good command of french language.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Oral presentation, reference book, e-learning website, exercise classes with an older student.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

The course will take place during the first term (September-December) on thursdays from 10:00 to 12:00 am. Place : Room 1 (Noppius) at "Complexe Opéra". [Due to current health situation, only part of the students will be allowed to attend to the lectures in person; the other ones will be attending them live yet on line.]
 

Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

In case of red alert, teaching will go on at the usual time slot (on Wednesdays from 4pm to 6 pm), yet on Collaborate, the e-campus virtual classroom.
Live broadcasting will be recorded so as to be viewed on e-campus afterwards.

Recommended or required readings

Reference book : BOUQUIAUX L. and LECLERCQ B., Logique formelle et argumentation, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 3rd edition, 2017.
References : On formal deductive logic : ARISTOTE, Organon, livre II : les premiers Analytiques, traduction Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1936. COPI I. M., Introduction to logic, 8ème edition, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1998. GOCHET P. et GRIBOMONT P., Logique I, méthodes pour l'informatique fondamentale, Paris, Hermes, 1990. LEROUX J., Introduction à la logique, Diderot Editeurs, 1998. LUCAS T. et al., Initiation à la logique formelle, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2007. QUINE W. V. O., Méthodes de logique, Paris, Armand Colin, 1984. VERNANT D., Introduction à la logique standard, Paris, Flammarion, 2001.
On argumentation theory : HUBIEN H. ed., Le raisonnement juridique, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1971. KALINOWSKI G., Introduction à la logique juridique, Paris, LGDJ, 1965. PERELMAN C. et OLBRECHTS-TYTECA L., Rhétorique et philosophie : pour une théorie de l'argumentation en philosophie, Paris, PUF, 1952. PERELMAN C. et OLBRECHTS-TYTECA L., La nouvelle rhétorique. Traité de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1992. PERELMAN C., Justice et raison, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1963. PERELMAN C. ed., Les antinomies en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1965. PERELMAN C. ed., Le problème des lacunes en droit , Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1968. PERELMAN C., Eléments d'une théorie de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1968. PERELMAN C., Logique et argumentation, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1968. PERELMAN C., Le champ de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1970. PERELMAN C., La règle de droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1971. PERELMAN C., Logique juridique, Paris, Dalloz, 1976. PERELMAN C., L'empire rhétorique : rhétorique et argumentation, Paris, Vrin, 1977. PERELMAN C. et FORIERS P., La preuve en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1981. PERELMAN C. et VANDER ELST R., Les notions à contenu variable en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1984. PERELMAN C., Le raisonnable et le déraisonnable en droit : au-delà du positivisme juridique, Paris, LGDJ, 1984. SCHMETZ R., L'argumentation selon Perelman. Pour une raison au coeur de la rhétorique, Presses Universitaires de Namur, 2000. TOULMIN S. E., Les usages de l'argumentation, Paris, PUF, 1993. VAN EEMEREN F. et GROOTENDORST R., La nouvelle dialectique, Paris, Kimé, 1996. VAN EEMEREN F. et al. ed., Fundamentals of argumentation theory, Mahwah (New Jersey), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. VAN EEMEREN F. ed., Crucial concepts in argumentation theory, Amsterdam, Sic Sat, 2001. VANNIER G., Argumentation et droit, Paris, PUF, 2001.
On argumentation schemes and fallacies :ARISTOTE, Organon, livre VI : les réfutations sophistiques, trad. Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1939. ARNAULD A. et NICOLE P., La logique ou l'art de penser, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1965. COPI I. M. et BURGESS-JACKSON K., Informal logic, 3ème édition, London, Prentice Hall, 1996, chapitre 3. FISCHER D. H., Historian's fallacies, Londres, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971. HAMBLIN C. L., Fallacies, Londres, Methuen & Co, 1970. HANSEN H. V. et PINTO R. C. ed., Fallacies, Classical and contemporary readings, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. MILL J. S., Système de logique déductive et inductive, Paris, Felix Alcan, 1896, livre V. WALTON D., Argumentation schemes for presumptive reasoning, London, Routledge, 1995. WALTON D., REED C. et MACAGNO F., Argumentation schemes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008. WOODS J. et WALTON D.,Critique de l'argumentation, logique des sophismes ordinaires, Paris, Kimé, 1992.

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )

- Remote

oral exam

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred in-person


Additional information:

Written exam (both Multiple Choice Questions and written assignment) in January and in September. First year students who would have failed in January have the opportunity to take the exam again in May-June.
No student will be allowed to take the exam on another day than the other students.
Sanitary crisis : Students not allowed to take part to the written exam in-person will take an oral exam later on the same day.
 
A short (optional) essay, which should be uploaded to e-campus board before Firday the 11th of December 2020, could exempt the student from two questions of the written exam (counting for 5 points out of 20).
This essay (1 page ; around 3 to 4000 signs) will consist in evaluating some reasoning (produced after July 2020 !) spotted in the media (and which must be provided with accurate information on its source); the evaluation requires a brief theoretical analysis, critical questions and a well-argued reply. Organisation of the thought, clarity and accurateness of the expression, correct language are part of what will be marked.
December 11 is the deadline after which no essay will be taken into consideration.
Results will be released on Monday the 21st of December.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Besides the teaching a few exercice sessions will be organized by an older student.
  
 The first session will be held on the 17th of September 2020 at 10:00 am (group B in person; group A on line).

Contacts

Bruno LECLERCQ Département de Philosophie Place du XX août, 9 (2ème étage) 4000 Liège B.Leclercq@uliege.be

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