Practicing the political argumentation

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Geoffrey Grandjean

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 objective of this course is the acquisition of elementary concepts and principles of political reasoning. Building on numerous examples, it will introduce students to the field of debate and that which distinguishes it from other persuasive registers. The large groups and kinds of arguments will be described and their implementation considered in light of case studies. As much as possible, public players and/or experts and practitioners in the field will be invited to share their experience of debate and how it is adapted to different contexts. The students will moreover be introduced to building an argument and to its written and oral development.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

By the end of the course, the students are expected to be able to :
- define and describe the terms and concepts deployed in the different parts of the course; - describe different practices in political reasoning and what distinguishes them, especially according to their context; - recognise arguments and counter-arguments in a discourse and describe them; - reproduce the dynamics of a debate and different arguments deployed by its players; - formulate a written argument; - formulate an oral argument.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Learning activities and teaching methods are as follows:
- Theoretical and practical presentations; - Presentations by practitioners regularly working in the process of argument and negotiation; - Writing of a argumentation protocol; - Oral presentations by the students.
An activity sheet is distributed in the first lesson.

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

Face-to-face

Recommended or required readings

Students are invited to consult the following reference: http://hdl.handle.net/2268/251068.
Recommanded readings :
- Breton Philippe, Convaincre sans manipuler. Apprendre à argumenter, Paris, La Découverte, 2015, 154 p.
- Joule Robert-Vincent et Beauvois Jena-Léon, Petit traité de manipulation à l'usage des honnêtes gens, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2002, 286 p.
- Perelman Chaïm et Olbrechts-Tyteca, Traité de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2008, 740 p.
- Plantin Christian, Dictionnaire de l'argumentation. Une introduction aux études d'argumentation, Lyon, ENS éditions, 2016, 634 p.

Assessment methods and criteria

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam AND oral exam


Additional information:

For the first session, drafting of a protocol to prepare the argument (50% of the final score) and presentation of a written and oral argument (50% of the final score). Depending on the evolution of the health situation, the oral presentation can be organised partly by video-conference.
The protocol for preparing the argument is assessed on the basis of the presence of four parts: invention, elocution, disposition and action.
The written and oral arguments are assessed on the basis of the types of arguments used, the structuring of the arguments and their enunciation.
There is no examination in January
For the second session, students are invited to contact the course instructor.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

The course holds each year.

Contacts

Pr. Dr Geoffrey Grandjean Professeur
Faculté de Droit, de Science politique et de Criminologie Place des orateurs, 3 4000 Liège Boîte 11 Bureau 2.17 Tel. : +32 (0)4/366.96.60
Courriel : Geoffrey.Grandjean@uliege.be