ON THE DEFINITION OF CONDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS

Abstract

In 1971, Wellman coined the terms “conduction” and “conductive”to name a distinctive kind of reasoning, different both from deductive and in-ductive reasoning. Most authors think that the weighing of pros and cons is thedistinctive feature of conduction. However I contend that weighing is characteristicof some kinds of argumentation structures while “conductive” applies to the rela-tionship between the premises and the conclusion of an argument. Hence I offer a definition of conductive argument according to which conductive arguments are arguments from verbal classifications involving cluster concepts or compounds of such arguments.

Keywords

• argumentation schemes
• cluster concept
• conductive argument
• verbalclassification
• weighing