Argument: Public and Private, Social and Cognitive

Abstract

This essay is concerned about the different kinds of argument we study, and whether they are essentially similar or different. To explore this topic, I undertake the exercise of considering the hypotheses that argument₀, argument₁ or argument₂ might be the primary kind of argument. In rejecting each of these possibilities, the paper arrives at the conclusion that these kinds of argument are foundationally similar. Most of the discussion centers on the ideas of publicness, privacy, sociality, and cognition, since these seem to be the main possibilities for contrasting the kinds of argument.