Page 37 - Žagar, Igor Ž. 2021. Four Critical Essays on Argumentation. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 37
Fallacies:
do we ‘use’ them or ‘commit’ them?
Or: is all our life just a collection of fallacies?1
In this chapter, I am looking at how fallacies are used in Discourse-Historical
Approach (DHA), a branch of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) that uses
argumentation as one of its analytical tools. In view of this goal, I propose a
rhetorical reading of Austin, an Austinian interpretation of Hamblin, and
a hybrid Austino-Hamblinian perspective on fallacies (or what is consid-
ered to be fallacies).
I’ll be asking four questions: what are fallacies? Are there obvious and
unambiguous fallacies in natural languages? Aren’t we forced to commit
and live (in) fallacies? And, is it methodologically acceptable to use prefab-
ricated lists of fallacies as an analytical tool in such a dynamical enterprise
as (critical) discourse analysis?
J. L. Austin as rhetorician
J. L. Austin is usually considered to be the ‘father’ of speech act theory, and
the ‘inventor’ of performativity. In a very general framework this is both
true, but historically and epistemologically speaking there is a narrow and
intricate correlation, as well as a deep rupture between the two theories.
Performativity came about as a result of Austin’s deep dissatisfaction
with classical philosophical (logical) division between statements/utterances
1 First version of this chapter was published in Frank Zenker, ed., Argumentation: cog-
nition & community: OSSA, May 18–21, 2011 (Ontario: Ontario Society for the Study
of Argumentation, University of Windsor, 2011), CD-ROM.
37
do we ‘use’ them or ‘commit’ them?
Or: is all our life just a collection of fallacies?1
In this chapter, I am looking at how fallacies are used in Discourse-Historical
Approach (DHA), a branch of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) that uses
argumentation as one of its analytical tools. In view of this goal, I propose a
rhetorical reading of Austin, an Austinian interpretation of Hamblin, and
a hybrid Austino-Hamblinian perspective on fallacies (or what is consid-
ered to be fallacies).
I’ll be asking four questions: what are fallacies? Are there obvious and
unambiguous fallacies in natural languages? Aren’t we forced to commit
and live (in) fallacies? And, is it methodologically acceptable to use prefab-
ricated lists of fallacies as an analytical tool in such a dynamical enterprise
as (critical) discourse analysis?
J. L. Austin as rhetorician
J. L. Austin is usually considered to be the ‘father’ of speech act theory, and
the ‘inventor’ of performativity. In a very general framework this is both
true, but historically and epistemologically speaking there is a narrow and
intricate correlation, as well as a deep rupture between the two theories.
Performativity came about as a result of Austin’s deep dissatisfaction
with classical philosophical (logical) division between statements/utterances
1 First version of this chapter was published in Frank Zenker, ed., Argumentation: cog-
nition & community: OSSA, May 18–21, 2011 (Ontario: Ontario Society for the Study
of Argumentation, University of Windsor, 2011), CD-ROM.
37
