Document Type
Paper
Start Date
15-5-1999 9:00 AM
End Date
17-5-1999 5:00 PM
Abstract
I will endeavour to appraise Perelman's concept of the Universal Audience (UA). If indeed the measure of an argument's worth is solely dependent upon the UA's adherence to it, this fails to specify why the UA adheres to certain arguments and not other s. For Perelman's theory to be an improvement over a Protagorean view requires such a specification. Moreover, if freedom from prejudice and incompetence are the relevant characteristics of the UA, then why not simply declare that the worth of the argum ent itself is measurable by its freedom form prejudice and its competence?
Creative Commons License
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Response to Submission
Christopher M. Thomson, Commentary on Paris
Reader's Reactions
Mark Vorobej, Commentary on Pinto (May 1999)
Included in
The utility of Perelman's universal audience
I will endeavour to appraise Perelman's concept of the Universal Audience (UA). If indeed the measure of an argument's worth is solely dependent upon the UA's adherence to it, this fails to specify why the UA adheres to certain arguments and not other s. For Perelman's theory to be an improvement over a Protagorean view requires such a specification. Moreover, if freedom from prejudice and incompetence are the relevant characteristics of the UA, then why not simply declare that the worth of the argum ent itself is measurable by its freedom form prejudice and its competence?
