Coordinator: Jean Wagemans
This research investigates key concepts in argumentation theory, such as ‘argumentation structure’, ‘argument type’, ‘stock issue’, and ‘fallacy’ from a historical and systematic perspective. Beyond reconstructing major contributions to the classical disciplines of dialectic and rhetoric, it explores how traditional conceptions of argument can be modified and extended to encompass forms such as metaphor, narration, multimodal argumentation, and polylogue. The theoretical insights gained from this research inform other LANCAR research lines, which use them to further develop advanced models of argument processing, assessment, and production.
Student projects
Supervisors: Jean Wagemans, José Plug, and Dean McHugh
Frank Goossens analyzes the “common core” of interpretative arguments in the motivations of judges in terms of the Periodic Table of Arguments and compares their reconstruction to Walton et al. (2008) ad hoc argumentation schemes on these interpretative arguments. This internship contributes to the systematic study of arguments in legal discourse.
Pilar Kurban combines theories of stock issues and argument types to investigate the characteristics of politicians’ debate contributions. She applies the developed analytical tool to annotate several motions on asylum policy proposed during plenary sessions in the Dutch parliament.
Roosmarijn Rentier studies the connection between Hinton’s (2021) procedural questions for evaluating arguments and the traditional names for fallacies. After compiling lists of procedural questions about the process, reasoning, and language of natural arguments, she utilizes ChatGPT as a heuristic tool to develop a systematic overview of the associated fallacy labels.
Ermioni Seremeta is developing linguistic models of the three types of statement (fact, value, policy). The results of this research internship inform the next version of the Argument Type Identification Procedure (ATIP) and contribute to the Annotating Argumentation in the Wild and KRINO projects.
Research projects
Constructing a Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA)
Researcher: Jean Wagemans
Since Aristotle compiled a list of arguments in his debate manual, the Topica, philosophers and rhetoricians have proposed numerous taxonomies of arguments (topoi/loci), fallacies, and other means of persuasion. The Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA) aims to synthesize these traditional accounts into an overarching framework. By charting the many ways people try to convince one another, the PTA provides a systematic overview of the building blocks of persuasive discourse.
The argument classification framework of the PTA allows for generating formal(izable) descriptions of the properties of arguments that can be tailored to the purposes of a wide variety of research, such as creating annotated corpora of persuasive discourse, cognitive empirical research into how people process such discourse, and formal linguistic and computational research into argumentation and persuasion.
Who’s Afraid of Discursive Reasoning? Revisiting the Idea of Logic in Aristotle and Hegel
Researchers: Jacco Verburgt and Jean Wagemans
Famously, Bertrand Russell claims that “any person in the present day who wishes to learn logic will be wasting his time if he reads Aristotle or any of his disciples” (1946). This claim reflects a long-standing supremacy of “modern logic”, meaning symbolic or mathematical logic. In contrast, this research project explores the discursive virtues of more “traditional reasoning” by revisiting (a) Aristotle’s idea of syllogistic, notably his efforts at classifying the deductive forms of reasoning pertaining to both dialectic and demonstrative contexts, and (b) Hegel’s idea of logic as prima philosophia, notably his endeavors at providing a discursive groundwork extending throughout both the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of spirit. In doing so, the project aims to assess concrete examples of logical and philosophical argumentations from the past and present.
Activities and publications
Journal Article – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2025). Breaking Plato’s spell: Reimagining dialectic and rhetoric as counterparts of hermeneutics. TOPOI.
Journal Article – Saadat-Yazdi, A., & Wagemans, J.H.M. (2025). Finding the missing link: An algorithmic approach to reconstructing enthymemes. Argumentation.
Workshop talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2025). Rhetoric and dialectic as a bonanza for hybrid argumentation. Plenary tutorial at the Lorentz Workshop on Hybrid Argumentation and Responsible AI. Lorentz Center, Leiden University, March 31, 2025.
Chapter – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2024). Dwaalwegen van de rede: Een reis door de wereld van drogredenen. In A. Peters & P. Sleeman et al., De wereld in taal: Een reis in 40 verhalen (pp. 88-94). Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Lias.
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2024). Completing enthymemes: A quasi-algorithmic procedure for formulating implicit argument levers. 4th Argumentation and Language (ARGAGE) Conference. University of Fribourg, June 26, 2024.
Workshop talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2024). Identifying multimodal arguments: A parametric approach using cross-modal aggregation. Workshop Multimodal Argumentation #2: Bridging Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philosophy. University of Groningen, June 13, 2024.
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2024). The role of logic in evaluating arguments. Commentary on Hubert Marraud’s The logical perspective in pragma-dialectics. OSSA 13: Argumentation and changing minds. May 23, 2024.
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2023). Identifying arguments without argumentative indicators. ISSA 2023 Conference. Leiden University, July 6, 2023.
Journal Article – Russo, F., Schliesser, E., & Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). Connecting ethics and epistemology of AI. AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01617-6. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2023). Strategic omissions in arguments: Developing a tool for generating and analyzing enthymemes. RiS 8. University of Tübingen, June 3, 2023.
Seminar talk – M. Reijven (2023). Politainment as an argumentative genre. LANCAR Seminar. University of Amsterdam, June 16, 2023.
Journal article – Zenker, F., Laar, J.A. van, Cepollaro, B., Gata, A., Hinton, M., King, C.G., Larson, B., Lewiński, M., Lumer, Ch., Oswald, S., Pichlak, M., Scott, B., Urbański, M., Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). Norms of public argumentation and the ideals of correctness and participation. Argumentation. –> MORE INFO
Web content – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). The theoretical framework of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA). Published online February 16, 2023. URL = https://periodic-table-of-arguments.org/theoretical-framework
Seminar talk – E. Seremeta (2023). A rule-based computational model for statement type annotation LANCAR Seminar. University of Amsterdam, February 3, 2023.
Journal article – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2023). How to identify an argument type? On the hermeneutics of argumentative discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 203, 117-129. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – M. Hinton & J.H.M. Wagemans (2022). A procedural approach to fallacies. ECA 2022, 4th European Conference on Argumentation (ECA): The cognitive dimension of social argumentation. University of Roma Tre, Italy, September 28, 2022.
Panel organization – M. Hinton & J.H.M. Wagemans (2022) – Panel on ‘Contemporary approaches to fallacies’ at the 4th European Conference on Argumentation (ECA): The cognitive dimension of social argumentation. University of Roma Tre, Italy, September 28, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2022). The role of rhetoric in interpreting persuasive discourse. GTR 22, 21st edition of the Trento Days on Rhetoric. University of Trento, Italy, May 23, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Workshop – First ACLC-ILLC Workshop on Argumentation. University of Amsterdam, March 31, 2022. –> MORE INFO
Book chapter – Wagemans, J.H.M. (2021). The Philosophy of Argument. In P. Stalmaszczyk (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language (pp. 571-589). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. –> MORE INFO
Workshop – Argumentation and (X)AI. Third workshop of the RPA Human(e) AI project Towards an Epistemological and Ethically Explainable AI (TEEXAI). University of Amsterdam, November 18-19, 2021. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2021). Reformulating natural arguments into their canonical form. ONLINE, ARGAGE 2021, Université de Neuchâtel, November 11, 2021. –> MORE INFO
Journal article – Popa, O.E., & Wagemans, J.H.M. (2021). Stock issues and the structure of argumentative discussions: An integrative analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 186, 129-141. –> MORE INFO
Conference talk – J.H.M. Wagemans (2021). On the hermeneutics of argument. ONLINE, Seventh International Conference on Philosophy of Language and Linguistics (PhiLang 2021). University of Łódź, Poland, May 15, 2021.
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