Argumentation Theory in Russia: Reconstructing Tradition

Abstract

The author considers the study of the history of developing argumentation prob­lems in Russia as an urgent task and contribution to the development of the the­ory of argumentation corresponding the present challenges. The article presents a general view of the theory of argumentation as one of the programs of “axial time” in the history of humankind – realizing, first of all, the ideas of Aris­totelian “Rhetoric”. The author interprets Russian intellectual culture as one of the heirs of ancient Greek and explores the prerequisites and circumstances of the formation of the theory of argumentation as a research area in the USSR. Special attention is paid to the role that logic played in this case. The author in­sists that it was the maintenance of traditional logic positions in Soviet education in the middle of the XX century that led to the interpretation by domestic scien­tists of the theory of argumentation as having logic as a basis. This was a signi­ficant difference between the Soviet (and Russian) approach from the Western European one. The last was formed in conditions when the mathematization of logic led to the displacement of traditional logic from the field of research and education. This factor explains the opposition of argumentation to proof that was stressed by Ch. Perelman and his followers. Perelman proceeded from the inter­pretation of logical proof as a sequence of formulas constructed according to cer­tain rules. Considering the discussion by Russian philosophers and philologists of the question of the relationship between the theory of argumentation and rhetoric, the author of the article evaluates the idea of “argumentorics” put for­ward by V.N. Bryushinkin at the beginning of this century as very promising. The author shows that the rhetorical teaching of M.V. Lomonosov, set out in the treatise “A brief guide to eloquence. The first book, which contains rhetoric…” has every reason to be understood as an “argumentoric” theory. The article was prepared for the 70th anniversary of the Department of Philoso­phy for Humanities at Lomonosov Moscow State University