2003/07/07 by Stephen Toulmin · 5,618 citations
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #Historical Linguistics and Language Studies #Argument (complex analysis) #Philosophy #Medicine #Internal medicine
paper · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511840005
published in Cambridge University Press eBooks (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2003/07/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
A central theme throughout the impressive series of philosophical books and articles Stephen Toulmin has published since 1948 is the way in which assertions and opinions concerning all sorts of topics, brought up in everyday life or in academic research, can be rationally justified. Is there one universal system of norms, by which all sorts of arguments in all sorts of fields must be judged, or must each sort of argument be judged according to its own norms? In The Uses of Argument (1958) Toulmin sets out his views on these questions for the first time. In spite of initial criticisms from logicians and fellow philosophers, The Uses of Argument has been an enduring source of inspiration and discussion to students of argumentation from all kinds of disciplinary background for more than forty years.