2023-2024 / PHIL0084-2

Logic and theory of legal and political argumentation

Part 1

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Duration

Part 1 : 20h Th
Part 2 - Reading seminar : 6h Pr, 20h Lect.

Number of credits

 Bachelor in political sciences : general5 crédits 

Lecturer

Part 1 : Bruno Leclercq
Part 2 - Reading seminar : Kathleen Lemal

Coordinator

Bruno Leclercq

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

This Learning Unit is made of two autonomous parts (Logic and argumentation theory ; Readings), each having its own teacher (resp. Bruno Leclercq and Kathleen Lemal) and its own rules.

Part 1

The course will be centered around the problems of defining criteria allowing to distinguish between correct and incorrect reasonings (especially legal reasonings). It will also be a question of identifying typical errors of reasoning.
First chapter will be about deduction as an ideal of perfectly rigorous rationality. Second chapter will deal with dialectical and rhetorical aspects of daily argumentation. Third chapter will be concerned with argumentation schemes and fallacies.

Part 2 - Reading seminar

The students are asked to read, analyze and then comment scientific texts related to the subject matter of the first part of the "Logic and theory of legal and political argumentation" course. 
 
 

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

Part 1

Good command of a few theoretical notions of logic and argumentation theory.
Ability to identify the logical structure of reasonings
Ability to identify their argumentation schemes as well as to estimate their correction on the ground of relevant critical questions.
Ability to create short reasonings in accordance with some logical forms, dialectical principles or rhetorical figures of speech.

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Reading sessions are meant for the students to sharpen their analytical and summarizing skills and to perfect oral language and written expression. 

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Part 1

Secondary education. Good command of french language.

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Secondary education.
It is essential to master the French langage. 

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Part 1

Oral presentation, reference book, e-learning website, exercise classes with an older student.

Part 2 - Reading seminar

This course, wich will be given in small groups, is based on an active learning teaching method. The students will take part in three sessions during wich they will be asked to read, analyze and discuss scientific texts. From one session to the other, they will carry on thinking in subgroups of four or five students in order to expound the result of their research and to prepare a paper on a subject proposed during the first lecture. 
 
 

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Part 1

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

The course will take place during the first term (September-December) on Thursdays from 10:45 to 12:45 am. Place : amphi Ruwet (Bât. I1, quai van Beneden).


 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

Attendance to the three sessions is compulsory. Attendance is taken at every class. Students absent from all three sessions are marked absent.

Students are required to participate. 

The three sessions are due on Friday September 29, October 20 and November 17, from 4 to 6 PM for group 1 and Saturdays September 30, October 21, November 18, from 9 to 11 AM for group 2, from 11 to 1 for group 3.

The composition of the groups will be posted on MyULiege. 

It is forbidden to switch groups. 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Recommended or required readings

Part 1

Reference book : BOUQUIAUX L. and LECLERCQ B., Logique formelle et argumentation, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 3rd edition, 2017.

References :
On formal deductive logic :
ARISTOTLE, Organon, livre II : les premiers Analytiques, traduction Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1936.
COPI I. M., Introduction to logic, 8ème edition, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1998.
GOCHET P. et GRIBOMONT P., Logique I, méthodes pour l'informatique fondamentale, Paris, Hermes, 1990.
LEROUX J., Introduction à la logique, Diderot Editeurs, 1998.
LUCAS T. et al., Initiation à la logique formelle, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2007.
QUINE W. V. O., Méthodes de logique, Paris, Armand Colin, 1984.
VERNANT D., Introduction à la logique standard, Paris, Flammarion, 2001.

On argumentation theory :
HUBIEN H. ed., Le raisonnement juridique, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1971.
KALINOWSKI G., Introduction à la logique juridique, Paris, LGDJ, 1965.
PERELMAN C. et OLBRECHTS-TYTECA L., Rhétorique et philosophie : pour une théorie de l'argumentation en philosophie, Paris, PUF, 1952.
PERELMAN C. et OLBRECHTS-TYTECA L., La nouvelle rhétorique. Traité de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1992.
PERELMAN C., Justice et raison, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1963.
PERELMAN C. ed., Les antinomies en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1965.
PERELMAN C. ed., Le problème des lacunes en droit , Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1968.
PERELMAN C., Eléments d'une théorie de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1968.
PERELMAN C., Logique et argumentation, Bruxelles, Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1968.
PERELMAN C., Le champ de l'argumentation, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1970.
PERELMAN C., La règle de droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1971.
PERELMAN C., Logique juridique, Paris, Dalloz, 1976.
PERELMAN C., L'empire rhétorique : rhétorique et argumentation, Paris, Vrin, 1977.
PERELMAN C. et FORIERS P., La preuve en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1981.
PERELMAN C. et VANDER ELST R., Les notions à contenu variable en droit, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1984.
PERELMAN C., Le raisonnable et le déraisonnable en droit : au-delà du positivisme juridique, Paris, LGDJ, 1984.
SCHMETZ R., L'argumentation selon Perelman. Pour une raison au coeur de la rhétorique, Presses Universitaires de Namur, 2000.
TOULMIN S. E., Les usages de l'argumentation, Paris, PUF, 1993.
VAN EEMEREN F. et GROOTENDORST R., La nouvelle dialectique, Paris, Kimé, 1996.
VAN EEMEREN F. et al. ed., Fundamentals of argumentation theory, Mahwah (New Jersey), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996.
VAN EEMEREN F. ed., Crucial concepts in argumentation theory, Amsterdam, Sic Sat, 2001.
VANNIER G., Argumentation et droit, Paris, PUF, 2001.

On argumentation schemes and fallacies :ARISTOTE, Organon, livre VI : les réfutations sophistiques, trad. Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1939.
ARNAULD A. et NICOLE P., La logique ou l'art de penser, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1965.
COPI I. M. et BURGESS-JACKSON K., Informal logic, 3ème édition, London, Prentice Hall, 1996, chapitre 3.
FISCHER D. H., Historian's fallacies, Londres, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971.
HAMBLIN C. L., Fallacies, Londres, Methuen & Co, 1970.
HANSEN H. V. et PINTO R. C. ed., Fallacies, Classical and contemporary readings, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
MILL J. S., Système de logique déductive et inductive, Paris, Felix Alcan, 1896, livre V.
WALTON D., Argumentation schemes for presumptive reasoning, London, Routledge, 1995.
WALTON D., REED C. et MACAGNO F., Argumentation schemes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
WOODS J. et WALTON D.,Critique de l'argumentation, logique des sophismes ordinaires, Paris, Kimé, 1992.

 

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Required readings : Chaïm Perelman. Extraits choisis.
Refer to items online (required course materials)

Assessment methods and criteria

The overall mark for this Learning Unit is made out of the marks of its two parts, weighted in the following way : 60% for Logic and argumentation theory; 40% for Readings.
Students who failed the overall Learning Unit but passed one of its parts can keep the mark they got for this part.

Part 1

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )


Additional information:

Written exam (both Multiple Choice Questions and written assignment) in January and in September. First year students who would have failed in January have the opportunity to take the exam again in May-June.

No student will be allowed to take the exam on another day than the other students.
 

A short (optional) essay, which should be uploaded to e-campus board before Thursday the 14th of December 2023, could exempt the student from two questions of the written exam (counting for 5 points out of 20).

This essay (1 to 2 pages ; around 3000 to 5000 signs) will consist in evaluating some reasoning (produced after July 2023 !) spotted in the media (and which must be provided with accurate information on its source); the evaluation requires 1) spotting a problematic inference, 2) a clear recontruction of the analysed inference, 3) the identification of the inference scheme used, 4) adequate critical questions and 5) a decision on whether the inference is correct or fallacious. Organisation of the thought, clarity and accurateness of the expression, correct language are part of what will be marked.

December 14 is the deadline after which no essay will be taken into consideration.

Results will be released on Saturday the 23rd of December.

 

 

 

 

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Written work / report


Additional information:

Assesment is based on the paper written in groups of four or five students and on indivual participation during the talking sessions. 

The subject matter and requirements will be specified during the first session. 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Part 1

Besides the teaching a few exercice sessions will be organized by an older student.

  

 The first session will be held on Thursday the 14th of September 2023 at 10:45 am.

 

 

 

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Paper due on : December 17 2023

The paper is to be submitted on e-Campus

Reminder : it is strictly forbidden to change groups.

 

 
 

 
 

Contacts

Part 1

Bruno LECLERCQ Département de Philosophie Place du XX août, 9 (2ème étage) 4000 Liège B.Leclercq@uliege.be

Part 2 - Reading seminar

klemal@uliege.be

Association of one or more MOOCs

Items online

Part 1

e-campus
Website

Part 2 - Reading seminar

Chaïr Perelman. Chosen texts.
Texts extracted from the works of Chaïr Perelman