The Role of The Questions in Argumenation

Abstract

An argumentation is interpreted as justifica­tion of knowledge by means of some logical instru­ments and other knowledge. The article focuses on the role of questions of different sorts in the argu­mentation process. The notion of question is for­mulated from logical point of view. The question is defined as thought which demands to complete available information with a view to elimination or minimizing cognitive indeterminacy, which is the presupposition of the question. All questions may be divided into logically correct and logically incur­rect. Among the former more informative and less informative, more informational and less informa­tional questions can be distinguished. Among logi­cally incorrect questions can be distinguished senseless questions (i.e. questions including some meaningless expressions as well as expressions which are grammatically or semantically incorrect) and undefined questions (i.e. questions including ambiguous expressions); provocative questions (i. e. questions which presuppositions are logically invalid statements and which cannot be answered correctly); (logically or factually ) tautological ques­tions (i. e. questions containing needed infor­mation).

Logically correct and logically incorrect ans­wers are defined. Like questions, answers can be senseless and undefined. Among true answers can be distinguished correct answers (fully or partially eliminating cognitive indeterminacy) and incorrect answers (not eliminating cognitive indeterminacy). Correct answers can be devided into strong and weak; incorrect answers can be devided into tautological and irrelevant.

Pragmatic characteristic of questions and ans­wers is also given in the article. Pragmatically incorrect questions are expansive questions (i.e questions, requiring to eliminate some additional indeterminacy, which is inexpedient for the argu­mentator) and irrelevant questions (i.e. questions which do not relate to the problem under consi­deration). Pragmatically incorrect answers are excessive ones (i.e. answers reducing some inde­terminacy which is not expressed in the question).