"Where's Your Argument? Informal Logic, Critical Thinking and Argumentation," Manchester Metropolitan University, April 12-13, 2010.

DAY ONE: issues in the study of Informal Logic and Argumentation

• what is the difference between a good argument and a bad argument?; what's the difference between rhetoric and argument?; is there a difference between legitimate persuasion and propaganda?
• an opportunity to participate in discussion with some of the leading authors writing on these crucial questions.

DAY TWO: the role of argument and rhetoric in policy and politics

• do you have a right to your own opinion?; is the Spin Doctor's art a noble one?
• an opportunity to inoculate yourself against political rhetoric, in time for the General Election!

Speakers:

• Frans van Eemeren, "The Pragma-Dialectical Approach to Argument"
• Lars Hertzberg, "The Grammar of Inference"
• Don S. Levi, "The Informality of Logic"
• Michael Loughlin, "The 'Evidence Based Medicine' Debate"
• Steven Poole, "Unspeak"
• John Powell, "Criteria for Good Argument"
• Rupert Read, "'Reframing' and 'Unspeak' or Politics Without Propaganda?"
• Jamie Whyte, "Bad Thoughts and Worse Policies"

Visit the conference website here: http://www.cheshire.mmu.ac.uk/ids/home/news/whereisyourargument.php.