Pursuing Reason

Authors

Trudy Govier (ed)
University of Lethbridge
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22329/wsia.16.2026

Synopsis

Pursuing Reason marks the latest collection of essays from a scholar known for thoughtful theoretical treatments of a wide range of problems in informal logic and for practical applications that bring the insights of her research to real world issues. With the re-publication of several papers that deserve wider exposure and the first-time publication of a series of six new essays, this collection uncovers threads of thought that have tracked through much of the author’s career.

Chapters

  • Reflections on Minimal Adversariality
  • Argument and Explanation: A Pragmatic and Ethical Account
  • When Should We Argue?
  • Opposition
  • Anecdotes in Arguments
  • Logic, Parables, and Argument
  • Teaching and Learning, Stories and Arguments
  • Issues of Logicism and Objectivity
  • Argument as Product, Argument as Process
  • Considering Credibility
  • The Tu Quoque and Moral Credibility

Author Biography

Trudy Govier, University of Lethbridge

Trudy Govier is a Canadian philosopher known for her work in informal logic and argumentation. She is the author of such influential texts as A Practical Study of Argument, Taking Wrongs Seriously: Acknowledgement, Reconciliation, and the Politics of Sustainable Peace, and The Philosophy of Argument. She has also been a frequent commentator in Canadian media on issues related to violence and conflict resolution. 

Govier received her PhD in philosophy from the University of Waterloo in 1971. She has taught philosophy at Trent University, Simon Fraser University, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, and the University of Winnipeg. Much of Govier's work has surrounded practical argument, focusing on issues of trust, forgiveness, and reconciliation. She has been a distinguished visiting researcher with the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric at the University of Windsor. She retired from teaching in 2012. The nature of Govier's approach to argumentation has prompted her to engage practically with social issues outside of academia. 

Pursuing Reason by Trudy Gover with an abstract art background

Downloads

PDF
Print

Published

January 16, 2026

Series

Windsor Studies in Argumentation

Categories

Copyright (c) 2026 Trudy Govier (Author)

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF

ISBN-13 (15)

978-1-998123-06-3

Date of first publication (11)

2026

Details about the available publication format: Print

Print

ISBN-13 (15)

978-1-998123-04-9

Date of first publication (11)

2026

Physical Dimensions

6in x 9in