“Let's not argue about this” is a phrase that most readers of this review have heard and, if they are parents, will have uttered. It reveals a common (mis)understanding of what an argument is: alternating assertions escalating in volume with hands clenched or finger pointing. Let's argue about this, with (as we are scientists) recourse to data. The data all come from an amazing book by Ray Nickerson. It is amazing—as many of his books are—because of its thorough and balanced evaluation of the many conceptions and reflections in the literature on just what an argument is and what it does and cannot do. As the book's subtitle indicates, argumentation is very different from vulgar “arguments,” which seldom persuade and have little art.
For Nickerson, an argument is, in broad strokes, an “effort to modify beliefs or behavior.” Of course, many efforts to modify beliefs or behavior are not arguments,...