Part 1 Research "Stephen Toulmin" on the Internet. Write one page--in your own words--in which you explain why it is important for you, a student in a critical thinking class, to know who this man is. (How does the word "argument" cast a long shadow ov

Stephen Toulmin

Stephen Toulmin (1922-2009 ) was a British writer , author and philosopher . He was known for developing the Model of Argument and writing the most interesting books such as the Cosmopolis : The Hidden Agenda of Modernity (1990 ) and Human Understanding : The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts (1972 . As a student of critical thinking we need to provide an interpretation of whatever we observe in the world around us an so it is essential for us to know how Stephen Toulmin has helped students in this field to provide justification for moral

issues The main theory behind many of his works was related to how absolutism (accepting universal truth by using universal set of moral principles and relativism fail to explain moral issues some way or the other . He believed that absolutism is practically inappropriate and so he came up with what are known as practical arguments under the Model of Argument which consists of six interrelated parts . Unlike absolutism practical arguments begin with a claim which is a statement that one later justifies with evidence in for it to be accepted as true . The second component of the Model is Grounds which provides the data that is evidence to the claim presented before . This evidence is the truth and the basis for the rest of the argument . Third , the Warrant relates the Grounds to the Claim based on the audience 's ethos , pathos and values This uses rhetoric which Toulmin later became famous for . Backing is the third...