ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the field of argumentation studies is, or should be, in part, a practical discipline: a field of knowledge production that cultivates reflective discourse and deliberation in a field of social practice. It reviews several studies that illustrate applications of this methodology in the field of argumentation and focuses on the tensions and complementarities between argumentation as a practical discipline and the equally important theoretical and technical dimensions of argumentation studies. The metatheory of practical discipline makes heuristic use of Aristotle’s categories of theoria, poeisis, and praxis. For Aristotle these terms referred to kinds of human activity that involve different intellectual virtues or forms of knowledge cultivated by different kinds of disciplines. Treating argumentation as a practical discipline has a necessary place in argumentation studies because the praxis of argumentation is not reducible to theory or technique.
