Appeals to Considerations

Following Wellman, Trudy Govier has developed a comprehensive approach to the analysis and evaluation of what she calls “conductive arguments”. There is indeed a distinct form of reasoning and argument of the sort Wellman and Govier describe, but both the label ‘conduction’ and the common metaphor of weighing up the pros and cons are misleading. The form of reasoning and argument is better described as an appeal to considerations (or to …