Some Highlights in Recent Theorizing: An Introduction

Since the early 1990s is has been our habit to publish regularly volumes with a collection of essays that are indicative of the kind of developments taking place at that moment in the study of argumentation. These volumes are intended to be a service to the discipline by presenting a selection of representative specimens of the state of the art to researchers and students of argumentation theory. As a rule the essays included in these volumes are based on papers presented at the preceding ISSA Conference. Among the earlier volumes are Argumentation Illuminated (van Eemeren et al. 1992), Logic and Argumentation (van Benthem et al. 1996), Anyone Who Has a View (van Eemeren et al. 2003), Argumentation in Practice (van Eemeren and Houtlosser 2005), Controversy and Confrontation (van Eemeren and Garssen 2008), Pondering on Problems of Argumentation (van Eemeren and Garssen 2009). Topical Themes in Argumentation Theory fits into this tradition – as does, by the way, Exploring Argumentative Contexts (van Eemeren and Garssen 2011a, b).