Munāẓara and Islamic traditions of argument

Abstract

It has become a trope to start the study of argument in Ancient Greece and lament its falling prey to formal logic over the centuries. While relatively true in the Western context, this view neglects Munāẓara and Islamic traditions of argument. This chapter offers a historical sketch of Islamic argumentation and introduces Munāẓara, the tradition's latest emergent discipline. Munāẓara can mean an argumentation theory, a type of inquiry between disagreeing parties for the manifestation of truth, and an actual debate. The chapter highlights Munāẓara's differences from contemporary argumentation theories and shows how Walton and Krabbe's classification of dialogue types fails to capture its intricacies.