Making sense out of polemics

Abstract

We intend to draw attention to a topic in practical argumentation that is complex, unavoidable and of substantial consequence in social, political and economical terms: polemics. Our target is a rather frequent —and far from trivial— type of polemics, those that are generated around action proposals that affect public well-being. Our aim is to develop a framework to identify the argumentative components of an actual controversy and eventually provide means to intervene in the ongoing disputation. With that focus, in this paper we outline the basic elements of a conceptual framework that will allow us to map the topic and articulate some salient opportunities.