While debates over vaccination programs, genetic modification, and other hot topics may seem impossibly complex, they actually follow some predictable rhetorical patterns. Understanding these patterns helps us become better deliberators in discussions over science policy.
Returning for a second year to Sierra College Insights, Dr. Walsh will introduce basic but powerful principles of argumentation theory — chiefly Toulmin argument and stasis doctrine — that will prepare participants to understand and debate science policy more effectively as well as locate common ground with presumed opponents on key issues.