Abstract

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 48 (Spring 2012): 195-197 THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN FORENSIC ASSOCIATION ARGU SPHERES OF ARGUMENT: 30 YEARS OF INFLUENCE Robert C. Rowland, Guest Editor Thirty years ago in the Spring 1982 issue, The Journal of the American Forensic Association (now Argumentation and Advocacy), published a "Review Symposium on Argument Fields." The special issue, which was edited by Charles Arthur Willard, included essays by a number of leading scholars in argumentation including: David Zarefsky, Joseph Wenzel, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar (one of the first joumal essays by a brand new assistant professor who had yet to complete his Ph.D.), Robert Rowland, and an essay by G. Thomas Goodnight, which at first glance seemed to be out of place. Unlike the others, Goodnight's essay focused on "spheres," not "fields," of argument. Thirty years later field theory is no longer a core topic of debate within argumentation studies, but the situation is very different in relation to spheres of argument. The study of the public, personal, and technical spheres of argument that Goodnight inaugurated with his groundbreaking essay remains vibrant today. It is not too strong to say that all of the many scholars, using a variety of approaches, who