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‘Argument’ has multiple meanings and referents in contemporary argumentation theory. Theorists are well aware of this but often fail to acknowledge it in their theories. In what follows, I distinguish several senses of ‘argument’ and argue that some highly visible theories are largely correct about some senses of the term but not others. In doing so, I hope to show that apparent theoretical rivals are better seen as collaborators or partners, rather than rivals, in the multi-disciplinary effort to understand ‘argument,’ arguments, and argumentation in all their varieties. I argue as well for a pluralistic approach to argument evaluation and argumentative norms, since arguments and argumentation can be legitimately evaluated along several dimensions, but urge that epistemic norms enjoy conceptual priority.

Keywords: argument, arguments, argumentation, epistemic theory, pragma-dialectical theory, rhetorical theory, virtue argumentation theory

The Latin genethliac poem celebrating the birth of James VI of Scotland is often recognised as one of the most significant poems by George Buchanan, but it has never been fully analysed so far. This paper ambitions to propose a global interpretation of the genethliac, taking into account its literary as well as political aspects. After replacing the poem in the historical context of the reign of Mary queen of Scots and in the literary tradition of the genethliac poetry, the analysis focuses on three striking features of the poem: the lack of the maiores thematic, the opening prophecy and the portrait of the good king. The article also touches the problem of the double redaction, and gives a first critical edition and complete French translation of the poem.

The existing body of literature underscores the crucial role of technology, driven by both innovation and imitation, in fostering economic growth. Human capital emerges as a key factor influencing technology adoption and innovation. We consider a R&D-based growth model to analyze how improvement in schooling quality impacts technical progress (via the twin channels of imitation and innovation) and therefore, long- run economic growth of an economy by working through the influence of fertility rates and education decisions at household level. The results indicate that improvement in schooling quality triggers a child quantity-quality trade-off at the household level when quality of schooling exceeds an endogenously determined threshold. At household level, parents invest more in the education of their children and have lesser number of children. This micro-level trade-off has two opposing effects on aggregate human capital accumulation at the macroeconomy wide level. A higher investment in education of a child stimulates the accumulation of human capital, which fosters technical progress, but the simultaneous decline in fertility rate reduces total factor productivity growth by contracting the stock of human capital. The former effect prevails over the latter only when quality of schooling is higher than the threshold and therefore, economic growth is driven by rate of aggregate human capital accumulation under both innovation and imitation regimes. However, when the quality of schooling is lower than this threshold, parents do not invest in education and focus on maximizing fertility. Therefore, the economy grows at the rate of population growth at the macro level under the two regimes. Also, it is advantageous for an economy to innovate upon the local technology frontier instead of imitating from the world technology frontier if the rate of human capital accumulation is higher than the growth rate of world technology frontier in the presence of constant or diminishing returns to R&D sector.

Keywords: quality of schooling, fertility, innovation, imitation, economic growth

This article uses the methods that Locke advocated in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to evaluate manuscript evidence from five different schemes and two drafts of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to thereby determine what role, if any, John Locke had in writing it, and in advocating for slavery and absolutism. It focuses on the influential claims put forward by David Armitage 20 years ago, that Locke was responsible for actively promoting slavery in Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions. It enables the reader to view, and judge, the relevant evidence. The author concludes, and invites the reader to conclude, that Armitage’s main claims lack foundation in the manuscript evidence. That evidence instead points towards the legal power of those who owned Carolina, the Lords Proprietors, and to the crown, which granted Carolina’s charter, and to the logic of a different theory of government, patriarchalism, for the rationale behind both slavery and absolutism. The central ideas behind slavery and colonization were epitomized, as Locke understood, by Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote the book to which Locke responded in his Two Treatises of Government. Filmer’s ally, Sir Henry Spelman, like Filmer a deeply committed royalist who believed in the king’s unlimited prerogatives, composed the original 1629 Carolina charter that shaped the Fundamental Constitutions. Misattributing the authorship of particular clauses to Locke is a symptom of a larger failure to distinguish the impact of momentous debates over authority and race in the seventeenth century. Locke’s theories did, in practice as well as principle, reject the theory of domination put forward by Filmer, and argued instead for human rights and democracy that were inclusive and capacious. The manuscript evidence has the potential to reshape how modern democratic theory is understood in the present.

Keywords: Locke, Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, slavery, absolutism, manuscripts, Sir Robert Filmer, Lords Proprietors, Two Treatises of Government, Human understanding, law, human rights, democracy, race, racism, evidence, Patriarchalism, David Armitage, seals, legality, Carolina