Invited talk
Mathematical argumentation and the Toulmin model. Dr. Brendan Larvor, Principal Lecturer in Philosophy, University of HertfordshireArgumentation theorists have lately attempted to apply Toulmin's model to mathematics. I argue that the interest of Toulmin's approach does not lie in the details of his inferential model. Rather, we should pay attention to the notion of field-specific inference and the associated notion of field-specific modalities. If Toulmin's model is to have any interesting application to mathematics, some non-question-begging way must be found to individuate mathematical fields. I suggest that fields in this sense should be conceived of as fields of practice rather than fields of content.