The emergent field of cultural studies uses various critical-emancipatory frameworks to evaluate theory and practice in philosophy and other disciplines. As part of a larger project incorporating feminist, postcolonial, Marxist, and black African critical philosophies, this essay selectively highlights certain aspects of argumentation analysis which share characteristics with dominating modes of thought. Pragma-dialectic theory is focused upon, chosen due to its progressive methodology within the context of argumentation study, and its explicit commitment and sensitivity to higher-order goals such as equality between arguers. Specifically, the Pragma-dialectic method of reconstruction termed "addition" and the notion of the "ideal arguer" are analyzed, showing areas where higher-order conditions may be compromised at the same time as they are assumed by the Pragma-dialectic model of ideal argument. A brief consideration of Coalescent argumentation as an alternative theory less bound by dominating tendencies, is presented in conclusion.
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