Editors' introduction

Among the challenges posed by postmodernity are significant questions concerning the proper role and even the ultimate legitimacy of traditional theories and practices of argument. This introduction positions the essays that follow against the intellectual landscape of postmodern thought.Without dialogue our views and experiences would be locked within a narrow range. We discover our own limits only when our views are contested in a dialogical encounter. The dialogical partner decenters us from our own egocentricity and opens us to experiences which not only contest our own, but also expand our horizons. This process is prior to any reflective self-reference of the individual to itself.- Joseph Pilotta (1989, p. 113)