Modes of Argumentation

This article excavates the epistemology of several modes of justification used by the characters in the book of Job. After a short survey of the types of »arguments from authority« used by Job's friends, I highlight the epistemology of some critical and rational ways of argumentation used by the different characters in the book, especially, but not only, Job. Personal experience, self-reflective thinking and secondorder thinking, questions of definition, and the principle of impartiality all argue for implementing a critical, rational, and even judicial desire for objectivity in wisdom disputation, which goes beyond arguments justified by authority.