The programme leading to a Research Master's degree in Rhetoric, Argumentation theory and Philosophy is ideal for those students who would like to acquire a sound intellectual basis for carrying out research in the (interrelated) fields of argumentation theory, rhetoric and language philosophy. The programme provides, foremost, a solid theoretical and methodological foundation for understanding the various ways in which ordinary language is used in various types of discourse and texts to convince others of certain viewpoints or ideas. It offers not only systematic insight in the normative and descriptive study of communication and argumentation, but also in the philosophical conceptions of rationality and reasonableness that serve as their starting points. Crucial concepts from rhetorical, dialectical as well as logical approaches of the analysis, evaluation and production of argumentative discourse are systematically discussed and reflected upon. In this endeavour, attention is paid to relevant insights from speech act theory, Gricean analysis of rational interaction, discourse analysis, and formal and informal logic. All major classical and modern approaches of the reasonableness and rationality of institutionalised and non-institutionalised types of discourse are considered, from juridical and political discourse to spontaneous everyday conversations. At the same time the students will be made familiar with the methods and techniques of qualitative and quantitative empirical research in the fields of discourse analysis, argumentation theory, (in)formal logic and rhetoric, so that they will be enabled to carry out thorough and theoretically justified analyses, case studies and other types of investigations of real-life discussions and texts.