Charles Arthur Willard (born 1945) is an American argumentation and rhetorical theorist.
He was one of the founders and for many years was a co-director of the International Association for the Study of Argumentation based at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
He has recently co-edited with Frans van Eemeren, J. Anthony Blair, and A. Francisca Henkemans Anyone Who Has A View: Theoretical Contributions to the Study of Argumentation.
Four of his books have received the Daniel H. Rohor Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Forensic Association.
His Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy (1996) debunks the discourse of liberalism, arguing that its exaggerated ideals of authenticity, unity, and community have deflected attention from the pervasive incompetence of the rule by experts.