Harald Rüdiger Wohlrapp was a student of the German philosophers Wilhelm Kamlah and Paul Lorenzen (Methodical Constructivism, Erlangen School).

Thus, he welcomes the rise of the new academic field of argumentation theory,[2] but at the same time points to its ongoing imprint by the Aristotelian legacy.

This leads to a focus on inference and persuasion, and to a lack of understanding the dynamic and subjective traits of argumentative practice as well as to a neglect of its urgent need of a substantial conception of human reason.

Argumentation is seen by Wohlrapp as a practice located in inquiry (in ordinary life, in science and in philosophy), its general task being the overcoming of gaps and deficits in orientation with the help of constructing and examining new theoretical elements, i.e. with claiming theses, justifying them with proven elements of theory and defending them against objections: With this conception a new and realistic concept of knowledge in its historical character is available.

Wohlrapp has been using his views in the analysis and assessment of problems in philosophy of science, politics, applied ethics and theories of religion.