The UO held an international conference on The Promise of Reason to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the influential book The New Rhetoric by Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. In this banquet address delivered on May 17, 2008, “Chaim Perelman: A Life Well-Lived,” Perelman’s daughter Noemi Mattis offers an oral history describing Perelman’s life and experiences in the Belgian underground during WWII, his work with Olbrechts-Tyteca, and how these influenced his philosophy of argumentation.