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26Epistemology in Excess? A Response to WilliamsJournal of Philosophy of Education 51 (1): 193-213. 2017.Emma Williams’ ‘In Excess of Epistemology’ admirably endeavours to open the way to an account of critical thinking that goes beyond the one I have defended ad nauseum in recent decades by developing, via the work of Charles Taylor and Martin Heidegger, ‘a radically different conception of thinking and the human being who thinks’, one that ‘does more justice to receptive and responsible conditions of human thought.’ In this response I hope to show that much of Williams’ alternative approach is co…Read more
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19Dangerous Dualisms or Murky Monism? A Reply to Jim GarrisonJournal of Philosophy of Education 35 (4): 577-595. 2001.Jim Garrison’s recent criticisms of what he refers to as ‘dangerous dualisms’ in my theory of critical thinking are unsuccessful. They fail, in large part, because of misinterpretations of my view, but also because of Garrison’s systematic reliance on problematic aspects of Dewey’s terminology and philosophy.
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Relativism Refuted: A Critique of Contemporary Epistemological RelativismBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40 (3): 419-427. 1989.
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3Is It Irrational to be Immoral? A Response to FreemanEducational Philosophy and Theory 10 (2): 51-61. 1978.
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9Rationality, Morality, and Rational Moral Education: Further Response to FreemanEducational Philosophy and Theory 12 (1): 37-47. 1980.
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19Justification by BalancePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 52 (1): 27-46. 1992.A critique of reflective equilibrium as an account of epistemic justification
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18Epistemology in Excess? A Response to WilliamsJournal of Philosophy of Education 50 (4). 2016.Emma Williams’ ‘In Excess of Epistemology’ admirably endeavours to open the way to an account of critical thinking that goes beyond the one I have defended ad nauseum in recent decades by developing, via the work of Charles Taylor and Martin Heidegger, ‘a radically different conception of thinking and the human being who thinks’, one that ‘does more justice to receptive and responsible conditions of human thought.’ In this response I hope to show that much of Williams’ alternative approach is co…Read more
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95Argument Quality and Cultural DifferenceArgumentation 13 (2): 183-201. 1999.Central to argumentation theory is a concern with normativity. Argumentation theorists are concerned, among other things, with explaining why some arguments are good (or at least better than others) in the sense that a given argument provides reasons for embracing its conclusion which are such that a fair- minded appraisal of the argument yields the judgment that the conclusion ought to be accepted -- is worthy of acceptance -- by all who so appraise it
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247What is the question concerning the rationality of science?Philosophy of Science 52 (4): 517-537. 1985.The traditional views of science as the possessor of a special method, and as the epitome or apex of rationality, have come under severe challenges for a variety of historical, psychological, sociological, political, and philosophical reasons. As a result, many philosophers are either denying science its claim to rationality, or else casting about for a new account of its rationality. In this paper a defense of the traditional view is offered. It is argued that contemporary philosophical discuss…Read more
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93Is 'Education' a Thick Epistemic Concept?Philosophical Papers 37 (3): 455-469. 2008.Is 'education' a thick epistemic concept? The answer depends, of course, on the viability of the 'thick/thin' distinction, as well as the degree to which education is an epistemic concept at all. I will concentrate mainly on the latter, and will argue that epistemological matters are central to education and our philosophical thinking about it; and that, insofar, education is indeed rightly thought of as an epistemic concept. In laying out education's epistemological dimensions, I hope to clarif…Read more
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55The pragma-dialectician’s dilemma: Reply to Garssen and van LaarInformal Logic 30 (4): 457-480. 2010.Garssen and van Laar in effect concede our main criticism of the pragma-dialectical approach. The criticism is that the conclusions of arguments can be ‘P-D reasonable’ yet patently unreasonable, epistemically speaking. The concession consists in the claim that the theory “remains restricted to the investigation of standpoints in the light of particular sets of starting points” which are “up to individual disputants to create” and the admission that all the relevant terms of normative appraisal …Read more
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81Farewell to FeyerabendInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 32 (3). 1989.It is with some trepidation that I offer this critical review of Feyerabend's new book. I do not relish the prospect of getting involved in one of the nasty little fights Feyerabend picks with those who criticize his work. Nevertheless, Feyerabend's work cries out for critical attention. Of particular interest is the degree to which this new work deepens or enhances Feyerabend's earlier castigations of Reason. Fans of Feyerabend will be disappointed to learn that Feyerabend's philosophy is not d…Read more
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38Open-mindedness, Critical Thinking, and Indoctrination: Homage to William HarePaideusis: Journal of the Canadian Philosophy of Education Society 18 (1): 26-34. 2009.William Hare has made fundamental contributions to philosophy of education. Among the most important of these contributions is his hugely important work on open-mindedness. In this paper I explore the several relationships that exist between Hare’s favored educational ideal (open-mindedness) and my own (critical thinking). I argue that while both are of central importance, it is the latter that is the more fundamental of the two.
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20Epistemology, critical thinking, and critical thinking pedagogyArgumentation 3 (2): 127-140. 1989.
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473Multiculturalism, universalism, and science education: In search of common groundScience Education 86 (6): 803-820. 2002.
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101Penelope MaddySecond Philosophy: A Naturalistic Method (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (4): 897-903. 2010.(No abstract is available for this citation)
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35Brown on epistemology and the new philosophy of scienceSynthese 56 (1). 1983.For over two decades, something akin to a scientific revolution in philosophy of science has been taking place. So, at any rate, claims Harold I. Brown, in his book Perception, Theory and Commitment: The New Philosophy of Science, in which he chronicles and defends the demise of logical empiricism and offers a new philosophy of science in its stead. The new philosophy of science, drawing on the work of Kuhn, Toulmin, Hanson, Lakatos, Polanyi, and others, but effectively structured, enhanced, and…Read more
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7Justifying Conceptual Development Claims: response to van HaaftenJournal of Philosophy of Education 27 (1): 79-86. 1993.This paper is a response to van Haaften’s attempt to build ‘a natural bridge from “is” to “ought”’ and in doing so to provide a general account of how, in developmental theory, a claim that ‘a later stage in conceptual development is somehow better or more adequate than preceding ones’ can itself be justified. The account by van Haaften violates the ‘seems justified/is justified’ distinction and embroils him in a problematic form of relativism. This paper offers an alternative account of such cl…Read more
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58Rationality, Reasonableness, and Critical Rationalism: Problems with the Pragma-dialectical View (review)Argumentation 22 (2): 191-203. 2008.A major virtue of the Pragma-Dialectical theory of argumentation is its commitment to reasonableness and rationality as central criteria of argumentative quality. However, the account of these key notions offered by the originators of this theory, Frans van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst, seems to us problematic in several respects. In what follows we criticize that account and suggest an alternative, offered elsewhere, that seems to us to be both independently preferable and more in keeping with …Read more
Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Religion |
Other Academic Areas |