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110Argumentation, Arguing, and ArgumentsTheoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 26 (3): 279-287. 2011.ABSTRACT: While we applaud several aspects of Lilian Bermejo-Luque's novel theory of argumentation and especially welcome its epistemological dimensions, in this discussion we raise doubts about her conception of argumentation, her account of argumentative goodness, and her treatments of the notion of “giving reasons” and of justification.RESUMEN: Aunque aprobamos varios aspectos de la nueva teoría de la argumentación propuesta por Lilian Bermejo Luque y, en particular, su dimensión epistemológi…Read more
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29Gimme That Old-Time Enlightenment Meta-NarrativeInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 11 (4): 1-1. 1993.
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16Neither Humean Nor (Fully) Kantian Be: Reply to CuypersJournal of Philosophy of Education 39 (3): 535-547. 2005.In this paper I reply to Stefaan Cuypers’ explication and critique of my views on rationality and critical thinking (Cuypers, 2004). While Cuypers’ discussion is praiseworthy in several respects, I argue that it (1) mistakenly attributes to me a Humean view of (practical) reason, and (2) unsuccessfully argues that my position lacks the resources required to defend the basic claim that critical thinking is a fundamental educational ideal. Cuypers’ analysis raises deep issues about the motivationa…Read more
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8El Pensamiento Crítico Como Un Ideal EducacionalLogos: Revista de Lingüística, Filosofía y Literatura 23 (2): 272-292. 2013.El Pensamiento crítico como un ideal educacional
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19Knowledge and Truth54In Richard Bailey (ed.), The Sage Handbook of Philosophy of Education, Sage Publication. pp. 283. 2010.
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155Relativism, truth, and incoherenceSynthese 68 (2): 225-259. 1986.There are many contemporary sources and defenders of epistemological relativism which have not been considered thus far. I have, for example, barely touched on the voluminous literature regarding frameworks, conceptual schemes, and Wittgensteinian forms of life. Davidson's challenge to the scheme/content distinction and thereby to conceptual relativism, Rorty's acceptance of the Davidsonian argument and his use of it to defend a relativistic position, Winchian and other sociological and anthropo…Read more
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18Rescher on the Justification of RationalityInformal Logic 14 (1). 1992.In his recent book Rationality, Nicholas Rescher offers a provocative attempt to justify rationality. In this paper I critically assess that attempt. After clarifying the philosophical problem at issue, I examine Rescher's effort to solve it. I argue that Rescher's justification succeeds, but that he mistakenly characterizes it as pragmatic. It succeeds only if it is understood non-pragmatically. Consequently, Rescher must give up either his justificatory argument, or his commitment to a pragmat…Read more
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12Review of Nel Noddings, Philosophy of Education (review)Educational Studies 28 (1): 55-88. 1997.
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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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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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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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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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20Epistemology, critical thinking, and critical thinking pedagogyArgumentation 3 (2): 127-140. 1989.
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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
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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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272Instrumental rationality and naturalized philosophy of sciencePhilosophy of Science 63 (3): 124. 1996.In two recent papers, I criticized Ronald N. Giere's and Larry Laudan's arguments for 'naturalizing' the philosophy of science (Siegel 1989, 1990). Both Giere and Laudan replied to my criticisms (Giere 1989, Laudan 1990b). The key issue arising in both interchanges is these naturalists' embrace of instrumental conceptions of rationality, and their concomitant rejection of non-instrumental conceptions of that key normative notion. In this reply I argue that their accounts of science's rationality…Read more
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28Rationality, morality, and rational moral education: Further response to FreemanEducational Philosophy and Theory 12 (1). 1980.
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12Consideraciones en torno a la pragma-dialécticaLogos: Revista de Lingüística, Filosofía y Literatura 24 (2): 193-201. 2015.El presente trabajo complemenJa las referencias a la lengua aut6ctona de los día guitas chilenos, en la encrucijada histórica de la conquista hispana en el siglo Xlll , cuya primera parte se publicó en WGOS N 2 l.En este número conJrastamos las hipó tesis de don Ricardo Latcham con la crftica de don Jorge /ribarren; se ofrece, aderruís, un suscinJo panorama de la situación lingüística en el noroeste argenJino, y las anota ciones espedficamenJe lingüísticas sobre el "cacán" de Antonio Tovar, C…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Religion |
Other Academic Areas |