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60Parmenides as Secret Hero. Gregor Betz’s Theorie Dialektischer Strukturen (Theory of Dialectical Structures) Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s10503-011-9213-z Authors Frank Zenker, Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Lund University, Kungshuset, Lundagård, 222 22 Lund, Sweden Journal Argumentation Online ISSN 1572-8374 Print ISSN 0920-427X.
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17According to Michael Rescorla’s recent defense of dialectical egalitarianism reasoned discourse lacks a foundational structure, but saves the foundational intuition that some propositions are basic. On this view, I may select the reasons forwarded in support of a claim according to their being accepted by particular communities/audiences. I discuss the epistemic risk of doing so, and clarify if Rescorla’s is an epistemic approach in disguise.
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66From Euler to Navier–Stokes: A Spatial Analysis of Conceptual Changes in Nineteenth-century Fluid DynamicsInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 28 (3): 235-253. 2014.This article provides a spatial analysis of the conceptual framework of fluid dynamics during the nineteenth century, focusing on the transition from the Euler equation to the Navier–Stokes equation. A dynamic version of Peter Gärdenfors's theory of conceptual spaces is applied which distinguishes changes of five types: addition and deletion of special laws; change of metric; change in importance; change in separability; addition and deletion of dimensions. The case instantiates all types but th…Read more
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18Review of F.H. van Eemeren & B. Garssen (eds) (2008). Controversy and Confrontation. Amsterdam: John Benjamis (review)Informal Logic 29 (4): 447-475. 2009.review article
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17Monotonicity and Reasoning with ExceptionsArgumentation 20 (2): 227-236. 2006.A proposal by Ferguson [2003, Argumentation 17, 335–346] for a fully monotonic argument form allowing for the expression of defeasible generalizations is critically examined and rejected as a general solution. It is argued that (i) his proposal reaches less than the default-logician’s solution allows, e.g., the monotonously derived conclusion is one-sided and itself not defeasible. (ii) when applied to a suitable example, his proposal derives the wrong conclusion. Unsuccessful remedies are discu…Read more
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29Eemeren & Garssen's Controversy and Confrontation: Relating Controversy Analysis with Argumentation TheoryInformal Logic 29 (4): 449-479. 2009.
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45Analyzing Social Policy Argumentation: A case study on the opinion of the German National Ethics Council on an amendment of the Stem Cell LawInformal Logic 30 (1): 62-91. 2010.This paper analyzes and evaluates the 2007 majority opinion of the German National Ethics Council which seeks to establish new information (as to the inferior quality of legally procurable human embryonic stem cells) as a sufficient reason for a relaxation of the 2002 Stem Cell Law. A micro-level analysis of the opinion’s central section is conducted and evaluated vis à vis the strongest known opponent position in the national debate at that time. The argumentation is claimed to rely on an unsup…Read more
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49Using conceptual spaces to model the dynamics of empirical theoriesIn Erik J. Olson Sebastian Enqvist (ed.), Belief Revision Meets Philosophy of Science, Springer. pp. 137--153. 2011.
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33What Do Normative Approaches to Argumentation Stand to Gain from Rhetorical Insights?Philosophy and Rhetoric 46 (4): 415-436. 2013.Rhetorical analyses typically characterize structural, topical, and stylistic features of written or spoken argumentative text, and may also consider the context of interaction as well as the epistemic and social standing of participants as these relate to the goals of gaining, sustaining, and strengthening an audience’s adherence to a thesis or a course of action. Such considerations, broadly conceived, are taken to constitute rhetorical insights, insofar as they bear on effecting audience pers…Read more
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23I present a “reduced” version of the fifteen Pragma-dialectical rules and inquire into their theoretical status as necessary conditions for a critical discussion. Questions: In what respect is PD’s non-sufficiency a deficiency, can and must it be remedied? Brief answers: with respect to defining the concept ‘critical discussion,’ possibly, yes, if, and only if, one seeks to identify the concept ‘critical discussion’; no, if PD is for fallacy-detection.
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42Introduction: Reasoning, Argumentation, and Critical Thinking InstructionTopoi 37 (1): 91-92. 2016.
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63Review of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (review)Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 27 (2): 54-57. 2012.Review of "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman
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59Modeling Diachronic Changes in Structuralism and in Conceptual SpacesErkenntnis 79 (S8): 1-15. 2014.Our aim in this article is to show how the theory of conceptual spaces can be useful in describing diachronic changes to conceptual frameworks, and thus useful in understanding conceptual change in the empirical sciences. We also compare the conceptual space approach to Moulines’s typology of intertheoretical relations in the structuralist tradition. Unlike structuralist reconstructions, those based on conceptual spaces yield a natural way of modeling the changes of a conceptual framework, inclu…Read more
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6Editors’ Introduction: Conceptual Spaces at WorkIn Peter Gärdenfors & Frank Zenker (eds.), Applications of Conceptual Spaces : the Case for Geometric Knowledge Representation, Springer Verlag. 2015.This introductory chapter provides a non-technical presentation of conceptual spaces as a representational framework for modeling different kinds of similarity relations in various cognitive domains. Moreover, we briefly summarize each chapter in this volume.
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41Bayesian Argumentation – The Practical Side of Probability (edited book)Springer. 2012.Relevant to, and drawing from, a range of disciplines, the chapters in this collection show the diversity, and applicability, of research in Bayesian argumentation.
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67Using conceptual spaces to exhibit conceptual continuity through scientific theory changeEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 7 (1): 127-150. 2016.There is a great deal of justified concern about continuity through scientific theory change. Our thesis is that, particularly in physics, such continuity can be appropriately captured at the level of conceptual frameworks using conceptual space models. Indeed, we contend that the conceptual spaces of three of our most important physical theories—Classical Mechanics, Special Relativity Theory, and Quantum Mechanics —have already been so modelled as phase-spaces. Working with their phase-space fo…Read more
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22We present empirical evidence from social psychological research which suggests that standard methods employed when teaching the heuristics and biases program in the context of critical thinking instruction are likelier to facilitate the discernment and correction of biases in others’ reasoning than to have a similar effect in the self-monitoring case. Exemplified by the social phenomenon of false polarization, we suggest that CT instruction may be improved by fostering student’s abilities at co…Read more
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10Argumentation: Cognition & Community. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation [CD-ROM] (edited book)Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation. 2011.
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65Communication, Rationality, and Conceptual Changes in Scientific TheoriesIn Peter Gärdenfors & Frank Zenker (eds.), Applications of Conceptual Spaces : the Case for Geometric Knowledge Representation, Springer Verlag. 2015.This article outlines how conceptual spaces theory applies to modeling changes of scientific frameworks when these are treated as spatial structures rather than as linguistic entities. The theory is briefly introduced and five types of changes are presented. It is then contrasted with Michael Friedman’s neo-Kantian account that seeks to render Kuhn’s “paradigm shift” as a communicatively rational historical event of conceptual development in the sciences. Like Friedman, we refer to the transitio…Read more
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7Bayesian Argumentation (edited book)Springer. 2013.We give a brief introduction to the Bayesian approach to natural language argumentation, mainly oriented to readers more familiar with classical logic. Subsequently, we summarize the gist of each of the chapters so as to provide readers with an overview of the book&s content.
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76Applications of Conceptual Spaces : the Case for Geometric Knowledge Representation (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2015.Why is a red face not really red? How do we decide that this book is a textbook or not? Conceptual spaces provide the medium on which these computations are performed, but an additional operation is needed: Contrast. By contrasting a reddish face with a prototypical face, one gets a prototypical ‘red’. By contrasting this book with a prototypical textbook, the lack of exercises may pop out. Dynamic contrasting is an essential operation for converting perceptions into predicates. The existence of…Read more
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Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
Philosophy of Probability |