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3Precision, Consistency, Implication, and InferenceThinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 15 (1): 30-37. 2000.
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7Arguments about Arguments (review)Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 24 (1-2): 49-51. 2004.
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15The Viciousness of Infinite RegressesThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 5 25-29. 2007.Henry W. Johnstone (1996) attempts to use a notion of postponement to give a general account of viciousness of infinite regresses. Though some of his examples suggest that his notion applies to only beginningless regresses (...eRdRcRbRa), I will show that it also applies to endless ones (aRbRcRdRe...). Unfortunately, despite this expanded application, it does not apply to all vicious regresses, even to some of his own examples; it is cumbersome and unnecessary, and it fails to explain how some i…Read more
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Louis Althusser, Ecrits philosophiques et politiques Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 15 (5): 303-303. 1995.
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45Critical Thinking and Small Group ActivitiesInformal Logic 30 (4). 2010.I mention the benefits, challenges, and costs of using small group activities to enhance our students’ learning of critical thinking skills in our courses, and then describe ten examples of these groups. Two of these examples are not commonly reported in the literature on small groups, so I describe them in greater detail to facilitate their use in our courses
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95Circular definitions, circular explanations, and infinite regressesArgumentation 8 (3): 295-308. 1994.This paper discusses some of the ways in which circular definitions and circular explanations entail or fail to entail infinite regresses. And since not all infinite regresses are vicious, a few criteria of viciousness are examined in order to determine when the entailment of a regress refutes a circular definition or a circular explanation.
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29W. Peter Robinson, Arguing to Better Conclusions. A Human Odyssey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey, 2006, ISBN:0-8058-5951-9Argumentation 23 (2): 291-292. 2009.
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24Letting and making death happen, withholding and withdrawing life-support: Morally irrelevant distinctions (review)Journal of Medical Humanities 11 (2): 75-80. 1990.The author argues that there is no morally relevant distinction between letting and making death happen, and between withholding and withdrawing life-support. There is a discussion of possible adverse consequences in believing that there are moral distinctions. And then he shows that acknowledging the absence of such a distinction does not necessarily imply any endorsement of active euthanasia
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17Infinte Regress ArgumentsSpringer. 2009.Infinite regress arguments are part of a philosopher's tool kit of argumentation. But how sharp or strong is this tool? How effectively is it used? The typical presentation of infinite regress arguments throughout history is so succinct and has so many gaps that it is often unclear how an infinite regress is derived, and why an infinite regress is logically problematic, and as a result, it is often difficult to evaluate infinite regress arguments. These consequences of our customary way of using…Read more
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3Sharon Bailin and Mark Battersby: Reason in Balance: An Inquiry Approach to Critical Thinking: MacGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2010, 348 pp (review)Argumentation 27 (1): 93-96. 2013.
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109The Viciousness of Infinite RegressesThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 5 25-29. 2007.Henry W. Johnstone (1996) attempts to use a notion of postponement to give a general account of viciousness of infinite regresses. Though some of his examples suggest that his notion applies to only beginningless regresses (...eRdRcRbRa), I will show that it also applies to endless ones (aRbRcRdRe...). Unfortunately, despite this expanded application, it does not apply to all vicious regresses, even to some of his own examples; it is cumbersome and unnecessary, and it fails to explain how some i…Read more
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Louis Althusser, Ecrits philosophiques et politiques (review)Philosophy in Review 15 303-303. 1995.
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28Eemeren, Frans H. van, Grootendorst, Rob and Snoeck Henkemans, A. Francisca (2002)Argumentation 18 (4): 489-494. 2004.
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24I examine a number of infinite regress arguments whose infinite regresses are presented or described in terms of recurring questions and answers in order to determine whether such recurring questions have any role in generating these infinite regresses, or in disqualifying the recurring answers. I argue that despite the existence of such infinite regress arguments and the suggestions of some philosophers, these recurring questions have no such roles. Some ways of handling these infinite regress …Read more
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43Counterexamples and Tacit PremisesInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 20 (1): 9-22. 2000.I argue that there are at least two kinds of tacit premises; describe a certain type of counterexample against the validity of arguments, and then use it to identify one kind of tacit premise. I distinguish two classes of tacit premises on the grounds that they are discovered or constructed differently, they have different roles in an argument or causal explanation, and have different logical relations to each other.