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1179Educating for Intellectual Virtue: a critique from action guidanceEpisteme 1-23. 2019.Virtue epistemology is among the dominant influences in mainstream epistemology today. An important commitment of one strand of virtue epistemology – responsibilist virtue epistemology (e.g., Montmarquet 1993; Zagzebski 1996; Battaly 2006; Baehr 2011) – is that it must provide regulative normative guidance for good thinking. Recently, a number of virtue epistemologists (most notably Baehr, 2013) have held that virtue epistemology not only can provide regulative normative guidance, but moreover t…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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279Justification, discovery and the naturalizing of epistemologyPhilosophy of Science 47 (2): 297-321. 1980.Reichenbach's well-known distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification has recently come under attack from several quarters. In this paper I attempt to reconsider the distinction and evaluate various recent criticisms of it. These criticisms fall into two main groups: those which directly challenge Reichenbach's distinction; and those which (I argue) indirectly but no less seriously challenge that distinction by rejecting the related distinction between psychology…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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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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222The Oxford handbook of philosophy of education (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2009.Philosophy of education has an honored place in the history of Western philosophical thought. Its questions are as vital now, both philosophically and practically, as they have ever been. In recent decades, however, philosophical thinking about education has largely fallen off the philosophical radar screen. Philosophy of education has lost intimate contact with the parent discipline to a regrettably large extent--to the detriment of both. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education is inte…Read more
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196Epistemology and Education: An Incomplete Guide to the Social-Epistemological IssuesEpisteme 1 (2): 129-137. 2004.Recent work in epistemology has focused increasingly on the social dimensions of knowledge and inquiry. Education is one important social arena in which knowledge plays a leading role, and in which knowledge-claims are presented, analyzed, evaluated, and transmitted. Philosophers of education have long attended to the epistemological issues raised by the theory and practice of education . While historically philosophical issues concerning education were treated alongside other philosophical issu…Read more
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172Truth, Thinking, Testimony and Trust: Alvin Goldman on Epistemology and EducationPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (2): 345-366. 2007.In his recent work in social epistemology, Alvin Goldman argues that truth is the fundamental epistemic end of education, and that critical thinking is of merely instrumental value with respect to that fundamental end. He also argues that there is a central place for testimony and trust in the classroom, and an educational danger in over‐emphasizing the fostering of students’ critical thinking. In this paper I take issue with these claims, and argue that (1) critical thinking is a fundamental en…Read more
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166Autonomy, critical thinking and the Wittgensteinian legacy: Reflections on Christopher Winch, education, autonomy and critical thinkingJournal of Philosophy of Education 42 (1): 165-184. 2008.In this review of Christopher Winch's new book, Education, Autonomy and Critical Thinking (2006), I discuss its main theses, supporting some and criticising others. In particular, I take issue with several of Winch's claims and arguments concerning critical thinking and rationality, and deplore his reliance on what I suggest are problematic strains of the later Wittgenstein. But these criticisms are not such as to upend Winch's powerful critique of antiperfectionism and 'strong autonomy' or his …Read more
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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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149Critical ThinkingIn Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith & Paul Standish (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, Blackwell. 2003.This chapter contains sections titled: The Nature of Critical Thinking Critical Thinking: Skills/Abilities and Dispositions Critical Thinking and the Problem of Generalizability The Relationship Between Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking “Critical Thinking” and Other Terms Referring to Thinking Critical Thinking and Education Critiques of Critical Thinking Conclusion.
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145Educating Reason: Critical Thinking, Informal logic, and the Philosophy of EducationInformal Logic 7 (2). 1985.Educating Reason: Critical Thinking, Informal logic, and the Philosophy of Education
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144Epistemic Normativity, Argumentation, and FallaciesArgumentation 11 (3): 277-292. 1997.In Biro and Siegel we argued that a theory of argumentation mustfully engage the normativity of judgments about arguments, and we developedsuch a theory. In this paper we further develop and defend our theory.
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143The rationality of science, critical thinking, and science educationSynthese 80 (1). 1989.This paper considers two philosophical problems and their relation to science education. The first involves the rationality of science; it is argued here that the traditional view, according to which science is rational because of its adherence to (a non-standard conception of) scientific method, successfully answers one central question concerning science''s rationality. The second involves the aims of education; here it is argued that a fundamental educational aim is the fostering of rationali…Read more
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124Review of Paul Boghossian, Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (1). 2007.
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122Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking, and EducationRoutledge. 1990.Beginning with a discussion of the Informal Logic Movement and the renewed interest in critical thinking in education, this book critically assesses the work of Robert Ennis, Richard Paul and John McPeck.
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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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109Norms, Naturalism and Epistemology: The Case for Science without Norms (review)Mind 114 (454): 424-429. 2005.
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106Hinges, Disagreements, and Arguments: (Rationally) Believing Hinge Propositions and Arguing across Deep DisagreementsTopoi 40 (5): 1107-1116. 2019.Wittgenstein famously introduced the notion of ‘hinge propositions’: propositions that are assumptions or presuppositions of our languages, conceptual schemes, and language games, presuppositions that cannot themselves be rationally established, defended, or challenged. This idea has given rise to an epistemological approach, ‘hinge epistemology’, which itself has important implications for argumentation. In particular, it develops and provides support for Robert Fogelin’s case for deep disagree…Read more
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102Epistemic RationalityMetaphilosophy 50 (5): 608-630. 2019.Critique of instrumental accounts of epistemic rationality
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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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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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95Empirical psychology, naturalized epistemology, and first philosophyPhilosophy of Science 51 (4): 667-676. 1984.In his 1983 article, Paul A. Roth defends the Quinean project of naturalized epistemology from the criticism presented in my 1980 article. In this note I would like to respond to Roth's effort. I will argue that, while helpful in advancing and clarifying the issues, Roth's defense of naturalized epistemology does not succeed. The primary topic to be clarified is Quine's "no first philosophy" doctrine; but I will address myself to other points as well
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95In Defense of the Objective Epistemic Approach to ArgumentationInformal Logic 26 (1): 91-101. 2006.In this paper we defend a particular version of the epistemic approach to argumentation. We advance some general considerations in favor of the approach and then examine the ways in which different versions of it play out with respect to the theory of fallacies, which we see as central to an understanding of argumentation. Epistemic theories divide into objective and subjective versions. We argue in favor of the objective version, showing that it provides a better account than its subjectivist r…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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85Multiculturalism and the possibility of transcultural educational and philosophical idealsPhilosophy 74 (3): 387-409. 1999.How should we think about the interrelationships that obtain among Philosophy, Education, and Culture? In this paper I explore the contours of one such interrelationship: namely, the way in which educational and (other) philosophical ideals transcend individual cultures. I do so by considering the contemporary educational and philosophical commitment to multiculturalism. Consideration of multiculturalism, I argue, reveals important aspects of the character of both educational and philosophical i…Read more
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85Rationality redeemed?: further dialogues on an educational idealRoutedge. 1997.In Educating Reason, Harvey Siegel presented the case regarding rationality and critical thinking as fundamental education ideals. In Rationality Redeemed? , a collection of essays written since that time, he develops this view, responds to major criticisms raised against it, and engages those critics in dialogue. In developing his ideas and responding to critics, Siegel addresses main currents in contemporary thought, including feminism, postmodernism and multiculturalism.
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 |