Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München
Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Study of Religion
PhD, 1993
Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
  •  21
  •  23
    Cognitive conditions of diagrammatic reasoning
    Semiotica 2011 (186): 189-212. 2011.
    In the first part of this paper, I delineate Peirce's general concept of diagrammatic reasoning from other usages of the term that focus either on diagrammatic systems as developed in logic and AI or on reasoning with mental models. The main function of Peirce's form of diagrammatic reasoning is to facilitate individual or social thinking processes in situations that are too complex to be coped with exclusively by internal cognitive means. I provide a diagrammatic definition of diagrammatic reas…Read more
  •  31
    As a committee of the National Academy of Engineering recognized, ethics education should foster the ability of students to analyze complex decision situations and ill-structured problems. Building on the NAE’s insights, we report about an innovative teaching approach that has two main features: first, it places the emphasis on deliberation and on self-directed, problem-based learning in small groups of students; and second, it focuses on understanding ill-structured problems. The first innovati…Read more
  •  5
    Transcendental Arguments in Scientific Reasoning
    Erkenntnis 84 (6): 1387-1407. 2019.
    Although there is increasing interest in philosophy of science in transcendental reasoning, there is hardly any discussion about transcendental arguments. Since this might be related to the dominant understanding of transcendental arguments as a tool to defeat epistemological skepticism, and since the power of transcendental arguments to achieve this goal has convincingly been disputed by Barry Stroud, this contribution proposes, first, a new definition of the transcendental argument which allow…Read more
  •  42
    A large body of research in cognitive science differentiates human reasoning into two types: fast, intuitive, and emotional “System 1” thinking, and slower, more reflective “System 2” reasoning. According to this research, human reasoning is by default fast and intuitive, but that means that it is prone to error and biases that cloud our judgments and decision making. To improve the quality of reasoning, critical thinking education should develop strategies to slow it down and to become more ref…Read more
  •  28
    The Elusive Notion of “Argument Quality”
    Argumentation 32 (2): 213-240. 2018.
    We all seem to have a sense of what good and bad arguments are, and there is a long history—focusing on fallacies—of trying to provide objective standards that would allow a clear separation of good and bad arguments. This contribution discusses the limits of attempts to determine the quality of arguments. It begins with defining bad arguments as those that deviate from an established standard of good arguments. Since there are different conceptualizations of “argument”—as controversy, as debate…Read more
  •  99
  •  43
    Some proponents of epistemological approaches to argumentation assume that it should be possible to develop non-relative criteria of argument evaluation. By contrast, this paper argues that any evaluation of an argument depends on the cognitive situation of the evaluator, on background knowledge that is available for this evaluator in a certain situation, and --in some cases--on the belief-value-system this person shares
  •  7
    Bad Arguments and Objectively Bad Arguments
    with Richard Catrambone
    Informal Logic 43 (1): 23-90. 2023.
    Many have argued that it is impossible to determine criteria to identify good arguments. In this contribution, we argue that it is at least possible to identify features of objectively bad arguments. Going beyond Blair and Johnson’s ARS criteria, which state that reasons must be acceptable, relevant, and sufficient, we develop a list of eight criteria with instructions for how to apply them to assess arguments. We conclude by presenting data from two empirical studies that show how frequently st…Read more
  •  36
    Transcendental Arguments in Scientific Reasoning
    Erkenntnis 84 (6): 1387-1407. 2019.
    Although there is increasing interest in philosophy of science in transcendental reasoning, there is hardly any discussion about transcendental arguments. Since this might be related to the dominant understanding of transcendental arguments as a tool to defeat epistemological skepticism, and since the power of transcendental arguments to achieve this goal has convincingly been disputed by Barry Stroud, this contribution proposes, first, a new definition of the transcendental argument which allow…Read more
  •  74
    “Theoric Transformations” and a New Classification of Abductive Inferences
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 46 (4): 570-590. 2010.
    Among the many problems posed by Peirce's concept of abduction is how to determine the scope of this form of inference, and how to distinguish different types of abduction. This problem can be illustrated by taking a look at one of his best known definitions of the term:Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces any new idea; for induction does nothing but determine a value, and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequen…Read more
  •  9
    Reflective Consensus Building on Wicked Problems with the Reflect! Platform
    Science and Engineering Ethics 26 (2): 793-819. 2020.
    Wicked problems—that is, problems that can be framed in a number of different ways, depending on who is looking at them—pose ethical challenges for professionals that have scarcely been recognized as such. Even though wicked problems are all around us, they are rarely addressed in education. A reason for this failure might be that wicked problems pose almost insurmountable challenges in educational settings. This contribution shows how students can learn to cope with wicked problems in problem-b…Read more
  •  18
    Consensus Building and Its Epistemic Conditions
    Topoi 40 (5): 1173-1186. 2019.
    Most of the epistemological debate on disagreement tries to develop standards that describe which actions or beliefs would be rational under specific circumstances in a controversy. To build things on a firm foundation, much work starts from certain idealizations—for example the assumption that parties in a disagreement share all the evidence that is relevant and are equal with regard to their abilities and dispositions. This contribution, by contrast, focuses on a different question and takes a…Read more
  • ¿hay Una 'lógica' De La Abducción?
    Analogía Filosófica 12 (1): 41-56. 1998.
  • Das Problem der Erkenntnisentwicklung und Peirces semiotisch-pragmatischer Lösungsansatz
    Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 27 (3): 223-240. 2002.
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  •  41
    Facilitating Problem-Based Learning by Means of Collaborative Argument Visualization Software
    with Jeremy A. Lingle
    Teaching Philosophy 38 (4): 371-398. 2015.
    There is evidence that problem-based learning (PBL) is an effective approach to teach team and problem-solving skills, but also to acquire content knowledge. However, there is hardly any literature about using PBL in philosophy classes. One problem is that PBL is resource intensive because a facilitator is needed for each group of students to support learning efforts and monitor group dynamics. In order to establish more PBL classes, the question is whether PBL can be provided without the need f…Read more
  • Peirces Philosophie der Wissenschaft, Logik und Erkenntnistheorie.(Teil 2)
    Philosophische Rundschau 51 (4): 296-313. 2004.
  •  134
    Learning from people, things, and signs
    Studies in Philosophy and Education 26 (3): 185-204. 2007.
    Starting from the observation that small children can count more objects than numbers—a phenomenon that I am calling the “lifeworld dependency of cognition”—and an analysis of finger calculation, the paper shows how learning can be explained as the development of cognitive systems. Parts of those systems are not only an individual’s different forms of knowledge and cognitive abilities, but also other people, things, and signs. The paper argues that cognitive systems are first of all semiotic sys…Read more
  •  881
    In recent years, semiotics has become an innovative theoretical framework in mathematics education. The purpose of this article is to show that semiotics can be used to explain learning as a process of experimenting with and communicating about one's own representations of mathematical problems. As a paradigmatic example, we apply a Peircean semiotic framework to answer the question of how students learned the concept of "distribution" in a statistics course by "diagrammatic reasoning" and by de…Read more
  •  15
    This argument map represents an argumentation from Heyns, C. . Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns . S.l.: United Nations. Human Rights Council. The argument map is open for debate in AGORA-net, search for map ID 9206
  •  1
    Skizze einer semiotischen Theorie des Lernens
    Journal Für Mathematik-Didaktik 22 231-251. 2001.
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  •  311
    Problems with Peirce's concept of abduction
    Foundations of Science 4 (3): 271-305. 1999.
    Abductive reasoning takes place in forming``hypotheses'''' in order to explain ``facts.'''' Thus, theconcept of abduction promises an understanding ofcreativity in science and learning. It raises,however, also a lot of problems. Some of them will bediscussed in this paper. After analyzing thedifference between induction and abduction (1), Ishall discuss Peirce''s claim that there is a ``logic''''of abduction (2). The thesis is that this claim can beunderstood, if we make a clear distinction betw…Read more