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Over a distinguished academic career, the Canadian philosopher and scholar John Woods has written on a rich variety of topics central to contemporary philosophy. These include the history and philosophy of logic, deviant logics, inductive and abductive reasoning, informal reasoning, fallacy theory, the logic of fiction, epistemology, and abortion and euthanasia. Not only has Woods' work been significant in itself, it has also stimulated others working in these fields. Mistakes of Reason is a tribute to Woods and contains twenty-six new essays by leading Canadian and international philosophers. The essays are accompanied by commentaries by Woods himself, creating a unique dialogue between Woods and his colleagues. Editors Kent A. Peacock and Andrew D. Irvine have grouped the works under the themes of Reality, Knowledge, Logic and Language, Reasoning, and Values. The essays evaluate Woods' work and celebrate the generous contribution that he has made to Canada's intellectual development over the past forty years.
What is history? What are historians doing, when we create our histories? The need for answers is more urgent than ever. We live in an era when history is often rejected or ignored, and when all teachers of history confront formidable challenges. In the culture of screen capitalism and social media, historical knowledge is evaded in an expanding present-minded consciousness. How can history be defended, and what is it that we are defending? This book argues that history is a mode of thinking, a form of imaginative reasoning with its own informal logic. In non-technical language and using examples from important works of history, the book defines core elements in historical thinking. These in...
Written by experts in the field, this volume presents a comprehensive investigation into the relationship between argumentation theory and the philosophy of mathematical practice. Argumentation theory studies reasoning and argument, and especially those aspects not addressed, or not addressed well, by formal deduction. The philosophy of mathematical practice diverges from mainstream philosophy of mathematics in the emphasis it places on what the majority of working mathematicians actually do, rather than on mathematical foundations. The book begins by first challenging the assumption that there is no role for informal logic in mathematics. Next, it details the usefulness of argumentation theory in the understanding of mathematical practice, offering an impressively diverse set of examples, covering the history of mathematics, mathematics education and, perhaps surprisingly, formal proof verification. From there, the book demonstrates that mathematics also offers a valuable testbed for argumentation theory. Coverage concludes by defending attention to mathematical argumentation as the basis for new perspectives on the philosophy of mathematics.
In this rigorous investigation into the logic of truth Anil Gupta and Nuel Belnap explain how the concept of truth works in both ordinary and pathological contexts. The latter include, for instance, contexts that generate Liar Paradox. Their central claim is that truth is a circular concept. In support of this claim they provide a widely applicable theory (the "revision theory") of circular concepts. Under the revision theory, when truth is seen as circular both its ordinary features and its pathological features fall into a simple understandable pattern. The Revision Theory of Truth is unique in placing truth in the context of a general theory of definitions. This theory makes sense of arbitrary systems of mutually interdependent concepts, of which circular concepts, such as truth, are but a special case.
With the theme of relationship receiving renewed attention in a variety of areas, theological expressions of the subject are also being brought back into the spotlight. Although the concept of a personal relationship with God is a common Christian expression, it is often poorly defined. Here, Michael Berra draws on the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner to redefine and rehabilitate the analogy of relationship. Basing his study primarily on Brunner's seminal work Truth as Encounter, Berra proposes that relationship ought to be the central motif for the whole of theology. He investigates the theme in light of modern relationship science, arguing that God-human interaction categorically meets the definition of a relationship, and that it is existentially intended to be intimate. Scholars and church leaders will find in Berra's approach a refreshing voice in this dynamic field.
One of the marks of being a philosopher is participating in debates about what counts as "philosophy." Of particular note in such debates is the question of how to distinguish philosophy from theology. Although a variety of answers to this question have been offered in the history of philosophy, in recent decades, the prominence of Christian philosophy has been heralded by many as a genuine triumph over the problematic narrowness of strong foundationalism, positivism, and scientism. For others, however, it signals that philosophy continues to risk being replaced by confessional theology. Wherever one comes down on such issues, and however one interprets recent trends in philosophy of religio...
Anthropic Bias explores how to reason when you suspect that your evidence is biased by "observation selection effects"--that is, evidence that has been filtered by the precondition that there be some suitably positioned observer to "have" the evidence. This conundrum--sometimes alluded to as "the anthropic principle," "self-locating belief," or "indexical information"--turns out to be a surprisingly perplexing and intellectually stimulating challenge, one abounding with important implications for many areas in science and philosophy. There are the philosophical thought experiments and paradoxes: the Doomsday Argument; Sleeping Beauty; the Presumptuous Philosopher; Adam & Eve; the Absent-Mind...
Meta-Xenakis offers readers a comprehensive collection of insights into the history, works and legacy of Iannis Xenakis, one of the twentieth century’s most significant creative figures. It presents a transcontinental engagement with his life and output, focusing as much on the impact of the questions he posed as on the accomplishments of his body of work. This volume evolved out of the multi-modal, international Meta-Xenakis Consortium’s artistic and scholarly events commemorating his centenary. Informative and comprehensive, contributions span subjects including music composition, creative pedagogy, aesthetics, game theory, architecture, and the social and political contexts in which X...
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Deontic Logic in Computer Science, DEON 2006, held in Utrecht, Netherlands in July 2006. Presents 18 revised full papers together with the abstracts of 3 invited talks. The papers are devoted to the relationship between normative concepts and computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, organization theory, and law. Special emphasis is placed on artificial normative systems.
This volume presents the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Deontic Logic in Computer Science, DEON 2010, held in Fiesole, Italy, in July 2010. The 18 revised papers included in the volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 34 submissions. Topics covered include connections preferences, deontic logic and contrary-to-duties, the use of input/output logic, the study of norm dynamics, models of agents and institutions, argumentation, compliance, and various alternative analyses of deontic notions.