Category Archives: General discussion

Anything else.

OSSA Day 1: Norlock and Receptivity

Kathryn J. Norlock, “Receptivity as Argumentative Virtue” Norman Schwarz in “Philosophy as Blood Sport” tells the story of professor X who attends a session at the APA, acts like a jerk at the session, and leaves announcing, “I do not … Continue reading

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OSSA Day 1: Lewinski on Polylogical Fallacies

Marcin Lewinski, “Polylogical fallacies: Are there any?” 1. Fallacy in argument is either an inferential infelicity or a disruption of intelligent interaction for dispute resolution.  Intelligent interaction is dialogue with pro-con rules.  Fallacies of dialogue are cases of breaking those … Continue reading

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OSSA Day 1: Cohen and Limits of Virtue

Dan Cohen, “Virtue and its Discontents” Virtue-argumentation theory is out to try to answer three evaluative questions about argument by way of focusing on one.  The three questions are: What makes an arguer praiseworthy? What makes an argument praiseworthy? What … Continue reading

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OSSA Day 1: MacPherson on Argumentative Virtue

Brian MacPherson, “The Incompleteness Problem for the Virtue-Based Theory of Argumentation” Thesis & Argument:  James Rachels’ ‘incompleteness problem’ for virtue ethics can be inherited by theories of argumentative virtues.  The problem can be solved by a pragmatic utilitarian theory of … Continue reading

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Live Blogging OSSA 2013

Hey NS readers, John and I will be at this year’s Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA) meeting.  We are planning on blogging the papers we attend, with thesis and argument summary and highlights from the Q&A.  We … Continue reading

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A Harvard Ph.D. should have been able to figure out what was going on

Jason Richwine, Heritage Foundation scholar and Harvard School of Public Policy PhD, was forced to resign last week after people actually read some of his work.  Here’s conservative commentator Byron York: On Friday morning, the 31 year-old scholar resigned from … Continue reading

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Here’s the skinny

Putzing around the internets the other day I ran across an example of an interesting and very common kind of downplayer.  Some context, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch (see above), a clothing retailer, has claimed he only wants to sell clothes to thin, … Continue reading

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Days of Reason

Two items today. First item, the Mayor of Charlotte, NC, and current Transportation Secretary Nominee, Anthony Foxx declared last Thursday, May 2, a Day of Reason and a Day of Prayer. Now comes the Fox News Crazy, Penny Nance, CEO … Continue reading

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Fun with Cartoons

Here’s a cartoon that expresses a sentiment I’ve heard a lot of lately (pulled it off of Reddit): I’m sad that this needs commentary.  Of the five or so things wrong with this, I think the worst is the implication … Continue reading

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Just little old me…

Dennis Prager’s post at NRO today is literally a series of conservative talking points on Islam and terrorism.  All pretty much familiar fare, from identifying a persecution complex in their opponents (the irony!) to blaming the Left for encouraging them … Continue reading

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