Considering Pragma-Dialectics honors the monumental contributions of one of the foremost international figures in current argumentation scholarship: Frans van Eemeren. The volume presents the research efforts of his colleagues and addresses how their work relates to the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation with which van Eemeren’s name is so intimately connected. This tribute serves to highlight the varied approaches to the study of argumentation and is destined to inspire researchers to advance scholarship in the field far into the future. Replete with (...) contributions from highly-esteemed academics in argumentation study, chapters in this volume address such topics as: *Pragma-dialectic versus epistemic theories of arguing and arguments; *Pragma-dialectics and self-advocacy in physician-patient interactions; *The pragma-dialectical analysis of the ad hominem family; *Rhetoric, dialectic, and the functions of argument; and *The semantics of reasonableness. As an exceptional volume and a fitting tribute, this work will be of interest to all argumentation scholars considering the astute insights and scholarly legacy of Frans van Eemeren. (shrink)

I moderne samfund bygger ekspertråd og prognoser i stigende grad på forskning, der tilstræbes at fremtræde som uafhængig af politiske holdninger og interesser. I højkomplekse samfund gør styringshensyn det påkrævet at reducere kompleksitet og forenkle kommunikation mellem relativt autonome delsystemer gennem et afpolitiseret og entydigt fælles sprog. Forskning med kvantificering og standardisering er egnede metoder. Emnet har haft opmærksomhed og været videnskabsteoretisk standardstof stort set siden fagenes fødsel, men repræsentative empiriske undersøgelser, i særdeleshed danske, er faktisk sjældne. Jeg inddrager (...) danske og udenlandske empiriske undersøgelser om forskeres holdninger og vurderinger samt udvalgte eksempler fra mine egne og andres undersøgelser om eksterne interessers påvirkning. Politisering og pression svækker forskningens legitimitet og troværdighed. Legitimitet og tillid kunne øges, hvis eksperter redegjorde for usikkerheden, og hvis der blev etableret rammer, der i højere grad sikrede forskningens uafhængighed. (shrink)

K.E. Løgstrups monografi om Immanuel Kants erkendelsesteoretiske hovedværk 'Kritik af den rene fornuft'. Med efterskrift af Peter Aaboe Sørensen. "De metafysiske spørgsmål bliver stående; de er givet med vor fornufts naturanlæg. Måske mere end nogen anden videnskab er metafysikken lagt i os, og dens spørgsmål er alt andet end tilfældige. Man kan lige så lidt vente, at menneskets ånd helt ville opgive metafysiske undersøgelser, som man kan vente, at vi ville indstille at trække vejret for at undgå at indånde uren (...) luft. Om bogens efterskrift m.m.: "... han [Peter Aaboe Sørensen] gør det glimrende. Vi får for eksempel at vide, at bogens hovedafsnit udkom første gang så tidligt som i 1952, i en periode, hvor de teologiske professorer i Århus bestræbte sig på at skrive små filosofi-historiske monografier til deres studerende. Aaboe gør også meget relevant rede for den biografiske baggrund for Løgstrups engagement i Kant: Som studerende havde han selv haft enorme vanskeligheder med at forstå den tyske gigant. Først i det tredje studieår lykkedes det ham ved ren stædighed og vilje at få fat. Nu ville han forstå det. Dette resultat af veloverstået kamp kom senere tiders studerende og nutidens læsere til gode i den klare og myndige præsentation af Kants tanker, som er temmelig vanskelige at gå til uden mellemled." Nils Gunder Hansen, Kristeligt Dagblad. (shrink)

F. LeRon Shults explores DeleuzeOCOs fascination with theological themes and shows how his entire corpus can be understood as a creative atheist machine that liberates thinking, acting and feeling."e.

The question of Theodicy demands a reasonable justification of the nature, structures and goals of evil and suffering in the world. The paper attempts to explain the reasons for its presence in our lives and seeks to unveil its principles. If God is all knowing, almighty and also merciful, we must face the problem of the presence of evil and suffering in this world. The main goal of the paper is to show the way the New Testament deals with this (...) question, and further to show to what extent it has influenced the life of Christians from the point of view of teleology. (shrink)

Purpose: Appreciating the relationship between Sylvio Ceccato and Ernst von Glasersfeld, both as people and in their work. Approach: historical and personal accounts, archeological approach to written evidence. Findings: Ceccato’s work is introduced to an English speaking audience, and the roots of Glasersfeld’s work in Ceccato’s is explored. Flaws in Ceccato’s approach are indicated, together with how Glasersfeld’s work overcomes these, specially in language and automatic translation, and what became Radical Constructivism. Conclusion: Glasersfeld willingly acknowledges Ceccato, who he still refers (...) to as the Master. But Ceccato’s work is little known, specially in the English speaking world. The introduction, critique and delineation of extension and resolution of Ceccato’s ideas in Glasersfeld’s work is the intended value of the paper. (shrink)

This article explores some of the ways in which the conceptual apparatus of A Thousand Plateaus, and especially its machinic metaphysics, can be connected to recent developments in computer modelling and social simulation, which provide new tools for thinking that are becoming increasingly popular among philosophers and social scientists. Conversely, the successful deployment of these tools provides warrant for the flat ontology articulated in A Thousand Plateaus and therefore contributes to the ‘reversal of Platonism’ for which Deleuze had called in (...) his earlier works, such as Logic of Sense. The first major section offers a brief exposition of some key concepts in A Thousand Plateaus in order to set the stage for the second and third major sections, which argue that the fabrication of a metaphysics of immanence can be accelerated by connecting its conceptual apparatus more explicitly to insights derived from philosophical analyses of computational modelling and simulation and the social scientific use of ‘assemblage theory’. The article concludes with a summary of the argument and a brief consideration of some of the potential ethical and political implications of this interdisciplinary engagement. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Multidisciplinary Inquiry in the Study of Religion:The Next GenerationF. LeRon Shults (bio)Bob Neville and I began our introduction to Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Approaches to Wesley J. Wildman, by describing the latter as "the most original, audacious, creative, encyclopedic, and integrative thinker working within and across the fields of philosophy, ethics, theology, and the scientific study of religion in our time."1 Notice we did not (...) say "one of the most," but "the most." We stand by the claim. Active members of the Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought (IARPT), the professional association that sponsors the American Journal of Theology and Philosophy (AJPT), will be familiar with Wildman's work and not at all surprised by this assertion. For those less well acquainted with Wildman, and so understandably somewhat suspicious of such a claim, I hope that the essays in the special issue—and of course the Festschrift to which they respond—will diminish their skepticism and pique their curiosity.It was Wesley who invited me to join IARPT all those many years ago (when it was still HIARPT), a unique group of pragmatist and process philosophers, most of whom are (more or less religious) naturalists. It is an association of professionals and friends within which I have found a happy home. It has been a joy to be able to put together the book and this special issue to honor Wesley and promote further engagement with his work.It was a difficult task for Bob Neville and me to categorize Wildman's multidisciplinary corpus, but eventually we decided to invite contributors to approach his work from the general direction of one of three areas—philosophy, theology, or science—while simultaneously reaching across disciplines. In the aforementioned introduction, we offered a brief academic biography and summary of some of Wildman's most significant books for those not familiar with his writings. The three major parts of the volume, which I will summarize below, offer several scholarly engagements with Wildman's thought, each approaching it with a multidisciplinary perspective. For those unfamiliar with his philosophy, a good place to start for understanding his approach to philosophy is Religious Philosophy as [End Page 5] Multidisciplinary Comparative Inquiry.2 A good place to begin getting familiar with his approach to theology is In Our Image: Anthropomorphism, Apophaticism, and Ultimacy.3 A good place to get a feel for his approach to the scientific study of religion is Science and Religious Anthropology: A Spiritually Evocative Naturalist Interpretation of Human Life.4Whether in philosophy, theology, or the scientific study of religion, Wildman has not hesitated to "boldly go where no one has gone before." With the courage of a Captain Kirk and the intelligence of a Mr. Spock, not to mention the ingenuity of a Scotty and therapeutic skills of a Dr. McCoy, Wildman has trekked through the unknown (and in the case of theology, he would add, unknowable) conceptual space of more disciplinary systems that one would think possible. His intellectual voyages exploring strange new multidisciplinary worlds have been an inspiration to many in the next generation of scholars interested in engaging American religious and philosophical thought. People who know Wesley well also know how much energy he has committed to nurturing this next generation. The younger authors who have contributed to this special issue may not even get my references to the original Star Trek, which aired in the 1960s, and are perhaps even too young even to remember Star Trek: The Next Generation, which first aired in 1987, with Captain Jean Luc Picard and the gang. Well, one gets to a certain age and one has to come to terms with using the cultural references one has.In the film Star Trek Generations, which came out 30 years ago, the same year (indeed, the same month) that I met Wesley, Captain Picard finds himself facing another galactic crisis and (spoiler alert) ends up being pulled into the "Nexus," an extra-dimensional realm of wish fulfillment, where he finds Captain Kirk, long presumed dead, enjoying himself immensely. Kirk agrees to help Picard alter space-time and together they save the universe (again). OK, let... (shrink)

This article argues that a relatively novel methodology called multi-agent artificial intelligence modeling can play an important role in helping scholars fulfill eight desiderata for a “good” social scientific theory (conceptual clarity, logical consistency, empirical groundedness, parsimony, generativity, testability, insightfulness, and usefulness). The unique contributions of this methodology include its use of psychologically realistic agents in sociologically realistic networks that interact with each other and their simulated environment within an “artificial society.” These simulation tools utilize artificial intelligence in a way (...) that enables scholars to causally generate the emergence of macro-level societal phenomena of interest from the micro-level behaviors and meso-level interactions of simulated agents that represent real world populations. These social digital twins can also integrate multiple social theories within a single causal architecture, providing a unique opportunity for the revolutionizing of our best theoretical frameworks. (shrink)

The material anthropological proposals of Wolfhart Pannenberg are best interpreted in light of the methodological reciprocity that lies across and holds together his treatments of theology and science. In the context of a response to a recent book on Pannenberg by Jacqui Stewart, this article outlines a new interpretation of his theological engagement with the human sciences. I provide a model of the relationality that links these disciplines in Pannenberg's work and commend its general contours as a resource for the (...) ongoing reconstruction of the interdisciplinary dialogue vis‐à‐vis the concerns of late modernity. (shrink)

Some philosopheis (e.g. Ayer, Reichenbach, Lewis) use a version of the argument from illusion to prove that empirical statements are never certain. But this argument, unwittingly, also calls into doubt the certainty of calculations in logic and mathematics. The argument seems to call into question the application of any rule on the grounds that one might at some future time find out that one had misapplied it. But the argument from illusion is only the illusion of an argument.