Some Artificial Intelligence Tools for Argument Evaluation: An Introduction

Even though tools for identifying and analyzing arguments are now in wide use in the field of argumentation studies, so far there is a paucity of resources for evaluating real arguments, aside from using deductive logic or Bayesian rules that apply to inductive arguments. In this paper it is shown that recent developments in artificial intelligence in the area of computational systems for modeling defeasible argumentation reveal a different approach that is currently making interesting progress. It is shown how these systems provide the general outlines for a system of argument evaluation that can be applied to legal arguments as well as everyday conversational arguments to assist a user to evaluate an argument.     

Extension of Luria's Psycholinguistic Studies in Poland

One of Luria's basic interests was the organization of human cognitive processes, and thinking in particular. He believed that language and thought are closely related, and hence the manner in which we speak reflects the way we think. To verify this assumption, he and his collaborators performed a number of interesting psycholinguistic experiments with subjects of various ages and cultural backgrounds. The tasks used made the evaluation of both receptive and expressive language possible. The Narrative Ability Test described here stems from Luria's observations to a considerable degree. The test was administered to preschool children (N = 106), schoolchildren (N = 143), adolescents (N = 89), adults (N = 126), and older persons (N = 175). Findings of the 20-year studies with normal and deviant populations indicate close relationships among thought, language, and self-control. It was found that difficulty in developing narratives corresponds with a disability to process complex information. Correlations between narrative skills and age, sex, and social background were also noted.     

司法论证型式的修辞研究

司法论证型式是面向司法领域系统研究演绎推论和归纳推论在该领域的作用机理,以及逻辑因素与非逻辑因素的相互作用机理。司法论证型式的修辞研究体现在语用有效性、批判性与策略问题之三大相互联系的层面。司法论证型式的＂语用有效性＂更多地通过＂批判性问题＂得以＂展示＂。在司法环境的具体应用领域,司法论证型式的＂批判性问题＂被转化为各当事人如何运用＂策略＂的问题,是面向司法领域系统研究语言策略（适切的修辞方法）和可接受的司法论证型式群的相互作用机理。如此系统性研究才能刻画论证者与听众的非特设性常识关系,彰显＂语境迟钝＂到＂语境敏感＂法律方法论互动的意义。     

Introduction: The Future of Luther Studies

Abstract : This article is an introduction to the theme articles published in this issue of Dialog. The articles derive from a workshop held in Helsinki in September 2007. They aim at identifying topics of current research that will continue to be relevant to Luther studies in the future.     

Introduction of Interdisciplinary Teaching: Two Case Studies

Interdisciplinary courses on science, engineering and society have been successfully established in two cases, at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, and at the University of Hamburg, Germany. In both cases there were institutional and perceptual barriers that had to be overcome in the primarily disciplinary departments. The ingredients of success included a clear vision of interdisciplinary themes and didactics, and the exploitation of institutional opportunities. Haldun M. Ozaktas in Ankara used the dynamics of an accreditation process to establish courses on engineering and society. At the University of Hamburg the introduction of optional courses into all curricula allowed for the establishment of a seminar series on physics and society, as well as on peace education and peace building. Both of these approaches have a weakness in common: the courses can disappear once their initiators have left, unless the interdisciplinary themes are integrated into compulsory core curricula.     

和平研究引论

和平包括消极和平与积极和平.和平学是识别和分析暴力、非暴力行为以及治理人类冲突的方法机制的一门学科,其研究范围包括战争与和平,也包括正义、发展、人权、生态环境.和平学的主要目标是探求用和平的方式实现和平,而和平教育则是其中的一项重要内容.     

Virtue in Argument

Virtue theories have become influential in ethics and epistemology. This paper argues for a similar approach to argumentation. Several potential obstacles to virtue theories in general, and to this new application in particular, are considered and rejected. A first attempt is made at a survey of argumentational virtues, and finally it is argued that the dialectical nature of argumentation makes it particularly suited for virtue theoretic analysis.     

Toward A New Eternalist Paradigm for Afterlife Studies: The Case of the Near-Death Experiences Argument

In contemporary Western culture, death has been widely censured because of its conceptual implications; it lies at the boundaries between reductionism and metaphysics. There is not yet an efficacious epistemology able to solve this contraposition and its consequent collision with science and tradition. This article analyzes Near Death Experiences (NDEs) as a prototypical argument in which the two perspectives conflict. Specifically, it analyzes the epistemological antinomies of the ontological representations of death, inhering in passage versus absolute annihilation. Indeed, the NDEs theme permits the examination of the logical contradiction between monistic reductionism and its ontological counterpart to improve the discovery of a new paradigm that integrates the ecological with eternalist views.     

Poland: Crises in Christian-Jewish Identity

Fifty years after the Holocaust, Jews in various parts of Poland who were raised as Christians are discovering their Jewish identity. Upon disclosing it, they may undergo personal crises. They are required to revise their sense of identity. Support groups conducted by the writer in the United States served as a model for similar groups in Warsaw, Poland. This paper explains the dimensions of this work, provides clinical examples from accounts of the participants, and discusses the problem of Jewish identity from various vantage points.     

The Doomsday Argument and the Simulation Argument

The Doomsday Argument and the Simulation Argument share certain structural features, and hence are often discussed together (Bostrom 2003, Are you living in a computer simulation, Philosophical Quarterly, 53:243–255; Aranyosi 2004, The Doomsday Simulation Argument. Or why isn’t the end nigh, and you’re not living in a simulation, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/190/; Richmond 2008, Doomsday, Bishop Ussher and simulated worlds, Ratio, 21:201–217; Bostrom and Kulczycki 2011 A patch for the Simulation Argument, Analysis, 71:54–61). Both are cases where reflecting on one’s location among a set of possibilities yields a counter-intuitive conclusion—in the first case that the end of humankind is closer than you initially thought, and in the second case that it is more likely than you initially thought that you are living in a computer simulation. Indeed, the two arguments do have some structural similarities. But there are also significant disanalogies between the two arguments, and I argue that these disanalogies mean that the Simulation Argument succeeds and the Doomsday Argument fails.     

The Maizena Argument: A Reaction

Everyday listening is the experience of hearing events in the world rather than sounds per se. In this article, I explore the acoustic basis of everyday listening as a start toward understanding how sounds near the ear can indicate remote physical events. Information for sound-producing events and their dimensions is investi- gated using physical analyses of events to inform acoustic analyses of the sounds they produce. The result is a variety of algorithms which enable the synthesis of sounds made by basic-level events such as impacts, scraping, and dripping, as well as by more complex events such as bouncing, breaking, spilling, and machinery. These algorithms may serve as instantiated hypotheses about the acoustic infor- mation for events. Analysis and synthesis work together in their development: Just as analyses of the physics and acoustics of sound-producing events may inform synthesis, so listening to the results of synthesis may inform analysis. This raises several issues concerning evaluation, specification, and the tension between formal and informal physical analyses. In the end, however, the fundamental test of these algorithms is in the sounds they produce: I describe them in enough detail here that readers may implement, test, and extend them.     

Compatibilism: The Argument From Shallowness

The compatibility question lies at the center of the free will problem. Compatibilists think that determinism is compatible with moral responsibility and the concomitant notions, while incompatibilists think that it is not. The topic of this paper is a particular form of charge against compatibilism: that it is shallow. This is not the typical sort of argument against compatibilism: most of the debate has attempted to discredit compatibilism completely. The Argument From Shallowness maintains that the compatibilists do have a case. However, this case is only partial, and shallow. This limited aim proves itself more powerful against compatibilists than previous all-or-nothing attempts. It connects to the valid instincts of compatibilists, making room for them, and hence is harder for compatibilists to ignore.     

Argument practices

The move to Postmodernism in argumentation is often predicated on the rejection of the formal basis of argument in logic. While this rejection may be justified, and is widely discussed in the literature, the loss of logic creates problems that a Postmodern theory of argument must address without recourse to logic and its attendant modernist assumptions. This essay argues that conceiving of argument in terms ofpractices will address the key problematics of Postmodernism without abandoning those features of argumentation that make it an important social, cultural and political practice. Implications for both theory and pedagogy are discussed.The author would like to acknowledge the invaluable commentary of, and discussions with, John Lyne, Charles Willard, Steven Fuller, and Ed Schiappa.