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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Logic

Reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations - A Beginner's Guide (Hardcover, New): John J Ross Reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations - A Beginner's Guide (Hardcover, New)
John J Ross
R3,180 Discovery Miles 31 800 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations: A Beginners Guide is written for anyone who faces the challenge of reading Philosophical Investigations. John J. Ross guides the reader slowly through each relevant section of text, explaining and elaborating key ideas, and providing the philosophical and biographical background that illuminates the problems Wittgenstein is addressing. Reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is designed to be used in the examination of the Investigations as a whole or in part; the reader can focus solely on Mathematics or Psychology, if needed. While Ross does address some of the philosophical controversies surrounding Wittgenstein's ideas, the discussions are appropriate for an undergraduate, so the book can be used fruitfully by anyone with that level of education who has an interest in Wittgenstein's seminal work.

A Guide to Kant's Psychologism - via Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Wittgenstein (Hardcover): Wayne Waxman A Guide to Kant's Psychologism - via Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Wittgenstein (Hardcover)
Wayne Waxman
R4,498 Discovery Miles 44 980 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book presents an interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason as a priori psychologism. It groups Kant's philosophy together with those of the British empiricists-Locke, Berkeley, and Hume-in a single line of psychologistic succession and offers a clear explanation of how Kant's psychologism differs from psychology and idealism. The book reconciles Kant's philosophy with subsequent developments in science and mathematics, including post-Fregean mathematical logic, non-Euclidean geometry, and both relativity and quantum theory. It also relates Kant's psychologism to Wittgenstein's later conception of language. Finally, the author reveals the ways in which Kant's philosophy dovetails with contemporary scientific theorizing about the natural phenomenon of consciousness and its place in nature. This book will be of interest to Kant scholars and historians of philosophy working on the British empiricists.

Counterfactuals (Hardcover, 2 Rev Ed): D. Lewis Counterfactuals (Hardcover, 2 Rev Ed)
D. Lewis
R2,746 Discovery Miles 27 460 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

"Counterfactuals" is David Lewis's forceful presentation of and sustained argument for a particular view about propositions which express contrary-to-fact conditionals, including his famous defense of realism about possible worlds. Since its original publication in 1973, it has become a classic of contemporary philosophy, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the logic and metaphysics of counterfactuals. The book also includes an appendix of related writings by Lewis.

The Implications of Determinism (Paperback): Roy Weatherford The Implications of Determinism (Paperback)
Roy Weatherford
R1,214 Discovery Miles 12 140 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The problem of determinism arises in all the major areas of philosophy. The first part of this book, first published in 1991, is a critical and historical exposition of the problem and the most important ideas and arguments which have arisen over the many years of debate. The second part considers the various forms of determinism and the implications that they engender.

Thinking about Acting - Logical Foundations for Rational Decision Making (Hardcover): John L. Pollock Thinking about Acting - Logical Foundations for Rational Decision Making (Hardcover)
John L. Pollock
R2,370 Discovery Miles 23 700 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

John Pollock aims to construct a theory of rational decision making for real agents--not ideal agents. Real agents have limited cognitive powers, but traditional theories of rationality have applied only to idealized agents that lack such constraints. Pollock argues that theories of ideal rationality are largely irrelevant to the decision making of real agents. Thinking about Acting aims to provide a theory of "real rationality."

Novelty (Hardcover, New): Donald A Crosby Novelty (Hardcover, New)
Donald A Crosby
R2,691 Discovery Miles 26 910 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The question of causality has haunted the history of Western metaphysics since the time of the Pre-Socratic philosophy. Hand-in-hand with attempts to address this question is the promise of unlocking larger and more complicated questions pertaining to human freedom. But what of novelty? In this brilliant extended essay Donald A. Crosby contends that though novelty can't be comprehended without efficient causality, causality requires a concept of novelty; without it cause and effect relations are unintelligible and, indeed, impossible. Crosby, in an excellent, strong, and controversial way makes the claim that freedom is consciously directed novelty. In this way, novelty is distinctive; it is not to be mistaken with either unexpected intersections of causal chains or chaos. Crosby exposes the reality of novelty throughout the book and how it applies to time, possibility, forms of materiality and embodiment, the emergence of life from nonlife, the evloution and nature of consciousness, the methods and goals of education, the character of human history and the task of historians, and also the traits of a good society. In situating novelty so firmly in the crevices of daily life, Crosby connects it to our concept of ourself, our freedom, and how we understand our relationship to the world. Through masterful readings of Isaiah Berlin, Buber, Descartes, Plato, Smart, Whitehead, and especially Henri Bergson Donald Crosby sheds new light on an elusive yet foundational concept in the history of Western thought. This book is essential to process philosophy, humanism, existentialism, philosophy of mind and consciousness, and continental thought in general.

Husserl's Logical Investigations in the New Century: Western and Chinese Perspectives (Hardcover, 2007 ed.): Kwok-Ying... Husserl's Logical Investigations in the New Century: Western and Chinese Perspectives (Hardcover, 2007 ed.)
Kwok-Ying Lau, John J. Drummond
R2,750 Discovery Miles 27 500 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This volume is the first of its kind in which phenomenologists from the West joint hands with specialists from mainland China and Hong Kong to discuss the heritage of Husserl's Logical Investigations. Whereas all Western contributors to the present volume are scholars who possess indubitable authority in phenomenology, their Chinese counterparts are much less well-known in the Western academic arena. Yet the latter's contributions are of the utmost interest. From them readers will learn of the early reception of Husserl's Logical Investigations in China. They will also understand in what way Husserl's doctrine of intentionality of consciousness in the Logical Investigations has paved the way to Scheler's phenomenology of feeling, to a novel phenomenological explication of religious experience, as well as to the little known young Foucault's tentative formulation of a paradoxical phenomenology of the dream...

Logic (Paperback, 5th ed.): Stan Baronett Logic (Paperback, 5th ed.)
Stan Baronett
R3,711 Discovery Miles 37 110 Ships in 18 - 22 working days
Knowledge, Proof and Dynamics - The Fourth Asian Workshop on Philosophical Logic (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2020): Fenrong Liu,... Knowledge, Proof and Dynamics - The Fourth Asian Workshop on Philosophical Logic (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2020)
Fenrong Liu, Hiroakira Ono, Junhua Yu
R4,022 Discovery Miles 40 220 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This volume gathers selected papers presented at the Fourth Asian Workshop on Philosophical Logic, held in Beijing in October 2018. The contributions cover a wide variety of topics in modal logic (epistemic logic, temporal logic and dynamic logic), proof theory, algebraic logic, game logics, and philosophical foundations of logic. They also reflect the interdisciplinary nature of logic - a subject that has been studied in fields as diverse as philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, computer science and artificial intelligence. More specifically. The book also presents the latest developments in logic both in Asia and beyond.

Time and its Importance in Modern Thought (Hardcover): M. F. Cleugh Time and its Importance in Modern Thought (Hardcover)
M. F. Cleugh
R4,087 Discovery Miles 40 870 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Originally published in 1937. This book is a classic work on the philosophy of time, looking at the pshychology, physics and logic of time before investigating the views of Kant, Bergson, Alexander, McTaggart and Dunne. The second half of the book contains more indepth consideration of prediction, the concepts of past and future, and reality.

Time: A Bibliographic Guide (Hardcover): Samuel L. Macey Time: A Bibliographic Guide (Hardcover)
Samuel L. Macey
R4,527 Discovery Miles 45 270 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Originally published in 1991. A multidisciplinary guide in the form of a bibliography of selected time-related books and articles divided into 25 existing academic disciplines and about 100 subdisciplines which have a wide application to time studies.

The Structure of Time (Hardcover): W.H. Newton-Smith The Structure of Time (Hardcover)
W.H. Newton-Smith
R3,640 Discovery Miles 36 400 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Originally published in 1980. What is time? How is its structure determined? The enduring controversy about the nature and structure of time has traditionally been a diametrical argument between those who see time as a container into which events are placed, and those for whom time cannot exist without events. This controversy between the absolutist and the relativist theories of time is a central theme of this study. The author's impressive arguments provide grounds for rejecting both these theories, firstly by establishing that 'empty' time is possible, and secondly by showing, through a discussion of the structure of time which involves considering whether time might be cyclical, branching, beginning or non-beginning, that the absolutist theory of time is untenable. This book then advances two new theories, and succeeds in shifting the traditional debate about time to a consideration of time as a theoretical structure and as a theoretical framework.

Time Devoured - A Materialistic Discussion of Duration (Hardcover): Edmund Parsons Time Devoured - A Materialistic Discussion of Duration (Hardcover)
Edmund Parsons
R3,060 Discovery Miles 30 600 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Originally published in 1964. This lively, challenging book, written with enthusiasm, conviction and clarity, sets out to elucidate the shadowy concept of Time. This involves central philosophical issues, which are vigorously discussed. Also relativity theory, in a clear-cut exposition, is made intelligible in a new light. All who are interested in science and its philosophical implications will find this book highly controversial but certainly readable. The author believes philosophy to be important, not only for its professionals, but for everyman. He believes that the fact that this is no longer realised shows that something is wrong with professional philosophy; he also indicates what this is. The book ends, surprisingly but pertinently, with a bold plunge into the questions of telepathy, precognition and psychical research generally. Whilst the phenomena are reasonably admitted, trenchant criticism of their significance confronts parapsychologists.

Philosophy of Language - The Central Topics (Hardcover): Susana Nuccetelli, Gary Seay Philosophy of Language - The Central Topics (Hardcover)
Susana Nuccetelli, Gary Seay; Contributions by JL Austin, Anthony Brueckner, Noam Chomsky, …
R4,351 Discovery Miles 43 510 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This collection of classic and contemporary essays in philosophy of language offers a concise introduction to the field for students in graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses. It contains some of the most important basic sources in philosophy of language, including a number of classic essays by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Kripke, Grice, Davidson, Strawson, Austin, and Putnam, as well as more recent contributions by scholars including John McDowell, Stephen Neale, Ruth Millikan, Stephen Schiffer, Paul Horwich, and Anthony Brueckner, among others, who are on the leading edge of innovation in this increasingly influential area of philosophy. The result is a lively mix of readings, together with the editors' discussions of the material, which provides a rigorous introduction to the subject.

Semantics and Beyond - Philosophical and Linguistic Inquiries (Hardcover, Digital original): Piotr Stalmaszczyk Semantics and Beyond - Philosophical and Linguistic Inquiries (Hardcover, Digital original)
Piotr Stalmaszczyk
R4,332 Discovery Miles 43 320 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Papers in the collection concentrate on different issues relevant for contemporary research within semantics, such as the linguistic and philosophical status of representations, reference theory and indexicals, situation semantics, formal semantics, normativity of meaning and speech acts, and different approaches to context and contextualism. The authors investigate the links between semantics and syntax, and between semantics, pragmatics, and speech act theory, and demonstrate that it is possible to integrate findings from different disciplines. Recent studies often advocate a 'pragmatic turn' in the study of meaning and context; however, the papers in the volume show that semantics and meaning remain in the center of research carried out within contemporary linguistics and philosophy, especially the philosophy of language. The volume includes contributions by: Brian Ball (St Anne's College, Oxford), John Collins (University of East Anglia), Luis Fernandez Moreno (Complutense University of Madrid), Chris Fox (University of Essex), Filip Kawczynski (University of Warsaw), Katarzyna Kijania-Placek (Jagiellonian University), Joanna Klimczyk (Polish Academy of Sciences), Paul Livingston (University of New Mexico), Mark Pinder (University of Bristol), Ernesto Perini-Santos (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Tabea Reiner (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich), Stefan Riegelnik (University of Zurich), Arthur Sullivan (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Massimiliano Vignolo (University of Genoa), and Marian Zouhar (Slovak Academy of Sciences). The volume should be of interest to linguists, philosophers of language, and philosophers in general.

Why We Argue (And How We Should) - A Guide to Political Disagreement in an Age of Unreason (Hardcover, 2nd edition): Scott... Why We Argue (And How We Should) - A Guide to Political Disagreement in an Age of Unreason (Hardcover, 2nd edition)
Scott Aikin, Robert Talisse
R4,499 Discovery Miles 44 990 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Why We Argue (And How We Should): A Guide to Political Disagreement in an Age of Unreason presents an accessible and engaging introduction to the theory of argument, with special emphasis on the way argument works in public political debate. The authors develop a view according to which proper argument is necessary for one's individual cognitive health; this insight is then expanded to the collective health of one's society. Proper argumentation, then, is seen to play a central role in a well-functioning democracy. Written in a lively style and filled with examples drawn from the real world of contemporary politics, and questions following each chapter to encourage discussion, Why We Argue (And How We Should) reads like a guide for the participation in, and maintenance of, modern democracy. An excellent student resource for courses in critical thinking, political philosophy, and related fields, Why We Argue (And How We Should) is an important contribution to reasoned debate. What's New in the Second Edition: Updated examples throughout the book, including examples from the 2016 U.S. election and first years of the Trump presidency; Expanded coverage of dialectical fallacies, including coverage of new types of fallacies and of sites where such fallacies thrive (e.g., cable news, social media); Revised For Further Thought questions and definitions of Key Terms, included at the end of each chapter; The addition of five new chapters: Deep Disagreement Argument by Analogy Argument between the Ads The Owl of Minerva (or weaponizing metalanguage) Argumentative Responsibility and Repair.

Handbook of Philosophical Logic - Volume 8 (Hardcover, 2nd ed. 2002): Dov M. Gabbay, Franz Guenthner Handbook of Philosophical Logic - Volume 8 (Hardcover, 2nd ed. 2002)
Dov M. Gabbay, Franz Guenthner
R4,264 Discovery Miles 42 640 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

suchquestionsforcenturies(unrestrictedbythecapabilitiesofanyhard- ware). Theprinciplesgoverningtheinteractionofseveralprocesses,forexample, areabstractansimilartoprinciplesgoverningthecooperationoftwolarge organisation.Adetailedrulebasedeffectivebutrigidbureaucracyisvery muchsimilartoacomplexcomputerprogramhandlingandmanipulating data. Myguessisthattheprinciplesunderlyingoneareverymuchthe sameasthoseunderlyingtheother. Ibelievethedayisnotfarawayinthefuturewhenthecomputerscientist willwakeuponemorningwiththerealisationthatheisactuallyakindof formalphilosopher! TheprojectednumberofvolumesforthisHandbookisabout18.The subjecthasevolvedanditsareashavebecomeinterrelatedtosuchanextent thatitnolongermakessensetodedicatevolumestotopics.However,the volumesdofollowsomenaturalgroupingsofchapters. Iwouldliketothankourauthorsarereadersfortheircontributionsand theircommitmentinmakingthisHandbookasuccess. Thanksalsoto ourpublicationadministratorMrsJ.Spurrforherusualdedicationand excellenceandtoKluwerAcademicPublishersfortheircontinuingsupport fortheHandbook. DovGabbay King'sCollegeLondon x Logic II IT Natural Program Artificialin- Logic p- language controlspec- telligence gramming processing ification, verification, concurrency Temporal Expressive Expressive Planning. Extension of logic poweroftense power for re- Time depen- Horn clause operators. currentevents. dent data. with time Temporal Specification Eventcalculus. capability. indices. Sepa- of tempo- Persistence Eventcalculus. rationofpast ral control. throughtime- Temporallogic fromfuture Decisionprob- the Frame programming. Problem.Tem- lems. Model checking. poral query language. temporal transactions. Modal logic. generalised Actionlogic Beliefrevision. Negation by Multi-modal quantifiers Inferential failure and logics databases modality Algorithmic Discourse rep- New logics. Generaltheory Proceduralap- proof resentation. Generic theo- of reasoning. proachtologic Direct com- remprovers Non-monotonic putation on systems linguisticinput Non- Resolving Loopchecking. Intrinsiclogical Negation by monotonic ambigui- Non-monotonic discipline for failure.Deduc- reasoning ties. Machine decisionsabout AI. Evolving tivedatabases translation. loops. Faults and com- Document insystems. municating classification. databases Relevance theory Probabilistic logicalanalysis Realtimesys- Expert sys- Semantics for and fuzzy oflanguage tems tems.Machine logicprograms logic learning Intuitionistic Quantifiers in Constructive Intuitionistic Horn clause logic logic reasoning and logicisabetter logic is really proof theory logical basis intuitionistic.

Logics and Languages (Paperback): M.J. Cresswell Logics and Languages (Paperback)
M.J. Cresswell
R1,135 Discovery Miles 11 350 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Originally published in 1973, this book shows that methods developed for the semantics of systems of formal logic can be successfully applied to problems about the semantics of natural languages; and, moreover, that such methods can take account of features of natural language which have often been thought incapable of formal treatment, such as vagueness, context dependence and metaphorical meaning. Parts 1 and 2 set out a class of formal languages and their semantics. Parts 3 and 4 show that these formal languages are rich enought to be used in the precise description of natural languages. Appendices describe some of the concepts discussed in the text.

Logic from a Rhetorical Point of View (Hardcover, Reprint 2012): Witold Marciszewski Logic from a Rhetorical Point of View (Hardcover, Reprint 2012)
Witold Marciszewski
R4,526 Discovery Miles 45 260 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Semantical Investigations in Heyting's Intuitionistic Logic (Hardcover, 1981 ed.): Dov M. Gabbay Semantical Investigations in Heyting's Intuitionistic Logic (Hardcover, 1981 ed.)
Dov M. Gabbay
R4,174 Discovery Miles 41 740 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

From the point of view of non-classical logics, Heyting's implication is the smallest implication for which the deduction theorem holds. This book studies properties of logical systems having some of the classical connectives and implication in the neighbourhood of Heyt ing's implication. I have not included anything on entailment, al though it belongs to this neighbourhood, mainly because of the appearance of the Anderson-Belnap book on entailment. In the later chapters of this book, I have included material that might be of interest to the intuitionist mathematician. Originally, I intended to include more material in that spirit but I decided against it. There is no coherent body of material to include that builds naturally on the present book. There are some serious results on topological models, second order Beth and Kripke models, theories of types, etc., but it would require further research to be able to present a general theory, possibly using sheaves. That would have postponed pUblication for too long. I would like to dedicate this book to my colleagues, Professors G. Kreisel, M.O. Rabin and D. Scott. I have benefited greatly from Professor Kreisel's criticism and suggestions. Professor Rabin's fun damental results on decidability and undecidability provided the powerful tools used in obtaining the majority of the results reported in this book. Professor Scott's approach to non-classical logics and especially his analysis of the Scott consequence relation makes it possible to present Heyting's logic as a beautiful, integral part of non-classical logics."

Symbolic Logic - Syntax, Semantics, and Proof (Hardcover, New): David Agler Symbolic Logic - Syntax, Semantics, and Proof (Hardcover, New)
David Agler
R5,294 Discovery Miles 52 940 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Brimming with visual examples of concepts, derivation rules, and proof strategies, this introductory text is ideal for students with no previous experience in logic. Symbolic Logic: Syntax, Semantics, and Proof introduces students to the fundamental concepts, techniques, and topics involved in deductive reasoning. Agler guides students through the basics of symbolic logic by explaining the essentials of two classical systems, propositional and predicate logic. Students will learn translation both from formal language into English and from English into formal language; how to use truth trees and truth tables to test propositions for logical properties; and how to construct and strategically use derivation rules in proofs. This text makes this often confounding topic much more accessible with step-by-step example proofs, chapter glossaries of key terms, hundreds of homework problems and solutions for practice, and suggested further readings.

Santayana the Philosopher - Philosophy as a Form of Life (Hardcover): Daniel Moreno Santayana the Philosopher - Philosophy as a Form of Life (Hardcover)
Daniel Moreno; Translated by Charles Padron
R2,857 Discovery Miles 28 570 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Regarding Santayana it has been claimed that he lacks a system while contradicting himself in outrageous ways. An attentive analysis of his complete oeuvre, however, reveals something else entirely. It is not easy to classify a thinker as a Platonic materialist, an ironic nihilist, a spiritual atheist, and a conservative without political commitment, but, if one respects his own language, one discerns an astonishing, little-known Santayana, whose philosophical leitmotif consists in: 1) detecting the numerous "false steps," logical and moral, supplied by the imagination when it confuses things with the names that designate them, or the world with the feelings that it provokes in the human animal-these errors assume diverse faces: pantheism, moralism, egotism, subjectivism, transcendentalism, Platonism, Puritanism, and utopianism; 2) avoiding these illusions in such a way as to keep the spiritual door open as a form of life to be lived out in an honest fashion; 3) recognizing the natural origin of these temptations and asking oneself what moves humans to succumb imperceptibly to these mistakes, at times tragic, at others comical, and what precautions one can take to remain cognizant of the deceitful leaps that can hijack one's life; and 4) proposing as an alternative the radical distinction between essence and existence, which leads him to distinguish four realms of being: the realm of essence, the realm of matter, the realm of truth, and the realm of spirit. Essence as logical identity, matter as contingent existence, truth as frozen history, and spirit as the flames that part from contingency and approximate the eternal. An attempt has been made in this book to expand on and clarify these questions.

Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation - A Survey of Theories on the Justification of Judicial Decisions (Hardcover, 2nd ed.... Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation - A Survey of Theories on the Justification of Judicial Decisions (Hardcover, 2nd ed. 2017)
Eveline T. Feteris
R4,455 Discovery Miles 44 550 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book is an updated and revised edition of Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation published in 1999. It discusses new developments that have taken place in the past 15 years in research of legal argumentation, legal justification and legal interpretation, as well as the implications of these new developments for the theory of legal argumentation. Almost every chapter has been revised and updated, and the chapters include discussions of recent studies, major additions on topical issues, new perspectives, and new developments in several theoretical areas. Examples of these additions are discussions of recent developments in such areas as Habermas' theory, MacCormick's theory, Alexy's theory, Artificial Intelligence and law, and the pragma-dialectical theory of legal argumentation. Furthermore it provides an extensive and systematic overview of approaches and studies of legal argumentation in the context of legal justification in various legal systems and countries that have been important for the development of research of legal argumentation. The book contains a discussion of influential theories that conceive the law and legal justification as argumentative activity. From different disciplinary and theoretical angles it addresses such topics as the institutional characteristics of the law and the relation between general standards for moral discussions and legal standards such as the Rule of Law. It discusses patterns of legal justification in the context of different types of problems in the application of the law and it describes rules for rational legal discussions. The combination of the sound basis of the first edition and the discussions of new developments make this new edition an up-to-date and comprehensive survey of the various theoretical influences which have informed the study of legal argumentation. It discusses salient backgrounds to this field as well as major approaches and trends in the contemporary research. It surveys the relevant theoretical factors both from various continental law traditions and common law countries.

Appeal to Expert Opinion - Arguments from Authority (Paperback, New): Douglas Walton Appeal to Expert Opinion - Arguments from Authority (Paperback, New)
Douglas Walton
R1,376 Discovery Miles 13 760 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

A new pragmatic approach, based on the latest developments in argumentation theory, analyzing appeal to expert opinion as a form of argument.

Reliance on authority has always been a common recourse in argumentation, perhaps never more so than today in our highly technological society when knowledge has become so specialized--as manifested, for instance, in the frequent appearance of "expert witnesses" in courtrooms. When is an appeal to the opinion of an expert a reasonable type of argument to make, and when does it become a fallacy? This book provides a method for the evaluation of these appeals in everyday argumentation.

Specialized domains of knowledge such as science, medicine, law, and government policy have gradually taken over as the basis on which many of our rational decisions are made daily. Consequently, appeal to expert opinion in these areas has become a powerful type of argument. Challenging an argument based on expert scientific opinion, for example, has become as difficult as it once was to question religious authority.

Walton stresses that even in cases where expert opinion is divided, the effect of it can still be so powerful that it overwhelms an individual's ability to make a decision based on personal deliberation of what is right or wrong in a given situation. The book identifies the requirements that make an appeal to expert opinion a reasonable or unreasonable argument. Walton's new pragmatic approach analyzes that appeal as a distinctive form of argument, with an accompanying set of appropriate critical questions matching the form. Throughout the book, a historical survey of the key developments in the evolution of the argument from authority, dating from the time of the ancients, is given, and new light is shed on current problems of "junk science" and battles between experts in legal argumentation.

Reasoning about Preference Dynamics (Hardcover, 2011 Ed.): Fenrong Liu Reasoning about Preference Dynamics (Hardcover, 2011 Ed.)
Fenrong Liu
R2,661 Discovery Miles 26 610 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Our preferences determine how we act and think, but exactly what the mechanics are and how they work is a central cause of concern in many disciplines. This book uses techniques from modern logics of information flow and action to develop a unified new theory of what preference is and how it changes. The theory emphasizes reasons for preference, as well as its entanglement with our beliefs. Moreover, the book provides dynamic logical systems which describe the explicit triggers driving preference change, including new information, suggestions, and commands. In sum, the book creates new bridges between many fields, from philosophy and computer science to economics, linguistics, and psychology. For the experienced scholar access to a large body of recent literature is provided and the novice gets a thorough introduction to the action and techniques of dynamic logic.

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