RAIL

CALL FOR PAPERS

Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy

VIRTUES AND ARGUMENTS
Deadline for submission: September 1, 2014

GUEST EDITORS
Andrew Aberdein (Florida Institute of Technology)
Daniel Cohen (Colby College)

OVERVIEW
Virtue-based approaches have made substantial contributions to ethics and epistemology. They have also found application in more unexpected fields, including the study of argument. Virtue Argumentation Theory mandates a shift in focus from acts and objects, or processes and products, to agents. Thus, Virtue Argumentation Theory brings a set of difficult but important new questions into focus, particularly about arguers’ conduct in inter-agent transactions. At the same time, Virtue Argumentation Theory also provides new signposts leading to their resolution. Several authors have recently begun to suggest answers to these questions. This special issue will consolidate and extend their work.

POSSIBLE TOPICS

• What impact does the virtue argumentation theory approach have on the principles of argumentation and argument evaluation?
• Should virtues of argument be reliabilist or responsibilist?
• Which virtues are needed for each of the different roles in argument (protagonists, antagonists, judges, spectators)?
• Why argue? What motivates the virtuous arguer?
• When, with whom, and about what should we argue?
• Are virtues of argument intellectual, epistemic or ethical virtues? Or are they a distinct type of virtue in their own right?
• Is it possible for an agent to have some but not all virtues of argument?
• Examinations of specific virtues (or vices) of argument, such as fairmindedness or intellectual humility.
• Might cognitive limitations, or fast and frugal heuristics, be virtues of argument?
• How do virtues of argument differ from skills?
• Are the virtues of argument culturally relative?

SUBMISSION PROCESS
Papers must be in English and should not exceed 8,000 words. Each submission should also include a separate title page containing contact details, a brief abstract and list of keywords for indexing purposes.

All papers will be subject to double-blind peer-review, following international standard practices. Manuscripts should be submitted exclusively through the Online Manuscript Submission System (Editorial Manager), accessible at http://www.editorialmanager.com/topo/

Please save your manuscript in one of the formats supported by the system (e.g., Word, WordPerfect, RTF, TXT, LaTeX2e, TeX, Postscript, etc.), which does NOT include PDF. Make sure to select the appropriate article type for your submission by selecting “S.I.: Virtue argumentation (Cohen/Aberdein)” as the appropriate tab from the scroll-down menu.

For any further information please contact:
Andrew Aberdein <aberdein@fit.edu> or Daniel Cohen <dhcohen@colby.edu>