RAIL

Announcement and Call for Participation

WORKSHOP ON BAYESIAN ARGUMENTATION

Fri-Sat, October 22 & 23, 2010
Department of Philosophy & Cognitive Science
Lund University, Sweden
http://www.fil.lu.se/conferences/conference.asp?id=38&lang=se

Treatments of natural language argumentation by means of Bayes theorem (BT) are a compartively recent phenomenon. The basic idea behind (BT) is that the probability of a hypothesis increases to the extent that evidence is more likely if the hypothesis were true than if it were false. To fit this idea to natural language arguments (and episodes of reasoning thus suggested), the term ‘evidence’ is interpreted as reason or ground, and the term ‘hypothesis’ as conclusion or proposal. The choice always depends also on particular ways of drawing the distinction between theoretical and practical reasoning.

Amongst others, (BT) can be used as a measure for the rational assignment of degrees of belief in the face of new evidence. It also provides expression for qualitative demands such as the significance of the likelihood-difference between mutually exclusive, but equally data-fitting hypotheses or – in the non hypothesis-testing context – equally grounds-covering proposals. In principle, then, agreement and disagreement may be rationally constrained both within and across agents (including epistemic peers) by what effectively is a quantitative measure of relative argument strength.

Further applications of (BT) pertain, for example, to statistical fallacies and decision making under uncertainty. This international workshops seeks to collect recent results in this area, collect participant’s papers in a special issue of an international journal, and to explore avenues for future cooperation.

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Call for Papers: Special Issue of Argumentation and Advocacy on Public Argument and Digital Media

Almost ten years ago, bloggers spurred public argument about Trent Lott’s controversial toast to a retiring Strom Thurmond. Since then, digital intermediaries using a variety of forms–blogs, podcasts, wikis, photo and video, social networking sites, and microblogs–have influenced innumerable episodes of public deliberation. This special issue of Argumentation and Advocacy calls for submissions that investigate public argument occurring through digital media. We especially seek essays that probe how digital media produce novel argument forms and modes of advocacy, historical analysis of digitally-driven deliberative episodes, and critical approaches to transformations in the nature of public argument. Submissions should be completed by June 1, 2010, and will be competitively reviewed. The special issue will be guest edited by Damien Smith Pfister, and published under Argumentation and Advocacy’s new co-editorship of Catherine H. Palczewski and John Fritch.

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http://www.lrr10.ugent.be/

September 20-22, 2010

Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Belgium

The idea that there is a strong connection between logic, reasoning, and rationality,  which was very popular among the philosophers of the Wiener Kreis, has long been out of  fashion. Findings from history and philosophy of science and from cognitive psychology have revealed that the traditional logician’s tool, Classical Logic, is not fit for explicating human reasoning either in the sciences or in everyday life. Times have changed, however. Today, a multiplicity of formal frameworks (ranging from non-classical  logics over probability theory to Bayesian networks) is available in addition to Classical Logic. Also, historians and philosophers of science as well as psychologists have described a rich variety of patterns in both scientific and common sense reasoning.

The aim of LRR10 is to stimulate the use of formal frameworks to explicate concrete  examples of human reasoning and, conversely, to challenge scholars in formal studies by presenting them with interesting new examples of actual reasoning. Therefore, we welcome papers in all areas related to non-classical logics and non-classical formal frameworks. We also welcome case studies from history and philosophy of science, as well as from psychology, that enhance our apprehension of concrete reasoning patterns that occur in the sciences and in everyday life. Finally, we welcome contributions that deal with the philosophical implications of the present-day insights for our understanding of rationality.

Contributions may cover topics from the following (non-exhaustive) list:

– non-classical logics (adaptive logics, paraconsistent logics, relevant logics, modal logics, non-monotonic logics, epistemic and doxastic logics, erotetic logics, many-valued logics, fuzzy logics, conditional logics, …)

– formal methods in philosophy of science and in epistemology (probability theory, bayesian and causal nets, …)

– knowledge and belief dynamics (belief revision, belief merging, conceptual change, …)

– reasoning patterns (induction, abduction, IBE, analogical reasoning, model-based reasoning, inconsistency-handling, defeasible reasoning, causal reasoning, argumentation schemes, historical case-studies, …)

– present-day views on rationality (bounded rationality, rationality and values,fallibilism, …)

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Arnon Avron, Diderik Batens, Giovanna Corsi, Newton da Costa, Nancy Nersessian, Thomas Nickles, Graham Priest and Andrzej Wisniewski

Practical information:

* If you would like to present a paper at the conference, please submit an abstract (500 to 1000 words) by MARCH 15, 2010 to the following e-mail address: LRR10@UGent.be.

* Please write “ABSTRACT SUBMISSION” in the Subject header of your mail.

* Abstracts can be submitted in .doc, .docx or .pdf. Abstracts received will be acknowledged by e-mail. All abstracts will be carefully refereed.

Timetable:

* March 15, 2010: deadline for submission of abstracts

* May 1, 2010: notification of acceptance of abstracts

* May 15, 2010: deadline for speaker confirmation of attendance

* September 19, 2010: Academic Session in honour of Diderik Batens (partly in Dutch, followed by a reception)

* September 20-22, 2010: Conference

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Call for Papers:

Argumentation as a Cognitive Process:

Neurodynamics, Logic, and Models of Argumentation

May 13 – 15, 2010

Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

http://www.argumentacja.umk.pl/

The conference is being held under the auspices of the Polish Society for Cognitive Science and so has an interdisciplinary profile within the domain of Cognitive Science. The conference is included into a wider project whose general goal is to bring together the results of research on argumentation gained on the basis of various sciences:  philosophy, formal logic, computer science, cognitive psychology and neuroscience. It is the second conference on this topic organized at the NCU (UMK) in Toruń.

Invited Speakers:

• Alvin I. Goldman (Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, USA)
• Brian McLaughlin (Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, USA)
• John Pollock (Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, USA)
• Tadeusz Szubka (Institute of Philosophy, University of Szczecin, Poland)
• Andrzej Wiśniewski (Department of Logic,  Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland)
• Jan Woleński (Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland)

At present, in addition to the key lectures the organizers’ plan involves three sections (workshops):
(1) in cognitive logic
(2) in applied computer sciences and neuroscience
(3) in cognitive psychology and philosophy

Those who wish to present a paper are kindly asked to send the abstract (approx.200 words, no more than 500 words) of a paper to our conference secretary: anitapacholik@wp.pl Submission deadline is: February 15. 2010 (or March 1, 2010, participation without any paper) (The number of papers is limited) Standard oral presentation papers: 20 minute oral presentation (plus 10 mins discussion)

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Call for Papers

3rd International Conference on

COMPUTATIONAL MODELS OF ARGUMENT (COMMA 2010)

Desenzano del Garda, Italy, 8th-10th September 2010

www.ing.unibs.it/comma2010/

Argumentation is an important and exciting research topic in artificial intelligence, with a broad spectrum of research activities ranging from theory to applications. The International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA) is a regular forum for presentation and exchange of the latest research results related to computational aspects of argumentation.

After the successful editions in Liverpool (2006) and Toulouse (2008), COMMA 2010 will be held in Desenzano del Garda in September 2010.

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Where’s Your Argument?

Informal Logic, Critical Thinking and Argumentation

A Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire UK

Monday and Tuesday April 12th & 13th 2010

SPEAKERS:

Frans van Eemeren

the Pragma-Dialectical Approach to Argument

Lars Hertzberg

the Grammar of Inference

Don S. Levi

the Informality of Logic

Michael Loughlin

the “Evidence Based Medicine” Debate

Steven Poole

Unspeak

John Powell

Criteria for Good Argument

Rupert Read

“Reframing” and “Unspeak” or Politics Without Propaganda?

Jamie Whyte

Bad Thoughts and Worse Policies

The conference is free to attend. Places must be booked before April 1^st. We can arrange discounted accommodation, for a small booking fee

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstracts of 400-500 words on any topic within the areas of informal logic, argumentation theory and critical thinking will be considered. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday February 26th. Those being successful will be notified the following week.

Please submit abstracts no later than Friday Feb 26th to: whereisyourargument.mmu@googlemail.com

Where’s Your Argument is funded by the Aristotelian Society, The Mind Association and the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.

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Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA)

ARGUMENTATION: COGNITION & COMMUNITY

May 18-21, 2011

University of Windsor

Keynote speakers:

David Hitchock
, Department of Philosophy, 
McMaster University
Paul Thagard
, Department of Philosophy
, University of Waterloo
Karen Tracy, Communication Department, 
University of Colorado

Submission Information

The Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers which deal with argumentation, especially as it intersects with cognition and/or community.
Abstracts prepared for blind refereeing must be submitted electronically no later than SEPTEMBER 7, 2010 to <ossa@uwindsor.ca>  (write ‘[your last name] OSSA abstract’ in the subject line).  They should be between 200 and 250 words long. Additional information on how to prepare proposals is available on the conference website, www.uwindsor.ca/ossa.

The J. Anthony Blair Prize

OSSA wishes to promote the work of graduate students and young scholars in
the field of argumentation studies. Thus we strongly encourage submissions from this group. The J. Anthony Blair Prize ($500 CDN) is awarded to the student paper presented at the Conference judged to be especially worthy of recognition. The competition is open to all students whose proposals are accepted for the Conference.

Financial Assistance for Canadian Graduate Students

Canadian graduate students who need financial assistance in order to attend should advise the Organizing Committee when they submit their proposals. For the purpose of the Conference, a graduate student is one who has not completed the graduate program by September 7, 2010.  (Additional information about this prize will also be available on the website.)

Organizing Committee: 
H. V. Hansen – C. W. Tindale – J. A. Blair – R. H. Johnson

University of Windsor

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Communication and Argumentation in the Public Sphere

Dunarea de Jos University, Galati, ROMANIA

Dates: May 13th -16th, 2010

Conference Website: http://www.lit.ugal.ro/caps4.htm

We are pleased to announce the fourth edition of the Conference Communication and Argumentation in the Public Sphere, organized by the Research Centre of Discourse Theory and Practice, and the Departments of French and of Applied Modern Languages of Dunarea de Jos University, Galati, Romania, from May 13^th to 16^th, 2010. The main aim of the conference is to provide a framework for fruitful discussion and academic evaluation of research in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences by colleagues willing to present their studies and meet scholars of related scientific areas. We will be honoured to have you as a participant in the conference and in the workshops we are organizing on this occasion.

Keynote Speakers and Members of the Scientific Committee who confirmed participation:

Emmanuelle DANBLON – Free University, Brussels

Marianne DOURY – CNRS Laboratory ‘Communication et Politique’, Paris

Frans van EEMEREN – University of Amsterdam

Christian PLANTIN – ICAR CNRS UMR, Lumière Lyon 2 University

Maria ZALESKA – University of Warsaw

Topic Areas:

• the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation and the concept of strategic maneuvering
• argumentation and emotions
• argumentation in institutional contexts
• models of argumentation and types of argument
• argumentation in language and argumentation in discourse
• argumentative discourse analysis
• argumentation, topoi, loci
• argumentative techniques and discourse strategies with argumentative aim
• persuasion strategies and argumentative practice
• argumentative discourse in public space and private space
• argumentative discourse and media strategies
• conversational approaches to argumentation
• scientific discourse and discourse for specific purposes
• cultural aspects in communication
• literature and argumentation
• cooperation and conflict in public space and in private space
• political dialogue and polemic
• public opinion, civic engagement, and role of contemporary citizen

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