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Posts Tagged ‘Hugo Mercier’

Video: CRRAR Symposium on the Mercier-Sperber Theory

Posted in Argumentation, Connections, Discussion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As many will be aware, two weeks ago the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR) hosted a symposium on Mercier and Sperber’s argument-based theory of reasoning at the University of Windsor.  Hugo Mercier himself gave the keynote. The panelists were Ian Hacking, Burkhard Schafer, Mark Aakhus, and Lori Buchanan. The co-chairs were Doug Walton and myself. The event took place over two days. The first day was a public presentation and discussion of the theory. The center of the second day’s events was an open (but moderated) roundtable discussion on the theory in which the speakers, CRRAR fellows, and guests all participated.  Both days saw intense, but very stimulating and rewarding conversations.

Spurred by several requests from abroad, we decided to have the events of the first day recorded so that they could be shared with the entire argumentation studies community. I am pleased to be able to announce that that video is now available.  You can watch it by clicking here. Unfortunately, however, there were technical problems with the camera that resulted in our not having usable video. That said, the audio quality is good and the slides for the keynote presentation are synced so that they can be followed with the talk. The panelists’ responses to the keynote presentations are still included too. They were excellent and are well worth the listening.

Thanks again to all who participated, attended, and in other ways great and small helped to make it a great weekend!

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Dan Sperber: An Epidemiology of Representations

Posted in Connections, Discussion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Though it isn’t exactly recent, this video of Dan Sperber describing his theory of mind and communication at Edge.orgis an excellent way to spend 12 minutes.  In addition to the

Are they “living” culture, making inferences, replicating memes, or sending & receiving code?

video, the page has an extended and lightly edited transcript of Sperber’s short talk that makes it very easy to see the differences between Sperber’s theory of mind and communication, that of Dawkins’, and what are, for some in argumentation theory, perhaps the more familiar semiological approaches.  The video will also be of interest to those working on these topics from philosophical starting points.
If often find myself wishing that there were more discussion about these issues in argumentation theory and informal logic than there often seems to be.  Perhaps Sperber’s work, including not just his talk here but last year’s release of Meaning and Relevance (an extension of the classic Relevance, also co-written with Deirdre Wilson), and the argument theory of reasoning he and Hugo Mercier have developed, will be just the stimulus we need to see our investigations afresh.

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Symposium Announcement: The Evolution of Argumentation

Posted in Announcements, Argumentation, Connections, Symposium, tagged , , , , , , , on August 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The Evolution of Argumentation: The Sperber-Mercier Theory

5-6 October 2012

University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

Keynote Speaker: HUGO MERCIER, University of Neuchâtel

Panelists:

  • Dr. Mark Aakhus, Communications, Rutgers University
  • Dr. Lori Buchanan, Psychology, University of Windsor
  • Dr. Ian Hacking, Philosophy, University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto; Permanent Chair in the History and Philosophy of Scientific Concepts, Collège de France.
  • Dr. Burkhard Schafer, Computational Legal Theory, School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Chairs:

  • Dr. Douglas Walton, CRRAR & Assumption Chair in Argumentation Studies, University of Windsor
  • Dr. Steve Patterson, Philosophy, Marygrove College, Detroit.

Sponsored by:
THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN REASONING, ARGUMENTATION, AND RHETORIC (CRRAR)

For more information contact: crrar@uwindsor.ca

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Informal Logic, vol. 32 no.1

Posted in Announcements, Discussion, Informal Logic, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Informal Logic vol. 32 no. 1

The latest edition of Informal Logic  is now available.  Contributing authors to this volume include Lilian Bermejo-Luque , Louise Cummings , Christoph Lumer, Michael Gary Duncan,  David Botting and Ben Hamby.  While there are, as usual, several very interesting articles, of particular interest to readers of RAIL will be Cristián Santibáñez Yáñez’s thorough and well-researched critical notice of the forthcoming book-length treatment of Mercier and Sperber’s argument theory of reasoning.   The arrival of this book will undoubtedly be one of the highest-impact events of recent years on argumentation studies.  If you’ve not become acquainted with it yet, this critical notice is a good place to start.  (The archives here at RAIL aren’t bad either!)

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Point of Inquiry Interview with Hugo Mercier

Posted in Argumentation, Connections, Discussion, Teaching, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Rhetoricians will appreciate the presence of an attentive, if quadrupedal, audience in addition to the speakers.

An interesting phone interview with Hugo Mercier popped up today on Point of Inquiry, the blog for the Center for Inquiry.  The role of the confirmation bias, disagreement, and polarization are covered in this interesting discussion.  There are some very familiar themes here for argumentation theorists. It’s well worth a listen.  The clear and economical discussion of what can be complicated ideas here makes the podcast something potentially useful in advanced classes on reasoning too. The interview is about 40 minutes long. Click on the link below to listen.

Interview with Hugo Mercier

(Note: The file may take a moment to load depending upon your connection speed, so do be patient!)

 

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Horgan: “As a ‘New’ Critique of Reason, Argumentative Theory Is Trite but Useful”

Posted in Connections, Rationality, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scientific American: Winning Argument: As a ‘New’ Critique of Reason, Argumentative Theory Is Trite but Useful.

In recent posts here on RAIL I’ve been upfront about my tendency to like Mercier and Sperber’s work. Critical discussion of it, however, is still valuable and this short article in Scientific American by John Horgan is an accessible, if somewhat ambivalent gesture in that direction.

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Edge Interview with Hugo Mercier

Posted in Argumentation, Connections, Discussion, Rationality, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2011| 4 Comments »

Apollo and the Muses by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

The world of those who study argument and who study reason and rationality is abuzz with talk of the provocative research of Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber. Anyone who was at last week’s OSSA conference heard their names in practically every other conversation or presentation. For my own part I’m not sure quite what to make of their work.  On the one hand it’s exciting to see argument and reason brought together in empirical research, and I’m well on record as being very friendly to the notion that argument has a very deeply rooted functionality for human beings at both the collective and individual levels. On the other hand, I’m not sure that there aren’t grave problems lurking within. For one, Mercier and Sperber seem at times to work from the assumption that ‘argument’ means ‘deductive argument’ and if this is so, I’m not at all sure that it is wise.  The body of work on analogy alone would give me pause regarding the prospects of such a view, to say nothing of the work of the informal logic movement in the last 30 years.  There are other things that trouble me, but as I’m still doing research in this general idea I’ll try to save myself what might turn out to be a super-sized helping of crow and leave the reader to their own devices where Messrs. Mercier and Sperber are concerned.

At any rate there’s no denying it’s relevance to the world of argumentation theory.  In that vein this video interview with Hugo Mercier is one that I expect will be of interest to many.  The interview is located at the web journal* Edge, itself worth a look to those with an interest in interdisciplinary intellectual discourse.

*(All apologies to those of you who thought that by ‘Edge’ I was referring to an Irish fellow–though I confess I probably would have watched that interview with interest too.)

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