Robert C. Pinto, Former Senior Research Fellow

In Memoriam

 

Robert Charles Pinto

1935–2019

 

With great sadness we announce the death on September 3rd, 2019, of our esteemed colleague and friend, Bob Pinto. Bob was an active Fellow of the Centre until illness forced his absence in the last few years.

            Bob was schooled in the history of philosophy at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and in contemporary analytic philosophy in the Ph.D. program at Toronto, where he wrote a dissertation in epistemology. He was also widely read in 20th century continental philosophy. He spent his career at the University of Windsor, starting in 1963. He had friends and acquaintances in virtually every faculty and school of the University, and from the University President to the clerks in the mail room. He served as president of the faculty association and as its chief negotiator for several contracts that saw increased benefits and avoided strikes. He created a computer program for the faculty to record and calculate students’ grades, “Class Record”, that was adopted by the University.

            Bob became interested in informal logic in the 1980s at the urging of his colleagues, Ralph Johnson and Tony Blair, and he published in the field for 20 years. His collected papers on informal logic, Argument, Inference and Dialectic (Kluwer, 1991), is required reading. (A list of his publications may be found below.)   

            Bob had a prodigious acquaintance with and memory for the history of philosophy, and it is a sad irony that the neuro-degenerative ravages of Alzheimer’s robbed him of this gift in his last years. He will be remembered by his colleagues for his genuine friendliness and kindness as well as for his significant contributions to informal logic. As one colleague expressed it, “He was a lovely man, and a very smart one.” We mourn his passing.

Announcement in the Globe and Mail

I REMEMBER (from the Globe and Mail)

Robert C. Pinto

Professor Pinto joined the Philosophy department in 1963. Within the department, he has taken a turn as head and for many years was either chair or a member of the graduate studies committee. For many years he was associate editor of Informal Logic, and a member of the editorial boards of Informal Logic, of Argumentation and of Revista Iberoamericana de Argumentación. He created the first Web site for the Canadian Philosophical Association and for several years was its editor.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Informal Logic, Argumentation Theory

Current Research:

His current research focuses on the nature of reasons; relationship between belief and acceptance; mutual conceptual interdependence between statements ascribing propositional attitudes and truth predicates.

RESEARCH INFORMATION

Books:

• Reason Reclaimed: Essays in Honour of J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnson(edited with Hans V. Hansen). Vale Press, 2007.
• Argument, Inference and Dialectic, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.
• Fallacies: Classical and Contemporary Readings (edited with Hans V. Hansen). Penn State Press, 1995.
• Reasoning: A Practical Guide (with J. A. Blair). Prentice Hall, 1993.
• Reasoning: A Practical Guide for Canadian Students (with J. A. Blair and Kate Parr), Prentice Hall Canada, 1993.

Chapters in Books:

• Burdens of Rejoinder. In Hansen and Pinto, eds., Reason Reclaimed: Essays in Honour of J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnson (Vale Press, 2007): 75-88.
• Evaluating Inferences: the nature and role of warrants. In David Hitchcock and Bart Verheij, eds., Arguing on the Toulmin model: New essays on argument analysis and evaluation (Springer 2006), 115-144.
• Reasons. In van Eemeren, Blair, Willard and Snoeck-Heckemans, eds., Anyone Who Has a View. Studies in Argumentation (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 3-15.
• Journal Articles:
• R. C. Pinto, The Uses of Argument in Communicative Contexts.  Argumentation 24:2 (2010), pp. 227-252.
• R. C. Pinto. Argumentation and the force of reasons”.  Informal Logic 29: 3(2009), pp. 263-297.
• R. C. Pinto. Argument schemes and the evaluation of presumptive reasoning: some reflections on Blair’s account. ProtoSociology 13 (1999): 50-58.
• R. C. Pinto. Evaluating Inferences: the nature and role of warrants. Informal Logic 26: 3 (2006): 287-317.

Recent Conference Papers:

• Emotions and Reasons. Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, May 2011.
• Comments on Kvernbekk’s “Evidence-based Practice (EBP) and Toulmin.”Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, May 2011.
• "Weighing Evidence in the Context of Conductive Reasoning." Paper delivered at CRRAR mini-conference on conductive arguments at the University of Windsor, April 30 to May 1, 2009.
• Argumentation and the force of reasons. A keynote address delivered at Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2009.
• Commentary on Weinstein’s ‘Two Contrasting Cultures.” Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, June 2009.
• 'Probably’ and other modal qualifiers. Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2007.
• The Uses of Argument in Communicative Contexts. In Blair, Farr, Hansen, Johnson and Tindale, Informal Logic at 25: Proceedings of the Windsor Conference (CD-ROM published by Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, 2003).
• Truth and Premiss Adequacy. In Tindale, Hansen, Blair, Hansen and Pinto,Argumentation and its Applications( CD-ROM published by Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, 2002).
• Argumentation and the force of reasons. Keynote address to be delivered at Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2009

Book Reviews:

• Maurice Finocchiaro, Arguments about Arguments. Argumentation 21 (2007): 93-100.
• Douglas Walton, Scare Tactics: Agruments that Appeal to Fear and Threats.Argumentation 18 (2004): 261-269.
• Marcello Pera, The Discourses of Science (translated by Clarissa Botsford).Argumentation 14 (2000): 61-66.

 

TEACHING INTERESTS

Supervision:

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow:

• David Godden (2005-06), Developing Standards for Argument Evaluation: Epistemology, Evidence and Psychology of Reasoning.

MA Thesis:

• Yinlai Yang (“An examination of A.J. Ayer's phenomenalist solution”)
• John McKay (“The role of emotion in rationality: limiting the search for evidence”). McKay has received a Ph.D. in Spanish literature from the University of Michigan.
• R. Anthony (Tony) Couture (“A hermeneutical study of the Existenzials in Martin Heidegger's Being and Time”). Couture has received a Ph.D. in philosophy from McMaster University.
• Robert Wylie Johnson (“Phenomenalism in Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness”). Currently teaches in the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto.
• Adib Aburukin ("Human Selfhood in Heidegger's Being and Time")
• Dominique Poulin (“Nietzsche, George Grant and the response to Modernity”). Poulin entered the Ph.D. program at l'Université du Québec à Montréal.

Undergraduate Thesis:

• Marcello Guarini (“Practical Ethics in the Absence of Rules or Principles.”) Guarini has received a Ph.D. in philosophy from University of Western Ontario.