Philosophy

Philosophy professor emeritus Ralph Johnson will deliver a free public lecture entitled “Is Defeasibility a Virtue of Argumentation?” today at 2 p.m. in room 207, Essex Hall.

Dr. Johnson will begin with a brief history of the notion of defeasibility, consider some examples, and turn to discussion of the problems he sees associated with this notion and point to possible remedies.

Johnson is a senior fellow of the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric, which is sponsoring this event.

When someone reasons to a conclusion by weighing factors favouring that conclusion against those telling against it, and in the end decides that the pros outweigh the cons, do the cons remain as weighing against the conclusion, thus making the argument weaker than it would have been had there been only the pro factors to consider?

A search committee invites nominations and applications until January 31 for the position of head of the Department of Philosophy.

The position will commence July 1, 2013, for a term of three to five years. Candidates must hold a tenured position in the department. For more information, please see the online posting of the internal search.

When social issues arise, who truly has the knowledge that will affect how policies are made? A discussion on Friday, November 9, will focus on climate change, as well as the questions of who the “knowers” or experts are, and whose knowledge claims can be taken seriously.