Update: Deadline extended to 31 August 2018.
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\nWe invite submission of original research papers for a special issue of dialectica (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17468361) on the topic of the formalization of arguments.
An argument in the philosophical sense is a set of sentences consisting of at least one sentence stating a conclusion and at least one sentence stating a premise which is supposed to support the conclusion. Arguments are of central importance to philosophy not only as a subject of systematic study in general\, but also methodologically as the means to criticise or support philosophical claims and theories.
A crucial step in analysing arguments is their formalization. This process involves translating their premises and the conclusion(s) into a suitable formal language and choosing a suitable relation of support which holds between the premises and the conclusion(s) (e.g. a notion of logical consequence)\, clarifying the argument and preparing it to be scrutinized using formal tools\, such as those of formal logic and semantics.
The aim of the special issue is to stimulate the systematic discussion of and to offer a forum for cutting edge research on the topic of formalization of arguments.
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Topics for submitted papers might include\, but are not limited to:
- Correctness criteria for the formalizations of natural language sentences and arguments
- Criteria for the quality of arguments
- The relation between informal and formal notions of logical consequence and their role in the formalization and logical analysis of arguments
- The purpose and relevance of formalization and the application of logic in different philosophical sub-disciplines or in neighbouring disciplines (e.g. ethics\, metaphysics\, mathematics\, linguistics\, ...)
- Limits and problems of formalization
- The demarcation of logical from non-logical inferences
- The relation between logic and natural language
- The formalization of particular natural language inferences
- Non-deductive notions of support (abduction\, induction\, ...)
- Discussions of historical topics are also welcome if they exhibit a sufficiently systematic approach (e.g. by discussing the notion of logical consequence of a historical tradition or figure using the tool of contemporary logic and semantics)
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Submission instructions:
All submissions\, as well as inquiries about submissions to the special issue\, should be sent by e-mail to the guest editor Robert Michels to: \; formalization@robert-michels.de
Submissions must not be submitted to or under review for other journals\, collected volumes\, etc.
Submissions should be in pdf-format.
Submissions have to be prepared for blind review: All identifying information about the author(s) such as names or institutional affiliations\, have to be removed. Self-citations have to be anonymized. \; There are no specific requirements regarding the format of submitted papers for the initial review and no restriction on the length of the papers.
Submissions have to contain an abstract.
Editorial responsibility for the special issue: the editorial committee of dialectica and the guest editor of the special issue\, Robert Michels.
The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2018.