What fallacy means to other-disciplined peers

Lecture by Frank Zenker (Lund University, Sweden), organized by the Dep of Theoretical Philosophy

As is standard in interdisciplinary research, technical terms rarely come with a precise definition. This is also the case for 'fallacy' as this term is currently used at the interface of cognitive science and psychology, logic, legal studies, argumentation theory, and rhetoric, among others. Starting with a very brief review of standard usages, I present an attempt at providing a truth-functional analysis of 'fallacy'.

This identifies a semantic core of fallacy that is shared in across fields, but also distinguishes several field-dependent specifications of this core, which all relate to the three main normative positions in the philosophy of human reasoning: the meliorist, the apologist, and the panglossian. While this particular analysis probably remains non-exhaustive, its pattern can be employed to study other key concepts in a similar manner.

When & where?

Wed June 24, 2015, 3-5pm
Faculty of Philosophy, Groningen