"Ancient Fallacies," Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Durham, September 21-23, 2011.

Greek philosophers 'invented' the discipline known as 'logic', the study and classification of valid forms of argument and inference (the 'invention' is usually attributed to Aristotle, but less systematic reflections on logical issues can be traced back at least to Plato). Since its beginning and throughout antiquity, this inquiry remained intimately connected to the investigation, diagnosis and classification of forms of argument that are invalid or otherwise unsound, and especially of those forms of argument which, despite their invalidity, somehow appear to be valid and thus can easily induce in error. To be able to spot and unmask 'fallacies' in someone else's argument was particularly crucial in a context in which philosophy itself had an intrinsic dialectical nature, and fallacy was often used consciously or 'sophistically' to win the debate or put one's rival into a corner. The conference will investigate ancient theories of fallacies and sophisms, practices and examples of fallacious argumentation, and philosophical attitudes towards them.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/events/upcoming_events/?eventno=10391

Second International Conference on Logic, Argumentation, and Critical Thinking, Centre for the Study of Argumentation and Reasoning, Faculty of Psychology, Diego Portalés University, Santiago, October 7-9, 2010.

Keynote Speakers:

Eveline Feteris, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Chris Reed, University of Dundee, Scotland
Luis Vega, UNED, Spain
Michael A. Gilbert, York University, Canada

The International Conference Logic, Argumentation and Critical Thinking II is a new academic effort of our Centre to continue what was started with the first Conference in January 2008. Just as with the first Conference, in which we were together with researchers from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, The Netherlands, United States, and Uruguay, in this second conference we are not only trying to deepen and update the production of knowledge in the fields that this conference covers, but we are also trying to contribute to a positive valuation of different proposals that develop critical thinking and promote social debate with a standard of reasonableness.

This Conference, organized by the Centre for the Study of Argumentation and Reasoning (CEAR) of the Faculty of Psychology at Diego Portales University, would like to generate tools, approaches and solutions to apply in those fields in which the uses of reason is fundamental: communication, law, education, etc.

We do not have an official theoretical position, but rather we value the diversity of angles and proposals. We invite the scientific international community, which works in the topics of the Conference, to participate and share its knowledge, experience and current challenges.

ABSTRACTS prepared for blind refereeing must be submitted electronically no later than August 16, 2010, to Cristián Santibáñez: cristian.santibanez@udp.cl. Abstracts should be between 200 and 250 words long, in APA format.

Further information is here: http://railct.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/cear-second-international-conference-on-logic-argumentation-and-critical-thinking/.

Cfp: "Is Logic Universal?" LOGICA UNIVERSALIS (forthcoming).

There will be a special issue of the journal logica universalis dedicated to the question 'Is logic universal?' Many questions are connected to this issue: 1. Do all human beings have the same capicity of reasoning? Does a man, a woman, a child, a papuan, a yuppie, reason in the same way? 2. Does reasoning evolve? Did human beings reason in the same way two centuries ago? In the future will human beings reason in the same way? Did computers change our way to reason? Is a mathematical proof independent of time and culture ? 3. Do we reason in different ways depending on the situation? Do we use the same logic for everyday life, physics, economy? 4. Do the different systems of logic reflect the diversity of reasonings? 5. Is there any absolute true way of reasoning ? Any contibutions dedicated to one aspects of the question "Is logic universal?" is welcome. Submit your paper to mailto:universal.logic@ufc.br before August 31st 2009. Visit the journal's homepage here: http://www.birkhauser.ch/LU.

Cfp: "Visual Reasoning and Knowledge," KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING REVIEW.

The Knowledge Engineering Review (a journal dedicated to the development of the field of artificial intelligence) plans a special issue on visual reasoning and knowledge. The topic is to be understood broadly. We welcome papers covering pictures, diagrams, thought experiments, etc. that connect to some form of reasoning (as opposed to mere illustration). And we welcome a broad range of approaches: philosophical, historical, anthropological, psychological, computational, and so on. Papers should be of interest and intelligible to a broad audience, including: working scientists and mathematicians, philosophers and historians of science, anthropologists, sociologists, and cognitive scientists. Please send your submission electronically in Word or PDF format to one of the three editors of the special issue of KER. We strongly recommended contacting one of the editors to check the suitability of the planned submission. James Robert Brown (Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto): jrbrown@chass.utoronto.ca Mélanie Frappier (History of Science and Technology, King's College): melanie.frappier@ukings.ns.ca Letitia Meynell (Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University): letitia.meynell@dal.ca Deadline for submission: February 28, 2009. The journal homepage is here: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=KER.