FROM THE EDITORS This issue of Informal Logic features four articles, all of which address issues in the theory of argument, as well as a reply, and (in the Teaching Supplement) two analyses of the famous 1995 advertorial by Shell: "Clear Thinking in Troubled Times." Daniel Cohen's paper argues that the integration oflogical, rhetorical and dialectical approaches requires what he calls the The Principle of Meta-Rationality (PMR): that rea- soning rationally includes reasoning about rationality. This principle explains why it can be rational to resist dialectically satisfying arguments or accept logically flawed ones. In his paper, Cameron Shelley continues his discussion and elaboration of visual arguments, using as his focal point the famous March of Progress graphic which depicts human evolution as a linear progression from primate to man. He shows how it can be interpreted as a visual argument within both rhetorical and demonstrative modes, and further how new arguments can be developed in the original visual frame. Robert Ennis offers a comprehensive essay on approaches to argument appraisal. He begins by reviewing a number of proposals for the deductive-inductive argument distinc- tion, all of which he fmds problematic. In response to this perceived difficulty, Ennis turns his attention to the standards for kinds of arguments rather than the kinds of arguments themselves. His new, comprehensive approach allows for differences between inductive, deductive and other kinds of reasoning, while being sensitive to the goals of the appraiser and making room for qualified reasoning. Since the time of Peirce, it has been thought that there exists a type of argument that is neither inductive nor deductive. In his paper, Douglas Walton is tracking this species, often called abductive, but sometimes identified as presumptive or plausible argument. By examining analyses ofthese terms, Walton aims to clarify their differences and similarities, and to show how they may be expressed as argumentation schemes with distinct sets of critical questions to be answered in the evaluation process. In an earlier volume of this journal (19.2&3), Sharon Bailin argued that critical thinking skills do not generalize because of the epistemological position of students. In his reply to Bailin, Donald Hatcher offers the alternative hypotheses that critical-thinking instruction suffers from the fact that it is departmentalized, that is, not really taught across the curricu- lum. Informal Logic @25. On page 186 you will find an announcement of the conference scheduled for May 2003 which marks the 25th Anniversary of the First International Symposium on Informal Logic (held in Windsor in 1978). We hope you will consider contributing a paper to and/or attending what promises to be an outstanding conference. The keynote speakers will be: Alvin Goldman, Maurice Finocchiaro and Sharon Bailin. You will have noticed that we are behind schedule again. No one is more painfully aware of this than we are. We apologize. We are going through another period ofre- organization which we hope will put us on fIrmer ground for the next few years and lead to a regular and reliable publication schedule. Throughout our difficulties we are always cheered and encouraged by the enthusiastic work of our student assistants. We are grateful to them for their hard work and dedication. In preparing this last issue, we are especially grateful for the excellent word-processing ability of University of Windsor philosophy student, Peatr Carvalho, without whose talented assistance we would not have been able to complete this issue.