FROM THE EDITORS 

This double issue contains many of the papers that were presented at the first 
conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), held at 
Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario) in May of 1995. 

OSSA is an offshoot of ISSA-the International Society for the Study of 
Argumentation--whose headquarters are at the University of Amsterdam. ISSA 
sponsors the quadrennial International Conference on Argumentation in· 
Amsterdam (1986, 1990, 1994, 1998 pending), and encourages studies of 
argumentation worldwide. 

OSSA, an independent, informal group of argumentation scholars located in 
Ontario, was formed at the urging of Michael Gilbert of York University. Hans 
Hansen and Christopher Tindale (Trent) took the initiative of organizing the 1995 
conference at Brock University, with Brock's generous support. Readers of this 
journal will recognize the names of many of the contributors as well as the issues 
they are addressing. Indeed it was the relevance of these papers taken as a whole 
that has persuaded us to open the pages of lriformal Logic to these proceedings. 
We believe that they contain papers which will be of great interest to our readers. 

We wish to thank Hans Hansen and Christopher Tindale for overseeing the 
selection, refereeing and publication of these papers; and Mark Letteri for his 
ongoing work in shepherding this double issue into print. We also wish to thank 
the Canadian Association for Publishing in Philosophy for a grant and a loan, and 
Brock University for a grant, in support of the added cost of this double issue. 
Subscribers to this journal are the beneficiaries of these institutions' support, 
without which lriformal Logic could not have unde~en to publish them. 

Please note in your calendar that the second OSSA conference will be held 
May 15-17, 1997 at Brock University. Abstracts of proposed papers should be 
sent in triplicate by September 9, 1996 to either of the conference organizers: 
Hans V. Hansen, Liberal Arts Programme, Brock University, St. Catharines, 
Ontario, Canada L2S 3A 1, or Christopher W. Tindale, Department of Philosophy, 
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8.