From the Editors 

In this issue 

Weare pleased to welcome three new 
contributors to these pages: Gary Colwell, 
Kerry Walters and Mark Battersby. 

"God exists because it says in the Bible 
that God exists, " as an instance of circular 
reasoning, is a tired old textbook example 
of the type informal logicians are wont to 
deplore. Yet it keeps cropping up. In his 
article, "God, the Bible and Circularity, " 
Gary Colwell takes a refreshing new look 
at this example, asking what really is wrong 
with it? The answer, as he shows, is far 
from simple. 

Richard Paul's now classic distinction 
between "weak sense" and "strong sense" 
critical thinking is subjected to a probing 
critique in Kerry Walters' article, "On World 
View, Commitment and Critical Think-
ing." Walters argues that either Paul's 
model must be radically overhauled, or else 
the ideal of critical thinking must be scrapped. 
We look forward to a healthy advance in the 
dialectic as a result of Walters' contribution. 

How is critical thinking to be classified? 
Mark Battersby'S answer is clear from his 
title, "Critical Thinking as Applied 
Epistemology. " Battersby argues that there 
is an analogy between the distinction be-
tween ethics and applied ethics and the 
distinction between epistemology and 
critical thinking. 

A number of respondents to earlier ar-
ticles or replies have been chafing at the bit, 
so we are glad to be able to print three 
Replies in this issue. Gary Jason defends 
himself against Marie Secor's reply (in 9.1) 
to his article "Are Fallacies Common?" (in 
8.2). George Bowles comments on Tziporah 
Kasachkoff's discussion of the distinction 
between explaining and justifying in "Ex-
plaining and Justifying" (in 10.1). And 

Seale Doss records some reflections on 
Roderick Girle's reply (in 10.1) to his ar-
ticle, "Three Steps Towards a Theory of 
Informal Logic," (in 7.2&3). 

Weare also happy to publish Connie 
Missimer's critical review of Costa and 
Lowery's, Techniques for Teaching Think-
ing, from the Practitioner's Guide to 
Teaching Thinking Series edited by Swartz 
and Perkins. Readers should know that we 
welcome critical review of works in the field 
of reasoning and argumentation in theory 
and practice. 

Looking ahead 

The third number of Volume XI (1989), 
a fat and juicy special issue on arguments 
from analogy, is ready for the printer, and 
will be in the mail as soon as your editorial 
crew returns in mid-July from the Interna-
tional Society for the Study of Argumenta-
tion conference and summer institute in 
Amsterdam. The first number of Volume 
XII (1990) will follow close on its heels, 
at the end of August. All the papers for 
Volume XII have been accepted, so if 
subscription renewals arrive in time to per-
mit us to pay our bills, we will publish XII.2 
and XII.3 in the fall, and (we can scarcely 
believe it ourselves) at long last be up to 
date. During this catch-up period, we have 
been asking you, dear readers, to pay for 
more than one volume per calendar year. 
That is because you have been getting more 
than one volume per calendar year, and we 
operate without a capital reserve: current 
expenses must be paid out of current in-
come. Would you help us expedite the ap-
pearance of Volume XII by sending in your 
subscription now? Forms are enclosed. 
Thank you.