ISSN 0824-2577 informal logic vol. vi, no. 1 * eels., J. Anthony Blair & Ralph H. Johnson January, 1984 contents ARTICLES Problems in Testing Informal LogiC/Critical Thinking/Reasoning Ability Robert H. Ennis ...... ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . .. 3 Arguing for Explanations: Logic and the Special Disciplines Thomas Schwartz ............•..................•... 10 Dialectic and the Structure of Argument Robert C. Pinto.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . • • . . . . . • . .. 16 Forms for "Informal Logic" ........ ..-:"~~~:"':"':-:-:-:-:-::-:-2-i-" Charles F. Kielkopf .......... - . u~~eiiliY . ~f . WlnitiIM 21 COMMENT MAY 29 1984 Freeman on Induction/Deduction George Englebretsen. . . . . . . .. ...................... 26 UbfliJ CONFERENCE REPORTS.. . . .. . ... ..................... 28 ANNOUNCEMENTS .•......•..............•........ 29 BOOKS RECEiVED ...............•............•.....•. 31 CORRECTIONS ....................................... 32 • This is the first issue of Informal Logic. It is identified here as volume vi in order to avoid any possible confusion between it and its predecessor, the Infonnal Logic Newsletter, whose volume run was from i through v and which has now ceased publication. from the editors This is the first issue of Informal Logic, a journal devoted to the theory, practical applications and pedagogy of informal logic. By "informal logic" we mean the logic used in the analysis and evaluation of arguments and other forms of reasoning used in the practice of rational life. Informal Logic differs from its predecessor, the Informal Logic Newsletter, in two respects. First, Informal Logic will INFORMAL LOGIC is published by the editors three times a year, in Winter, Spring and Summer. All subscriptions begin with the Winter number; later subscribers receive the current volume's back issues. Rates: Individuals: Canada & U.S.A. $lOlVolume $4/1ssue; Other $141V01ume $S/lssue (includes airmail postage). Rates: Institutions: Canada & U.S.A. $151V01ume $6/1ssue; Other $191V01ume $8/lssue (in- cludes airmail postage). Managing Editor: Peter F. Wilkinson. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION: Manuscripts submitted for publication should be typewritten, double-spaced throughout, with wide margins on a standard size bond paper. Notes, also double-spaced, should appear on separate sheets at the end of the manuscript. Special symbols should be typewriter compatible if at all possi- ble. Diagrams should not be cramped and should be amply set off from the typescript above and below. 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Send manuscripts and other editorial material to the Editors: INFORMAL LOGIC, Department of Philosophy, Univer- sity of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4. operate with an explicit editorial policy-set out below. Se- cond, the articles submitted for publication will be refereed (blind) by the editors, members of the editorial board, and oc- casionally others. Informal Logic will retain the features of the newsletter that many readers valued: a section for discussion notes, comments, replies, course outlines, teaching tips, notices and reports of conferences, textbook descriptions, journal contents, book reviews, examples, supplements-all material which will be screened by the editors (as in the past), but not subject to formal refereeing procedures. There shall be two related general criteria of selection for acceptance of any article. First, the article must advance the dialectic in an interesting or significant way. By this we mean that it must present a new argument, a new objection, a new position relating to the historical background of issues and controversies. What counts as an "interesting" or a "signifi- cant" advance will be up to the judgement of the editors and the members of the editorial board. As with any journal, the value and relevance of the materiat carried, as judged by the philosophical community over time, will be a reflection on the judgement of the editors. Second, the article must touch bases with the literature on its subject. The explicit informal logic literature includes, but is certainly not restricted to, the Infor· mal Logic Newsletter, volumes i-v (1978-1983) and Informal Logic (the proceedings of the First International Symposium on Informal Logic, published by Edgepress, Inverness, CA, 1980). An extensive bibliography of monographs, textbooks and journal articles up to 1978 is included in Informal Logic, and a similar bibliography covering the period 1978·1983 is contain- ed in the Informal Logic Newsletter, vol. v, no. 3. Clearly, this second criterion is related to the first: an article must touch bases with the literature on an issue in order to join in, and ad- vance, the dialectic on that issue. Finally, in case it does not go without saying, the editors will, where necessary, return otherwise acceptable material for grammatical corrections, the removal of stylistic in- felicities, clarification of obscurity, vagueness or ambiguity, replies to further objections, or revisions according to referees' recommendations. We plan to implement these editorial policies in the following way. Each article submitted for publication will first be read, without knowledge of the author's name, by both editors. They will then discuss its merits, and reach one of three verdicts: 1. Clearly should be published in Informal Logic; 2. Clearly should not be published in Informal Logic; 3. It is unclear, or the editors cannot agree about, whether it should be published in Informal Logic. In the case of verdict 1, the article will be sent (blind) to one outside referee. If the referee confirms the editors' judgement, the article will be ac· cepted for publication. If not, the article will be reclassified as falling under verdict 3. If verdict 2 is reached, that judgement; together with the reasons for it, will be communicated to the author. (High postage charges prevent return of the submitted copies of the article.) If verdict 3 is reached (and for articles transferred from 1 to 3), the article will be sent (blind) to two referees, selected as far as possible for their knowledge of the issue and their opposed positions on the issue. Referees will be asked to decide whether an article should be accepted as is, accepted only with specified revisions, or rejected, and to give reasons for their judgement. In case their verdict is not unanimous, the article will be sent to a third referee, whose judgement will decide the issue. Copies of referees' com- ments on accepted and rejected articles will be sent to the authors. In transforming the Informal Logic Newsletter into the jour- nal, Informal Logic, we have been moved by several considera- 2 tions. First, the last few volumes of the Informal Logic Newslet. ter have carried articles of such high scholarly quality that it has in a sense evolved, de fado, into a journal on the merits of its contents. Second, the realities of academic life made it dif. ficult for authors to submit articles to the non-refereed Infor- mal Logic Newsletter, since they would not receive the ~cademi~ credit from their university or college administra. tlons which would go to the same article published in a refereed journal. Third, by making explicit the criteria of selec- tion we plan to employ, and by subjecting submitted articles to th~ rigours .of refer~es' apprai~ls, we hope to encourage a c?nslste~tly ~Igh quality of work In the field of informal logic. Since thiS IS In some respects a new area of philosophical at. tention, its cred~bility in the wider philosophical community depends upon high standard of work in its literature. continued on page 32 in this issue Three of the articles which appear in this issue (those by Ennis, Schwartz and Pinto) are slightly revised versions of papers presented at the Second International Symposium on Informal Logic. (Other papers presented at the Symposium will appear in upcoming issues of Informal Logic.) Robert En- nis's paper on the testing of informal logic competence is an extremely careful review of the extant tests which we believe that our readers will find most helpful in confronting the dif- ficult but inevitable question: "How do we test it?" In his arti· cle, Thomas Schwartz (who teaches in the Department of Government) is concerned with ways in which informal logic enterprise can be widened in scope so as to deal with the analytical reasoning prevalent in the social sciences. In his ar- ticle, Robert C. Pinto argues that the only rules which govern the dialectical process are those which are acknowledged by those engaged in the process. In his article, Charles Kielkopf proposes the use of what he calls "target forms" for the reconstruction of arguments in ordinary language. George Englebtretsen's comment takes off from James B. Freemen's article on the inductive/deductive question in ILN, v. 2 (june, 1983). Finally, there are a number of interesting conferences on the horizon, details of which can be found in the An- nouncements section .• editorial board The editors are pleased to announce that the following in- dividuals have agreed to assist in the editorial decision-making for Informal Logic. Robert Binkley (University of Western On- tario), Robert Ennis (University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana), Trudy Govier (University of Calgary), Merrill Hin- tikka (Florida State University), David Hitchcock (McMaster University), Howard Kahane (University' of Maryland- Baltimore County), Richard Paul (Sonoma State University), Robert C. Pinto (University of Windsor), Nicholas Rescher (University of Pittsburgh), Michael Scriven (University of Western Australia)' Douglas Walton (University of Winnipeg), John Woods (University of Lethbridge), and George Yoos (St. Cloud State University) .• t