ISSN 0226-1448 ~'inforn1al logic newsletter newsletter newsletter newsletter . ( vol. v, no. 3 eds., J. Anthony Blair & Ralph H. Johnson July 1983 contents Editorial Policy for Informal Logic .••••.•..•••••..••.•• 2 A Bibliography of Recent Work in Informal Logic Ralph H. Johnson & J. Anthony Blair •.••.•••.•••. 3 Registrants at SISIL .................................. 16 Announcements •..••.•••...••.••.••.•••.•.••.•.•••..• 21 Index of the Informal Logic Newsletter, i·v ••••..••••.. 22 EXAMPLES SUPPLEMENT ..••.•••...•.••.•••..•..•.... 27 from the editors This is the final issue of the Informal Logic Newsletter. Next fall will see the beginning of its successor, which is to be called, simply, Informal Logic. We owe our subscribers an explanation of this change. When it began five years ago, in the wake of the First International Symposium on Informal Logic, the term "newsletter" was an appropriate descriptor. The principal function of ILN in its early years was to publish information related to informal logic: conference notices, reports of conferences, book reviews, teaching notes, etc. However, and this is not news to our readers, beginning with Volume ii, the Newsletter began to publish articles, and discussions based on or initiated by those articles. In the past two years, more and more space has been devoted to articles which, in our opinion, are good enough to have been published in full-fledged journals. The change in our name, then, will reflect more accurately the character of the publication. A second motivation for the change is related to the first We believe that people who might otherwise have been inclined to send material to the Informal Logic Newsletter have been deterred from so doing by the fact that it is not a referred journal and hence they cannot gain credit on their c.v.'s for material published in ILN. These along with other considerations were given a thorough airing during the Second I nternational Symposium on Informal Logic this past June, and your editors were persuaded that the time had come for change. Elsewhere in this issue you will find a statement of the editorial policy which we shall follow in reviewing articles submitted to Informal Logic. A list of the Board of Referees whom we have asked to assist us in reaching our decisions will appear in the first number of Informal Logic. We will, as our policy indicates, be adopting the standard practice of blind refereeing. We wish to assure our readers that these changes, important as they are, do not mean the disappearance of other features which many of our subscribers have told us they like very much. We will still publish (and may. from time to time solicit) the sort of material we have published in Informal Logic Newsletter: course outlines, discussion notes, book reviews (both expository and critical), teaching notes, course syllabi, the examples supplement-:all of these will continue to be features of Informal Logic. There are two other changes to be mentioned at this time. First, we will likely be changing our format. T~ou~h we cannot at this moment say what Informal Logic will look like, we think it will be an attractive format. Second, the subscription rate for individuals for Informal Logic will be $1 O/year. The decision to increase our rates was forced on us by increasing costs, well before plans to alter our name and officially become a journal were made. Postal rates are dramatically higher; our incredibly cheap typesetting service became, this year, a thing of the past, and all other costs are up. Informal Logic will continue to be substantially subsidized by volunteer labour, and contributions in materials and secretarial and other services, by the University of Windsor. It is with a feeling of great satisfaction that we put the Informal Logic Newsletter to bed for the final time. With very little by way of promotion and publicity, and with the help of loyal subscribers and contributors, ILN became a successful venture. We have high hopes for its successor and hope we can count on your support. in this issue The bulk of this issue is devoted to publication of a bibliography of recent work in informal logic. The bibliography was prepared by the editors for the Second International Symposium on Informal Logic (SISIL). The list of the registrants for SISIL is found in this issue. We are publishing an Index of Volumes I - V of the Informal Logic Newsletter which we hope will be of use to our readers. We are extremely grateful to one of our graduate students, Mrs. Pamela Courtenay Hall, for compiling and typing the index. Note as well the announcements on the formation of the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking (AI LACT) and its session in the upcoming meetings of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. The Examples Supplement is also included in this issue. It is rather thin compared with earlier supplements. However, your editors have been extremely busy with other tasks, and our subscribers have not taken up the slack. One final note: J. Anthony Blair continues to serve as co-editor while on a much deserved sabbatical leave this year, 1983-84. We wish him well and hope. that he had a productive (and restful) year. Anyone Wishing to contact or correspond with him may write to him c/o The Department of Philosophy, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada. 2 Editorial Policy for I nformal Logic There shall be two related general criteria of selection for acceptance of any article in Informal Logic. 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 contro- vesies. What counts as an "interesting" or a "significant" advance will be up to the judgementofthe editors and the members of the editorial board. As with any journal, the value and relevance of the material 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 Informal 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 contained 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 advance, the dialectic on that issue. All articles will be blind-refereed, first by both editors, and to confirm their judgement. by outside referees. A system has been devised which aims to ensure fairness and openness--desiderata requiring particular vigilance in a relatively small and growing field, which may be defensive when criticized and susceptible to in-breeding. Manuscripts submitted for publication should be type- written, double-spaced throughout, with wide margins on standard size bond paper. Notes, also double-spaced, should appear on separate sheets at the end of the manuscript. Send three copies from Canada and the U.S.A. (one copy from overseas) with the author's name appearing only on an enclosed letter giving title, affiliation, and complete address. Please indicate in your covering letter if you want the enclosed material considered for inclusion in the refereed section of the journal. Non- refereed material should conform to the above copy guidelines, except that one copy is sufficient. Contributors should keep copies of all materials; Informal Logic cannot return manuscripts. Copies of the editors' and referees' comments will be sent to authors, whether or not the article is accepted for publication. •