~ II, /' " '1 ~, 11,1 Ii :11 I' composed of: V. Dudman, I. Hinckfuss, J. McGechie, C. Mortensen, T. Richards, M. von Thun and G. Williams. The ALTJ is the journal of the Australian Logic Teachers' Association. Here is further information about this journal, quoted from its cover: The Editors of this Journal would welcome papers, reviews, teaching notes, problems and news i tams for consideration for publication. The Journal is primarily for the publication of material relevant to the teaching of logic and phi- losophy, but related scholarly papers, particularly in logic, will also be considered for publication. Manuscri~ts: prospect1ve contributors are asked to prepare their manuscripts as follows: 1. Manuscripts should be typewritten, double-spaced, with a five em left margin. 2. Follow, as far as possible, the format of the papers in this and subsequent issues. 3. Eliminate footnotes as much as possible by incorporating the material in the text. 4. Collect footnotes, numbered con- secutively, at the end of the paper. 5. Indent substantial quotations Cover 60 words) without quotation marks. The inclusion of sufficient Inter- national Reply Coupons with sub- mitted papers will be a condition of their being returned b.y air. Non- returnaDle photocopies are acceptable. Manuscripts., books for review, and all other editorial communications and enquiries should be addressed to -- The Editors, Australian Logic Teachers.' Journal, phllosophy Department, university of Queensland, st. Lucu, Queenslana. 4067. Subscription: The sUbscription for the Journal, at present two numbers each year, is A$2.00 CUS$3.00) for individuals. Membership of the Association automatically entitles one to receive the Journal. Membership is A$s.OO (US$6.00) p.a. for teachers, A$2.00 CUS$3.QQl for bona fide students. The institutional subscription remains at A$s.OO (US$6.00} p.a. Subscriptions should be sent to the Editors. published jointly by the North Brisbane College of Advanced Education and the Australian Logic Teachers' Association. ~ 18 conference reports Annual Conference The 1980 Annual Conference of the Australian Logic Teachers'Association was held July 26-27 at the University of Queens- land. Programme items included: "Further Us.es of Truth Tahles," "Uses of Logic Dia- grams;" nLogical Dialogue," "Competency Based Assessment," "Teaching Introductory Philosophy: Cal Moral Philosophy, tbl Philosophy of Logic". KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING IN THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES The editors have received the following conference report from Mario Borillo of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d'Informatique pour les Sciences de l'Homme. Anyone wiShing further informa- tion about the operations of the Centre or the conference should write to M. Mario Barillo, LISH/CNRS, Universite de Toulouse Le Mirail, 109 bis, rue Vauquelin - 31058 Toulouse Cedex, France. Conference at Saint-Maximin de Provence (17- 19 September 1979) organized by l'Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique and le Laboratoire d'Informatique pour les Sciences de l'Homme du C.N.R.S. (France). The aim of the conference was to try to bring out the essential points concerning computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences from a discussion between computer people and researchers in the disciplines where formalisation and computation have the most impact. The diversity of the links be- tween·computation and the "Human Sciences" is well known to be difficult to clarify because of the fine difference between the operation- al aspects and their theoretical implications. Specific problems arise, however, on both of these levels. On the technical and instru- mental coperational) plane, it is a question of determining the exact'nature and the eco- nomical and practical consequences for the Human'Sciences with regard to the computa- tiona~aspects which may take the form of statisiical and mathematical software, infor- mation retrieval and text handling software, data-base management systems, etc. This diversity has hidden the fact that at a deeper level, these techniques, however adequate they may be "locally", take part in complex scientific constructions which may not have the status of natural sciences but which nonetheless possess some type of coher- ,ence. Therefore the introduction of comput- ing into the Human Sciences involves bringing together within the same research project scientific conceptions that may prove to be different. So it is in this way that comput- ing, far from being neutral, could have im- portant theoretical implications and could thus play a role in the epistemological ~e­ bate on the £undamental status of Human Sciences. The organizers felt that the interplay be- tween those two preoccupations - the techni- cal and the theoretical -could best be approached by concentrating on the nature of the reasoning applied by the researcher in the Human Scien=es, whether he uses formal methods or whether, more traditionally, his approach is explicited through discourse. The complexity, the ~iversity according to the disciplines, and in certain respects the newness of the problems raised in this way exclude a priori, quick, simple and, above all, reassuring replies. Nevertheless, starting from the examination of the coher- ence of the reasoning, it is hoped to esta- blish a critique concerning the habitual re- course to computation and, in particular, to determine whether or not it is logically justifiable and what it actually contributes to knowledge. At the same time, the con- crete analysis of certain types of reasoning is likely to b.ing to light precise facts that have escaped ,the overall reconstructions of epistemology. These facts concern the nature of information taken from the pheno- mena studied (the "data" of the problem) as well as that of the logical operations and procedures which constitute scientific dis- course. One can think here of such problems as the structure of the data, the definition of algorithms, the characterization of in- ferential relations, which are familiar to computer programmers. In a somewhat symmetrical way, the recent evolution of research in computation science raises questions already dealt with in the Human Sciences. In fact, the present devel- opments of artifical intelligence - man- machine communication, knowledge representa- tion structures, non-classical logic - in certain respects links up with some trends in cognitive psychology and the logico-semantic approach in linguistics. This research, ex- tending beyond the limits of the sentence, is concerned with the representation of dis- course. Thus, it has to deal with the same preoccupations stated above in relation to reasoning in the Human Sciences (for example, deontic logic). At the conference, computer people and logicians were confronted with linguists, psychologists and jurists for three days' dis- cussion on the above hypothesis. Partici- pants and researchers came from ten countries. The dialogue revolved around four topics: - Knowledge representation and natural language analysis: - "Natural" logic and scientific discourse: 19 - Logic and knowledge representation; - Cognitive processes and the modelisation of reasoning. We will not try to analyse here the sci- entific results of the conference, which are as usual to be found in the modifications of some research and the organization of semi- nars C.for example the interdisciplinary semi- nar on analogy at LISH-Paris). Two areas were particularly studied: the connexions between computing and non-classical logic, and the links between the latter and the for- mal applications in Human Sciences. Perhaps we ought also to add that the rather condescending attitude of computing towards Human Sciences has tended to be mod- ified with the discovery of the unexpected precision of some of their constructions. And some computing people admitted that cer- tain methods in the Human Sciences could ben- efit their discipline. The Proceedings of the COnference in Saint Maximin will soon be published by" the IRIA. ~ books received The extended reports of new. books received are provided as a aervice to readers, and are not intended as substitutes for critical re- views. We invite readers to volunteer to write critical reviews of new books (though we do reserve the right to extend individual invitations). The appearance in these col- umns of a critical review of a particular book does not preclude our publishing other reviews of that same book, particularly if the subsequent reviewers l judg~nts are distinctly different from those of the initial reviewer. TEXTBOOK Wilson, Barrie A. The Anatomy of Ar1ument. (Lanham, MD: UniversIty Press 0 America, Inc., 1980.) pp. xvi, 1-436. Paperback; typewriter print, right margin unjustified. US$12.75. ISBN 0-8191-1211-9 It is perhaps fairest to let the objectLves and features of this new textbook be expres- sed in the author I s words, in excerpts taken from hi. Preface for the Instructor. Its purpose Ls to provide a comprehensive introductLon to the study of argument, by providing theory and presenting skills in argument eil Ldentification, lii) evaluation,