Mistakes of Reason : Essays in Honour of John Woods

Over a distinguished academic career, the Canadian philosopher and scholar John Woods has written on a rich variety of topics central to contemporary philosophy. These include the history and philosophy of logic, deviant logics, inductive and abductive reasoning, informal reasoning, fallacy theory, the logic of fiction, epistemology, and abortion and euthanasia. Not only has Woods’ work been significant in itself, it has also stimulated others working in these fields. Mistakes of Reason is a tribute to Woods and contains twenty-six new essays by leading Canadian and international philosophers. The essays are accompanied by commentaries by Woods himself, creating a unique dialogue between Woods and his colleagues. Editors Kent A. Peacock and Andrew D. Irvine have grouped the works under the themes of Reality, Knowledge, Logic and Language, Reasoning, and Values. The essays evaluate Woods’ work and celebrate the generous contribution that he has made to Canada’s intellectual development over the past forty years. Contents 5 Preface 9 Acknowledgements 11 Introduction: John Woods in Profile 13 I. Reality 27 1. Through the Woods to Meinong’s Jungle 27 2. The Epsilon Logic of Fictions 45 3. Animadversions on the Logic of Fiction and Reform of Modal Logic 61 4. Resolving the Skolem Paradox 76 5. Are Platonism and Pragmatism Compatible? 90 6. A Neo-Hintikkan Solution to Kripke’s Puzzle 105 II. Knowledge 123 7. The Day of the Dolphins: Puzzling over Epistemic Partnership 123 8. Cognitive Yearning and Fugitive Truth 146 9. The de Finetti Lottery and Equiprobability 170 10. The Lottery Paradox 185 11. Reliabilism and Inference to the Best Explanation 195 Part Two: Respondeo 209 III. Logic and Language 219 12. Aristotle and Modern Logic 219 13. The Peculiarities of Stoic Propositional Logic 236 14. On the Substitutional Approach to Logical Consequence 255 15. The Fallacy of Transitivity for Necessary Counterfactuals: On Behalf of (Certain) Non-Transitive Entailment Relations 276 16. Vagueness and Intuitionistic Logic: On the Wright Track 291 17. The Semantic Illusion 308 Part Three: Respondeo 333 IV. Reasoning 343 18. Arguing from Authority 343 19. Premiss Acceptability and Truth 360 20. Emotion, Relevance, and Consolation Arguments 376 21. Temporal Agents 392 22. Filtration Structures and the Cut Down Problem for Abduction 410 23. Mistakes in Reasoning about Argumentation 430 Part Four: Respondeo 454 V. Values 465 24. Engineered Death and the (Il)logic of Social Change 465 25. Incorrect English 486 26. Ameliorating Computational Exhaustion in Artificial Prudence 503 Part Five: Respondeo 516 Contributors 523 Books by John Woods 529 Index 533 Over a distinguished academic career, the Canadian philosopher and scholar John Woods has written on a rich variety of topics central to contemporary philosophy. These include the history and philosophy of logic, deviant logics, inductive and abductive reasoning, informal reasoning, fallacy theory, the logic of fiction, epistemology, and abortion and euthanasia. Not only has Woods? work been significant in itself, it has also stimulated others working in these fields. Mistakes of Reason is a tribute to Woods and contains twenty-six new essays by leading Canadian and international philosophers. The essays are accompanied by commentaries by Woods himself, creating a unique dialogue between Woods and his colleagues. Editors Kent A. Peacock and Andrew D. Irvine have grouped the works under the themes of Reality, Knowledge, Logic and Language, Reasoning, and Values. The essays evaluate Woods? work and celebrate the generous contribution that he has made to Canada?s intellectual development over the past forty years