This essay is about how four deeply important Kantian ideas can significantly illuminate some essentially intertwined issues in philosophical theology, philosophical logic, the metaphysics of agency, and above all, morality. These deeply important Kantian ideas are: (1) Kant’s argument for the impossibility of the Ontological Argument, (2) Kant’s first “postulate of pure practical reason,” immo...

Social psychology shows that the effect of a persuasive argument depends on characteristics of the person to be persuaded, including the person’s involvement with the topic and the discrepancy between the person’s current position on the topic and the argument’s position. Via a series of experiments, this paper provides insight into how the receiver’s position can be modelled computationally, a...

the normativity of mental content thesis appears to have been the most influential in contemporary philosophy of mind. paul boghossian (2003, 2005) has developed an argument for the normativity of mental content on the basis of two premises, i.e. firstly, the normativity of the notion of belief and secondly, the priority of the notion of belief to the notion of desire. in his recent article ale...

In his insightful editorial, Nir Eyal explores the connections between nudging and shaming. One upshot of his argument is that we should question the principle of the least restrictive alternative in public health and health policy. In this commentary, I maintain that Eyal’s argument undermines only a rather implausible version of the principle of the least restrictive alternative and I sketch ...

Diagrammatic models of argument have grown in prominence in recent years. While they have been applied in a number of tutoring contexts, it has not yet been shown that student-produced diagrams can be used to effectively grade students or predict their future performance. We show that manually-assigned diagram grades and automatic structural features of argument diagrams can be used to predict ...

Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualization (CCSAV) has often been proposed as an alternative over more conventional, mainstream platforms for online discussion (e.g., online forums and wikis). CCSAV tools require users to contribute to the creation of a joint artifact (argument map) instead of contributing to a conversation. In this paper we assess empirically the effects of this f...

Argument visualisation (AV) tools enable structured debates around issues, positions and arguments. These tools have the potential to substantially improve transparency e.g. by enabling understanding complex legislation and debating. In this paper we present the results of the evaluation of an AV platform by experts and policy makers. The results suggest the potential of such tools is large par...

This research advocates the idea of combining argumentation theory with the social web technology, aiming to enact large scale or mass argumentation. The proposed framework allows mass-collaborative editing of structured arguments in the style of semantic wikipedia. The long term goal is to apply the abstract machinery of argumentation theory to more practical applications based on human genera...

Argumentation is central to law. Written and oral argument structures, however, are often difficult to analyze and employ in instruction. Diagrammatic models of argument offer a potential solution to these problems. In this paper we report on the results of an empirical study into the diagnostic utility of argument diagrams in a legal writing context. The focus is on comparing experts’ and stud...