Stephen Toulmin

Life

Toulmin was in the course of his academic career, Professor at several universities, including the University of Southern California, Northwestern University and Stanford University. The philosopher was a member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

On 2 March 2006, Toulmin the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art was presented by Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

Work

In his doctoral thesis Toulmin sought to a practical- rational approach, according to which ethical behavior is justified by the "good reasons " that can be advanced in favor of it, but not by general principles, and especially not by ethical feelings. With that he turned against the then Anglo-Saxon dominant ethical emotivism. In his later studies he came across the casuistic tradition of thought in which it is not about a theory of moral principles, but to the consideration of the decision in ethical individual cases on the basis of precedents and general principles argumentative.

His book, The Uses of Argument from 1958 is considered a landmark standard work of argumentation analysis. In the work of the philosopher develops a six- component scheme, which is considered as the most influential contribution to the field, and turns against the hitherto dominant universalist model. The approach has been continuously further developed by him and received professional wide.

Philosophy of science, turned Toulmin with a evolutionaristischen concept conceptual changes to the approach of Thomas S. Kuhn, whose revolution -oriented model he sharply criticized in Human Understanding (1972).

Works

  • An Examination of the Place of Reason in Ethics. In 1953.
  • An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. In 1953.
  • The Uses of Argument. Cambridge Univ.. Press, 1958 ( German: . The use of arguments Athenaeum Beltz, Weinheim 1996, ISBN 3-89547-096-1. )
  • Metaphysical Beliefs, Three Essays. 1957 ( with Ronald W. Hepburn and Alasdair MacIntyre )
  • The Riviera. In 1961.
  • Foresight and Understanding: an Enquiry into the Aims of Science. 1961 ( German: . Foresight and understanding - An Essay on the aims of science Suhrkamp Verlag, 1968)
  • The Architecture of Matter. 1962 ( with June Goodfield )
  • The Fabric of the Heavens: the Development of Astronomy and Dynamics. 1963 ( with June Goodfield )
  • The Discovery of Time. 1966 ( with June Goodfield )
  • Physical Reality. In 1970.
  • Human Understanding: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts. 1972, ISBN 0-691-01996-7. ( German: Criticism of collective reason Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1983. )
  • Wittgenstein 's Vienna. 1973 ( with Allan Janik )
  • Knowing and Acting: An Invitation to Philosophy. In 1976.
  • An Introduction to Reasoning. 1979 ( with Allan Janik and Richard D. Rieke )
  • The Return to Cosmology: Postmodern Science and the Theology of Nature. In 1985.
  • The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning. 1988 ( with Albert R. Jonsen )
  • Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity. In 1990.
  • Social Impact of AIDS in the United States. 1993 ( with Albert R. Jonsen )
  • Return to Reason. , 2001.
1922 London December 4 2009 Argumentation theory Alan G. Gross Integrated Authority File
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