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Ethics, Justice, And The Impact Of Covid-19 On The Courts In Canada, Bruce Preston

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Canadian courts have struggled with delay for decades. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic added to an already difficult situation. Courts were required to take swift action, which they did. Despite this, they have faced criticism concerning the approach taken. I will argue that this criticism is not warranted and has more to do with the perceptions of the courts’ past performance than it has to do with their response to the pandemic. Regardless, the systemic delay in Canadian courts has become an issue of ethics which overshadows any success they have had in the current pandemic.

Commentary On John Woods’ “Evidence, Probativity And Knowledge: A Troubled Trio”, Fabio Paglieri

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Halting Retreats To Metadialogues, Beth Innocenti

OSSA Conference Archive

How can social actors halt retreats to metadialogues that involve nit-picking or unwarranted charges, and why can they expect the strategies to work? Krabbe (2003) has proposed a dialectical regulation designed to forestall or halt retreats from ground-level discussions to metadialogues: paying the costs of the metadialogue. I argue that this dialectical regulation deserves to be taken seriously because it is realistic and encompasses a range of strategies that ordinary social actors take as reasonable.

Revising Toulmin’S Model: Argumentative Cell And The Bias Of Objectivity, Thierry Herman

OSSA Conference Archive

This paper presents what we call with Plantin (1900, 2005) an argumentative cell as an unit which is inspired by Toulmin’s layout of arguments (and refined with linguistic insights), in order to analyse two major effects of pseudo-objectivity in argumentation. Four problems of Toulmin's layout will be tackled: (1) Data are only described as facts, (2) the definition of Backing is blurred, but it may be linked with sources of information (linguistic evidentiality) and extended to Data, (3) the dialectical component of the Rebuttal needs to be extended to concessions, and (4) dealing with complex argumentation (linked and convergent argument) …

Virtuous Vices: On Objectivity, Bias, And Virtue In Argumentation, Daniel H. Cohen, Katharina Stevens

OSSA Conference Archive

How is it possible that biases are cognitive vices, objectivity is an exemplary intellectual virtue, and yet objectivity is itself a bias? In this paper, we argue that objectivity is indeed a kind of bias but is still an argumentative virtue. In common with many biases – and many virtues – its effects are neither uniformly negative nor uniformly positive. Consequences alone are not enough to determine which character traits are argumentative virtues. Context matters.

The opening section addresses the problem of identifying argumentative virtues and provides a preliminary response to recent questions from Goddu and Godden regarding the foundations …

Mapping Objectivity And Bias In Relation To Argument, J. Anthony Blair

OSSA Conference Archive

The conference theme invites contrasts between objectivity and bias, since the two are commonly considered contraries. But there are a variety of meanings of the two and a corresponding variety of contraries. Thus there is a problem for any attempt to discuss bias and objectivity in relation to argument as a contrasting pair. Still, several senses of both terms relate to argumentation. I offer an inventory of them.

Mimetics In Judicial Argumentation: A Theoretical Exploration, Paul Van Den Hoven

OSSA Conference Archive

To resolve a conflict of opinion regarding the past it is inevitable to present a reconstruction of that past, explicitly or implicitly. This we call the mimetic element. On an abstract level, a complete argumentation in the genus iudiciale requires a start that is mimetic and a follow-up that is diegetic. The question to be discussed is whether mimetic elements need to be formatted as sets of propositions and if so by whom.

Emerging Truth And The Defeat Of Scientific Racism, Mark Weinstein

OSSA Conference Archive

This paper looks at the attack on scientific racism in the 20th century by a group of social and biological scientists. I will utilize the apparatus of my model of emerging truth to show how even in complex socially conditioned argumentation the ultimate virtue is seeking the truth through increasingly powerful logical connections and deeply embedded warrants.

Arguing For Principles In Different Legal Cultures, Ana Laura Nettel

OSSA Conference Archive

In all legal systems lawyers and judges appeal to general principles. These principles supposed to be taken from the very grounds of Justice. Accordingly they are presented as setting forth such an argument that it should defeat the opponent’s. In this paper I will be interested in the principle of legal certainty and in how it is is understood in Anglo-Saxon and a Continental legal cultures.

Beyond The Boundaries: The Epistemological Significance Of Differing Cultural Perspectives, Sharon Bailin, Mark Battersby

OSSA Conference Archive

This paper explores the issue of the epistemological significance of taking into consideration alternative perspectives, particularly those from other cultures. We have a moral duty to respect the beliefs and practices of other cultures, but do we have an epistemological duty to take these beliefs and practices into consideration in our own deliberations? Are views that are held without exposure to alternatives from other cultures less credible than those that have undergone such exposure?

Toulmin-Based Computational Modelling Of Judicial Discretion In Sentencing, Andrew Vincent, John Zaleznikow

OSSA Conference Archive

A number of increasingly sophisticated technologies are now being used to support complex decision-making in a range of contexts. This paper reports on work undertaken to provide decision support in the discretionary domain of sentencing by referring to a recently created Toulmin argument based model that involves the interplay and weighting of relevant rule-based and discretionary factors used in a decisional process. Judicial discretion, particularly in the sentencing phase, is one of the mainstays of justice systems that favour individualised justice. The study discusses the modelling process in Victorian courts in Australia, where the handing down of an appropriate custodial …

Collective Responsibility And The Fallacies Of Composition And Division, Trudy Govier

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

How Political Cults Warp Argumentation: Who’S Lying?, Beth Browning Jacobs

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

You Should Have Arguments For Your Views?, Dale Turner

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.