“You’re moving from irrelevant to irrational”—Critical Reactions in Internet Discussion Forums

This paper scrutinizes some peculiarities of the culture of Internet argumentation: it is a qualitative pragma-dialectical study of different strategies arguers employ to question or attack argumentation of their opponents in online political discussion forums. The basic assumption of the paper is that this particular context of argumentation—or: argumentative activity type—creates special opportunities and constraints for critical reactions regarding propositional content and relevance of argumentation. These opportunities and constraints, it is argued, may lead online discussions to being endless, yet not necessarily fruitless from an argumentative perspective

Where is the reasonable? Objectivity and bias of practical argument

The paper offers a theoretical investigation regarding the sources of normativity in practical argument from the following perspective: Do we need objectively-minded, unbiased arguers or can we count on “good” argumentative processes in which individual biases cancel each other out? I will address this problem by analysing a detailed structure of practical argument and its varieties. I will argue that given the structure proposed, biased advocacy upholds reasonableness whenever the argumentative activity is adequately designed

Metalinguistic disagreements, underdetermination and the straw man fallacy: toward meaning argumentativism

The goal of this paper is to critically analyze some of the dubious assumptions about language and meaning hidden in the dominant accounts of the straw man fallacy. I will argue that against the background of the resurgent conception of language as an underdetermined and in-principle negotiable entity (Dorr & Hawthorne 2014; Ludlow 2014; Plunkett & Sundell 2013, 2019), some alleged straw man attacks are better seen as reasonable moves in the metalinguistic disagreements permeating our ordinary argumentative practice

Commentary on Waleed Mebane’s “Confidence in Arguments in Dialogues for Practical Reasoning”

Commentary on Waleed Mebane’s “Confidence in Arguments in Dialogues for Practical Reasoning

Monologue, dilogue or polylogue: Which model for public deliberation?

“Reasonable hostility” is a norm of communicative conduct initially developed by studying public exchanges in education governance meetings in local U.S. communities. In this paper I consider the norm’s usefulness for and applicability to a U.S. state-level public hearing about a bill to legalize civil unions. Following an explication of reasonable hostility and grounded practical theory, the approach to inquiry that guides my work, I describe Hawaii’s 2009, 18-hour public hearing and analyze selected seg-ments of it. I show that this particular public hearing raised demands for testifiers on the anti-civil union side of the argument that reasonable hostility does not do a good job of addressing. Development of a norm of communication conduct for this practice, as well as others, must engage with the culture and time-specific beliefs that a society holds, beliefs that will shape not only how to argue but what may be argued and what must be assumed about particular categories of persons

Reduction in the Interfacial Trap Density of Mechanochemically Synthesized MAPbI(3)

Organo-lead halide perovskites have emerged as promising light harvesting materials for solar cells. The ability to prepare high quality films with a low concentration of defects is essential for obtaining high device performance. Here, we advance the procedure for the fabrication of efficient perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on mechanochemically synthesized MAPbI3. The use of mechano-perovskite for the thin film formation provides a high degree of control of the stoichiometry and allows for the growth of relatively large crystalline grains. The best device achieved a maximum PCE of 17.5% from a current-voltage scan (J-V), which stabilized at 16.8% after 60 s of maximum power point tracking. Strikingly, PSCs based on MAPbI(3) mechanoperovskite exhibit lower "hysteretic" behavior in comparison to that comprising MAPbI(3) obtained from the conventional solvothermal reaction between PbI2 and MAI. To gain a better understanding of the difference in J V hysteresis, we analyze the charge/ion accumulation mechanism and identify the defect energy distribution in the resulting MAPbI(3) based, devices. These results indicate that the use of mechanochemically synthesized perovskites provides a promising strategy for the formation of crystalline films demonstrating slow charge recombination and low trap density

Norms of public argumentation and the ideals of correctness and participation

Argumentation as the public exchange of reasons is widely thought to enhance deliberative interactions that generate and justify reasonable public policies. Adopting an argumentation-theoretic perspective, we survey the norms that should govern public argumentation and address some of the complexities that scholarly treatments have identified. Our focus is on norms associated with the ideals of correctness and participation as sources of a politically legitimate deliberative outcome. In principle, both ideals are mutually coherent. If the information needed for a correct deliberative outcome is distributed among agents, then maximising participation increases information diversity. But both ideals can also be in tension. If participants lack competence or are prone to biases, a correct deliberative outcome requires limiting participation. The central question for public argumentation, therefore, is how to strike a balance between both ideals. Rather than advocating a preferred normative framework, our main purpose is to illustrate the complexity of this theme

Be Free? The European Union's post-Arab Spring Women's Empowerment as Neoliberal Governmentality

This article analyses post-Arab Spring EU initiatives to promote women's empowerment in the Southern Mediterranean region. Inspired by Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, it investigates empowerment as a technology of biopolitics that is central to the European neoliberal model of governance. In contrast to dominant images such as normative power Europe that present the EU as a norm-guided actor promoting political liberation, the article argues that the EU deploys a concept of functional freedom meant to facilitate its vision of economic development. As a consequence, the alleged empowerment of women based on the self-optimisation of individuals and the statistical control of the female population is a form of bio-power. In this regard, empowerment works as a governmental technology of power instead of offering a measure to foster fundamental structural change in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) societies. The EU therefore fails in presenting and promoting an alternative normative political vision distinct from the incorporation of women into the hierarchy of the existing market society