The Uses of Argument in Mathematics

Stephen Toulmin once observed that `it has never been customary for philosophers to pay much attention to the rhetoric of mathematical debate'. Might the application of Toulmin's layout of arguments to mathematics remedy this oversight? Toulmin's critics fault the layout as requiring so much abstraction as to permit incompatible reconstructions. Mathematical proofs may indeed be represented by fundamentally distinct layouts. However, cases of genuine conflict characteristically reflect an underlying disagreement about the nature of the proof in question.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. To be presented at the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation Conference, McMaster University, May 2005 and LOGICA 2005, Hejnice, Czech Republic, June 200

Rationality and Reasonableness in Ethics

Stephen Toulmin is the Henry Luce Professor of International Relations and Anthropology at the University of Southern California. This talk was delivered at Sacred Heart University on January 30, 1997, sponsored by the Hersher Institute for Applied Ethics and the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding

Pastoral livestock losses and post-drought rehabilitation in subsaharan Africa: Policy options and issues

This paper examines post-drought rehabilitation policies to aid recovery in pastoral livestock production in Africa. It starts by describing the main impact of drought on livestock production and the sequences of this for the national economy. It considers the range of policy options open to governments and development agencies in this area and the problems associated with each one. It then examines the provision of credit to herders to aid in the reconstitution of livestock holdings, and associates the particular issues with the implementation of such projects. The paper focusses on policies which may be carried in the short to medium term to mitigate drought-related losses

Reform to Judicial Procedures for the Efficient Resolution of Commercial Disputes

A reforma de procedimentos judiciais com o objectivo de uma resolução eficiente de disputas comerciais depende, principalmente, da implementação de meios justos de resolução de disputas. Consequentemente, a minha abordagem vem de uma perspectiva muito mais alargada que a maioria dos juízes. Intitulei esta palestra «a resolução eficiente de disputas comerciais», porque é precisamente a ineficiência do sistema legal- com demoras e custos desnecessários - que constitui a principal causa da falência do sistema em providenciar justiça cível

Our Worldwide Legal Profession

John Toulmin, Queen\u27s Counsel, was a student of Professor William Bishop when he attended the U-M Law School as a foreign Ford Foundation Fellow and Fulbright Scholar in 1964-65. As the president of the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community (CCBE), he returned to Ann Arbor as the William W. Bishop Jr. Fellow to give the 1993 Bishop Memorial Lecture on the international practice of law. This article is based on his lecture. In 1965, it did not make sense to talk about a worldwide legal profession. There were many different legal professions which, in the spirit of those times, had little need to harmonise their rules or consider what effect changes in the rules would have on the pattern of practice in other countries. Indeed, until the last few years there was, except for a few specialists, little practical need for ordinary lawyers to study either the law or law practice in other countries. What was until recently an academic pursuit of the few is now recognised as being of great practical importance to all of us. It is clear that we now have a worldwide legal profession and that it is developing at a considerable pace. Lawyers provide services for clients; clients respond to and take advantage of changes in the political and economic situation and in technology, thus driving change in the profession. In order to understand what our worldwide profession requires, it is necessary to look at the extent of the changes that have taken place

Access to Food, Dry Season Strategies and Household Size amongst the Bambara of Central Mali

The Bambara village of Kala lies on the northern frontier for regular crop production in Mali (see Map). With a long term mean rainfall of 600 mm per year, this region forms part of the southern Sahelian zone. Rainfall is concentrated in the three months from July to September and intensive work in the fields must be done during this short period to ensure a harvest. Rainfall is highly variable in its distribution within the year, between neighbouring villages in a given year and from one year to the next. Expected rainfall levels have been falling over the last 20 years; levels ranged from 350-450 mm per year over the period 1980-83 before falling to the exceptionally low total of 250 mm in the drought year of 1984.European Research Council (ERC