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Conferences & lectures

Eric Marcus | Validity for Beginners | Philosophy Speaker Series


Date & time
Friday, October 4, 2024
3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Speaker(s)

Eric Marcus, Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University

Cost

This event is free. All are welcome.

Contact

514-848-2424 ext. 2500

Where

J.W. McConnell Building
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Room 362

Wheel chair accessible

Yes

Eric Marcus

Abstract: The topic of this paper is what I call a judgment of validity. In paradigmatic cases of inference, knowledge of the premises together with a judgment of validity yields knowledge of the conclusion. This suggests a method for understanding such a judgment: It is what you get when you subtract knowledge of the premises from a good inference. If one defines a judgment of validity as I just did, what must it be? What, if anything, does a judgment of validity say about the world? And what in ourselves are we giving voice to when we make such a judgment? In attempting to answer these questions, I will argue for a conception of validity that, among other things, explains how an argument’s being valid manages to guide reasoning. This provides in miniature a novel and compelling way of addressing the question of how the laws of logic relate to thought.

Eric Marcus is Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. His book Rational Causation was published by Harvard University Press in 2012. His second book Belief, Inference, and the Self-Conscious Mind was published by Oxford University Press in 2021.

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