Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Journal of 9/11 Studies: 'Obstacles to Persuasion: Lessons from the Classroom'

We are now over 7 years into that place we call the post-9/11 world. Lots of stuff has been written about that day, and the events that followed, some helpful, some not. I have tried to keep up with the serious writings and theories, and this is a good place to read some serious theorizing about 9/11: The Journal of 9/11 Studies. This is from Volume 28, the Dec., 2008 edition, written by a Canadian logician, dealing with argumentation about the 9/11 events.

"From January to April 2008, I taught an unusual upper-level undergraduate Philosophy course on Argumentation Theory at McMaster University. The course focused on such questions as “What makes a good argument good?” and “What makes a belief rational?” - where an argument is understood as an exercise in rational persuasion aimed at inculcating rational belief. And approximately five weeks of the course were devoted to studying the arguments of the 9/11 truth movement."

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