Abstract
In the last chapter, the evidential basis of Wilesmith et al.’s aetiological claim was examined in detail. That claim sought to relate BSE and scrapie in the sense that BSE was caused by the transmission of scrapie to cattle. The evidence in support of this claim, I argued, was not without its weaknesses. The result was a rather tentative claim that was certainly grounds enough for proceeding in inquiry, but still fell some way short of the type of outright commitment that is associated with an established scientific thesis.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Perelman Ch (1963) The idea of justice and the problem of argument. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London
Fuller S, Collier JH (2004) Philosophy, rhetoric, and the end of knowledge: a new beginning for science and technology studies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ
Llewelyn JE (1962) Presuppositions, assumptions and presumptions. Theoria 28 (2):158–172
World Health Organization (2006) Dealing with uncertainty: setting the agenda for the 5th ministerial conference on environment and health. Report of a WHO meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark
Woods J, Walton DN (1978) The fallacy of ‘ad ignorantiam’. Dialectica 32 (2):87–99
Kahane H (1971) Logic and contemporary rhetoric: the use of reason in everyday life. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
Leech GN (1983) Principles of pragmatics. Longman, London
Walton DN (1985) Are circular arguments necessarily vicious? Am Philos Q 22 (4):263–274
Scriven M (1980) The philosophical and pragmatic significance of informal logic. In: Blair JA, Johnson RH (eds) Informal logic: the first international symposium, Edgepress, Inverness, CA
van Eemeren FH, Grootendorst R (1995) The pragma-dialectical approach to fallacies. In: Hansen HV, Pinto RC (eds) Fallacies: classical and contemporary readings, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, pp 130–144
Hamblin CL (1970) Fallacies. Methuen, London
Gabbay DM, Woods J (to appear) Seductions and shortcuts: fallacies in the cognitive economy. Elsevier, North Holland
Smithson M (2008) Psychology’s ambivalent view of uncertainty. In: Bammer G, Smithson M (eds) Uncertainty and risk: multidisciplinary perspectives, Earthscan, London, pp 205–217
Ullman-Margalit E (1983) On presumption. J Philos 80 (3):143–163
Reiter R (1987) Nonmonotonic reasoning. Ann Rev Comput Sci 2:147–186
Bechtel W (1988) Philosophy of science: an overview for cognitive science. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ
Rescher N (2006) Presumption and the practices of tentative cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Woods J (1995) Appeal to force. In: Hansen HV, Pinto RC (eds) Fallacies: classical and contemporary readings, The Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania, pp 240–250
Wilson C, Evans G, Leppard P, Syrette J (2004) Reactions to genetically modified food crops and how perception of risks and benefits influences consumers' information gathering. Risk Anal 24 (5):1311–1321
Rescher N (1977) Dialectics: a controversy-oriented approach to the theory of knowledge. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
Dressel K, Wynne B (1998) Anglo-German comparison of modern risk political cultures – the BSE case. Centre for the study of environmental change, Lancaster University
Todd PM, Gigerenzer G (2000) Simple heuristics that make us smart. Behav Brain Sci 23 (5):727–741
Cosmides L, Tooby J (1992) Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. In: Barkow J, Cosmides L, Tooby J (eds) The adapted mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, Oxford University Press, New York, pp 163–228
Fodor JA (1983) The modularity of mind. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Woods J (2004) The death of argument: fallacies in agent-based reasoning. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
van Eemeren FH, Grootendorst R (2004) A systematic theory of argumentation: the pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
De Cornulier B (1988) “Knowing whether”, “knowing who”, and epistemic closure. In: Meyer M (ed) Questions and questioning, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin
Lamb JW (1972) Knowledge and justified presumption. J Philos 69 (5):123–127
Hample D (1982) Dual coding, reasoning and fallacies. J Am Forensic Assoc 19 (2):59–78
Katzner LI (1973) Presumptions of reason and presumptions of justice. J Philos 70:89–100
Graham JD (1995) Historical perspective on risk assessment in the federal government. Toxicology 102 (1–2):29–52
Cummings L (2009) Emerging infectious diseases: coping with uncertainty. Argumentation 23 (2):171–188
Stanley J (2005) Knowledge and practical interests. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Christakos G, Olea RA, Serre ML, Yu H-L, Wang L-L (2005) Interdisciplinary public health reasoning and epidemic modelling: the case of black death, Springer, The Netherlands
Walton DN (1995) A pragmatic theory of fallacy. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL
Johnson BB (2005) Testing and expanding a model of cognitive processing of risk information. Risk Anal 25 (3):631–650
Finocchiaro MA (1981) Fallacies and the evaluation of reasoning. Am Philos Q 18 (1):13–22
Rescher N (2005b) Common-sense: a new look at an old philosophical tradition. Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, WI
Godden DM, Walton D (2007) A theory of presumption for everyday argumentation. Pragmatics & Cognition 15 (2):313–346
Collins A, Aiello N, Warnock EH, Miller ML (1975) Reasoning from incomplete knowledge. In: Bobrow DG, Collins A (eds) Representation and understanding: studies in cognitive science.Academic, New York
Walton DN (1992) Plausible argument in everyday conversation. SUNY Press, Albany
Rescher N (2005a) Studies in 20th century philosophy. Ontos Verlag, New Brunswick, NJ
Walton DN (1996) Argumentation schemes for presumptive reasoning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ
Massey GJ (1981) The fallacy behind fallacies. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 6 (1):489–500
Rescher N (1976) Plausible reasoning: an introduction to the theory and practice of plausibilistic inference. Van Gorcum, Assen/Amsterdam
Walton DN (2005) Fundamentals of critical argumentation. Cambridge University Press, New York
Michaels D, Monforton C (2005) Manufacturing uncertainty: contested science and the protection of the public’s health and environment. Am J Public Health, 95 (S1):S39–S48
Walton DN (1992) Plausible argument in everyday conversation. SUNY Press, Albany
Woods J (2004) The death of argument: fallacies in agent-based reasoning. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cummings, L. (2010). Arguing Through Uncertainty. In: Rethinking the BSE Crisis. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9504-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9504-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9503-9
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9504-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)