Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty
This book argues that in order to be truly effective, public health must embrace a group of reasoning strategies that have traditionally been characterized as informal fallacies. It will be demonstrated that these strategies can facilitate judgements abou
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Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty
Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty
Louise Cummings
Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty
123
Louise Cummings School of Arts and Humanities Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-15012-3 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15013-0
ISBN 978-3-319-15013-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015935509 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www. springer.com)
Preface
For nearly 20 years, I have been fascinated by the informal fallacies. The rich literature that has developed around this group of arguments is at once revealing and frustrating. It is revealing in that many profound logical insights have emerged in the effort to better understand these arguments. However, this literature has also been frustrating in that there is so much more which can, and should, be said about these complex logical entities. I have always believed and argued that the informal fallacies will reveal their most intricate aspects when they are applied to domains outside of logic. For it is in the application of the fallacies to thinking and reasoning in these domains that we can see these arguments at ‘full stretch’, or at least in a more naturalistic context than is possible in logic textbooks and historical treatises on the fallacies. This has been my motivation in the last 10 years for the application of the study of the fallacies to problems in public health. It is this same application of the fallacies that is the topic of the present volume. If the informal fallacies have reached a level of sophistication where they are ready to be applied to reasoning in domains outside of logic, then there is one field that is more pre
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