Common Sense Arguments In Anecdotes

Keeping in touch with Pragma-Dialectics is written to honor Frans van Eemeren and his work in the field of argumentation theory on the occasion of his retirement. The volume contains 17 contributions from teams of authors consisting of a combination of a pragma-dialectician and one or two researchers with a different background in the field of argumentation. In this volume, comparisons between the pragma-dialectical approach and other approaches are made, aspects of strategic maneuvering such as the use of presentational techniques, adaptation to the audience and the selection of topics are dealt with and the influence of specific institutional contexts such as politics, medicine and internet forums on strategic maneuvering are discussed.

Two distinguished social and political philosophers take opposing positions in this highly engaging work. Louis P. Pojman justifies the practice of execution by appealing to the principle of retribution: we deserve to be rewarded and punished according to the virtue or viciousness of our actions. He asserts that the death penalty does deter some potential murderers and that we risk the lives of innocent people who might otherwise live if we refuse to execute those deserving that punishment. Jeffrey Reiman argues that although the death penalty is a just punishment for murder, we are not morally obliged to execute murderers. Since we lack conclusive evidence that executing murderers is an effective deterrent and because we can foster the advance of civilization by demonstrating our intolerance for cruelty in our unwillingness to kill those who kill others, Reiman concludes that it is good in principle to avoid the death penalty, and bad in practice to impose it.

From catastrophe to utopia, the most comprehensive survey yet of how literature can speak to the 'Anthropocene'.

First published in 1981, From Pauperism to Poverty consists of seven essays, three of which focus on the English poor law between 1800 and 1914 and four of which examine texts of social investigation by Mayhew, Engels, Booth and Rowntree. Rather than making a specialist contribution to the history of social thought and policy, the essays raise general questions about current ways of writing history and alternative analyses of specific texts or institutions are developed. In doing so, the previous histories of the relief of pauperism and the discovery of poverty are revised at many points. Most notably, it is demonstrated for the first time that relief to unemployed men was virtually abolished after 1850. This book will be of interest to those studying the history of social welfare and poverty.