Scott F Aikin

Datos Biográficos

ID1294675
NOMBREScott F Aikin
NOMBRESScott F
APELLIDOAikin
FIRMAAIKIN S F
AFILIACIONESVanderbilt University
ORCID0000-0002-5358-7234
VERIFICADOSí
TOTAL DE OBRAS33
TOTAL DE CITAS12
TOTAL COMO AUTOR31
TOTAL COMO EDITOR2
PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN2007
AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN2026
ÍNDICE H2

  • Hubert Marraud

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, Scott AikinARTICLEArgumentation2026

  • Empirical evidence for the non-persuasiveness of the straw man on its target

    Open AccessJohn Schumann, Scott F Aikin et al.ARTICLEArgumentation2026

    This paper addresses the degree to which straw man arguments are perceived as persuasive by their targets. A review of the literature shows that there is a consensus on the topic, stipulating that using a straw man argument is unlikely to change a person’s views. However, the experimental evidence we have so far on the straw man fallacy only covers third-person scenarios, i.e., when participants act as an audience observing an argumentative excha…

  • What about Whataboutism

    Scott F Aikin, J CaseyARTICLESocial Epistemology2026

    In some recent literature, ‘whataboutism’ is analysed as a sometimes-reasonable argument or claim about inconsistency on an issue of dispute, akin to the ad hominem tu quoque. We argue that this doesn’t capture the peculiarly meta-argumentative failure (or success) of ‘what-about’ appeals. Whataboutist moves are appeals to evidence about whether one has assessed the total evidence or has made the right contrasting consideration and so need not be…

  • Three Puzzles with Ad Hominem Arguments

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLEJournal of the American…2025

    The ad hominem appears to be the simplest fallacy form—one criticizes speakers instead of their statements or arguments. It is regularly taken to be a fallacy of irrelevance, in that who is speaking does not bear on the truth of what is said. But three puzzles attend this analysis. (1) Given that the fallacy is simple and seemingly obvious, how could it be effective in practice? (2) Are there not cases when who is speaking is relevant? How do we …

  • Selective Dispute Avoidance, Deep Disagreements, and Pragmatic Meta-Arguments for Engagement

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLEArgumentation2025

    The phenomenon of selective dispute avoidance is that there are issues we debate and issues we recoil from debating, despite the fact that they are very similar in values at stake. What accounts for this variance? That some disagreements are deep and engagements on some deep issues yields meta-argumentatively bad results is a plausible explanation. However, practical second-order rebutting reasons to these considerations are proposed, essentially…

  • Epictetus’s Encheiridion

    Scott F Aikin, Scott Aikin et al.BOOKEpictetus’s Encheiridion2023

    For anyone approaching the Encheiridion of Epictetus for the first time, this book provides a comprehensive guide to understanding a complex philosophical text. Including a full translation and clear explanatory commentaries, Epictetus’s ‘Encheiridion’ introduces readers to a hugely influential work of Stoic philosophy. Scott Aikin and William O. Stephens unravel the core themes of Stoic ethics found within this ancient handbook. Focusing on the …

  • Free Speech Fallacies as Meta-Argumentative Errors

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, J CaseyARTICLEArgumentation2023

  • On Halting Meta-argument with Para-Argument

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, John CaseyARTICLEArgumentation2023

  • The academic at the crossroads

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLESynthese2023Referencias: 24

  • Bothsiderism

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, J CaseyARTICLEArgumentation2022

  • Fallacies of Meta-argumentation

    Scott F Aikin, John CaseyARTICLEPhilosophy and Rhetoric2022

    This article argues that the theoretical concept of meta-argumentative fallacy is useful. The authors argue for this along two lines. The first is that with the concept, the authors may clarify the concept of meta-argumentation. That is, by theorizing where meta-argument goes wrong, the authors may capture the norms of this level of argumentation. The second is that the concept of meta-argumentative fallacies provides an explanatory model for a v…

  • Argumentation and the problem of agreement

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, J CaseyARTICLESynthese2022Referencias: 40

  • Deep Disagreement and the Problem of the Criterion

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLETopoi2021

  • What Optimistic Responses to Deep Disagreement get Right (and Wrong)

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLECo-herencia2020

    In this paper, I argue for three theses. First, that the problem of Deep Disagreement is usefully understood as an instance of the skeptical Problem of the Criterion. Second, there are structural similarities between proposed optimistic answers to deep disagreement and the problem of the criterion. Third, in light of these similarities, there are both good and bad consequences for proposed solutions to the problem of deep disagreement

  • Thinking About Logic

    Steven M Cahn, Robert B Talisse et al.BOOKThinking about Logic2018

    "Thinking about Logic is an accessible and thought-provoking collection of classic articles in the philosophy of logic. An ideal companion to any formal logic course or textbook, this volume illuminates how logic relates to perennial philosophical issues about knowledge, meaning, rationality, and reality. The editors have selected each essay for its brevity, clarity, and impact and have included insightful introductions and discussion questions. …

  • On the Limits of the Term “Pragmatism”

    Scott F Aikin, Scott Aikin Scott AikinARTICLETransactions of the Charles S…2018

    Cheryl Misak argues that the link between belief and action is a pragmatist hallmark, and so extends the reach of the term 'pragmatist' to a surprisingly wide and varied group of philosophers. In this essay, I first show that this hallmark extends the term 'pragmatist' to William Kingdon Clifford and his case for evidentialism. This, I argue, is a salutary extension. One difficulty with the version of the pragmatist criterion of belief Misak posi…

  • Pragmatism, Common Sense, and Metaphilosophy

    Scott F Aikin, Scott Aikin Scott AikinARTICLETransactions of the Charles S…2018Referencias: 1

    The pragmatist use of common sense philosophy has not only been a source for first-order philosophical work but also for metaphilosophical orientation. The primary motive for both of these lines of thought has been that of anti-skepticism. This essay shows, using William James and G.E. Moore as primary examples, that skeptical challenges may be posed from within the common sense and pragmatist common sense programs. From this result, a case for s…

  • Why We Argue (and How We Should)

    Scott F Aikin, Robert B TalisseBOOKWhy We Argue (and How We Should)2018

  • Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Nature of Philosophy

    Scott F Aikin, Robert B TalisseBOOKPragmatism, Pluralism, and the…2017

    For the past fifteen years, Aikin and Talisse have been working collaboratively on a new vision of American pragmatism, one which sees pragmatism as a living and developing philosophical idiom that originates in the work of the "classical" pragmatisms of Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, uninterruptedly develops through the later 20th Century pragmatists (C. I. Lewis, Wilfrid Sellars, Nelson Goodman, W. V. O. Quine), and continues th…

  • Does divine hiding undermine Positive Evidential Atheism

    Open AccessScott F AikinARTICLEReligious Studies2016

    Positive Evidential Atheism is the two-part view that our available evidence sufficiently supports the belief that God does not exist and that God's non-existence is a morally good thing. Paul Moser's recent work (2012, 2013, 2014, and forthcoming) provides a case that Positive Evidential Atheism is undermined by ‘intentional divine elusiveness’. This essay defends Positive Evidential Atheism from Moser's objection along two lines: (1) Moser's un…

  • Pragmatism and Pluralism Revisited

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, Robert B TalisseARTICLEPolitical Studies Review2016Citada por: 2Referencias: 8

    In 2005, we published a jointly authored article arguing that pragmatists must reject pluralism. As certain pragmatists describe themselves as pluralists, the essay received its share of criticism; however, no response has succeeded in defeating the essay’s argument. Nonetheless, contemporary classical pragmatists persist in embracing the term. Something’s amiss. In this article, we defend a conclusion that differs importantly from that of the 20…

  • Stoicism, Feminism and Autonomy

    Open AccessScott F Aikin, Scott Aikin et al.ARTICLESymposion2014

    The ancient Stoics had an uneven track record with regard to women’s standing. On the one hand, they recognized women as fully capable of rationality and virtue. On the other hand, they continued to hold that women’s roles were in the home. These views are consistent, given Stoic value theory, but are unacceptable on liberal feminist grounds. Stoic value theory, given different emphasis on the ethical role of choice, is shown to be capable of sat…

  • Why We Argue (And How We Should)

    Scott F Aikin, Robert B Talisse et al.BOOKWhy We Argue2013

    Why We Argue (And How We Should): A Guide to Political Disagreement presents an accessible and engaging introduction to the theory of argument, with special emphasis on the way argument works in public political debate. The authors develop a view according to which proper argument is necessary for one’s individual cognitive health; this insight is then expanded to the collective health of one’s society. Proper argumentation, then, is seen to play…

  • Poe's Law, group polarization, and argumentative failure in religious and political discourse

    Scott F AikinARTICLESocial Semiotics2012Citada por: 5Referencias: 4

    Poe's Law is roughly that online parodies of religious views are indistinguishable from sincere expressions of religious views. Poe's Law may be expressed in a variety of forms, each highlighting either a facet of indirect discourse generally, polarized attitudes of online audiences, or the quality of online religious material. As a consequence of the polarization of online discussions, invocations of Poe's Law have relevance in wider circles tha…

  • The Pragmatism Reader

    Robert B Talisse, Scott F AikinBOOKPragmatism Reader2011

    not that, as the stereotype goes, Continental thinkers and scholars have no respect for scientific modes of thought and experience; it is rather that they are skeptical that this mode is the only mode of world-disclosure. Insofar as Neo-Kantianism aims to vindicate the idea that thought and experience as they pertain to the physical sciences are privileged vis-a-vis other modes, it is completely out of step with the pluralism of the Continental t…