Perspectives on Theory of Controversies and the Ethics of Communication

The 18 original contributions in this volume enter into dialogue with Dascal’s own prolific and voluminous philosophical work. The first three articles focus on philosophical controversy, a key concept developed by Dascal in a series of articles. According to Dascal, philosophy evolves by way of controversy. Each of these articles manifests this idea, centering on a philosophical controversy (Regner, Mishori, Schulz) or on the very idea of a controversy (Senderowicz). The next three contributions are related with Dascal’s identity as a renowned Leibniz scholar. Roinila’s article deals with Akrasia, Naaman-Zauderer writes about Leibniz’s notion of justice, and Serfati develops the idea of origin of mathematics according to Leibniz. The following three articles pertain to Dascal’s contribution to philosophy of language and deal with the new phenomena of emoticons (Dresner and Herring), with Brandom’s deontic scorekeeping (Riesenfeld), and with the pragmatic notion of speaker’s meaning (Amel). The next three articles concern political philosophical issues; Rudolph’s article presents a controversy within the Protestant Church in Germany regarding the idea of “homeland,” Baruch tackles the concept of toleration as related to pluralism, and Morris-Reich’s paper explores how German social scientists confront issues of anti-Semitism. Next, Scarafile’s article deals with the uniqueness of the mind of a genius as portrayed by Diderot. Following, Thiebaut’s paper attempts to analyze the roots and origin of norms. Pombo Martins writes about the idea of the unity of science as manifested in the encyclopedia. The last two articles in this collection deal with the connection between logical concepts and (traditionally) nonlogical ones, abduction and habit in De Andrade et al., and finally, Rahman’s closing paper develops a dialogical approach to logic. As pointed out, some of the articles in this volume are directly connected to, and influenced by, philosophical themes, ideas, and concepts developed throughout the years byMarcelo Dascal, while others bare a looser connection to his work. It is, however, the remarkable and multifaceted philosophical persona of Marcelo Dascal.