Trudy Govier
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COLLECTIONS ON TRUDY'S WORK


Recently (Dec 2016) A tribute to Trudy's work was published by Dr. Catherine Hundleby titled: "Reasonable Responses: A Tribute to Trudy Govier". You can find the book here.

Synopsis (by Dr. Hundleby):

This tribute to the breadth and influence of Trudy Govier’s philosophical work begins with her early scholarship in argumentation theory, paying special attention to its pedagogical expression. Most people first encounter Trudy Govier’s work and many people only encounter it through her textbooks, especially A Practical Study of Argument, published in many editions. In addition to the work on argumentation that has continued throughout her career, much of Govier’s later work addresses social philosophy and the problems of trust and response to moral wrongs. The introduction by Catherine Hundleby situates Govier’s research along the path of her unusual academic life.

While following the timeline of Govier’s research publication, in this collection the authors build on her work and suggest certain new connections between her argumentation theory and social philosophy. A Practical Study of Argument, first published in 1985, situates Govier among a distinct segment of informal logicians whose concerns about teaching reasoning to post-secondary students orient their research, Takuzo Konishi argues. Moira Kloster evaluates Govier’s progress in the challenge of providing critical thinking education to diverse and changing social contexts. Shifting gears to social philosophy but still addressing education, Laura Elizabeth Pinto explores the significance of Govier’s work on trust for explaining the problem of “audit culture” for teaching. At the centre of this volume, social philosophy receives an abstract meta-ethical defense from Linda Radzik.

Moving solidly into the domain of normative social philosophy, Alice MacLachlan reconsiders Govier’s condemnation of revenge by viewing it as a form of moral address, but she notes how revenge as an act of communication contrasts with argumentation in lacking the respect that Govier maintains is intrinsic to argumentation. MacLachlan ultimately agrees that revenge is morally indefensible. The practical challenges of addressing others in the aftermath of wrongdoing, especially in public contexts, can make it difficult to distinguish between victims and combatants or wrongdoers, Alistair Little and Wilhelm Verwoerd explain, and Kathryn Norlock argues that forgiveness is psychologically vexed too. People may recognize transformation to be in principle possible for all people, Norlock argues, and yet we may find the evidence regarding some particular evildoer sufficient to count that person as an exception.  Finally Govier responds to the various papers.


INFORMAL LOGIC, Vol. 33, No. 2, Spring 2013

From the Editors:

"On the occasion of Trudy Govier’s retirement from the University of Lethbridge after a 42-year career of scholarship and teaching there and elsewhere, the Editors of Informal Logic take great pleasure in presenting this Special Issue of the journal assembled in her honour. These papers are written out of respect for her signal contributions to the theory of argument, and of informal logic, over more than three decades.
Trudy Govier received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo in 1971, following a B.A. (History) from the University of Alberta and an M.A. (Philosophy) from the University of Calgary. She was a member of the Philosophy Department at Trent University 1971-1982, an independent scholar 1982- 2005, and a member of the Philosophy Department at the University of Lethbridge 2005-2012, retiring as a full professor.

During her 23-year hiatus between full-time university positions, Govier taught part time at the Universities of Calgary, Simon Fraser, Lethbridge, Amsterdam and Winnipeg. A life-long public advocate for peace and reconciliation, she organized two conferences on issues of ethics and peace in Dubrovnic, and a conference on dilemmas of reconciliation in Calgary; several workshops and conferences for Project Ploughshares (a peace research, education and action NGO on whose executive board she sat); and numerous public lecture series. She also contributed to several Canadian government commissions. During this period she wrote nine books and edited two others, and published over 40 scholarly articles.

Trudy Govier was honoured by the argumentation scholarly community as an invited keynote speaker at the 1999 Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation and as an International Society for the Study of Argumentation Award winner in 2005. Govier attended the First International Symposium on Informal Logic held at University of Windsor, 26-28 June 1978. There- after she became one of the principal contributors to the development of the fledgling movement, publishing several papers in the Informal Logic Newsletter and later in this journal, and serving on its editorial board from the beginning. Govier presented papers at the Second International Symposium on Informal Logic (1983) and at the Third International Symposium on Informal Logic (1989). Her highly-regarded textbook, A Practical Study of Argument, in print for 28 years and currently in its seventh edition, illustrates how developments at the level of theory can be integrated into undergraduate instruction.
The articles in this issue discuss Govier’s influence in the development of the theory and practice of informal logic and of argument theory more broadly, and also attest to the influence of her views on topics of current theoretical interest in these fields.

We focus here on Govier’s work in areas covered by the mandate of Informal Logic. A broader collection of papers that will make reference also to her extensive scholarly work on the topics  of peace, reconciliation and trust, is being prepared under the editorship of Catherine Hundleby, and will be available within the year."
 
 
J. Anthony Blair & Ralph H. Johnson
Informal Logic Special Issue Editors

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