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From London to the US
Stephen Edelston Toulmin, born in 1922 in London, England, was an English philosopher known in Europe and the USA. He was an important ethical philosopher of the latter half of the 20th century; he was famous for studying the history of ideas as an English philosopher and educator. In 1960, he moved to the U.S., where he wrote one of his most controversial books; he died in 2009. -
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From London to the US
Toulmin wrote 22 different books on different subjects. Instead of emphasizing contemporary philosophy's conceptual, theoretical habits, Toulmin used his combination of grammatical philosophy, borrowings from Aristotle and neo-pragmatism, to press both philosophers and action researchers to operate differently. -
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From London to the US
Among his books include The Place of Reason in Ethics (1950); The Uses of Argument (1958); Philosophy of Science (1953); The Fabric of the Heavens (co-authored, 1960); Foresight and Understanding (1960); The Architecture of Matter (co-authored, 1963); The Discovery of Time (1965); Human Understanding (1972); Wittgenstein's Vienna (co-authored, 1973). Toulmin generally followed the same perspective for science in his work. -
Philosophy of science. An Introduction
One of Toulmin's famous books was the Philosophy of science. An Introduction (1953). The author discussed the relation and relevance between philosophical, logical, and conceptual analysis of modern science. Through his book, he analyzed the different subject that affects science and how scientific thinks.
Toulmin, Stephen Edelston. "The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction." The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. London: Arrow, 1962. 50-60. Print. -
Philosophy of science. An Introduction
Although he used clear and perspective language in the bool, Dr. Toulmin described science as an expression of the world and is a product of creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness. Throughout the book, one of his philosophic goals is to demystify the role and place of mathematics and logic in scientific theories, especially physics.
Toulmin, Stephen Edelston. "The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction." The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. London: Arrow, 1962. 50-60. Print. -
Philosophy of science. An Introduction
"In physics, it is no use even beginning to look at things until you know exactly what you are looking for: observation has to be strictly controlled by reference to some particular theoretical problem" (Toulmin, p.54). With this quote from the book, Toulmin expresses his idea that physics differs from science since we go from a possible claim to prove an idea.
Toulmin, Stephen Edelston. "The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction." The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. London -
Philosophy of science. An Introduction
In physics, we need evidence to start an experiment or a work that will result in a theory. In Toulmin's point of view, the philosophy of science is the study of aims, methods, and accomplishments of physical sciences. Therefore, he suggests that philosophy students need an introductory guide to scientists' types of arguments and methods.
Toulmin, Stephen Edelston. "The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction." The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. London -
The uses of argument
In 1958, Toulmin wrote his most influential work, a seminal book, The uses of argument. He outlined his argument model based on six elements of persuasion: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, and rebuttal.
Claim: there are only three types of claim: evidence, judgment/content, and strategy.
Grounds: are often based on three things proof, source credibility, and analysis and reasoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEIHCxpKSTM -
The uses of argument
Warrant: is based on Aristotle's three models of persuasion and shared values.
Backing: is an additional justification of the warrant.
Qualifier: specification of data to claim, warrant, and backing
Rebuttal: conditions of exception to the claim.
The book pursued the flow of traditional logic, with a rational idea that arguments may vary from field to field.
Toulim, Stephen Edelston. "The Uses of Argument." The Uses of Argument. London: Cambridge UP, 1958. 233-38. Print. -
The uses of argument
He rebuked the theory of absolute truth by stating that truth can be relative and that absolutism fails to consider the field-dependent aspect of the argument. "Jurisprudence is one subject which has al-ways embraced a part of logic within its scope, and what we called to begin with 'the jurisprudential analogy' can be seen in retrospect to amount to something more than a mere analogy" (Toulmin, P. 233).
Toulim, Stephen Edelston. "The Uses of Argument." The Uses of Argument. London: Cambridge -
Human Understanding
The book is full of clear, concrete, direct illustrative examples from the history of science and criticisms of opposing philosophers (e.g., Kant, Colling-Wood, Kuhn). This book of Toulmin created a significant controversial theory and influenced the world of philosophie of science to change their thinking method.
Toulmin, Stephen. Human Understanding. Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP, 1972. Print. -
Human Understanding
Even if Toulmin is not a relativist, he argues the mistaken view of conceptualism change as an occasional series of incommensurable opinions which nobody can assess for adequacy from an outsider position. He expressed conceptual change as a gradual evolution of ways of dealing with and understanding the world.
Toulmin, Stephen. Human Understanding. Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP, 1972. Print. -
Human Understanding
The study of this subject then becomes a historical, empirical matter, an ideal conceptual figure as a set of standard procedures well developed to achieve a set of shared ideas for understanding things, including procedures for its modification in adaptation to changing circumstances and ideals.
Toulmin, Stephen. Human Understanding. Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP, 1972. Print. -
Human Understanding
One of his most controversial books was Human Understanding, written in 1972. In his book, Toulmin strives for the vindication of man's rationality. Through the book, he proposed to escapes from the dilemma by redefining rationality. Somewhat unexpectedly, the question of absolute standards versus relativism turns into an implicit commentary on the nature of science.
Toulmin, Stephen. Human Understanding. Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP, 1972. Print.