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Overview
Stephen Toulmin was Born on March 25th, 1922 in London, England. He would go on in life to become a respected philosopher of science and study many things, such as ethics, meta-philosophy, and argumentation. He would also trie to challenge the ideas of many philosophers who came before him and always pushed the envelope of what it meant to be a good philosopher of science. -
Ethics
Some of Toulmin's first works are in the field of ethics. In his 1950 doctoral dissertation, Reason to Ethics, Toulmin tells us that any ethical conduct is justified as long as the one carrying out the conduct has a good reason, and that no other explanation is required to justify his or her actions. -
Argumentation
One of Stephen's most famous ideas was that of argumentation. He believed, similarly to Karl popper's belief in falsifiability, that absolution lacked value, and to have a good argument, one must provide a rebuttal. Toulmin wrote a book on this subject called the uses of arguments, in which he provided an explanation/guide to what he called practical arguments. Here is a video further explaining his beliefs in the structure of arguments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWnEbMZ0IaA -
The Evolutionary Model
Toulmin's idea of science was actually quite different from the likes of Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper. He believed in an evolutionary type path of science, not a revolutionary one. He did not believe in the cycle of paradigms, instead, he believed in a darwin type evolution of science, in which science is forever growing and branching out. This theory shows a pattern in Toulmins beliefs, that absolutism is almost never the answer. -
Meta-philosophy
What always seems to be a constant in Stephen Toulmin's work is his distrust with universality or absolutism, this can be seen even more evidently with his work in meta-philosophy. In his book Cosmopolis, he credits absolutism with being one of the main flaws in modern philosophy and science. -
Counclusion
Stephen Toulmin past away on December 4th, 2009, in Los Angeles California. He left behind a legacy of challenging absolutism and always trying to find a way to improve upon your arguments. In his lifetime he was able to publish many books, which allowed him to share his ideas with the world, and many generations to come.
