Ralph H. Johnson, Senior Research Fellow

Johnson was hired as an Instructor in 1966. He received his Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 1972. He retired in Fall 2006 after 39 years, during which he served two terms as Head of Department. In 1971, he along with his colleague, J. Anthony Blair, developed a new approach to logic they called informal logic. In 1977, Johnson and Blair published their text, Logical Self-Defense (3rd edition, 1993; U.S. edition, 1994; IDEA, 2006). In 1979, Johnson and Blair founded the Informal Logic Newsletter, which became the journal, Informal Logic, in 1985. In 2004 he co-founded the Network for the Study of Reasoning, a cluster of Canadian experts researching the theory and its applications of reasoning and argument. His articles have appeared in such journals as American Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, Argumentation, Philosophy and Rhetoric and Informal Logic. In 1996, a collection of his articles and papers was published by Vale Press under the title The Rise of Informal Logic. In 2000, his book, Manifest Rationality: A Pragmatic Study of Argument, was published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Johnson has conducted seminars and workshops on informal logic and critical thinking across North America and in Europe. In 1993, Johnson received a 3M Teaching Fellowship for outstanding university teachers, one of ten such awards conferred that year in Canada. In 1994, he was awarded the rank of University Professor by the University of Windsor. In 2000, he was awarded the Distinguished Research Award by the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2005, he received the Career Achievement Award from the University of Windsor. Johnson is listed in Who’s Who in Canada .

Expertise
Informal Logic, Argumentation Theory, Critical Thinking, Kierkegaard

Current Research
Johnson is currently engaged in currently working on a book about Dialectical Adequacy, which will act as a successor to his Manifest Rationality (2000). He is also working on the history of the discipline of informal logic.

Supervision of projects in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric
Post-doctoral Research Fellow:

• David Godden (2005-06), Developing Standards for Argument Evaluation: Epistemology, Evidence and Psychology of Reasoning.

MA Theses:

• John Davie. “The Problem of Relevance.” M.A. Thesis. Supervisor. 2005
• Roger Daniher. “Considerations for Judging Sufficiency in Argument” M.A.Thesis. Supervisor. 2005.
• Catherine Bornais. “Henry W. Johnstone, Jr. ‘On the Obligation to Defend a Thesis’” Major Paper: Reader 2005..
• Janet Sobocan. "Critical thinking in high school: Some problems with the character view." M.A thesis: Supervisor. 2002
• Takuzo Konishi. "Stasis theory and arguers' dialectical obligations." M.A thesis. Reader 2000.
• Michele Franklin. "Teaching Critical Thinking in the Native North American Curriculum." M.A thesis. Reader. 1996.
• Michael Kasurak. "Premise Relevance: Informal Logic and Legal Theory Compared" M.A thesis. Reader. 1993.
• Allan Kidd. "A Framework for Conflict Resolution within the Theory of Critical Thinking." M.A thesis. Reader. 1993.
• Debra Boussey. “A Fresh approach to Analyzing John McPeck’s Conception of Critical Thinking.” M.A. Thesis. Supervisor,
• Michael Kurak. “A Cognitively Oriented Examination of Belief Perseverance.”M.A.Thesis. Supervisor.

External Examiner:

• Philip Chittleborough, “Psychological Perspectives on the Perception, Appraisal and Production of Everyday Arguments, University of Adelaide, PhD Dissertation, 1999.
• Jen Glaser: “The Conception of Critical Thinking.” Melbourne University, PhD Dissertation, 1998.

Recent Funding

• 2005. Network for the Study of Reasoning. SSHRC Research Cluster Design Grant (Renewal). $25,000.
• 2004 Network for the Study of Reasoning, SSHRC Research Cluster Design Grant. $30,000.
• 2003 Informal Logic @ 25, SSHRC small conference grant. $10.000.
• 2001, OSSA Conference, SSHRC small conferebce grant. $10,000.
• SSHRC grant to learned journals, 2002-2005. $27,000

Research Information

Recent Publications
Books

• Logical Self-Defense, Ralph H. Johnson and J. Anthony Blair. 2006. New U.S. Edition. New York: IDEBATE Press. Pp. xvii + 312.
• Manifest Rationality: A Pragmatic Study of Argument. 2000. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. xiii + 391.

Books edited

• Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference: The Turn toward the Practical Reasoning , Dov Gabbay, Ralph H. Johnson, Hans-Jurgen Ohlbach and John Woods (Eds.). 2002. Amsterdam: Elsivier. Pp. x & 498. (ISBN: 0-444-50650-0)

Chapters in books

• 2007 (forthcoming). “The Implications of the Dialectical Tier for Critical Thinking,” in Janet Sobocan, Leo Groarke and Ralph H. Johnson, (Eds.), Teaching and Testing: Critical Thinking in Today’s Schools and Universities.
• 2006. “The Ambiguous Relationship between Pragma Dialectics and Logic,” Agnes van Rees and Peter Houtlosser (Eds.), Festschrift in Honour of Frans H. van Eemeren. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ch. 12, 135-148..
• 2003. “The Dialectical Tier Revisited,” in Anyone Who has a View: Theoretical Contributions to the Study of Argumentation, Frans H. van Eemeren, J. Anthony Blair, Charles A. Willard, and A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans (Eds.). Dorcrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 41-54.

Articles

• “Manifest Rationality Reconsidered: Reply to My Fellow Symposiasts.” (2002). Argumentation, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 311-331.
• “Interpreting Shell’s ‘Clear Thinking in Troubled Times,’” Informal Logic/Teaching Supplement. (2002). Vol, 21. No. 3, pp. TS39-47.
• “Informal Logic: An Overview.” (co-author J. A. Blair). Informal Logic. (2000) Vol, 20, pp. 93-108.
• "Reasoning, Argument and The Network Problem" (1999). Protosociology, Vol. 13, pp. 14-28.