Douglas Walton

Douglas Walton

With deep sadness, the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR) mourns the death this week of Distinguished Research fellow, Dr. Douglas N. Walton. After a long career at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Walton joined the University of Windsor as Assumption Chair in Argumentation in 2008. He was a prolific scholar, publishing over a hundred papers and several books in his time at Windsor alone. He led the field on more fronts than can be enumerated here, establishing the groundwork on which several generations of scholars have continued to build and setting the research agendas for generations of scholars to come. In spite of his international reputation, he is remembered as a man of deep humility, generous with his time and expertise and eager to mentor young minds. Those who knew him well can today count themselves fortunate and will continue to be inspired by the tremendous legacy he leaves behind.

A celebration of the life and career of Professor Douglas Walton will take place Thursday, January 9th between 1:00 and 3:00 pm at the Windsor Chapel Funeral Home, 1700 Tecumseh East. In lieu of flowers, contributions are invited to a scholarship fund being established in his name to support students in the Argumentation Studies PhD. Please click on the link below and follow the directions in order to make a much appreciated donation.

https://www.uwindsor.ca/donate?e&epDesgOther=Doug%20Walton%20Scholarship

The University of Windsor mourns the passing of Professor Douglas Walton, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR). Dr. Walton joined Windsor from the University of Winnipeg in 2008 as Assumption Chair in Argumentation.

He was the world’s best known and most cited scholar in the field of argumentation studies and a leading expert in artificial intelligence and multiagent systems. He authored or co-authored nearly 60 books and over 400 articles.

Over his career, Walton’s philosophical insights led to new models for analyzing conversation, new methods for improving classroom discourse and medical interviews, innovative approaches to legal argumentation and formalizations of statutory interpretations, and new algorithms for modeling human-machine interactions. He had been invited to take part in international collaborative research projects in institutions such as The Leibniz Center for Informatics at Schloss Dagstuhl, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, the National Institute for Informatics in Tokyo, the Institute of Logic and Cognition in Guangzhou, China, and the European University Institute (Law) in Florence, Italy.

He is survived by his wife, Karen