Dr. Robert C. Pinto joined the Philosophy department at what is now the University of Windsor in 1963 and remained a core faculty member until 2000 when he retired and earned emeritus status. Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, he earned his PhD at the University of Toronto. Within the Philosophy department, he took a turn as head and for many years was either chair or a member of the graduate studies committee. For many years he was associate editor of Informal Logic, and a member of the editorial boards of Informal Logic, of Argumentation and of Revista Iberoamericana de Argumentación. He has attended and delivered a paper at every conference of the Ontario Society of Studies in Argumentation (OSSA) since its inception in the 1980s through to 2016 (and counting). He created the first Web site for the Canadian Philosophical Association and for several years was its editor. His research towards the end of his career and to the present day focused on the nature of reasons; relationship between belief and acceptance; mutual conceptual interdependence between statements ascribing propositional attitudes and truth predicates. He is associated with the phrase, “argument is an invitation to inference” (Pinto, 2001, 36) which he coined in Argument, Inference and Dialectic.
Selected publications:
Books:
· Reason Reclaimed: Essays in Honour of J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnson (edited with Hans V. Hansen). Vale Press, 2007.
· Argument, Inference and Dialectic, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.
· Fallacies: Classical and Contemporary Readings (edited with Hans V. Hansen). Penn State Press, 1995.
· Reasoning: A Practical Guide (with J. A. Blair). Prentice Hall, 1993.
Chapters in Books:
· Burdens of Rejoinder. In Hansen and Pinto, eds., Reason Reclaimed: Essays in Honour of J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnson (Vale Press, 2007): 75-88.
· Evaluating Inferences: the nature and role of warrants. In David Hitchcock and Bart Verheij, eds., Arguing on the Toulmin model: New essays on argument analysis and evaluation (Springer 2006), 115-144.
· Reasons. In van Eemeren, Blair, Willard and Snoeck-Heckemans, eds., Anyone Who Has a View. Studies in Argumentation (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 3-15.
Journal Articles:
· R. C. Pinto, The Uses of Argument in Communicative Contexts. Argumentation 24:2 (2010), pp. 227-252.
· R. C. Pinto. Argumentation and the force of reasons. Informal Logic 29: 3(2009), pp. 263-297.
· R. C. Pinto. Argument schemes and the evaluation of presumptive reasoning: some reflections on Blair’s account. ProtoSociology 13 (1999): 50-58.
· R. C. Pinto. Evaluating Inferences: the nature and role of warrants. Informal Logic 26: 3 (2006): 287-317.
Conference Papers:
· Emotions and Reasons. Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, May 2011.
· Comments on Kvernbekk’s “Evidence-based Practice (EBP) and Toulmin.”Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, May 2011.
· "Weighing Evidence in the Context of Conductive Reasoning." Paper delivered at CRRAR mini-conference on conductive arguments at the University of Windsor, April 30 to May 1, 2009.
· Argumentation and the force of reasons. A keynote address delivered at Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2009.
· Commentary on Weinstein’s ‘Two Contrasting Cultures.” Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University Of Windsor, June 2009.
· 'Probably’ and other modal qualifiers. Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2007.
· The Uses of Argument in Communicative Contexts. In Blair, Farr, Hansen, Johnson and Tindale, Informal Logic at 25: Proceedings of the Windsor Conference (CD-ROM published by Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, 2003).
· Truth and Premiss Adequacy. In Tindale, Hansen, Blair, Hansen and Pinto, Argumentation and its Applications (CD-ROM published by Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, 2002).
· Argumentation and the force of reasons. Keynote address to be delivered at Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, University of Windsor, June 2009