Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology‘s special issue on
ONLINE ARGUMENTS: THEORETICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

GUEST EDITOR(S)
Fabio Paglieri (ISTC-CNR Roma)
Chris Reed (University of Dundee)
Associate Editor: Giuseppe Primiero (Middlesex University)

INTRODUCTION

Argument and debate form cornerstones of civilized society and of intellectual life. As online interaction usurps many traditional forms of interaction and communication, we would hope to see these processes alive and well on the web. But we do not. In spite of the ever-growing volume of online interaction, its current mechanisms hamper and discourage serious debate; they facilitate poor quality argument; and they allow fuzzy thinking to go unchecked. Meanwhile, these same online resources are increasingly being trusted and adopted with little critical reflection. The problem needs to be addressed from two different but converging perspectives:

(1) We need better understanding and widespread awareness in the use of current and future ICT, to enable people to profit from new opportunities for argumentative interaction, instead of being mislead and thwarted by lack of familiarity with the emerging socio-technical systems. Several research areas are critical to this purpose, but their contributions need to be integrated in a concerted effort: among others, philosophy of information, critical thinking, digital literacy, e-inclusion, persuasive technologies, CMC.

(2) We need new tools, new systems and new standards engineered into the heart of the internet to encourage debate, to facilitate good argument, and to promote a new online critical literacy. This is the vision of the Argument Web, a web platform that brings together different domains and interaction styles (e.g. argument analysis, real-time debate, blogging) by combining linked argument data with software tools that make online debate intuitive for various audiences, including mediators, students, academics, broadcasters and bloggers.

This special issue of Springer’s Philosophy & Technology (http://www.springer.com/13347 ) follows the organization of the international workshop on Arguing on the Web 2.0 (http://www.sintelnet.eu/content/arguing-web-20-0), held on June 30 – July 1, 2014 at the University of Amsterdam with the support of the European Network for Social Intelligence (SINTELNET).

TOPICS

In this special issue, we aim to bring together philosophers, computer scientists, argumentation scholars, and experts in persuasive communication to discuss the nature and dynamics of argumentation on the Internet. In particular, we solicit the submission of papers that investigate how new technologies change the argumentative practices of users, what skills and expertise become critical in such a new info-ecology, how ICT can be used to foster rather than hamper critical reflection and debate, and what implications this should have for education, societal change and policy making. Both theoretical contributions and case studies are welcome, but all papers need to engage closely with the philosophical implications of how technology is changing the way we argue with each other.

TIMETABLE

August 30, 2015: Deadline papers submissions
September 30, 2015: Deadline reviews papers
November 30, 2015: Deadline revised papers
February 2016: Publication of the special issue

SUBMISSION DETAILS

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial Manager, http://www.editorialmanager.com/phte/

The author (or a corresponding author for each submission in case of co- authored papers) must register into EM.

The author must then select the special article type: “Special issue on Arguing on the Web 2.0” from the selection provided in the submission process. This is needed in order to assign the submissions to the Guest Editors.

Submissions will then be assessed according to the following procedure:

New Submission => Journal Editorial Office => Guest Editor(s) => Reviewers => Reviewers’ Recommendations => Guest Editor(s)’ Recommendation => Editor-in-Chief’s Final Decision => Author Notification of the Decision.

The process will be reiterated in case of requests for revisions.

For any further information please contact:
Fabio Paglieri, fabio.paglieri@istc.cnr.it
Chris Reed, chris@computing.dundee.ac.uk
Giuseppe Primiero, G.Primiero@mdx.ac.uk