__NOTOC__ Howard Kahane (19 April 1928 – 2 May 2001) was an American professor of philosophy at Bernard M. Baruch College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was noted for promoting a popular, and non-mathematical, approach to logic, now known as

informal logic Informal logic encompasses the principles of logic and logical thought outside of a formal setting (characterized by the usage of particular statements). However, the precise definition of "informal logic" is a matter of some dispute. Ralph H. ...

. His best known publication in that area is his textbook ''Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life'',Lewis, Paul (2001
Obituary: Howard Kahane, 73, Philosopher Who Advanced a School of Logic
New York Times, May 22 (Accessed April 29, 2011)Hausman, Alan., Landesman, Charles. and Seamon, Roger. (2002) Howard Kahane, 1928-2001 ''

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'' Vol. 75, No. 5, May, pp. 191-193 now at the 12th edition, published in 2014. Another textbook of his that saw posthumous publication is ''Logic and Philosophy: A Modern Introduction'' (12th edition in 2012). Kahane graduated with a master's degree from the

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(1958) and received a Ph.D. from the

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in 1962. Before Baruch College, Kahane taught at

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacific ...

, the

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and the

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. Nancy Cavender, who is a Professor Emeritus at the

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and coauthored later editions of Kahane's 1971 textbook, was also "his companion", according to the New York Times. Kahane fathered one daughter.

Legacy

According to

argumentation theory Argumentation theory, or argumentation, is the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be supported or undermined by premises through logical reasoning. With historical origins in logic, dialectic, and rhetoric, argumentation theory, incl ...

scholar Michael A. Gilbert, before Kahane's 1971 book, North American curricula on

critical thinking Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased ana ...

and

fallacies A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves," in the construction of an argument which may appear stronger than it really is if the fallacy is not spotted. The term in the Western intellectual tradition was intr ...

was primarily taught from textbooks (such as

Irving Copi Irving Marmer Copi (; né Copilovich or Copilowish; July 28, 1917 – August 19, 2002) was an American philosopher, logician, and university textbook author. Biography Copi studied under Bertrand Russell while at the University of Chicago. In 1 ...

's ''Introduction to Logic'') in which "fallacies are presented in a brief fashion using examples that were mostly invented or taken out of context. ..The 'radical change' was that Kahane's book took current examples from newspapers and periodicals dealing with issues students cared about or, at least, recognized. This meant that fallacies were more ''situated'' than in older books." Linguistics professor Louise Cummings notes that Kahane's book marked a "shift to context", that is, toward

pragmatic Pragmatism is a philosophical movement. Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to: *Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy * Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics *'' Pragmatics'', an academic journal i ...

criteria for evaluating

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

arguments. She cites Van Eemeren, Grootendrost and Henkemans (of the pragma-dialectic school) observation that thanks to his contextual approach Kahane "added new fallacies to the traditional list, so the one will find not only ''

ad hominem ''Ad hominem'' (), short for ''argumentum ad hominem'' (), refers to several types of arguments, most of which are fallacious. Typically, this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some othe ...

'' but also ' provincialism', not only '' ad verecundiam'', but also the '

red herring A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question. Red herring may also refer to: Animals * Red herring (fi ...

', not only

hasty generalization A faulty generalization is an informal fallacy wherein a conclusion is drawn about all or many instances of a phenomenon on the basis of one or a few instances of that phenomenon. It is similar to a proof by example in mathematics. It is an examp ...

but also ' suppressed evidence'."

Selected publications

* * Howard Kahane (1969). ''Logic and Philosophy: A Modern Introduction'',

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, * Howard Kahane (1971). ''Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life'', Wadsworth Publishing Company, *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahane, Howard 1928 births 2001 deaths Philosophers from Ohio People from Cleveland 20th-century American educators 20th-century American philosophers University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Whitman College faculty University of Kansas faculty American University faculty and staff University of Maryland, Baltimore faculty Baruch College faculty