Guy Politzer

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Chargé de Recherche CNRS

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Keywords:

raisonnement – pragmatique linguistique – logique naturelle – sémantique – quantification – conditionnel – probabilité

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Favorit link:   BFATDOC project

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Interest :

 

Guy Politzer graduated in Physics from the University of Paris 6 and in Psychology from the University of Paris 8 where he also received a Ph.D. (1975) and a Doctorat d'Etat in Psychology (1993). He was a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Paris 8 and, from 1976 to 1986, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Malaya (Malaysia). He joined the CNRS in 1986 and was a member of the successive Cognitive Psychology research units in the University of Paris 8 until 2003. His early research concerned the didactics of physics. He studied the information orally transmitted by the teacher during the course of qualitative explanations of phenomena. He also studied students' preconceptions that hinder the acquisition of new concepts. After he joined the CNRS, his research has focused on human reasoning. He rejects the theoretical approach based on standard logic and favours an approach built in a probability logic framework that accommodates deductive and inductive activities and takes into account the uncertainty of information, nonmonotonicity, and the individuals' exploitation of their knowledge bases in long term memory. He has applied linguistic pragmatics, in particular relevance theory, to the analysis of the components (logical terms, propositions, arguments) of daily life utterances and verbal materials used in laboratory experiments. He has studied the task representation and the beliefs and intentions that participants and experimenter attribute to each other in experimental settings. In the wake of this aproach, he has criticised the methods and concepts used by the "heuristics and biases" school. He has also been interested in the "pragmatic reasoning schema" approach to deontic and contractual reasoning. He has proposed a theoretical framework to explain the "conclusion suppression" effect in conditional reasoning. His recent research concern the interpretation of conditional statements and also the natural use of syllogisms.

 

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Bibliography:

Peer-reviewed articles

 

Baratgin, J, Over, D. and Politzer, G. (sous presse). New paradigm psychology of conditionals and general de Finetti tables. Mind & Language

Bonnefon, J.-F, & Politzer, G. (2011). Pragmatics, mental models, and one paradox of the material conditional. Mind and Language, 26(2), 141-155.

Baratgin, J. & Politzer, G. (2010). Updating: A psychologically basic situation of probability revision. Thinking & Reasoning., 16, 253-287.

Politzer, G., Over, D. & Baratgin, J. (2010). Betting on conditionals. Thinking & Reasoning. 16, 172-197.

Politzer, G. & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2009). Let us not put the probabilistic cart before the uncertainty bull. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 100-101.

Politzer, G. (2009). Is it the case that if I am right my opponents will be happy? A rejoinder to Johnson-Laird, Byrne and Girotto. Topoi, 28, 81-85.

Politzer, G. & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2008). Let us not put the probabilistic cart before the uncertainty bull. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 100-101.

Politzer, G. , & Mercier, H. (2008). Solving categorical syllogisms with singular premises. Thinking and Reasoning, 14(4), 434-453.

Politzer, G. (2007). Reasoning with conditionals. Topoï, 26(1), 79-95.

Pouscoulous, N., Noveck, I., Politzer, G. , & Bastide, A. (2007). Evidence for the production of scalar implicature in young children. Language Acquisition, 14(4), 347-375.

Baratgin, J. & Politzer, G. (2007).The psychology of dynamic probability judgment: Order effect, normative theories, and experimental methodology. Mind and Society, 6(1), 53-66.

Politzer, G. (2007). The psychological reality of quantifier entailment properties.Journal of Semantics, 24(4), 331-343.

Politzer, G. , van der Henst, J.-B., Delle Luche, C. , & Noveck, I. (2006).The interpretation of classically quantified sentences. Cognitive Science, 30(4), 691-723.

Baratgin, J. & Politzer, G. (2006). Is the mind Bayesian ? The case for agnosticism. Mind and Society, 5, 1-38.

Politzer, G. & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2006). Two varieties of conditionals and two kinds of defeaters help reveal two fundamental types of reasoning. Mind and Language, 21(4), 484-503.

Politzer, G. (2005). Uncertainty and the suppression of inferences. Thinking and Reasoning,11, 5-33.

Politzer, G. (2003). No problem for Aristotle's subject and predicate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 298-299.

Van der Henst, J.-B. , Sperber, D. , & Politzer, G. (2002). When is a conclusion worth deriving? A relevance-based analysis of indeterminate relational problems. Thinking and Reasoning. 8, 1-20.

Politzer, G. , & Bourmaud, G. (2002). Deductive reasoning from uncertain premises. British Journal of Psychology, 93, 345-381.

Politzer, G. , & Carles, L. (2001). Belief revision and uncertain reasoning. Thinking and Reasoning, 7, 217-234.

Politzer, G. , & Macchi, L. (2000). Reasoning and Pragmatics. Mind and Society, 1, 73-93.

Politzer, G. (1997). Rationality and pragmatics. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/ Current Psychology of Cognition, 16, 190-195.

 

Legrenzi, P. , Politzer, G. , & Girotto, V. (1996). Contract proposals: A sketch of a grammar. Theory and Psychology, 6, 247-265.

Politzer, G. (1996). A pragmatic account of a presuppositional effect.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 25, 543-551.

Politzer, G. , & Nguyen-Xuan, A. (1992). Reasoning with conditional promises and warnings: Darwinian algorithms, mental models, relevance judgments, or pragmatic schemas? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 44A, 401-421.

Politzer, G. (1991). L'informativité des énoncés: Contraintes sur le raisonnement et le jugement. Intellectica, 11, 111-147.

Politzer, G. (1991). Comparison of deductive abilities across language. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22, 389-402.

Politzer, G. , & Noveck, I. (1991). Are conjunction rule violations the result of conversational rule violations? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 20, 83-103.

Politzer, G. , & Braine, M. D. S. (1991). Responses to inconsistent premisses cannot count as suppression of Modus Ponens.Cognition, 38, 103-108.

Politzer, G. (1990). Characterizing spontaneous inferences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 177-178.

Politzer, G. (1988). Résolution des syllogismes catégoriques. L'Année Psychologique, 88, 519-543.

Politzer, G. (1986). Laws of language use and formal logic. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 15, 47-92.

Politzer, G. (1981). Differences in interpretation of implication. American Journal of Psychology, 94, 461-477.

Book

G. Politzer (dir.) (2002). Le raisonnement humain. Paris: Hermès.

Chapters of book

 

Bonnefon, J.-F. , & Politzer, G. (2012). Intelligence artificielle et psychologie du raisonnement et de la décision. In P. Marquis, O. Papini, et H. Prade (Eds.), Panorama actuel de l'intelligence artificielle, ses bases méthodologiques, ses développements. Vol. 3: L'intelligence artificielle: ses frontières et ses applications. Cépaduès.

Politzer, G. (2011). Using syllogisms in everyday life. In K. Manktelow, D. Over, & S. Elqayam (Eds.), The science of reason. Hove: Psychology Press.

Politzer, G. & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2010). Two aspects of reasoning competence: A challenge for current accounts and a call for new conceptual tools. In M. Oaksford & N. Chater (Eds.), Cognition and conditionals (pp. 371-386). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bonnefon, J.-F. & Politzer, G. (2010). Pragmatic conditionals, conditional pragmatics, and the pragmatic component of conditional reasoning. In M. Oaksford & N. Chater (Eds.), Cognition and conditionals (pp. 233-249).Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Politzer, G. & Macchi, L. (2005). The representation of the task: The case of the Lawyer-Engineer problem in probability judgment. In V. Girotto & P. N. Johnson-Laird (Eds.) The shape of reason: Essays in honor of P. Legrenzi (pp. 119-135). Hove: Psychology Press.

Politzer, G. (2004). Reasoning, judgment, and pragmatics. In I. Noveck & D. Sperber (Eds.) Experimental Pragmatics (pp. 94-115).London: Palgrave.

Politzer, G. (2004). Rationality and the experimental study of reasoning. In P. Bourgine & J.-P. Nadal (Eds.) Cognitive economics: an interdisciplinary approach (pp. 79-93). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Politzer, G. (2004). Some precursors of current theories of syllogistic reasoning. In K. Manktelow & M.-C. Chung (Eds.) Psychology of reasoning:Theoretical and historical perspectives (pp. 214-240). Hove: Psychology Press.

Politzer, G. (2003). Premise interpretation in conditional reasoning. In D. Hardman & L. Macchi (Eds.) Thinking: Psychological perspectives on reasoning, judgment, and decision making (p. 79-93). London: Wiley.

Politzer, G. (2003). L'évolution des théories du raisonnement syllogistique: à la découverte du temps perdu.In D. Déret & P. Jamet (dir.) Raisonnement et connaissances: de Störring (1908) à nos jour (p. 81-96).Paris: L'Harmattan.

Politzer, G. (2002). Raisonnement et rationalité. In G. Politzer (dir.) Le raisonnement humain (pp. 307-318). Paris: Hermès.

Politzer, G. (2002). Les domaines du raisonnement. In G. Politzer (dir.) Le raisonnement humain (pp. 15-24). Paris: Hermès.

Noveck, I. , & Politzer, G. (2002). Pragmatique et raisonnement. In J. Bernicot, A. Trognon, M. Guidetti & M. Musiol (dir.) La pragmatique: raisonnement, développement de l'enfant et pathologies (pp. 93-107). Presses Universitaires de Nancy.

Politzer, G. (2001). How to doubt about a conditional. In S. Benferhat & P. Besnard (Eds.) Symbolic and quantitative approaches to reasoning with uncertainty (pp. 659-667). Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. ECSQARU 2001. Berlin: Springer.

Noveck, I. A. & Politzer, G. (1998). Levelling the playing field: Investigating competing claims concerning relative inference difficulty. In M.D.S. Braine & D.P. O'Brien (Eds.) Mental logic (p. 367-384). Hillsdale, N. J. : L. Erlbaum.

Cara, F. , & Politzer, G. (1993). A comparison of conditional reasoning in English and Chinese. In J. Altarriba (Ed.) Cognition and Culture. A cross-cultural approach to psychology (p. 283-297). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Politzer, G. (1992). Logique mentale et raisonnement naturel. In D. Andler, P. Jacob, J. Proust, F. Récanati, & D. Sperber (dir.) Epistémologie et Cognition (p. 79-86). Bruxelles: Mardaga.

Girotto, V. & Politzer, G. (1990). Conversational and world knowledge constraints on reasoning. In J. P. Caverni, J. M. Fabre, & M. Gonzales (Eds.) Cognitive biases (p. 87-107). Amsterdam:   North-Holland.

Politzer, G. (1990). Non-logical solving of categorical syllogisms. In J. P. Caverni, J. M. Fabre, & M. Gonzales (Eds.) Cognitive biases (p. 193-204).  Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Politzer, G. (1990). Immediate deduction between quantified sentences. In K. J. Gilhooly, M. Keane, R. H. Logie, & G. Erdos (Eds.) Lines of thinking: Reflections on the psychology of thought (p. 85-97).  London: Wiley.

 

Chapters of book (teaching)

Politzer, G. , & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2005). Raisonnement psycho-logique. In : Les chemins de la logique. Dossier Pour la Science. Oct-Déc. , 102-107.

Politzer, G. (1993). Article "raisonnement". In: L. Sfez (Ed.), Dictionnaire Critique de la Communication. Paris: P.U.F.

Borillo, M. , & Politzer, G. (1992). Raisonnement. Courrier du C.N.R.S., n° 79, 27-28.