Introduction: Defining discourse synthesis

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Notes

At the request of Steve Fuller, editor of Social Epistemology, the Introduction to this issue includes an extended discussion of our theme, discourse synthesis. When I thought about how papers dealing with discourse synthesis were needed, I knew that it would be a first, but when colleagues started reporting to me that, using the keywords discourse synthesis, they could not find citations in data bases to studies on the topic, I began to realize that maybe this issue was breaking new ground, something that the six contributors and I find very satisfying. With gratitude, I wish to acknowledge the comments of Hud Hudson, George Mariz, and Joseph Trimble on various parts of this Introduction—and especially Rick Emmerson.