Download or read book Cogent Science in Context written by William Rehg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A proposal for an interdisciplinary, context-sensitive framework for assessing the strength of scientific arguments that melds Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory and sociological contextualism. Recent years have seen a series of intense, increasingly acrimonious debates over the status and legitimacy of the natural sciences. These “science wars” take place in the public arena—with current battles over evolution and global warming—and in academia, where assumptions about scientific objectivity have been called into question. Given these hostilities, what makes a scientific claim merit our consideration? In Cogent Science in Context, William Rehg examines what makes scientific arguments cogent—that is, strong and convincing—and how we should assess that cogency. Drawing on the tools of argumentation theory, Rehg proposes a multidimensional, context-sensitive framework both for understanding the cogency of scientific arguments and for conducting cooperative interdisciplinary assessments of the cogency of actual scientific arguments. Rehg closely examines Jürgen Habermas's argumentation theory and its implications for understanding cogency, applying it to a case from high-energy physics. A series of problems, however, beset Habermas's approach. In response, Rehg outlines his own “critical contextualist” approach, which uses argumentation-theory categories in a new and more context-sensitive way inspired by ethnography of science.
Download or read book Science in context written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Selfless Constitution written by Stu Woolman and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2021-07-28 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you possess 'freedom'-the will to do as you choose-as an individual, as a participant in social affairs or as a citizen in the political realm? Well, no. Not really. At least not as most of us understand a term loaded down with metaphysical baggage. Don't worry. You've got something better: a neurological system capable of carrying out the most complex analytical and computational tasks; membership in innumerable communities that provide you with huge stores of knowledge and wisdom; and a politico-constitutional order that ought to provide the material and the immaterial conditions that will enable you to pursue a life worth valuing. Drop the simplistic folk-psychology of unfettered freedom, whilst holding on to intentionality, and you might be inclined to adopt a set of social practices and political arrangements that enhance the chances that you and your compatriots will flourish. As many recent studies of consciousness reveal our neurological systems are complex feedback mechanisms designed to create myriad for trial and error and (if you survive) the production of new stores of knowledge. Individuals-comprised of numerous radically heterogeneous, naturally and socially determined selves-are always experimenting, attempting to divine through reflection and action, what 'works' best: even when 'best' means fully embracing who we already are. Choice architects, those persons charged with constructing the environments within which we operate daily, should (if responsible) regularly run experiments that attempt to eliminate biases, and ultimately, deliver norms that nudge us away from negative defaults toward more optimal ends. A constitutional democracy, made up of millions of radically heterogeneous, densely populated individuals, constantly strives to determine what works best for most of its many constituents. Because South Africa's Constitution states (at an extremely high level of generality) only some of the norms that govern our lives, it remains for citizens, representatives and judges to create doctrines and institutions that serve its capaciously framed ends best. After canvassing the relevant literature in neuroscience, empirical philosophy, behavioural psychology, social capital theory, development economics, and emergent experimental governance, this work suggests that manifold experiments in living that fall within the accepted parameters of our shared constitutional norms are likely, over time, to produce more optimal ways of being that can be replicated by other members of our polity. Our reflexive stance toward best practices-a linchpin of this book's take on experimental governance-when inextricably linked to a commitment to flourishing and to the expansion of individual capabilities, should cause us to alter the content of the fundamental norms that shape our lives and bind us to one another. A political order founded upon experimental constitutionalism and flourishing promises an egalitarian pluralist reformation of South African society. The book spins out its novel thesis against the concrete backdrop of political arrangements and judicial doctrines that have emerged during the first 20 years of our truly vibrant constitutional democracy. Its trenchant analysis of political institutions and constitutional case law shows us how far we have come, and how far we still have to go.
Download or read book Applications of Conceptual Spaces written by Frank Zenker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-16 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an overview of applications of conceptual spaces theory, beginning with an introduction to the modeling tool that unifies the chapters. The first section explores issues of linguistic semantics, including speakers’ negotiation of meaning. Further sections address computational and ontological aspects of constructing conceptual spaces, while the final section looks at philosophical applications. Domains include artificial intelligence and robotics, epistemology and philosophy of science, lexical semantics and pragmatics, agent-based simulation, perspectivism, framing, contrast, sensory modalities, and music, among others. This collection provides evidence of the wide application range of this theory of knowledge representation. The papers in this volume derive from international experts across different fields including philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, robotics, computer science and geography. Each contributor has successfully applied conceptual spaces theory as a modeling tool in their respective areas of expertise. Graduates as well as researchers in the areas of epistemology, linguistics, geometric knowledge representation, and the mathematical modeling of cognitive processes should find this book of particular interest.
Download or read book Jurgen Habermas written by Barbara Fultner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rare systematic thinker, Habermas has furthered our understanding of modernity, social interaction and linguistic practice, societal institutions, rationality, morality, the law, globalization, and the role of religion in multicultural societies. He has helped shape discussions of truth, objectivity, normativity, and the relationship between the human and the natural sciences. This volume provides an accessible and comprehensive conceptual map of Habermas' theoretical framework and its key concepts, including the theory of communicative action, discourse ethics, his social-political philosophy and their applications to contemporary issues. It will be an invaluable resource for both novice readers of Habermas and those interested in a more refined understanding of particular aspects of his work.
Download or read book Habermas written by David Ingram and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929) has been highly influential both in philosophy and across many disciplines in the social sciences. David Ingram here provides an accessible introduction to Habermas's complex thought as it has evolved from 1953 to the present, spanning philosophy, religion, political science, social science, and law. One of today's most intriguing thinkers, Habermas is also notably prolific; for students and other readers who wish to navigate the philosopher's more than thirty books, the lucid and precise Habermas: Introduction and Analysis is a welcome starting point rich in insights. Ingram's book addresses the entire range of Habermas's social theory, including his most recent and widely discussed contributions to religion, freedom and determinism, global democracy, and the consolidation of the European Union. Recognizing Habermas's position as a highly public intellectual, Ingram discusses how Habermas applies his own theory to pressing problems such as abortion, terrorism, genetic engineering, immigration, multiculturalism, separation of religion and state, technology and mass media, feminism, and human rights. He also presents a detailed critical analysis of Habermas's key claims and arguments. Separate appendixes introduce and clarify such important concepts as causal, teleological, and narrative paradigms of explanation in action theory; contextualism versus rationalism in social scientific methods of interpretation; systems theory and functionalist explanation in social science; and decision and collective choice theory.
Download or read book The Law of Political Economy written by Poul F. Kjaer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-23 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops the law of political economy as a new field of scholarly enquiry. Bringing together an exceptional group of scholars, it provides a novel conceptual framework for studying the role of law and legal instruments in political economy contexts, with a focus on historical transformations and central challenges in both European and global contexts. Its chapters reconstruct how the law of political economy plays out in diverse but central fields, ranging from competition and consumer protection law to labour and environmental law, giving a comprehensive overview of the central challenges of the law of political economy. It also provides a sophisticated and multifaceted framework for further enquires while outlining the contours of new law of political economy.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Argument and Audience Reception written by Christopher W. Tindale and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book approaches the topic of argumentation from the perspective of audiences, rather than the perspective of arguers or arguments.
Download or read book The New Natural Resource written by Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasingly in the public discourse there are references to the knowledge economy, knowledge society, knowledge workers and knowledge organisations. The argument is that knowledge is becoming the main economic resource, replacing the natural resources that drove the industrial revolution. The new knowledge economy is driven by knowledge development, innovation and highly skilled employees. Increasing investment in higher education and in universities is in line with this strategy and understanding. In an earlier book, Creating Collaborative Advantage edited with Richard Ennals, Professor Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen argued that it is knowledge that links social and economic processes. He believes that what is missing in the current discussion on innovation is a conceptualisation of exactly what knowledge is. In The New Natural Resource, he digs deeper into what it is and how it develops and subsequently leads to widespread change. The author argues that knowledge is inherently a social phenomenon. That is why social processes are closely linked to economic development, and why this relationship becomes even more apparent in the new knowledge economy. Knowledge is not an objective entity, established once and for all. Knowledge development is interrelated with values, norms, perceptions and interpretations. We need to know what the mechanisms are by which knowledge becomes legitimate, true and relevant.
Download or read book Writing the Past written by Gavin Lucas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-11-21 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do archaeologists make knowledge? Debates in the latter half of the twentieth century revolved around broad, abstract philosophies and theories such as positivism and hermeneutics which have all but vanished today. By contrast, in recent years there has been a great deal of attention given to more concrete, practice-based study, such as fieldwork. But where one was too abstract, the other has become too descriptive and commonly evades issues of epistemic judgement. Writing the Past attempts to reintroduce a normative dimension to knowledge practices in archaeology, especially in relation to archaeological practice further down the ‘assembly line’ in the production of published texts, where archaeological knowledge becomes most stabilized and is widely disseminated. By exploring the composition of texts in archaeology and the relation between their structural, performative characteristics and key epistemic virtues, this book aims to move debate in both knowledge and writing practices in a new direction. Although this book will be of particular interest to archaeologists, the argument offered has relevance for all academic disciplines concerned with how knowledge production and textual composition intertwine.
Download or read book The New Natural Resource written by Professor Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-06-28 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Natural Resource is a book about the role of knowledge in social and economic development. There is a need to address the process of developing knowledge as a social process and The New Natural Resource starts with the argument that knowledge is inherently a social phenomenon. This allows us to discuss the relation between individual opinions and what is regarded as knowledge. It also allows us to see how economic and political and democratic processes are interrelated. Acknowledging that we are more dependent on contesting processes of knowledge development in society implies that we should address how society as a whole is able to legitimize what it regards as the right kind of knowledge.
Download or read book Conceptions of Critique in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy written by Karin de Boer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-11-25 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does philosophical critique have a future? What are its possibilities, limits and presuppositions? This collection by outstanding scholars from various traditions, responds to these questions by examining the forms of philosophical critique that have shaped continental thought from Spinoza and Kant to Marx, Foucault, Derrida and Rancière.
Download or read book The Habermas Handbook written by Hauke Brunkhorst and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 789 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jürgen Habermas is one of the most influential philosophers of our time. His diagnoses of contemporary society and concepts such as the public sphere, communicative rationality, and cosmopolitanism have influenced virtually all academic disciplines, spurred political debates, and shaped intellectual life in Germany and beyond for more than fifty years. In The Habermas Handbook, leading Habermas scholars elucidate his thought, providing essential insight into his key concepts, the breadth of his work, and his influence across politics, law, the social sciences, and public life. This volume offers a comprehensive overview and an in-depth analysis of Habermas’s work in its entirety. After examining his intellectual biography, it goes on to illuminate the social and intellectual context of Habermasian thought, such as the Frankfurt School, speech-act theory, and contending theories of democracy. The Handbook provides an extensive account of Habermas’s texts, ranging from his dissertation on Schelling to his most recent writing about Europe. It illustrates the development of his thought and its frequently controversial reception while elaborating the central ideas of his work. The book also provides a glossary of key terms and concepts, making the complexity of Habermas’s thought accessible to a broad readership.
Download or read book The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication 3 Volume Set written by Gianpietro Mazzoleni and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 1804 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication is the definitive single-source reference work on the subject, with state-of-the-art and in-depth scholarly reflection on the key issues within political communication from leading international experts. It is available both online and in print. Explores pertinent/salient topics within political science, sociology, psychology, communication and many other disciplines Theory, empirical research and academic as well as professional debate are widely covered in this truly international and comparative work Provides clear definitions and explanations which are both cross-national and cross-disciplinary by nature Offers an unprecedented level of authority, accuracy and balance, with contributions from leading international experts in their associated fields Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at Wiley Online Library www.wileyicaencyclopedia.com Named Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 by Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association.
Download or read book J rgen Habermas written by Luca Corchia and published by The Lab's Quarterly. This book was released on 2010 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy written by Gerald F. Gaus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 869 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive work provides an up-to-date survey of social and political philosophy, charting its history and key figures and movements, and addressing enduring questions as well as contemporary research.
Download or read book Understanding Scientific Literatures written by Joseph C. Donohue and published by Cambridge : MIT Press. This book was released on 1974 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work was written from the conviction that if as many readers as possible are to be provided with the material they want or directed toward the material they actually need, it is necessary to describe more exactly how vital information is distributed within available subject literatures and to measure the comparative merits of various sources.
