Observationally Indistinguishable Spacetimes: A Challenge for Any Inductivist

Results on the observational indistinguishability of spacetimes demonstrate the impossibility of determining by deductive inference which is our spacetime, no matter how extensive a portion of the spacetime is observed. These results do not illustrate an underdetermination of theory by evidence, since they make no decision between competing theories and they make little contact with the inductive considerations that must ground such a decision. Rather, these results express a variety of indeterminism in which a specification of the observable past always fails to fix the remainder of a spacetime. This form of indeterminism is more troubling than the familiar indeterminism of quantum theory. The inductive inferences that can discriminate among the different spacetime extensions of the observed past are here called "opaque," which means that we cannot readily see the warrant that lies behind them

How you move reveals who you are: understanding human behavior by analyzing trajectory data

The widespread use of mobile devices is producing a huge amount of trajectory data, making the discovery of movement patterns possible, which are crucial for understanding human behavior. Significant advances have been made with regard to knowledge discovery, but the process now needs to be extended bearing in mind the emerging field of behavior informatics. This paper describes the formalization of a semantic-enriched KDD process for supporting meaningful pattern interpretations of human behavior. Our approach is based on the integration of inductive reasoning (movement pattern discovery) and deductive reasoning (human behavior inference). We describe the implemented Athena system, which supports such a process, along with the experimental results on two different application domains related to traffic and recreation management

An introduction to the methods of inquiry in social sciences

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is an introduction to methods for conducting inquiries in social sciences. A method of inquiry is an organized and systematic scientific approaches used by scholars for controlled investigations and experiments to efficiently solve theoretical and practical problems, generating discoveries and/or science advances. The paper here presents, briefly, the development of models of inquiry in the philosophy of science. After that, it introduces general methods of inquiry (deduction, induction, abduction and hypothetical-deductive approaches) and specific models of scientific inquiry in social sciences, such as multiple working hypotheses. In general, modern scientific research is multifaceted and requires different approaches for generating new concepts, new hypothesis and theories. Different methods of inquiry directed to solve problems in science can be complementary approaches that foster knowledge creation within and between research fields.Keywords. Methods of inquiry, Philosophy of science, Models of inquiry, Scientific research, Conduct of inquiry.JEL. A20, A29, B40, B49

A better future for water: what role for theory?

While government failure and market failure theories respectively predict the necessity of private and public efficiency, both fail to predict the public and private inefficiencies which are empirically pervasive. This failure of prediction is due to deductive reasoning that insulates explanatory claims from the real-world duality of agency and institutions. Oliver Williamson lays the foundations for recognising organisational failures of all kinds, by acknowledging this duality, but remains hamstrung by the limits of deductive reasoning. To resolve this impasse, this project develops a theory of organisational failure that illuminates the multiplicity of the possible organisational efficiency outcomes, explaining how public and private water utilities become more or less efficient under varying circumstances, and reveals the social and economic factors leading to these outcomes. It does so by revisiting Williamson’s comparative institutional analysis from a critical realist vantage point, using inductive reasoning as a method of theorising, adopting multiple rationality as agency model and the duality of agency and institutions as the key to explanation. The theory is developed through a new “remediable institutional alignment” framework, which operationalises the duality of agency and institutions by exploring the interplay of actors’ motivation, power, organisational arrangements and institutional environments. This framework is used to analyse the evidence from 30 qualitative case studies produced in 15 years of research on water service reform. Each case illustrates how path-dependency causes the temporary lock-in of organisational efficiency. The cases are then compared to formulate hypotheses on the causality of variations in relative efficiency. Throughout this process, inputs from industrial organisation, economic sociology, and political and policy sciences contribute to the emergence of socialised, historical and non-reductionist accounts of relative efficiency. The enhanced explanatory power of this theory promises to better support organisational reform and serve social justice in a sector vital to social and economic development

OBJECTIVES, PERFORMANCES, RESULTS – VIEWS ON THEIR USE IN THE PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS FROM ROMANIA

The pre sent paper focuses on the management associated with relatively common concepts: objective, result and performance (ORP). The study is important because in the Romania of the year 2011, a “state reform” is being planned, which will substantiate into the reorganization of public institutions, as the improvement of their activity is set forth by utilizing the set of tools associated with the aforementioned concepts. The study represents an analysis related to the use of the set of management tools associated with the aforementioned concepts within the Romanian public organizations. The study is concerned with a qualitative estimation involving the translation of the existing theory into the practice of the present moment. The review of the specialized literature is aimed at selecting the most common theoretical milestones, in order to increase the probability to retrieve them from the practice of the organizations. The works of Drucker represent the first theoretical system of reference. The way the ORP concepts have been utilized within the American organizations generate the guiding elements of the present study. The research presents a longitudinal segmentation, the frontier between the two parts being the present moment. The current state of facts is studied by means of an inductive approach. The hypothesis related to the ORP management in the near future is actually built on the grounds provided by the estimation of this state of facts. Its deductive approach starts from evaluating the pragmatic premises, involving the support of the process that will utilize the ORP in the near future, according to the theoretical percepts. The analysis is qualitative in nature. The identification of the cases that represented “the exception” was taken into account. The analysis focused on public institutions considered a priori as more transparent: the university, the hospital and the town hall. Even if in the case of the university there are regulations that facilitate the strategic planning, the utilization of objectives according to the MBO precepts is absent. The same situation is to be found in the case of hospitals and town halls. The use of primary and secondary information sources prove that the ORP has not been utilized. It was ascertained that the premises for utilizing the ORP are the same for the near future, a fact that implies the same results. The main implication is associated with the “myth or reality?” question. The result has a demystifying impact, showing that a reliable estimation on the ORP basis related to the activities of or people working in these organizations cannot be developed nowadays - in 2011. The present study aims at a realistic analysis related to the discrepancy between words and facts within the management of the Romanian public organizations. The fact that the aforementioned organizations represent the object of the “management of shallow labels content” is signaled and demonstrated.objectives, MBO, results, performance, public organization

The interaction of process and domain in prefrontal cortex during inductive reasoning

AbstractInductive reasoning is an everyday process that allows us to make sense of the world by creating rules from a series of instances. Consistent with accounts of process-based fractionations of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) along the left–right axis, inductive reasoning has been reliably localized to left PFC. However, these results may be confounded by the task domain, which is typically verbal. Indeed, some studies show that right PFC activation is seen with spatial tasks. This study used fMRI to examine the effects of process and domain on the brain regions recruited during a novel pattern discovery task. Twenty healthy young adult participants were asked to discover the rule underlying the presentation of a series of letters in varied spatial locations. The rules were either verbal (pertaining to a single semantic category) or spatial (geometric figures). Bilateral ventrolateral PFC activations were seen for the spatial domain, while the verbal domain showed only left ventrolateral PFC. A conjunction analysis revealed that the two domains recruited a common region of left ventrolateral PFC. The data support a central role of left PFC in inductive reasoning. Importantly, they also suggest that both process and domain shape the localization of reasoning in the brain

Robot Control Using Inductive, Deductive and Case Based Reasoning

The paper deals with a problem of intelligent system’s design for complex environments. There is discussed a possibility to integrate several technologies into one basic structure that could form a kernel of an autonomous intelligent robotic system. One alternative structure is proposed in order to form a basis of an intelligent system that would be able to operate in complex environments. The proposed structure is very flexible because of features that allow adapting via learning and adjustment of the used knowledge. Therefore, the proposed structure may be used in environments with stochastic features such as hardly predictable events or elements. The basic elements of the proposed structure have found their implementation in software system and experimental robotic system. The software system as well as the robotic system has been used for experimentation in order to validate the proposed structure - its functionality, flexibility and reliability. Both of them are presented in the paper. The basic features of each system are presented as well. The most important results of experiments are outlined and discussed at the end of the paper. Some possible directions of further research are also sketched at the end of the paper