I know this one, but the answer is complex…

There is a seductive logic in Abelson's 1979 paper Differences between belief and knowledge systems. This seduction comes in the form of an implicit promise that the formulation of a working epistemological address to the problems raised in the paper will give us a toolset that will blow away the fog of belief from the human landscape. This paper proposes that the very dynamism that makes the human landscape a swamp of wicked problems makes Abelson's conjecture – however true they may be on a meta scale – an unproductive addition to the designers toolbox. It proposes that middle-range theories offer productive addresses to the complex systems and wicked problems that define our world. This paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence

Teachers’ Perceptions of Second Language Learning and Teaching – A Comparison of Two Groups of English Teachers

Abstract The study of teachers and students’ perceptions of second language acquisition (SLA) and teaching began in earnest with Horwitz’s seminal research during the 1980s. Numerous studies into both teachers and learners’ belief systems have since then been conducted by researchers and educators (Bell, 2005; Borg & Burns, 2008; Brown, 2009; Davis, 2003; Horwitz, 1987, 1988; Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009; Matsuura, Chiba, & Hilderbrandt, 2001; Peacock, 1999; Schulz, 1996, 2001; Vasquez & Harvey, 2010). Many of the studies point to large differences not only between students and teachers’ belief systems but also amongst teachers themselves, making it important to continue to research their perceptions of second language learning and teaching. This particular essay explores two groups of teachers, teaching in Europe, and their beliefs about SLA and teaching. The data were collected using a 16-item 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire that 24 teachers responded to. Based on current research about SLA and teaching, various points of interests such as age, the role of grammar, and learning an L1 versus an L2, were identified for inclusion in the questionnaire. The results are examined overall as well as being compared between the two groups. Furthermore, the present study also investigates how the results are linked to that of current knowledge about language learning and teaching based on SLA research. The findings show that the teachers, overall, are often aware of the current knowledge about SLA and teaching but in some instances they hold opposing views. Moreover, the results also show that there are differences between the two groups in areas such as grammar teaching and error correction

New Models for Expert System Design

This thesis presents new work on the analysis of human lung sound. Experimental studies investigated the relationship between the condition of the lungs and the power spectrum of lung sound detected at the chest wall. The conclusion drawn from two clinical studies was that the median frequency of the lung sound power spectrum increases with a decrease in airway calibre. The technique for the analysis of lung sound presented in this thesis is a non-invasive method which may be capable of assessing differences in airway calibre between different lobes of the lung. An expert system for the analysis of lung sound data and pulmonary function data was designed. The expert knowledge was expressed in a belief logic, a system of logic which is more expressive than first order logic. New automated theorem proving methods were developed for the belief logic. The new methods were implemented to form the 'inference engine' of the expert system. The new expert system compared favourably with systems which perform a similar task. The use of belief logic allows introspective reasoning to be carried out. Plausible reasoning, a type of introspective reasoning which allows conclusions to be drawn when the database is incomplete, was proposed and tested. The author concludes that the use of a belief logic in expert system design has significant advantages over conventional approaches. The experimental results of the lung sound research were incorporated into the expert system rule base: the medical and expert system research were complementary

Minds in Chains: A Sociocybernetic Analysis of the Abrahamic Faiths

I address the troubling matter of ‘pathological belief systems’, which I have previously defined as those that ‘restrict the right of actors to interact’. In particular, I consider the tangled ‘Gordian’ knot of beliefs that constitute the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is my belief that an analysis based on well-defined cybernetic principles can help cut through this knot and lay bare just what is pathological. The attraction of such an analysis is that it does not require one to pass judgements and ‘take sides’ with respect to the major controversies that divide the faiths. More generally, a properly formulated sociocybernetic analysis does not require one to pose any fundamental opposition between ‘science’ and ‘religion’. What the analysis does is help identify what are the key differences between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ as routes to knowledge and understanding, whilst noting that there are ‘undecidable questions’ about which an individual should be permitted to formulate her own beliefs without opposition or condemnation from others.&nbsp

Ideological Conflict Embedded in Anthropology and the Road to Restructuring the Discipline

Indigenous people have long-held perceptions of the existence of ideological conflicts between indigenous worldview and Western worldview. Western worldview is understood by indigenous people to be embodied in American Anthropology as a discipline and, by extension, in American anthropologists. These conflicts may be considered the genesis of a divide that began with the colonization of the indigenous world and one which continues to sustain the on-going marginalization and oppression of Native populations by a colonizing society; a society which considers indigenous worldview to be an unsubstantiated belief system, while not recognizing that the science upon which anthropological thought is built is itself a belief system and one which reflects a Western worldview. In examining the history of the ideological conflicts between indigenous people and Anthropology, the long-term results of the conflicts, and considering ways in which the divide may be narrowed, two broad questions were conceived as a beginning point of study: “is ideological conflict within American Anthropology a manifestation of colonization and, if so, is some form of resolution possible?” From these two related questions, at least three other questions logically follow and it is these questions upon which the dissertation heavily focuses: first, how does the difference between traditional indigenous forms of knowledge conflict with mainstream anthropological thought? Second, what have been the effects of these differences in efforts to make Anthropology a more inclusive discipline; for example, in graduate studies for indigenous students and the formation of professional level organizations? Finally, is a rapprochement possible, and under what conditions? The continued marginalization of indigenous perspectives raises a number of questions in the minds of indigenous practitioners; questions such as, “why are indigenous knowledge systems excluded from Western pedagogy?” And in particular, “why are indigenous knowledge systems excluded from anthropological pedagogy?” These questions have led indigenous anthropologists to seek ways in which to create a space for expanded and respectful dialogue. The generous participation of indigenous graduate students, indigenous and non-indigenous anthropologists, and the voices of Native American tribal leaders and tribal elders of New England provide an invaluable contribution to this dissertation

The Impact of Business Intelligence and Analytics Adoption on Decision Making Effectiveness and Managerial Work Performance

Business Intelligence and Analytics systems have the capability to enable organizations to better comprehend their business and to increase the quality of managerial decisions, and consequently improve their performance. Recently, organizations have embraced the idea that data becomes a core asset, and this belief also changes the culture of the organization; data and analytics now determine a data-driven culture, which makes way for more effective data-driven decisions. To the best of our knowledge, there are few studies that investigate the effects of BI&A adoption on individual decision-making effectiveness and managerial work performance. This paper aims to contribute to bridging this gap by providing a research model that examines the relationship between BI&A adoption and manager’s decision-making effectiveness and then his individual work performance. The research model also theorizes that a data-driven culture promotes the BI&A adoption in the organization. Using specific control variables, we also expect to observe differences between different departments and managerial positions, which will provide practical implications for companies that work on BI&A adoption

Do Different Groups Have Different Epistemic Intuitions? A Reply to Jennifer Nagel

Intuitions play an important role in contemporary epistemology. Over the last decade, however, experimental philosophers have published a number of studies suggesting that epistemic intuitions may vary in ways that challenge the widespread reliance on intuitions in epistemology. In a recent paper, Jennifer Nagel offers a pair of arguments aimed at showing that epistemic intuitions do not, in fact, vary in problematic ways. One of these arguments relies on a number of claims defended by appeal to the psychological literature on intuitive judgment and on mental state attribution (also known as “theory of mind”, “mindreading” and “folk psychology”). I call this the "theoretical argument". The other argument relies on recent experimental work carried out by Nagel and her collaborators. It is my contention that in setting out her theoretical argument, Nagel offers an account of the relevant scientific literature that is, in crucial respects, flawed and misleading. My main goal in this paper is to rectify these errors and to make it clear that, once this is done, Nagel’s theoretical argument collapses. Since Nagel’s experimental work has not yet been published, and available details are very sketchy, I do not discuss this work in detail. However, in the final section of the paper I offer some critical observations about Nagel’s strategy for dealing with empirical data that does not support her view – both other people’s and her own

Can Thomas Kuhn's paradigms help us understand software engineering

Peer reviewe

Modeling Belief in Dynamic Systems, Part II: Revision and Update

The study of belief change has been an active area in philosophy and AI. In recent years two special cases of belief change, belief revision and belief update, have been studied in detail. In a companion paper (Friedman & Halpern, 1997), we introduce a new framework to model belief change. This framework combines temporal and epistemic modalities with a notion of plausibility, allowing us to examine the change of beliefs over time. In this paper, we show how belief revision and belief update can be captured in our framework. This allows us to compare the assumptions made by each method, and to better understand the principles underlying them. In particular, it shows that Katsuno and Mendelzon's notion of belief update (Katsuno & Mendelzon, 1991a) depends on several strong assumptions that may limit its applicability in artificial intelligence. Finally, our analysis allow us to identify a notion of minimal change that underlies a broad range of belief change operations including revision and update.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for other files accompanying this articl