40,593 research outputs found
Collaborative memory knowledge: A distributed reliabilist perspective
Collaborative remembering, in which two or more individuals cooperate to remember together, is an ordinary occurrence. Ordinary though it may be, it challenges traditional understandings of remembering as a cognitive process unfolding within a single subject, as well as traditional understandings of memory knowledge as a justified memory belief held within the mind of a single subject. Collaborative memory has come to be a major area of research in psychology, but it has so far not been investigated in epistemology. In this chapter, we attempt an initial exploration of the epistemological implications of collaborative memory research, taking as our starting point the âextended knowledgeâ debate which has resulted from the recent encounter between extracranialist theories of cognition and externalist theories of knowledge (Carter et al., 2014; Carter et al., forthcoming).
Various forms of socially and technologically augmented memory have played important roles in the extended knowledge debate, but the debate has so far not taken collaborative memory, in particular, into account. We will argue that collaborative memory supports a novel externalist theory of knowledge: distributed reliabilism. Distributed reliabilism departs in two important respects from both traditional reliabilism (Goldman, 2012) and updated theories such as extended (Goldberg, 2010) and social reliabilism (Goldman, 2014). First, it acknowledges that belief-forming processes may extend extracranially to include processing performed both by other subjects and by technological artifacts. Second, it acknowledges that distributed sociotechnical systems themselves may be knowing subjects. Overall, then, the main aim of the chapter is to draw out the philosophical implications of psychological research on collaborative memory. But our argument will also suggest that it may be useful to broaden the standard conception of collaborative memory to include not only the sorts of direct interactions among subjects that have been the focus of psychological research so far but also a range of more indirect, technology-supported and -mediated interactions, and it thus has implications for psychology as well
Towards a quantum evolutionary scheme: violating Bell's inequalities in language
We show the presence of genuine quantum structures in human language. The
neo-Darwinian evolutionary scheme is founded on a probability structure that
satisfies the Kolmogorovian axioms, and as a consequence cannot incorporate
quantum-like evolutionary change. In earlier research we revealed quantum
structures in processes taking place in conceptual space. We argue that the
presence of quantum structures in language and the earlier detected quantum
structures in conceptual change make the neo-Darwinian evolutionary scheme
strictly too limited for Evolutionary Epistemology. We sketch how we believe
that evolution in a more general way should be implemented in epistemology and
conceptual change, but also in biology, and how this view would lead to another
relation between both biology and epistemology.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, this version of the paper is equal to the
foregoing. The paper has meanwhile been published in another book series than
the one tentatively mentioned in the comments given with the foregoing
versio
Metacognition and Reflection by Interdisciplinary Experts: Insights from Cognitive Science and Philosophy
Interdisciplinary understanding requires integration of insights from
different perspectives, yet it appears questionable whether disciplinary experts
are well prepared for this. Indeed, psychological and cognitive scientific studies
suggest that expertise can be disadvantageous because experts are often more biased
than non-experts, for example, or fixed on certain approaches, and less flexible in
novel situations or situations outside their domain of expertise. An explanation is
that expertsâ conscious and unconscious cognition and behavior depend upon their
learning and acquisition of a set of mental representations or knowledge structures.
Compared to beginners in a field, experts have assembled a much larger set of
representations that are also more complex, facilitating fast and adequate perception
in responding to relevant situations. This article argues how metacognition should be
employed in order to mitigate such disadvantages of expertise: By metacognitively
monitoring and regulating their own cognitive processes and representations,
experts can prepare themselves for interdisciplinary understanding. Interdisciplinary
collaboration is further facilitated by team metacognition about the team, tasks,
process, goals, and representations developed in the team. Drawing attention to
the need for metacognition, the article explains how philosophical reflection on the
assumptions involved in different disciplinary perspectives must also be considered
in a process complementary to metacognition and not completely overlapping with
it. (Disciplinary assumptions are here understood as determining and constraining
how the complex mental representations of experts are chunked and structured.) The
article concludes with a brief reflection on how the process of Reflective Equilibrium
should be added to the processes of metacognition and philosophical reflection in
order for experts involved in interdisciplinary collaboration to reach a justifiable
and coherent form of interdisciplinary integration. An Appendix of âPrompts or
Questions for Metacognitionâ that can elicit metacognitive knowledge, monitoring,
or regulation in individuals or teams is included at the end of the article
What is an affordance and can it help us understand the use of ICT in education?
This paper revisits the concept of affordance and explores its contribution to an understanding of the use of ICT for teaching and learning. It looks at Gibsonâs original idea of affordance and at some of the difficulties long associated with the use of the word. It goes on to describe the translation of the concept of affordance into the field of design through the work, in particular, of Norman. The concept has since been translated into research concerning ICT and further opportunities and difficulties emerge. The paper locates key points of divergence within the usage of âaffordanceâ, as involving direct perception, invariant properties and complementarity. It concludes by arguing that affordance offers a distinctive perspective on the use of ICT in education because of its focus on possibilities for action
Rape Culture and Epistemology
We consider the complex interactions between rape culture and epistemology. A central case study is the consideration of a deferential attitude about the epistemology of sexual assault testimony. According to the deferential attitude, individuals and institutions should decline to act on allegations of sexual assault unless and until they are proven in a formal setting, i.e., a criminal court. We attack this deference from several angles, including the pervasiveness of rape culture in the criminal justice system, the epistemology of testimony and norms connecting knowledge and action, the harms of tacit idealizations away from important contextual factors, and a contextualist semantics for 'knows' ascriptions
Proceedings of the ECCS 2005 satellite workshop: embracing complexity in design - Paris 17 November 2005
Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr). Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr)
Minds Online: The Interface between Web Science, Cognitive Science, and the Philosophy of Mind
Alongside existing research into the social, political and economic impacts of the Web, there is a need to study the Web from a cognitive and epistemic perspective. This is particularly so as new and emerging technologies alter the nature of our interactive engagements with the Web, transforming the extent to which our thoughts and actions are shaped by the online environment. Situated and ecological approaches to cognition are relevant to understanding the cognitive significance of the Web because of the emphasis they place on forces and factors that reside at the level of agentâworld interactions. In particular, by adopting a situated or ecological approach to cognition, we are able to assess the significance of the Web from the perspective of research into embodied, extended, embedded, social and collective cognition. The results of this analysis help to reshape the interdisciplinary configuration of Web Science, expanding its theoretical and empirical remit to include the disciplines of both cognitive science and the philosophy of mind
For a learnable mathematics in the digital cultures
I begin with some general remarks concerning the co-evolution of representational forms and mathematical meanings. I then discuss the changed roles of mathematics and novel representations that emerge from the ubiquity of computational models, and briefly consider the implications for learning mathematics. I contend that a central component of knowledge required in modern societies involves the development of a meta-epistemological stance â i.e. developing a sense of mechanism for the models that underpin social and professional discourses. I illustrate this point in relation to recent research in which I am investigating the mathematical epistemology of engineering practice. Finally, I map out one implication for the design of future mathematical learning environments with reference to some data from the "Playground Project"
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The effect of knowledge management and organisational learning on individual competencies
Knowledge management (KM) is known for its positive impact on the strategy of organisations, but little is known and understood about the significance of competency and learning and its important effects on knowledge management in public and private organisations in different sectors of the economy in Kuwait. The problem is that many organisations deal with KM or new information or emerging information as a challenge of KM itself rather than a way of incorporating new knowledge into the organisation through the development of individual competencies, and hence developing both KM and individual competency. Based on interview data from Kuwaiti organisations, this paper argues that it is better to implement KM and maximize organizational learning in order to create more competent individuals based on the spiral of knowledge creation model or the theory of knowledge creation. The significant contribution this paper makes is that individual competencies have a reciprocal relationship with KM; the determining factors of individual competencies training, education, personal characteristics and culture affect KM success and are themselves affected by KM strategies. Some implications for managing organisational knowledge, organisational learning and development of individual competency are considered
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