An Enduring Philosophical Agenda. Worldview Construction as a Philosophical Method

Is there something like a philosophical method? It seems that there are as many methods as there are philosophies. A method is any procedure employed to attain a certain end. So, before going to a method, we have to ask: what is the aim of philosophy? At the origin of philosophy, there is a questioning about the world. Leo Apostel and Jan Van der Veken made more precise and explicit those fundamental questions (Apostel, Van der Veken 1991). The primarily aim of philosophy can be seen as answering this philosophical agenda; with the answers, one come up with a worldview. We'll argue that the philosophical worldviews constitute a particular class of the possible worldviews. With the help of three analogies, we'll give some guidelines to construct such worldviews. But, what are the best philosophical worldviews? We'll see how we can compare and confront them; and also some problems for their diffusion. The last section will propose some basic hypotheses to build such integrative worldviews

An Enduring Philosophical Agenda. Worldview Construction as a Philosophical Method\ud

Is there such a thing as a philosophical method? It seems that there are as many philosophical methods as there are philosophies. A method is any procedure employed to achieve a certain aim. So, before proposing a method, we have to tackle the delicate question: “what is the aim of philosophy?”. At the origin of philosophy, there is a questioning about the world. The worldview approach developed by Leo Apostel elegantly explicit those fundamental questions. As we answer them, we come up with a worldview. Using this framework, this paper consider answering this enduring philosophical agenda as the primary aim of philosophy. We illustrate the approach by pointing out the limitations of both a strictly scientific worldview and a strictly religious worldview. We then argue that philosophical worldviews constitute a particular class of possible worldviews. With the help of three analogies, we give guidelines to construct such worldviews. The next step is to compare the relative strength of philosophical worldviews. Precise evaluation standards to compare and confront worldviews are proposed. Some problems for worldview diffusion are then expounded. We close with basic hypotheses to build a comprehensive philosophical worldview

Conceptual Metaphors: a review with implications for human understandings and systems practice

We provide an overview of metaphor theory and explore implications for systems practice by building on claims that metaphors are central to our ways of understanding. As stakeholders will have different understandings, each metaphor will reveal and conceal different aspects of their understandings. These differences need to be accommodated within systems practice. Our contribution in this paper is to show how metaphors can explain, appreciate and create different understandings. Further, new understandings can emerge from considering different metaphors

An (auto)Ethnographic Narrative of the Teaching of Designing within Design and Technology in the English Curriculum

AbstractDuring the 1980s there was a paradigm shift in technology education within the English secondary school curriculum, resulting in a series of National Curriculum iterations with Design and Technology (D&T) emerging in the mid 1990s. School inspection and academic discourse has identified the relative weakness of the teaching of design in comparison with making. This paper is presented as a personal narrative of the teaching of design, within a qualitative and interpretive paradigm. The findings highlight the challenges for D&T practitioners in their role as teachers of design, examining the nature of design education and how design concepts are framed

Sharing the Burden of Strife in Chronic Illness: a Praxiological Study of Nursing Practice in a Community Context

This inquiry is an in-depth exploration of one middle aged woman’s, Sarah, experience of strife in chronic illness and her nursing care involving four nurses (including myself) in a community context over a three-year period. The study is praxiological in that the understanding achieved is derived from practice within a ‘research as praxis’ methodology positioned in the disciplinary perspective of nursing as a practical human science. Five methodological premises inform the research processes: reflexivity, dialogue, moral comportment, re-presentation in narrative and critique. They emanate from an eclectic ontological praxiology based on the research framework constructed from Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics, components of other philosophical praxiologies evolved from an exploration of the practical discourse in philosophy and my preferred health and nursing assumptions. The research processes include researcher journalling; summaries of Sarah’s nursing record, dialogical meetings with Sarah and the nurse co-participants to collect the research material and then co-construct it into narrative form. The narrative is developed around what Sarah viewed as the overall nursing contribution to her care; the ‘sharing of her burden of illness’. This, she maintained, enabled her to live safely in the community. Finally there occurs a critique of the narrative within a discursive framework. Three themes, embedded in particular discourses, emerged from the narrative both in Sarah’s and the nurses’ experience; paradox, moral meaning and metaphor. Sarah’s experience is interpreted as taking place in the ‘in-between space’ of the disease and health-illness discourses. Two main concepts which depict the tension experienced in this space are the ‘the ontological assault of illness’ and ‘entrapment in the disease discourse’. We, the nurses, ‘pushed the boundaries’ to create a space for the nursing as a caring practice discourse on the margins of nursing as a functional service discourse. Within the nursing as a caring practice space many ‘fine lines’ were walked with Sarah. Walking the ‘fine line’ of an ‘intense relationship’ was seen as advanced nursing practice. The research highlights important implications for a person and/or families who live with chronic illness and practice and educational issues for advanced nurse practitioners. Further, it promotes praxiological methodologies as advantageous for expanding nursing knowledge. This inquiry makes a twofold contribution to the discipline of nursing: it progresses the understanding of living with strife in chronic illness and it expands the practice of praxiological inquiry within nursing

Developing a building sustainability assessment model for the South African built environment : searching for new appoaches to improve the effectiveness of building assessment

The fundamental premise of research presented in this thesis is the search for conceptual approaches and practical measures to enhance the practice of building assessment in fostering sustainable construction. Hence, this thesis advances the theory for the practice of building assessment that incorporates the principles of sustainable development. The research findings are communicated via a functional specification for a building sustainability assessment model, suitable to the South African context. The research focuses primarily on process-related aspects of building assessment. Important insights for the development of the model's specification are gained from the review of the practice and experience of Environmental Assessment (EA) in addressing sustainability at a project level. Lessons are also drawn from the Process Protocol (PP), which provides a means of describing the building project process in a way that is transparent and accessible to building stakeholders. The most relevant insights sourced from these two fields of expertise are grouped into three key themes. These include integration (i.e. integration of sustainability principles, stakeholder values and perspectives), transparency and accessibility (i.e. open participation and communication competence) and collaborative learning (i.e. active involvement and transfer of knowledge). It is proposed that these themes form key outcomes of building assessment and be viewed as crucial functionalities of the model. The model is presented as a generic method that can be customised to suit the context of its application. The potential use scenarios of the model, identified in this thesis, include the formulation of a building project proposal, a building project sustainability appraisal and a building performance audit. The use of process maps produced through this research facilitates the identification of interfaces between the model and the building process in terms of decision-points and associated information needs in each use scenario. The model's user personas are also discussed (i.e. building stakeholders) with regard to the potential benefits and challenges of their participation in the building assessment process. The theory for building assessment advanced in this thesis was validated during a workshop with South African academics and built environment practitioners, held at the University of Cape Town. The thesis concludes that building assessment methods can do more than assess the sustainability of a building. More importantly, they provide a means of introducing the principles of sustainable development into the processes that produce the built end-product. This suggests a need to move beyond the terminology of building assessment and instead talk of enhancement models that would facilitate a shift in the practice of building assessment from measuring to one of proactive improvement

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS IN URBAN AREA IN EGYPT

Purpose: This research examined the effects of television-advertising viewing on the perceived wealth in society and the materialistic value orientations among adolescents in urban Egypt. Methodology: A survey on two hundred (200) adolescents aged eleven (11) to seventeen (17) was conducted in 2013. The urban sub-sample consisted of one hundred (100) respondents studying in Grade 7 and Grade 8 from a secondary school in Cairo city. The rural sub-sample consisted of one hundred (100) respondents studying in Grade 7 and Grade 8 from two (2) rural secondary schools in Alexandria. Main Findings: In the survey among urban (Cairo) adolescent respondents, it was found that there were higher estimates among adolescents whose family-owned five (5) modern-day products namely desktop computers, cameras, air conditioners and motorcars. This finding is not surprising as urban dwellers have a higher income than rural folks which translated into the higher purchasing power of buying modern-day products. Urban adolescents’ families owned more than rural adolescents’ families in terms of modern-day products namely desktop computers, cameras, air-conditioners and motorcars except for handphones as there was almost no difference in terms of owning handphones for urban or rural adolescents’ families. Implications: In addition, marketers are advised to consider placing advertisements on national television in their quest to reach out and promote their products and services to adolescents living in urban areas, as frequent watching of advertisements on television by adolescents in urban areas has a positive correlation with greater materialistic value. Novelty: The importance of this study is that it has managed to present empirical evidence that television advertising has an influence on materialism and perceived level of wealth among adolescents in urban areas of Egypt

Generating a theoretical base for restructuring curriculum content

The purpose of this study is to contribute to an ongoing effort among a number of contemporary curriculum theorists to generate a theoretical base for restructuring' curriculum content. The study is divided into a Prologue, two Chapters, and an Epilogue. PROLOGUE confronts the significant metatheoretical cal problems that are are raised simply by the articulation of this project. In the course of asking "What kind of research strategies, consonant with this intention, are appropriate for educators in North America?" the study reviews the metatheoretical considerations that have led contemporary curriculum theorists to frame such a question. Two avenues of approach that have emerged from such considerations are identified--a personal change position that involves a restructuring of individual consciousness, and a social change position that is oriented towards a restructuring of the ensemble of social relationships. The potentials of these two strategies are explored, and an argument is made for the development of a way of speaking and acting that honors the significance of both

Complex methods of inquiry: structuring uncertainty

Organizational problem spaces can be viewed as complex, uncertain and ambiguous. They can also be understood as open problem spaces. As such, any engagement with them, and any effort to intervene in order to pursue desirable change, cannot be assumed to be just a matter of ‘complicatedness’. The issue is not just a need to cope with dynamics of system. It is also the perceptual ‘boundedness’ of multitudes of assumptions about scope of whole and limitations of organization as system. Furthermore, explicit attention to complexities of feedback loops is an extremely important aspect of any systemic discussion. How can we help teams of competent professionals to engage purposefully with such uncertain and ambiguous problem domains? The author suggests that we can only address this effectively through pragmatic efforts to incorporate a multitude of boundary-setting assumptions, explored as part of active (self-) reflection and practical engagement. This must be undertaken without resorting to an overly simplistic application of convergent thinking in our efforts to support problem solving. Instead, we need to pursue divergent thinking and ‘complexification’ in our effort to support problem resolving. The main contribution of this thesis is to present a collection of principles that taken together, provide support for this engagement ntervention. A core feature of this result is the framework for Strategic Systemic Thinking, which includes examples of pragmatically useful methods and tools