The Social Virtue Of Blind Deference

Recently, it has become popular to account for knowledge and other epistemic states in terms of epistemic virtues. The present paper focuses on an epistemic virtue relevant when deferring to others in testimonial contexts. It is argued that, while many virtue epistemologists will accept that epistemic virtue can be exhibited in cases involving epistemically motivated hearers, carefully vetting their testimonial sources for signs of untrustworthiness prior to deferring, anyone who accepts that also has to accept that an agent may exhibit epistemic virtue in certain cases of blind deference, involving someone soaking up everything he or she is told without any hesitation. Moreover, in order to account for the kind of virtue involved in the relevant cases of blind deference, virtue epistemologists need to abandon a widespread commitment to personalism, i.e., the idea that virtue is possessed primarily on account of features internal to the psychology of the person, and accept that some virtues are social virtues, possessed in whole or in large part on account of the person being embedded in a reliable social environment

Building Quality Improvement Systems: Lessons from Three Emerging Efforts in the Youth-Serving Sector

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for thinking about key questions when planning any kind of program quality improvement work in the youth-serving sector

Pay It Forward: Guidance for Mentoring Junior Scholars

Based on interviews with William T. Grant Scholars Program mentors and mentees in the social, behavioral, and health sciences, explores building mentoring relationships, mentoring across differences, supporting career development, and managing conflict

Building Citywide Systems for Quality: A Guide and Case Studies for Afterschool Leaders

This guide is intended to help cities strengthen and sustain quality afterschool programs by using an emerging practice known as a quality improvement system (QIS). The guide explains how to start building a QIS or how to further develop existing efforts and features case studies of six communities' QIS

Measuring Youth Program Quality: A Guide to Assessment Tools

Thanks to growing interest in the subject of youth program quality, many tools are now available to help organizations and systems assess and improve quality. Given the size and diversity of the youth-serving sector, it is unrealistic to expect that any one tool or process will fit all programs or circumstances. This report compares the purpose, history, structure, methodology, content and technical properties of nine different program observation tools

An Eye for the Air Traffic Controller Workload

The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach for workload measurements and optimization of air traffic systems and displays that match controller needs. Ill-designed systems and displays can cause safety hazards for aircraft by increasing controller workload and reducing situation awareness. To prevent this situation, researchers need to develop systems that allow effortless monitoring while being attentive to operator needs. Such systems, once developed, will increase operator and system efficiency and increase the safety of airline operations

Chemical Concepts in the Era of Computational Chemistry

Present work in the philosophy of chemistry has overlooked a foundational debate among chemists about the proper function of chemical concepts. The debate is fueled by a desire to connect computational models with traditional chemical concepts, and has divided chemists since the origins of quantum chemistry. By analyzing the history of the concepts of electronegativity and the atom in the molecule, I show that there are two camps with conflicting priorities. Theorists who favor rigor seek concepts that neatly summarize important elements of the underlying physical models. Theorists who favor understanding seek concepts that achieve a balance between simplicity and qualitative accuracy. The development of concepts for understanding is shown to involve the use of multiple quantification schemes in order to achieve consistency with other concepts. This practice might appear shortsighted if not for the diverse functionality of the resulting concepts. These concepts can i) help discover new reactions and structures, ii) allow comparison of different models in computational chemistry, and iii) guide chemists to develop more accurate and more interpretable computational models. Finally, it is shown that these conflicting modes of conceptual development have implications for the nature of chemical concepts. Chemists on each side of the debate adopt different positions, explicitly or tacitly, on reduction, pluralism, and the ontology of chemical concepts. Philosophers of chemistry who neglect this debate cannot responsibly interpret chemists’ statements on these issues

An Eye for the Air Traffic Controller Workload

The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach for workload measurements and optimization of air traffic systems and displays that match controller needs. Ill-designed systems and displays can cause safety hazards for aircraft by increasing controller workload and reducing situation awareness. To prevent this situation, researchers need to develop systems that allow effortless monitoring while being attentive to operator needs. Such systems, once developed, will increase operator and system efficiency and increase the safety of airline operations