"The Original Eye": Whitman, Schelling and the Return to Origins

Explores ideas of originality as they relate to Whitman\u27s writing and thought and uses Frederich Schelling to argue that "Whitman\u27s presentation of himself as an original poet in Leaves of Grass was based on an aesthetic strategy involving an imaginative return to origins

The Texts and Contexts of "Calamus": Did Whitman Censor Himself in 1860?

Examines the recent controversy over the relationship of the "Live Oak, with Moss" sequence to the \u27Calamus\u27 cluster and argues that, "when paired with contextual evidence, an examination of the manuscripts of the \u27Calamus\u27 poems offers no basis for the charge of self-censorship and defeat" in this sequence of poems

"Culture" or Democracy: Whitman, Eugene Benson, and The Galaxy

Considers Whitman\u27s literary relationship with Eugene Benson, a writer, painter and self-styled "literary frondeur," who wrote at the same time as Whitman for the New York monthly magazine The Galaxy

"Culture" or Democracy: Whitman, Eugene Benson, and The Galaxy

Considers Whitman\u27s literary relationship with Eugene Benson, a writer, painter and self-styled "literary frondeur," who wrote at the same time as Whitman for the New York monthly magazine The Galaxy

"The Original Eye": Whitman, Schelling and the Return to Origins

Explores ideas of originality as they relate to Whitman\u27s writing and thought and uses Frederich Schelling to argue that "Whitman\u27s presentation of himself as an original poet in Leaves of Grass was based on an aesthetic strategy involving an imaginative return to origins

Consumer Credit-Risk Models Via Machine-Learning Algorithms

We apply machine-learning techniques to construct nonlinear nonparametric forecasting models of consumer credit risk. By combining customer transactions and credit bureau data from January 2005 to April 2009 for a sample of a major commercial bank’s customers, we are able to construct out-of-sample forecasts that significantly improve the classification rates of credit-card-holder delinquencies and defaults, with linear regression R2’s of forecasted/realized delinquencies of 85%. Using conservative assumptions for the costs and benefits of cutting credit lines based on machine-learning forecasts, we estimate the cost savings to range from 6% to 25% of total losses. Moreover, the time-series patterns of estimated delinquency rates from this model over the course of the recent financial crisis suggest that aggregated consumer credit-risk analytics may have important applications in forecasting systemic risk.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Financial EngineeringMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Future Bankin

Rationality as a Goal of Education

Abstract Those who believe education should involve more than learning facts often stress either (a) development or (b) thinking skills. A focus on development as a goal of education typically entails a conception of knowledge as organismic, holistic, and internally generated. In contrast, thinking skills programs commonly assume a mechanistic, reductionist perspective in which good thinking consists of some finite number of directly teachable skills. A conception of rationality as a goal of education is proposed that incorporates the complementary strengths and avoids the limitations of the developmental and thinking skills approaches. Rationality is defined as the self-reflective, intentional, and appropriate coordination and use of genuine reasons in generating and justifying beliefs and behavior. Philosophically, rationality is a justifiable goal of education, not only because it is a means to worthwhile ends but because it is an important end in itself and because it can be promoted via non-indoctrinative means. A psychological account of progressive rationality is provided that postulates continuing multiple interactions of (a) domain-specific developmental stages, (b) the learning of specific thinking skills, and (c) content-specific knowledge. Suggestions are made for fostering rationality at various educational levels. Finally, it is argued that the proposed conception of rationality as a goal of education complements and clarifies a variety of other educational goals

Territoriality and the organization of technology during the Last Glacial Maximum in southwestern Europe

Climate changes that occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) had significant consequences in human eco-dynamics across Europe. Among the most striking impacts are the demographic contraction of modern humans into southern refugia and the potential formation of a population bottleneck. In Iberia and southern France transformations also included the occurrence of significant technological changes, mostly marked by the emergence of a diverse set of bifacially-shaped stone projectiles. The rapid dissemination of bifacial technologies and the geographical circumscription of specific projectile morphologies within these regions have been regarded as evidence for: (1) the existence of a system of long-distance exchange and social alliance networks; (2) the organization of human groups into cultural facies with well-defined stylistic territorial boundaries. However, the degree and modes in which cultural transmission have occurred within these territories, and how it may have influenced other domains of the adaptive systems, remains largely unknown. Using southern Iberia as a case-study, this paper presents the first quantitative approach to the organization of lithic technology and its relationship to hunter-gatherers' territorial organization during the LGM. Similarities and dissimilarities in the presence of morphological and metric data describing lithic technologies are used as a proxy to explore modes and degrees of cultural transmission. Statistical results show that similarities in technological options are dependent on the chronology and geographical distance between sites and corroborate previous arguments for the organization of LGM settlement in Southern Iberia into discrete eco-cultural facies.STSM COST action (ref. COST-STSM-TD0902-10855); FCT, contract ref. DL 57/2016/CP1361/ CT0026. Work at Vale Boi is funded by the project ALG-01-0145-FEDER-27833 - PTDC/HAR-ARQ/27833/2017.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio