Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty

Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty PDF Author: Louise Cummings
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319150138
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book argues that in order to be truly effective, public health must embrace a group of reasoning strategies that have traditionally been characterized as informal fallacies. It will be demonstrated that these strategies can facilitate judgements about complex public health issues in contexts of uncertainty. The book explains how scientists and lay people routinely resort to the use of these strategies during consideration of public health problems. Although these strategies are not deductively valid, they are nevertheless rationally warranted procedures. Public health professionals must have a sound understanding of these cognitive strategies in order to engage the public and achieve their public health goals. The book draws upon public health issues as wide ranging as infectious diseases, food safety and the potential impact on human health of new technologies. It examines reasoning in the context of these issues within a large-scale, questionnaire-based survey of nearly 900 members of the public in the UK. In addition, several philosophical themes run throughout the book, including the nature of uncertainty, scientific knowledge and inquiry. The complexity of many public health problems demands an approach to reasoning that cannot be accommodated satisfactorily within a general thinking skills framework. This book shows that by developing an awareness of these reasoning strategies, scientists and members of the public can have a more productive engagement with public health problems.

Fallacies in Medicine and Health

Fallacies in Medicine and Health PDF Author: Louise Cummings
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030285138
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
This textbook examines the ways in which arguments may be used and abused in medicine and health. The central claim is that a group of arguments known as the informal fallacies – including slippery slope arguments, fear appeal, and the argument from ignorance – undertake considerable work in medical and health contexts, and that they can in fact be rationally warranted ways of understanding complex topics, contrary to the views of many earlier philosophers and logicians. Modern medicine and healthcare require lay people to engage with increasingly complex decisions in areas such as immunization, lifestyle and dietary choices, and health screening. Many of the so-called fallacies of reasoning can also be viewed as cognitive heuristics or short-cuts which help individuals make decisions in these contexts. Using features such as learning objectives, case studies and end-of-unit questions, this textbook examines topical issues and debates in all areas of medicine and health, including antibiotic use and resistance, genetic engineering, euthanasia, addiction to prescription opioids, and the legalization of cannabis. It will be useful to students of critical thinking, reasoning, logic, argumentation, rhetoric, communication, health humanities, philosophy and linguistics.

International Journal of Language Studies (IJLS) – volume 11(1)

International Journal of Language Studies (IJLS) – volume 11(1) PDF Author: Mohammad Ali Salmani Nodoushan
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1387122266
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
PAPERS : Public health reasoning: The contribution of pragmatics (Louise CUMMINGS, pp. 1-18); Indirectly reporting grammatical, lexical and morphological errors (Alessandro CAPONE, pp. 19-36); Exploring attitude and test-driven motivation towards English at Chinese universities (Junping HOU, Hanneke LOERTS & Marjolijn H. VERSPOOR, pp. 37-60); Toward a taxonomy of errors in Iranian EFL learners' basic-level writing (Mohammad Ali SALMANI NODOUSHAN, pp. 61-78); A structural move analysis of research article introduction sub-genre: A comparative study of native and Iranian writers in applied linguistics (Arezou PASHAPOUR, Farid GHAEMI & Mohammad HASHAMDAR, pp. 79-106); Teaching English pronunciation beyond intelligibility (Frans HERMANS & Peter SLOEP, pp. 107-124); Complexity and likely influence of teachers' and learners' beliefs about speaking practice: Effects on and implications for communicative approaches (Edgar Emmanuell GARCÍA-PONCE, Troy CRAWFORD, M. Martha LENGELING & Irasema MORA-PABLO, pp. 125-146)

Scientific Reasoning and Argumentation

Scientific Reasoning and Argumentation PDF Author: Frank Fischer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351400428
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Competence in scientific reasoning is one of the most valued outcomes of secondary and higher education. However, there is a need for a deeper understanding of and further research into the roles of domain-general and domain-specific knowledge in such reasoning. This book explores the functions and limitations of domain-general conceptions of reasoning and argumentation, the substantial differences that exist between the disciplines, and the role of domain-specific knowledge and epistemologies. Featuring chapters and commentaries by widely cited experts in the learning sciences, educational psychology, science education, history education, and cognitive science, Scientific Reasoning and Argumentation presents new perspectives on a decades-long debate about the role of domain-specific knowledge and its contribution to the development of more general reasoning abilities.

The Handbook of Rationality

The Handbook of Rationality PDF Author: Markus Knauff
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262045079
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 879

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Book Description
The first reference on rationality that integrates accounts from psychology and philosophy, covering descriptive and normative theories from both disciplines. Both analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology have made dramatic advances in understanding rationality, but there has been little interaction between the disciplines. This volume offers the first integrated overview of the state of the art in the psychology and philosophy of rationality. Written by leading experts from both disciplines, The Handbook of Rationality covers the main normative and descriptive theories of rationality—how people ought to think, how they actually think, and why we often deviate from what we can call rational. It also offers insights from other fields such as artificial intelligence, economics, the social sciences, and cognitive neuroscience. The Handbook proposes a novel classification system for researchers in human rationality, and it creates new connections between rationality research in philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines. Following the basic distinction between theoretical and practical rationality, the book first considers the theoretical side, including normative and descriptive theories of logical, probabilistic, causal, and defeasible reasoning. It then turns to the practical side, discussing topics such as decision making, bounded rationality, game theory, deontic and legal reasoning, and the relation between rationality and morality. Finally, it covers topics that arise in both theoretical and practical rationality, including visual and spatial thinking, scientific rationality, how children learn to reason rationally, and the connection between intelligence and rationality.

Personal Assistants: Emerging Computational Technologies

Personal Assistants: Emerging Computational Technologies PDF Author: Angelo Costa
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319625306
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
This book provides an overview of the current research in the interdisciplinary area of personal assistants (PA) and cognitively inspired systems. It discusses the most relevant topics in this highly diversified domain, like reasoning, health, personalization, robotics, and ethical and social issues. Personal assistants (PA) are a relatively new concept directed at people with cognitive or physical disabilities, and is expanding to include complex platforms such as sensors, actuators, monitoring abilities and decision processes. Designed for a general audience, it is also of interest to undergraduates, graduates and researchers involved with intelligent systems, ambient intelligence or ambient assisted living. The content goes from an introduction of the field (aimed at undergraduates and a general readership) to specific and complex architectures (aimed at graduates and researchers).

Pragmatic Disorders

Pragmatic Disorders PDF Author: Louise Cummings
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400779542
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This wide-ranging survey of the state of the art in clinical pragmatics includes an examination of pragmatic disorders in previously neglected populations such as juvenile offenders, children and adults with emotional and behavioural disorders, and adults with non-Alzheimer dementias. This book makes a significant contribution to the discussion of pragmatic disorders by exploring topics which have a fast-rising profile in the field. These topics include disorders in which there are both pragmatic and cognitive components, and studies of the complex impacts of pragmatic disorders such as mental health problems, educational disadvantage and social exclusion. This book also presents a critical evaluation of our current state of knowledge of pragmatic disorders. The author focuses on the lack of integration between theoretical and clinical branches of pragmatics and argues that the work of clinicians is all too often inadequately informed by theoretical frameworks. She attempts to bridge these gaps by pursuing a closer alliance of clinical and theoretical branches of pragmatics. It is claimed that this alliance represents the most promising route for the future development of the field. At once a yardstick measuring progress thus far in clinical pragmatics, and also a roadmap for future research development, this single-author volume defines where we have reached in the field, as well as where we have to go next.​

The Scout Mindset

The Scout Mindset PDF Author: Julia Galef
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735217556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can benefit."—The Wall Street Journal A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe—and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think.

Hope and Uncertainty in Health and Medicine

Hope and Uncertainty in Health and Medicine PDF Author: Bernhard Hadolt
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839467624
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
In health and medicine, imagining the future is essential in giving meaning to the past and the present and for propelling people into action. This is true not only at the level of individuals as they envision and carry out everyday activities and long-term plans but also for institutional practices framed by and unfolding within various socio-political ecologies and transfigurations. Hope and uncertainty are critical affective and knowledge-related modalities of such imaginations and assume vital meanings in policing, managing, and experiencing health, illness, and well-being. This volume brings together contributions from medical anthropologists who address this theme across various medical spheres, including the pragmatics of hope and uncertainty, the techno-sphere, health management, and individual and socially distributed emotions.

Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty

Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty PDF Author: Louise Cummings
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783319362427
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book argues that in order to be truly effective, public health must embrace a group of reasoning strategies that have traditionally been characterized as informal fallacies. It will be demonstrated that these strategies can facilitate judgements about complex public health issues in contexts of uncertainty. The book explains how scientists and lay people routinely resort to the use of these strategies during consideration of public health problems. Although these strategies are not deductively valid, they are nevertheless rationally warranted procedures. Public health professionals must have a sound understanding of these cognitive strategies in order to engage the public and achieve their public health goals. The book draws upon public health issues as wide ranging as infectious diseases, food safety and the potential impact on human health of new technologies. It examines reasoning in the context of these issues within a large-scale, questionnaire-based survey of nearly 900 members of the public in the UK. In addition, several philosophical themes run throughout the book, including the nature of uncertainty, scientific knowledge and inquiry. The complexity of many public health problems demands an approach to reasoning that cannot be accommodated satisfactorily within a general thinking skills framework. This book shows that by developing an awareness of these reasoning strategies, scientists and members of the public can have a more productive engagement with public health problems.