Experiment and the Making of Meaning

Experiment and the Making of Meaning PDF Author: D.C. Gooding
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400907079
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
. . . the topic of 'meaning' is the one topic discussed in philosophy in which there is literally nothing but 'theory' - literally nothing that can be labelled or even ridiculed as the 'common sense view'. Putnam, 'The Meaning of Meaning' This book explores some truths behind the truism that experimentation is a hallmark of scientific activity. Scientists' descriptions of nature result from two sorts of encounter: they interact with each other and with nature. Philosophy of science has, by and large, failed to give an account of either sort of interaction. Philosophers typically imagine that scientists observe, theorize and experiment in order to produce general knowledge of natural laws, knowledge which can be applied to generate new theories and technologies. This view bifurcates the scientist's world into an empirical world of pre-articulate experience and know how and another world of talk, thought and argument. Most received philosophies of science focus so exclusively on the literary world of representations that they cannot begin to address the philosophical problems arising from the interaction of these worlds: empirical access as a source of knowledge, meaning and reference, and of course, realism. This has placed the epistemological burden entirely on the predictive role of experiment because, it is argued, testing predictions is all that could show that scientists' theorizing is constrained by nature. Here a purely literary approach contributes to its own demise. The epistemological significance of experiment turns out to be a theoretical matter: cruciality depends on argument, not experiment.

Experiment and the Making of Meaning

Experiment and the Making of Meaning PDF Author: D.C. Gooding
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400907079
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book

Book Description
. . . the topic of 'meaning' is the one topic discussed in philosophy in which there is literally nothing but 'theory' - literally nothing that can be labelled or even ridiculed as the 'common sense view'. Putnam, 'The Meaning of Meaning' This book explores some truths behind the truism that experimentation is a hallmark of scientific activity. Scientists' descriptions of nature result from two sorts of encounter: they interact with each other and with nature. Philosophy of science has, by and large, failed to give an account of either sort of interaction. Philosophers typically imagine that scientists observe, theorize and experiment in order to produce general knowledge of natural laws, knowledge which can be applied to generate new theories and technologies. This view bifurcates the scientist's world into an empirical world of pre-articulate experience and know how and another world of talk, thought and argument. Most received philosophies of science focus so exclusively on the literary world of representations that they cannot begin to address the philosophical problems arising from the interaction of these worlds: empirical access as a source of knowledge, meaning and reference, and of course, realism. This has placed the epistemological burden entirely on the predictive role of experiment because, it is argued, testing predictions is all that could show that scientists' theorizing is constrained by nature. Here a purely literary approach contributes to its own demise. The epistemological significance of experiment turns out to be a theoretical matter: cruciality depends on argument, not experiment.

Thrifty Science

Thrifty Science PDF Author: Simon Werrett
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022661025X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
If the twentieth century saw the rise of “Big Science,” then the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were surely an age of thrift. As Simon Werrett’s new history shows, frugal early modern experimenters transformed their homes into laboratories as they recycled, repurposed, repaired, and reused their material possessions to learn about the natural world. Thrifty Science explores this distinctive culture of experiment and demonstrates how the values of the household helped to shape an array of experimental inquiries, ranging from esoteric investigations of glowworms and sour beer to famous experiments such as Benjamin Franklin’s use of a kite to show lightning was electrical and Isaac Newton’s investigations of color using prisms. Tracing the diverse ways that men and women put their material possessions into the service of experiment, Werrett offers a history of practices of recycling and repurposing that are often assumed to be more recent in origin. This thriving domestic culture of inquiry was eclipsed by new forms of experimental culture in the nineteenth century, however, culminating in the resource-hungry science of the twentieth. Could thrifty science be making a comeback today, as scientists grapple with the need to make their research more environmentally sustainable?

About Method

About Method PDF Author: Jutta Schickore
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022675989X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Scientists’ views on what makes an experiment successful have developed dramatically throughout history. Different criteria for proper experimentation were privileged at different times, entirely new criteria for securing experimental results emerged, and the meaning of commitment to experimentation altered. In About Method, Schickore captures this complex trajectory of change from 1660 to the twentieth century through the history of snake venom research. As experiments with poisonous snakes and venom were both challenging and controversial, the experimenters produced very detailed accounts of their investigations, which go back three hundred years—making venom research uniquely suited for such a long-term study. By analyzing key episodes in the transformation of venom research, Schickore is able to draw out the factors that have shaped methods discourse in science. About Method shows that methodological advancement throughout history has not been simply a steady progression toward better, more sophisticated and improved methodologies of experimentation. Rather, it was a progression in awareness of the obstacles and limitations that scientists face in developing strategies to probe the myriad unknown complexities of nature. The first long-term history of this development and of snake venom research, About Method offers a major contribution to integrated history and philosophy of science.

Lev Vygotsky (Classic Edition)

Lev Vygotsky (Classic Edition) PDF Author: Fred Newman
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135016224
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
When Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist published, it was unique in several ways. It presented Vygotsky as a Marxist methodologist, both locating him in his historical period and delineating how his life and writings have been a catalyst for a contemporary revolutionary, practical-critical, psychology. It highlighted Vygotsky’s unconventional view of how development and learning are related and, in doing so, brought human development into prominence. It introduced important linkages between Vygotsky’s views on thinking and speaking and those of Wittgenstein, drawing implications for language acquisition and language learning. And it drew attention to Vygotsky’s understanding of the role of play in child development, and expanded on the significance of play throughout the lifespan. In these ways, this classic text presented a more expansive Vygotsky than previously understood. The Introduction to this Classic Edition will summarize what has transpired in the years since Lev Vygotsky first published. It will answer who and where is Vygotsky now? What place does he have in scholarship in psychology, education, and other fields? How are practitioners making use of him—to address the challenges of our times, solve seemingly intractable social problems, revolutionize psychology, and develop skilled and worldly citizens? What have the authors accomplished since they first articulated their view of Vygotsky as a revolutionary scientist?

Decision Making and Programming

Decision Making and Programming PDF Author: V. V. Kolbin
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812775463
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 757

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Book Description
The problem of selection of alternatives or the problem of decision making in the modern world has become the most important class of problems constantly faced by business people, researchers, doctors and engineers. The fields that are almost entirely focused on conflicts, where applied mathematics is successfully used, are law, military science, many branches of economics, sociology, political science, and psychology. There are good grounds to believe that medicine and some branches of biology and ethics can also be included in this list. Modern applied mathematics can produce solutions to many tens of classes of conflicts differing by the composition and structure of the participants, specific features of the set of their objectives or interests, and various characteristics of the set of their actions, strategies, behaviors, controls, and decisions as applied to various principles of selection or notions of decision optimization. The current issues of social and economic systems involve the necessity to coordinate and jointly optimize various lines of development and activities of modern society. For this reason, the decision problems arising in investigation of such systems are versatile, which shows up not only in the multiplicity of participants, their interests and complexity of reciprocal effects, but also in the laborious development of social utility criteria for a variety of indices and versatile objectives. The efficient decision methods for such complex systems can be developed only the basis of specially developed mathematical tools. Contents: Social Choice Problems; Vector Optimization; Infinite-Valued Programming Problems; Stochastic Programming; Discrete Programming; Fundamentals of Decision Making; Multicriterion Optimization Problems; Decision Making Under Incomplete Information; Multicriterion Elements of Optimization Theory; Decision Models; Decision Models Under Fuzzy Information; The Applied Mathematical Model for Conflict Management. Readership: Undergraduates, graduate students, professionals and researchers in applied mathematics.

Experiments in Joy

Experiments in Joy PDF Author: Gabrielle Civil
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781948700153
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
What can people do together that we can't do alone? What can we discover in ourselves only by way of other people? Gabrielle Civil's Experiments in Joy celebrates black feminist collaborations and solos in essays, letters, performance texts, scores, images, and more. Following her explosive debut Swallow the Fish, Civil now documents her work with From the Hive, No. 1 Gold, and Call & Response--whose collaborative Call inspired the title. The book also features her solo encounters with artists and writers, ancestors and audiences. Here you will find black girlhood, grief, ghosts, girls in their bedrooms, lots of books, dancing, reading, falling in love, fighting back, and flying. With lots of heart and the help of her friends, Civil keeps reckoning with performance, art and life.

Making Meaning in English

Making Meaning in English PDF Author: David Didau
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000331555
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses – metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context – and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter. If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned, taught and assessed.

Sense-Making and Shared Meaning in Language and Literacy Education

Sense-Making and Shared Meaning in Language and Literacy Education PDF Author: Sharon Murphy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429618921
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This textbook provides a framework for teaching children’s language and literacy and introduces research-based tactics for teachers to use in designing their literacy programs for children. Exploring how sense-making occurs in contemporary literacy practice, Murphy comprehensively covers major topics in literacy, including contemporary multimodal literacy practices, classroom discourse, literacy assessment, language and culture, and teacher knowledge. Organized around themes—talk, reading and composing representation—this book comprehensively invites educators to make sense of their own teaching practices while demonstrating the complexities of how children make sense of and represent meaning in today’s world. Grounded in research, this text features a wealth of real-world, multimodal examples, effective strategies and teaching tactics to apply to any classroom context. Ideal for literacy courses, preservice teachers, teacher educators and literacy scholars, this book illustrates how children become literate in contemporary society and how teachers can create the conditions for children to broaden and deepen their sense-making and expressive efforts.

The American Experiment

The American Experiment PDF Author: David M. Rubenstein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982165731
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
American icons and historians explore the grand American experiment in democracy, culture, innovation, and ideas, the capstone book in a trilogy from David Rubenstein.

Life and Learning of Korean Artists and Craftsmen

Life and Learning of Korean Artists and Craftsmen PDF Author: Dae Joong Kang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317803515
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book brings out the need for lifelong learning theory and explores how it is possible from a postmodern perspective. The book uses life history that has gained its popularity in social science research to overcome the dichotomy between individual and society or between agency and structure. Life history also reflects the postmodern or late-modern conditions of social life. In this book, the author uses a collection of published oral history narratives of famous Korean artists and craftsmen. The author maps out life and learning of five such artists and craftsmen with figurations of escaping, creating, controlling and formalizing. These figurations are images of ‘Rhizoactivity’ that the author proposes as a new conceptual tool to navigate lifelong learning from a postmodern perspective. This book signalises a new way of theory building in the field of adult and lifelong education. The Life and Learning of Korean Artists and Craftsmen: Rhizoactivity conceptualises: Adult learning in terms of postmodern and lifelong learning conditions Life histories as a method of researching lifelong learning The four facets of artistic journeys – escaping, creating, controlling and formalizing This book will interest researchers focusing on lifelong and adult education. Its use of social theories in its study of lifelong learning amongst Korean artists will also interest sociologists and educators concerned with the sociology of education.