Generating Cognitive Tools: Neurath’s Educational Ideal and the Concept of ISOTYPE

Author(s):  
Angélique Groß
Author(s):  
Harvey Siegel

This chapter offers a reply to Stefaan Cuypers’ explication and critique of the views of rationality and critical thinking laid out in the previous chapters and in earlier work (see his “Critical Thinking, Autonomy and Practical Reason,” 2004). While Cuypers’ discussion is praiseworthy in several respects, it (1) mistakenly attributes to those views a Humean conception of (practical) reason, and (2) unsuccessfully argues that the positions articulated and defended in those earlier chapters lack the resources required to defend the basic claim that critical thinking is a fundamental educational ideal. Cuypers’ analysis also raises deep issues about the motivational character of reasons; I briefly address this matter as well.


Author(s):  
Harvey Siegel

The Western philosophical tradition has historically valorized the cultivation of reason as a fundamental intellectual ideal. This ideal continues to be defended by many as educationally basic. However, recent philosophical work has challenged it on several fronts, including worries stemming from relativistic tendencies in the philosophy of science, the apparent ubiquity of epistemic dependence in social epistemology, and broad critiques of objectionable hegemony launched from feminist and postmodernist perspectives. This chapter briefly reviews the historical record, connects the cultivation of reason to the educational ideal of critical thinking, spells out the latter ideal, and evaluates these challenges. It ends by sketching a general, “transcendental” reply to all such critiques of reason.


Author(s):  
Marek Jakubiec

AbstractAlthough much ink has been spilled on different aspects of legal concepts, the approach based on the developments of cognitive science is a still neglected area of study. The “mental” and cognitive aspect of these concepts, i.e., their features as mental constructs and cognitive tools, especially in the light of the developments of the cognitive sciences, is discussed quite rarely. The argument made by this paper is that legal concepts are best understood as mental representations. The piece explains what mental representations are and why this view matters. The explanation of legal concepts, understood as mental representations is one of (at least) three levels of explanation within legal philosophy, but—as will be argued—it is the most fundamental level. This paper analyzes the consequences of such understanding of concepts used in the field of legal philosophy. Special emphasis is put on the current debate on the analogical or amodal nature of concepts.


2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Pfeifer

Artificial intelligence is by its very nature synthetic, its motto is “Understanding by building”. In the early days of artificial intelligence the focus was on abstract thinking and problem solving. These phenomena could be naturally mapped onto algorithms, which is why originally AI was considered to be part of computer science and the tool was computer programming. Over time, it turned out that this view was too limited to understand natural forms of intelligence and that embodiment must be taken into account. As a consequence the focus changed to systems that are able to autonomously interact with their environment and the main tool became the robot. The “developmental robotics” approach incorporates the major implications of embodiment with regard to what has been and can potentially be learned about human cognition by employing robots as cognitive tools. The use of “robots as cognitive tools” is illustrated in a number of case studies by discussing the major implications of embodiment, which are of a dynamical and information theoretic nature.


2020 ◽  
pp. 089443932098012
Author(s):  
Teresa M. Harrison ◽  
Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes

While there is growing consensus that the analytical and cognitive tools of artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to transform government in positive ways, it is also clear that AI challenges traditional government decision-making processes and threatens the democratic values within which they are framed. These conditions argue for conservative approaches to AI that focus on cultivating and sustaining public trust. We use the extended Brunswik lens model as a framework to illustrate the distinctions between policy analysis and decision making as we have traditionally understood and practiced them and how they are evolving in the current AI context along with the challenges this poses for the use of trustworthy AI. We offer a set of recommendations for practices, processes, and governance structures in government to provide for trust in AI and suggest lines of research that support them.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 793-810
Author(s):  
Kirstine Sinclair

Abstract This contribution examines the relationship between understandings of modernity, Islam and educational ideals at Cambridge Muslim College (UK) and how such understandings contribute to the formation of meaningful selves amongst the students attending the college. The analysis takes as its point of departure the understanding of modernity of the founder of Cambridge Muslim College – Tim Winter aka Abdal Hakim Murad – as it is expressed in his publications, social media appearances and from conversations at the college. In a nutshell, modernity for Winter signifies a fragmentation of meaning and coherence and is associated with blind consumerism and superficiality. The aim of the college is to counter such fragmentation by providing coherence and meaning to its students. The college is presented – and perceived by students and graduates – as mediating between Islamic traditions and modern Muslim lives in the West and as living up to a responsibility of engaging in the development of both Muslim minorities and the wider society of which they are part. Thus, the educational ideal is not only pursued in traditional academic activities – it implies a certain lifestyle based on a particular understanding of Islam which is not as much about theological content as it is about how to instrumentalise the religion in everyday being and practice.


Author(s):  
Gillian Judson ◽  
Ross Powell ◽  
Kelly Robinson

Our intention is to share our lived experiences as educators of educators employing Imaginative Education (IE) pedagogy. We aim to illuminate IE’s influence on our students’, and our own, affective alertness, and to leave readers feeling the possibility of this pedagogy for teaching and learning. Inspired by the literary and research praxis of métissage (Chambers et al., 2012; Hasebe-Ludt et al., 2009; Hasebe-Ludt et al., 2010), we offer this polyphonic text as a weaving together of our discrete and collective voices as imaginative teacher educators. Our writing reflects a relational process, one that invites us as writers and colleagues to better understand each other and our practices as IE educators (Hasebe-Ludt et al., 2009). It also allows us to share with other practitioners our struggles, questions, and triumphs as we make sense of our individual and collective praxis: how IE’s theory informs our practice, and how our practice informs our understanding of IE’s theory. This text, like IE’s philosophy, invites heterogeneous possibilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Dettori ◽  
Federica Caboni ◽  
Ernestina Giudici

Firms working in the third millennium have to face the challenge of being more sustainable. The complexity and the multidisciplinary nature of sustainability also requires new and specific knowledge. This means the necessity of a critical rethinking of the education system in the way to provide the cognitive tools and applications needed for new generations to address environmental, economic, and social challenges. In this perspective, the role of the school it is crucial, above all, to encourage attention to include sustainability as a theme on educational programs, focusing on the promotion of its multiple dimensions. Interdisciplinary sustainability programs are emerging globally, but little is known about the learning in these educational contexts.Therefore, the current research explores training modules used in the activities of a park to verify how students can receive a sustainable education from primary school; whether and in which way education can be a driver for the promotion of sustainable development; and whether it is effective to insert eco-activities such as eco-games, eco-campus, and eco-sports in the training modules from primary school onwards. For this purpose, the paper employed a single case study approach using the Emotions Park as a teaching plan. In particular, game and sports constantly accompany the training process by creating interdisciplinary links with different study subjects (e.g., civic education, environmental education, communication). Through the eco-activities, an innovative way to promote environmental and sustainability education was explored as a training model. Outdoor play, observation, and stimulation of the senses have proved powerful learning tools, and key to the acquisition of skills. Research data were collected observing the behavior of a sample of 22 participants and through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with educators, employee and students. The empirical observation suggests that inserting the sustainability principles as a topic in didactic programs provides the cognitive tools and applications needed for the new generations to address environmental, economic, and social challenges.


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