scholarly journals Skepticism Motivated: On the Skeptical Import of Motivated Reasoning

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 702-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Adam Carter ◽  
Robin McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Liberal Democracies

AbstractEmpirical work on motivated reasoning suggests that our judgments are influenced to a surprising extent by our wants, desires, and preferences (Kahan 2016; Lord, Ross, and Lepper 1979; Molden and Higgins 2012; Taber and Lodge 2006). How should we evaluate the epistemic status of beliefs formed through motivated reasoning? For example, are such beliefs epistemically justified? Are they candidates for knowledge? In liberal democracies, these questions are increasingly controversial as well as politically timely (Beebe et al. 2018; Lynch Forthcoming, 2018; Slothuus and de Vreese 2010). And yet, the epistemological significance of motivated reasoning has been almost entirely ignored by those working in mainstream epistemology. We aim to rectify this oversight. Using politically motivated reasoning as a case study, we show how motivated reasoning gives rise to three distinct kinds of skeptical challenges. We conclude by showing how the skeptical import of motivated reasoning has some important ramifications for how we should think about the demands of intellectual humility.

Fine-tuning the Relationship between Religion and Intellectual Humility

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everett L. Worthington
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
The Self ◽  
Content Area ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
The Core ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Meaning System ◽  
The Relationship

I examine religious humility, which is one content area of intellectual humility. Intellectual humility is the subtype of humility that involves taking a humble stance in sharing ideas, especially when one is challenged or when an idea is threatening. I position religious humility within the context of general humility, spiritual humility, and relational humility, and thus arrive at several propositions. People who are intensely spiritually humble can hold dogmatic beliefs and believe themselves to be religiously humble, yet be perceived by others of different persuasions as religiously dogmatic and even arrogant. For such people to be truly religiously humble, they must feel that the religious belief is core to their meaning system. This requires discernment of which of the person’s beliefs are truly at the core. But also the religiously humble person must fulfill the definition of general humility, accurately perceiving the strengths and limitations of the self, being teachable to correct weaknesses, presenting oneself modestly, and being positively other-oriented. Humility thus involves (1) beliefs, values, and attitudes and (2) an interpersonal presentational style. Therefore, intellectually humble people must track the positive epistemic status of their beliefs and also must present with convicted civility.

scholarly journals Conceptual Development and Dynamic Realism

2013 ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Basic Features

This paper focuses on Thomas S. Kuhn's work on taxonomic concepts and how it relates to empirical work from the cognitive sciences on categorization and conceptual development. I shall first review the basic features of Kuhn's family resemblance account and compare to work from the cognitive sciences. I shall then show how Kuhn's account can be extended to cover the development of new taxonomies in science, and I shall illustrate by a detailed case study that Kuhn himself mentioned only briefly in his own work, namely the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity.

PAR and Digital Inclusion, An Analysis Using the Capabilities Approach and Critical Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1120-1135
Author(s):  
Sammia Cristina Poveda Villalba
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Adaptive Preference ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper draws upon the capability approach and critical pedagogy to analyse the value of using Problem-posing Education, a participatory action research method, in a digital inclusion initiative in Brazil. First it the capability approach and explains why using critical pedagogy is a valuable way to deal with issues of power, collective conscientisation and adaptive preference. Freire's pedagogy is then presented and conscientisation is explained as a process of raising critical awareness and praxis. The case study, presents empirical work conducted in Campinas, together with a NGO named CDI, which offers free internet access and basic ICT skills using a Freire's inspired methodology. Findings are then explained and discussed using the theoretical framework. This paper concludes that there is great value in using Freire's critical pedagogy for digital inclusion, but that further research is necessary to identify less resource intense solutions that can provide students with both conscientisation and skills.

scholarly journals Enhancing citizen engagement in planning through participatory film-making

2020 ◽  
pp. 239980832093628
Author(s):  
Jen Manuel ◽  
Geoff Vigar
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Study Research ◽  
Rational Planning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Film Making

There is a long history of engaging citizens in planning processes, and the intention to involve them actively in planning is a common objective. However, the reality of doing so is rather fraught and much empirical work suggests poor results. Partly in response an increasingly sophisticated toolkit of methods has emerged, and, in recent years, the deployment of various creative and digital technologies has enhanced this toolkit. We report here on case study research that deployed participatory film-making to augment a process of neighbourhood planning. We conclude that such a technology can elicit issues that might be missed in traditional planning processes; provoke key actors to include more citizens in the process by highlighting existing absences in the knowledge base; and, finally, provoke greater deliberation on issues by providing spaces for reflection and debate. We note, however, that while participants in film-making were positive about the experience, such creative methods were side-lined as established forms of technical–rational planning reasserted themselves.

Analyzing predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors of militancy through declassified interrogation summaries: A case study

2020 ◽  
pp. 136346152091931
Author(s):  
Neil Krishan Aggarwal
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Violent Content

Researchers and policymakers have supported a public health approach to countering violent extremism throughout the War on Terror. However, barriers to obtaining primary data include concerns from minority groups about stigmatization, the ethics of harming research subjects by exposing them to violent content, and restrictions on researchers from institutions and governments. Textual analyses of declassified documents from government agencies may overcome these barriers. This article contributes a method for analyzing the predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors of terrorism through open source texts. This method is applied to FBI interrogation summaries of Al Qaeda terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who attempted an attack aboard an airplane in 2009. This analysis shows that consuming militant content online led him to narrow his social relationships offline to extremists and foster identifications with subjugated Muslims around the world. After deciding to wage militancy, loyalty to Al Qaeda members, swearing allegiance to and obeying group leaders, and interpreting religious texts militantly perpetuated violent activities. Such work can advance empirical work on militant behavior to develop interventions.

scholarly journals Linking precolonial institutions with ethnic fractionalisation: what are we measuring?

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-826
Author(s):  
Shaun Larcom
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Conceptual Explanation ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Ethnic Fractionalisation

AbstractThis paper highlights a link between measures for precolonial institutions and ethnic fractionalisation in postcolonial countries. A conceptual explanation is provided for why countries that were more politically centralised in precolonial times should be less ethnically fractionalised in current times. This result is confirmed for a sample of postcolonial countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. This is followed by a comparative case study in the South Pacific countries of Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa. It is hoped that these results will lead to further empirical work focused at delving deeper into the link between these two measures to better understand what they are actually measuring, and why both are so closely related to economic development.

V = L and Intuitive Plausibility in set Theory. A Case Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Arrigoni
Keyword(s):  
Set Theory ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Philosophy Of Mathematics ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Methodological Principles

AbstractWhat counts as an intuitively plausible set theoretic content (notion, axiom or theorem) has been a matter of much debate in contemporary philosophy of mathematics. In this paper I develop a critical appraisal of the issue. I analyze first R. B. Jensen's positions on the epistemic status of the axiom of constructibility. I then formulate and discuss a view of intuitiveness in set theory that assumes it to hinge basically on mathematical success. At the same time, I present accounts of set theoretic axioms and theorems formulated in non-strictly mathematical terms, e.g., by appealing to the iterative concept of set and/or to overall methodological principles, like unify and maximize, and investigate the relation of the latter to success in mathematics.

Interscholastic Competitive Balance: An Examination of State Athletic Association Administrators

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Johnson ◽  
Chrysostomos Giannoulakis ◽  
Beau F. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Competitive Balance ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Sociocultural Influences ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
State Educational

While competitive balance literature is robust when addressing professional sport from an economic perspective, little empirical work has focused on understanding what shapes interscholastic competitive balance policies. Using the theory of distributive justice as a framework, the purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the perceptions of top administrators regarding sociocultural influences on interscholastic competitive balance. Qualitative interview data collected from six state commissioners/executive directors revealed four predominant findings: (a) policy is driven by a philosophical approach that is aligned with the theory of distributive justice; (b) an overemphasis on winning strongly influences policy; (c) political influence through legal threats and state educational policy shapes committee decisions; and (d) the prevailing challenges of policy creation include school size, geography, public/nonpublic status, tradition, sport-specific characteristics, and lack of knowledge. Implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Marketing Efficiency and Equity: A Case Study of an Area's Cotton Ginning Industry

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Stephen Fuller ◽  
Clyde Eastman ◽  
Joe Dewbre
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
Rates Of Return ◽  
Research Product ◽  
Early Contribution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Marketing Efficiency ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Return To Investment

Applied economists are becoming increasingly aware of the need to document the social rates of return to investment in research and to analyze how the benefits and costs brought about by the adoption of a research product are distributed among affected groups. Relatively little empirical work has been done on these interrelated topics. Griliches made an early contribution to the subject of social rates of return in his essay dealing with the hybridization of corn.

scholarly journals Biological Control Variously Materialized: Modeling, Experimentation and Exploration in Multiple Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-492
Author(s):  
Tarja Knuuttila ◽  
Andrea Loettgers
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Electronic Circuits ◽  
Genetic Circuits ◽  
Measuring Devices ◽  
Do So

Abstract This paper examines two parallel discussions of scientific modeling which have invoked experimentation in addressing the role of models in scientific inquiry. One side discusses the experimental character of models, whereas the other focuses on their exploratory uses. Although both relate modeling to experimentation, they do so differently. The former has considered the similarities and differences between models and experiments, addressing, in particular, the epistemic value of materiality. By contrast, the focus on exploratory modeling has highlighted the various kinds of exploratory functions of models in the early stages of inquiry. These two perspectives on modeling are discussed through a case study in the field of synthetic biology. The research practice in question explores biological control by making use of an ensemble of different epistemic means: mathematical models and simulations, synthetic genetic circuits and intracellular measuring devices, and finally electronic circuits. We argue that the study of exploratory modeling should trace the ways different epistemic means, in different materialities, are being combined over time. Finally, the epistemic status of such novel investigative objects as synthetic genetic circuits is evaluated, with the conclusion that they can function as both experiments and models.

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