A Modest Proposal on Method

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 339-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell T. McCutcheon

Abstract This paper offers a diagnosis as to why NAASR’s identity has become more ambiguous over the past decade (i.e., the appropriation of postmodernism to authorize polemical positions) and offers a proposal on how the more precise definition of this journal’s key terms—method and theory—might assist the association to provide a hospitable home for two different groups of scholars who are equally alienated from the field’s dominant form.

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 363-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Cohen

Now, we stand outcast and starving,Mid the wonders we have made… .(From ‘Solidarity Forever,’ by Ralph Chaplin)I belong to a school of thought which has been called analytical Marxism. Some of the partisans of this position, and that includes me, are deeply engaged by questions in moral and political philosophy which have not, in the past, attracted the attention of Marxists. We are concerned with exactly what a commitment to equality requires, and with exactly what sort of obligations productive and talented people have to people who are relatively unproductive, or handicapped, or in special need. We seek a precise definition of what exploitation is, and we want to know exactly why it is wrong.


Author(s):  
Ronald Bassar ◽  
Tim Coulson ◽  
Joseph Travis ◽  
David Reznick

Over the past fifteen years, the number of papers focused on “eco-evo dynamics” has increased exponentially (Figure 1). This pattern suggests the rapid growth of a new, integrative discipline. We argue that this overstates the case. First, the terms “eco-evo dynamics” and “eco-evo interactions” are used too imprecisely. As a result, many studies that claim to describe eco-evo dynamics are actually describing basic ecological or evolutionary processes. Second, these terms are often used as if the study of how ecological and evolutionary processes are intertwined is novel when, in fact, it is not. The result is confusion over what the term “eco-evolution” and its derivatives describe, a loss of appreciation for the history of genuine eco-evolutionary studies, and a loss of appreciation for the novelty associated with the original rise of the term. We advocate a more precise definition of eco-evolution that is more useful in our effort to understand and characterize the diversity of ecological and evolutionary processes and that focuses attention on the subset of those processes that offer novel results.


Author(s):  
Vrps Sastry Yadavilli

Aspect-level sentiment analysis gives a detailed view of user opinions expressed towards each feature of a product. Aspect extraction is a challenging task in aspect-level sentiment analysis. Hence, several researchers worked on the problem of aspect extraction during the past decade. The authors begin this chapter with a brief introduction to aspect-level sentimental analysis, which covers the definition of key terms used in this chapter, and the authors also illustrate various subtasks of aspect-level sentiment analysis. The introductory section is followed by an explanation of the various feature learning methods like supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, etc. with a discussion regarding their merits and demerits. The authors compare the aspect extraction methods performance with respect to metrics and a detailed discussion on the merits and demerits of the approaches. They conclude the chapter with pointers to the unexplored problems in aspect-level sentiment analysis that may be beneficial to the researchers who wish to pursue work in this challenging and mature domain.


Author(s):  
Gaston Bacquet

The use, range and efficacy of different types of corrective feedback in the ESL classroom have been widely researched, especially over the past 30 years. This paper attempts to dissect such research and to provide language teachers with an understanding of the background literature and theoretical views surrounding the subject. By summarizing different, often contrasting views on what corrective feedback is, how it works and how effective it is (or not), I strive to provide ESL teachers with a deeper understanding of the available literature and different perspectives that can hopefully better inform and shape our practice. The paper first provides definition of key terms related to corrective feedback, it proceeds to explore a range of theories and views and to look into the core studies regarding both written and spoken feedback and it ends with a short discussion on how these finding are relevant for ESL teachers.


Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).


Author(s):  
W. A. Shannon ◽  
M. A. Matlib

Numerous studies have dealt with the cytochemical localization of cytochrome oxidase via cytochrome c. More recent studies have dealt with indicating initial foci of this reaction by altering incubation pH (1) or postosmication procedure (2,3). The following study is an attempt to locate such foci by altering membrane permeability. It is thought that such alterations within the limits of maintaining morphological integrity of the membranes will ease the entry of exogenous substrates resulting in a much quicker oxidation and subsequently a more precise definition of the oxidative reaction.The diaminobenzidine (DAB) method of Seligman et al. (4) was used. Minced pieces of rat liver were incubated for 1 hr following toluene treatment (5,6). Experimental variations consisted of incubating fixed or unfixed tissues treated with toluene and unfixed tissues treated with toluene and subsequently fixed.


Derrida Today ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Morris

Over the past thirty years, academic debate over pornography in the discourses of feminism and cultural studies has foundered on questions of the performative and of the word's definition. In the polylogue of Droit de regards, pornography is defined as la mise en vente that is taking place in the act of exegesis in progress. (Wills's idiomatic English translation includes an ‘it’ that is absent in the French original). The definition in Droit de regards alludes to the word's etymology (writing by or about prostitutes) but leaves the referent of the ‘sale’ suspended. Pornography as la mise en vente boldly restates the necessary iterability of the sign and anticipates two of Derrida's late arguments: that there is no ‘the’ body and that performatives may be powerless. Deriving a definition of pornography from a truncated etymology exemplifies the prosthesis of origin and challenges other critical discourses to explain how pornography can be understood as anything more than ‘putting (it) up for sale’.


Author(s):  
Volker Scheid

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.


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