scholarly journals Meaning-Change Through the Mistaken Mirror: On the Indeterminacy of “Wundt” and “Piaget” in Translation

2022 ◽  
pp. 108926802110175
Author(s):  
Burman Jeremy Trevelyan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Science ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Meaning Change ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
Quantitative Examination ◽  
Over Time

What does a name mean in translation? Quine argued, famously, that the meaning of gavagai is indeterminate until you learn the language that uses that word to refer to its object. The case is similar with scientific texts, especially if they are older; historical. Because the meanings of terms can drift over time, so too can the meanings that inform experiments and theory. As can a life’s body of work and its contributions. Surely, these are also the meanings of a name; shortcuts to descriptions of the author who produced them, or of their thought (or maybe their collaborations). We are then led to wonder whether the names of scientists may also mean different things in different languages. Or even in the same language. This problem is examined here by leveraging the insights of historians of psychology who found that the meaning of “Wundt” changed in translation: his experimentalism was retained, and his Völkerpsychologie lost, so that what Wundt meant was altered even as his work—and his name—informed the disciplining of Modern Psychology as an experimental science. Those insights are then turned here into a general argument, regarding meaning-change in translation, but using a quantitative examination of the translations of Piaget’s books from French into English and German. It is therefore Piaget who has the focus here, evidentially, but the goal is broader: understanding and theorizing “the mistaken mirror” that reflects only what you can think to see (with implications for replication and institutional memory).

Externalist Conceptual Engineering

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Cappelen
Keyword(s):  
Change Over Time ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Meaning Change ◽  
Semantic Values ◽  
Over Time

This chapter continues to consider some foundational semantic issues important for the author’s theory, and for conceptual engineering in general. It argues that conceptual engineering is not—despite the nomenclature—concerned with concepts, but rather with the intensions and extensions of words. It introduces externalism about meaning, which is a key component of the Austerity Framework, and draws connections between meaning change and externalist discussions of reference shift. It responds to the objection that externalism makes changing meaning either impossible or extremely difficult by denying the first—it’s built into externalism that meaning change is possible—and frankly accepting the latter. It then argues that not only semantic values but also metasemantics can change over time, draws out some consequences, and discusses expressions that do not have intensions or extensions.

The Nature of Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Rob Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Computational Science ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Technical Point ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
The World ◽  
Theoretical Science ◽  
Term Data ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the nature of data from an etymological, philosophical, and technical point of view. Data is derived from the Latin dare, meaning 'to give'. In general use, however, data refers to those elements that are taken. Technically, what is understood to be data are actually capta (derived from the Latin capere, meaning 'to take'); those units of data that have been selected and harvested from the sum of all potential data. It is no coincidence that the use of the word 'data' emerged during the Renaissance. At this time, there was a flourishing of scientific innovation with respect to philosophy, equipment, and analysis that led to new discoveries and theories across the academy and new inventions in business, and transformed the world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of the term 'data' extended from mathematics and natural philosophy to economics and administration. In the 20th century, data came to mean any information stored and used in the context of computing, and its uses multiplied beyond science and administration. The chapter then looks at four dominant scientific paradigms centred on epistemological approaches: experimental science, theoretical science, computational science, and exploratory science. What this discussion reveals is that not only is data manufactured, but the approach to and process of manufacturing has changed over time.

scholarly journals The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pontus Plavén-Sigray ◽  
Granville James Matheson ◽  
Björn Christian Schiffler ◽  
William Hedley Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Biomedical Journals ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTClarity and accuracy of reporting are fundamental to the scientific process. The understandability of written language can be estimated using readability formulae. Here, in a corpus consisting of 707 452 scientific abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 122 influential biomedical journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily decreasing. Further, we demonstrate that this trend is indicative of a growing usage of general scientific jargon. These results are concerning for scientists and for the wider public, as they impact both the reproducibility and accessibility of research findings.

Pre-Chemistry Concepts and Medical Therapy among Ancient Physicians through the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1470-1477
Author(s):  
Luigi Santacroce ◽  
Lucrezia Bottalico ◽  
Kastriot Haxhirexha ◽  
Skender Topi ◽  
Ioannis A. Charitos
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Medical Therapy ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Over Time

Background: Chemistry as experimental science began in the seventeenth century, when it began moving away from being one of the alchemical doctrines and toward analyzing matter and its transformations using scientific methods. Previously, the ancient Pre-Socratic philosophy through observation of nature was concerned with the laws that govern the natural world and the property of matter. Later, the Hellenistic Alexandrian culture took possession of the Hermetic doctrines of the Egyptians, mixing them with pre-Socratic thought and Gnosticism. At this historical moment, therefore, there was a fusion of the Greek philosophical patrimony and the Hellenistic and Alexandrian influences on medicine. The Hermetic gnosis evolved over time to become alchemy and then to usher in the birth of chemical science. Many doctors were wandering philosophers who dealt with cosmogony to understand the body and diseases and to discover new healing drugs for treatment, and thus they were the first chemist therapists. Methods: The influence of ancient physicians through the pre-Socratic philosophy for these prochemical theories and practice has been researched through ancient texts, so these texts have been referenced to determine the legacy of paleo-chemicals doctrines. Results: The study of various texts in particular from the Pre-Socratic age and the eminent physicians underline that, despite a different approach to the cosmogonic concepts of nature and the matter, the medicine of that age had an important influence on chemistry as an experimental science, especially concerning therapy with drugs. Conclusions: The Pre-Socratic philosophers have influenced the medical practice and guided it toward the concept of the properties of matter for medical treatment and an understanding of the causes of diseases.

scholarly journals The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pontus Plavén-Sigray ◽  
Granville James Matheson ◽  
Björn Christian Schiffler ◽  
William Hedley Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Readability Formulas

Clarity and accuracy of reporting are fundamental to the scientific process. Readability formulas can estimate how difficult a text is to read. Here, in a corpus consisting of 709,577 abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 123 scientific journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily decreasing. Our analyses show that this trend is indicative of a growing use of general scientific jargon. These results are concerning for scientists and for the wider public, as they impact both the reproducibility and accessibility of research findings.

scholarly journals Is the readability of abstracts decreasing in management research?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenz Graf-Vlachy
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Flesch Reading Ease ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Readability Formula ◽  
Leading Journals ◽  
Number Of Authors

AbstractThe readability of scientific texts is critical for the successful distribution of research findings. I replicate a recent study which found that the abstracts of scientific articles in the life sciences became less readable over time. Specifically, I sample 28,345 abstracts from 17 of the leading journals in the field of management and organization over 3 decades, and study two established indicators of readability over time, namely the Flesch Reading Ease and the New Dale–Chall Readability Formula. I find a modest trend towards less readable abstracts, which leads to an increase in articles that are extremely hard to read from 12% in the first decade of the sample to 16% in the final decade of the sample. I further find that an increasing number of authors partially explains this trend, as do the use of scientific jargon and corresponding author affiliations with institutions in English-speaking countries. I discuss implications for authors, reviewers, and editors in the field of management.

scholarly journals Identifying Emerging Trends in Scientific Texts Using TF-IDF Algorithm: A Case Study of Medical Librarianship and Information Articles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meisam Dastani ◽  
Afshin Mousavi Chelak ◽  
Soraya Ziaei ◽  
Faeze Delghandi
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
Python Programming ◽  
Mining Algorithms ◽  
Scientific Fields ◽  
Over Time

Background: Nowadays, due to the increased publication of articles in various scientific fields, identifying the publishing trends and emerging keywords in the texts of these articles is essential. Objectives: Thus, the present study identified and analyzed the keywords used in the published articles on medical librarianship and information. Methods: In the present investigation, an exploratory and descriptive approach was used to analyze librarianship and information articles published in specialized journals in this field from 1964 to 2019 by applying text mining techniques. The TF-IDF weighting algorithm was applied to identify the most important keywords used in the articles. The Python programming language was used to implement text mining algorithms. Results: The results obtained from the TF-IDF algorithm indicated that the words “Library”, “Patient”, and “Inform” with the weights of 95.087, 65.796, and 63.386, respectively, were the most important keywords in the published articles on medical librarianship and information. Also, the words “Catalog”, “Book”, and “Journal” were the most important keywords used in the articles published between the years 1960 and 1970, and the words “Patient”, “Bookstore”, and “Intervent” were the most important keywords used in articles on medical librarianship and information published from 2015 to 2020. The words “Blockchain”, “Telerehabilit”, “Instagram”, “WeChat”, and “Comic” were new keywords observed in articles on medical librarianship and information between 2015 and 2020. Conclusions: The results of the present study revealed that the keywords used in articles on medical librarianship and information were not consistent over time and have undergone a change at different periods so that nowadays, this field of science has also changed following the needs of society with the advent and growth of information technologies.

scholarly journals Being a beast machine: The somatic basis of selfhood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Seth ◽  
Manos Tsakiris
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Embodied Selfhood ◽  
Over Time

Modern psychology has long focused on the body as the basis of the self. Recently, predictive processing accounts of interoception (perception of the body ‘from within’) have become influential in accounting for experiences of body ownership and emotion. Here, we describe embodied selfhood in terms of ‘instrumental interoceptive inference’ that emphasises allostatic regulation and physiological integrity. We apply this approach to the distinctive phenome- nology of embodied selfhood, accounting for its non-object-like character and subjective stability over time. Our perspective has implications for the develop- ment of selfhood and illuminates longstanding debates about relations between life and mind, implying, contrary to Descartes, that experiences of embodied selfhood arise because of, and not in spite of, our nature as ‘beast machines’.

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