Common Sense (common + sense)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


WHAT'S IN MY COMMON SENSE?

PHILOSOPHICAL FORUM, Issue 3 2008
GLORIA ORIGGI
First page of article [source]


Mathematics and Common Sense: A Case of Creative Tension by Philip J. Davis

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Jorma Kaarlo Merikoski
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Common Sense as Evidence: Against Revisionary Ontology and Skepticism

MIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2008
THOMAS KELLY
First page of article [source]


Between Reason and Common Sense

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 2 2005
On the Very Idea of Necessary (though Unwarranted) Belief
This essay is intended as a companion-piece to my article, "Reality in Common Sense: Reflections on Realism and Anti-Realism from a ,Common Sense Naturalist' Perspective." (Philosophical Investigations, Vol. 25, No. 4 (October 2002). It explores the epistemological dimension of the Common Sense Naturalism that I developed in that earlier, predominantly metaphysical essay; a position that combines the views of David Hume, Thomas Reid, and the Wittgenstein of On Certainty. My ultimate aim is to produce a comprehensive philosophy of common sense, one that with future installments, will come to include an ethical and social-political philosophy as well. "Between Reason and Common Sense" offers a common sense naturalist reply to the skeptic. My basic argument is that the skeptic makes a Rylean category mistake, when he applies the concept of warrant to epistemologically basic beliefs, such as the belief in the external world or in the continued and distinct existence of bodies. He misidentifies these beliefs as being ordinary, when they are really a part of the framework that make the practices of believing and justifying possible. As a result, they are not themselves open to confirmation or disconfirmation. I also try to characterize the nature of the necessity carried by framework beliefs, in a way that avoids the charge that the common sense naturalist is simply a closet foundationalist. [source]


Physical-Object Ontology, Verbal Disputes, and Common Sense

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2005
ELI HIRSCH
Two main claims are defended in this paper: first, that typical disputes in the literature about the ontology of physical objects are merely verbal; second, that the proper way to resolve these disputes is by appealing to common sense or ordinary language. A verbal dispute is characterized not in terms of private idiolects, but in terms of different linguistic communities representing different positions. If we imagine a community that makes Chisholm's mereological essentialist assertions, and another community that makes Lewis's four-dimensionalist assertions, the members of each community speak the truth in their respective languages. This follows from an application of the principle of interpretive charity to the two communities. [source]


Common Sense Rediscovered: Lessons from the Terrorist Attack on America by Dale M. Herder

THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 3 2006
Ray B. Browne
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Immunosuppression in Cardiac Transplantation: Science, Common Sense and the Heart of the Matter

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 6 2006
M. R. Mehra
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Common sense clarified: The role of intuitive knowledge in physics problem solving

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 6 2006
Bruce Sherin
Over the last two decades, a significant body of research has documented the nature of intuitive physics knowledge,the knowledge of the world that students bring to the learning of formal physics. However, this research has yet to document the roles played by intuitive physics knowledge in expert physics practice. In this article, I discuss three related questions: (1) What role, if any, does intuitive knowledge play in physics problem solving? (2) How does intuitive physics knowledge change in order to play that role, if at all? (3) When and how do these changes typically occur? In answer to these questions, I attempt to show that intuitive physics knowledge can play a variety of roles in expert problem solving, including some roles that are central and directly connected to equations. This research draws on observations of college students working in pairs to solve physics problems. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 535,555, 2006 [source]


Twin deficits: squaring theory, evidence and common sense

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 48 2006
Giancarlo Corsetti
SUMMARY Budget deficits and current accounts OPENNESS AND FISCAL PERSISTENCE Simple accounting suggests that shocks to the government budget move the current account in the same direction, and this ,twin deficits' intuition leads many observers to call for fiscal consolidation in the US as a necessary measure to reduce the large external imbalance of this country. The response of other macroeconomic variables to budget developments, however, has important implications for ,twin deficits' and for this policy prescription. Focusing on the international transmission of fiscal policy shocks via terms of trade changes, we show that the likelihood and magnitude of twin deficits increases with the degree of openness of an economy, and decreases with the persistence of fiscal shocks. We take this insight to the data and investigate the transmission of fiscal shocks in a vector autoregression (VAR) model estimated for Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. We find that in less open countries the external impact of shocks to either government spending or budget deficits is limited, while private investment responds in line with our theoretical prediction. These results suggest that a fiscal retrenchment in the US may have a limited impact on its current external deficit. , Giancarlo Corsetti and Gernot J. Müller [source]


Human Rights in the Council of Europe and the EU: Towards ,Individual', ,Constitutional' or ,Institutional' Justice?

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
Steven Greer
The EU's much more recent judicial and political interest in human rights has also been widely welcomed. Yet, while the crisis currently afflicting the Convention system has not gone unnoticed, the same cannot equally be said of the difficulties presented by the increasing interpenetration of the two systems. Amongst the few who have shown some interest in these problems, the dominant view is that good will and common sense will provide adequate solutions. We disagree. Instead, we detect a gathering crisis which, unless properly analysed and effectively tackled, will only deepen as the EU's interest in human rights develops further. In our view, the problem is essentially conceptual and that, ultimately, it boils down to a much-neglected question, simple to state but not so easy to answer: is the trans-national protection of human rights in Europe a matter of ,individual', ,constitutional' or ,institutional' justice? [source]


Rethinking Law and Violence: The Domestic Violence (Prevention) Bill in India, 2002

GENDER & HISTORY, Issue 3 2004
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
This essay focuses on the controversy generated by recent proposed legislation on domestic violence in India. An alternative draft bill on domestic violence prepared by the feminist legal NGO, the Lawyers' Collective, and supported by women's groups nationally, includes a demand that victims of domestic violence (usually wives) be permitted by law to continue to occupy the domestic home, a demand that the Government bill has refused to include. This demand is theoretically informed by a politics of space. Bodies and space are linked, to the extent that each is an abstraction without the concept of the other to ground it. The feminist legal proposal challenges property-as-absolute-(male) ownership by conceptualising the household as, instead, shared domestic space. The proposal does not dissimulate common sense , it is conscious of being radical, in part at least because it demystifies the ,domestic' as an ideological construct and offers it instead realistically and minimally as simply an alternative to destitution. The recognition that there are no support structures for dependant women outside the family (such as, for example, state-sponsored welfare institutions), so that destitution can be both sudden and real for women of any class and circumstances, has led to the conceptualisation of a law that formulates a right to shared space as one that makes no claim to shared ownership , while at the same time questioning the other's absolute property right. Despite the limited nature of the claim it makes, this proposal has been viewed as threatening by Indian law-makers. [source]


Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Geopolitics of Climate Change

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Jon Barnett
Author's Introduction Climate change is a security problem in as much as the kinds of environmental changes that may result pose risks to peace and development. However, responsibilities for the causes of climate change, vulnerability to its effects, and capacity to solve the problem, are not equally distributed between countries, classes and cultures. There is no uniformity in the geopolitics of climate change, and this impedes solutions. Author Recommends 1.,Adger, W. N., et al. (eds) (2006). Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. A comprehensive collection of articles on the justice dimensions of adaptation to climate change. Chapters discuss potential points at which climate change becomes ,dangerous', the issue of adaptation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the unequal outcomes of adaptation within a society, the effects of violent conflict on adaptation, the costs of adaptation, and examples from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, and Hungary. 2.,Leichenko, R., and O'Brien, K. (2008). Environmental change and globalization: double exposures. New York: Oxford University Press. This book uses examples from around the world to show the way global economic and political processes interact with environmental changes to create unequal outcomes within and across societies. A very clear demonstration of the way vulnerability to environmental change is as much driven by social processes as environmental ones, and how solutions lie within the realm of decisions about ,development' and ,environment'. 3.,Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627,638. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.06.003 An up-to-date, systematic and balanced review of research on the links between climate change and violent conflict. See also the other papers in this special issue of Political Geography. 4.,Parry, M., et al. (eds) (2007). Climate change 2007: impacts adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. The definitive review of all the peer-reviewed research on the way climate change may impact on places and sectors across the world. Includes chapters on ecosystems, health, human settlements, primary industries, water resources, and the major regions of the world. All chapters are available online at http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg2.htm 5.,Salehyan, I. (2008). From climate change to conflict? No consensus yet. Journal of Peace Research 45 (3), pp. 315,326. doi:10.1177/0022343308088812 A balanced review of research on the links between climate change and conflict, with attention to existing evidence. 6.,Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network. Gives insight into how the US security policy community is framing the problem of climate change. This needs to be read critically. Available at http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231 7.,German Advisory Council on Global Change. (2007). World in transition: climate change as a security risk. Berlin, Germany: WBGU. A major report from the German Advisory Council on Global Change on the risks climate changes poses to peace and stability. Needs to be read with caution. Summary and background studies are available online at http://www.wbgu.de/wbgu_jg2007_engl.html 8.,Yamin, F., and Depedge, J. (2004). The International climate change regime: a guide to rules, institutions and procedures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. A clear and very detailed explanation of the UNFCCC's objectives, actors, history, and challenges. A must read for anyone seeking to understand the UNFCCC process, written by two scholars with practical experience in negotiations. Online Materials 1.,Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ecsp The major website for information about environmental security. From here, you can download many reports and studies, including the Environmental Change and Security Project Report. 2.,Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project http://www.gechs.org This website is a clearing house for work and events on environmental change and human security. 3.,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) http://www.ipcc.ch/ From this website, you can download all the chapters of all the IPCC's reports, including its comprehensive and highly influential assessment reports, the most recent of which was published in 2007. The IPCC were awarded of the Nobel Peace Prize ,for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made (sic) climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change'. 4.,Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research http://www.tyndall.ac.uk The website of a major centre for research on climate change, and probably the world's leading centre for social science based analysis of climate change. From this site, you can download many publications about mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and about various issues in the UNFCCC. 5.,United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change http://unfccc.int/ The website contains every major document relation to the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, including the text of the agreements, national communications, country submissions, negotiated outcomes, and background documents about most key issues. Sample Syllabus: The Geopolitics of Climate Change topics for lecture and discussion Week I: Introduction Barnett, J. (2007). The geopolitics of climate change. Geography Compass 1 (6), pp. 1361,1375. United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, address to the 12th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Nairobi, 15 November 2006. Available online at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=495&ArticleID=5424&l=en Week II: The History and Geography of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Topic: The drivers of climate change in space and time Reading Baer, P. (2006). Adaptation: who pays whom? In: Adger, N., et al. (eds) Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 131,154. Boyden, S., and Dovers, S. (1992). Natural-resource consumption and its environmental impacts in the Western World: impacts of increasing per capita consumption. Ambio 21 (1), pp. 63,69. Week III: The Environmental Consequences of climate change Topic: The risks climate change poses to environmental systems Reading Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: summary for policymakers. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC Secretariat. Watch: Al Gore. The Inconvenient Truth. Weeks IV and V: The Social Consequences of Climate Change Topic: The risks climate change poses to social systems Reading Adger, W. N. (1999). Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Development 27, pp. 249,269. Comrie, A. (2007). Climate change and human health. Geography Compass 1 (3), pp. 325,339. Leary, N., et al. (2006). For whom the bell tolls: vulnerability in a changing climate. A Synthesis from the AIACC project, AIACC Working Paper No. 21, International START Secretariat, Florida. Stern, N. (2007). Economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (Chapters 3,5). Week VI: Mitigation of Climate Change: The UNFCCC Topic: The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol Reading Najam, A., Huq, S., and Sokona, Y. (2003). Climate negotiations beyond Kyoto: developing countries concerns and interests. Climate Policy 3 (3), pp. 221,231. UNFCCC Secretariat. (2005). Caring for climate: a guide to the climate change convention and the Kyoto Protocol. Bonn, Germany: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat. Weeks VII and VIII: Adaptation to Climate Change Topic: What can be done to allow societies to adapt to avoid climate impacts? Reading Adger, N., et al. (2007). Assessment of adaptation practices, options, constraints and capacity. In: Parry, M., et al. (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 717,744. Burton, I., et al. (2002). From impacts assessment to adaptation priorities: the shaping of adaptation policy. Climate Policy 2 (2,3), pp. 145,159. Eakin, H., and Lemos, M. C. (2006). Adaptation and the state: Latin America and the challenge of capacity-building under globalization. Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions 16 (1), pp. 7,18. Ziervogel, G., Bharwani, S., and Downing, T. (2006). Adapting to climate variability: pumpkins, people and policy. Natural Resources Forum 30, pp. 294,305. Weeks IX and X: Climate Change and Migration Topic: Will climate change force migration? Readings Gaim, K. (1997). Environmental causes and impact of refugee movements: a critique of the current debate. Disasters 21 (1), pp. 20,38. McLeman, R., and Smit, B. (2006). Migration as adaptation to climate change. Climatic Change 76 (1), pp. 31,53. Myers, N. (2002). Environmental refugees: a growing phenomenon of the 21st century. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 357 (1420), pp. 609,613. Perch-Nielsen, S., Bättig, M., and Imboden, D. (2008). Exploring the link between climate change and migration. Climatic Change (online first, forthcoming); doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9416-y Weeks XI and XII: Climate Change and Violent Conflict Topic: Will Climate change cause violent conflict? Readings Barnett, J., and Adger, N. (2007). Climate change, human security and violent conflict. Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 639,655. Centre for Strategic and International Studies. (2007). The age of consequences: the foreign policy and national security implications of global climate change. Washington, DC: CSIS. Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627,638. Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network. [online]. Retrieved on 8 April 2007 from http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231 Focus Questions 1Who is most responsible for climate change? 2Who is most vulnerable to climate change? 3Does everyone have equal power in the UNFCCC process? 4Will climate change force people to migrate? Who? 5What is the relationship between adaptation to climate change and violent conflict? [source]


Cost-effectiveness analysis based on the number-needed-to-treat: common sense or non-sense?

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2004
Ivar Sønbø Kristiansen
Abstract This paper explores and critically discusses some of the methodological limitations of using the number-needed-to-treat (NNT) in economic evaluation. We argue that NNT may be a straightforward measure of benefit when the effect of an intervention is immediate, but that serious problems arise when the effect is delay rather than avoidance of an adverse event. In this case, NNT is not a robust or accurate measure of effect, but will vary considerably and inconsistently over time. This weakness will naturally spill over onto any CEA based on NNT. A literature review demonstrated that CEAs based on NNT were all published within the last five years, and that all studies suffered from important limitations. A major weakness of using NNT is the imposed restrictions on the outcome measure, which can only be strictly uni-dimensional and non-generic. Using NNT in economic evaluations is obtained at a cost in terms of both methodological shortcomings, and a reduced ability for such evaluations to serve as a useful tool in decision making processes. The use of NNT in economic evaluations might be better avoided. To every complicated question, there is a simple, straightforward, easy , and probably wrong answer (Occam's Sledgehammer). Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Gender: the missing link in industrial relations research

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006
Ardha Danieli
ABSTRACT This article extends the critique of how industrial relations research continues to be gender-blind and argues that it is in part a result of early definitions which relegated ,personal' relations as outside the boundaries of the field and in part a result of a simultaneous strategy of acknowledgement and abdication, acknowledging that gender is important while at the same time arguing that gender does not need to be addressed. In order to demonstrate how gender is central to industrial relations, the article uses Antonio Gramsci's concepts of ,hegemony', ,ideology', ,good sense' and ,common sense' to illustrate how patriarchal common sense is drawn on by both managers and trade unionists in negotiations over hours of work in a manufacturing firm in the North,-west of England. It is argued that in order to include gender as a central feature of industrial relations research, it is necessary to analyse how the interests of capital, labour and patriarchy are embedded in negotiations on the shopfloor. [source]


Guidelines for assessing the suitability of spatial climate data sets

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
Christopher Daly
Abstract Spatial climate data are often key drivers of computer models and statistical analyses, which form the basis for scientific conclusions, management decisions, and other important outcomes. The recent availability of very high-resolution climate data sets raises important questions about the tendency to equate resolution with realism. This paper discusses the relationship between scale and spatial climate-forcing factors, and provides background and advice on assessing the suitability of data sets. Spatial climate patterns are most affected by terrain and water bodies, primarily through the direct effects of elevation, terrain-induced climate transitions, cold air drainage and inversions, and coastal effects. The importance of these factors is generally lowest at scales of 100 km and greater, and becomes greatest at less than 10 km. Except in densely populated regions of developed countries, typical station spacing is on the order of 100 km. Regions without major terrain features and which are at least 100 km from climatically important coastlines can be handled adequately by most interpolation techniques. Situations characterized by significant terrain features, but with no climatically important coastlines, no rain shadows, and a well-mixed atmosphere can be reasonably handled by methods that explicitly account for elevation effects. Regions having significant terrain features, and also significant coastal effects, rain shadows, or cold air drainage and inversions are best handled by sophisticated systems that are configured and evaluated by experienced climatologists. There is no one satisfactory method for quantitatively estimating errors in spatial climate data sets, because the field that is being estimated is unknown between data points. Perhaps the best overall way to assess errors is to use a combination of approaches, involve data that are as independent from those used in the analysis as possible, and use common sense in the interpretation of results. Data set developers are encouraged to conduct expert reviews of their draft data sets, which is probably the single most effective way to improve data set quality. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [source]


A Social Representations Approach To The Communication Between Different Spheres: An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Two Discursive Formats

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2009
SUSANA BATEL
This paper discusses the potential of the notions of reification and consensualization as developed by the theory of social representations as analytical tools for addressing the communication between the lay and scientific spheres. Social Representations Theory started by offering an over-sharp distinction between the reified and the consensual universes of which science and common sense, respectively, were presented as paradigmatic. This paper, however, suggests that the notions of consensual and reified can be considered as describing two distinct communicative formats: reification implying the use of arguments which establish prescriptions for representations and action, and consensualization relying on arguments which recognize the heterogeneity of representation and action. We illustrate this proposal through the analysis of a case in which the expert and the lay spheres of a Lisbon neighborhood opposed each other regarding the new laws of public participation in community matters. This analysis showed how reification and consensualization can be used as discursive formats by both spheres. The implications of the use of reification and consensualization and how they may depend on several power resources and have different impacts on social change are discussed. [source]


Social Representations Theory: A Progressive Research Programme for Social Psychology

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2008
MARTIN W. BAUER
ABSTRACT The study "Psychoanalysis,its image and its public" intimates that common sense is increasingly informed by science. But common sense asserts its autonomy and, in turn, may affect the trajectory of science. This is a process that leads to many differentiations,in common sense, in scientific innovation and in political and regulatory structures. Bauer and Gaskell's toblerone model of triangles of mediation provided a distillation of their reading of "La Psychanalyse." Here it was argued that representations are multi-modal phenomena necessitating the use of multiple methodologies (comparative and longitudinal; qualitative and quantitative). In this paper we briefly summarise these arguments and elaborate ways in which social representation theory can be considered a progressive research programme. "Progressive" because as the theory has developed it has extended the range and depth of its conceptual basis; it provides a new synthesis for the social scientific understanding of the phenomena of common sense and of representation; it acts as an antidote to the reductionism of public opinion and, finally, it is a stimulus to depart from disciplinary silos. However, there remain unresolved issues: how to segment the relevant social milieus and how to close the feedback loop from common sense to science? [source]


Social Influence: Representation, Imagination and Facts

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2007
STÉPHANE LAURENS
ABSTRACT Studies on social influence bring us to fear that influence may alienate us and turn us into an agent of the will and desire of the other. This fear relies on a representation of the relationship of influence: it would be an asymmetrical relationship involving two basically opposite and complementary entities, the source (who has a desire, a will, a power or, failing that, a technique) and the target (who is subjected, subordinate). If some experiments in social psychology demonstrate the effectiveness of some techniques of influence and manipulation, they must however be analysed in detail. Many experiments and theories show that influence is not basically nonreciprocal. These works are neglected because they are too different from the imaginary representation of influence that dominates both social psychology and common sense. [source]


A method for protocol-based collision avoidance between autonomous marine surface craft

JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 5 2006
Michael R. Benjamin
This paper is concerned with the in-field autonomous operation of unmanned marine vehicles in accordance with convention for safe and proper collision avoidance as prescribed by the Coast Guard Collision Regulations (COLREGS). These rules are written to train and guide safe human operation of marine vehicles and are heavily dependent on human common sense in determining rule applicability as well as rule execution, especially when multiple rules apply simultaneously. To capture, the flexibility exploited by humans, this work applies a novel method of multiobjective optimization, interval programming, in a behavior-based control framework for representing the navigation rules, as well as task behaviors, in a way that achieves simultaneous optimal satisfaction. We present experimental validation of this approach using multiple autonomous surface craft. This work represents the first in-field demonstration of multiobjective optimization applied to autonomous COLREGS-based marine vehicle navigation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Collective Myopia and Disciplinary Power Behind the Scenes of Unethical Practices: A Diagnostic Theory on Japanese Organization

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2002
Nobuyuki Chikudate
This study draws on multiple writings to offer a new conceptualization, one that aids in the assessment of unethical practices. Traditionally, phenomenology and the sociology of knowledge have focused on perception, cognition and common sense. Ethnomethodology has focused on procedural infrastructures of ordinary lives. This article combines concepts and ideas from these methodologies in the general concept of ,collective myopia' with some Habermasian and Foucaultian influences. The conceptualization focuses on normative controls operating behind the scenes of unethical practices in Japanese business. The contributions of national culture to the crimes are omitted as much as possible to establish a position of general theory. The conceptualization is then applied to examine the case of the Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank, which was linked to racketeering in 1997. [source]


Investigating intellectual disability: A genetic perspective

JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 7 2003
NK Poplawski
Abstract: Intellectual disability (ID) is a common paediatric problem. Investigation focused on determining the aetiology of ID is warranted because a specific diagnosis may assist in prognostication, recurrence risk counselling, and identification of therapeutic and educational interventions. Three groups of screening investigations can be justified on the basis of expert opinion, common sense and the small body of published evidence-based medicine. First, investigations where current evidence justifies routine use in the investigation of ID; second, investigations which should be considered in all children with ID, although there is insufficient current evidence to support routine use; and finally, investigations which currently have an unclear role in children with ID and should be restricted to specific clinical situations unless further evidence suggesting otherwise emerges. There is a great need for systematic evaluation of the diagnostic yield of investigation templates based on this proposed stratification of investigations. [source]


Psychology's public image in "Topics of the Times": Commentary from the editorial page of the New York Times between 1904 and 1947

JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, Issue 4 2002
Paul M. Dennis Ph.D.
Between 1904 and 1947, the New York Times published in a section of its editorial page, "Topics of the Times," 196 commentaries on psychology. Prior to World War I, the majority of editorials centered on Hugo Münsterberg; psychological topics most frequently examined after the war were the mental test, child rearing advice, and psychoanalysis. Although the Times was enthusiastic in its support for psychology in the years immediately before and after World War I, editorial opinion soon turned negative. Critical of psychology for promising more than it could deliver, being inconsistent in its assertions over time, and not rising above the level of common sense, Times editorials weighed heavily on the side of undermining, rather than promoting, psychology's credibility from the late 1920s to 1940s. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


The Common Sense of Anti-Indian Racism: Reactions to Mashantucket Pequot Success in Gaming and Acknowledgment

LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 2 2006
Renee Ann Cramer
Anti-Indian racism, as typified by anticasino backlash, is a part of the "common sense" of race relations in the United States, which increasingly impacts federal administrative procedures used to acknowledge the existence of tribal status. Using ethnographic and archival research, this article shows that the backlash over Mashantucket Pequot recognition and casino success has taken the form, primarily, of racialized attacks on the Mashantucket Pequots' Indian identity. It argues that such backlash carries over to impact groups who seek recognition of their tribal status, and the legitimation that such recognition might bring to their identity. Examining the colonial legacies of anti-Indian racism shows us that such racial antagonism in the United States is nothing new. However, understanding the contexts within which its recent resurgence has occurred may help bring fairness to the acknowledgment process, and may further illuminate intersections of common sense racism and legal spheres in American life. [source]


The Origin of Intentions

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 4 2006
Richard Scheer Professor Emeritus
In contemporary discussions of the concept of intention, the assumption is made that an intention results from a person's decision, or resolution, or plan, or the like. And the intention persists, generally, until the appropriate action is carried out. However, intentions cannot be said to have temporal duration, or beginnings, or endings. And it is not necessary for a person who is intending to do something to have made a decision to do it, or a resolution, or anything else. It may be that a person acquires an intention because of the circumstances that he finds himself in. If one sees that a tricycle is in front of his car, he will move it. No decision is necessary, obviously, because running over it would be contrary to common sense. Or one may gradually come to realise that he is obliged to do something and thereupon acquires the intention to do it. By focusing on one kind of intention, the "desire-belief" theories have failed to realise that intentions originate in various ways, and for various reasons. [source]


Between Reason and Common Sense

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 2 2005
On the Very Idea of Necessary (though Unwarranted) Belief
This essay is intended as a companion-piece to my article, "Reality in Common Sense: Reflections on Realism and Anti-Realism from a ,Common Sense Naturalist' Perspective." (Philosophical Investigations, Vol. 25, No. 4 (October 2002). It explores the epistemological dimension of the Common Sense Naturalism that I developed in that earlier, predominantly metaphysical essay; a position that combines the views of David Hume, Thomas Reid, and the Wittgenstein of On Certainty. My ultimate aim is to produce a comprehensive philosophy of common sense, one that with future installments, will come to include an ethical and social-political philosophy as well. "Between Reason and Common Sense" offers a common sense naturalist reply to the skeptic. My basic argument is that the skeptic makes a Rylean category mistake, when he applies the concept of warrant to epistemologically basic beliefs, such as the belief in the external world or in the continued and distinct existence of bodies. He misidentifies these beliefs as being ordinary, when they are really a part of the framework that make the practices of believing and justifying possible. As a result, they are not themselves open to confirmation or disconfirmation. I also try to characterize the nature of the necessity carried by framework beliefs, in a way that avoids the charge that the common sense naturalist is simply a closet foundationalist. [source]


Physical-Object Ontology, Verbal Disputes, and Common Sense

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2005
ELI HIRSCH
Two main claims are defended in this paper: first, that typical disputes in the literature about the ontology of physical objects are merely verbal; second, that the proper way to resolve these disputes is by appealing to common sense or ordinary language. A verbal dispute is characterized not in terms of private idiolects, but in terms of different linguistic communities representing different positions. If we imagine a community that makes Chisholm's mereological essentialist assertions, and another community that makes Lewis's four-dimensionalist assertions, the members of each community speak the truth in their respective languages. This follows from an application of the principle of interpretive charity to the two communities. [source]


Knowledge and the Internal Revisited,

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2002
JOHN MCDOWELL
In "Knowledge and the Social Articulation of the Space of Reasons," Robert Brandom reads my "Knowledge and the Internal" as sketching a position that, when properly elaborated, opens into his own social-perspectival conception of knowledge (and of objectivity in general). But this depends on taking me to hold that there cannot be justification for a belief sufficient to exclude the possibility that the belief is false. And that is exactly what I argued against in "Knowledge and the Internal." Seeing that P constitutes falsehood-excluding justification for believing that P. That should seem common sense, but it is made unavailable by the inferentialist conception of justification that Brandom takes for granted. So far from realizing my aims, Brandom's social-perspectival conception of knowledge is squarely in the target area of my argument in "Knowledge and the Internal," which I restate here so as to bring that out. [source]


Multiple Wrongdoing and Offence Structure: A Plea for Consistency and Fair Labelling

THE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 3 2001
Barry Mitchell
Crimes come in all shapes and sizes, but relatively little work has been done on offence structure , Robinson's recent functional analysis is perhaps the one obvious exception. This article concentrates on incidents of multiple wrongdoing and suggests that the current substantive law is both inconsistent and confusing. Burglary, for example, is unnecessarily narrowly defined and should be expanded to include broadly similar scenarios. The law is confusing because it conflates qualitatively very different incidents under the same umbrella , serial killers, for example, commit the same crimes as those who kill multiple victims by one act. Not only does the law fly in the face of common sense but it conflicts with the principle of fair labelling , that crimes be defined to reflect their wrongfulness and severity , which seeks to fulfil some important functions in the criminal justice system. [source]


Smoke and Mirrors: Inverting the Discourse on Tobacco

ANTIPODE, Issue 4 2010
Marv Waterstone
Abstract:, Understanding the mechanisms that construct and maintain the taken-for-granted, "common sense" understandings of everyday life is an essential prerequisite for reconfiguring conditions in more progressive directions. Highlighting particular moments, when these processes can be made visible, and drawing appropriate insights from such interrogations is useful not only for illuminating the fundamental malleability of "common sense" (itself a crucial element of change), but also for providing suggestive strategies and tactics for effectuating change. Here the construction and reconstruction of the "common sense" around tobacco is offered as an instructive case. [source]


Introducing undergraduate students to science

BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 2 2010
Paulo De Ávila Jr.
Abstract Understanding the scientific method fosters the development of critical thinking and logical analysis of information. Additionally, proposing and testing a hypothesis is applicable not only to science, but also to ordinary facts of daily life. Knowing the way science is done and how its results are published is useful for all citizens and mandatory for science students. A 60-h course was created to offer undergraduate students a framework in which to learn the procedures of scientific production and publication. The course's main focus was biochemistry, and it was comprised of two modules. Module I dealt with scientific articles, and Module II with research project writing. Module I covered the topics: 1) the difference between scientific knowledge and common sense, 2) different conceptions of science, 3) scientific methodology, 4) scientific publishing categories, 5) logical principles, 6) deductive and inductive approaches, and 7) critical reading of scientific articles. Module II dealt with 1) selection of an experimental problem for investigation, 2) bibliographic revision, 3) materials and methods, 4) project writing and presentation, 5) funding agencies, and 6) critical analysis of experimental results. The course adopted a collaborative learning strategy, and each topic was studied through activities performed by the students. Qualitative and quantitative course evaluations with Likert questionnaires were carried out at each stage, and the results showed the students' high approval of the course. The staff responsible for course planning and development also evaluated it positively. The Biochemistry Department of the Chemistry Institute of the University of São Paulo has offered the course four times. [source]