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Practical Reasoning (practical + reasoning)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

An alternative approach to conceptualizing interviews in HRD research

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2007
Jia Wang
Qualitative researchers in human resource development (HRD) frequently use in-depth interviews as a research method. Yet reports from qualitative studies in HRD commonly pay little or no analytical attention to the co-construction of interview data. That is, reports of qualitative research projects often treat interviews as a transparent method of data collection, with the contents of answers to interview questions as data that mirror people's views and experiences of a "world out there." In this article, we demonstrate how an ethnomethodological approach to the reanalysis of interview data drawn from a qualitative study in HRD treats the research interview as a socially situated setting in which narrative data are co-constructed by speakers. From this perspective, it is possible to see how speakers produce unstable category descriptions and morally laden portrayals in order to support their claims. We argue that this type of analysis is useful for three reasons: (1) it provides a way to investigate instances in which interview accounts may prove analytically problematic; (2) it makes evident how interview data are produced by illuminating the conversational resources used by both researcher and participant to co-construct descriptions; and (3) it provides a new analytical approach for HRD researchers, who have until now relied primarily on thematic representations of findings derived from inductive analyses of interview data. By using this approach to analyze or reanalyze interview data, researchers may gain further insight into the research topic and the interaction that produced the interview data in a particular socially situated setting. This approach reveals the practical reasoning, identities, and moral assumptions demonstrated in talk by speakers. Such analysis, we argue, assists in HRD theory building in that it contributes to complex interpretations of data that respond to new and different questions, including methodological questions. [source]

Constructivism about Practical Reasons,

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007
AARON JAMES
Philosophers commonly wonder what a constructivist theory as applied to practical reasons might look like. For the methods or procedures of reasoning familiar from moral constructivism do not clearly apply generally, to all practical reasons. The paper argues that procedural specification is not necessary, so long as our aims are not first-order but explanatory. We can seek to explain how there could be facts of the matter about reasons for action without saying what reasons we have. Explanatory constructivism must assume constructive "norms of practical reasoning" which yield particular truths without assuming them. But philosophers often mistakenly assume that only "formal" norms of reasoning could fulfill this role. The paper describes a further possibility: norms of reasoning can be "situation-specific" and yet retain truth-independent authority. Though we might doubt whether such norms can be independently defended, we should not doubt the possibility or coherence of constructivism about practical reasons. [source]

Knowledge and Practical Reason

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2008
Jessica Brown
It has become recently popular to suggest that knowledge is the epistemic norm of practical reasoning and that this provides an important constraint on the correct account of knowledge, one which favours subject-sensitive invariantism over contextualism and classic invariantism. I argue that there are putative counterexamples to both directions of the knowledge norm. Even if the knowledge norm can be defended against these counterexamples, I argue that it is a delicate issue whether it is true, one which relies on fine distinctions among a variety of relevant notions of propriety which our intuitions may reflect. These notions variously apply to the agent herself, her character traits, her beliefs, her reasoning and any resultant action. Given the delicacy of these issues, I argue that the knowledge norm is not a fixed point from which to defend substantive and controversial views in epistemology. Rather, these views need to be defended on other grounds. [source]

A Christian or a Laïc Europe?

RATIO JURIS, Issue 2 2005
Christian Values, European Identity
Weiler has advocated that the writing of a Constitution for the European Union is a very apt moment to reconsider the conceptualization of freedom of conscience and religion. On constitutional and historical grounds, he has advocated that a reference to Christian values should be made in the preamble of the European fundamental law, and that this will be the alternative most respectful to the pluralistic national solutions, ranging from republican non-confessionality to the establishment of an official church. But contrary to what Weiler argues, the drafting of the constitution of the European Union is not bound by the present shape of European constitutional traditions; moreover, it is hard to conclude that the present common constitutional traditions require an explicit reference to Christianity to be included in the text. Furthermore, the claim that the individual and collective identities of Europeans are unavoidably shaped by Christian values is only tenable if we uphold a rather simplistic relation between history, memory, and identity. Finally, once one moves from law and history to practical reasoning, one finds that there are good substantive reasons why our collective identity should not contain reference to Christian values. [source]

A Discursive Approach to Skillful Activity

COMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2008
J. Kevin Barge
We propose a discursive approach for exploring how practitioners intelligently respond and create a sense of coherence in their linguistic practice. A discursive approach to skillful activity is able to account for the role of meaning making in conversation, address how communication constructs the context in which skillful activity originates, and recognize the co-created flavor of skillful practice. We offer an account of skillful linguistic performance that turns on practitioners acting with sensibility by paying close attention to the reflexive relationships among: (a) moral,aesthetic commitments; (b) conversational abilities in the form of utterances, methods, and techniques; (c) practical reasoning and the process of invention; and (d) context. We conclude by exploring the implications of a discursive approach for meaning making, identity construction, and managing the tensions emerging from different traditions or communities of practice. Résumé Une approche discursive pour l'étude d'une activité habile Nous proposons une approche discursive pour l'exploration de la manière dont les praticiens réagissent intelligemment et créent un sens de cohérence dans leurs pratiques linguistiques. Une approche discursive pour l'étude de l'activité habile est en mesure de tenir compte du rôle de la construction de sens dans la conversation, d'aborder la façon dont la communication construit le contexte dont origine l'activité habile ainsi que de reconnaître la nature coconstruite de la pratique habile. Nous expliquons l'exercice linguistique habile des praticiens agissant avec sensibilité en portant une attention particulière aux relations réflexives entre : a) les engagements moraux-esthétiques, b) les capacités conversationnelles sous forme d'énoncés, de méthodes et de techniques, c) le raisonnement pratique et le processus d'invention et d) le contexte. Nous concluons en explorant les implications d'une approche discursive pour la construction de sens et d'identité ainsi que pour la gestion des tensions qui émergent de différentes traditions ou communautés de pratiques. Abstract Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns Für die Erforschung, wie Praktiker intelligent reagieren und einen Sinn von Kohärenz in der linguistischen Praxis kreieren, schlagen wir einen diskursiven Ansatz vor. Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns macht es möglich, die Rolle von Bedeutungsfindung in Gesprächen zu erklären, außerdem anzusprechen, wie Kommunikation den Kontext bestimmt aus dem kundiges Handeln hervorgeht und gleichzeitig die fachkundige Praxis berücksichtigt. Wir bieten eine Darstellung von kundigem linguistischen Verhalten, welches sensibel agierende Praktiker betrifft, wenn sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die reflexiven Beziehungen lenken zwischen: (a) moral-ästhetische Verpflichtungen; (b) dialogorientierte Fähigkeiten in Form von Äußerungen, Methoden und Techniken; (c) praktische Argumentation und den Prozess der Erfindung; und (d) Kontext. Wir schließen, indem wir die Implikationen eines diskursiven Ansatzes für die Bedeutungskonstruktion, Identitätskonstruktion und dem Umgang mit Spannungen, die aus verschiedenen Traditionen oder Praxisgemeinschaften entstehen, untersuchen. Resumen Un Enfoque Discursivo de la Actividad Habilidosa Proponemos un enfoque discursivo para explorar cómo los profesionales responden inteligentemente y crean un sentido de coherencia en su práctica lingüística. Una aproximación discursiva de la actividad habilidosa es capaz de explicar el rol de la construcción de sentido en la conversación, de explicar cómo la comunicación construye el contexto donde la actividad habilidosa se origina, y reconoce el sabor co-creado de la práctica habilidosa. Ofrecemos una explicación del desempeño lingüístico habilidoso que genera interés por parte de los profesionales para actuar con sensibilidad prestando atención a las relaciones reflexivas entre: (a) los compromisos morales-estéticos; (b) las habilidades conversacionales en la forma de palabras, métodos, y técnicas; (c) el razonamiento práctico y el proceso de invención; y (d) el contexto. Concluimos con una exploración de las implicaciones del enfoque discursivo sobre la construcción de sentido, la construcción de la identidad, y el manejo de las tensiones que emergen de tradiciones diferentes ó de comunidades de práctica. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source]