Core Ideas (core + idea)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


A Metaphilosophical Analysis of the Core Idea of Deflationism

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2000
Bo Mou
In this paper, I give a metaphilosophical analysis of the core idea of deflationism by discussing some basic conceptual and methodological issues involved in the debate between deflationism and substantivism. In so doing, I argue for three positive points. First, the crux of the dispute between deflationism and substantivism is whether or not truth is substantive in its metaphysical nature and in its explanatory role in philosophical enterprises, rather than whether or not a minimal approach regarding conceptual resources is taken to explain truth; a minimal approach itself is philosophically innocent. Second, there is no intrinsic connection between the core idea of deflationism and the Tarski-style equivalence thesis, which is often identified as implying or supporting the former. Third, there are some unbridged fundamental gaps between the core idea of deflationism and various redundancy theses; these redundancy theses cannot be identified as the former, nor can they be used to justify the former on their own. [source]


The evolution and redefining of ,CAL': a reflection on the interplay of theory and practice

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2010
R. Hartley
Abstract This article comments on how the core idea of the computer as an assistant to teaching and learning became reconfigured through changing technologies, pedagogies and educational cultures. Early influential researchers in computer assisted learning (CAL) made strong but differing links to theories and representations of learning, showing a relevance to pedagogy through innovative projects. Amid controversy, the educational potential of CAL became recognized and hardware,software developments stimulated the involvement of teachers in shaping applications and practices within contexts that favoured a constructivist student focus. Further advances in technology gave students greater autonomy in the style and management of learning, and enabled CAL to be redefined as a participative and collaborative enterprise. Institutions responded through supports and structures in ways that suited their wider educational policies. Technological developments (and controversies) continue to extend and reshape the applications of CAL, and this reflection points to the significance of the interplay between theory and practice in this evolving and redefining process. [source]


A Metaphilosophical Analysis of the Core Idea of Deflationism

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2000
Bo Mou
In this paper, I give a metaphilosophical analysis of the core idea of deflationism by discussing some basic conceptual and methodological issues involved in the debate between deflationism and substantivism. In so doing, I argue for three positive points. First, the crux of the dispute between deflationism and substantivism is whether or not truth is substantive in its metaphysical nature and in its explanatory role in philosophical enterprises, rather than whether or not a minimal approach regarding conceptual resources is taken to explain truth; a minimal approach itself is philosophically innocent. Second, there is no intrinsic connection between the core idea of deflationism and the Tarski-style equivalence thesis, which is often identified as implying or supporting the former. Third, there are some unbridged fundamental gaps between the core idea of deflationism and various redundancy theses; these redundancy theses cannot be identified as the former, nor can they be used to justify the former on their own. [source]


Incorporating multiple criteria into the design of conservation area networks: a minireview with recommendations

DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 2 2006
Alexander Moffett
ABSTRACT We provide a review of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods that may potentially be used during systematic conservation planning for the design of conservation area networks (CANs). We review 26 methods and present the core ideas of 19 of them. We suggest that the computation of the non-dominated set (NDS) be the first stage of any such analysis. This process requires only that alternatives be qualitatively ordered by each criterion. If the criteria can also be similarly ordered, at the next stage, Regime is the most appropriate method to refine the NDS. If the alternatives can also be given quantitative values by the criteria, Goal Programming will prove useful in many contexts. If both the alternatives and the criteria can be quantitatively evaluated, and the criteria are independent of each other but may be compounded, then multi-attribute value theory (MAVT) should be used (with preferences conveniently elicited by a modified Analytic Hierarchy Process (mAHP) provided that the number of criteria is not large). [source]


The Economics of Carbon Abatement: An Integrated Diagrammatic Framework

ECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 2 2009
Ross Guest
Q54; Q52; Q48 The aim of this article is to present the economics of carbon abatement in an integrated framework with application to key policy questions. While the core ideas are well known, the innovation here is to integrate the marginal costs and benefits of carbon abatement with the market for carbon permits in a diagrammatic framework. This framework is then used to analyse a range of issues in the public debate about carbon abatement and carbon trading schemes, such as special assistance for certain industries, tax concessions on particular carbon-intensive goods such as petrol, government subsidies for renewable energy, and the effects of uncertainty and technological change. [source]


Patterns of Policing and Policing Patten

JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 3 2000
Paddy Hillyard
In September 1999 the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, chaired by Chris Patten, published its recommendations. This article examines the political context of policing reform, the contents of the report and the rejection of its core ideas in the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill published in May 2000. The central argument of the paper is that the Commission's radical model of policing , a network of regulating mechanisms in which policing becomes everyone's business , failed, because it gave insufficient attention, like much modern writing on policing, to the role of the state and the vested interests within policing. The overall outcome is that the Patten Commission has been effectively policed and Northern Ireland will be left with a traditional, largely undemocratic and unaccountable model of policing with most of the control resting with the Secretary of State and the Chief Constable. [source]