Development of Reasoning and the Tension between Scientific and Conversational Inference

We report two studies designed to examine the role of conversational understanding in young children's scientific reasoning. The results indicate that performance can be influenced by the degree of specificity in questioning. Under nonspecific questioning, accurate reasoning was associated with both vocabulary comprehension and pragmatic ability whereas under specific questioning it was associated only with vocabulary comprehension. Findings are discussed in terms of the conversational knowledge that is required for success on measures of scientific reasoning.     

Amartya Sen's entitlement approach: empirical statement or conceptual framework?

In this article, the theoretical and methodological status of Amartya Sen's entitlement approach is discussed. The point of departure for the discussion is Caf Dowlah's criticism in this issue of the International Journal of Social Welfare of Sen's analysis of the 1974 famine in Bangladesh. In his article, Dowlah criticises Sen for not giving a full empirical account of the socio-political situation, primarily the widespread corrup-tion in Bangladesh at the time of the famine in question. In my view, even if this criticism is correct, it is not strictly essential to the factual and normative status of Sen's entitlement approach. I argue further that Dowlah's reading of Sen in this context implies an empiricist standpoint that is in general alien to Sen's entitlement approach. I contest the normative claim that by neglecting to give substantial treatment to the wide-spread corruption in Bangladesh Sen had trivialised the con-ditions of the population, and offer an alternative hypothesis; namely, that factual accounts of corruption, however relevant, seldom fulfil the requirements of methodological rigour char-acteristic of the discipline of economics with its deductive models. The article examines the formal, legalistic focus of the entitlement approach and discusses its consequences. The article takes up the problems of validation and falsification in relation to an empiricist interpretation, and a deductive ration-alist interpretation, respectively, of the entitlement approach. The conclusion is that both interpretations have distinct problems. The empiricist interpretation must contend with the problem of what constitutes the empirical basis of inductive generalisa-tion; the deductive interpretation must contend with the problem that the universal applicability of nomenclatures is more defini-tional than explanatory.     

试论哲学对经济学的影响

哲学对经济学的影响是与生俱来的,一部西方经济学理论的发展史,与西方哲学史的发展是密切相关的。主要包含有两大方面,其一,经济学体系中有关其基本前提“理性经济人”假设的认识和争议,受到了哲学理性概念的深刻影响;其二,哲学对经济学最为深刻的影响,就在于其为经济学家研究经济现象提供了理性演绎法、历史归纳法、实证分析、规范分析等工具和方法。     

逻辑方法演进的哲学思考

逻辑学经历了从传统到现代的演进过程,从亚里士多德创立演驿逻辑、培根批判亚氏逻辑提出归纳逻辑,到莱布尼兹肯定亚氏逻辑提出逻辑的数学形式的发展方向,预示着新的逻辑方法的形成.新逻辑方法的形成,对哲学方法产生了重大的指导作用.西方哲学史上的三次重大转换之一的"语言转向"就是借助于逻辑分析的方法,对传统哲学问题进行改造,它给当代哲学一种新的哲学研究方法,这种逻辑方法也是现实哲学研究的需要.     

Behavioral patterns and reduction of sub-optimality: an experimental choice analysis

This paper attempts to identify behavioral patterns and compare their average success considering several criteria of bounded rationality. Experimentally observed choice behavior in various decision tasks is used to assess heterogeneity in how individual participants respond to 15 randomly ordered portfolio choices, each of which is experienced twice. Treatments differ in (not) granting probability information and in (not) eliciting aspirations. Since in our setting neither other regarding concerns nor risk attitude matter and probability of the binary chance move is (optimal) choice irrelevant, categorizing decision types relies on parameter dependence and choice adaptations. We find that most participants reduce systematically sub-optimality when following the identified criteria.     

Children's gender- and age-based categorization in similarity and induction tasks

The present studies examined children's and adults' preferences for gender- or age-based categorization using similarity and inductive inference tasks. Four-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and adults looked at pictures of people and decided which of two was more like a target (similarity condition) or which shared a novel age- or gender-related property with the target (inference condition). Age or gender-based matches were possible. The results are consistent with previous findings that gender-based classification decreases with age. However, they also demonstrate that children use gender more for judging similarity than for making inferences about novel properties. Distinct patterns emerge from the two tasks: 6-year-olds and adults in both conditions categorize more by age than gender; 4-year-olds categorize by gender more than age in the similarity task, but by age more in the induction task. Only adults differentiated by property in the inference condition. These findings suggest that the salience of gender categories cannot entirely be attributed to their inductive potential. Gender has a salience beyond what would be predicted by its power for directing novel generalizations.     

Practitioners as Rule Using Analysts: A Further Development of Process Knowledge in Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK. E-mail M.Sheppard{at}plymouth.ac.uk Summary A new paradigm of ‘process knowledge’ has emergedin recent years, distinct from the dominant ‘product knowledge’paradigm in social work. While the latter refers to existentknowledge, which may be applied, the former refers to the developmentof knowledge about the ‘methodology of practice decisionmaking’, focusing on the processes by which judgementsare made. At its heart is the emerging idea of a reflexivityfor practice, but studies have been, until recently, theoretical.A very small number of empirical studies have begun to identifysome key elements of process knowledge. These have developeda range of concepts relating to critical appraisal, hypothesisdevelopment and hypothesis testing which characterize socialwork process knowledge. These include, for example, focusedattention, querying information, causal inferences, partialcase, procedural, and speculative hypotheses. A process of quasitriangulation is characteristic of social work practice methodology,together with a combination of inductive and deductive thinking.This paper seeks to develop our understanding by focusing onhow social workers develop and appraise hypotheses, and in particularhow the substantive content of hypotheses emerges (these enablesocial workers to make sense of, define, and respond to, situations).To understand this, the notion of rules is used, and socialworkers emerge as analysts employing three types of rules: substantive,application, and practice rules. A significant link betweenprocess knowledge and the content of product knowledge is identifiedin the form of technical language. The concept of ‘probabilisticcausation’ is identified as a key epistemological dimensionin the conduct of rigorous practice.     

Illustrating behavioral principles with examples from demography: the causal analysis of differences in fertility

This article evaluates the 3 general frames of reference used in analyzing the nonphysiologic origins of fertility differences: utility, normative, and drift. It is suggested that the drift model overcomes some of the limitations of the other 2 models and provides a closer approximation to behavioral realities. Implicit in the utility model is the assumption that people's behavior expresses their preferences amony available alternatives. It is further assumed that the individual has available a range of possible behaviors, means to the atgtainment of behavioral goals chosen, and reliable information concerning the likely consequences of a given choice. A weakness of this approach has been its rather parochial concentration on economic costs and benefits and its failure to take account of the ways these costs and benefits are differentially assessed and weighted by different populations. The normative model emphasizes the individual's group affiliations and social roles. A criticism of this model is that it ignores the possibility of conflict among the different norms associated with an individual's various roles or among interacting individuals such as husbands and wives. Together, the utility and normative models imply the existence of more conscious rationality in human behavior than may actually be the case. The 3rd model, drift, emphasizes the ongoing, developmental, incemental nature of human behavior. It posits a behavior that begins almost by accident at some point within the range of possible and allowable behaviors, then moves toward conslusion in a manner largely imperceptible to the actor. The idea of drift is compatible with the observation that social structures are constantly changed while at the same time providing the framework within which reproducing and changing behaviors can unfold. In contrast to the utility and normative models, which tend to be static, the drift model emphasizes both change and the manner in which change takes place.     

Generalized Expected Utility, Heteroscedastic Error, and Path Dependence in Risky Choice

We evaluate the fit of several generalized expected utility models under homoscedasticity and three different heteroscedastic error structures for the data set first reported in Hey and Orme (1994). Standard chi-squared tests are used for nested tests, and both the Akaike (1973) information criterion and its consistent version (Hurvich and Tsai, 1989) are used for non-nested ranking of these models. A testing framework is developed that explicitly accounts for the path-dependent nature of the model selection problem. Not only does the selection of preference models depend on the error structure assumed, but the reverse is also true: the selection of the error structure depends on the preference structure assumed. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Normative, Gain and Hedonic Goal Frames Guiding Environmental Behavior

This article discusses new developments about goal-dependent framing and multiple goal frames (sometimes also called "multiple motives"), which are highly relevant for understanding environmental behavior. We introduce goal-framing theory, which postulates that goals "frame" the way people process information and act upon it. Three goal frames are distinguished: a hedonic, gain, and normative goal frame. In general, multiple goals are active at any given time, which may (or may not) be compatible; that is, the strength of the focal goal may be influenced by other goals that are in the background. Based on an extensive review of studies in environmental psychology, we suggest those conditions under which each goal frame may be dominant in influencing environmental behavior. In the environmental context, normative goal frames imply acting pro-environmentally, while gain and hedonic goal frames often result in not acting in an environmentally sound manner. Next, we argue that pro-environmental behavior may be promoted by strengthening normative goals or by making gain and hedonic goals less incompatible with normative goals. Finally, based on goal-framing theory, we suggest questions to be addressed in future research.     

法律修辞与逻辑

论者通常把修辞与逻辑对立起来,很少论及二者如何统一于论证过程,而在法律领域尤其需要这种统一.法律的学科特点在于其推理前提的开放性和结论的封闭性,因而在法律推理过程中,需要通过修辞将开放的前提集合论证为可接受的封闭性前提集合,也需要通过逻辑根据封闭的前提得出必然的结论.文章通过对法律推理过程及其特点的分析,论证了法律修辞与逻辑的统一性,即逻辑是修辞,是最具说服力的一种修辞;修辞也是逻辑,是在无法直接进行演绎推理时所备选的逻辑.其目的都在于提高法律推理结论的可接受性.     

Early and Middle Adolescents' Reasoning About Moral and Personal Concerns in Opposite‐sex Interactions

This study examined how adolescents coordinate personal and moral concerns in reasoning about opposite‐sex interactions. Sixty‐four early and middle adolescents (Ms = 12.74, 16.05 years) were individually interviewed about two hypothetical situations involving opposite‐sex interactions (commenting on appearance, initiating a date), presented in four conditions that varied the salience of personal vs. moral concerns. Overall, participants viewed opposite‐sex interactions as harmless and acceptable in personal conditions, but as moral concerns became more salient, they were viewed more negatively, as less contingent on the target's response, and as entailing humiliation, coercion, and victimization. Age differences occurred primarily in reasoning about conditions entailing mixed‐personal and moral concerns. Implications for adolescents' understanding of harassment and victimization are discussed.     

Empowering Battered Women by Validating Their Decision-Making Skills

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of moral reasoning among a sample of battered women and compare them with a national normative sample.

Method: The study involved collecting Defining Issues Test (DIT) data from 50 women (age, M = 33, SD = 10) beginning their stay at a shelter for battered women. Unlike the original method of assessing moral reasoning involving a lengthy interview, the DIT is a multiple-choice test. Consequently, it is easy to administer and score and, over the last 20 years, it has become the most widely used instrument for assessing moral reasoning.

Results: Analysis indicated that the battered women comprising the sample were employing levels of moral reasoning comparable with the national normative sample.

Conclusion: Implications of the findings for countering arguments that battered women are morally immature in the way in which they approach the stay/leave decision were explored and discussed.     

The Break of Conversation

The present essay explores conversation as a phenomenon of mutual turning (con-versation). The act of turning reveals a basic tension between two approaches – that which puts the unmediated turn as the basis of dialogue (as in Buber's I and Thou), and the present approach that regards speech and the creative text as part and parcel of the conversational turn. The controversy is brought to the point of "break" which is both theoretical and refering to actual gaps of silence that occur at the midst of conversation. Three such gaps or critical silences are explored – silence about, silence between and silence within. From these a general notion of break is discussed in a negative sense of a conversational crisis and in a positive sense of a creative breakthrough.     

Valuing future cash flows with non separable discount factors and non additive subjective measures: conditional Choquet capacities on time and on uncertainty

We consider future cash flows that are contingent both on dates in time and on uncertain states. The decision maker (DM) values the cash flows according to its decision criterion: Here, the payoffs’ expectation with respect to a capacity measure. The subjective measure grasps the DM’s behaviour in front of the future, in the spirit of de Finetti’s (1930) and of Yaari’s (1987) Dual Theory in the case of risk. Decomposition of the criterion into two criteria that represent the DM’s preferences on uncertain payoffs and time contingent payoffs are derived from Ghirardato’s (1997) results. Conditional Choquet integrals are defined by dynamic consistency (DC) requirements and conditional capacities are derived, under some conditions on information. In contrast with other models referring to DC, ours does not collapse into a linear one because it violates a weak version of consequentialism.     

Children's Gender- and Ethnicity-based Reasoning about Foods

This article reports two studies that investigated the ways in which children use gender and ethnicity for making judgments about food choice. In Study 1, White and Asian 5- to 10-year-olds (M  =  7.37) were asked to rate how much they and others would like novel non-stereotyped foods. White children inferred that girls and White others would like the foods more than boys and Asian others would. An 'ethnocentric' pattern was found where children inferred that ethnic in-group others' food-liking would be more similar to their own compared with ethnic out-group others. These patterns were replicated with adults. In Study 2, a larger range of foods was used to assess White, Black, and Asian 3- to 8-year-olds (M  =  5.63), followed by gender and ethnic categorization and constancy tasks. Children from five to six years used ethnicity-based reasoning, which was influenced by their ability to categorize themselves and others by ethnicity. The role of social categories in food choice is discussed in the light of theories and research in category-based reasoning.     

边缘与中心共舞：社会安全视野下的全球艾滋生命治理——以中国边城为例

本文以艾滋病为例探讨社会应对风险的可能路径,分析了“中心”与“边缘”两种治理模式的互动过程,进而挖掘社会创新的可能性。“中心”逻辑以保卫社会之名推行规范性教育话语,并在实际运作中固化秩序,追求成本效益;“边缘”逻辑则在特定善的理念引导下进行探索性社会行动。二者是当代世界应对风险的体制性道德驱力。随着边缘与中心的互动,艾滋病病毒感染者的境况从被排除翻转为例外性纳入,由此体现了当代世界生命治理的元结构。中国边城的感染者同伴小组内嵌到中心体制之中,促使感染者人口更加平稳地进入医学体系,同时也开启了全新的社会行动领域,激发了生命活力的涌现。艾滋病作为社会实验所彰显的边缘能量,对探索社会本身的包容性和开放性潜能有着深远意义。     

On having the opportunity

There are least two general notions of having the opportunity to perform an action, one that concerns what is permitted on the basis of rules, regulations, or customs and another that concerns what is possible according to the physical or mental circumstances. The notion of having the opportunity within a set of circumstances is investigated and analysis in terms of physical possibility is proposed. A distinction is then made between a strong, person-dependent sense of opportunity and a weak, person-independent sense. It is also observed that care must be taken to distinguish the proposed analyses from criteria for determining whether someone has an opportunity.     

The validity of subjective information as a formal concept applied to empirical analysis

Theoretical concepts which may be applicated in formalized contexts as well as by empirical research are relatively rare. The concepts of subjective information used in cybernetically oriented pedagogists (learning theorists) seems to be applicable in both ways. An analysis of its logical and empirical validity shows, however, that the basis of this concept is ambiguous. The concept is defined on the basis of statistical probability, but implicitly interpreted on the base of inductive probability. Thus the measurement and also the strategic application of subjective information are doubtful. This concept does not seem to be useful as a paradigm for the solution of analogous problems.