scholarly journals The Dialectical Logic of Thucydides' Melian Dialogue

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 805-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayward R. Alker

If the realist tradition has underappreciated the formalizable quality of Thucydides' scientific investigations, neorealist teachers and writers have generally failed to see the normative and dramatical features of Thucydides' political science, each an expression of his dialectical epistemology and ontology. Nicholas Rescher's partial formalization of dialectics as a controversy-oriented approach to knowledge cumulation and Kenneth Burkes dramaturgical approach to textual understanding are both shown to fit Thucydides' argumentation in the Melian dialogue. Thus argumentation produces new knowledge about the inner determinants of Athenian imperialism; simultaneously it dramatically reveals the constituting practical rationale of Athenian actions to be unjust. Once Thucydides' determining essences of power politics are properly uncovered, their false “eternal, mathematical necessity” can be appropriately criticized. A case is thus suggested for a “neoclassical polimetrics” more fundamentally grounded in “political argumentation” about practical choices in particular contexts than in ahistorical laws, inductive statistics or deductive mathematics.

Author(s):  
E. V. Shevchuk ◽  
A. V. Shpak

The article describes experience of creating and implementing information-managing educational environment at university. The model of creating information-managing educational environment of university with elements of artificial intelligence and indicative management is described. This environment contributes to improve quality of training and management of educational processes and resources. The stages of creating and implementing information-managing educational environment are considered systemically, as continuous process focused on a consumer. The inhibitory and facilitating conditions for introduction of the model at university are described. To provide subject-oriented approach to the use of information resources of environment, recommended clusters of information subsystems for each category of users are described.Practically implemented scientific and methodological recommendations for subjects of educational process to overcome resistance to innovations introduced in educational organizations are proposed.Features of adaptation of the developed information-managing educational environment for schools are presented.


Author(s):  
Elena Lindeman ◽  
◽  
Darya Moseeva ◽  

The quality of programs in library and information activity offered by various advanced professional training centers are discussed along with the issues and vectors of advanced training of the RNPLS&T staff. The RNPLS&T has to choose between expensive courses when new knowledge and skills are guaranteed, and online express courses (fast, easy, cheaply) where no new competences are guaranteed though employees get standard certificates. This trend facilitates establishing more and more online training centers that are just making money due to the demand for standardized certification. The double standards of education programs evaluation influence the quality of knowledge, though documented and certified. The authors argue that the above mentioned educational organizations have to be controlled, the more so, as the libraries are to accomplish their staff appraisal.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-358
Author(s):  
Hao Chen

AbstractIt is noticeable that the academic papers written by Chinese English learners are lacking in academic features largely due to their poor ability to use nominalization. Therefore, the instruction of nominalization in an academic English writing course is badly needed. The author conducted one-semester-long instruction of nominalization to 90 non-English majors under the guidance of the production-oriented approach (POA). This research demonstrated how to apply POA, specifically, the enabling procedure to the teaching of nominalization. By triangulating the data of students’ interviews, learning journals and written output, and the data of 4 teachers’ class observations and interviews, this study found that the accurate application of the three criteria of effective enabling contributed to the improvement of the quantity and quality of nominalization in academic writing.


Author(s):  
Holger Graf ◽  
Matthias Menter

AbstractThe positive effect of public research on industrial innovations is beyond controversy: public research institutions produce knowledge that is subsequently transferred into product and process innovations by private businesses. Besides this rather passive role in commercializing inventions, public research institutions may also proactively exploit new knowledge through public sector entrepreneurship activities. Especially entrepreneurial universities are perceived as a conduit of knowledge spillovers; they serve as central actors of innovation networks and stimulate network activities. Whereas the linkages between network embeddedness and innovation activities have been largely explored, the determinants of patent quality in terms of radicalness, originality, and generality remain rather unclear. Considering Germany’s diverse public research infrastructure (universities, polytechnics, and non-university research institutes), our findings reveal that the type of institution and the corresponding scientific orientation (basic vs applied research) matter for the quality of inventions. The centrality of respective institutions within innovation networks reinforces the radicalness of inventions. However, we do not find support for the general assumption that an entrepreneurial orientation of public sector entities augments the quality of inventions. We conclude the paper with policy recommendations and with future avenues of research.Plain English Summary This study explores the relation between network embeddedness, scientific orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and the quality of inventions of public research. Our results imply that a basic research focus induces inventions that are more radical, and a more central network position reinforces the production of more radical, original, and general patents. In contrast, an entrepreneurial orientation does not seem to stimulate a higher quality of inventions. Our results give impetus to nuanced public sector entrepreneurship policies that take the type of institution and the optimal level of regional embeddedness into account. A sole focus on the entrepreneurial transformation of public research institutes may not be sufficient to leverage the full potential of knowledge created therein. Instead, more support and guidance for creating links with other network entities is needed along with incentives to commercialize new knowledge.


2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Wedeen

This essay makes a case for an anthropological conceptualization of culture as “semiotic practices” and demonstrates how it adds value to political analyses. “Semiotic practices” refers to the processes of meaning-making in which agents' practices (e.g., their work habits, self-policing strategies, and leisure patterns) interact with their language and other symbolic systems. This version of culture can be employed on two levels. First, it refers to what symbols do—how symbols are inscribed in practices that operate to produce observable political effects. Second, “culture” is an abstract theoretical category, a lens that focuses on meaning, rather than on, say, prices or votes. By thinking of meaning construction in terms that emphasize intelligibility, as opposed to deep-seated psychological orientations, a practice-oriented approach avoids unacknowledged ambiguities that have bedeviled scholarly thinking and generated incommensurable understandings of what culture is. Through a brief exploration of two concerns central to political science—compliance and ethnic identity-formation—this paper ends by showing how culture as semiotic practices can be applied as a causal variable.


1983 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 15-16
Author(s):  
Frank Whelon Wayman

The political scientists at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, concerned about what becomes of political science majors in today's job market, have completed a survey of the occupational status and quality of life of recent alumni. This paper examines the potential contributions of that survey as a model for future evaluations of political science programs and other liberal arts programs. In the paper, I will discuss the design of the study, its findings, and the lessons that might be useful to those who would wish to do such studies on their own campuses.DesignThe University of Michigan, Dearborn evaluation was done primarily by, and for the benefit of, the political science faculty. Thus, the evaluation was tailored to particular faculty interests and concerns.


Author(s):  
David M. Farrell ◽  
Jane Suiter ◽  
Clodagh Harris ◽  
Kevin Cunningham

Democratic crisis is a hot topic in political science at present, and for understandable reasons. But what is often missed in much of the commentary about democracies in peril is the fact that democracies can and do innovate. This chapter deals with one important case of such democratic innovation—the Irish deliberative mini-publics. We start with a discussion of the origins and design of the Irish cases. We then employ the Suiter and Reuchamps (2016) framework to analyse their democratic legitimacy in terms of input (the recruitment process), throughput, (the quality of the deliberative process), and output (the mini-public’s impact in terms of the uptake of its recommendations and acceptance of the process). The Irish processes are powerful real-world examples of the potential systemization of deliberation, showing how deliberative mini-publics can successfully supplement representative and direct forms of democracy.


2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 657-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAN WALKER

This article introduces the seven specially commissioned papers in this special issue of Ageing & Society from the projects funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Growing Older Programme. The ESRC Programme has been the largest single investment in social sciences research on ageing in the United Kingdom. It comprised 24 projects and, when operating at full capacity, 96 researchers. The article details the background to the Programme, its commissioning process, its eventual structure and how it operated. Then a selection is made of some of the ways in which the Programme has contributed new knowledge to social gerontology. No attempt is made to achieve comprehensive coverage of the Programme's topics but rather a selection is presented of the new insights generated under its six themes: defining and measuring quality of life, inequalities in quality of life, technology and the built environment, healthy and active ageing, family and support networks, and participation and activities in later life. The projects were spread unevenly across these themes but important new knowledge has been produced under each theme. The conclusion emphasises the scientific contribution of the Programme and especially the extent to which older people's own attitudes, aspirations and preferences have been at the forefront, but it questions whether or not policy makers and practitioners will use this major evidence base.


Author(s):  
Gerry Mackie

Deliberative democracy arose in opposition to a reigning aggregative conception of democracy in political science, solely about voting. Not long ago, political scientists arduously believed, based on logical speculations, that democratic voting is arbitrary and meaningless and that democratic voting is irrational as well. Rather than challenge these mistaken views about voting, democratic theorists instead singled out and celebrated deliberation. We review how those views about voting failed and report democratic theory’s reconciliation with voting.. Deliberative theory often says that variation in quality of deliberation can shape voting for better or worse; we add the idea that choice of voting rule can shape the value of deliberation for better or worse, illustrated with three examples. Finally, we compare the ideal values of voting and discussion, which overlap but are not identical.


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