A Tale of Two Degrees: Always Ask Why

Variations of the familiar formulae for inter-converting temperature readings on the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are developed, and the genesis of the alternative formulae are attributed to the process of reflective study. The opportunity to gain a better intuitive grasp of just exactly what one is doing and even the possibility of finding better ways of doing things are emphasized as rewards of reflection, along with the ensuing sense of personal accomplishment that fuels self-motivation and engenders self-esteem.

Phenomenology as Radical Reflection

What does it mean to adopt a phenomenological approach when doing philosophy of perception? What form should such an approach take? This chapter addresses these questions by first distinguishing three different kinds of phenomenological approach: ‘Humean’ phenomenology, which attempts to discern the structure of perceptual experience via reflection on its surface properties; ‘Kantian’ phenomenology, which aims to provide a priori arguments about the structure perceptual experience must have if it is to possess manifest properties; and ‘Husserlian’ phenomenology, which aims to achieve an intuitive grasp of the essential properties of perceptual experience via imaginative variation. It then argues that the shortcomings of each of these approaches motivate a ‘Merleau-Pontian’ conception of phenomenology as ‘radical reflection’—a mode of reflection on perceptual experience that simultaneously attempts to understand the origins and authority of reflection itself. The methodology that results is thoroughly interdisciplinary, aiming to reconcile philosophical conclusions about the necessary structures of perceptual experience with our best empirical knowledge of the contingencies that shape both our experiences and our reflective capacities.

Inward Groans and Unknown Tongues

The following article examines the reception of Rom. 8.26 in early North American Pentecostal literature. The author will review the variety of perspectives offered on the passage from various early Pentecostal publications, noting how their reception betrayed an intuitive grasp of key interpretative questions that continue to dominate scholarly work on Paul’s unique claims about pneumatic intercession. While many early Pentecostals interpreted Rom. 8.26 as another reference to glossolalic prayer, not all did. Nevertheless, the interpretative connections made by early Pentecostals reveal a dynamic hermeneutical practice that integrated lived pneumatic experiences with close intertextual readings of Scripture in response to important interpretative issues.

Techno Savvy and All-knowing or Techno-oriented?: Information-seeking Behaviour and the Net Generation?

During the last twenty years rapid developments in technology have led to changes in the way we work, play and learn. Technology has become an integral part of society’s everyday landscape. Children growing up during what has been called the technological or digital revolution have never known a world without instantaneous communication and easy access to vast quantities of information delivered in multiple formats. For the ‘Net Generation’ of users and consumers, technology is transparent and a part of their social, economic and educational landscape. They are surrounded by information using a multitude of formats, text types, graphics and multimedia. Adult observers of these young people marvel at how they use and cope with a wide range of technologies, often seemingly oblivious to instruction manuals. The Net Generation already seem to have the skills to deal with the array of old and emerging technologies. The terms tech-savvy, web-savvy, Internet-savvy and computer-savvy are being used to describe young people in major educational policy documents and population studies worldwide. While educators recognise that their students have a different culture of use when using and seeking information delivered electronically, they struggle to come to terms with the changes the integration of technology brings to the teaching-learning environment. Teachers are continually being reminded that they are the ones who are being left behind a generation for whom the use of communications technologies appears to be intuitive. The question for researchers and educators is do students have an intuitive grasp of how to use electronic information or is this just an illusion borne of familiarity with the technology?

Fractal diffusion-reaction model for a porous electrode

Fractal modifications of Fick?s laws are discussed by taking into account the electrode?s porous structure, and a fractal derivative model for diffusion-reaction process in a thin film of an amperometric enzymatic reaction is established. Particular attention is paid to giving an intuitive grasp for its fractal variational principle and its solution procedure. Extremely fast or extremely slow diffusion process can be achieved by suitable control of the electrode?s surface morphology, a sponge-like surface leads to an extremely fast diffusion, while a lotus-leaf-like uneven surface predicts an extremely slow process. This paper sheds a bright light on an optimal design of an electrode?s surface morphology.

Role of the method of divination in hermeneutics of F. Schleiermacher

This article examines the method of divination proposed by Friedrich Schleiermacher as one of the key means of interpretation. In literature dedicated to the philosophical views of Schleiermacher, this method is often associated with the intuitive grasp or empathy. However, Schleiermacher himself associated it primarily with creativity and ability of imagination. In order to clarify the meaning of the concept divination and a method related thereto, it is necessary to refer to a course of lectures of the philosopher devoted to dialectics. These lectures describe the method of divination as the main tool of cognizing surrounding reality, which establishes the link between dialectics and hermeneutics and allows reading Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics as hermeneutics of being. In the course of this research, the author made an attempt of original interpretation of Schleiermacher’s texts leaning on the development of modern Western scholars, whose works did not receive due attention within the Russian academic community. The result of this work lies in the restored and structured philosophical concept of Friedrich Schleiermacher, which centers on the method of divination. The obtained materials can be applied in the area of historical-philosophical study of the thoughts and ideas of German romantic philosophy of the XIX century. The examined in the article philosophical ideas of F. Schleiermacher allow getting a new perspective upon the problems of language, dialogue, understanding and interpretation.

Descriptive and Predictive Analytics on Adventure Works Cycle: A Corporate Decision Making

Business Analysis has become one of the crucial elements of any business in this data-driven business world. This is at the frontline where the data analytics support the strategic management to make effective decisions with immense computing power. This paper investigates the big data problems of Adventure Works Cycles (AWC) by using analytical techniques and integrate different methods of knowledge discovery and data mining via descriptive and predicative analytics. The descriptive analytics revealed the prevailing business condition which could aid to make effective decisions. Consequently, an empirical study was performed to explore different types of predictive models to predict the future occurrences. Furthermore, a comparative analysis using different predictive algorithms which provides evidence that High-Performance Forest algorithm is particularly operative on the prediction of future occurrences with the accuracy of 80%, ROC index 0.878 and the cumulative lift value of 1.82. This study provides an intuitive grasp of the concept to forecast, find patterns and rules to increase AWC’s overall sales performance and improve overall lead scoring more accurately.

Assertion among the Speech Acts

This article discusses how assertion is an illocutionary act. Once assertion is taken to be an illocutionary act, the question arises of how it relates to other illocutionary acts. This is the main issue tackled in this article, and it is two-fold. It examines how assertion relates to illocutionary acts that are in some way similar to it, at least as to their involving the utterance of plain declarative sentences; and how assertion and its cognates should best be collocated within the whole gamut of illocutionary acts. The former exploration will rely upon a largely intuitive grasp of the “family” of assertive illocutionary acts; the latter will involve both a fuller characterization of assertion and reconsideration of illocutionary act classification. The article then turns to the question of the role or rank of assertion among illocutionary acts: whether it is “just” one among them, or there are reasons for granting it some primacy or some special function.

The Usher Siblings: Rebels Without a Chance

This chapter discusses the Usher siblings as rebels without a chance, caught in a futile struggle to free themselves from their ancestral yoke. Vincent Price's Roderick Usher, to a large extent, conforms to the stereotype of the artist whose visionary imagination has given him an intuitive grasp of evil and profound knowledge of the future on which he has to act, while his skill and insight has simultaneously alienated him from society altogether, placing him in a position in which taking action becomes futile. Roderick is convinced that ‘evil is not just a word, it is a reality’, a social reality that cannot be measured by statistics, defined by laws, and policed by institutions because it spreads like a disease ‘malignant, cancerous’. It can only be eradicated by destroying the corrupted matter on which it feeds: the Usher family. Myrna Fahey's Madeline is similarly trapped in the Usher mansion, and, like her brother, a victim of her family's evil heritage; doubly a victim, as her brother plans to end the curse by sacrificing them both.