Various authors allege that the theory of group selection is inconsistent with methodological individualism, and therefore analysts must reject at least one of these principles. The present article argues for their compatibility. The meaning of methodological individualism is clarified, and the new version of group selection (articulated by Wilson and Sober (1994, 1998)) is explained. The two p...

I propose a reinterpretation of Peirce’s theory of pragmaticism which sees it to cater a general methodological approach, as well as a historical counterpoint, to a multiplicity of issues arising in contemporary social and behavioural sciences. This interpretation deflects methodological individualism but integrates co-evolution, abduction and triadic forms of emergence into it. It follows that...

Twenty years after Poverty and Famines elaborated the entitlement approach as an innovative and holistic approach to famine analysis, debates about some of its fundamental assertions remain unresolved. This paper examines four limitations acknowledged by Sen himself: starvation by choice, disease-driven rather than starvation-driven mortality, ambiguities in entitlement speciŽ cation and extra-...

Throughout the 1990s we witnessed the spread of the concept of social capital in many of the social sciences and in particular in socio-economics. Its theorisation is due to sociologists who aimed at correcting methodological individualism due to its poor understanding of the collective and interactive nature of society. Here we argue that, despite the adoption of methodological individualism, ...

This paper brings together two sets of writing under development, but with common themes of rejection of concepts of unity, coherence and singularity that characterize modernity. However, they also reject the notions of fragmented individualism and nihilism that are seen in much postmodern thinking. In our search for ways of facilitating generation of meaning within and for those thinking/actin...

Watson (2003: 168) claims that ‘although increasing academic attention is being paid to business ethics, the ways in which ethical consideration come into activities and decisions of organizational managers have been examined in a very limited way’. This article contributes by suggesting an interesting way to study moral managerial decisions is studying these decisions in their discursive conte...

BACKGROUND Systematic reviews provide clinical practice recommendations that are based on evaluation of primary evidence. When systematic reviews with the same aims have different conclusions, it is difficult to ascertain which review reported the most credible and robust findings. METHODS This study examined five systematic reviews that have investigated the effectiveness of Pilates exercise...

INTRODUCTION PRISMA statement was published in 2009 in order to set standards in the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of PRISMA endorsement on the quality of reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, published in journals in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology (GH). METHODS Quality of reporting a...

This paper provides an assessment of the most recent empirical research into the effectiveness of argument visualization tools. In particular, the methodological quality of the reported experiments and the conclusions drawn from them are critically examined. Their validity is determined and the methodological differences between them are clarified. The discrepancies in intended effects of use e...

Appraisal of the methodological quality of systematic reviews would reflect on their utility for the clinicians and policymakers. This study was done to assess the quality of systematic reviews published in five leading Indian medical journals using AMSTAR. 22 systematic reviews of healthcare interventions were identified. The scores ranged 0 to 10 (mean 3.77 and median 2.5), 9 reviews scored >...