ion and generalizationRelationship between particulars of a specific study to abstract categories, theories, ideas, concepts (differentiates from anecdotes)Relate data to abstract theoretical assumptionsCase study findings are analyzed and related to literature 5. The principle of dialogical reasoningConfrontation of researcher’s prejudices (ex ante lens) with emerging dataM...

Collective rationality in its ordinary sense is rationality’s extension to groups. It does not entail efficiency by definition. Showing that it entails efficiency requires a normative argument. Game theorists treating cooperative games generally assume that collective rationality entails efficiency, but formulating the reasoning that leads individuals to efficiency, and verifying the rationalit...

A discussion on the scope of "community" as a category in health promotion by means of its "epistemological sensitivity"--a reasoning tool based upon the epidemiological concept of "sensitivity", adjusted to the epistemological field--was carried out. A brief review of promotional health topics and a short description of the sociological usage of "community" according to Tönnies were performed....

The objective of this work is to discuss the scope of historical issues in an epistemological approach to epidemiology. Considering the contributions to a practical comprehension of science made by Habermas's theory of communicative action and Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, this study attempts to explore the sense in which a historical point of view redirects the main epistemological que...

The application of probabilistic arguments to rational decisions in a single case is a contentious philosophical issue which arises in various contexts. Some authors (e.g. Horgan 1995; Levy 2007) affirm the normative force of probabilistic arguments in single cases while others (Baumann 2005, 2008) deny it. I demonstrate that both sides do not give convincing arguments for their case and propos...

Recent philosophical attention to climate models has highlighted their weaknesses and uncertainties. Here I address the ways that models gain support through observational data. I review examples of model fit, variety of evidence, and independent support for aspects of the models, contrasting my analysis with that of other philosophers. I also investigate model robustness, which often emerges w...

Scientific theories are hard to find, and once scientists have found a theory H, they often believe that there are not many distinct alternatives to H. But is this belief justified? What should scientists believe about the number of alternatives to H, and how should they change these beliefs in the light of new evidence? These are some of the questions that we will address in this paper. We als...

Over the years, egalitarian philosophers have made some challenging claims about the nature of egalitarianism. They have argued that the Rawlsian leximin principle is not an egalitarian idea; that egalitarian reasoning should make us reject the Pareto principle; that the numbers should not count within an egalitarian framework; that egalitarianism should make us reject the property of transitiv...

neither the ash‘arites nor kierkegaard’s systems of theology are anti-rational, for kierkegaard regards the contradiction present in the object of faith as absolute rather than logical, suggesting thereby the existential dialectics for understanding this contradiction instead of resolving it. the ash‘arites also hold that one can understand the existence of god through absolute reason, or reaso...

The relationship between logic and law has been a troublesome one and it has been object of much philosophical debate in the last century (cf. [26]). Several scholars have denied the usefulness of logical methods in law and legal theory while others have strongly argued in favor of a logic-driven analysis of law and legal reasoning (e.g., [31]). Be it as it may, this latter view has generated d...