Whitman argues that group selection is consistent with methodological individualism. He begins by defining a weak form of methodological individualism in which agents are not necessarily self-interested or rational and shows that this form of is consistent with Sober and Wilson’s model of group selection. However, Sober and Wilson’s group selection is also consistent with a methodological indiv...

the term paradigm has become a central issue in philosophy of science. increasing attention to paradigm in public administration, as a branch of social science, is also highlighted. this paper attempts to analysis seven paradigms in public administration research and to study ontological, epistemological, methodological, rhetorical and axiological assumptions of the each paradigm. finally, we b...

In the 20 century there was an unbridgeable gap between the “right” and “left” schools of economics with respect to the determination of value of commodities. While Marxian scholars insisted, that human labour being the essence of value to have a good argument for demonstrating exploitation, mainstream economists in the West focused on marginal utility theory to keeping up their basic axiom of ...

The assessment of methodological quality (MQ) in biomedical research is an area of dynamic development over recent years globally. Understood as a complex and multidimensional construct, several groups have been proposed tools for its evaluation, between them our group has designed and validated scales to assess MQ in therapy, diagnosis and prognosis studies. However, as with other instruments,...

We examined in this study the basic behavioral correlates of motor short-term memory and several methodological issues with respect to the investigative paradigm. We first reviewed pioneering studies on motor short-term memory and then addressed methodological issues including dependent measures, directional biasing effects, and separation of movement cues. Finally, we examined the methodologic...

Development economists have superseded any necessity of using Arrow’s methodological individualism (MI) in focusing on cross-cultural, cross-national, or developmental economics. This study examines whether analysis of cross-cultural economic models might include a concept of economic generosity as a type of economic structuration that deviates from MI principles and is closer to what economist...

Reacting to the original papers outlining the importance of “social mechanisms,” thispaper contrasts two views of the social process, the mechanismal and the relational. In the sourceshere analyzed, the mechanismal perspective is largely based on methodological individualismand generally presupposes rational, or at least intentional, action. A fundamental assumption ofthis appro...

Randomised trials vary in methodological quality, and flaws in trial conduct can lead to biased estimation of the intervention effect. If a meta-analysis makes no allowance for methodological flaws, there’s a danger that the results could be biased and over-precise, or that some lowerquality trials could be given too much influence in the meta-analysis. Cochrane review authors now use a specifi...