Scientific thinking is grounded in the evolved human ability to freely create and manipulate mental models in the imagination. This modeling ability enabled early humans to navigate the natural world and cope with challenges to survival. Then it drove the design and use of tools to shape and control the environment. Spoken language facilitated the sharing of mental models in cooperative activit...

In general, metaphysical views are characterized as either monist or dualist. Interestingly, both Karl Jaspers and Karl Popper seem to have entertained what one might call "pluralist" views of reality. In the case of Jaspers, I will address his early views in General Psychopathology and in the case of Popper his later views as reflected in Objective Knowledge. Both thinkers discuss three separa...

This study is about graduate students’ discourse practices in classroom text-based synchronous computermediated discussions (SCMD). Cultural historical activity theory (in short, Activity Theory) is the primary theoretical lens through which the data are analyzed. Engeström’s (1987) Activity System model among the various theoretical positions or perspectives of activity theorists has guided th...

ion, General Conceptions, Self-consciousness, Mental Individuality.It would be very difficult for any one with even much more knowledge than I possess, to determine how far animals exhibit any traces of these high mental powers. This difficulty arises from the impossibility of judging what passes through the mind of an animal; and again, the fact that writers differ to a great extent in the mea...

The writings of George Williams challenged biologists to think critically about levels of selection, social behavior, and the paradox of sex, whose maintenance by recombination alone has not been convincingly demonstrated in theory or in fact. A solution is suggested by observations of the dependence of females on interaction with males, as a result of sexual selection. This, along with recombi...

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the phenomenon of openness in relation to library development. The term openness is presented and related to library development from historical and theoretical perspectives. The paper elaborates on the differences over time on to how openness has been understood in a library setting. Historically, openness in form of the open shelves played a crucial ...

Complex animal societies are most successful if members minimise harms caused to one another and if collaboration occurs. In order to promote this, a moral structure inevitably develops. Hence morality has evolved in humans and in many other species. The attitudes which people have towards other humans and individuals of other species are greatly affected by this biologically–based morality. Th...

The pre-scientific assumptions and testable propositions of chiropractic have always been in flux. The earliest evolution of chiropractic metaphors and hypotheses, however, has been obscured by the unavailability of most of D.D. Palmer's writings from before the turn of the century. Viewed in combination with Palmer's later publications, these writings provide a glimpse of the founder's concept...

ion is used to devise concepts and theories that encompass a wider range of applicability than the original theories. For example, the role of mathematical modelling 30 The views of Kuhn and Feyerabend are discussed in more detail in the next chapter, along with other philosophers of science such as Lakatos and Laudan. A Foundation for Software Engineering Understanding Software Engineering 252...

Despite the proliferation of policies ostensibly protecting all persons’ rights, and mounting critical academic debate and scholarship on sexuality and sexual orientation, sexual orientation in the academy remains a site of deep contestation. The first section of this paper discusses the national legal framework as a basis from which the state’s new social engineering uses liberal human rights ...