Welcome to The Toowoomba Philosophy Group and it's Blog.
We meet every Sunday night to discuss a wide variety of issues. If you are interested to join the group or know more about us, please send me an E-mail
drjoycearnold@gmail.com
Monday, December 17, 2007
Ethical CoPs
A CoP in academia towards ethics teaching
This paper talks about many CoPs for students, in academia, academic institutions and the global academic community. If ethics, caring, responsibility is embedded in these CoPs and academic administration pays heed to the informal CoPs, we will tend towards ethical behaviour and teaching ethical behaviour. We will treat others with ethical behaviour if they are part of our community, thus communities are basic to the construction of ethics. This social aspect of ethics, implies feminist principles of ethics, in particular quoting Noddings .
Steps to build an ethical community(Cooper)
1 focus on interdependent areas of lives
2 make ethical deliberation central to or conversation
3 public officials must rethink their roles
4 public officials need to create arenas for conversation
5 all parties need to understand the the road is fraught with dangers and embrace them
6 long term engagement is essential
7 reinvent social science
may I add
8 responsibility towards the ecology of community
9 sustainability
10 the environment is an important member of our communities
11 care factor
References
Cooper, T. (1997). Building an Ethical Community: Queensland University of Technology.
available USQ library
Noddings, N. (1984). Caring. A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Educaton. London, USA: University of California Press. Available USQ library- when I return it lol.
Weathersby, R., & White, J. (2004). Ethics and Community in Management Education [Electronic Version]. Academic Exchange Quarterly 8(1) Retrieved 18/12/2007 from http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/5jun2616w4.htm.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Intelligence- nature/nurture?
Are we smarter than our parents?
Here is an article with some interesting challenges.
James, R. Flynn (2007) Shattering Intelligence: Implications for Education and Interventions in Cato Unbound
In his summary-
'Three levels and three concepts
All of this has implications for the theory of intelligence. There is nothing really the matter with the concept of g; it is just that we have misused it by making it the omnipresent concept in our study of cognitive abilities. Intelligence is important on three levels, namely, brain physiology, individual differences, and social trends (collectively, BIDS). The core of a BIDS approach to intelligence is that each of those levels has its own organizing concept, and it is a mistake to impose the architectonic concept of one level on another. We have to realize that intelligence can act like a highly correlated set of abilities on one level and act like a set of functionally independent abilities on other levels.
Take the brain. Highly localized neural clusters are developed differentially as a result of specialized cognitive exercise, but there are also important factors that affect all neural clusters such as blood supply, dopamine as a substance that renders synapses receptive to registering experience, and the input of the stress-response system. When we map the brain’s structure, we find a mixture of commonality and neural decentralization. The commonality may well give rise to g on the individual differences level, while the decentralization leads to the phenomenon of various cognitive skills developing independently over time.
As for individual differences, that is the proper kingdom of g. There is simply no doubt that performance differences between individuals on a wide variety of cognitive tasks are correlated primarily in terms of the cognitive complexity of the task or the posited cognitive complexity of the path toward mastery. However, we need to avoid the mistake of thinking that the interaction between genes and environment is less complex than the reality.
On the social level, it is also beyond doubt that various real-world cognitive skills show different trends over time as a result of shifting social priorities. The appropriate dominant concept on this level is not g but something like social utility.
In closing, I want to stress that the BIDS approach does not aim at the abolition of g. It merely endorses a separation of powers that gives each dominant construct the potency needed to rebuff the other two. The U.S. Constitution attempts to make the President, Congress, and Supreme Court dominant in the executive, legislative, and judicial areas, respectively. I want the same kind of separation of powers for the three levels of intelligence.'
All of this has implications for the theory of intelligence. There is nothing really the matter with the concept of g; it is just that we have misused it by making it the omnipresent concept in our study of cognitive abilities. Intelligence is important on three levels, namely, brain physiology, individual differences, and social trends (collectively, BIDS). The core of a BIDS approach to intelligence is that each of those levels has its own organizing concept, and it is a mistake to impose the architectonic concept of one level on another. We have to realize that intelligence can act like a highly correlated set of abilities on one level and act like a set of functionally independent abilities on other levels.
Take the brain. Highly localized neural clusters are developed differentially as a result of specialized cognitive exercise, but there are also important factors that affect all neural clusters such as blood supply, dopamine as a substance that renders synapses receptive to registering experience, and the input of the stress-response system. When we map the brain’s structure, we find a mixture of commonality and neural decentralization. The commonality may well give rise to g on the individual differences level, while the decentralization leads to the phenomenon of various cognitive skills developing independently over time.
As for individual differences, that is the proper kingdom of g. There is simply no doubt that performance differences between individuals on a wide variety of cognitive tasks are correlated primarily in terms of the cognitive complexity of the task or the posited cognitive complexity of the path toward mastery. However, we need to avoid the mistake of thinking that the interaction between genes and environment is less complex than the reality.
On the social level, it is also beyond doubt that various real-world cognitive skills show different trends over time as a result of shifting social priorities. The appropriate dominant concept on this level is not g but something like social utility.
In closing, I want to stress that the BIDS approach does not aim at the abolition of g. It merely endorses a separation of powers that gives each dominant construct the potency needed to rebuff the other two. The U.S. Constitution attempts to make the President, Congress, and Supreme Court dominant in the executive, legislative, and judicial areas, respectively. I want the same kind of separation of powers for the three levels of intelligence.'
Any comments?
The library is not dead- just moved digital. Look at these projects. What about copyright? Isn't knowledge owned by everyone? Did you buy shares in Google?
Last, J.V. ( 2007) The weekly Standard, News Corporation
Great link to Arts and Letters Daily- daily updated articles and information with links to academic blogs, newspapers etc etc- well worth using as a front page.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Mondragon
Visit this site-
http://www.mcc.coop/ing/index.asp
This is a fantastic co-operative business model, in from Mondragon, Spain.
http://www.mcc.coop/ing/index.asp
This is a fantastic co-operative business model, in from Mondragon, Spain.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Passion as motivator
Read Steve Denning's essay on passion in the workplace.
http://www.stevedenning.com/passion_communities_practice.html
Passion
and communities of practice
in the workplace
Whatever will they think of next.?
http://www.stevedenning.com/passion_communities_practice.html
Passion
and communities of practice
in the workplace
Whatever will they think of next.?
philosophy and language
This website is a non-profit encyclopedia that offers free access to academic papers on philosophy, edited by James Fieser & Bradley Dowden.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/
This is one of the papers- for you discussion.
Mills, A.P.(2007) Knowledge of language, The Internet Encyclopadia of Philosophy . Retrieved 30/11/2007http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/knowlang.htm
http://www.iep.utm.edu/
This is one of the papers- for you discussion.
Mills, A.P.(2007) Knowledge of language, The Internet Encyclopadia of Philosophy . Retrieved 30/11/2007http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/knowlang.htm
anthropology and war
An ethics code of anthropologists working with the military and CIA.
I suppose it dosnt matter what knowledge is used if it provides the greater good.
Where do you draw the line?
What of the slippery slope argument. The role of the social anthropologist and torture?
Is there an absoute moral right here?
So war is also morally right? or wrong?
Please post a comment.
Panel Releases Report on Anthropologists' Work With the Military, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Retrieved 30/11/2007
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=3512&utm_source=at&um_medium=en&commented=1#c007627
I suppose it dosnt matter what knowledge is used if it provides the greater good.
Where do you draw the line?
What of the slippery slope argument. The role of the social anthropologist and torture?
Is there an absoute moral right here?
So war is also morally right? or wrong?
Please post a comment.
Panel Releases Report on Anthropologists' Work With the Military, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Retrieved 30/11/2007
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=3512&utm_source=at&um_medium=en&commented=1#c007627
Interesting read about the side of Freud that the academics ignore or prefer not to know about. The link to Freud's study photo is delightful.
Freud Museum
Moses and Monotheism is definitiely worth a read- his last book.
Don't forget that Freud won the Noble prize- for literature!
So was Freud really such an obsessional and rational scientist?
(2006) Occult and Personality- Freud
http://rochester92.vox.com/library/post/dr-freud.html
Please post a comment
Freud Museum
Moses and Monotheism is definitiely worth a read- his last book.
Don't forget that Freud won the Noble prize- for literature!
So was Freud really such an obsessional and rational scientist?
(2006) Occult and Personality- Freud
http://rochester92.vox.com/library/post/dr-freud.html
Please post a comment
Monday, November 26, 2007
One for the chess players
Philosophy and history of chess- some interesting moves in this paper.
Feldman,S., (2007) Check Republics, The New Humanist retrieved 26/11/2007 at http://newhumanist.org.uk/1631
Feldman,S., (2007) Check Republics, The New Humanist retrieved 26/11/2007 at http://newhumanist.org.uk/1631
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Theory of everything?
This article in Economist.com is of interest.
Firstly Garrett Lisi presents as a home-grown unscientific type who has 'discovered' mind boggling physics, E8 and 248 dimension to the universe, and yet he remains unpublished and all his work is online
Is he a thoroughly modern Internet surfer, as well as the traditional type of surfer, who hasn't time for publishing?
or manic?
or wrong?
or too bright for traditional science?
Why is the universe speaking a mathematical language?
What does the theory of everything tell us?
is it necessary?
is it a spiritual issue?
does it make coffee?
And then 20 particles remain unaccounted for, even though some of them are too large to be seen.
Surely the scientific brain is not so obsessional and rationalising, it is highly creative and imaginative.
I Look forward to your comments
Joyce
Toowoomba Philosophy Group
Welcome to The Toowoomba Philosophy Group and it's Blog.
We meet every Sunday night to discuss a wide variety of issues. If you are interested to join the group or know more about us, please send me an E-mail
In this space I will post interesting discussions, papers and links.
Please feel free to comment and add your discussions.
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