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{ "creator": "Swindell Blumenthal-Barby, J. S.", "date": "2010", "datestamp": 1567953700000, "description": "The phenomenon of ambivalence is an important one for any philosophy of action. Despite this importance, there is a lack of a fully satisfactory analysis of the phenomenon. Although many contemporary philosophers recognize the phenomenon, and address topics related to it, only Harry Frankfurt has given the phenomenon full treatment in the context of action theory - providing an analysis of how it relates to the structure and freedom of the will. In this paper, I develop objections to Frankfurt's account, all revolving around the charge that his account contains a serious ambiguity between willing and identifying. With such objections in place, I then develop an analysis that avoids the difficulties and ambiguities that Frankfurt's analysis is prey to. I briefly distinguish ambivalence from other types of internal conflict. This paper aims to offer conceptual clarification on the phenomenon of ambivalence, which will then allow for discussions about the normative merits and demerits of ambivalence, the effects of ambivalence on autonomous action, and methods of resolution of ambivalence", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/A", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Ambivalence", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE This article was downloaded by: [Ph.D, J.S. Swindell] On: 10 March 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 919787708] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 3741 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Philosophical Explorations Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Ambivalence J. S. Swindell a a Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA Online publication date: 10 March 2010 To cite this Article Swindell, J. S.(2010) 'Ambivalence', Philosophical Explorations, 13: 1, 23 - 34 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/13869790903318516 URL: Full terms and conditions of use: This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Ambivalence J.S. Swindell Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA The phenomenon of ambivalence is an important one for any philosophy of action. Despite this importance, there is a lack of a fully satisfactory analysis of the phenomenon. Although many contemporary philosophers recognize the phenomenon, and address topics related to it, only Harry Frankfurt has given the phenomenon full treatment in the context of action theory - providing an analysis of how it relates to the structure and freedom of the will. In this paper, I develop objections to Frankfurt's account, all revolving around the charge that his account contains a serious ambiguity between willing and identifying. With such objections in place, I then develop an analysis that avoids the difficulties and ambiguities that Frankfurt's analysis is prey to. I briefly distinguish ambivalence from other types of internal conflict. This paper aims to offer conceptual clarification on the phenomenon of ambivalence, which will then allow for discussions about the normative merits and demerits of ambivalence, the effects of ambivalence on autonomous action, and methods of resolution of ambivalence. Keywords: ambivalence; autonomy; Frankfurt; will; identification 1. Introduction The phenomenon of ambivalence is an important one for any philosophy of action. Despite this importance, there is a lack of a fully satisfactory analysis of the phenomenon. Although many contemporary philosophers recognize the phenomenon, and address topics related to it,1 only Harry Frankfurt has given the phenomenon a full treatment in the context of action theory - examining how it relates to the structure of the will, freedom of the will, and freedom of action. In this paper, I develop objections to Frankfurt's analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence. I argue that his account contains an ambiguity between identification and willing. I treat this ambiguity as a distinction, and then use it to develop an analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence that avoids the difficulties and ambiguities to which Frankfurt's analysis is prey. Throughout, I consider and rebut some preliminary objections to this new analysis. 2. Frankfurt on ambivalence Frankfurt has argued that the objects, people, courses of action etc., that we desire are objects of first-order desires. We, as humans, have the ability to reflect on these desires ISSN 1386-9795 print/ISSN 1741-5918 online # 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13869790903318516 Email: Philosophical Explorations Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2010, 23-34 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 and either want to have them or not want to have them - these desires about our first-order desires are second-order desires. If, upon reflecting on a desire, we want to have it and we want it to be effective in moving us to action, then it is our will (also referred to by Frankfurt as a second-order volition), and acting freely consists in acting in accordance with our will (Frankfurt 1988a, 14-6). According to Frankfurt, ambivalence occurs when there is a conflict during will formation. An ambivalent agent experiences conflict during the process of reflecting on a desire that she has, and the conflict prevents her from forming a will, i.e. from taking a position on whether it is a desire that she wants to have and to be effective in action. Frankfurt's exact words: Ambivalence is constituted by conflicting volitional movements or tendencies. . . (Frankfurt 1999b, 99) If there is an unresolved conflict among someone's second-order desires, then he is in danger of having no second-order volition; for unless this conflict is resolved, he has no preference concerning which of his first-order desires is to be his will. (Frankfurt 1988a, 21) He is inclined in one direction, and he is inclined in the contrary direction as well; and his attitude toward these inclinations is unsettled. Thus, it is true of him neither that he prefers one of his alternatives, nor that he prefers the other, nor that he likes them equally. (Frankfurt 1999b, 100) Frankfurt differentiates ambivalence from other types of conflict that an agent may experience. One common type of conflict that an agent may experience is temptation. In the case of temptation, the agent has taken a side about what desires she wants to have and to move her to act (she has formed a will); and so the conflict is between her and the outlaw desires. In ambivalence, however, the conflict is in the agent; for she has not taken a side; the agent herself is torn. Frankfurt says, '. . .the person is not merely in conflict with forces "outside" him; rather, he himself is divided' (Frankfurt 1988b, 165). Another common type of conflict that an agent may experience is a conflict of first-order desires. An agent may experience a conflict at the first-order level (e.g. eating steak or a vegetarian meal for dinner), but to qualify as a case of ambivalence, there would have to be a conflict at the second-order level as well (e.g. the agent is conflicted about whether she wants her desire for pleasure or her desire for health to be effective in action). Frankfurt argues that the opposite of ambivalence is wholeheartedness. He says, 'If ambivalence is a disease of the will, the health of the will is to be unified and in this sense wholehearted' (Frankfurt 1999b, 100). And that wholeheartedness '. . . requires that with respect to any such conflict, he himself be fully resolved. This means that he must be resolutely on the side of one of the forces struggling within him and not on the side of any other. Concerning the opposition of these forces, he has to know where he himself stands. In other words, he must know what he wants' (Frankfurt 1999b, 100). Once a person is wholehearted, Frankfurt describes it as being '. . . tantamount to the enjoyment of a kind of self-satisfaction . . . a state of satisfaction with the condition of the self . . .' (Frankfurt 1999b, 102). The satisfaction that Frankfurt has in mind is not narcissistic or enthusiastic, it is just '. . . an absence of restlessness or resistance . . .' (Frankfurt 1999b, 103-4). 3. Why Frankfurt's analysis is flawed Although Frankfurt's work has the merits of taking on the phenomenon of ambivalence directly, his analysis contains a serious ambiguity between identifying and willing. This 24 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 ambiguity needs to be sorted out in order to accurately locate the phenomenon of ambivalence and in order to differentiate it from other conflicts of the will. The ambiguity To begin, consider Frankfurt's analysis of freedom of the will. In his 1971 seminal paper, 'Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person', Frankfurt argued that what makes us persons is the ability to reflect on our desires; to form 'second-order desires'. For example, a smoker may desire a cigarette, but she does not want to want to smoke the cigarette because she is trying to quit. The smoker has a 'first-order desire' to smoke, but does not have a 'second-order desire' to smoke. Frankfurt argues that the smoker's will is not free, because a person's will is free only when her first order desires are in accord with her second order desires. The smoker who is trying to quit does not identify with her first order desire to smoke the cigarette; she views it as outlaw (Frankfurt 1988a, 14-6). On this account, freedom of the will requires an agent somehow to identify with, as opposed to outlaw, the desires that she has. Frankfurt describes the range of ways that an agent can identify with a desire: to identify with a desire is to 'acknowledge that satisfying it is to be assigned some position in my preferences'; it may be that the desire doesn't please me or make me proud, but I am 'willing to have it represent me'; I 'accept it'; I make 'no determined effort to dissociate myself from it'; in 'weary resignation' I 'consent' to having it and to being influenced by it (Frankfurt 2006, 8).2 Or, I could identify more strongly with the desire and regard it with 'welcoming approval', or even feel like not having that desire would be 'unthinkable' (Frankfurt 1988c, 177-90; Frankfurt 1998, 26-7). On the other hand, to view a desire as outlaw is described by Frankfurt in the following range of ways: I feel like I am a 'bystander' to it; it 'disturbs' me; it makes 'no sense' to me; I'd 'never think of acting on it'; it has 'no recognizable warrant'; it 'happens to me/enters my mind'; it feels 'oddly disconnected' from me or even 'dangerously antithetical'; it is an 'unacceptable intruder'; I feel an 'anxious disposition to resist it'; it is 'outlawed and disenfranchised'; 'I refuse to recognize it as grounds for what I think and do'; I treat it as 'categorically unacceptable' and try to 'suppress it or rid myself of it entirely'; regardless of how insistent it may or how powerfully moved by it I am I 'give it no rational claim'; I am 'determined to give it no position at all' in the order of my preferences (Frankfurt 2006, 9-10).3 If the outlawed desire succeeds in defeating our attempts to resist it, then '. . . the outlaw imposes itself upon us without authority, and against our own will. This suggests a useful way of understanding what it is for a person's will to be free' (Frankfurt 2006, 14). So far, it seems that, for Frankfurt, a person is acting with free will so long as she is acting on one of the desires that she identifies with (and not acting on one that she views as outlaw). But, in other places in Frankfurt's work, it seems as if something more specific is required for freedom of the will: in order for a person to enjoy freedom of the will, she must choose a particular desire, out of the set that she identifies with, to be effective in action. That desire is then said to be the one that she 'wills'. For example, Frankfurt says: 'It is not merely that he wants the desire to X to be among the desires by which, to one degree or another, he is moved or inclined to act. He wants this desire to be effective - that is, to provide the motive in what he actually does . . . want the desire to X not merely to be one of his desires but, more decisively, to be his will' (Frankfurt 1988a, 15). So then, the picture is something like this: On this reading of Frankfurt, freedom of the will consists not merely in having and acting on desires that an agent identifies with, but in having and acting on the desire that Ambivalence 25 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 the agent (more narrowly) wills (wants to be effective in guiding action). Freedom of the will consists in an orderly arrangement. Passages in Frankfurt's most recent essay, 'Taking Ourselves Seriously', lend support to this reading that freedom of the will consists in an orderly arrangement of first-order desires (i.e. structure and harmony). Frankfurt says: 'The volitional unity in which the freedom of the will consists is purely structural' (Frankfurt 2006); 'When we are acquiescent to ourselves, or willing freely, there is no conflict within the structure of our motivations and desires' (Frankfurt 2006); 'Willing freely means that the self is at that time harmoniously integrated' (Frankfurt 2006); and 'This would amount to an inner harmony that comes to much the same thing as having a free will' (Frankfurt 2006, 17-9). The ambiguity in Frankfurt's account of freedom of the will leads to a similar ambiguity in his analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence. At times, Frankfurt writes as if ambivalence occurs at the level of identification, and at other times he writes as if it occurs at the level of identification plus willing (at the level of ordering the desires that the person identifies with). In support of the former reading of Frankfurt's analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence, consider the following passage: 'A person is ambivalent, then, only if he is indecisive concerning whether to be for or against a certain psychic position' (Frankfurt 1999b, 99). It is not that the agent has decided that she identifies with the desire and approves of it being among her motivations, but just cannot decide whether she wants it or other desires that she identifies with to move her to action right now. The agent cannot even decide whether she identifies with the desire in question at all. Similarly, about the ambivalent agent, Frankfurt says: 'He is inclined in one direction, and he is inclined in the contrary direction as well; and his attitude toward these inclinations is unsettled. Thus, it is true of him neither that he prefers one of his alternatives, nor that he prefers the other, nor that he likes them both equally' (Frankfurt 1999b, 100). At other times, however, Frankfurt writes as if ambivalence occurs at the level of willing; that it is a failure of the agent to order her desires and decide which of them she wants to be effective in action at a particular time. In other words, he writes as if ambivalence occurs when an agent likes or dislikes both alternatives equally (contra the above quote), and cannot decide which to prioritize, or which to be effective in action at a particular time. Frankfurt writes, to overcome ambivalence, an agent should '. . . give up trying to have things both ways and find some coherent order . . .' (Frankfurt 1999b, 107). The ambivalent agent has a conflict among the desires that she identifies with and has trouble ordering them, i.e., deciding which of the conflicting desires she wants to be effective in action at a particular time. Now that the ambiguity in Frankfurt's account is exposed, the ambiguity can be turned into a distinction (between willing and identifying), that can allow us not only to understand the phenomenon of ambivalence better, but also to understand its relationship to other conflicts of the will. For example, if ambivalence is understood as a failure or a trouble at the level of deciding which desire the agent wants to be effective in action at a particular time (i.e. of willing), then one way that weakness of will might be understood is that an agent has decided which desire she wants to be effective in action but acts not on that desire, but on another desire that she identifies with (but does not more narrowly will). If, on the other hand, ambivalence is understood as a failure to decide whether a desire is one that the agent identifies with or views as outlaw, then one way that weakness of the will might be understood is that an agent has decided which desires she in some sense identifies with and which she views as outlaw, but has acted on a desire that she has outlawed. Moreover, understanding ambivalence in will versus identification will be an important distinction to keep in mind when theorizing about how to resolve it. Suggested methods of 26 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 resolution may vary greatly if the problem is one of forming a psychic attitude towards a desire or one of ordering desires. 4. New analysis Locating ambivalence The above discussion of the ambiguity in Frankfurt's analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence is not purely negative, for we can sort out the ambiguities and develop an alternative analysis of the phenomenon. Referring to Figure 1, ambivalence can occur during the first decision process (of whether or not to identify with or reject a particular first order desire). Ambivalence can also occur during the second decision process, i.e. when an agent is deciding which desire (of the desires she identifies with) she wants to be effective in action at a particular time. Hence, ambivalence can be either a failure/trouble to form a psychic position towards one's desires (to identify or outlaw) or a failure/trouble to order one's desires (to form a will). Indeed, there are many cases where an agent identifies with desires where the satisfaction of one negatively affects the satisfaction of another, and as a result has trouble ordering those preferences.4 Consider the literary example of Agamemnon. In Aeschylus's play Agamemnon, Agamemnon is faced with the conflict of whether or not to kill his daughter Iphigenia in order to spare the lives of his cavalry. The anguish of his mental conflict can be felt in his words (Aeschylus 2008): A heavy doom, sure, if God's will were broken; But to slay mine own child, who my house delighteth, Is that not heavy? That her blood should flow On her father's hand, hard beside an altar? My path is sorrow wheresoe'er I go. Shall Agamemnon fail his ships and people, And the hosts of Hellas melt as melts the snow? They cry, they thirst, for a death that shall break the spell, Figure 1. Identifying and willing. Ambivalence 27 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 For a Virgin's blood: 'tis a rite of old, men tell. And they burn with longing.- O God may the end be well! Agamemnon has two desires, to spare the life of his daughter and to spare the lives of his cavalry. It is not as if Agamemnon is having a problem forming a psychic attitude towards those desires; he is not having a problem deciding whether he identifies with both desires or views them as outlaw. He does identify with both. The problem that Agamemnon is having is one of ordering his desires; of deciding which desire he wills to be effective in action at this particular time. Consider another example of an agent experiencing ambivalence: an agent is ambivalent about having children. The agent has a desire to raise children (and raise them well) and is not having a problem deciding whether he identifies with that desire or views it as outlaw; he identifies with it (he wants to assign it some position among the motivations and causes of his behavior). But the agent also has a desire to devote himself intensely to his career. He also identifies with that desire, but knows that the satisfaction of it conflicts with the satisfaction of his desire to raise children well, and so is having a problem deciding which of the two desires he wants to move him to action. His ambivalence is a case of a failure to order desires (a failure of willing) and not a failure to form a psychic position about a desire (a failure of identifying). Ambivalence as a structure of the will Thus far, I have clarified an ambiguity in Frankfurt's account about the location of ambivalence, and have argued that cases of ambivalence can be located not just in the realm of identifying, but also in the realm of willing. Another important conceptual issue that must be addressed is whether ambivalence is to be construed as a feeling that an agent has or as a structure of an agent's will. Frankfurt defines ambivalence as a structure of the will, as I explained in the section on Frankfurt's analysis of ambivalence. I essentially agree with Frankfurt's analysis on this point, but an important objection needs to be addressed. Some might object that ambivalence is fundamentally a feeling, the feeling of being torn and conflicted, just as love and anger are fundamentally feelings. It would seem odd for love or anger to be defined as anything but a feeling; it would be as if we as outsiders could insist that someone was not really angry or in love because they did not behave a certain way. It would be similarly odd to define ambivalence as anything but a feeling. In response, this objection has some merit, for there is an affective component to ambivalence just as there is to love and anger. But there is a danger in making the affective component the, or part of the, necessary and sufficient conditions for ambivalence for two reasons: (1) we then face a conceptual difficulty of counterexamples where an agent (e.g. a zombie, or an anthropologist from Mars) has the structure of the will for ambivalence, looks like she is ambivalent, but lacks the affective component; (2) it becomes difficult to differentiate ambivalence from other conflicts, such as temptation and regret, that might feel very similar to the agent experiencing them. So, in order to accommodate the objection that there is some affective component tied to the phenomenon of ambivalence, but avoid the difficulties involved in making an affective element the, or part of the, necessary and sufficient conditions for ambivalence, I suggest that ambivalence is fundamentally a certain structure of the will (conflict of second order desires) that is 'necessarily-typically' accompanied by a certain affective element (the feeling of being torn). That is, the affective component is necessarily part of it, but it does not have to occur in all genuine cases; it merely has to 28 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 typically occur. I borrow the term 'necessarily-typically' from Berys Gaut in his article, 'The Paradox of Horror' (Gaut 1993). Gaut argued that although it may seem paradoxical that some of us enjoy horror (i.e. enjoy unpleasant emotions such as fear and disgust), it is not a paradox at all because emotions are essentially evaluations (in the case of horror, negative) which can feel either pleasant or unpleasant (in the case of horror, pleasant). He recognizes that negative emotions (evaluations) are usually tied to unpleasant feelings and so he argues for a conceptual connection between the evaluation and the feeling that he calls 'necessarily-typically'. Negative emotions 'necessarily-typically' produce unpleasant feelings, in the same way that pain 'necessarily-typically' produces avoidance behavior. Two degrees of ambivalence Thus far, I have characterized ambivalence as a structure of the will in which there is either a difficulty in forming of second order positions (identifying or outlawing) or a difficulty ordering second order desires (willing), that necessarily typically causes the agent to feel torn. Ambivalence of both types comes in degrees. The most severe degree, I call paralyzing ambivalence. The difficulty of a decision is so paralyzing that the agent does not form a will at all; she does not decide which of her desires she wants to be effective in action at a particular time (think of Agamemnon in the phase of paralysis). A less severe degree of ambivalence I call residual ambivalence. The agent does form a will but is still drawn towards the other desires that conflict with the desire that she wills. I will discuss each degree of ambivalence in turn. As an example of a case of paralyzing ambivalence, consider the following: Mr. X, a youthful 70 year old man, was involved in a head on motor vehicle accident. As a result, he lay in a hospital bed, on a ventilator, and paralyzed from the neck down. Mr. X had to decide whether to have the ventilator withdrawn and die, or remain on the ventilator, living a life on a ventilator and paralyzed from the neck down. Mr. X's family, physicians, and an ethicist all talked with Mr. X to try to ascertain what he really wanted. These conversations spanned over weeks, but Mr. X did not know what he really wanted. He could not decide which of his desires (his desire to live or his desire to avoid living a life paralyzed and on a ventilator) he wanted to be effective in action; he could not form a will; he was paralyzingly ambivalent. The severity of ambivalence found in paralyzing ambivalence is usually the result of having to decide between making a full commitment to one thing or another, and a compromise is not obvious or available because one commitment excludes acting on the other. When an agent, such as Mr. X, is paralyzingly ambivalent (referring once again to the diagram below), he experiences a conflict among the desires that he identifies with and does not settle on which of those desires he wants to be at the top of the order; to be effective in action at a particular time. In the case of Mr. X, he has a desire to live that he identifies with, and a desire to live a certain quality of life that he identifies with, and the satisfaction of those two desires conflict in this particular instance. Mr. X does not decide on the ordering of those desires; his ambivalence is paralyzing in that he fails to form a will. While paralyzing ambivalence is a structure of the will in which there is a difficulty in forming second order positions (identifying or outlawing), or a difficulty in ordering second order desires that (1) necessarily typically causes the agent to feel torn and (2) results in the agent failing to form a will, there is another degree of ambivalence that I call residual. Residual ambivalence is a structure of the will in which there is a difficulty in forming second order positions (identifying or outlawing), or a difficulty in ordering second order desires that (1) necessarily typically causes the agent to feel torn or uneasy, but (2) does Ambivalence 29 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 not result in the agent failing to form a will. The agent does form a will but is still drawn towards the other second order desires that conflict with the desire that she wills. Imagine the following example: Chris and John are engaged to be married and have a young child together. John was raised Catholic, but has not seriously practiced his religion since his teens. Lately however, John has been rekindling his relationship with the Church and over the past few months he has begun to experience a deep feeling that he is being called to become a priest. John has a desire to marry Chris and share a life with Chris and their daughter, but he also has a desire to become a priest. Both desires are ones that he identifies with in that he in some sense endorses them as being among the influences on his behavior. After some time and inner turmoil, John makes a decision and forms a will. He commits to his desire for a life with Chris and their daughter being the one that is effective in action. One question that may arise is that it is not clear what it means to simultaneously form a will (decide which desire is to be effective in action at t1) yet still be strongly drawn towards conflicting alternatives (that one also identifies with). This question arises from the differentiation between types of ambivalence that I have provided, and from the distinction between willing and identifying that I have drawn. It is an important and interesting question about the particular phenomenon of residual ambivalence, and although addressing it fully would require a separate paper on residual ambivalence alone, I will provide a preliminary response. To form a will in cases of residual ambivalence is to resign oneself to a certain ordering of one's desires, and to take steps towards making the desire that has been ordered primary effective in action. Now, taking steps towards making the primary desire effective in action can mean small and gradual steps. For example, whenever John feels like looking at the webpage for priests he redirects his thoughts to something else. Whenever he begins to miss his deep involvement with the Church, he reminds himself of what he would be losing in pursuing that option. John begins therapy with Chris to make their relationship even better and more attractive. John is, however, residually ambivalent. He is still drawn towards (and at times strongly drawn towards) his desire to become a priest, especially when he drives by a church or sees a book on Catholicism while he is browsing at his local bookstore. Ambivalence vs. regret Analysis of ambivalence sheds light on a related phenomenon: regret. Ambivalence, of the residual degree in particular, bears some relation to regret. There are, however, two different sorts of regret to be discussed: (1) an agent regrets how she ordered her desires, or (2) an agent regrets that she had to order her desires; that the satisfaction of some conflicted with the satisfaction of others. The former type of regret is directed towards the agent herself, the latter type of regret can be directed towards oneself or towards the world. The type of regret that is most likely to be associated with the phenomenon of residual ambivalence is the latter. Referring back to the case of John the would-be priest, it is not that he regrets that he decided that he wanted his desire for a relationship with Chris to be effective in action instead of his desire to become a priest. The regret that John may experience is directed towards the world, it is regret that he could not have both desires satisfied. To complicate matters, there is a way in which regret may be directed towards the self, but not be regret about how the agent ordered her desires. If the decision that the agent made about the ordering of her desires involved other persons, then the agent may regret that she did harm to those persons (even though she does not regret her ordering). For example, if ambivalent Agamemnon finally chose (as he did) his army over his daughter, then it is too 30 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 simple to describe his regret as towards the world, as regret that he could not save both Iphigenia and his army. Agamemnon may regret doing wrong to Iphigenia. It may be more accurate to describe his regret as directed towards her and not towards the world or the circumstances. All of this is just to point out, however, that the phenomenon of ambivalence has some relation to the phenomenon of regret, but that they are not the same thing. Ambivalence vs. weakness of will and temptation Another common type of conflict of the will is temptation, which if succumbed to becomes weakness of will. Recall that Frankfurt differentiates ambivalence from temptation in the following way: in the case of temptation, the conflict is between the agent/the desires that she identifies with and the desires that she views as outlaw. In ambivalence, however, the conflict is in the agent. Frankfurt is partly correct in his distinction between ambivalence and temptation. Temptation can be a conflict between the desires that the agent identifies with and the ones that she views as outlaw, but temptation can also be a conflict between the desire that the agent wills (the one that she wants to be effective in action at t1) and the other desires that she identifies with. Hence, an agent is weak of will when she acts on a desire other than the one that she wills. This other desire can either be one that she views as outlaw or one that she identifies with. For example, I may decide that I do not identify with my first order desire to eat ice cream for dinner, but the desire to eat ice cream for dinner continues to influence me; it tempts me. I succumb to it and eat ice cream for dinner; I am weak of will. Or, I may decide that I do identify with my desire to eat ice cream for dinner, but on this particular evening I do not will it. I have another desire that I identify with that conflicts with it (e.g. I am on a health kick right now and have a desire to be healthy, and I ate ice cream for dinner last night). The desire to be healthy is the one that I will; it is the one that I want to be effective in action this evening. The desire to eat ice cream for dinner tempts me and if I succumb to it I am weak of will, even though it is a desire that I identify with. These cases of temptation/ weakness of will are different from a case of ambivalence, where I am not able to decide whether I identify at all with my first order desire to eat ice cream for dinner (whether I assign it some position), or (more likely) where I am not able to decide what I will this evening (whether I want my second order desire for health or my second order desire for ice cream to move me to action this evening). One objection is that on my analysis, temptation/weakness of will cannot be distinguished from residual ambivalence. I have said that if a desire other than the one that I will influences me (even if it is a desire I identify with), then that is a case of temptation. Yet, cases of residual ambivalence just are cases where desires that I identify with continue to influence me. So, it is true that on my analysis all cases of residual ambivalence are cases temptation. The difference between the two phenomena, however, is that not all cases of temptation are cases of residual ambivalence (since I have argued that temptation also occurs when an agent is influenced by desires that she views as outlaw). On my analysis it is also true that cases of residual ambivalence are also cases of temptation and may very easily turn into cases of weakness of will. For if the agent acts on a desire other than the one that she wills (even if it is a desire that she identifies with), then she is weak of will. Return to the case of the man who wills to remain with his fiancée and their daughter, but is residually ambivalent in that he is still strongly influenced by his conflicting second order desire to become a priest. He is tempted by his desire to become a priest, and if he abandons his fiancée and runs off to become a priest then he is weak of will, even though his desire to become a priest is one that he identifies with. Ambivalence 31 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 Ambivalence vs. indifference Ambivalence is not to be confused with indifference. Here, Frankfurt is entirely correct. Consider the following quote by the character Meursault in Albert Camus's The Stranger (Camus 1989, Part 1, Chapter 4): She was wearing a pair of my pajamas with the sleeves rolled up. When she laughed I wanted her again. A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so. She looked sad. But as we were fixing lunch, and for no apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed her. Meursault does not reject his desire for Marie, nor does he endorse it. He is not ambivalent, for he is not experiencing strong feelings drawing him in conflicting directions. He is what we might call, indifferent. To be indifferent to one's own motives is to, as Frankfurt says, '. . .take no evaluative attitude toward the desires that incline him to act. If there is a conflict between those desires, he does not care which of them proves to be the more effective. In other words, the individual does not participate in the conflict' (Frankfurt 1988b, 164). This type of indifference we might call, borrowing from Frankfurt, 'wanton indifference' (Frankfurt 1988a, 18). Another type of indifference (one that Frankfurt does not discuss) is someone who does not even have first order desires that incline him to act one way or the other. There is no conflict between the desires that incline him to act (first order desires) because he does not even have inclinations one way or the other. Imagine that an agent has to decide whether to spend the day at the beach or the park - those are his only two options. The agent is indifferent about where he spends the day in the sense that he does not have a first order desire inclining him to spend the day at the beach, nor does he have a first order desire inclining him to spend the day at the park. This type of indifference we might call 'first order indifference', or more colloquially depression or lack of motivation. Both wanton indifference and first order indifference are distinguished from ambivalence by the fact that in cases of indifference, there is no conflict of the will at all. 5. Conclusion In conclusion, internal conflict comes in various forms. In this paper, I have provided an analysis of one of the more neglected forms of internal conflicts: ambivalence. I have argued that Frankfurt's account of ambivalence contains an ambiguity between identification and willing. I turn this ambiguity into a distinction, and use it to develop an analysis of the phenomenon of ambivalence that avoids the difficulties and ambiguities to which Frankfurt's analysis is prey. I argue that ambivalence is a structure of the will in which there is either a difficulty in forming second order positions (identifying or outlawing) or a difficulty ordering second order desires (willing), that necessarily typically causes the agent to feel torn. I hope that the conceptual clarifications that I have made contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of ambivalence, which will then allow for discussions about the merits and demerits of ambivalence, the effects of ambivalence on autonomous action, and methods of resolution of ambivalence in cases where ambivalence has significant negative consequences for an agent. Notes 1. See, for example, Bratman (1999); Bratman (2002); Bratman (2003); Calhoun (1995); Christman (1991); Christman (1993); Ekstrom (1993); Ekstrom (2005); Velleman (2002); Greenspan (1980); Harrist (2006) and Koch (1987). 32 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 2. See Frankfurt (2006, 8). The exact quote is as follows (emphasis original): 'When we consider the psychic raw materials with which nature and circumstance have provided us, we are sometimes more or less content. They may not exactly please us, or make us proud. Nevertheless, we are willing for them to represent us. We accept them as conveying what we really feel, what we truly desire, what we do indeed think and so on. They do not arouse in us any determined effort to dissociate ourselves from them. Whether with welcoming approval, or in weary resignation, we consent to having them and to being influenced by them. This willing acceptance of attitudes, thoughts, and feelings transforms their status. They are no longer merely items that happen to appear in a certain psychic history. We have taken responsibility for them as authentic expressions of ourselves'. 3. See Frankfurt (2006, 9-10). The exact quotes are as follows: 'Sometimes we do not participate actively in what goes on in us. It takes place, somehow, but we are just bystanders to it. There are obsessional thoughts, for instance, that disturb us but that we cannot get out of our heads; there are peculiar reckless impulses that make no sense to us, and upon which we would never think of acting; there are hot surges of anarchic emotion that assault us from out of nowhere and that have no recognizable warrant from the circumstances in which they erupt'. And 'By a kind of psychic immune response . . . we dissociate ourselves from them, and seek to prevent them from being at all effective . . . this means that we deny them any entitlement to supply us with motives or reasons. . ..Regardless of how insistent they may be, we assign their claims no place whatever in the order of preferences and priorities that we establish for our deliberate choices and acts'. 4. An agent may be unambivalent about the first decision (whether or not the desire is one that she identifies with), she may even be unambivalent about the second decision in that she wants either desire 1 or 2 to move her to action at t1 but not desire 3 or 4. What she is ambivalent about is whether she wants desire 1 or desire 2 to move her to action at t1. For example, imagine that a person is unambivalent that she identifies with her desire to go to the beach, her desire to go the park, her desire to go to the bookstore, and her desire to have sex. She is even unambivalent that she wants either the desire to go to the beach or the park this afternoon. What she is ambivalent about is whether she wants her desire to go to the beach or her desire to go to the park to be the one that is effective in action this afternoon. This footnote arises from Geoffrey-Sayre McCord encouraging me to reflect on the way that dividing up desires affects the classification of ambivalence during an informal conversation upon his visit to Michigan State University in June 2007. Notes on contributor J.S. Swindell is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2008, she received her PhD in philosophy from Michigan State University. She has several articles on autonomy published or in press, and her research interests focus on decision making and the philosophy of action. References Aeschylus. 2008. Agamemnon of Aeschylus. Translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes. Trans. Gilbert Murray. London: George Allen. Bratman, M. 1999. Identification, decision, and treating as a reason. In Faces of intention: Selected essays on intention and agency, ed. M. Bratman, 185-206. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bratman, M. 2002. Hierarchy, circularity, and double reduction. In Contours of agency: Essays on themes from Harry Frankfurt, ed. S. Buss and L. Overton, 65-90. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Book/MIT Press. Bratman, M. 2003. Autonomy and hierarchy. Social Philosophy and Policy 2: 156-76. Calhoun, C. 1995. Standing for something. The Journal of Philosophy 92: 235-60. Camus, A. 1989. The stranger. New York: Vintage International. Christman, J. 1991. Autonomy and personal history. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21: 1-24. Christman, J. 1993. Defending historical autonomy: A reply to Professor Mele. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2: 281-89. Ambivalence 33 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 0 Ekstrom, L.W. 1993. A coherence theory of autonomy. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53: 599-616. Ekstrom, L.W. 2005. Autonomy and personal integration. In Personal autonomy: New essays on personal autonomy and its role in contemporary moral philosophy, ed. J.S. Taylor, 143-61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 1988a. Freedom of the will and the concept of a person. In The importance of what we care about: Philosophical essays, ed. H. Frankfurt, 11-25. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 1988b. Identification and wholeheartedness. In The importance of what we care about: Philosophical essays, ed. H. Frankfurt, 159-77. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 1988c. Rationality and the unthinkable. In The importance of what we care about: Philosophical essays, ed. H. Frankfurt, 177-90. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 1998. Discussion with Harry Frankfurt. Ethical Perspectives 5: 30-5. Frankfurt, H. 1999a. Autonomy, necessity, and love. In Necessity, volition, and love, ed. H. Frankfurt, 129-42. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 1999b. The faintest passion. In Necessity, volition, and love, ed. H. Frankfurt, 95-108. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. 2006. Taking ourselves seriously. In Taking ourselves seriously and getting it right, ed. H. Frankfurt, 1-27. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Gaut, B. 1993. The paradox of horror. The British Journal of Aesthetics 33: 333-45. Greenspan, P. 1980. A case of mixed feelings: Ambivalence and the logic of emotion. In Explaining emotions, ed. A.O. Rorty, 223-50. Berkeley: University of California Press. Harrist, S. 2006. A phenomenological investigation of the experience of ambivalence. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 37: 85-114. Koch, P. 1987. Emotional ambivalence. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 48: 257-79. Velleman, D. 2002. Identification and identity. In Contours of agency: Essays on themes from Harry Frankfurt, ed. S. Buss and L. Overton, 92-123. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Book/MIT Press. 34 J.S. Swindell D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ P h . D , J . S . S w i n d e l l ] A t : 1 8 : 2 9 1 0 M a r c h 2 0 1
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{ "creator": ", Lucas", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1457890204000, "description": "Averiguando la esboza de Filolao, tomando cuenta del recurso acesorio que hizo verodImilmente a datos observacionales", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/AAF-13", "language": "es", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Averiguando a Filolao", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Ninguna entre las previas rendiciones, ya había recobrado validez astronómica. Como si los quienes hicieron ricercas desde Crotona hubieran sido modelistas. Desde ahora, no pienso mi granito de arena apuntàndolo en astronomía desconviniese a Mattei con tal de cautela filológica2. Presupuesto : Filolao ciertamente no detuve su marco sin consideraciones observacionales3. Aunque S fue obfuscado por el <foco central>, medidas pienden a T. a) yo comprobo, mediante calibraje -c-... b) ...2 porciones del càlculo, resp. a los siguientes 'an'! : T[ierra] ; S[ol] ; l[una]... c) , para lo que suele restaurar la longueza inicial ; puès 2*<r>≞ 'a!'c . Por misma ocasión, περιοδοσ≝ " circuito anual ". Este procedimiento c) hace sentido, desde que 'a7'! 'a4'! o 54 meses lunares ≡ !° !í!" 'a4'! , mientras n° ciclo plurianual r! ≎1 més lunar. Postulado resp. a los <rayo[s]> de Filolao, r : ∀r ∈ t (totientes perfectos, desde Euler) : r1 r! r3 r4 r! r! r7 1 3 9 27 81 243 729 Puès la validez calendaria (n. 3) rinde lícito no reducir el atajo de Filolao [S ≞< cuadrado_cubo>] al sólo uso mnemotécnico : màs allà de la suerte ocultada de S, vale fuera de Filolao en < 2!. 3! >4 medida comùn -por lo menos (¿mero azar o coincidencia significativa?) para la pareja retro-inluminada (vide infra, n. 4). Esos convencionales < 22.33 > se averan idóneos para poner Filolao en perspectiva de datos contemporàneos. Surge ahora el problema conexo (estudiado a lo largo del desarrollo de totientes5) en torno a la potencia unaria i.e. {1 siendo (o no) un p[rimo]}, en que posibilidad elegimos < 1!"#$. 2!. 3! >. Expediente (ésta cuantidad limitante6 108, equiparando ambos 'l ≬ T'! y 'S ≬ T' ! ) : al hacer recurso acesorio a los ''totientes'' correspondientes, c) (es decir : doblamiento del <rayo>) quedarà evidente con 'a3'c (i.e. 2*'9'), ya que : (i) φ 9 = φ 18 , mientras... (ii)...los divisores φ 9 observen los 3 primeros étapas de Filolao : {r!; r!; r!} . 1 En forma de su progresión, cuya razón es ! , PLUTARCO,De anima procreatione in Tim. , ch. XXX. 2 El llorado MATTEI († 2014) en Platon & le miroir du mythe, p. 17, liminaire, Puf, re-ed : FILOLAO, fr. B-7. 3 El calendario de Filolao (364,5 días) està representado por un 1⁄4 del περιοδοσ S-ofuscante. Se consigue al entroncar los 54 meses lunares pendientes a las duraciones reconstituidas : ′S T′ 'T/l'!! !! . 4 Calibraje, merced al n° de diàmetros requeridos para trascurrir unas distancias marcadas por el signo '≬' S. 108!"#$ = S≬T[ierra] :: l[una]≬T = l!"#$ .108 5 Daniel VELLEMAN, How to prove it, Cambridge, 2006. 6 A pesar de no ser ≝diàmetros (n. 4 hacia arriba), vale nuestro postulado : !"#. 'l≬T'! l≬T ≡ !"#. 'S≬T'! S≬T . Cuàn mañoso puede ser Filolao resp. a la pareja En suma : aclaro la ordenanza propuesta por el mismo. Durante siglos, la universidad se quedó al interés paradigmàtico, mientras su marco eliocéntrico tiene relativa validez estadística. Entallada, la esboza1 de Filolao aparece asombrosamente correcta, aùn si resuelta parcial ; se consigue bajo ipotésis de predominio (bajo el informe lumbrifero), aplicado ùnicamente a la pareja retro-inluminada (S∨l)← "foco central" - mientras los valores de los demàs objetos celestes quedan misterio o mero tràmite, segùn y conforme. Ahora, a32∗<rayo> ⇋ 'T'! . Sàlvo el observador terrestre merced a (ii), otros totientes tendràn valor facultativa. Entonces el observador en T sierve como punto de partida ; y los totientes permiterén manejar ambas partes. No es menester los otros totientes (≢! {S l }T!pendiendo a valores [efectivas] -veàse abajo, (1)) ser màs que ''totativas'', puesto que { 'a!'c 'a!'c }⋃φ 18 -siguiendo con órbitas eliocéntricas en ambas ordenanzas. Todavía hace falta subrayar cuàn formal acaba éso apellido revisado 'S'2c , representando la " virtud de los nùmeros sesudos " [Pic] bajo un informe temporal, no un recorrido -ni siquiera los lapsos efectivos tales como los 1.392.000km separando S[, rectificado] y T. En seguida de n. 3 y del desfase debido al Sol reflejado, es recevable referir el desfase (resp. al 'sol' periférico ofuscado) al intervalo ; la duración anual (echando atràs el ajuste inter-calendario inicial) Al reenfocar al intervalo provisional (no obstante la convuelta desalineación resp. al <foco central>) (1) entre ambos astros y el centro segùn Filolao, llegamos un ratio7 igual a φ(100) : (1.1) 'l ≬ T'! ⊐ 54-18, 12.3 (1.2) 'S ≬ T' ! ⊐ 1458-18, 12 2.10 Logrando ésto, recobramos longuezas discretas 8, i.e. poliédricas. Sabemos el marco de Filolao reponer sobre <rayo[s]> por la sencilla razón que en vida tanto iba desconocido. Por eso, Filolao se quedó a coniecturas bi-dimensionales, siempre buscando solucionar lo que quedaba αμαθην (¬calculable) -el pentadecàgono, por ejemplo, para explicar la [anticipada] obliquidad del eclíptico. Logicamente, el paràmetro quedante sino incidente, resp. a la occultación de S, es volumétrico. Y, siguiendo los preceptos pitagóricos, se puede reconducirlo9 al brazo opuesto a la progresión {a!;a!; a!}!!"#$! : (2) luego por la tasa (!! !!) (!! !!) ≈10 se adivina cuàn fàctico rinde a! la τετρακτυσ , tanto como {a! ≬ a! } encubren al mismo factor 10. Entonces halló solución, tan parcial sembrara : (3) a1 + a3 1.2 , reenfocando a minima el marco de Filolao. Para conseguirlo, el ajuste constarà de ser el ratio (1), frente a datos hoy día ciertos : (4) !"#$%&'"% {!! !} !"#$%&'"% {!!!} , permitiendo ahora contestar la pregunta quantum ? (5) 389,18 veces 'l ≬ T'!! , lo que [devuelto a (3) y de acuerdo con (2.v) en n. 7], trae : (6) 389, 18. 'l ≬ T'2c ≲122.102 Así rendido a la pareja de Filolao, se averigua a los ∽ 97,3%10 el intervalo ∎ DS 7 2.i) por formalismo, φ(1440) = φ(111), 2.ii) ...y 37, d[ivisor de φ(111)], aparezcando igualmente d[ivisor de[ 'S ≬ T' ! φ 100 . 2.iii) la pareja permanece, al considerarla dentro de t, si φ 100 = !(!"##) !(!"#)∗ !(!") 2.iv) (3) volverà dable en t : φ 3700 ∗ φ 11 ≎ φ 401 − φ 11 2.v) φ(109) !(!) ! !"" ∗! !! T(S) ≎ T(l) , idest 384000 !"##$$ . 8 ... a los cuales corresponden, segùn PLATÔN, Timeo, tantos cùbos 9 FICINO, Scolios sobre el Timeo, λ , x!!!!!!! ≎ φ(100) -descartando toda regañina de anàcronismo. 10 (2) recoge !"# !"" !!! !"# !"" = 389,18. 12.3 = 14010,4 ≽ 14400.
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{ "creator": "Williams, J. Robert G.", "date": "2006", "datestamp": 1587604144000, "description": "If one believes vagueness to be an exclusively representational phenomenon, one faces the problem of the many: in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro, there are many 'mountain-candidates', all, apparently, with more or less equal claim to be mountains. David Lewis has defended a radical claim: that all these billions of mountain-candidates are mountains. I argue that the supervaluationist about vagueness should adopt Lewis's proposal, on pain of losing their best explanation of the seductiveness of the sorites paradox.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/AAF-5", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "An Argument for the Many", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
An Argument for the Many Penultimate Draft.∗ by J.R.G. Williams (September 29, 2005) Abstract If one believes that vagueness is an exclusively representational phenomenon, one faces the problem of the many. In the vicinity of Kilimanjaro, there are many many 'mountain candidates' all, apparently, with more-or-less equal claim to be mountains. David Lewis has defended a radical claim: that all the billions of mountain candidates are mountains. This paper argues that the supervaluationist about vagueness should adopt Lewis' proposal, on pain of losing their best explanation of the seductiveness of the sorites. Before me, there is a mountain. But is there, in front of me, something which is definitely a mountain? A popular approach to the philosophy of vagueness is in danger of implying that the answer is 'no'. But we can independently argue that the answer should be 'yes'. There is a reconciliation in view: but it says strange things about the number of mountains I'm about to climb. I Many philosophers want to construe vagueness as a product of linguistic or representational indeterminacy. My focus here is on the most popular way of cashing this out: the 'standard' form of supervaluationism that is developed in Fine (1975) and recently defended by Keefe (2000). A standard supervaluationist approach to vague language envisages a range of ways of making our vague language precise. A sentence will count as true simpliciter (or ∗Forthcoming in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. References should be to the published version. Some text may differ. 1 'supertrue') if it is true on every such precisification. (The metalinguistic notion of supertruth is reflected, in the object-language, by a 'Definitely' operator. We can characterize this, initially, in the following way: 'Definitely S' is true at a precisification p if and only if 'S' is true on all precisifications.)1 One of the main selling points of the standard form of supervaluationism is that we can retain the simple, familiar and powerful classical logic in the context of vagueness. We need not worry that the tautologies that we learn in first year logic courses will be rendered invalid when we move to consider a vague language.2 But just this commitment to classical logic is the source of a range of objections to supervaluationism. We can illustrate the problems by running through a version of the notorious sorites reasoning. Suppose we are contemplating a range of emanations: mounds, hills, mountains, and the like. Suppose this range of emanations includes some which are clearly mountains (Kilimanjaro), and also contains emanations of intermediate heights, decreasing at small intervals, until ultimately we reach something which is clearly not a mountain (say, Glastonbury Tor). We shall suppose that, for any emanation in the series, there is a smaller one whose height is within 10 metres of it. For the sake of exposition, we imagine we are in a possible world where these emanations are arranged in order of decreasing height. Now restrict the domain of quantification to this (finite) range, and let x′ be a way of referring to the tallest emanation that is shorter than x, i.e. the next emanation in the range. Under relatively uncontroversial assumptions, classical logic will deliver: (1) ∃x(x is a mountain ∧¬x′ is a mountain) This, however, sounds like we are asserting the existence of a sharp cut-off between those emanations that are mountains and those which are not mountains. But surely there is no sharp cut-off between mountains and non-mountains: a difference in height of only 10 metres cannot make the difference between mountainhood and non-mountainhood.3 Since the supervaluationist buys into classical logic, she is committed to endorsing (1). This leads to the following puzzle: why do our intuitions repel us from (1), given that (according to the supervaluationist) it is both supertrue and a clear consequence of the uncontroversial premisses such as 'Glastonbury Tor is not a mountain' and 'Kilimanjaro is a mountain'? What explains the repugnance of the existential claim (1)? Correlatively, what explains the seductiveness of the negation of (1), assent to which will generate the sorites paradox? Here is how one supervaluationist responds: 1The definition can be generalized to allow 'definitely' to be applied to an open sentence. This is discussed below. 2The situation is actually more subtle than this might make it seem. See Williamson (1994, ch.5.). 3Perhaps government agencies might impose some precise conditions on what height of emananation should count as a mountain. But I suppose such facts to be incidental to the point at issue here-we can easily imagine a situation where no such stipulative definitions have been put forward. 2 Our belief that there is no true instance of the quantification gets confused with a belief that the quantified statement is not true. The more theoretical description of the lack of a true instance needs to be expressed using either the [Definitely] operator or the truth predicate. . . (Keefe, 2000, p.185) The confusion hypothesis which Keefe here endorses contends that our intuitions against statements such as (1) are rooted in a confusion between two related claims (here stated in the material mode): (2) Definitely[∃x(x is a mountain ∧ x′ is not mountain)] (3) ∃x(Definitely[x is mountain∧ x′ is not mountain]) Keefe continues: The confusion . . . is a confusion of scope, according to whether the truth predicate [or 'Definitely'-operator] appears inside or outside the existential quantifier. It is thus like a confusion between saying that it is true that someone ought to do X and saying that it is true of someone that they ought to do X: that latter may be false while the former is true. (ibid) The suggestion is that, generally, we are apt to confuse an utterance of "There is something which is F" with "There is something which is definitely F": our intuitions about the former track the truth-values of the latter. But the two can come apart in truth-value, as is the case in the crucial sorites premiss. Accordingly, Keefe's suggestion is that an assertion of "there is a mountain next to a non-mountain" is heard as committing one to (3), rather than (2). If so, no wonder that we reject it out of hand. Proposals of this kind can be presented in a theory-neutral way, and can be motivated independently of the point at issue. The need to explain the seductiveness of the sorites is incumbent on all non-logically revisionary treatments of vague language; and the confusion hypothesis requires only that one's favoured treatment allows the construction of the notion 'Definitely'. So, for example, Greenough (2003) defends an epistemic version of the confusion hypothesis;4 and Edgington (1997) appeals to the same moves in the context of a degree theoretic account. So when supervaluationists such as Fine (1975) and Keefe (2000) postulate confusion to explain the sorites, it is 4Indeed, the term 'confusion hypothesis' is due to Greenough. 3 no idiosyncratic idea. As regards independent motivation, one would hope that the alleged confusion involved in the case of sorites can be accounted for within systematic pragmatics for vague language. Weatherson (2002) argues persuasively that such an extension gives a range of powerful, surprising and accurate predications of intuitions about the acceptability of statements involving vague vocabulary. I do not claim that appealing to confusion hypotheses of this kind is the only possible way for a supervaluationist to account for the seductiveness of the sorites. But it is something that prominent supervaluationists do endorse, and I am happy to think that of the extant options, it is the one they should endorse. II Mountains, we think, do not have precise boundaries-there isn't any convention over where precisely the base of Kilimanjaro finishes and the surrounding plains begin; or over which clods of earth at its base are part of the mountain. For one who thinks that vagueness is an exclusively linguistic phenomenon, there are no 'vague objects' in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro, and no vagueness in what parts a given object has. Rather, what exists is an array of mountainy agglomorations of land and rock: the 'Kilimanjaro candidates'. There is Kilimanjaro-generously-construed, which includes all the pieces of land that one might count as part of Kilimanjaro under the most generous interpretation; there is Kilimanjaro-meanly-construed, where the only stretches of land counted as parts of Kilimanjaro are those that are clearly part of the main body of the peak itself. Two questions present themselves, either of which might deserve the name 'the problem of the many'.5 The first asks which of the mountain candidates is Kilimanjaro: which is the referent of 'Kilimanjaro'? The second asks which mountain candidates (if any) are mountains: which fall under the predicate 'is a mountain'? We here focus on the second question. There are two salient ways that a supervaluationist might handle this 'problem of the many', if they want to remain true to the idea of vagueness as an exclusively linguistic phenomena.6 The first, sane, option, is to hold that on every way of making the language precise, exactly one of the mountain-candidates will count as a mountain-different candidates on different precisifications. Overall, then, it will be supertrue that there is a mountain; but it will be indeterminate which object is a mountain. The second, 5See Unger (1980) for an early presentation of this problem. Weatherson (2004) surveys various approaches. 6I count among the 'ontological' options being discounted here, the view that there is a 'mountain' existing over and above the various mountain-candidates, in the manner that the statue is said to be a distinct object, though co-located with, the clay. The reason for this is that it looks like the relation of constitution supposedly holding between the mountain candidates and the floating mountain will be a vague one. Appeal to this solution therefore seems unavailable to one who believes that vagueness is an exclusively linguistic matter. Thanks to Carrie Jenkins for pressing me on this point. 4 insane, option, is to hold that on every way of making the language precise, all of the mountain-candidates will count as mountains. Overall, then, it will be supertrue that there is a mountain standing in front of me; further, strictly speaking it will be supertrue that there are many mountains in front of me, even when (as we would usually describe it) there is only Kilimanjaro around. For on this proposal each one of the mountain candidates will be a numerically distinct mountain. The 'insane' option is commended by Lewis (1993) in "Many, but almost one". He does much there to rehabilitate the option, to show how it can give an account of why we say the things that we do. For example, to the objection that his theory amounts to a massive error theory of ordinary practice of counting and discriminating between mountains, Lewis replies by distinguishing 'almost identity' from identity proper. Objects x and y are almost-identical if they share almost all their parts. So, though the many mountain candidates are not identical in the strictest sense, they are 'almost identical'. Suppose we say that there are just two mountains in a range. We can take this to express the following: there are x and y which are mountains, and every mountain in the range is such that it is almost-identical to either x or to y. If 'identity' as used by English speakers, typically expresses almost-identity, then truisms such as "there are less than a million mountains in Scotland" will come out true, where on the strict reading of they come out false. By systematically reinterpreting the apparatus of individuation for natural languages in this way, Lewis makes tenable the initially incredible thesis that strictly speaking, there are billions of mountains in Scotland.7 III Whether or not we continue to regard the 'many' thesis endorsed by Lewis as insane, if we want to maintain the confusion hypothesis discussed above, we need to buy into it. For on the rival view, on each precisification, only one of the Kilimanjaro candidates falls within the predicate "is a mountain". Hence there is no object in the relevant range which falls under the predicate "is a mountain" on every precisification. But, on the natural treatment of 'Definitely', this means that the following will be false:8 7Note that the semantic hypothesis about the meanings of English words that Lewis explores does not require any objectionable metaphysical thesis about the nature of identity itself. Nor does it mean that we cannot create contexts-such as that of the philosophy classroom-where 'identity' will unambiguously express strict identity. 8What I refer to as the 'standard' treatment of 'Definitely' takes it that for an object to satisfy 'Definitely φ' is for those objects to satisfy φ on each admissible precisification. This is the natural generalization of 'Definitely' as requiring truth on every precisification, as described, for example, in McGee (1997). If one handles 'Definitely' analogously to a modal operator (with 'precisifications' replacing 'worlds' on the model of Lewis (1970)), then the above is simply the extension of the standard semantic treatment of quantification into modal contexts. 5 (4) ∃x Definitely[x is a mountain] This result, if sustained, completely undermines the confusion hypothesis outlined earlier. An immediate problem is that a range of false predictions flowing from the generalized form of the confusion hypothesis: our intuitions about the acceptability of asserting "there are mountains" are supposed to track the truth value of "there are definite mountains". The latter, on this view, is false-but obviously the former is perfectly assertible, contrary to the predictions of the confusion hypothesis. An even more serious consequence of the 'sane' view is that the ability of the confusion hypothesis to explain intuitions about the sorites premiss is undermined. To illustrate this, let us put the explanatory challenge in the following contrastive form. In the original case presented above, where we have a range of emanations from Kilimanjaro to Glastonbury Tor, decreasing in height by millimetres from one to the next, we have strong 'no cut off' intuitions. Consider a new range, consisting only of Kilimanjaro next to Glastonbury Tor. With respect to this scenario, we have strong intuitions that there is a cut-off, a mountain standing next to a non-mountain. We have, that is, contrasting intuitions in the two cases. But the status of (3) is the same in the two cases, for its falsity rests on the non-existence of any definite mountains. The problem, of course, is that the status of (3) is now totally insensitive to the heights of the mountains and hills we have in our range, for its falsity is secured purely by the presence of many mountain-candidates, given the 'sane' resolution of the problem of the many. It remains to be shown that adopting Lewis' 'many mountains' resolution of the problem of the many avoids these problems. Recall that on this view, on every precisification of the language, all the Kilimanjaro candidates will fall under the predicate "mountain". It follows that every Kilimanjaro candidate will be a definite mountain; a fortiori "there is something which is definitely a mountain", will be true; and no false predications about our intuitions concerning "there are mountains" arise. And similarly, whether or not (3) is true or false will depend, as it should, on the height and distribution of the emanations in the range that we are considering. The tension between supervaluationism and the confusion hypothesis can be removed, therefore, by adopting Lewis' proposals. The confusion hypothesis plays a vital theoretical role within supervaluationism: without it we have no good way to explain the seductiveness of the sorites. So we have a strong reason to look favourably on the 'many mountains' proposal. By contrast, what reason have we for rejecting it? At first glance such a view looks ontologically excessive-billions of mountains where ordinary folk say there is just one. But there is no distinguishing the Lewis 'many' resolution and its rival on these grounds. They agree about what there is: billions of mountainy agglomorations of rock. The disagreement is simply about how these entities should be labelled in order to explain our language use. The intuitions of ordinary speakers do speak against the Lewisian resolution. But there is a familiar tactic available: explain away such recalcitrant data pragmatically. 6 The discussion in Lewis (1993), briefly described above, can be taken in this spirit. Given the strong theoretical grounds in favour, and the fragility of the case against, supervaluationists should adopt Lewis' 'many mountains' resolution of the problem of the many. The thing I am climbing is definitely a mountain. So, there are many, many mountains beneath my feet.9 School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, UK. and Arché AHRC Centre for the Philosophy of Logic, Language, Mathematics and Mind. School of Philosophical and Anthropological Studies. University of St Andrews. References Edgington, D. (1997). 'Vagueness by degrees'. In R. Keefe and P. Smith, editors, Vagueness: A reader. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Fine, K. (1975). 'Vagueness, truth and logic'. Synthese, 30, 265-300. Reprinted with corrections in Keefe and Smith (eds) Vagueness: A reader (MIT Press, Cambridge MA: 1997) pp.119-150. Greenough, P. (2003). 'Vagueness: A minimal theory'. Mind, 112(446). Keefe, R. (2000). Theories of Vagueness. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lewis, D. K. (1970). 'General semantics'. Synthese, 22, 18-67. Reprinted with postscript in Lewis, Philosophical Papers I (Oxford University Press, 1983) 189- 229. Lewis, D. K. (1993). 'Many, but almost one'. In K. Campbell, J. Bacon, and L. Reinhardt, editors, Ontology, Causality and Mind: Essays on the philosophy of D. M. Armstrong. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Reprinted in Lewis, Papers on Metaphysics and Epistemology (Cambridge University Press, 1999) 164-82. 9Versions of this paper were presented to the Arché AHRC Research Centre, to the School of Philosophy at the University of Leeds, and in the Graduate Sessions at the Joint Session of the Mind Association and the Aristotelian Society. I also benefitted from discussions in two electronic forums: the Arché Discussion Boards; and Brian Weatherson's weblog Thoughts, Arguments and Rants () I am grateful to everyone who has discussed this material with me in these and other contexts, for much useful criticism and advice. In preparing this work I have benefitted from an AHRC studentship (doctoral award), and from support by the departments of philosophy at the University of St Andrews. 7 McGee, V. (1997). "Kilimanjaro". Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume: 'Meaning and Reference', 3, 141-196. McGee, V. and McLaughlin, B. (1994). 'Distinctions without a difference'. Southern Journal of Philosophy, supp XXXII, 203-251. Unger, P. (1980). 'The problem of the many'. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 5, 411-67. Weatherson, B. (2004). 'The problem of the many'. Fall 2004 edition edition. http: //. Weatherson, B. (Draft 2002). 'Vagueness and pragmatics'. Available at . . Williamson, T. (1994). Vagueness. Routledge, London.
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{ "creator": "Troye, Sigurd", "date": "2011", "datestamp": 1478244400000, "description": "Organizational learning can be described as a transfer of individuals’ cognitive mental models to shared mental models. Employees, seeking the same colleagues for advice, are structurally equivalent, and the aim of the paper is to study if the concept can act as a conduit for organizational learning. It is argued that the mimicking of colleagues’ advice seeking structures will induce structural equivalence and transfer the accuracy of individuals’ cognitive mental models to shared mental models. Taking a dyadic level of analysis authors revisit a classical case and present novel data analyses.The empirical results indicate that the mimicking of advice seeking structures can alter cognitive accuracy. It is discussed the findings’ implications for organization learning theory and practice, addressed the study’s limitations, and suggested avenues for future research.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/AARASN", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Advice seeking network structures and the learning organization", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 44 SECTION 3. General issues in management Jarle Aarstad (Norway), Marcus Selart (Norway), Sigurd Troye (Norway) Advice seeking network structures and the learning organization Abstract Organizational learning can be described as a transfer of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models. Employees, seeking the same colleagues for advice, are structurally equivalent, and the aim of the paper is to study if the concept can act as a conduit for organizational learning. It is argued that the mimicking of colleagues' advice seeking structures will induce structural equivalence and transfer the accuracy of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models. Taking a dyadic level of analysis authors revisit a classical case and present novel data analyses. The empirical results indicate that the mimicking of advice seeking structures can alter cognitive accuracy. It is discussed the findings' implications for organization learning theory and practice, addressed the study's limitations, and suggested avenues for future research. Keywords: accuracy of cognitive models, advice seeking networks, cognitive congruence, imitation, mediating variable, organizational learning, structural equivalence, QAP-regression. JEL Classifications: C12, D85, M10. Introduction© Organizational learning can be described as a transfer of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models (Kim, 1993; March and Olsen, 1975). But what are the carriers of learning in organizations? The question has been addressed by numerous scholars (e.g., Haunschild, 2009; Nagano et al., 2010; Vera and Crossan, 2004), and it has been suggested that social network structures act as important catalysts (e.g., Borgatti and Cross, 2003; Hannah and Lester, 2009). The focus in this paper is to gain further knowldegde about social network structures' role on organizational learning, and in paticular we study if structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns can act as a vehicle for the transferring of cognitive models. Structural equivalence indicates similar network positions or structures (Lorrain and White, 1971), which implies that employees seeking the same colleagues for advice are structurally equivalent. Structural equivalence can explain the diffusion of innovations and business practices (Burt, 1987; Galaskiewicz and Burt, 1991). Despite of the concept appears to explain crucial organizational phenomena, its explicit role in the transferring of cognitive models is not well understood. Granted, Kang and Kim (2010) find that structural equivalence is related to knowledge transfer, but they measure knowledge transfer retrospectively as a subjective construct, which can have implications for their study's validity (cf., March and Sutton, 1997). © Jarle Aarstad, Marcus Selart, Sigurd Troye, 2011. In this paper we study organizational learning and cognitive mental models as objective and not as a subjective constructs. More specifically, we study the accuracy of cognitive models, which we define as the correspondence between the real advice structure at the workplace (i.e., an objective benchmark) and an employee's perception of the same structure (Krackhardt, 1990). The definition is in line with Senge (1990), who describes a person's mental model as a cognitive or internal image of the workings of the world. Argyris and Schön (1978: 16) argue that "each member of the organization constructs his or her own representation, or image, of the theory-in-use of the whole. That picture is always incomplete." And they continue: "Inquiry into organizational learning must concern itself not with static entities called organizations, but with an active process of organizing which is, at root, a cognitive enterprise". In a similar vein Kim (1993: 39) states that "mental models not only help us make sense of the world we see, they can also restrict our understandings to that which makes sense within the mental model." It thus appears that Kim describes inaccurate mental models of the "real" world as a liability whereas high degree of accuracy is an asset. Studies likewise find that cognitive accuracy is associated with power, effectiveness, status, social knowledge, and social rank (Balkundi and Kilduff, 2005; Choi and Kim, 2007; Johnson and Orbach, 2002; Krackhardt, 1990). Cognitive accuracy accordingly appears to be an advantage, and in particular we will argue that the mimicking of colleagues' advice seeking patterns can be related to the concept. Aarstad et al. (2010) state that structurally equivalent actors mimic the networking patterns of successful colleagues and Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 45 develop a pool of intangible resources. Studying entrepreneurs, they find that similarity in advice structures is related to higher joint performance. Taking a dyadic level of analysis, we elaborate further in this paper how the mimicking of colleagues' advice seeking networks will induce structural equivalence and transfer the accuracy of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models. We develop three hypotheses which we test on a dataset from an entrepreneurial firm. Next, we discuss the findings, assess theoretical and practical implications for organizational learning, address the study's limitations, and suggest avenues for future research. 1. Theory and hypotheses In Figure 1 we observe that employee i seeks k, l, and m for advice. If we also assume that j seeks k, l, and m for advice, we can say that i and j are structurally equivalent in advice seeking patterns (Lorrain and White, 1971). Said differently, the information i and j receive through their advice ties comes from similar or equivalent sources. l m k i j Fig. 1. It is reasonable to assume that information passing through similar or equivalent network sources induce similarities in cognitive models. Heald et al. (1998) find that similarity in networking patterns is associated with shared cognitions in employees' interpretation of the social structure at the workplace. Studies also find that structural equivalence is related to similarity in behavior, e.g. studying entrepreneurs (Aarstad, Haugland and Greve, 2010; Galaskiewicz and Burt, 1991). Aarstad et al. (2010) report that entrepreneurs, who seek the same actors for advice, are more similar in performance than actors who seek advice from different sources. Taken together, these studies can indicate that structural equivalence is instrumental for shared cognitions and similarity in behavior. If we relate the findings to cognitive accuracy, it is reasonable to assume that similarity in advice seeking patterns will induce i and j to have a more similar or shared cognitive accuracy of the advice structure than colleagues who are dissimilar in advice seeking patterns. This motivates the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: Structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns is related to similarity in cognitive accuracy for pairs of employees. So far, we have merely argued that structural equivalence is related to similarity in cognitive accuracy. In the following we elaborate how structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns can transfer the accuracy of cognitive models and act as a vehicle for learning in organizations. A premise for our arguing is that advice seeking patterns are related to imitation or mimetic behavior. Seminal works by organizational scholars state that the effects of mimetic behavior can be advantageous (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; March and Olsen, 1976). Other scholars likewise argue that imitation is inherently creative, innovative and crucial for organizational learning (see Tsui-Auch, 2003). Let us now assume that i at the outset seeks k, l, and m for advice, whereas this is not the case for j (e.g., j may either seek other colleagues for advice or seek no colleagues for advice at all). We furthermore assume that by seeking k, l, and m for advice, i has developed a high degree of cognitive accuracy (e.g., by seeking these colleagues for advice, i has learned what "really" is going on in the firm beyond any formal organizational chart). On the other hand, j, is at the outset relatively inferior in accuracy of cognitive accuracy. In order to increase her/his cognitive accuracy, j may feel inclined to imitate or mimic i's advice seeking pattern1. By mimicking i's advice seeking pattern, j may in turn gain access to equivalent or similar network resources. As a consequence, we can expect that j will improve her/his cognitive accuracy. According to our arguing above, this will result in that i and j will be more similar in cognitive accuracy than they were at the outset, but it will also result in that the pair of actors' cumulative or joint cognitive accuracy will be improved. Studying entrepreneurs, Aarstad et al. (2010) report that similarity in network structures is related to higher joint performance for pairs of actors, which is in line with our reasoning. 1Granted, i's high degree of cognitive accuracy is not necessarily explicitly visible, but we have referred to studies that relate the concept to power and influence (Balkundi and Kilduff, 2005; Choi and Kim, 2007; Johnson and Orbach, 2002; Krackhardt, 1990). Krackhardt (1990) also shows that employees are very consistent in whom they refer to as powerful. Thus, perhaps without explicitly being aware of i's cognitive accuracy, j may feel prone to mimic i's advice seeking pattern, due to i's possible success at the workplace (e.g., by perceiving i as a powerful or influential colleague). Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 46 To generalize our way of thinking beyond i and j, we argue that employees with relatively low degrees of cognitive accuracy at the outset will have a general tendency to mimic the advice seeking patterns of one or more successful colleagues. This can act as a carrier of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models. To paraphrase Argyris and Schön (1978: 17): "Organizational maps are the shared descriptions of organization which individuals jointly construct and use to guide their own inquiry... Whatever their form, maps have a dual function. They describe actual patterns of activity, and they are guides to future action. As musicians perform their scores, members of an organization perform their maps." Thus, numerous employees may pursue parallel strategies as j in mimicking i or other successful colleagues' advice seeking patterns, which can have additive effects on the cognitive accuracy. Taken together, we sum up our discussion and advance the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 2: Structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns is related to higher joint cognitive accuracy for pairs of employees. We have assumed that j can improve her/his cognitive accuracy by mimicking i's advice seeking pattern. A premise for this reasoning is that j imprints a cognitive map of the advice structure that is congruent with i's cognitive map. Cognitive congruence deals with to what extent employees are similar in cognitive interpretation social network structures, independent of whether they have accurate cognitive perceptions or not (Heald, Contractor, Koehly and Wasserman, 1998). Accordingly, j, improves her/his cognitive accuracy by being more congruent with i in cognitive interpretation of the advice network than she/he was at the outset. Mediation explains why the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable occurs (Baron and Kenny, 1986). We consequently argue that cognitive congruence mediates the proposed relationships between similarity in advice seeking patterns and joint cognitive accuracy. This motivates the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 3: Cognitive congruence mediates the proposed relationship between structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns and higher joint cognitive accuracy for pairs of employees. The concepts of cognitive congruence and cognitive accuracy are closely related, but they nevertheless deviate slightly - but importantly - in connotation1. We argue that applying cognitive congruence as mediating variable can partake in assessing the internal validity of the findings from this study, and we return to this issue when we discuss the results from the empirical analyses. 2. Method 2.1. Research context and data instrument. In this paper we revisit a classical case and present novel data analyses. The raw data was gathered by David Krackhardt from an entrepreneurial firm. At the time of the data collection, the firm had 36 employees (Krackhardt, 1990). This classical case has been applied in other studies (e.g., Kilduff and Krackhardt, 1994; Krackhardt and Kilduff, 1999), which adds validity to our contribution. The firm's business "involved the sales, installation, and maintenance of the state-of-the-art information systems... and was wholly owned by the three top managers..." (Krackhardt, 1990, p. 347). A questionnaire was used to gather the data on real and cognitive advice structures. Directions about advice and help for work-related problems "were followed by 36 questions (e.g., "Who would Cindy Stalwart help or advice at work?"), each asking the same question about a different employee. Each of these 36 questions was followed by a list of 35 names, any of which the respondent could check off in response to the question" (Krackhardt, 1990, p. 349). 33 of 36 employees participated in the study. 2.2. Modeling the real advice network. A real or actual advice tie from one employee to another exists if both of them agree on both the relation and its direction. This is analogous with the term locally aggregated structure (Krackhardt, 1987), which has been applied in numerous other studies (e.g., Casciaro et al., 1999; Kilduff et al., 2008; Kilduff and Krackhardt, 1994; Krackhardt, 1990, 1992). In Figure 2 we graphically display the advice seeking network (names are reported with pseudonyms). For further details about the modeling of the real advice network, see Krackhardt (1990). 1 I.e., whereas cognitive accuracy is the correspondence between the real advice structure and an employee's cognitive perception of the same structure, cognitive congruence deals with to what extent employees are similar in cognitive interpretation social network structures, independent of whether they have accurate cognitive knowledge or not. Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 47 Fig. 2. A graphical display of the advice network 2.3. Structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns as independent variable. Studying the concept of similarity or structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns implies that we take a dyadic level of analysis on pairs of actors. Dyads are rarely perfect in structural equivalence, and a widely used measure to model the concept is to correlate each pair of actors' networking pattern (see Wasserman and Faust, 1994, pp. 368-375). In our context, this implies that we generate at matrix in which we assess the correlation coefficient in advice seeking patterns for each dyad, and the coefficient can theoretically take any value between -1 and +1. As noted, 3 out of 36 employees did not participate in the study. In addition, 2 out the 33 respondents did not seek advice at all and were consequently deleted from the sample. We therefore remain with a sample size of 31, which implies that we have 465 dyadic observations ([312-31]/2=465). 2.4. Dependent variables. The cognitive advice network for each employee was taken from the responses selected on the questionnaire. Each employee's cognitive map or matrix of the advice network was next correlated with the matrix of the real advice network (i.e., the locally aggregated structure), thus a high correlation coefficient implies a high degree of cognitive accuracy and vice versa. Following Krackhardt's (1990) suggestion, we deleted ego and her/his perceived and real relations from the respective matrices before correlating them. 2.4.1. Similarity in cognitive accuracy. To model similarity in cognitive accuracy between pairs of actors, we created a matrix in which we applied the absolute value in difference for each dyad. If i's cognitive accuracy is .50 and j's is .20, the i-j dyad's similarity in cognitive accuracy is .30 (|.50-.20|). 2.4.2. Joint cognitive accuracy. Joint cognitive accuracy was modeled by creating a matrix in which we summarized each pair of actors' cognitive accuracy. E.g., if i's accuracy is .50 and j's is .20, the i-j dyad's joint accuracy is .70 (.20+.50). 2.5. Cognitive congruence as mediating variable. To model cognitive congruence between pairs of actors, we correlated i's cognitive network matrix of advice ties on j's, repeating this procedure on all dyads in the sample. Next, we aggregated these correlates into a new data matrix. As with the concept of structural equivalence, the concept of cognitive congruence can theoretically take any value between -1 and +1. Burt (1982) argues that structural equivalence can have a strong explanatory effect on organizational phenomena. We argue in this paper that structural equivalence is also a major carrier for the dependent variables, but due to limited space we do not elaborate in detail why we do not include other control variables than cognitive congruence (as a mediating variable) for this study. Upon request, however, the first author can provide a detailed note about this issue. Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 48 3. Results Table 1 reports dyadic QAP (quadratic assignment procedure) correlations for 31 employees (i.e., 465 dyads). All the analyses are calculated in Ucinet 6.135 (Borgatti et al., 2002). The significance level is calculated by randomly permuting rows and columns for one matrix (by default) 5000 times (Borgatti, Everett and Freeman, 2002). Below we present the results of the hypothesized effects (due to limited space we do not discuss the descriptive statistics here, but upon request the first author can provide a detailed discussion). Table 1. QAP correlations Min Max Mean SD SCA JCA CC Similarity in cognitive accuracy (SCA) 0 .302 .071 .056 Joint cognitive accuracy (JCA) .513 1.01 .810 .088 -.346* Cognitive congruence (CC) .151 .715 .433 .101 -.345** .716*** Structural equivalence in advice seeking -.169 1.00 .196 .266 -.204* .174* .178* Notes: Number of dyads = 465; *p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001 (two tailed tests). We hypothesized that structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns is related to similarity in cognitive accuracy (SCA) for pairs of employees, and we observe in Table 1 that the correlation between the concepts is negative and significant. This finding gives empirical support to hypothesis 1. Next we hypothesized that structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns is related to higher joint cognitive accuracy (JCA) for pairs of employees, and Table 1 shows a positive and significant relationship between the concepts. Thus, also hypothesis 2 gains empirical support. We furthermore hypothesized that cognitive congruence would mediate the relationships between structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns and higher joint accuracy of cognitive knowledge (hypothesis 3). To test this hypothesis we applied a multi regression technique developed by Dekker et al. (2007). By default, we applied 2000 random permutations, and the results are reported in Table 2. We observe that when controlling for cognitive congruence, the relationship between structural equivalence in advice seeking and joint cognitive accuracy is practically zero. Thus, hypothesis 3 gains empirical support in that cognitive congruence in practical terms fully mediates the relationship between structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns and joint cognitive accuracy (from a significant standardized coefficient of .174 to an insignificant coefficient of .048). Table 2. QAP regression Dependent variable Joint cognitive accuracy Cognitive congruence .708*** Structural equivalence in advice seeking .048 R-square .515*** Adjusted R-square .515 Notes: Number of dyads = 465. Standardized coefficients. *p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001 (two tailed tests). Discussion and conclusions Organizational learning can be described as a transfer of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models (Kim, 1993; March and Olsen, 1975). In this paper we have argued that employees with relatively inaccurate cognitive mental models may tend to mimic the advice seeking patterns of more successful colleagues. This can act as a transferring mechanism of learning and improve cognitive accuracy by the sharing of mental models. Thus, if an employee improves her/his cognitive accuracy by mimicking the advice seeking pattern of a colleague, this will increase the joint cognitive accuracy for the dyad members. The mimicking of advice seeking patterns will furthermore induce structural equivalence or similarity in network structures, and we find that similarity (or structural equivalence) in advice seeking patterns is associated with higher joint cognitive accuracy (Table 1). Our result is in line with Aarstad et al. (2010), who report that similarity in advice structures is related to higher joint performance. They also argue that structurally equivalent actors mimic the networking patterns of successful colleagues and develop a pool of intangible resource. We also find that structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns is related to similarity in cognitive accuracy (Table 1). Having argued that j improves her/his accuracy by mimicking i's advice seeking pattern, this in fact cannot be possible unless the dyad members also become more similar in accuracy. To generalize our findings, we can infer from the empirical analyses that numerous employees pursue parallel strategies in mimicking other successful colleagues' advice seeking patterns, which leverages learning by the sharing of mental models. In a similar vein Argyris and Schön (1978: 19) argue that "in order for organizational learning to occur, learning agents' discoveries, inventions, and evaluations must be embedded in organizational memory. They must be encoded in the individual images and the shared maps..." Our analyses, moreover, show that cognitive congruence mediates the relationship between structural Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 49 equivalence in advice seeking patterns and joint cognitive accuracy (Table 2). Assuming that i and j's joint cognitive accuracy is a function of j mimicking i's advice seeking pattern (which in turn improves j's accuracy and induces her/him to be more similar with i), this process cannot take place unless j imprints i's cognitive map of the advice structure. In our opinion, the mediating effect of cognitive congruence indicates that such a process takes place, and adds validity to our line of reasoning§. The explained variance of the empirical findings does not seem to be particularly strong. For instance, a correlation coefficient of .174 in Table 1 tells that similarity in advice seeking patters explains a little more than 3% of the variance in joint cognitive accuracy (.1742 = .0303). We must bear in mind, however, that the coefficient explains the variance in joint cognitive accuracy for each dyad in the sample. This implies that imitating the advice seeking pattern of not only one, but perhaps numerous colleagues can have an additive effect on joint cognitive accuracy. If we in addition assume that numerous colleagues pursue parallel mimicking strategies, the total impact on the sharing cognitive mental model can be substantial. Implications for theory and practice We have referred to studies that relate individuals' cognitive accuracy to power and influence at the workplace (Balkundi and Kilduff, 2005; Choi and Kim, 2007; Johnson and Orbach, 2002; Krackhardt, 1990). Thus, having accurate cognitive mental models appears to be beneficial for each individual, and in this paper we have assessed how structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns can leverage this ability. Research nevertheless indicates that cognitive accuracy can be beneficial beyond an individual level of analysis (e.g., at group level, organization level, or even at an inter-organizational level), and below we elaborate this issue. Kim (1993: 43) states that organizational learning increases "an organization's capacity to take effective action", and Krackhardt (1992) argues that cognitive misinterpretations of strong informal friendship ties prevented an attempt to unionize the firm he was currently studying. It thus seems that cognitive inaccuracy in the labor union constrained effective action on their part. Said differently, cognitive § Theoretically, we can also assume that i instead imprints j's cognitive map. But since the similarity in advice seeking patters is positively associated with joint cognitive accuracy, this is a likely result of j improving his/her cognitive accuracy, and not i deteriorating his/her cognitive accuracy (by imprinting j's cognitive map of the advice structure). In the latter case, similarity in advice seeking patterns for i and j would have resulted in lower joint accuracy, which is contrary to what we find. accuracy seems to be beneficial beyond an individual level of analysis in that it appears to leverage an organizational capacity to take effective action. Close-knit network structures can increase performance (Lazer and Friedman, 2007), but Killworth et al. (2006) find that cognitive mistakes in predicting the shortest path length between actors are prevalent. In other words, despite that close-knit network ties can be beneficial; many employees appear to miss out the benefits of such structures due to cognitive misinterpretations. In another study, Greve (2009: 1) argues that "valuable innovations [in the shipping industry] remain rare because they are not adopted by distant firms in geographical and network space." A plausible hypothesis related to this statement is that valuable innovations would be more frequent if relevant actors had more accurate perceptions of the "actual" path-length between themselves and other network members. This paper has assessed how the sharing of mental models can facilitate cognitive accuracy of "actual" social network structures, which, as s consequence, also increases the awareness of the de facto path-length between network members. Research has shown that the concept of structural equivalence can have crucial explanatory effect on organizational phenomena, such as innovation, the spreading of business practices and performance (Aarstad, Haugland and Greve, 2010; Burt, 1987; Galaskiewicz and Burt, 1991). In this paper we have emphasized that structural equivalence can transfer the accuracy of individuals' cognitive mental models to shared mental models. We argue that managers should be aware of how they can apply this insight. For instance, a first practical step (which is often done) can be identified and classified skilled employees along several dimensions (including cognitive accuracy, but also practical knowledge, intellectual knowledge, tacit knowledge, etc.). Subsequently, managers should aim to identify from which sources these skills have been acquired (e.g., advice seeking patters, but also other sources such as coursework, certain experience, use of manuals, etc.) and make this information explicitly available for relevant employees, who are in need of similar knowledge. The mimicking successful colleagues' sources will induce structural equivalence, and the major implication from our study is that this may act as a carrier for the transfer of learning between employees. Nevertheless, it might be intuitive to assume that learning is also transferred through cohesive direct ties between employees, and the research literature gives some support to this argument (Reagans and McEvily, 2003). Other studies point to that both structural equivalence and cohesion play complemenProblems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2011 50 tary roles in explaining the diffusion of innovation, learning, and performance (Aarstad, Haugland and Greve, 2010; Harkola and Greve, 1995; Kang and Kim, 2010). A practical insight from these scholarly works accordingly is the complementary roles which cohesive ties might play along with structural equivalence as carriers of learning in organizations, and managers should be aware of these issues. Argyris and Schön (1978) make a distinction between what they label as single-loop learning and double-loop learning in organizations. In brief, single-loop learning involves the detection and correction of error without further substantial changes in organizational practices or policies. Double-loop learning, on the other hand, "occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that [also] involve the modification of an organization's underlying norms, policies, and objectives" (Argyris and Schön, 1978, p. 3). In this paper we have implicitly studied knowledge transfer as single-loop learning in that we have merely examined how structural equivalence can induce the detection and correction of employees' inaccurate cognitive maps of the advice seeking structure. We nevertheless emphasize that our contribution can have implications for the fostering of double-loop learning. A prerequisite for a successful and smooth modification of an organization's underlying norms, policies, and objectives, is that the employees share an accurate cognitive interpretation of the challenges at hand. In this paper we have illustrated that the concept of structural equivalence can act as an important carrier for the sharing of accurate cognitive mental models. Limitations and future research Applying the concept of cognitive congruence as a mediating variable has indicated causal direction between structural equivalence in advice seeking patterns and joint cognitive accuracy, but the study's cross sectional design nevertheless limits a robust assessment of the internal validity. Future research should therefore deal with this issue, either by the use of instrumental variables, a longitudinal design or an experimental design. We have argued that cognitive accuracy can be beneficial beyond an individual level of analysis, but it is a matter of fact that some employees have more accurate cognitive perceptions of social network structures than others. Future research should accordingly study in what ways the concept of cognitive accuracy is related to individual or collective benefits at the workplace. Questions may be: Is homogeneity in cognitive accuracy more beneficial for a collective of organizational members, whereas heterogeneity in accuracy will benefit a minority of members at the cost of a collective group? It is also likely to assume that contextual issues in terms of stable and simple versus unstable and complex environments can moderate the relationships between employees' cognitive accuracy and individual or collective benefits, and future studies should examine these issues. References 1. Aarstad, J., S.A. Haugland and A. Greve (2010). Performance Spillover Effects in Entrepreneurial Networks: Assessing a Dyadic Theory of Social Capital, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(5), pp. 1003-1020. 2. Argyris, C. and D. Schön (1978). 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Perceiving the Political Landscape: Ego Biases in Cognitive Political Networks, Social Networks, 24, pp. 291-310. 20. Kang, M. and Y. G. Kim. (2010). A Multilevel View on Interpersonal Knowledge Transfer, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(3), pp. 483-494. 21. Kilduff, M., C. Crossland, W. Tsai and D. Krackhardt (2008). Organizational Network Perceptions Versus Reality: A Small World after All? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 107(1), pp. 15-28. 22. Kilduff, M. and D. Krackhardt (1994). Bringing the Individual Back In: a Structural-Analysis of the Internal Market for Reputation in Organizations, Academy of Management Journal, 37(1), pp. 87-108. 23. Killworth, P.D., C. McCarthy, H.R. Bernard and M. House, (2006). The Accuracy of Small World Chains in Social Networks, Social Networks, 28, pp. 85-96. 24. Kim, D.H. (1993). The Link between Individual and Organizational Learning, Sloan Management Review, 35(1), pp. 37-50. 25. Krackhardt, D. (1990). Assessing the Political Landscape: Structure, Cognition, and Power in Organizations, Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, pp. 342-369. 26. Krackhardt, D. (1987). Cognitive Social Structures, Social Networks, 9, pp. 109-134. 27. Krackhardt, D. (1992). The Strength of Strong Ties: the Importance of Philos in Organizations, in Networks and Organization, ed. N. Nohria and R.G. Eccles, 216-39, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 28. Krackhardt, D. and M. Kilduff (1999). Whether Close or Far: Social Distance Effects on Perceived Balance in Friendship Networks, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(5), pp. 770-782. 29. Lazer, D. and A. Friedman (2007). The Network Strucrure of Exploration and Exploitation, Administrative Science Quarterly, 52, pp. 667-694. 30. Lorrain, F. and H.C. White (1971). Structural Equivalence of Individuals in Social Networks, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1, pp. 49-80. 31. March, J.G. and J.P. Olsen (1976). Ambiguity and Choice in Oranizations, Bergen, Norway: Universitetsforlaget. 32. March, J.G. and J.P. Olsen (1975). The Uncertainty of the Past: Organizational Learning under Ambiguity, European Journal of Political Research, 3, pp. 147-171. 33. March, J.G. and R.I. Sutton (1997). Organizational Performance as a Dependent Variable, Organization Science, 8(6), pp. 698-706. 34. Nagano, M.S., A. Iacono and E. Escrivao (2010). Cooperation, Interaction and Learning in Local Production Systems: Evidence in Brazilian Firms, African Journal of Business Management, 4(12), pp. 2459-2479. 35. Reagans, R. and B. McEvily (2003). Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer: the Effects of Cohesion and Range, Administrative Science Quarterly, 48(2), pp. 240-267. 36. Senge, P.M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline, New York: Doubleday. 37. Tsui-Auch, L.S. (2003). Learning Strategies of Small and Medium-Sized Chinese Family Firms a Comparative Study of Two Suppliers in Singapore, Management Learning, 34(2), pp. 201-220. 38. Vera, D. and M. Crossan (2004). Strategic Leadership and Organizational Learning, Academy of Management Review, 29(2), pp. 222-240. 39. Wasserman, S.S. and K. Faust (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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{ "creator": "Maltais, Aaron", "date": "2015", "datestamp": 1559833314000, "description": "Investments in mitigating climate change have their greatest environmental impact over the long term. As a consequence the incentives to invest in cutting greenhouse gas emissions today appear to be weak. In response to this challenge, there has been increasing attention given to the idea that current generations can be motivated to start financing mitigation at much higher levels today by shifting these costs to the future through national debt. Shifting costs to the future in this way benefits future generations by break- ing existing patterns of delaying large-scale investment in low-carbon energy and efficiency. As we will see in this chapter, it does appear to be technically feasible to transfer the costs of investments made today to the future in such a way that people alive today do not incur any net cost. the aim of this chapter is to take seriously the possibility that climate change has produced an extremely intractable political problem and that we must now consider strong measures that can break existing patterns of delaying mitigation. I defend the claim that if climate change involves a stark conflict of interests between current and future generations, then borrowing from the future would be both strategically and normatively much better than the status quo. Nevertheless, I challenge the borrowing from the future proposal on the grounds that it is not in fact the powerful tool for motivating existing agents that its proponents imagine it to be. The purpose of developing this critical argument is not, however, simply to throw doubt onto the idea of borrowing from the future. If we really do find ourselves in a political context where the prospects for effective action are very poor then strategic forms of buck-passing may make an important positive contribution to avoiding dangerous global cli- mate change. Consequently, if debt financing is not as powerful of a motivational tool as imagined we still have strong reasons, I will argue, to identify other strategies that will change agents’ incentive structures. To this end, I propose an alternative form of passing on the costs of mitigation to the future that warrants consideration.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/AARMOC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Making our children pay for mitigation", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
MAKING OUR CHILDREN PAY FOR MITIGATION AARON MALTAIS1 This author produced PDF is the accepted but pre-copy-editing version of a chapter that appears in A. Maltais & C. McKinnon (eds) The Ethics of Climate Governance, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc in July of 2015. INTRODUCTION Investments in mitigating climate change have their greatest environmental impact over the long--‐term. As a consequence the incentives to invest in cutting greenhouse gas emissions today appear to be weak. In response to this challenge there has been increasing attention given to the idea that current generations can be motivated to start financing mitigation at much higher levels today by shifting these costs to the future through national debt. Shifting costs to the future in this way benefits future generations by breaking existing patterns of delaying large--‐scale investment in low--‐carbon energy and efficiency. As we will see in this chapter, it does appear to be technically feasible to transfer the costs of investments made today to the future in such a way that people alive today do not incur any net cost (e.g. Foley, 2009; Rendall, 2011; Broome, 2012; Rezai et al., 2012; Rozenberg et al., 2013). The basic idea then is that governments can break current patterns of delaying mitigation investments by ensuring that their existing constituents do not need to make significant sacrifices. The normative argument that we should finance mitigation by 'borrowing from the future' can be advanced in two general ways. The first is based on the empirical prediction that we will continue to see a pattern of very weak motivation among current generations to accept short--‐term mitigation costs. Thus, unless it becomes economically beneficial over the short--‐term to markedly increase investments in low--‐carbon energy and efficiency we should not expect to see sufficient investment to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. On this view finding a way to pass on the costs of mitigation to future generations is an imperfect solution to the problem of weak moral motivation today but much better than the status--‐quo (Broome, 2012, 37--‐48). On the second view, because we have good reason to expect that people in the future will be wealthier than 2 people today (at least over the next century or so) and because the benefits of mitigation largely benefit people in the future, passing on most of the costs of mitigation to the future is actually a fair way to distribute these costs (Rendall, 2011). Notice that the second view is not dependent on the empirical premise that people today will not be motivated to make sufficient short--‐term sacrifices, although the problem of motivating the present will give additional support to the argument for redistributing costs to the future. In this chapter I focus on the implications of the first approach. Specifically, the aim of this chapter is to take seriously the possibility that climate change has produced an extremely intractable political problem and that we must now consider strong measures that can break existing patterns of delaying mitigation. I defend the claim that if climate change involves a stark conflict of interests between current and future generations, then borrowing from the future would be both strategically and normatively much better than the status quo.2 However, I nevertheless challenge the borrowing from the future proposal on the grounds that it is not in fact the powerful tool for motivating existing agents that its proponents imagine it to be. The purpose of developing this critical argument is not, however, simply to throw doubt onto the idea of borrowing from the future. Debt financing climate mitigation is a form of intergenerational buck--‐passing. In the climate ethics literature this type of buck--‐passing is usually viewed as deeply objectionable. As a consequence, normative theorising about climate governance tends to focus on institutional reforms that better represent the interests of future generations and inhibit buck--‐passing. My ultimate concern in this chapter is to argue that we cannot limit prescriptive normative theorising about climate governance to these types of reforms. If we really do find ourselves in a political context where the prospects for effective action are very poor then strategic forms of buck--‐passing may also make an important positive contribution to avoiding dangerous global climate change. Consequently, if debt financing is not as powerful of a motivational tool as imagined we still have strong reasons, I will argue, to identify other strategies that will change agents' incentive structures. To this end I propose an alternative form of passing on the costs of mitigation to the future that warrants consideration. 3 The chapter is organised into five sections. Section I accounts for why motivating existing agents to invest in climate mitigation is taken to be such a difficult challenge. Section II defends the view that borrowing from the future can be normatively justifiable. Section III explains how it is thought to be possible to dedicate significantly more resources to mitigation today without current agents experiencing this as a cost. Section IV challenges the idea that borrowing from the future is a powerful tool for motivating the present to invest in mitigation. Section V proposes that we consider the development of an alternative form of explicitly pre--‐committing the future to mitigation costs. I defend this type of governance instrument at a normative level, specifically against the objections that it is 1) a form of tyranny of the present over the future and 2) morally corrupt. I --‐ THE WICKEDNESS OF TIME IN THE ANTHROPOCENE The capacity of the atmosphere, the oceans, and other natural sinks to safely carry GHG emissions is a global common pool resource. The mitigation of climate change is a global public good. We currently find ourselves in familiar conditions of unsustainable use of common resources and under provision of public goods. However, these cooperative challenges appear to be unusually difficult in the case of global warming. This is in part because of the large number and variety of actors that need to be coordinated and because of the scale and influence of special interests in the fossil fuel sector. In addition, there is some divergence between where the impacts of climate change will be most severe and which countries must bear the greatest mitigation costs. We are also currently lacking a leading state with strong incentives to act unilaterally and to coordinate other states. The high cost, complexity, and technological uncertainty involved in reforming our economies is another commonly highlighted obstacle. Yet, of all these impeding factors it is the role of time that appears to be the most toxic feature of this political problem. In a recent paper Hansen et al. (2011) estimate that it takes 100 years to see 60--‐90 per cent of the warming response associated with GHG emissions. Long time lags in the climate system between emissions and temperature responses, between temperature stresses and damaging environmental consequences, and between effective mitigation 4 policies and substantial infrastructure reform create a situation where investments in mitigation make little difference to the climate damages agents will experience over their lifetimes. It is past and probable on--‐going emissions that will have the greatest effects on current generations. From a game theoretic perspective this means that the relevant agents do not share in a preference for the collectively cooperative outcome compared to the collectively non--‐cooperative outcome. The consumption interests of people alive today are best promoted by not mitigating climate change.3 In a more typical commons problem it is the agents' preferences for the collectively cooperative outcome that can be leveraged to establish norms and institutions that allow individuals to escape prisoner's dilemma dynamics (e.g. Ostrom, 1990). In the climate case there is no prisoner's dilemma between generations. Rather the central problem is to motivate existing agents to invest in protecting the commons for future agents (Gardiner, 2001). As time moves forward and irrespective of the climate conditions each generation is born into the same problem of weak incentives will be present (Gardiner, 2001). Overcoming the intergenerational structure of the problem requires that agents be motivated by the interests of others (i.e. future agents) to a much greater degree than is true for agents in typical collective action problems. Norms of fair reciprocity may simply not be enough. Importantly, if we can redress the intergenerational motivational obstacle we can still face a typical global public goods problem between states. Even more importantly, as time passes the costs of mitigation increase, environmental damages increase, and the amount that has to be invested into adapting to climate change increases (Vaughan et al., 2009; Luderer et al., 2012; Rogelj et al., 2013). This means that the passing of time has the real potential to create a positive feedback where delay breeds stronger and stronger incentives for further delay (Shue 2010, Gardiner, 2011, pp. 185-209). The assessment above is not, of course, an attempt to give a full account of individuals' or political communities' motivations or to depict how individuals and groups have actually responded to climate change. The account above aims only to describe key obstacles to effective climate politics that can help us understand why the world's states have yet to invest in mitigation in a way that responds to the seriousness of the threat and why the politics of climate change appear so intractable. 5 II --‐ GIVING THE FUTURE A CHANCE TO PAY If the incentives for passing on the costs of climate change to future generations are very strong, one response is to try to identify ways of passing on these costs in a way that best serves the interests of future generations. This is the core idea behind debt financing of climate change mitigation. Let us assume for now that we can pass on the costs of mitigation to the future in a way that does produce an improvement for these future agents compared to business as usual. Our terms of negotiation with the future are only possible because we are in a position of domination over them. We are free to ignore the fact that continuing to pollute the atmosphere will undermine the climatic conditions for human wellbeing far into the future. Thus, it appears to be disingenuous to claim that we are somehow helping the future by letting them pay for mitigation when it is our actions that are putting them in danger in the first place. This assessment has strong normative force, but there are also strong strategic and normative arguments for borrowing from the future. To the extent that we expect political inertia to continue or worsen, identifying a no--‐cost option that could bring about immediate and significant mitigation investment while at the same time improving conditions for all the relevant agents leads to a very good outcome compared to perpetual delay (Broome, 2012, 43--‐48). However, this improvement on the status quo is hardly a second--‐best option. Finding ways to bring the interests of present people and future people into better alignment or finding ways to better mobilise the concern for future people current generations already have appear to be much more normatively attractive options. Thus we have good reason to be critical of failures to engage seriously in efforts to spread more climate friendly preferences or to make the long--‐term consequences of public policy more salient in political discourse. At the same time, if climate change is the most difficult cooperative challenge humanity has ever faced this difficulty must make some difference to our moral assessments of current failures to act and of strategies to address these failures. The development of highly productive economies driven by the exploitation of cheap and abundant energy has been one of the main drivers of the amazing improvements in human welfare over the past two centuries. Individuals, companies, and governments both have had and continue to have good reasons for using fossil fuels. At the same time, 6 finding ways to transition to low--‐carbon economies is straining the capacity of our economic and political institutions. Investing in the interests of the present has traditionally and continues to pass on enormous benefits to future people. At the same time, when it becomes clear that investing in shared goods today can undermine human welfare far off into the future it also becomes clear that we are straining the ability of our systems of morality to continually improve on the human condition. The point is not to deny that it is deeply problematic that we are failing to dedicate a small fraction of current wealth to protecting the conditions for human welfare for generations to come. However, we must also acknowledge that climate change is a system level problem similar to other system level problems in capitalist economies that are not intended and for which it is difficult to assign moral responsibility. From this perspective, taking on long--‐term debt to finance low--‐carbon infrastructure for the future is in part a moral failure but also in part a system level response to a system level problem, similar to the way in which deficit spending to redress the effects of boom--‐bust cycles is a system level response to the vulnerabilities capitalist economies generate. We really do find ourselves in conditions of political delay with no sense of how or when these patterns might be broken. As a result, there is a strategic and normative case for at least some significant borrowing from the future. In fact the proposal raises the following question, if we can solve the largest environmental threat to human welfare without anybody having to give up anything then why don't we? Is it plausible to think that it is because we have simply failed to notice the options available to us? In the following section I explain how borrowing from the future to finance climate mitigation is technically possible. However, in section IV I argue that it is not surprising that we have not yet used debt financing to pay for mitigation. This is because the borrowing from the future proposal does not adequately address how costly it would be to compensate the current generation to the no--‐sacrifice level. III --‐ WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HAVE TO BARGAIN WITH? If we only have access to resources in the present how can we direct these resources towards mitigation without this being perceived as a cost today? To achieve this the basic idea is that we can 1) change the composition of the savings we make for the future 7 and 2) change the composition of the consumption bundles we will enjoy over our lifetimes (Broome, 2012, 37--‐48). These changes in how we save and what we consume can, it is argued, free up resources for mitigation investments but at the same time involve no net cost. To see how this is expected to work we can first look at changes in the way we save. Each generation passes on savings to the next generation by leaving natural resources and by investing in things like infrastructure, technology, and knowledge that pass on productive capacity to future generations. However, because the true social costs of GHG intensive consumption and investment choices are not internalised it is argued that the current generation is actually saving for future generations in a very inefficient way. We could save for the future in a much more efficient way by shifting some current investment away from conventional capital and into mitigation capital, i.e. low--‐carbon energy, low--‐carbon infrastructures, and efficiency. By investing the resources necessary to avoid dangerous levels of global warming much more welfare is 'passed on' to future generations in the form of avoided climate damages than would be passed on to them in the form of conventional productive capacity. The idea is that a shift in the composition of the current generation's future oriented investments can leave consumption levels constant. This brings us to the second issue, changes in the composition of our consumption. The aim is to bring about an intergenerationally optimal level of investment in mitigation capital and an intergenerationally optimal shift away from GHG intensive consumption without affecting (too much) the value of lifetime consumption bundles for present people. In economic theory this is ideally achieved by the imposition of an optimal cost for GHG emissions. Compensating the present for making the consumption of GHG intensive goods more expensive can be achieved, it is argued, by consuming more goods that are not GHG intensive. Eating meat and other animal based foods can be compensated with eating less expensive and higher quality vegetable based foods. Travel by car can be compensated with increased investment in public transportation. Buying less carbon intensive consumer products and going on few overseas vacations can be compensated by consuming more services and working less. 8 Of course the substitutions noted above are all already available to us and are not currently chosen to nearly a sufficient extent. The mitigation without sacrifice proposal cannot simply be that current agents should change their preferences. This is not because there are necessarily few opportunities for existing agents to change their preferences. Instead the borrowing from the future proposal aims to show that even if we depart from the pessimistic premises that i) existing agents are only willing to make modest sacrifices for the future and ii) that we can only expect existing agents to alter their preferences marginally, it is still possible to compensate these agents for investing in avoiding future climate damage. As a consequence, the argument has to be that there is some increase in alternative consumption patterns that the current generation prefers more than or at least as strongly as its current emissions intensive economy. If we impose an intergenerationally optimal carbon tax the costs of consuming emissions intensive goods are increased and the returns on emissions intensive investments are decreased. The results are reductions in lifetime consumption as a direct response to cost increases and reductions in consumption as consequence of reductions in the rate of economic growth over existing agents' lifetimes compared to a business as usual (BAU) investment scenario. We can in part compensate for these losses by redistributing emissions taxes back to citizens and in part by taking on national debt (Foley, 2009). The aim of this borrowing is to give the current generation enough of an alternative lifetime consumption bundle to make it worth its while to accept the effects of the carbon tax. To illustrate how this debt financing is expected to amount to borrowing from the future we can set up this borrowing via a pay--‐as--‐you go pension system. Let us say that in the current pension system workers pay for retirees' pensions by transferring 5% of their earnings (i.e. productivity) into the scheme. Workers are motivated to make such transfers because they expect their children to pay for their pensions when they themselves retire. This allows workers to spread out their consumption between their productive and non--‐productive years and to save in a way that gives them access to some of the gains of economic growth in the economy. This same reasoning will hold for the worker's children and so on. This system of saving is a form of indirect reciprocity where the working generation confers a benefit on the 9 retired generation in exchange for a future benefit from the young generation. This system of reciprocity does not rely on altruism, does not have a determinate endpoint, and users expect it to reach far out into the future (Heath, 2013). To borrow from the future workers are asked to dedicate an additional 1% of their productivity to investment in mitigation capital. As compensation the workers' children will increase the size of the transfers they make to retirees when they themselves become workers. Our children will in turn be compensated when they retire by their children. When the benefits of avoided climate change begin to arrive workers can begin to reduce the amount of compensation they give to retirees. Retirees are now being compensated for their payments into the pension system both in the form of transfers from workers and in the form of avoided climate damages. Subsequent cohorts of workers should also expect to receive less than they paid into the pension system. These decreases in the size of the transfers made from workers to retirees can continue until the point at which a cohort of workers secures a net benefit over its lifetime from any investments they make in mitigation capital. This is the point in time when there is no longer a problem of motivating these types of investments. In theory, there can be a stopping point for transferring the costs of mitigation to future generations despite the fact that the benefits of mitigation can be expected to extend very far into the future.4 This looks like a clear method for taking on debt to finance investment in mitigation and effectively transferring the costs into the future. IV --‐ THE DIFFICULTIES OF COMPENSATING THE PRESENT Changing the way we save for future generations only appears to be able to solve the problem of motivating the current generation in the straightforward way described above if current savings actually aim at passing on wealth to future generations. However, to a large extent the intergenerational savings effect of investments in the conventional capital stock appears to be a by--‐product rather than the aim of these investments. Savers save to distribute their consumption over both the productive and unproductive years of their lives, to secure some of the gains of economic growth, and to pass on some wealth to their immediate descendants. Borrowers borrow to make productive investments that will bring them returns that are more valuable than the cost of borrowing. When the government borrows to invest in things like infrastructure, 10 education, and healthcare the timeframes for returns are longer than for private investors. Still, if the government borrows to build a hospital, a university, or new roads the main aims are to use these goods now and to produce economic growth that will be beneficial in some way to taxpayers and their children. The claim is not of course that the present's investments are in no way aimed towards the interests of future people. Those who engage in basic research may in part do so because it represents a good career for them. Individuals and society may invest in such research because it is valued for its own sake. However, if there were no prospect of this research doing some good in the future we would surely invest much less. This is especially true for areas such as cancer research, but also appears to be a general feature of our interests in the future (Scheffler, 2013, p. 24). A real concern for the future must play some part in explaining why we sometimes invest in infrastructure designed to last for many generations. Taking resources away from things like cancer research or designing hundred year bridges and re--‐directing them towards mitigation may in fact be a more effective way of investing in the future. However, the large majority of investments in capital aim at benefiting the present even though they also often benefit the future as a bi--‐product. Thus, asking the current generation to shift its investments in conventional capital towards mitigation capital is for the most part not a cost--‐free way for the present to produce better returns far off into the future. Rather, a motivationally challenged present needs to be compensated for not making the investments they currently make for more self--‐interested reasons. If we go back to our pension scheme, it should now be clear that if current workers dedicate and extra 1% of their productivity to mitigation receiving an extra 1% of our children's productivity is not enough to compensate us in a sacrifice free way. From the perspective of current workers and their children the value of their lifetime consumption bundles is greater in the BAU scenario compared to a scenario in which investments are shifted from conventional capital to mitigation capital. Resources are directed away from the types of consumption and investments that produce the best economic outcomes over the period that is relevant for current workers. When current workers become pensioners they need to be compensated for the effect this decrease in the rate of growth will have on the size of transfers into the pension system compared to 11 BAU. This means that our children will have to dedicate a larger percentage of their productivity into to the pay--‐as--‐you--‐go pension system than we did. This is only the first way in which reaching the no--‐sacrifice level is more difficult than it may at first seem. Think of an economy that consists of a smoker and a room filled with asthmatics. The smoker internalises the benefits of smoking and externalises the costs. The asthmatics' lives are made almost unbearable by the suffering the second--‐hand smoke causes them. These social costs of smoking are much greater than the personal benefits the smoker enjoys. Let us suppose that the smoker is not moved by the plight of the asthmatics and that the only available option to eliminate the negative externality in this economy is for the asthmatics to compensate the smoker for quitting. He must be compensated to an extent that at least matches the benefits he enjoys from smoking. If the smoker quits smoking the asthmatics will become amazingly 'welfare rich' compared to current conditions. However, this does not free up resources that can be used to compensate the smoker. The asthmatics become rich in the form of avoided asthma attacks. By assumption the value of this form of wealth is extremely low from the perspective of the smoker. If the asthmatics are poor in other types of goods while the smoker has a very strong preference for smoking, a transfer to compensate the smoker for quitting will not be possible. For a social planner trying to maximize welfare it is clear that that permitting smoking in this economy is very inefficient. However, this is not how economists conceive of the way a negative externality can create inefficiency in a market that can be eliminated by a transfer that leaves no party worse off. Instead we have to see the value of smoking in terms of the smoker's willingness to be compensated for not smoking. In other words, the social benefit of smoking a cigarette is determined by how much we would have to pay the smoker so that he would be at least indifferent between the options of smoking the cigarette or taking the payment. The social cost of smoking is a function of the asthmatics willingness to pay to prevent smoking. When some agents' willingness to pay to avoid a negative externality is greater than the amount necessary to pay some other agents to refrain from creating this externality there is inefficiency in the market. A transfer from the negative externality takers to the externality producers generates a more efficient market outcome (Kelleher 2015, 71--‐73). In the smoking case I have 12 described we can assume that the asthmatics' willingness to pay is greater than the smoker's willingness to be compensated. However, the point to notice is that even if we have a large negative externality that is massively inefficient with respect to welfare outcomes it can also be true that there is no possible transfer between agents that could diminish the externality while each agent remains, at the very least, on their Pareto indifference curve. The extent to which an externality reducing transfer will be possible is dependent on the pollutees having access to goods that are candidates for transfer because they satisfy the polluters' willingness to be compensated. Once we focus on the question of what the present appears to be willing to be compensated with to stop consuming GHG intensive goods it becomes clearer how large this alternative bundle of resources may have to be. What is at issue is the core of the current generation's consumption preferences and productive capacity. For example, effective climate mitigation may require moving largely to a vegetarian diet. The resources necessary to make such a transition are negative. Production of plant--‐based foods requires fewer resources than the production of meat. Small reductions in meat consumption are surely easy to compensate, but if we are aiming to compensate without having to wait for people to change their preferences (which is what the borrowing from the future proposal aims for) at some point the marginal willingness to be compensated for not being able to eat meat will become very low. Likewise, it may only take an annual investment of 1% of gross world product to mitigate climate change. However, getting to the no--‐sacrifice level may require a very large bundle of alternative resources to compensate the current generation for not being able to exploit emission intensive goods they have strong demonstrated preferences for. The upshot is that in addition to compensating for differences in economic growth compared to BAU our children will also have to dedicate even more of their productive capacity to the pay--‐as--‐you--‐go pension scheme to make it worth the present's while to change the composition of its consumption bundles. Also note that the system calls for us to shift more of our consumption from our productive years to our non--‐productive years than we would normally choose to do. This is an opportunity cost and has to be compensated by more consumption in our non--‐productive years than we forwent in our productive years. This is a third additional cost that results in still greater shares of our 13 children's productivity going into the pension system. Our children's children will in their turn have to dedicate even larger portions of their productivity to their parents than they did for us. The point is not to suggest that it is more expensive than we think to mitigate climate change. Nor is the concern that there must necessarily be a very low elasticity of demand for GHG intensive goods that will make GHG emissions prices less effective than expected. The point is that even if emissions taxes effectively bring about desired shifts in consumption and investments it looks like it is more expensive than we think to compensate the current generation to the extent that they do not view these taxes as generating important sacrifices. It looks more difficult than expected to solve the problem of motivating agents to adopt effective carbon taxes in the first place. This is important because of limits to the amount of debt financing countries can engage in. The typical story about limits to deficit spending is that the more debt a country has the more tax revenue they have to dedicate to servicing the debt, which raises the risk of default, which raises the interests rates at which governments can borrow, which in turn increases the revenue necessary to service the debt, which eventually makes further borrowing too costly. Given limits to how much debt governments can take on, whatever the mechanisms, it seems to follow that a generation that is unwilling to take on significant sacrifices to mitigate climate change is also going to have a strong preference for using debt financing for the sake of more present oriented goods rather than more future oriented goods. In other words, there is an opportunity cost here that looks like it is very difficult to compensate. Given that the present needs to be compensated for shifting its investment patterns, changing its consumption bundles, changing its consumption timing, and for the opportunity cost of dedicating scarce access to debt financing to future oriented investments it should no longer be surprising that the current generation does not use debt financing to a substantial extent to invest in climate change mitigation. This is especially true given the magnitude of mitigation investments needed in comparison to existing deficit levels. Net government deficits for the OECD countries in 2013 were 2.1 trillion US $.5 In order to get onto a 2°C trajectory the International Energy Agency is calling for investment in 14 addition to those needed simply to meet future energy demand of on average 1 trillion US $ per year to 2035 (International Energy Agency, 2014: 44). Rogelj et al. (2013) estimate that an immediate global price on GHG emissions of US$40 tCO2e, rising there after, would give us a 66% chance of keeping warming to 2°C. Global GHG emissions in 2011 were over 43 000 MtCO2e.6 This gives us over 1.7 trillion US$ in new costs. The co--‐ benefits from such mitigation investments may be very large over the longer--‐term, while cost estimates may also be overly optimistic due to assumptions of full global cooperation and perfect policy implementation. There is obviously a lot of uncertainty about costs, but what is clear is that meeting these costs through debt financing involves extremely large shifts in how resources are being used compared to current patterns. V --‐ EXPLOITING TYRANNY OVER THE FUTURE FOR THE GOOD The combination of limits to the ability of governments to take on debt, incentives to use debt for present oriented goods, preferences for GHG intensive goods over alternative packages of goods, and a system of investment in capital that largely aims at producing returns over the nearer term should make us question how big of a role borrowing from the future can play in addressing motivational obstacles to investing in mitigation capital. If this assessment is plausible we are back where we started. We see strong incentives for delaying mitigation investments and as a result it may be strategically important to identify ways of shifting the costs of mitigation to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. In one sense 'passing the buck' to the future has been a key strategy in climate politics for several decades. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol is regularly derided as having had far too weak commitments, covering far too little of global emissions, and as having been ineffective in brining about emissions reductions that would not have occurred for other reasons. However, it is also widely understood that the protocol was weakly demanding in order to secure broad international participation and to make it possible to set up the institutional mechanisms for carbon trading and other flexibility mechanisms. The aim was to extend the regime in subsequent commitment periods with deeper reduction targets and more effective institutional mechanisms. This did not occur as envisioned, but the push within the UNFCCC process for more ambitious emissions commitments and expanded coverage continues. In the EU Emissions Trading System's (ETS) initial 15 trading period between 2005--‐2007 the market was characterised by weak emissions targets, an over--‐allocation of free emissions allowances, and significant national flexibility in meeting targets (Parker, 2011). Increased ambition and harmonisation of rules across EU member states, especially for the third trading period 2013--‐2020, has followed. However "temporary exemptions, compensations and procrastination of decisions" still create delays between decisions and the arrival of costs with these delays designed to help secure agreement (Muller & Slominski, 2013: 1437). For example, the full shift in the third trading period to auctioning of emission credits will not be in place until 2027, while sectors deemed to be exposed to significant carbon leakage will have access to free allowances and the possibility of compensation.7 Creating temporal space between when policy makers adopt at decision and when the costs arrive, working with shorter--‐term flexibility and longer--‐term pre--‐commitments, and setting in motion path dependencies are all highlighted in the political science literature as important strategies for dealing with so--‐called 'super wicked' cooperation problems (e.g. Lazurus, 2009, Ismer & Neuhoff, 2009, Levin et al., 2012, Urpelainen, 2012, Brunner et al., 2012, Jordan & Matt, 2014). To the extent that these types of policies involve weak initial demands they do not respond to the urgency of the environmental threat. This is regularly and rightly criticised, but it should also be clear that such policies are often genuine strategic responses to real political obstacles. The borrowing from the future proposal aims to offer a better strategy than incrementalism by shifting costs to the future while at the same time eliminating procrastination. I have raised doubts that this approach is a powerful tool for mediating the politics of delay. The structure of the problem suggests that we need to identify ways to set in motion serious mitigation efforts but at the same time not require large changes in behaviour right now. For example, those in political power now could commit the young to significant investments in mitigation. Designing these commitments so that they create a future financial liability for failures to make promised investments would exploit future decision makers' commitments to property rights regimes and the global financial system. Potential financial liabilities for failing to invest in mitigation would be a means to entrench mitigation commitments imposed by present governments onto future 16 governments.8 The only proposal along these lines I have been able to identify is the idea of governments issuing index--‐linked policy performance bonds where interest payments on the bonds are linked to GHG emission targets or financing targets for low--‐ carbon energy. If the government fails to meet its mitigation targets there is a penalty in the form of higher interest rates to be paid to bond holders (Ekins et al., 2014, 168--‐170). However, governments have to already be committed to increasing the resources dedicated to cutting GHG emissions to pre--‐commit themselves in this way. What I am imagining is a policy that largely pre--‐commits future governments and thus places some temporal space between when the pre--‐commitment is made and when governments have to start making the mitigation investments. I have not been able to identify thinking in the economics literature that would specifically meet the criteria outlined above. As a result I am only able to briefly suggest a type of proposal that attempts to enforce commitments made today on future governments by creating a financial liability today that will materialise tomorrow if governments fail to mitigate. The aim of the pre--‐commitment proposal suggested above is to reduce the level of bootstrapping involved in the more incrementalist approaches we currently have while at the same time taking seriously the possibility that governments will continue to be very wary about binding themselves to strong financial commitments over the short--‐ term. The type of proposal under consideration is clearly flawed in that it does not respond quickly enough to the environmental threat. Thus, it should be understood chiefly as an insurance policy against the risk of an intergenerational pattern of perpetual delay.9 Because I cannot provide a design for the strategy proposed above, this chapter is limited to assessing the normative case for this more explicit form of pre--‐ committing the future. The purpose of such an assessment is to give some normative permission to think about new creative ways of pre--‐committing future publics that can better mediate the wickedness of time in the Anthropocene. If our parents had committed us to financial liabilities for failing to invest in mitigation could we plausibly argue that we did not deserve this type of treatment? The more unjustifiable it appears to be for us to simply fail to mitigate climate change and the longer we delay serious action, the less plausible it is to question that it would have been justifiable for past generations to bind us to mitigation investments. If we deserve 17 paternalistic treatment for our unwillingness and political incapacity to make meaningful investments in mitigation then so may our children. We have good reason to expect the next generation to do better than us from a moral perspective in various respects, but it is far from obvious that we should expect so much change that they will not also have very strong incentives to discount the interests of the future. Thus, the claim is not that the ways and extent to which people are motivated by moral considerations cannot change, but only that the incentives to discount the far future look particularly hard to change and that we should have some insurance against this problem. When current publics try to pre--‐commit future publics the most common normative objection is that this is a form of political domination over the future by the present. This concern is usually raised against the constitutional entrenchment of some substantive public policy by the current majority with the aim of limiting the ability of future majorities to make public policy in this same area. If the present is able to democratically determine what the right substantive policy is without such obstacles why should the future be denied this same democratic power? Given reasonable disagreement about politics it is problematic for the current public to paternalistically safeguard future publics from following their own majoritarian will. On what grounds do current majorities think they have better access to answers about the policies that ought to be adopted than future majorities (Waldron, 1999, 255--‐282)? However the type of pre--‐commitment I am proposing is not an effort to protect the future against itself. Instead, pre--‐committing our children to mitigation investments is an effort to protect the further future from the near future. What we do is not to democratically adopt some measure for ourselves that we then think should be maintained in perpetuity. Rather we fail to adopt some measure that we think ought to be put into practice for the sake of future generations and instead pass on that commitment to the publics that will follow us. Surprisingly then, the combination of an unwillingness and inability to adopt just legislation with respect to the interests of future generations that we are currently witnessing appears to significantly improve the justifiability of present majorities paternalistically pre--‐committing future majorities. 18 The most serious objection to the idea that we should bind our children to mitigation costs is that it is a form of moral corruption. As Stephen Gardiner puts it, if the current generation favors buck--‐passing, but does not want to face up to what it is doing, it is likely to welcome any rationale that appears to justify its behavior. Hence, it may be attracted to weak or deceptive arguments that appear to license buck--‐passing, and so give them less scrutiny than it ought. It is the claim that the obstacles to political action are particularly severe in the case of climate change that makes buck--‐passing in a safer way seem reasonable. How this claim is deployed in our moral evaluations is what warrants more scrutiny. Given the enormous amount of wealth and technological capability we currently enjoy it is not plausible to be sceptical about the prospects for action due to a sheer lack of capacity. Rather, it is a lack of the right kinds of motivations that prevents us from bringing the climate threat under effective political control. Binding our children to the costs of mitigation is presented as a way for us to live up to our obligations to protect the interests of future generations, albeit a very imperfect response. However, to make this move the present's moral failure to act is actually conceived of as an external condition that existing agents must take into account as we decide how to protect the interests of the future. It looks like I have perverted our blatant discounting of future interests into a moral justification for passing on the costs of mitigation! What can be said in response to this charge? It is clearly moral suspicious to appeal to current political obstacles to justify cost shifting to the future. There is an incentive to exaggerate the obstacles one is complicit in creating because this provides moral cover for doing little now to address the problem. At the same time, it is also problematic to conceive of the present as a singular agent that can simply decide not to exploit some other agent, the future. Prohibitions on exploiting others agents are a basic feature of our normative theories and social institutions, and the message is that we need simply not to do what we normally expect agents not to do to each other. Yet, a generation is not a singular agent or any agent at all. Instead, what is required is to coordinate the actions of individuals, companies, communities, and governments all over the world. What we need to coordinate around is not some ubiquitous feature of common sense morality but something new. Agents must let the effects of their present actions on conditions far into the future outweigh 19 their interests in securing goods here and now. We may have always depended on the idea of future generations to give meaning to our projects (Scheffler, 2013), but we have not had to face the prospect of stark conflicts between many of our own unextraordinary projects and welfare in the distant future. If we look at the conditions in which agents have tended to be successful in protecting common pool resources it is clear that in the case of climate change these conditions are not satisfied (see Dietz et al., 2003). Climate change is the most difficult cooperative challenge humanity has faced to date and as a result it is reasonable to think in terms of second and third best options without being accused of blatant moral corruption. In response to long--‐term threats like climate change political theorists often argue for institutional reforms that will eliminate the tyranny of the present over the future. The most common proposals are to have the interests of the future represented in some way in the democratic process or to constitutionally entrench respect for the interests of future generations. Instead of trying to address symptoms of the tyranny of the present over the future it would be better, it is argued, to address the institutional sources of this injustice. However, it remains highly uncertain if institutional reforms of this type will go far enough fast enough to bring about effective mitigation policies. The argument of this section is that because we may have a limited window of opportunity to deal with the problem of weak incentives to invest in mitigation we should also consider strategies that attempt to exploit the present's tyranny over the future for the good. The argument above has defended the paternalism of binding the future to mitigation costs. However, once a case for paternalism is made it is appropriate to ask if other forms of paternalism are preferable. For example, one could imagine more or less paternalistic government policies that attempt to change present people's preferences so that they are more in line with the interests of future generations. The argument advanced here clearly does not demonstrate which policy responses are all things considered the best ones. Much depends on how pessimistic we think we should be about current political conditions. The type of proposal I have advanced is thought of as an insurance strategy against the risk of perpetual political inertia. 20 CONCLUSION There is already some debt financing of mitigation investments and debt financing would surely be a large part of extensive government efforts to mitigate climate change. There is also a good strategic and normative case for passing on the costs of mitigation investments to the future. If the present has strong incentives to pass on the costs of climate change to the future we should at least try to identify ways of passing on those costs in ways that best protect the interests of future generations. However, I have argued that the option to debt finance mitigation does not really resolve the basic problem of motivating agents to change their consumption and investment behaviours. This raises the question of whether or not there are other ways to pass on the costs of climate change in a 'safer' way. Strategic buck--‐passing and efforts to pre--‐commit future publics to increasingly demanding mitigation efforts are also already a key part of climate governance. I have suggested that we should consider more explicit pre--‐ commitment strategies that bind the young today to large investments in mitigation over their productive lifetimes. If we are failing to overcome the tyranny of the present over the future then we should consider how we might exploit that tyranny for the good. My argument is not a moral endorsement of the present's domination over the future and it is not in conflict with the typical institutional reforms political theorists advance to reduce the present's discounting of future interests. Yet, given the severity of the political challenges we currently face and the severity of the consequences of global warming we should also be open to the possibility that we may need stronger measures to prevent a scenario in which we perpetually put off investing in climate security for the future. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anadon, L. D. and Holdren, J. P. H. (2009) 'Policy for Energy Technology Innovation.' in Acting in Time on Energy Policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. Andreou, Chrisoula. "Environmental Preservation and Second‐Order Procrastination." Philosophy & Public Affairs 35.3 (2007): 233--‐248. Asheim, G. B. (2013). 'Competitive intergenerational altruism'. Accessed March 2014 at: . Broome, J. (2012) Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World, New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Brunner, S., Flachsland, C., & Marschinski, R. (2012). Credible commitment in carbon policy. Climate Policy, 12(2), 255--‐271. 21 Dietz, T., Ostrom, E., & Stern, P. C. (2003). The struggle to govern the commons. science, 302(5652), 1907--‐1912 Ekins, P., McDowall, W., & Zenghelis, D. (2014). Greening the Recovery: The report of the UCL Green Economy Policy Commission. London: University College London. Accessed February 5, 2015 at: policy/policy_commissions/GEPC/GEPCreport Foley, D. (2009) 'The economic fundamentals of global warming' in J. M. Harris and N. R. Goodwin (eds.) Twenty--‐First Century Macroeconomics: Responding to the Climate Challenge, Edward Elgar Publishing. Gardiner, S. M. (2001) 'The Real Tragedy of the Commons', Philosophy and Public Affairs, 30, 387--‐416. Gardiner, S.M. (2011), A Perfect Moral Storm, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hansen, J., Sato, M., Kharecha, P., & Schuckmann, K. V. (2011) 'Earth's energy imbalance and implications', Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11(24), 13421--‐13449. Heath, J. (2013). The Structure of Intergenerational Cooperation. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 41(1), 31--‐66. International Energy Agency (2014), World Energy Investment Outlook, Paris: OECD. Ismer, R., & Neuhoff, K. (2009). Commitments through financial options: an alternative for delivering climate change obligations. Climate Policy, 9(1), 9--‐21. Jordan, A., & Matt, E. (2014). Designing policies that intentionally stick: policy feedback in a changing climate. Policy Sciences, 47(3), 227--‐247. Kelleher, J. P. 2015. 'Is There a Sacrifice--‐Free Solution to Climate Change?', Ethics, Policy & Environment, 18(1), 68--‐78. Lazarus, R. J. (2008). Super wicked problems and climate change: restraining the present to liberate the future. Cornell L. Rev., 94, 1153 Levin, K., et al. (2012) 'Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change', Policy Sciences, 45, 123--‐ 152. Luderer, G., Bosetti, V., Jakob, M., Leimbach, M., Steckel, J. C., Waisman, H., and Edenhofer, O. (2012) 'The economics of decarbonizing the energy system: results and insights from the RECIPE model intercomparison', Climatic Change, 1, 9--‐37. Müller, P., & Slominski, P. (2013). Agree now-pay later: escaping the joint decision trap in the evolution of the EU emission trading system. Journal of European Public Policy, 20(10), 1425--‐1442. Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge university press. Parker, L. (2011) 'Climate change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): looking to 2020'. CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service. Rendall, M. (2011) 'Climate Change and the Threat of Disaster: The Moral Case for Taking Out Insurance at Our Grandchildren's Expense', Political Studies, 59, 884--‐ 889. Rezai, A., Foley, D. K., & Taylor, L. (2012) 'Global warming and economic externalities', Economic Theory, 49(2), 329--‐351. Rogelj, J., McCollum, D. L., Reisinger, A., Meinshausen, M., & Riahi, K. (2013) 'Probabilistic cost estimates for climate change mitigation', Nature, 493(7430), 79--‐83. Rozenberg, J., Hallegatte, S., Perrissin--‐Fabert, B., & Hourcade, J. C. (2013) 'Funding low--‐ carbon investments in the absence of a carbon tax', Climate Policy, 13(1), 134--‐ 141. Scheffler, S. (2013). Death and the Afterlife. Oxford University Press. 22 Shue, H. (2005) 'Responsibility to Future Generations and the Technological Transition', Perspectives on Climate Change, 5. Shue, H. (2010) 'Deadly Delays, Saving Opportunities: Creating a More Dangerous World?', in Gardiner, S. M., Caney, S., Jamieson, D., and Shue, H. (eds.), Climate Ethics: Essential Readings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vaughan, N. E., Lenton, T. M., & Shepherd, J. G. (2009). Climate change mitigation: trade--‐ offs between delay and strength of action required. Climatic Change, 96(1--‐2), 29--‐ 43. Urpelainen, J. (2013). A model of dynamic climate governance: dream big, win small. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics,13(2), 107--‐125. 1 I would like to thank Catriona McKinnon for in--‐depth comments that helped me greatly improve this chapter. Earlier versions of this chapter were presented during 2014 at the ECPR Joint Sessions, the Nordic Political Science Association Conference, The Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and at the Global and Regional Governance and Political Theory research seminars at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University. I would like to thank participants at these events for their comments, in particular Matthew Rendall, Dominic Roser, Blake Francis, John Broome, Robert Huseby, Jonas Tallberg, Magnus Reitberg, Säde Hormio, Kian Mintz--‐Woo, Simo Kyllönen, Jonathan Kuyper, Ludvig Beckman, and Göran Duus--‐Otterström. I would also like to thank Alan Mehlenbacher, David von Below, and Nick Rowe for answering some basic questions about the notion of borrowing from the future. 2 I remain agnostic on the question of what a fair distribution of mitigation costs between generations would be. 3 This conclusion appears to be true even where agents are narrowly altruistic in the sense of having strong preferences for securing high consumption levels for their children (Asheim, 2013). 4 There is a question of whether or not the one could plan to reduce pay--‐outs to retirees without undermining the pension scheme. Workers facing the prospect that they will put more into the pension system that they get out cannot be excluded from the avoided climate damages that are supposed to make up for this difference. As such they have an incentive to decrease their inputs into the system to what they can expect to get out of it. This in turn gives cohorts prior to them incentives to pre--‐emptively decrease their inputs into the system. This dynamic could undermine the credibility of the scheme. Perpetually rolling over the debt could be a better way to ensure the credibility of the scheme. Normatively assessing such a strategy would be dependent on a theory of distributive justice between generations. 5 By country GDP figures were taken from OECD (2014), "Gross domestic product in US dollars", Economics: Key Tables from OECD, No. 5. DOI: 10.1787/gdp--‐cusd--‐table--‐2014--‐5--‐ en. By country deficit figures were taken from OECD (2014), "Government deficit / surplus as a percentage of GDP", Economics: Key Tables from OECD, No. 20. DOI: 10.1787/gov--‐dfct--‐table--‐2014--‐1--‐en. The calculation excludes Chile, Mexico and Turkey. 6 WRI, CAIT 2.0. 2014. Climate Analysis Indicators Tool: WRI's Climate Data Explorer. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available at: . Accessed October 1, 2014. 7 See . 23 8 Ideally, the future holders of the corresponding financial entitlements would be those in poorer countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These entitlements could thus serve as some level of compensation for failures to mitigate. However, one would also want agents holding rights to payment for 'failure to perform' to be in a strong position to defend these entitlements. 9 Rendall (2011) also argues that borrowing from the future should be seen as an insurance policy against a pattern of political inertia.
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{ "creator": "Feeney, Aaron M.", "date": "2014", "datestamp": 1587507802000, "description": "{June 2018 UPDATE: This work has been greatly surpassed by \"Utilizing Future-Viewing Instruments\" which will appear in the July 2018 issue of Progress in Physics. It can now be downloaded in PDF form from their website.}\n This is the full text of the paper that was published as a Kindle book on April 6th, 2014. In most respects, it has since been surpassed by \"Potentials of Future-Viewing Machines,\" which is available here in this repository. Nevertheless, this earlier work addresses minutia and interesting considerations that do not appear elsewhere, and it has a large bibliography, so it remains very useful for research purposes.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/AARUFM", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Understanding Future-Viewing Machines and Time Travel", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/book" }
Understanding Future-Viewing Machines and Time Travel∗ Aaron M. Feeney 1 Introduction The concept of time travel has been analyzed in philosophical literature for more than sixty years,1 for obvious reasons, while time viewing seems to have eluded direct attention.2 However, time viewing offers a similarly challenging range of ∗The text of this reformatted version is identical to the original April 6th, 2014 text, except 'outcome-informative' has replaced a former term with the same function and a clarifying comment which starts, "i.e., definite information from...," has been added to the third section. 1The most notable early philosophical works include the following: Williams, D. C., "The Myth of Passage," The Journal of Philosophy, 48 (1951): 457-472. Putnam, H., "It Ain't Necessarily So," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 59, No. 22, American Philosophical Association Eastern Division: Symposium Papers to be Presented at the Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting, New York City, December 27-29, 1962 (1962), 658-671. Smart, J. J. C., "Is Time Travel Possible?" The Journal of Philosophy, 60 (1963): 237-241. Swinburne, R. G., "Affecting the Past," The Philosophical Quarterly, 16 (1966): 341-347. Earman, J., "Going Backward in Time," Philosophy of Science, 34 (1967): 211-222. Berger, G., "The Conceptual Possibility of Time Travel," The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 19 (1968): 152-155. Harrison, J., "The Inaugural Address: Dr. Who and the Philosophers or Time-Travel for Beginners," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 45 (1971): 1-24. Weingard, R., "On Travelling Backward in Time," Synthese, Vol. 24, No 1/2, Space, Time, and Geometry (1972): 117-132. Meiland, J. W., "A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 26 (1974): 153-173. Horwich, P., "On Some Alleged Paradoxes of Time Travel," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 72, No. 14, Time, Cause, and Evidence (1975): 432-444. Dwyer, L., "Time Travel and Changing the Past," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 341-350. Thom, P., "Time-Travel and Non-Fatal Suicide," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 211-216. Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Dwyer, L. "How to affect, but not change, the past," The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 15 (1977): 383-385. Weingard, R., "General Relativity and the Conceivability of Time Travel," Philosophy of Science, 46 (1979): 328-332. 2Time viewers will here be defined as systems which are able to receive images of past or future scenes and convey them to our eyes, or in the case of eyes, to our optic nerves. Conceptually, at least, time viewers come in three main varieties which will be introduced in the text: line-of-sight past viewers, chronovisors, and future viewers. Philosophical writings devoted to chronovisors and future viewers, prior to the present work, seem to be absent from the literature. However, related concepts raised in analyses of human precognitive abilities and the possibility of backward causation have been extensively discussed. The following references provide an overview of these topics: Dunne, J. W., An Experiment with Time, 1 potential contradictions which call for resolution, in the context of future viewing. The central question of time travel concerns whether use of a time machine could cause paradoxical changes to the past, or not. A rich atmosphere of interdisciplinary efforts has recently culminated in a definite answer: Physicists and engineers have developed a model of pastward time travel which elegantly explains why anyone who succeeds to travel to the past in the manner permitted within general relativity could not change it in any way.3 The most relevant aspects of this groundbreaking result, and the quantum teleportation experiments which support it, are detailed here. On the other hand, the central problem of time viewing is to understand how logical possibility would define the effects and 2nd edition (London: A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1929). Broad, C. D., "Mr. Dunne's Theory of Time in 'An Experiment with Time,' " Philosophy, 10 (1935): 168-185. Broad, C. D., "The Philosophical Implications of Foreknowledge," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. XVI, 'Knowledge and Foreknowledge' (1937): 177-209. Price, H. H., "The Philosophical Implications of Precognition," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. XVI, 'Knowledge and Foreknowledge' (1937): 211-228. Price, H. H., "Some Philosophical Questions about Telepathy and Clairvoyance," Philosophy, 15 (1940): 363-385. Broad, C. D., "The Experimental Establishment of Telepathic Precognition," Philosophy, 19 (1944): 261-265. Mundle, C. W. K., "Professor Rhine's Views about PK," Mind, 59 (1950): 372-379. Williams, D. C., "The Myth of Passage," The Journal of Philosophy, 48 (1951): 457-472. Dummet, A. E., Flew, A., "Symposium: Can an Effect Precede Its Cause?" Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 28 (1954): 27-62. Smart, J. J. C., "The Temporal Asymmetry of the World," Analysis, 14 (1954): 79-83. Flew, A., "Effects Before Their Causes?: Addenda and Corrigenda" Analysis, 16 (1956): 104110. Scriven, M., "Modern Experiments in Telepathy," The Philosophical Review, 65 (1956): 231-253. Black, M., "Why Cannot an Effect Precede Its Cause?" Analysis, 16 (1956): 49-58. Flew, A., "Causal Disorder Again," Analysis, 17 (1957): 81-86. Pears, D. F., "The Priority of Causes," Analysis, 17 (1957): 54-63. Chisholm, R., Taylor, R., "Making Things to Have Happened," Analysis, 20 (1960): 73-78. Robertson, L. C., "The Logical and Scientific Implications of Precognition, Assuming This to Be Established Statistically from the Work of Card-Guessing Subjects," Philosophy, 36 (1961): 219-223. Dummet, M., "Bringing About the Past," The Philosophical Review, 73 (1964): 338-359. Gorovitz, S., "Leaving the Past Alone," The Philosophical Review, 73 (1964): 360-371. Mackie, J. L., "The Direction of Causation," The Philosophical Review, 75 (1966): 441-466. Meehl, P. E., "Precognitive Telepathy I: On The Possibility of Distinguishing it Experimentally from Psychokinesis," Noûs, 12 (1978): 235-266. Mundle, C. W. K., "Does the Concept of Precognition Make Sense?" Philosophy and Parapsychology, (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1978). Anglin, W. S., "Backwards Causation," Analysis, 41 (1981): 86-91. Horwich, P., Asymmetries in Time: Problems in the Philosophy of Science, (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1987). Dowe, P., "Backward Causation and the Direction of Causal Processes," Mind, 105 (1996): 227-248. Price, H., "Backward Causation and the Direction of Causal Processes: Reply to Dowe," Mind, 105 (1996): 467-474. Ben-Yami, H., "The Impossibility of Backwards Causation," The Philosophical Quarterly, 57 (2007): 439455. Roache, R., "Bilking the Bilking Argument," Analysis, 69 (2009): 605-611. An extensive philosophical literature pertaining to the implications of divine foreknowledge also exists, but it is arguable that such works are not of sufficient relevance to be referenced here. 3Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental demonstration," arXiv :1005.2219v1 (2010): 5 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., "Quantum mechanics of time travel through post-selected teleportation," Physical Review D, 84 (2010): 11 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. 2 maximum predictive capabilities of future-viewing machines. After some preliminary concepts have been presented, the unique operational characteristics of outcome-informative future-viewing machines will be explored. An overview of related conceptual developments concerning time travel will then be provided. Once this background is in place, a conceptual framework which resolves all known time travel and time viewing confusions will be presented. Finally, a number of surprising and highly desirable implications of outcome-informative future-viewing machines will be shared for the first time. It should be clarified at the outset that time viewing is commonplace. Since time is always required for light to reach any lens from any scene, all functioning optical systems are time viewers. More specifically, eyes, cameras, microscopes, and telescopes are line-of-sight past viewers. So, there can be no doubt that time viewers exist. Since line-of-sight past viewers are ubiquitous and very wellunderstood, it is apparent that the main conceptual intrigue to be found in the context of time viewing involves the contemplation of future-viewing systems. In this overall context, what does it mean that time viewing and time travel are reversed with respect to one another, whereby all the most troublesome aspects of time travel involve travel to the past and all the most troublesome aspects of time viewing involve viewing the future? This will turn out to be a pivotal question in the conceptual unification of time travel and time viewing. Of course, it is reasonable to wonder whether future-viewing machines are even physically possible. Could a future-viewing machine ever actually be built? While a few of the referenced papers implicitly suggest a possible physical basis for just such a capability, an answer to this question will not be sought; instead, the present work will focus on the conceptual and logical issues which attend the assessment of such a technology, considered hypothetically. 2 Types of Future-Viewing Machines A highly relevant concept, which has been familiar in all cultures throughout human history, is that of individuals who are somehow able to perceive future events. A notable example of this concept is found in ancient Greek mythology. Princess Cassandra, daughter of the last king of Troy, was so beautiful that even the god Apollo took notice. He offered her the power to know the future perfectly, on an understanding that she would then willingly share his bed. However, once having gained this ability, she decided to back out of the arrangement. In retribution, Apollo decreed that no one would ever believe her visions. The stage had thus been set for a powerful tragedy, for although Cassandra would later foresee the fall of her kingdom, she could not enlist any help to prevent it.4 The concept of such an ability is also encountered outside of mythology. However, the possibility that human minds may be capable of accessing information from the future is a problematic and murky subject that will not be 4Aeschylus, Agammenon, translated by E. D. A. Morshead, The Harvard Classics, Vol. VIII, Part 1 (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909). 3 approached here-the primary focus throughout will be upon technologicallyassisted future viewing. As such, the term future viewer will refer only to the concept of a future-viewing machine. A person who directs and monitors a future viewer will be referred to as its operator. Many types of future viewers are conceivable, but various considerations lead to a unique device of interest. To understand the basics about future viewers in general, note that information about future outcomes can be either definite and correct, definite and incorrect, ambiguous and correct, or ambiguous and incorrect. Three ideas are relatively obvious, namely, that definite and correct information is the most outcome-informative kind, that ambiguous information can still be somewhat informative, as long as it is not too ambiguous, and that incorrect information of any type is never informative. To illustrate the meaning of ambiguous information, consider an assertion that one of three horses will win a race involving ten horses. If one of the three selected horses wins, such an assertion would provide an example of ambiguous and correct information which would have been somewhat informative. However, if one of the other seven horses were to win instead, the same ambiguous assertion would be incorrect and, as a result, would not have been informative. Now consider the assertion that one of ten horses will win a race involving ten horses. Assuming there will be a finisher, this maximally ambiguous assertion is correct. However, such information would be useless to anyone who might seek to gain a betting advantage. In sum, definite information about future outcomes can be either correct or incorrect, and ambiguous information about future outcomes can be correct, incorrect, or technically correct but too ambiguous to be outcomeinformative. One conceivable type of future viewer would enable its operator to see all the different ways the future could turn out (i.e., all future timelines), while being unable to reveal which timeline will be the actual future. For instance, such a machine might show all ten horses winning the race, and all ten jockeys falling off their horses, and the race being canceled, et cetera. Obviously, such a future viewer could only supply information that would be too ambiguous to be outcome-informative. However, for an operator who merely wishes to become informed about what future outcomes are possible, such a device would be ideal. This type of future viewer will be called an Everett machine.5 At the other extreme, one might try to imagine a future viewer which al5A major theme in popular accounts of modern physics involves how to deal with the multiple possibilities which arise in quantum mechanics (i.e., the many solutions of a given wavefunction). How should we interpret the reality underlying quantum mechanics? In 1957, Hugh Everett III proposed what he referred to as the relative state interpretation to answer this question. In the 1970s, Everett's view was popularized under the name "the manyworlds interpretation." In more recent decades, it has simply been referred to as the Everett interpretation. Apart from whether it is correct or incorrect, Everett's view holds that every quantum possibility is an actuality somewhere in a multiverse of rampant quantum bifurcation. As a result, it is natural to refer to a class of future-viewing machines able to survey every future possibility, but which cannot reveal what will happen, as Everett machines. In this context, it should be stressed that none of the results of this paper depend upon any given interpretation of quantum mechanics being correct or incorrect. Everett, H., III, " 'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics," Reviews of Modern Physics, 29 (1957): 454-462. 4 ways reveals, in every circumstance, definite and correct information about all future outcomes. Such devices will be referred to as Cassandra machines, after Cassandra's mythical ability. A Cassandra machine might initially seem to be a desirable type of future viewer, until one considers what would happen if its operator were to ever dislike the future it shows. If there really were a future-viewing machine which would always, in every circumstance, provide definite and correct information about future outcomes, then its operator would not be able to circumvent any outcome it reveals. Such absolute rigidity is the unmistakable signature of Cassandra machines, and a feature of these imaginary devices which can be exploited to prove that they are not logically possible. Dramatic examples involving foreknowledge of seemingly easily-preventable fates, which nevertheless cannot be avoided at any cost, begin to suggest that the concept of a Cassandra machine might be logically problematic. However suggestive such scenarios might be, definite information about Cassandra machines is not likely to emerge from thought experiments involving human beings; we are so unmanageably mysterious and complex, far more than any time machine or future-viewing machine could ever be. As a result, thought experiments which do not involve human operators are preferable for reaching informative conclusions. Such an exercise will be presented in the next section. Now, since an Everett machine would show all possible outcomes, it is clear that only impossible outcomes could contradict whatever an Everett machine might show. Of course, impossible outcomes cannot occur. As a result, no scenario involving the use of an Everett machine could lead to a viewercontradicting outcome, ensuring that Everett machines are logically possible. In contrast, as will soon be established, a Cassandra machine is not a logically possible type of future viewer. Since Cassandra machines are defined as devices which are always able to supply definite and correct information about every future outcome, regardless of circumstance, it is relatively straightforward to establish that no machine could fit such a description. This is achieved below simply by illustrating a circumstance wherein it would be impossible for any relevant instance of definite information about a future outcome to also be correct. Cassandra machines would be truly nightmarish contraptions, so it is a fortunate fact that they are not logically possible. After the impossibility of Cassandra machines has been shown, a third type of future viewer is explained. This third type of future viewer would be able to provide definite and correct information about future outcomes under a wide range of circumstances, in the mode of a Cassandra machine, yet would automatically operate as an Everett machine (or not operate at all) whenever utilized in a circumstance that would land a pure Cassandra machine in logical hot water. 5 3 A Future-Viewing Thought Experiment Imagine a computer that has mechanical control of a pointer which is able to assume 360 discrete positions against a labeled backplate. This non-networked computer is programmed to retrieve the stored output of a future-viewing machine which has been tuned to detect the future position of the same pointer, twenty seconds hence. The future viewer, the memory unit, the computer, and the mechanized pointer assembly are locked together in a secure room, under a timed lock, to ensure that the computer has sole agency over the pointer position during each run of the following experiment. The computer will carry out various programs which specify how it is to adjust the angle of the pointer, based what it retrieves from the memory unit. Three times, tA, tB, and tC, are ten seconds apart and in alphabetical sequence. The general experimental steps are defined as follows: tA: At tA, the tC pointer angle is future-viewed. The result is stored in the memory unit as some value x, which will be retrieved by the computer once it has been activated at tB. In cases of ambiguous information, x may be a conjunction of multiple values (e.g., x = 1° & 91° & 181° & 271°). tB: At tB, the computer is activated. It first retrieves x from the memory unit to use as input for the program to be run in that trial. The program will halt within three seconds, immediately after completion of any adjustment, if any, to the pointer angle. tC: The state of the pointer at tC is what the tA-stationed viewer makes an attempt to view. Within this sequence, any of the following programs may be run: (P-0) At tA, if the future-viewed tC pointer angle is recorded as x, then at tB, adjust the pointer to x + 0° and halt. (P-1) At tA, if the future-viewed tC pointer angle is recorded as x, then at tB, adjust the pointer to x + 1° and halt. (P-2) At tA, if the futureviewed tC pointer angle is recorded as x, then at tB, adjust the pointer to x + 2° and halt. . . . (P-359) At tA, if the future-viewed tC pointer angle is recorded as x, then at tB, adjust the pointer to x + 359° and halt. Of course, P-360 would be equivalent to P-0, and there would also be no reason to include P-361, since it would be equivalent to P-1, and so forth. Thus, programs P-0 through P-359 are sufficient to bring about all possible integer degree adjustments to the pointer, given x as input. Now, execution of P-0 obviously could not lead to a viewer-contradicting outcome (VCO), i.e., an outcome which would show that the future viewer had been incorrect. P-1 is where the logical puzzles begin. Assuming a pointer angle of 11° at the beginning of an experimental run involving P-1, what value will 6 the future viewer record in the memory unit? Of course, this is a trick question: If the future viewer were to record x = 11°, then the computer would adjust the pointer to 12° before halting, delivering a VCO. If the future viewer were to record x = 12°, P-1 would deliver another VCO, for the pointer would end up at 13°. In general, if the viewer records any definite value x as the tC pointer angle, then P-1 will adjust the pointer to rest on x + 1°, and a VCO will result. Of course, this means that no definite value of x could be correct with respect to the actual tC pointer angle, since every possible definite value of x leads to a VCO. In other words, this particular setup with P-1 illustrates a "circumstance wherein it would be impossible for any relevant instance of definite information about a future outcome to also be correct." So, a Cassandra machine cannot exist, since the possibility of arranging even one such circumstance means that the definition of a Cassandra machine cannot be fulfilled by any machine whatsoever. It has already been shown how a future viewer which presents sufficiently ambiguous information about the future can always operate in a manner which will not result in a VCO; Everett machines automatically operate in such a fashion, as they are maximally ambiguous. With the above result, it is now evident that information about future outcomes from any future viewer whatsoever must become at least somewhat ambiguous within some situations, or a VCO will result. It is vital to recognize that, if a VCO can ever result from the use of a given future-viewing technology, then a machine based on such a technology could potentially give incorrect or misleading information about future outcomes. However, a technology that might ever provide incorrect or misleading information about future outcomes could not qualify as a outcomeinformative technology. A outcome-informative future viewer will be defined as a future viewer that is able to operate in an outcome-informative mode (unlike an Everett machine), which cannot give incorrect or misleading information, and which is logically possible (unlike a Cassandra machine). This third requirement is essential because a machine which cannot exist could not be useful for any purpose. outcome-informative future viewers are therefore fully distinguishable from both Everett machines and Cassandra machines. Such devices will here be termed foreknowledge machines. Engineers and physicists would additionally wish to understand the physical principles which ensure that a properly designed and manufactured futureviewing machine based on a given future-viewing technology could not systematically provide incorrect or misleading information, i.e., definite information from a foreknowledge machine that nevertheless leads to a VCO, in much the same way that the principles of optics allow biologists and astronomers to trust information from properly designed and manufactured microscopes and telescopes.6 The development of such a theoretical understanding in the context of 6While scenes depicted in images can themselves be misleading (e.g., if disguise or camouflage has been used), that is a separate consideration. Many intervening optical effects may also play a role in the formation of an image, for instance, those which arise from heated air, great distance, interstellar gas and debris, fog, atmospheric effects, and lens flare-but these are separate considerations as well. Optics provides a theoretical basis for accepting that 7 future viewing would be central in the process of confirming that a genuine foreknowledge machine technology has been discovered. To assist the exposition, instances of definite and correct information about future outcomes received by future viewers will be referred to as viewer foreknowledge. With any future-viewing machine technology, circumstances wherein only ambiguity or non-operation could allow correctness to be maintained, or at least allow a track record of correctness to be sustained, occur whenever it is not logically possible for information from a future viewer to be both definite and correct, e.g., during runs of P-1 through P-359. These scenarios will be referred to as interference viewing scenarios. Logical problems with definite information about future outcomes arise only within interference viewing scenarios. It is clear that there would be no similar logical limitation on either the definiteness or accuracy of information that could be gained in what will be termed non-interference viewing scenarios, scenarios wherein information pertaining to time-viewed outcomes will not (or could not) be used to try to alter those outcomes. Non-interference viewing scenarios must also include special cases wherein an individual or organization, once having received viewer foreknowledge pertaining to given future outcomes, will eventually help to bring those outcomes to fruition. No logical principle would prevent a future viewer from accessing viewer foreknowledge within any non-interference scenario, whereas interference viewing scenarios with respect to any given set of future outcomes could only yield ambiguous information about them, if any at all. 4 Non-Interference Viewing Scenarios and the Second-time-around Fallacy One may surmise that all the contingencies of a given program, which may or may not cause an interference viewing scenario, have a direct effect on the minimum level of ambiguity that a future viewer will display to avoid a VCO. For example, the minimum level of ambiguity to avoid a VCO for P-1 and P-359 is 360 pointer positions, for P-90 and P-270 it is four pointer positions, and for P-180 it is two pointer positions. Of course, no ambiguity is required to avoid a VCO when running P-0, so in that case, viewer foreknowledge of the tC pointer angle would be accessible to the future-viewing machine within the locked room. Now, imagine there is also a future-viewing machine in the next room, which may be used to observe the outcome of the experiment, but which does not pass its output to the computer. This second viewer has thus not been forced into an interference viewing scenario, so it will always provide viewer foreknowledge of the outcome of every experiment, regardless of which program is run. Foreknowledge machines will provide viewer foreknowledge within all noninterference viewing scenarios. More generally, every type of time viewer will properly functioning optical instruments will not provide incorrect or misleading information, because no detail in an optically-received image can correspond to something that was not in the scene and was not the result of an intervening effect. 8 access definite and correct information in all non-interference viewing scenarios. This generalized principle will be called the principle of non-interference. There are many applications of this principle. Naturally, its opposite, the principle of interference, states that no time viewer of any type will be able to access definite and correct information when it has been forced into an interference viewing scenario. What are some of the applications of these principles? To begin to explore this topic, an important insight from philosophical literature about time travel is helpful: Any given events on a timeline happen only once, and not even a time traveler can alter them. Essentially, whatever happened, happened, either with or without the participation of time travelers. Failing to grasp this and imagining instead that a series of events in the past could initially occur without time travelers, and then would somehow occur again, but with a science-fiction twist, if time travelers ever decide to visit, is known among philosophers as the "second-time-around fallacy."7 This term was coined by Nicholas J. Smith more than two decades after it was so compellingly described by Larry Dwyer: If we hypothesize that T pulls levers and manipulates a rocket in 1974, and travels back in time to the year 3000 B.C. then of course, even before T enters his rocket, it is true that any accurate catalogue of all the events on earth during the year 3000 B.C. would include an account of T 's actions, reactions and mental processes. There is no question of the year 3000 B.C. occurring more than once.8 Three years later, David Lewis also described the second-time-around fallacy in his classic 1976 paper, "The Paradoxes of Time Travel." Here is his description, presented in terms of a time travel puzzle that needs no introduction, the socalled grandfather paradox: We may be tempted to speak of the "original" 1921 that lies in Tim's personal past, many years before his birth, in which Grandfather lived; and of the "new" 1921 in which Tim now finds himself waiting in ambush to kill Grandfather. But if we do speak so, we merely confer two names on one thing.9 7Smith, N. J. J., "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 48 (1997): 363-389. 8Dwyer, L., "Time Travel and Changing the Past," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 341-350. 9Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. In this context, science-fiction author, Larry Niven, presented a most delightfully paradoxical version of the grandfather paradox in his 1971 essay, "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel." "The Grandfather Paradox is basic to any discussion of time travel. It runs as follows: At the age of eighty your grandfather invents a time machine. You hate the old man, so you steal the machine and take it sixty years back into the past and kill him. How can they suspect you? But you've killed him before he can meet your grandmother. Thus you were never born. He didn't get a chance to build the time machine either. But then you can't have killed him. Thus he may sire your father, who may sire you. Later there will be a time machine..." Niven also poetically quipped: "With a Grandfather Paradox operating, the effect, coming before the cause, may cause the cause never to come into effect, with results 9 The past cannot be altered or reset, so no logical reason could prevent any instance of past viewing from taking the form of definite and correct information. In other words, past viewing is always automatically conducted within non-interference viewing scenarios; there is no way to force a past viewer into an interference viewing scenario. As will soon be established, this would hold even if time travel were available. Since past viewing is the only way we see anything, then even if the world were filled with time travel, it would never become ephemeral and uncertain. As opposed to so many confused (although admittedly entertaining) cinematic treatments, pastward time travel could never cause people to slowly disappear or make photographs of relatives fade away. Recognizing that the past cannot be changed goes hand-in-hand with the notion that it is impossible to cause any sort of a paradox with time travel, a conclusion that will be fully established in the next section. So, it should be clear that a time traveler cannot change anything in the past-even to the extent of disturbing a single 1921 electron. Time travelers can only participate in past events, just as they happened, if the manner in which they happened involved the participation of time travelers. This also applies to the kind of role we play in present and future events; all times are equivalent in this respect. On this topic, Lewis provided the following insightful observation: You cannot change a present or future event from what it was originally to what it is after you change it. What you can do is to change the present or the future from the unactualized way they would have been without some action of yours to the way they actually are. But that is not an actual change: not a difference between two successive actualities.10 Past outcomes are fixed; no technology could bring about "a difference between two successive actualities" in order to change past outcomes.11 As a result, which are not even self-consistent." Niven, L., "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel," All the Myriad Ways, (New York: Ballantine Books, 1975). 10Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. 11One might interpret current retrocausal quantum signaling experiments, if successful, to represent a challenge to the point made in the text. While such experimental efforts seek to demonstrate a later cause having an earlier effect, usually due to quantum entanglement between non-delayed photons and photons delayed via miles of fiber-optic cable, they certainly could not involve "a difference between two successive actualities." If such experiments prove successful, they would only serve to support the point being made in the text; they would show the causal participation of a future (or present) event in a present (or past) outcome. Scientists have long considered retrocausality to be a legitimate physical possibility which might also be an essential feature of physical laws. Feynman, R., Wheeler, J. A., "Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation," Reviews of Modern Physics, 17 (1945): 157-181. Feynman, R., Wheeler, J. A., "Classical Electrodynamics in Terms of Direct Interparticle Action," Reviews of Modern Physics, 21 (1949): 425-433. Cramer, J. G., "The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," Reviews of Modern Physics, 58 (1986): 647-687. Cramer, J. G., "An Overview of the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 27 (1988): 227-236. Dobyns, Y. H., "Retrocausation, Consistency, and the Bilking Paradox," AIP Conf. Proc., 1408 (2011): 23510 all past viewers must operate exclusively in non-interference viewing scenarios. Soon, after more conceptual background has been presented, an effort will be made to force a line-of-sight past viewer into an interference viewing scenario. However, the understanding to be gained next will serve to show that this cannot be achieved. 5 Quantum Mechanics Associated with Pastward Time Travel and Future Viewers In an exploration of the manner in which time travel paradoxes may be eliminated, a pursuit which also reveals many insights related to the behavior of foreknowledge machines, it is useful to begin by mentioning the Novikov selfconsistency principle, named after the Russian physicist Igor Novikov. This principle was expressed in the 1990 paper, "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed time-like curves,"12 by Novikov and physicists John Friedman, Michael Morris, Fernando Echeverria, Gunnar Klinkhammer, Kip Thorne, and Ulvi Yurtsever. Closed timelike curves (CTCs) are efficiently described as, "trajectories in spacetime that effectively travel backwards in time: a test particle following a CTC can in principle interact with its former self in the past."13 The self-consistency principle bears Novikov's name because he advanced it well over a decade earlier at physics conferences and in a Russian book he coauthored with Yakov Zel'dovich.14 The following quotation from the 1990 paper, with its original italics, provides its final formulation as well as information about Novikov's initial conceptual motivation: Some years ago... Novikov... briefly considered the possibility that... [CTCs] might exist and argued that they cannot entail this type of causality violation... [i.e., changes to the past]: Events on a CTC are already guaranteed to be self-consistent, Novikov argued; they influence each other around the closed curve in a self-adjusted, cyclical, self-consistent way. The other authors recently have arrived at the same viewpoint. 254. Radin, D. I., "Predicting the Unpredictable: 75 Years of Experimental Evidence," AIP Conf. Proc., 1408 (2011): 204-217. 12Echeverria, F., Friedman, J., Klinkhammer, G., Morris, M. S., Novikov, I. D., Thorne, K. S., Yurtsever, U., "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves," Physical Review D, 42 (1990): 1915-1930. 13Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental demonstration," arXiv :1005.2219v1 (2010): 5 pages. 14Novikov, I. D., Zel'dovich, Y. B., Stroeniye i Evolyutsia Vselennoi (Moscow: Nauka, 1975). The endnote in "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves," which contains the above reference includes the following curious comment which reveals a certain political sensitivity surrounding the physics of CTCs in the early '80s: "Note that in the English edition of the latter reference [Relativistic Astrophysics, Vol. 2, The Structure and Evolution of the Universe (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1983), bottom of page 637 and top of page 638] the text was changed without Novikov's agreement to say that CTC's cannot occur." 11 We shall embody this viewpoint in a principle of self-consistency, which states that the only solutions to the laws of physics that can occur locally in the real Universe are those which are globally selfconsistent. This principle allows one to build a local solution to the equations of physics only if that local solution can be extended to be part of a (not necessarily unique) global solution...15 In this context, 'global' refers to all of space and time. The term CTC has been familiar to physicists since Kurt Gödel's famous 1949 time travel result. Gödel's paper proved that CTCs which would enable travel to the past automatically emerge within solutions of the equations of general relativity, as long as one posits a rotating universe. Nearly sixty-five years ago, Gödel was able to mathematically establish that, "it is theoretically possible in these worlds to travel into the past, or otherwise influence the past."16 While there is no evidence that our universe is rotating, the conceptual cat had nevertheless been let out of the bag-theorists have understood for two generations that pastward time travel is compatible with general relativity. Disregarding Novikov's self-consistency principle, one may still idly imagine a person going back in time to break the chain of his or her own lineage to bring about a dreaded time travel paradox. However, in reality, the idea that it might ever be possible to rearrange natural phenomena in any way that could "trick" nature into an actual paradox is absurd. No serious thinker believes genuine physical paradoxes are at all possible, either via pastward time travel or by any other means. Accordingly, many have concluded that pastward time travel must not be possible, on the assumption that such a form of travel could allow paradoxes to be set up. However, the conclusion, "if nature were to allow pastward time travel at all, then paradoxes could be set up," does not follow from a series of stories which can only serve to establish that one may choose to imagine, among other choices, that pastward time travel could lead to paradoxes. A physical mechanism that would make it impossible for anyone to embark on time trips which would lead to paradox, but which would also allow consistent time trips to proceed, would rule out any possibility of paradox without ruling out pastward time travel. In order to accept that opening and traversing a CTC to the past may be a genuine technological possibility, it is necessary to believe that such a mechanism may exist. So, ultimately, efforts to discover principles which might constitute such a mechanism are an aid to understanding whether pastward time travel may really be possible. However, there is potentially a much more direct way to evaluate its possibility. An inventor would not have to concern himself with questions of paradox at all; a single journey to the past would settle the matter entirely. Since paradoxes are every bit as impossible as round squares, there is no reason for an inventor to worry about the potential of causing them. 15Echeverria, F., Friedman, J., Klinkhammer, G., Morris, M. S., Novikov, I. D., Thorne, K. S., Yurtsever, U., "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves," Physical Review D, 42 (1990): 1915-1930. 16Gödel, K., "An Example of a New Type of Cosmological Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations of Gravitation," Reviews of Modern Physics, 21 (1949): 447-450. 12 So, if there are any time travelers who know much about us, they surely derive amusement from the quaint 20th-century misconception, which still holds sway in our century, that traveling to the past might ever cause some kind of paradox. For people of our era who have never seen a time machine, however, a question mark still looms over whether pastward time travel can ever be accomplished, so a proof which assures us that it could not lead to paradox would be very helpful indeed, and would embolden inventors to press forward (or pastward, as the case may be). The search for such a proof and its attendant concepts was arguably initiated by science fiction writers, then was greatly advanced by philosophers, and finally, for all intents and purposes, has recently been ended by physicists.17 The many papers referenced in the first endnote represent the most notable examples from the first twenty-eight years of philosophical writings on time travel. In the earliest of these works, attempts were made to argue that time travel is not logically possible, due to various supposed inconsistencies and paradoxes.18 The field then began to lean toward the opposite viewpoint. With 17In order to trace, as far back as possible, the search for a proof that time travel cannot lead to paradoxes, one must begin by reading early science fiction. While many stories allow paradoxes to occur for dramatic effect, other works invented mysterious or ironic ways that nature would respond in order to avoid or repair them. To reveal specifics could potentially spoil hours of fun. Nahin, P. J., Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction (New York: Springer-Verlag and AIP Press, 1999). Also see Niven's insightful essay on time travel geared toward the science-fiction author: Niven, L., "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel," All the Myriad Ways, (New York: Ballantine Books, 1975). As noted throughout the paper, philosophers also eventually got into the act and made a great deal of progress. Most notably, they identified the second-time-around fallacy. Berger, G., "The Conceptual Possibility of Time Travel," The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 19 (1968): 152-155. Dwyer, L., "Time Travel and Changing the Past," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 341-350. Thom, P., "Time-Travel and Non-Fatal Suicide," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 211-216. Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Dwyer, L. "How to affect, but not change, the past," The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 15 (1977): 383385. Casati, R., "That Useless Time Machine," Philosophy, 76 (2001): 581-583. Goddu, G. C., "A Useful Time Machine," Philosophy, 77 (2002): 281-282. Finally, a team of physicists recently established why time travel cannot lead to paradoxes. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., GarciaPatron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental demonstration," arXiv :1005.2219v1 (2010): 5 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., "Quantum mechanics of time travel through post-selected teleportation," Physical Review D, 84 (2010): 11 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. 18Donald Williams' often-cited article argues against the conceptual possibility of time travel. Williams, D. C., "The Myth of Passage," The Journal of Philosophy, 48 (1951): 457472. Fred Dretske's 1962 article also raises issues regarding its conceptual possibility. Dretske, F. I., "Moving Backward in Time," The Philosophical Review, 71 (1962): 94-98. While Hilary Putnam argued in favor of its conceptual possibility in his 1962 article, "It Ain't Necessarily So," he also tantalizingly remarked that, "[i]n the last few years I have been amused and irritated by the spate of articles proving that time travel is a 'conceptual impossibility.' " Unfortunately, he did not cite any member of that spate. While it is unclear which articles Putnam had in mind, he may have been thinking of some of the earlier works cited in the 13 difficult questions as to its physical possibility set off to the side, philosophers began pointing out that the conceivability of consistent forms of pastward time travel at least establishes that it is a logical possibility.19 From that moment in the history of conceptual development forward, philosophers began discussing the imagined implications of assuming that time travel is physically possible and yet cannot be used to produce paradoxes. The contributions of these later papers fall into at least two broad categories. First and foremost, the nature of self-consistent time travel received clarification. The seminal papers which identified, established, and elaborated the second-timearound fallacy fall under this classification.20 These contributions were very important among the developments of the 1970s which have crystallized into the present understanding. Still other papers take the idea of an unalterable past for granted and attempt to understand the full implications of this in the context of time travel. However, as will be explained, many of these papers discuss the strange coincidences that were mistakenly assumed would have to occur in order for nature to be able to protect itself from our temporal manipulations.21 The current second endnote which argue against the possibility of backward causation, as they may be construed as implicitly arguing against the conceptual possibility of time travel. Putnam, H., "It Ain't Necessarily So," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 59, No. 22, American Philosophical Association Eastern Division: Symposium Papers to be Presented at the Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting, New York City, December 27-29, 1962 (1962), 658-671. 19Mayo, B., "Objects, Events, and Complementarity," The Philosophical Review, 70 (1961): 340-361. Putnam, H., "It Ain't Necessarily So," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 59, No. 22, American Philosophical Association Eastern Division: Symposium Papers to be Presented at the Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting, New York City, December 27-29, 1962 (1962), 658-671. Philosopher J. J. C. Smart concluded, "we can concede the conceptual possibility of time travel." Smart, J. J. C., "Is Time Travel Possible?" The Journal of Philosophy, 60 (1963): 237-241. Berger, G., "The Conceptual Possibility of Time Travel," The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 19 (1968): 152-155. Meiland, J. W., "A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 26 (1974): 153-173. Horwich, P., "On Some Alleged Paradoxes of Time Travel," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 72, No. 14, Time, Cause, and Evidence (1975): 432-444. Dwyer, L., "Time Travel and Changing the Past," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 341-350. Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Weingard, R., "General Relativity and the Conceivability of Time Travel," Philosophy of Science, 46 (1979): 328-332. 20Berger, G., "The Conceptual Possibility of Time Travel," The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 19 (1968): 152-155. Dwyer, L., "Time Travel and Changing the Past," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 341-350. Thom, P., "Time-Travel and Non-Fatal Suicide," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 27 (1975): 211-216. Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Dwyer, L. "How to affect, but not change, the past," The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 15 (1977): 383-385. Casati, R., "That Useless Time Machine," Philosophy, 76 (2001): 581-583. Goddu, G. C., "A Useful Time Machine," Philosophy, 77 (2002): 281-282. 21Earman, J., "Implications of Causal Propagation Outside the Null-Cone," Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50 (1972): 222-237. Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Horwich, P., Asymmetries in Time: Problems in the Philosophy of Science, (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1987). Maudlin, T., "Time-Travel and Topology," PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of 14 state-of-the-art thinking to be detailed soon, however, indicates that protective coincidences would essentially be a non-issue in the context of actual pastward time travel, if there is or will ever be such a context. For instance, papers like "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" accept the second-time-around fallacy and go on to discuss the idea that coincidences might prevent "bilking," a term widely used by philosophers as a shorthand for wouldbe paradoxical tomfoolery.22 Lewis identified coincidences, such as slipping on a banana peel right before a bilking attempt, as a catch-all means whereby bilking could be prevented, were pastward time travel ever practiced. Works which discuss coincidences as a central consideration generally argue that the inordinate number that would supposedly be required may permit the conclusion that pastward time travel is not likely to be feasible, but cannot justify an argument that it must be impossible.23 The latest viewpoint, however, shows that coincidences are not of any special importance in the context of time travel. While apparent coincidences could occur to prevent a bilking incident, just as rarely as they might occur to prevent anything else, there is no reason to posit that coincidences would or must occur with greater than normal frequency in spacetime regions around CTCs. Instead, it is now understood that bilking would always automatically be prevented at the source: Any attempt to open a CTC to the past which would have resulted in bilking will be unsuccessful.24 Science Association, Vol. 1990, Volume One: Contributed Papers (1990): 303-315. Smith, N. J. J., "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 48 (1997): 363-389. Smith, N. J. J., "The problems of backward time travel," Endeavor, 22 (1998): 156-158. Ismael, J., "Closed Causal Loops and the Bilking Argument," Synthese, 136 (2003): 305-320. 22Smith, N. J. J., "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 48 (1997): 363-389. 23Maudlin, T., "Time-Travel and Topology," PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1990, Volume One: Contributed Papers (1990): 303-315. Smith, N. J. J., "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 48 (1997): 363-389. Sider, T., "Time Travel, Coincidences and Counterfactuals," Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 110 (2002): 115-138. Ismael, J., "Closed Causal Loops and the Bilking Argument," Synthese, 136 (2003): 305-320. 24Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental demonstration," arXiv :1005.2219v1 (2010): 5 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., "Quantum mechanics of time travel through post-selected teleportation," Physical Review D, 84 (2010): 11 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. Here is what, "[a]ny attempt to open a CTC to the past which would have resulted in bilking will be unsuccessful," would mean for Tim's wish to pay his grandfather a deadly visit. Let's grant that a CTC opens to allow Tim to set foot in 1921. During Tim's visit, even if it were to appear that a coincidence has miraculously intervened in order to prevent grand-patricide, such a happening would neither be miraculous nor coincidental. Instead, such a happening had already served to allow the CTC to open, which would not have otherwise opened. In all likelihood, however, since wayward banana peels and jammed guns are so rare, it is overwhelmingly likely that Tim would simply be unable to open a CTC 15 This is an astounding result which has revolutionized the understanding of how pastward time travel can be kept logically consistent within a nonbifurcating temporal ontology.25 To understand this result, a brief detour into the work of Lloyd et al. will be required. Seth Lloyd, of MIT, is a leading expert in quantum engineering and quantum information. His team explored a possible analog of time travel within the framework of "postselected quantum teleportation."26 Quantum teleportation allows for quantum information to be transferred from one quantum system and embodied in a receiving quantum system. Their essential idea was to encode the logical features of a bilking attempt into measurable quantities in a specially-designed experiment involving postselected quantum teleportation, and then to observe what happens. This innovation allowed them to physically simulate postselected CTCs (P-CTCs), in order to experimentally explore whether nature would allow bilking within a model of time travel based on P-CTCs. Here is their experiment, in their own words: We present an experiment to simulate how the grandfather paradox might develop in a P-CTC: the postselected results are indistinguishable from what would happen when a photon is sent a few billionths of a second back in time to try to "kill" its former self.27 For further insight into what they accomplished by proposing this theoretical framework and obtaining the related experimental results, here are two additional quotations from the same article: to 1921, until he has a change of heart. However, even if he were to eventually decide that he only wants to see his grandfather from afar, the second-time-around fallacy would have the final say: If Tim never took part in any of the happenings of 1921, it would simply be off limits to him. Of course, this is all enforced by the fact that a CTC to 1921 will never open for him to traverse. If he was never part of that year, a CTC to 1921 might open for others, even in situations where Tim is standing close to the time portal platform, but a CTC to 1921 will never open in any circumstance which will lead to Tim traversing it. 25David Deutsch proposed in 1991, and in 1994 with Michael Lockwood, that time travel could be kept logically consistent if the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics (a bifurcating temporal ontology) were true, for time travel would consist of travel to other universes. John Abbruzzese discussed some problems he perceived with this model of time travel in a short 2001 article. More decisively, in 2004, a physicist with an ironic last name, Allen Everett, calculated that wormhole time travel to other times within a multiverse context would result in, "different pieces [of the unfortunate would-be time traveler] winding up in different 'worlds.' " In his 2012 article on the same topic, Nikk Effingham explored whether multiverse time travel would even count as time travel, and referred to Everett's 2004 result as the "Slicing Thesis." Deutsch, D., "Quantum mechanics near closed timelike lines," Physical Review D, 44 (1991): 3197-3217. Deutsch, D., Lockwood, M., "The Quantum Physics of Time Travel," Scientific American, 270 (1994): 68-74. Abbruzzese, J., "On using the multiverse to avoid the paradoxes of time travel," Analysis, 61 (2001): 36-38. Everett, A., "Time Travel Paradoxes, Path Integrals, and the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," Physical Review D, 69 (2004): 35 pages. Effingham, N., "An Unwelcome Consequence of the Multiverse Thesis," Synthese, 184 (2012): 375-386. 26Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. 27Ibid. 16 The P-CTC... starts from two systems prepared in a maximally entangled state |Ψ>..., and ends by projecting them into the same state <Ψ|... Probabilities for events in the presence of a P-CTC are obtained by using ordinary quantum mechanics to calculate the conditional probabilities of the events given that a measurement on the final part of the CTC yields the state |Ψ>. The probabilities for events in a P-CTC thus depend on the past and the future. If the probability for the outcome |Ψ> is zero, then the P-CTC cannot occur: our mechanism embodies in a natural way the Novikov principle... that only logically self-consistent events occur in the universe.... These probe qubits measure the state of the polarization qubit before and after the quantum gun is "fired." When the postselection succeeds (which simulates the time travel occurring), the state of the qubits is measured. If they are equal (00 or 11) the gun has failed to flip the polarization: the photon "survives," otherwise (01 or 10) the photon has "killed" its past self. The state of the probe qubits, conditioned on the post-selection succeeding, was measured for different values of θ... [from the relevant diagram in the article, θ is the "Quantum Gun Angle"]. The probes are never 01 or 10, which shows that "time travel cannot happen" unless the gun misfires, leaving the polarization qubit unchanged and the probes in 00 or 11. Namely, suicidal photons in a CTC obey the Novikov principle: they cannot kill their former selves.28 So, their P-CTC model automatically explains why bilking would be impossible. Attempts to open a CTC into the past would not just depend on the technological capability of doing so, such attempts would also depend, on a case by case basis, upon all of the resultant effects of doing so. Assuming a working time machine, if a given attempt to open and traverse a CTC would have led to bilking, that attempt will fail; a CTC will not open. On the other hand, using the same time machine, if another attempt to open and traverse a CTC will not lead to bilking, that CTC will open. This makes sense within a postselected model of time travel, i.e., a "selfadjusted, cyclical, self-consistent" model of time travel; the CTC to the past defines the initial leg of a would-be cycle, and the fact that all the effects of a given CTC-opening would already be present when the attempt to open that CTC is made, defines the return leg. Only self-consistent cycles would be permitted in the instantaneous postselection process which attends every attempt to open a CTC, so even cases of unintentional bilking would be ruled out. An easy way to encapsulate all of these ideas is to note that the personal future of time travelers who are traveling into the past must already be part of the past whenever they might attempt to begin their journey. This means that they would not be able to do just anything on a trip to the past, they could only do 28Ibid. 17 precisely what occurred in the past. So, in some sense, since every trip back will have already happened by the time it is attempted, only those attempts to take trips into the past that were successful will be successful. Trips that were not taken, can never be taken, and trips that bilk could not have been taken, so were not taken, and so can never be taken. This cyclical view of time travel may seem, at first, like a sleight-of-hand trick. However, consideration of time travel in terms of the insights supporting the second-time-around fallacy lead directly to this same view. An important question was posed in the introduction: What does it mean that time viewing and time travel are reversed with respect to one another, whereby all the most troublesome aspects of time travel involve travel to the past and all the most troublesome aspects of time viewing involve viewing the future? It turns out that time viewing is a special case of time travel, for note that traveling back in time with information about the future could yield the same information as viewing the future. The answer to this question is that the "most troublesome aspects" of time travel and the "most troublesome aspects" of time viewing, which initially appear separate, are actually the same. This is clarified upon consideration of a cyclical view of future viewing. Viewer foreknowledge can only occur when its reception cannot lead to a VCO, and every attempt to view the future under an interference viewing scenario, at most, could only yield ambiguous information, such as one would expect from an Everett machine. So, anything that the logical coherence of events leading to a given future demands that we must not know before those events transpire will simply be off limits to us, both because time travelers will not be able to bring such information back to us (or send it through a CTC), and also because, in such cases, future-viewing machines will not be able to provide us with viewer foreknowledge. So, essentially identical cyclical analyses serve to explain why both time travel and time viewing are bilk-proof. This series of insights will be referred to as view-travel unification. A surprising application of view-travel unification provides the solution to the following modified experiment which will pit the principle of non-interference against the principle of interference in a most dramatic way. Telescopes are lineof-sight past viewers, and the same is true of radio telescopes (i.e., parabolic dish radio receivers). With this in mind, consider a new pointer position experiment which initially appears to be equivalent to the original pointer position experiment, in which a radio telescope will be used instead of a future viewer. The procedure which makes this a seemingly equivalent experiment is that the radio telescope and its corresponding memory unit will be attached to the computer which controls the pointer assembly, and all of this equipment will be set up within a time machine spaceship which will automatically take itself into the past to give it enough time to travel through space to the transmission point one year before, one light-year away. Assuming the spaceship is able to complete a one light-year journey in ten years, the time machine aspect of the spaceship will be programmed to bring the entire assembly a little more than eleven years into the past; this gives it ample time to complete its long space journey toward the transmission point. The time labels tA', tB', and tC' will be used for this 18 modified experiment-in this case arranged alphabetically in sequence with respect to the "personal time" of the spaceship, rather than in terms of calendar time, as before-which is to be carried out in the following manner: tA': At tA', the tC' pointer angle is received in a radio transmission which originated one light-year away. The result is stored in the memory unit as value y, which will be retrieved by the computer upon activation at tB'. In cases of ambiguous information, y may be a conjunction of multiple values (e.g., x = 18° & 108° & 198° & 288°). tB': A short while after the spaceship has arrived at its destination, one light-year away from Sol, and has decelerated until its relative velocity is null with respect to Sol (in order to ensure that a distant evaluation of timing can be given a straightforward meaning), the computer is activated precisely one year and ten seconds (in terms of calendar time) before tA', i.e., at tB'. Upon activation, the computer retrieves y from the memory unit, and a given program is executed by the computer using y as input. The program halts within three seconds, immediately after completion of any adjustment to the pointer angle. tC': Ten seconds after tB' the state of the pointer at tC' is transmitted to Sol for the tA'-stationed radio telescope within the considerably "younger" version of the time machine spaceship to receive. As above, many different programs may be specified: (P-0') At tA', if the tC' pointer angle is received as y, then at tB', adjust the pointer to y + 0° and halt. (P-1') At tA', if the tC' pointer angle is received as y, then at tB', adjust the pointer to y + 1° and halt. (P-2') At tA', if the tC' pointer angle is received as y, then at tB', adjust the pointer to y + 2° and halt. . . . (P-359') At tA', if the tC' pointer angle is received as y, then at tB', adjust the pointer to y + 359° and halt. This complicated description represents a case where a line-of-sight past viewer can seemingly be made to stand in for a future viewer. If this truly could be done, then the idea that all past-viewing occurs only within non-interference viewing scenarios would have to be abandoned. At first it might appear that, during a run of P-1' through P-359', the radio receiver would be forced into an interference viewing scenario, in which case the principle of interference would suggest that the only way a VCO could be avoided would be for the radio receiver to pick up ambiguous information about the outcome of the experiment. As promised, the principle of interference will now be pit against the principle of non-interference. This is accomplished by imagining that an identicallyconstructed radio telescope is positioned alongside the spaceship time machine 19 at tA'. This second radio telescope, since it does not pass any information to the computer within the time machine spaceship, would be in a non-interference viewing scenario with respect to the outcome of the experiment. Thus, the principle of non-interference indicates that this second radio telescope will receive definite and correct information about the outcome of the experiment. As a result, if both principles are right, it seems that two identically-constructed radio telescopes, which have been positioned side-by-side, would have to receive the same signal differently. Such a phenomenon is surely impossible, so it initially appears that this thought experiment may have uncovered a conceptual problem with these principles. However, the postselected, self-adjusting, cyclical, selfconsistent model of pastward time travel at the basis of view-travel unification means that a time machine cannot be used to make a line-of-sight past viewer stand in for a future viewer in such an experiment, because a CTC will only open up if the program to be run is P-0'. The entire false dilemma has thus been sidestepped. A VCO cannot occur for line-of-sight past viewers, which indeed operate exclusively in non-interference viewing scenarios. Conceptually, at least, there is another variety of past viewer, the chronovisor.29 A chronovisor is a machine imagined to have the ability to display any scene its operator selects from the past, i.e., a non-line-of-sight past viewer. If all past viewers operate exclusively in non-interference viewing scenarios, a properly functioning chronovisor should always be able to provide definite and correct information about any of the past events its operator has adjusted the chronovisor's controls to receive. As in the radio telescope case, this must even be true if the operator of a chronovisor were also able to employ time travel: If she sees into the past with a chronovisor, she will either see herself attending a given event by way of her time machine, or not. An imagined third possibility, wherein she does not see herself participating in the event "the first time around," and afterwards decides to use her time machine to participate in it "the second time around," is an absurdity which has already been dismissed. More conceptual work, however, is required to establish that chronovisors always operate exclusively in non-interference viewing scenarios, even if pastward 29Krassa, P., Dein Schicksal ist vorherbestimmt: Pater Ernettis Zeitmaschine und das Geheimnis der Akasha-Chronik (Herbig: München, 1997). Three years later, Krassa's book was translated from the original German. Krassa, P., Father Ernetti's Chronovisor: The Creation and Disappearance of the World's First Time Machine, (Boca Raton: New Paradigm Books, 2000). The story it tells is that a machine which could view and hear any scene from the past was developed in the 1950s, by a team which eventually included Enrico Fermi, following an accidental discovery with audio equipment made by Father Pellegrino Ernetti and Father Agostino Gemelli on September 15th, 1952. Even if such a machine did exist (which would mean that very advanced versions of it exist today), given that 'chronovisor' is not a household name, one should not expect all the details surrounding this story to amount to a fully convincing case. Whether these alleged developments are part of the secret history of technology or not, 'chronovisor' is a compelling and efficient term to use when discussing the concept of non-line-of-sight past viewers. For interested readers who might wish to cross-reference the information contained in Krassa's book, two other book-length works on the chronovisor story are also available: Teodorani, M., Il Cronovisore: Sogno del futuro o esperimenti reali? (Diegaro di Cesena: Macro Edizioni, 2006). Brune, F., Das Geheimnis des Pater Ernetti: Die Zeitmachine im Vatikan, (Saarbrücken: Hesper Verlag, 2010). 20 time travel is also available. The case where a time traveler uses a chronovisor to watch her own journey to the past which is also in her personal past is obviously non-problematic. On the other hand, if a time traveler were to use a chronovisor to view a journey she has yet to take, one might wonder whether the chronovisor could potentially be forced into an interference viewing scenario. Just as in the case of line-of-sight past viewers, view-travel unification also prevents this possibility for chronovisors to the extent that a time traveler using a properly designed and functioning chronovisor will only receive definite and correct information about past events, even past events in which she has yet to participate: A CTC will not open to allow any trip to the past inconsistent with what has been, will, or could be chronovised. This requirement forces non-contradiction, but at first it seems to reopen the door to bilking. After using her chronovisor to view her upcoming time trip, one might think that she now has an opportunity to go back in time and choose to zig, even though she chronovised that she will go back and zag. Yet, if she indeed zagged at that moment, being a time traveler, she knows that the required CTC will not open for any trip which would have included an offending zig. Since human psychology is such that it would be difficult to entirely resist opportunities to test one's degree of freedom, she may need to agree to temporarily have the memories of that chronovisor session blocked so that she will be able to open the CTC which will allow her to embark on the corresponding trip. However, such a memory block would not be necessary if she merely decides to do everything she chronovised. A case where she has chronovised herself doing one thing on an upcoming time trip, but then chooses to do something else, is impossible, because that would mean that there would not have been such an upcoming trip to the past to chronovise in the first place. This chronovisor scenario raises a topic with relevance to foreknowledge machines that has yet to be mentioned: Attempting to view one's own future actions would strongly tend to induce an interference viewing scenario. It is likely that an organization which uses foreknowledge machines, chronovisors, and time machines would discourage operators of foreknowledge machines and chronovisors from attempting to view their own personal futures, especially personal futures that are to occur in the past during time travel excursions, since reception of such information in the later case could greatly complicate the chances of opening the required CTCs. Rather than ever being exposed to direct viewer foreknowledge of their own future actions, or chronovisor data of upcoming time trips, field agents would typically receive dossiers which contain just the information deemed necessary for their mission by operational support specialists who have reviewed the relevant footage received by foreknowledge machine or chronovisor operators. Before moving on, it is necessary to deal with a few loose ends. Namely, it is important to discuss how self-existing objects and instances of auto-generated information may be dispelled.30 An insightful paper by Gustavo Romero and 30The following sources discuss or implicitly discuss self-existing objects, auto-generated information, or both: Lewis, D., "The Paradoxes of Time Travel," American Philosophical 21 Diego Torres presents the following example of the kind of situation in which the possibility of a self-existing object has been imagined: Suppose that... a time traveler takes a ride on a time machine carrying a book with her. She goes back to the past, forgets the book in... [what will be] her laboratory, and returns to the future. The book remains then hidden until the time traveler finds it just before starting her time trip, carrying the book with her.31 What a strange mystery such an object would be. "There is just a book never created, never printed, but, somehow, existing in space-time."32 The problem of auto-generated information is more involved. Lloyd et al. refer to it using a different name in the following example: ...P-CTCs provide a distinct resolution to Deutsch's unproved theorem paradox, in which the time traveler reveals the proof of a theorem to a mathematician, who includes it in the same book from which the traveler has learned it (rather, will learn it). How did this proof come into existence?33 Quarterly, 13 (1976): 145-152. Editorial, "Analysis 'Problem' no. 18," Analysis, 39 (1979): 65-66. Harrison, J., "Report on Analysis 'Problem' no. 18," Analysis, 40 (1980): 65-69. Levin, M. R., "Swords' Points: [Analysis 'Problem' no. 18]," Analysis, 40 (1980): 69-70. Denruyter, C., "Jocasta's Crime: A Science Fiction Reply: [Analysis 'Problem' no. 18]," Analysis, 40 (1980): 71. Godfrey-Smith, W., "Travelling in Time: [Analysis 'Problem' no. 18]," Analysis, 40 (1980): 72-73. Nerlich, G., "Can Time Be Finite?" Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 62 (1981): 227-239. MacBeath, M., "Who was Dr. Who's Father?" Synthese, 51 (1982): 397430. Deutsch, D., "Quantum mechanics near closed timelike lines," Physical Review D, 44 (1991): 3197-3217. Lossev, A., Novikov, I. D., "The Jinn of the time machine: non-trivial self-consistent solutions," Class. Quantum Grav., 9 (1992): 2309-2321. Visser, M., Lorentzian Wormholes: From Einstein to Hawking, (New York: AIP Press, 1996). Smith, N. J. J., "Bananas Enough for Time Travel?" British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 48 (1997): 363-389. Gott, J. R., Li, L.-X., "Can the Universe Create Itself?" Physical Review D, 58 (1998): 023501. Romero, G. E., Torres, D. F., "Self-existing objects and auto-generated information in chronology-violating space-times: A philosophical discussion," Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 16 (2008): 1213-1222. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental demonstration," arXiv :1005.2219v1 (2010): 5 pages. Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. Popular books also touch upon such topics. In particular, see Paul Nahin's indispensable time travel compendium. Nahin, P. J., Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction (New York: Springer-Verlag and AIP Press, 1999). 31Romero, G. E., Torres, D. F., "Self-existing objects and auto-generated information in chronology-violating space-times: A philosophical discussion," Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 16 (2008): 1213-1222. 32Ibid. 33Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. 22 Both of these problems are dispelled in a relatively straightforward manner, for similar reasons. As far as self-existing objects are concerned, here is the standard way of explaining why they could not exist: All physical objects undergo microscopic structural changes as they age, i.e., they accumulate "entropic degradation."34 When earlier states of an object have less degradation, and later states have more, there is no problem-this even holds for an object sent through a CTC, so that its more degraded states will end up taking place at an earlier calendar date. However, in any would-be self-existing object, a reversal of entropic degradation to allow a precise return to some target state is always required to complete the loop without contradiction. Consider whether a human being could be a self-existing object without an impossible age reversal somewhere within the required life-loop, and the answer is clear. Such ineradicable contradictions or impossibilities always lurk within all would-be self-existing object situations.35 Of course, CTCs will only open in the absence of inconsistencies. How appropriate that the puzzle of self-existing objects solves itself. What about unproved theorems? A deeper analysis of why self-existing objects are not possible provides insights which lead to understanding. What prevents all the entropic degradation accumulated in the book on one leg of an imagined object-loop from being gradually reversed as it heads back to any given starting point, in order so that no discontinuity would be present? A book consists of several trillion particles, all oscillating and jostling about on different vectors. In the course of every second, a small percentage are naturally dislodged by this activity from their previous positions, and some even leave the book entirely. The book is never the same from moment to moment, on any 34Romero, G. E., Torres, D. F., "Self-existing objects and auto-generated information in chronology-violating space-times: A philosophical discussion," Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 16 (2008): 1213-1222. 35In 1992, physicists Andrei Lossev and Igor Novikov, who use the term 'Jinnee' to refer to any individual self-existing object (pluralized as 'Jinn'), made the following observation: "Among macroscopic objects the only really good candidate to be a Jinnee that we have found is the black hole. It seems that black holes cannot become older in a way that cannot be reversed by giving them some energy." While this interesting idea might sidestep the entropy objection, it does not open the conceptual way for self-existing objects. This follows for an astonishingly simple reason. Any collaboration to support the actualization of a self-existing object, by adding just the right amount of energy to a black hole at just the right time, must consist of at least two stages. To favor black hole Jinn as much as possible, assume a very large permanent natural wormhole in deep space, with mouths that are relatively close, separated by only a few light-seconds. Assume also that any object which enters the wormhole's future mouth will come out of its past mouth a month earlier. In the first stage of such an effort, a team must wait for the black hole in question to emerge from the past mouth of the wormhole, in order to immediately measure its energy content. The second stage would involve adding precisely the required amount of energy to the same black hole, using data from the first stage, and getting it to enter the future mouth of the wormhole. But, there is already a problem with this story. The first stage cannot begin until time α, defined as one month before the second stage will be completed, since the black hole cannot emerge from the past mouth any earlier than a month before it enters the future mouth. However, the second stage also could not commence until after time α, as this would be the earliest opportunity for anyone to see the supposed black hole and begin working on it. From these two conditions, it is clear that time α could never arrive. Lossev, A., Novikov, I. D., "The Jinn of the time machine: non-trivial self-consistent solutions," Class. Quantum Grav., 9 (1992): 2309-2321. 23 physically-relevant timescale. In order to return the book to any previous state, a tremendous amount of information about that state would have to have been instantly cataloged. Complete knowledge about where each particle had been would be needed. Then, of course, some way of returning each book particle to its original position, and removing all the particles that had settled into the book from the environment, would have to be devised. Imagine for a moment that all these feats could be achieved. Would that do it? Even after all that work, it turns out that such a process would not get the book anywhere close to the way it had been. This is because each particle (i.e., atom or molecule) would also have to be given the exact amount of kinetic energy that it had had in the target configuration, on exactly the same vector, and all their internal quantum states would also have to perfectly match. These requirements enormously increase the already astronomical amount of information that would be required. Setting aside all the insurmountable feasibility considerations with respect to how particles might be returned, removed, accelerated, decelerated, and internally quantum-matched in order to achieve the target state, the problem of restoring the book is really an information problem. So, there is no wonder that there must be a discontinuity of information within any imagined self-existing object. Now, cases of would-be unproved theorems would also involve a discontinuity of information, but the amount of information would be several orders of magnitude less. One difference that might be noted is that any case of auto-generated information would constitute a discontinuity of information in the universe as a whole, rather than within an imagined object-loop. Of course, an imagined object-loop, if it could exist, would have to be part of the universe, so on another level of analysis there is ultimately no difference. Now, from a more general perspective, the grandfather paradox is also ruled out because bilking would lead to a discontinuity of information within the universe as a whole. So, that which rules out the grandfather paradox is another consequence of the mechanism which rules out unproved theorems: No CTC will ever open that would lead, even accidentally, to a discontinuity of information. These findings are consistent with the manner in which cases of auto-generated information have been mathematically dispelled by Lloyd et al., insofar as their applicable P-CTC circuit delivers, "a random mixture of all possible 'proofs,' "36 "The circuit is unbiased as to the value of the 'proof' bit, so it automatically assigns that bit a completely mixed value."37 The logic of what their schematic model indicates is clear. All possible "proofs" taken together must be maximally ambiguous with respect to any specific proof, so their model manages to mathematically communicate that no information can be created within an "unproved theorem paradox circuit."38 36Lloyd, S., Maccone, L., Garcia-Patron, R., Giovannetti, V., Shikano, Y., Pirandola, S., Rozema, L., Darabi, A., Soudagar, Y., Shalm, L., Steinberg, A., "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency," Physical Review Letters, 106 (2011): 4 pages. In this quotation, the word 'proofs' is in quotes to indicate that all possible proofs must consist of "proofs" that are merely gibberish, i.e., strings which are not proofs at all. 37Ibid. 38Ibid. 24 An interesting implication of the impossibility of cases of auto-generated information is that it effectively sandboxes different time periods from one another, to some degree, insulating the vast majority of people in earlier periods from information about the innovations and inventions of later periods. This would hold even in a world where foreknowledge machines and pastward time travel have been used for centuries. This is because the impossibility of autogenerated information means that it is physically impossible to provide either an author who originates a given set of conceptual innovations, or the original inventor of a given technology, with those very innovations or inventions. Of course, this is because anyone who might try to supply such things to such an author or inventor must have gotten such information from that author or inventor. Now, it would certainly be possible for foreknowledge machine operators and time travelers to gain or bring back information from the future, but there is no way for anyone with access to such information to tell a given author or inventor whose work they have learned about in their studies of the future, anything specific about what he or she will do. The most they could arrange would be to vaguely but powerfully encourage and inspire him throughout his life, on occasion, since childhood. 6 Matched Pairs in the Future-Making Process The postselected, self-adjusting, cyclical, self-consistent model which supports view-travel unification has a very important feature: Cyclical matching guarantees that any instance of viewer foreknowledge must match the future outcome it reveals, in every detail. It is therefore appropriate to conceive of any such instance, together with its associated outcome, as a matched pair. A good way to explain the mechanism at work in this cyclical matching process involves an important result of quantum mechanics that was masterfully presented in a lecture, quoted below, by the great physicist Richard Feynman. David Pegg discusses this result in his 2005 article, "Quantum Mechanics and the Time Travel Paradox": It is not totally surprising that a principle applying to classical physics has a quantum mechanical basis. The classical principle of least action can be explained in terms of the addition of amplitudes associated with the possible paths. The amplitudes for all paths except for those in the region of the path of least action cancel, so the probability for finding that the system has taken a path not near the path of least action is zero. This explains how the system "knows" to take the path of least action.39 With respect to the generation of viewer foreknowledge from foreknowledge machines, the least action problem that nature would have to work out would be enormously complex, for it would necessarily involve wavefunction amplitude 39Pegg, D. "Quantum Mechanics and the Time Travel Paradox," arXiv :quant-ph/0506141 25 addition (and so, effectively, subtraction) throughout all intervening physical situations leading to the outcome displayed. To gain more insight into what this means in the current context, consider what Pegg wrote next: In this paper we suggest that closed causal cycles are sorted out by a similar mechanism. Only those cycles with a net non-zero amplitude have a non-zero probability of occurring and these are the consistent cycles.40 Note that the approach Pegg advocated in 2005 is perfectly consistent with the more fleshed-out work of Lloyd et al., and that it has application here due to view-travel unification. A given cycle in the case of foreknowledge machines begins with viewer foreknowledge of an outcome, continues through all the foreknowledge-informed actions and preparations, culminates in the outcome, and loops back to end where it began with the reception of viewer foreknowledge. On each end of the cycle is a member of the matched pair in question, so as soon as any viewer foreknowledge is received, such a "closed causal cycle" must have been "sorted out." This is the future-making process employed by groups who use foreknowledge machine technology. Solution of a massive applicable least action problem, would serve to explain how the outcome and, if also future-viewed, all of the intervening preparatory outcomes, would crystallize as viewer foreknowledge. Feynman gave an important lecture more than fifty years ago which provides deep insight into understanding this process: Is it true that the particle doesn't just 'take the right path' but that it looks at all the other possible trajectories? And if by having things in the way, we don't let it look, that we will get an analog of diffraction? The miracle of it all is, of course, that it does just that. That's what the laws of quantum mechanics say. It isn't that a particle takes the path of least action but that it smells all the paths in the neighborhood and chooses the one that has the least action by a method analogous to the one by which light chose the shortest time. You remember that the way light chose the shortest time was this: If it went on a path that took a different amount of time, it would arrive at a different phase. And the total amplitude at some point is the sum of contributions of amplitude for all the different ways light can arrive. All the paths that give wildly different phases don't add up to anything. But if you can find a whole sequence of paths which have phases almost all the same, then the little contributions will add up and you get a reasonable total amplitude to arrive. The important path becomes the one for which there are many nearby paths which give the same phase.41 His words reveal many key concepts of robust application here. Although Feynman referred to a particle taking a path, the kind of least action problem that 40Ibid. 41Feynman, R., The Feynman Lectures on Physics, (Palo Alto: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1964). 26 nature would solve in cases of significant viewer foreknowledge would always involve vast collections of particles. Of course, everything he said about single particles would apply to any number of them. It is highly relevant in this context to discuss the double-slit experiment. In the double-slit experiment, it is important to note that the characteristic interference pattern will still emerge even if photons are only introduced into the experimental apparatus one at a time. This is because the pattern built up over time is the result of the interference of probability amplitudes within the wavefunction. In single-photon cases, due to diffraction of the wavefunction at the slits, the least action problem for each photon path may be solved by any solution among a class of solutions, i.e., any solution which corresponds to detection locations of non-zero probability under the applicable wavefunction. So, each run of a single-photon double-slit experiment involves a stochastic quantum mechanical forking event which leads to one out of all the potential photon detection location outcomes. This raises an interesting and important question: What would happen if one were to use a foreknowledge machine in order to gaze upon a single-photon double-slit experiment to be performed in the future? Setting interference viewing scenarios aside, as they are a separate consideration, it will be shown that a foreknowledge machine would deliver viewer foreknowledge which details the precise location of each future photon detection outcome. How could precise viewer foreknowledge of photon detection locations in future experimental runs be conceivable, if the single-photon double-slit experiment always involves a quantum mechanical forking event that can never be expected to produce precisely the same photon detection location from run to run? The answer comes from the cyclical matching viewpoint of viewer foreknowledge. While any number of final detection locations on the photographic plate or CCD are indeed possible within any given run of a single-photon double-slit experiment, the case of attaining viewer foreknowledge of an upcoming single-photon double-slit experiment is specially constrained. Namely, cyclical matching ensures that the detection location revealed in viewer foreknowledge of a given future experimental run will not differ from that which will occur during the experimental run itself. Viewer foreknowledge emerges only from a process of cyclical matching which will always produce a matched foreknowledge-outcome pair within a given closed causal cycle, and for this reason it confers certainty. Although quantum mechanics allows for many apparently inherently unpredictable possibilities, cyclical matching readily explains how viewer foreknowledge will never err, even regarding outcomes that are the result of long and enormously complex sequences of quantum mechanical forkings. 7 Further Details and Implications The above analysis serves to integrate future viewing with time travel. This integration helps to further assure us that neither technology could destroy the mutual agreement of events in time, or be used to cause any sort of a paradox 27 (Lloyd et al. and others having already established this in the case of time travel). It has also been shown that no contradiction or loopy absurdity could arise, even if foreknowledge machines, Everett machines, chronovisors, line-ofsight past viewers, spaceships, and time machines were all freely used together.42 Additionally, the limitations and properties of any outcome-informative futureviewing technology have been clarified. Most importantly, it has been shown exactly why outcome-informative future viewers could only present viewer foreknowledge, i.e., definite and correct information about future outcomes, within non-interference viewing scenarios. If time machines and foreknowledge machines exist, or are ever invented in a non-academic setting, many societal and geopolitical reasons justify why they have remained, or could be expected to remain, secret for decades. In this regard, any group possessing such technology would have an ace up its collective sleeve; they would be able to know with certainty that the existence of foreknowledge machines will be kept secret-for as long as it is foreseen that they will be kept secret-and that any outcomes which have been witnessed in viewer foreknowledge will not be divulged to any party that will prevent them. Every aspect of operational security could always be confirmed via viewer foreknowledge itself. This seemingly magical ability emerges from the realization that as soon as an operator would "dial in" a future spacetime coordinate and receive viewer foreknowledge of a given outcome, all the events leading to that outcome, if then viewed, would also be received as viewer foreknowledge. Foreknowledge machines will always detect interference viewing scenarios by supplying only ambiguous information, or failing to operate altogether. The chances of false viewer foreknowledge could thus be entirely eliminated through sufficient operator protocols and redundancy. Now, once any foreknowledge machine provides viewer foreknowledge of a given outcome, all foreknowledge machines free of interference will deliver identical viewer foreknowledge of it. One implication of this is that individuals within groups who have learned of a given future outcome in the form of viewer foreknowledge could try to prevent the outcome all they want, but ultimately they would either decide to 42However, one major conundrum has yet to be addressed. Earman's rocket is a famous philosophical time travel puzzle, proposed by the philosopher John Earman in 1972, which once appeared to be unsolvable without resorting to coincidental malfunctions or timeline bifurcation. Earman's rocket is programmed to launch its probe back in time if it does not detect its probe earlier, but it will not launch its probe if it does detect it-the classic "it doesn't if it does, and does if it doesn't" conundrum. The answer in the context of the work of Lloyd et al. is simple: In cases of probe non-detection, the rocket's attempts to open a CTC in order to launch its probe will always fail, not due to a coincidental malfunction, but due to the proper functioning of the laws of physics associated with CTCs. The case of probe detection is even easier: If Earman's rocket is functioning as designed, it will never detect its own probe earlier, since it could not ever open a CTC. Only a malfunction which effectively reverses its programmed behavior could allow it to open a CTC. An extension of Earman's rocket puzzle, advanced by Jenann Ismael, is addressed in a similar manner. Earman, J., "Implications of Causal Propagation Outside the Null-Cone," Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50 (1972): 222-237. Ismael, J., "Closed Causal Loops and the Bilking Argument," Synthese, 136 (2003): 305-320. 28 stop trying or they would fail, just as viewer foreknowledge also would have shown. As will be established in the next paragraph, once viewer foreknowledge which details a given outcome has been received by a foreknowledge machine, all efforts to prevent that outcome based on such information will be unsuccessful. The original pointer position experiment may be modified to demonstrate this. Imagine that the experimental protocol were to allow two programs to be run sequentially at tB. In this modified setup, the first of these programs can be any of the interfering programs, P-1 through P-359, and the second program will be P-0. In this modified experiment, no matter which interfering program runs first, the tA-stationed viewer will display viewer foreknowledge of the tC pointer position, due to the adjustments carried out by P-0 before the computer halts. In this modified setup, the first program represents an unsuccessful effort to interfere with the outcome which the tA-stationed viewer was able to receive as viewer foreknowledge, due to the corrective action of P-0. Now, consider what would have been observed if this corrective program had not been present. In such a case, the experiment would be in its original form, so viewer foreknowledge of the tC pointer position would not have been accessible to the tA-stationed viewer. Therefore, receiving viewer foreknowledge about a future outcome with a foreknowledge machine means that such foreknowledge will not be used to prevent the outcome. This confirms that, "once viewer foreknowledge which details a given outcome has been received by a foreknowledge machine, all efforts to prevent that outcome based on such information will be unsuccessful." Furthermore, since people who are not aware of such information would probably not be aware of the pending outcome, one may automatically conclude that nearly all efforts to prevent the outcome will be unsuccessful. Any other efforts to prevent the outcome could only occur to parties who have somehow uncovered clues, strictly unrelated to future viewing, which suggest that such an event will probably happen, or might happen. However, if any party without the benefit of viewer foreknowledge were to succeed in preventing the outcome received as viewer foreknowledge, then whatever would have taken place instead of the prevented outcome would have been what the foreknowledge machine would have received in the first place. So it may be concluded that no party, whether aware or unaware of viewer foreknowledge pertaining to a given outcome, can possibly be successful in preventing that outcome. Viewer foreknowledge cannot be used to try to prevent the outcomes it reveals; viewer foreknowledge is inviolable. However, the opposite transition is available: Ambiguous information from a foreknowledge machine (or no information at all), pertaining to what will take place at a given future spacetime coordinate, can always be replaced by viewer foreknowledge under another viewing scenario which will become accessible when the context changes. In order to provide an example of a transition from an interference viewing scenario to a non-interference viewing scenario, consider the original pointer position experiment carried out during runs of interference programs P-1 through P-359: At tA, a future-viewing of the tC pointer position will, at most, yield only ambiguous information. The computer will execute an interfering program 29 at tB and it will halt strictly before three seconds have elapsed. Now, let 'tB+3' specify the time coordinate three seconds after tB. It is clear that, were an effort made at tB+3 to future-view the tC pointer position, viewer foreknowledge would result. This is because a non-interference viewing scenario exists by tB+3, for the computer has halted. So, viewer foreknowledge will always become accessible to a foreknowledge machine when the context changes, but must the context always change? Yes; at least during the very last moment before an outcome occurs, an interference viewing scenario with respect to that outcome cannot exist. Consider the most extreme case: One Planck time (approximately 5.4 10-43 seconds) before a given outcome occurs, there is literally no physically meaningful amount of time remaining to allow any system to process or act upon any future-viewed information about that outcome. At such a late stage it clearly would be impossible for future-viewed information about an outcome to be used to interfere with it. Of course, while this means that a transition between ambiguous and definite information must always occur before every outcome, in such an exaggerated case, the operator would only see and understand the output of the foreknowledge machine well after the corresponding event has already occurred. So, the real value of this demonstration of concept is to confirm that future viewing is consistent with past viewing in general-which always operates within a noninterference viewing scenario-since every possible interference viewing scenario with respect to a given future outcome must disappear before that outcome becomes an element of the past. As mentioned above, it is also the case that a separate foreknowledge machine which is not connected to the computer in control of the pointer will always receive viewer foreknowledge. Only the viewer involved in the experiment will be hindered. Closely related to this, it is somewhat ironic that only those who will not (including those who cannot43) act upon viewer foreknowledge will remain in a non-interference viewing scenario, and thereby continue to have uninterrupted viewer foreknowledge of nearly all outcomes. However, even an ostensibly inert operator cannot gain viewer foreknowledge about all outcomes: Since it is impossible for anyone to not act, due to the fact that any effort to avoid acting is itself an action, an operator who attempts to view her own future actions will tend to place herself in an interference viewing scenario. A great deal of this work has been devoted to the issue of interference viewing scenarios, but an important question about them has not yet been addressed. Would a group possessing foreknowledge machines ever encounter interference viewing scenarios with respect to world outcomes? While it has been shown that interference viewing scenarios could be arranged in a laboratory, could they ever arise when foreknowledge machines are applied to understanding future historical events? In the laboratory, interference viewing scenarios arise when no instance of definite and correct information about a given outcome, i.e., no instance of viewer foreknowledge, is possible. Again, this would occur 43In Agammenon, Apollo's edict effectively puts Cassandra in a non-interference viewing scenario with respect to any future outcome too big for her to prevent alone. 30 in situations where any example of definite information would necessarily be incorrect, which would force a foreknowledge machine to provide either ambiguous information, or none at all. It is difficult to imagine an interference viewing scenario in the case of a future historical event, for this would mean that no instance of viewer foreknowledge pertaining to that event could be consistent with its details. Instead, a case that has already been mentioned would happen frequently, wherein a future historical event which has been received in viewer foreknowledge is engineered by groups with foreknowledge machines-a special and important kind of non-interference viewing scenario. The rest of the paper will be about foreknowledge machines and world outcomes. The following issue in this context is critical in the conceptual exploration of foreknowledge machines: What prevents foreknowledge machines from ever becoming the nightmarish contraptions that Cassandra machines would be, if Cassandra machines were possible? The answer to this question emerges from the cyclical basis of view-travel unification. Remember, "cyclical matching guarantees that any instance of viewer foreknowledge must match the future outcome it reveals, in every detail." Once an instance of viewer foreknowledge is obtained, one does not simply discover what the future will be, the way one might discover the activities of microbes by peering into a microscope. Instead, every relevant future action (leading to the future-viewed outcome) of every individual who watches, will watch, or will be briefed on a given instance of viewer foreknowledge, and the actions of everyone who will receive commands or will be subtly guided on its basis, must automatically and instantly factor into the formation of the matched pair in question. It would be amazing to witness, that although this future-making process always plays out over the entire cycle in question (which might span years, decades, or even centuries), its full and final results would always necessarily coincide with the reception of viewer foreknowledge. One can conceive of viewer foreknowledge and its paired future outcome as emerging together from a complex, behaviorally and thus mentally influenced optimization process within the corresponding closed causal cycle. The result is necessarily a perfect match, optimized with respect to every aspect of the arena in which all the preparatory and culminating events will transpire, an arena which especially includes behavioral responses which emerge from a great deal of thought, due to the fact that viewer foreknowledge has been received (by as many parties, using as many foreknowledge machines, as many times as apply), over the entire cycle in question. So, the cognitive processing of all actors, who will be affected by and who will affect any aspect of the pair, must necessarily be fully integrated into the process. Now also, if a given instance of viewer foreknowledge reveals events that will occur independently of the reception of viewer foreknowledge, then the future cognitive processing of actors who are completely unaware of foreknowledge machines will be factored into the formation of the corresponding matched pair. A unique future emerges from this complex interplay; it is the one future which corresponds perfectly with all the details of how it was generated in the cooperative future-making process which in many cases, as a matter of logical necessity, cannot be divorced from the fact that viewer foreknowledge of that 31 very future has been received. It would always be a custom-fit future we make for ourselves with willing hands. So, it should be clear that foreknowledge machines, whether they already exist or have yet to be technologically realized, are not to be feared. Given all of the amazing properties of foreknowledge machines, any group which possesses them could be expected to go to great lengths, both to conceal the existence of the underlying technology and to regulate the flow of viewer foreknowledge. After all, if knowledge is power, what does that make viewer foreknowledge? Of course, as has already been mentioned, foreknowledge machines would guarantee that any given fact will remain secret for precisely as long as the relevant viewer foreknowledge shows that it will remain secret. Any day of reckoning would be foreseen, and thus fully planned for, well in advance. While any group with foreknowledge machines would have a powerful influence upon future events, for reasons already explained, having a powerful influence over what will happen and deciding what will happen are two different things. Such a group would quickly come to realize that even with all the potent technology at their disposal, they still would not be in a position to decide what the future will be. They would see that it is not them, but rather the quantum workings of nature within the world situation, a world situation that now very influentially includes foreknowledge machines, which is ultimately determining the course of history. This follows for a few interrelated reasons. First of all, they could not ever cause outcomes contrary to any instance of viewer foreknowledge, so whatever they find on their screens is precisely what they and the rest of the world will end up experiencing. Furthermore, it is likely that nearly every instance of viewer foreknowledge pertaining to any historically significant event they might receive would involve outcomes they did not plan in any traditional sense, for how could they know details about the future other than through viewer foreknowledge, communication with cooperative futuredwellers, or by traveling to the future and returning with information? Since all of these methods respect the second-time-around fallacy, as soon as they might come to find out what the future holds, they could not act in any way to alter it. Obviously, then, any future outcomes such a group could become acquainted with through viewer foreknowledge, or by any other means, would not have been conceived by them or planned by them in any traditional sense, even though their resultant actions, which would have to include a great deal of planning, could indeed turn out to be instrumental in the fruition of such outcomes. While all observations so far have hypothetically assumed just one secret group with foreknowledge machines, they would all still apply if several secret groups were to independently invent them. This is because the inviolability of viewer foreknowledge would necessarily unite groups who use foreknowledge machines, such that they can always be considered to act in concert; they would all necessarily and willingly move toward the same outcomes together. Realize also that a group with foreknowledge machines could not choose to stop using them if their screens continue to deliver viewer foreknowledge that they will continue to use them. In a sense, any group which begins to use foreknowledge machines and other related technologies has embarked on a 32 course of action from which they cannot arbitrarily choose to diverge. While they might have imagined at the outset that such advanced technologies would help them further their own agenda, within a few months it would dawn upon them that what has effectively become their agenda has been and will continue to be given to them by the overall process which generates viewer foreknowledge, and also, that there is nothing they can do about it. How could the laws of nature, calculating within ever-lengthening viewer foreknowledge cycles, have an agenda? This is really the wrong question. Think about it this way: Do the laws of nature have an agenda to make rubber ducks float in bathtubs? No, of course not; rubber ducks float in bathtubs due to the properties of rubber ducks, bathtubs, liquid water, and strong gravitational fields. Whenever these elements are brought together in the relevant way, rubber ducks will float. The same kind of explanatory understanding must also apply to whatever seeming agenda the laws of nature would appear to hand down to such groups through cyclical matching within the world situation. Can efforts to arrive at an explanatory understanding of how the laws of nature could seem to manifest an agenda when technologically funneled into the production of viewer foreknowledge, give any hint as to what the ultimate "goal" of such an apparent agenda might be? Think about a rubber duck introduced under water, at the bottom of a bathtub. In a strong gravitational field, this represents an imbalance of density distribution that naturally produces a force which will act to make the duck rise to the surface, since water, which is of greater density than the average density of the hollow duck, will fill in beneath it until a balance of density distribution has been restored. Once there is no more water above the duck to fill in beneath it, the duck will be resting on the water's surface in a state of equilibrium. Now, the initial discovery and perfection of future-viewing technology, which would certainly be carried out in secret, could also represent the introduction of an imbalance capable of producing a force which would bring about some final state. As one ponders these issues, an idea about what this final state might be becomes increasingly clear. There are strong reasons for believing that this final state can be none other than the introduction of foreknowledge machines to the world. Surely, if only one or a handful of groups were to possess foreknowledge machines, rather than the whole of humanity, such a condition would represent an imbalance, a non-equilibrium state. This is because a great deal of work would have to be done in order to keep foreknowledge machines and viewer foreknowledge secret. Such work can be likened to a hand holding a rubber duck under water, to prevent it from reaching the natural equilibrium state of floating on the water's surface. Now, a person could choose to hold a rubber duck under water for a long time, since she solely decides what to do with her hands. However, as already established, what the "hands" of individuals in groups with foreknowledge machines will ultimately do is, in some sense, not fully up to them. Remember, they do not decide all on their own what their agenda will be; they have willingly given this up in favor of something greater. Their agenda is "decided" by the physics of their unique technological position. The process behind viewer foreknowledge continually informs them of 33 what they, as a whole, will choose to do willingly, and they must defer to its inherent wisdom-the wisdom of their own future thoughts and actions in light of viewer foreknowledge-to discover what their direction will become. So, it is certainly conceivable, and even highly likely, that the relevant equilibrium state in this context, i.e., the introduction of foreknowledge machines to the world, might eventually become their goal. So, no matter how secretive in origin, groups with foreknowledge machines eventually would probably not wish to permanently keep the technology all to themselves. In any case, of course, they would be aware of the physical impossibility of preventing any given future that they might find in viewer foreknowledge. In all likelihood, they would foresee something like one of the following sets of future outcomes: Either they would find that they will eventually reveal foreknowledge machines (and possibly time machines) to the world themselves, or that they will subtly or secretly help others to "discover" such technologies, or that they will simply not interfere with an eventual independent rediscovery of foreknowledge machines and their subsequent worldwide proliferation. One may conclude that groups which have developed such technologies would witness something like one of these outcomes in viewer foreknowledge, to an overwhelming degree of likelihood, since the only alternative would correspond to the future-making process "deciding" to keep foreknowledge machines and viewer foreknowledge a cloistered secret permanently. Such an outcome would be almost as unlikely as a rubber duck remaining underwater forever. In the end, however the grand breakthrough might occur, the acknowledgement and demonstration of foreknowledge machine technology would surely be an event to be counted among the most significant developments in human history, alongside the invention of writing, the adoption of farming, and the discovery of fire. Once foreknowledge machines would be revealed (or are revealed), the process of their integration into the conduct of civilization as a whole would (or will) begin in earnest. Interestingly, the machines themselves, in a manageable, step-by-step fashion, would show us how this amazing revolution is to be accomplished. Also, the slow but sure process of coming to terms with and understanding all the cruel actions that were taken prior to the unveiling of foreknowledge machines could get underway. Many of the historically significant events that foreknowledge machine groups might foresee in the decades prior to the introduction of foreknowledge machines to the world, would seem senselessly cruel outside of the paradigm of viewer foreknowledge. However, once everyone has been inducted into this paradigm, we would begin to understand that such events were not planned by them in any traditional sense, for they could not have been altered once they were received as viewer foreknowledge. The world as a whole would begin to understand and accept that, no matter how cruel, such events had been part of a necessary stage in the progression which led to the end result, a world resting in equilibrium, united permanently through viewer foreknowledge. The people of such a world would eventually agree that the foreknowledge machine groups of the past had no choice other than to do what they did. The bright side of all this is that there is a sense in which the cruelty of an era of secret viewer foreknowledge would necessarily 34 vanish in an era of public viewer foreknowledge. A world wherein an entire civilization benefits from viewer foreknowledge of large-scale outcomes would obviously be drastically different, and much better for everyone involved, than the transitional world involving secret foreknowledge machine groups before it. It is up to us all, the whole of humanity, to dream of such a world, to dream of what we might create together. Might achieving such an equilibrium state be the final piece of a cosmic puzzle that all civilizations must place, essentially on their own, in order to qualify for integration with other civilizations in the universe? If foreknowledge machine technology is possible, imagine the peace other civilizations know, a peace of certainty which naturally emerges through shared equilibrium with other intelligent species who have achieved the same lofty status throughout space and time. Maybe foreknowledge machines and realistic time machines are nothing more than compelling and logically interrelated fictions. However, maybe these technologies are achievable, or have already been achieved, and are destined to form the very basis of our future.
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{ "creator": "Abao, Antonia Sasap", "date": "2020", "datestamp": 1575018037000, "description": "The World Economic Forum notes that there is an economic gap between Indonesia and Malaysia every year as seen from GDP per capita. The economic disparity between the two countries caused differences in available employment opportunities. Limited employment opportunities in Indonesia cause an increase in unemployment in Indonesia. The high unemployment rate in West Kalimantan is the main cause of the migration of Indonesians to Malaysia with the aim of carrying out economic and\n trade activities in the Serikin Market which is located in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The market only takes about 15 minutes from the Jagoi Babang. This study used primary data collected by using in-depth interview and observation techniques which was analyzed qualitatively. The study found that in general the migration patterns of Indonesian traders who traded in the Serikin Market practiced non-permanent\n mobility patterns. The opportunities of cross-border trade carried out by Indonesian traders are reducing unemployment, facilitating product marketing, increasing income. While the challenges faced are the inadequacy of the road infrastructure, the quality of merchandise that is not good, the unavailability of lodging for Indonesian traders in the border area of Jagoi Babang, shop rental prices are relatively expensive. Basically, this research is to provide empirical data regarding to opportunities and\n challenges of cross-border traders that will be able to be used for future research related to strategies in managing cross-border trade Hopefully, this research will contribute significantly to generate an effective migration policy in order to minimize transnational crimes.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABACMI", "language": "zz", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Cross-Border Migration in the Border Area of Jagoi Babang, Indonesia with Serikin, Sarawak, Malaysia: A Case study of Indonesian Traders at Serikin Market, Sarawak, Malaysia - Opportunities and Challenges", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 1 Cross-Border Migration in the Border Area of Jagoi Babang, Indonesia with Serikin, Sarawak, Malaysia: A Case study of Indonesian Traders at Serikin Market, Sarawak, Malaysia Opportunities and Challenges Antonia Sasap Abao Tanjungpura University Pontianak, 78124 West Kalimantan, Indonesia E-Mail: Abstract The World Economic Forum notes that there is an economic gap between Indonesia and Malaysia every year as seen from GDP per capita. The economic disparity between the two countries caused differences in available employment opportunities. Limited employment opportunities in Indonesia cause an increase in unemployment in Indonesia. The high unemployment rate in West Kalimantan is the main cause of the migration of Indonesians to Malaysia with the aim of carrying out economic and trade activities in the Serikin Market which is located in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The market only takes about 15 minutes from the Jagoi Babang. This study used primary data collected by using in-depth interview and observation techniques which was analyzed qualitatively. The study found that in general the migration patterns of Indonesian traders who traded in the Serikin Market practiced non-permanent mobility patterns. The opportunities of cross-border trade carried out by Indonesian traders are reducing unemployment, facilitating product marketing, increasing income. While the challenges faced are the inadequacy of the road infrastructure, the quality of merchandise that is not good, the unavailability of lodging for Indonesian traders in the border area of Jagoi Babang, shop rental prices are relatively expensive. Basically, this research is to provide empirical data regarding to opportunities and challenges of cross-border traders that will be able to be used for future research related to strategies in managing cross-border trade Hopefully, this research will contribute significantly to generate an effective migration policy in order to minimize transnational crimes. Keywords: Cross border migration, trader, opportunities, challenges, Indonesia. Introduction Cross-border migration is one consequence of economic disparities between countries that border geographically. (Haris & Adika, 2002: 32) stated that inequality in economic growth had a consequence of the exodus of migrant worker from economically disadvantanged regions to regions whose economic growth was much better. Indonesia and Malaysia are countries that border directly geographically but both have different GDP. (The World Economic Forum, 2015 noted that in 2014 for example, Malaysia's GDP per capita was USD 10, 804, while Indonesia's GDP per capita was USD 3,534. Furthermore, in 2017, Malaysia's GDP per capita exceeds the amount of Indonesia's PDP per capita in the amount of 9,360.5 USD and 3,604.3 USD respectively (World Economic Forum, 2011-2018). These numbers are clearly explained that the Malaysian economy in some period was much higher than Indonesia. The GDP gap between Indonesia and Malaysia has an impact on differences in employment opportunities between the two countries. Indonesia with low economic growth has limited job opportunities compared to Malaysia. The availability of employment opportunities in Indonesia, which is lower than the number of employees, has caused unemployment. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 2 The problem of unemployment is a serious problem in West Kalimantan Province, which is one of the areas bordering the mainland with the territory of Sarawak, East Malaysia. According to the Central Statistics Agency of West Kalimantan in 2017 the unemployment rate up to August 2017 reached 105,061. This figure has increased compared to last year (2016) which reached 100,935 inhabitants. The labour indicator is reflected in the Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) and the Labor Force Participation Rate. As of August 2017, West Kalimantan TPT was 4.36 percent from the previous 4.23 percent in August 2016. While in in August 2017 was 68.62 percent, lower than in the period of last year (2016) which was 69, 33 percent. The opening of potential trade services in Serikin Market, Sarawak, East Malaysia which is not exploited by native Malaysians, is an attraction for Indonesians to take advantage of these opportunities to sell various products such as clothing, grocery items, household furniture, food products processed, woven, agricultural products and plantation products. This condition explains that economic motives are the main trigger for Indonesian traders to carry out economic and trade activities in Malaysia. Literature Review International Migration In general, migration patterns are classified into two namely permanent migration and nonpermanent migration. According to Mantra (2003:173), permanent migration is the movement of people who cross the boundary of the origin territory to another region with the intention to settle in the destination area. Whereas non-permanent migration is the movement of people from one region to another with no intention to settle in the destination area. Steele, 1983 (cited in Mantra, 2003) explained that if a person goes to another area and from the beginning had intended not to settle in the destination area, that person is classified as a non-permanent migration agent even though he or she lives in the destination area for a long time. Nonpermanent migration is divided into two, first is circular migration or seasonal migration, that is, migration that occurs when someone moves but does not intend to stay at their destination. The second is commuter migration, where people leave their homes every day to go to another city to work or trade, etc., but return home in the afternoon. International migration is defined as a form of population mobility that transcends national and cultural boundaries (Zlontik, 1998; Haris, 2003). A broader understanding was put forward by Lee (1992); Bogue (1969), Bedford (1981) which defines international migration as a migration activity that includes aspects of changes in residence, destination of migration, as well as desires to settle or not settle in the destination (in Zid, 2012). Next, Hugo, 1992; 1993,1995; Mantra, 1995; Kasim 1987 (in Sukamdi & Haris Abdul, 2000) found that inequality of economic growth between regions or countries was the clearest reason to explain population migration. Meanwhile, Cadwallader (1994:7) explains that the population will move to areas that have excess capital, but lack energy. In this case, it can be said that population mobility or migration is related to employment opportunities in the minus origin and surplus destination countries. Neoclassical economics theory, both macro and micro, gives more attention to differences in wages and working conditions between regions or between countries, as well as costs, in one's decision to migrate (Massey, et al., 1993). On the other hand, the flow of new economics of migration emphasizes that the decision to migrate is not solely an individual decision, but is related to the surrounding environment, especially the family environment. In addition to economic factors, there are several non-economic factors that also influence the flow of migration across countries. As stated by Hatton and Williamson (2005: 19), the factor of friends and relatives also plays an important role in determining decisions for someone to migrate. The opinion of Castles and Loughna (2005: 62) also reinforces that factors of family, family, and ethnicity of the population become important determinants of the process of migration across countries. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 3 Cross Border Trade The border is always vulnerable and needs to be protected and strengthened, not only against military invaders but increasingly against law evaders (Van Schendel, 2000). Definition of border areas according to Law no. 26 of 2007 (in Suprayoga Hadi, Bappenas, March 2010), is a regency / city area directly with neighboring countries and / or the high seas. The country's border area includes the land border area and the sea border area including the outer small islands. Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the international borders between jurisdictions. In this sense, it is a part of normal legal trade that flows through standard export / import frameworks of nations. However the trade border specifically refers to the increase in trade in areas where crossing borders are relatively easy and where products are significantly cheaper in one place than another, often because of significant variations in taxation levels on goods such as alcohol and tobacco (https:// ). In addition, cross border trade is the buying and selling of goods and services between businesses in neighboring countries, with the seller being in one country and the buyer in the other country (). Therefore, the Border Trade Agreement (BTA) which was formed and agreed between the Indonesian government and the Malaysian government on August 24, 1970 set several principles; including the understanding of cross-border trade, cross-border actors as well as the type and value of goods / products. In addition, BTA also limits the minimum transaction value for two border communities, that is, they are not allowed to shop more than 600 Malaysian ringgit each time a transaction. Research Methodology Data collection techniques and tools used to obtain information on cross-border migration of Indonesian traders in the Jagoi Babang border region with Serikin, East Malaysia, namely indepth interviews and observations. This in-depth interview was aimed at Indonesian traders who traded in Serikin Market, Sarawak, East Malaysia. In addition, in-depth interviews were also conducted with the village head of Jagoi Babang. Indonesian Immigration post officer at Jagoi Babang. Observations were also made to see and study the real situations and conditions related to Indonesian traders when crossing borders and when they carried out trading activities with Malaysian citizens in the Serikin Sarawak market, Malaysia. Then, the results of in-depth interviews and observations were analyzed with a qualitative descriptive approach. Result and Discussions Cross border migration pattern of Indonesian Traders According to several theories previously mentioned, the main reason for international migration and cross border migration is the economic disparity between countries. Another cause of migration is as stated by Faist Thomas (2016) is that cross-border migration is a visible reflection of global inequalities. These reasons contribute to the increase in the number of migrants in the world. Reasons for the significant increase in people's mobility around the world include globalization, low transportation costs, economic pressures, demographic trends (specifically, ageing societies worldwide and youth bulges in developing countries), environmental degradation, and violence and human rights abuses (IOM, 2013). African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 4 Indonesian economic pressures and low transportation costs are also factors driving Indonesian to conduct activities in the Serikin Market which located in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The market is only about 15 minutes by land transportation from Jagoi Babang. According to information received from Indonesian traders said that almost all they practiced nonpermanent migration patterns. However, there are differences in the travel documents used by Indonesian traders from the Jagoi Babang border area and traders from outside the border. The traders who come from the border were only enough to use the Cross-border Pas Card (PLB). Whilst, those who came from outside the border area of Jagoi Babang such as Pontianak, Singkawang, Sambas, Sintang and Sanggau must bring a travel certificate from the immigration post in Jagoi Babang as a companion to the Cross-border Pass Card Opportunities Conceptually, the status of Indonesian traders is categorized as immigrants because they immigrate out of Indonesia's territorial territory. This is consistent with the statement from Sachleben (2014) that Immigration usually refers to the movement of people into a territory that is not their own, primarily for economic purposes. Moreover, Ghatak, Levine and Wheatley Price (1996) explained that migration impacts welfare, not only reducing the number of the workforce but also changing the composition of skills within it. In addition, Faist Thomas (2016), revealed that cross-border migration both constitutes a path to upward social mobility for migrants and tends to reinforce durable inequalities on a deeper level. The second statement is in line with the main objective of Indonesian traders, which is to improve their quality of life both socially and economically. In fact, there are several profitable opportunities in carrying out trading activities in the Serikin Market. The first opportunity is the first opportunity is to help reduce unemployment in Indonesia. The second opportunity is the availability of trading places that are not utilized by Malaysians. The third opportunity is the large number of buyers (consumers) from Malaysians who shop at Serikin Market. Based on my observation found that almost all buyers of goods / products sold by Indonesian traders were from Malaysia. With a large number of buyers and also a large number of merchandise purchased by Malaysians provides a sizable profit / turnover for Indonesian traders. According to the information obtained, the average net income / profit received by Indonesian traders ranges from 500 to700 Malaysian ringgit every month. The fourth opportunity, which is quite conducive political conditions and the creation of harmonious relations in the border regions of the two countries, provides a sense of security and comfort for Indonesian traders in conducting economic transactions in the Malaysian territory legally. Challenges Based on the results of investigations the researcher in the field found several challenges faced by Indonesian traders who operate in the Serikin Market, Sarawak, East Malaysia, and these are as follows: The first challenge is the road infrastructure that connects Jagoi Babang with Serikin Market, Sarawak, Malaysia is still inadequate. This is evident from my observations that the road used by Indonesian traders to Serikin Market is through a Malaysian palm oil plantation. Nevertheless, the pathway becomes a path that is considered safe and official that must be crossed by border crossers including traders. Even though the road can be traversed by motorcycle and car it is tricky. The second challenge is the unavailability of lodging places for Indonesian traders around the border area of Jagoi Babang, Indonesia. This condition forced Indonesia traders especially who come from out of Jagoi Babang border to stay at stalls which are small in size and really inadequate for their needs. As a consequence, Indonesian traders are required to pay kiosk rentals at a relatively expensive price of 120 ringgit (RM) plus 10 ringgit per month for water and electricity payment. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 5 The third challenge is the provision of fines and sanctions for cross-border traders who violate the rules of traffic national borders. Some Indonesian traders have experienced errors related to the travel administration. A form of violation that is often done by Indonesian traders is the delay in stamping a PLB (Pass over Border) card when returning to Indonesian territory for several days before reselling at Serikin Market. As a result of the delay or forgetfulness of the PLB cards, traders were fined 100 Malaysian ringgit or were not allowed to sell for 1 month by Indonesian border officers. The sanctions are felt to be very burdensome for Indonesian traders because by not selling automatically they do not have income that can sustain the family's economy. Another challenge is that buyers from Malaysia and also tourists are very selective in choosing merchandise sold by Indonesian traders. This means that consumers in this case are very concerned about the quality of goods or products. The quality of the product or merchandise greatly influences the selling value of a product / item. The last challenge is the existence of fines for Indonesian traders by the Malaysian side if Indonesian traders do not use new weighing devices annually according to standards set by the Malaysian government. In addition, another fine imposed on Indonesian traders is a fine of 100 ringgit for non-compliance in writing down the selling price of his merchandise. The purpose of the Malaysian side requires Indonesian traders to write down the selling price of each item / product so that they are not arbitrary in providing prices. This means that prices must have clearer and more rational standards. Conclusion Cross border migration pattern of Indonesian Traders In general, Indonesian traders who trade in Serikin Market, Sarawak, East Malaysia practice non-permanent migration patterns, namely as commuters. The opportunities and Challenges The opportunities for cross-border trading activities carried out by Indonesian traders are; to reduce unemployment, to take advantage of market opportunities that are not exploited by Malaysians, such as tourist markets, availability of buyers from Malaysia in large quantities, conducive political conditions and the creation of harmonious relations in the border regions of the two countries. While the challenges faced by Indonesian traders are inadequate infrastructure such as roads connecting Jagoi Babang, Indonesia to the location of Serikin Market, Sarawak, Malaysia, the unavailability of lodging for Indonesian traders in the Jagoi Babang border area, the provision of fines and sanctions for cross-border traders who violate the rules of traffic national borders, buyers from Malaysia are very selective in choosing merchandise sold by Indonesian traders and fines for Indonesian traders by the Malaysian side if Indonesian traders do not use a new weighing tool every year. These all have adverse effects and require attention for improving the situation. References Ahamefula, I. E. (2015). THE POVERTY OF LEADERSHIP AND SCIENCE OF PRODIGALISM IN NIGERIA: A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUEST. European Scientific Journal, 11(29). Akpan, B. S., & Leonard, N. (2018). ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: FROM PHILOSOPHY TO MOVEMENT. Bulletin Social-Economic and Humanitarian Research, (2). BASSEY, S. 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Poverty, International Migration and Asylum (What Fundamentals Drive World Migration ?), Palgrave - In Association with the United Nations University - World Institute for Development Economic ResearchNew York Ikegbu, E. A. (2018, April). Traditional African Male Dominance in Leadership, Cologenderism: The Need for Gender Balancing. In ICGR 2018 International Conference on Gender Research (p. 197). Academic Conferences and publishing limited. Ikegbu, E. A., Duru, S. A., & Dafe, E. U. (2004). The Rationality of Judicial Precedent in Nigeria's Jurisprudence. American International journal of contemporary research, 4(5). International Organization for Migration (IOM). (2013). International Migration, Health and Human Rights. Leonard, N., Udoudom, M. D., & Bassey, S. A. (2019). Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT): an ethical or political problem. International Journal of Humanities and Innovation (IJHI), 2(1), 52-56. Mantra, B. I. (2003). General Demographics, Student Library: Yogyakarta. Muljaningsih, S. (2019). Analysis of Business Development on Organic Products at Muslim SMEs (MSMEs) in Malang, Indonesia, Global Journal of Business Social Sciences Review (GJBSSR)7(1), 1-7. Ogar, J. N., Nwoye, L., & Bassey, S. A. (2019). Archetype of globalization: illusory comfort of neo-colonialism in Africa. International Journal of Humanities and Innovation (IJHI), 2(3), 90-95. Sachleben. M. (2014). World Politics on Screen: Understanding International Relations Through Popular Culture. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, Project MUSE, Available online at . Sukamdi, Abdul Haris. (2000). A Brief Overview of International Migration, Population Studies Center Gadjah Mada University: Yogyakarta. Suprayoga Hadi. (2010). Government Policies and Strategies in Handling Disadvantaged Areas, Frontier Islands, and State Border; Material Exposure to a meeting at the Ministry of Social Affairs on March 3, 2010 in Jakarta. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 9 (1) - (2020) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2020 AJHTL /Author/sOpen AccessOnline @ http//: 7 The Central Statistics Agency of West Kalimantan, Indonesia (2017) The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018. (2018). The World Economic Forum. Retrieved from venessRe port2017%E2%80%932018.pdf Van Schendel, W. (2005). Illicit Flows and Criminal Things; States, Borders, and the Other Side of Globalization Edited by Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham Series: Tracking Globalization Distribution: Global Publication date: 11/04/2005 Format: Paperback b&w photos, 6 maps, 1 bibliog., 1 index ISBN: 978-0-25321811-7 Indiana University Press Wikipedia. (2019). Border Trade. Retrieved from ). Downloaded on 12 November 2019. Zid, M. (2012). Women's International Migration, Land Tenure and Gender Equality: Study in the Sawah Village Community of West Java, Dissertation of SPD IPB, Bogor.
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{ "creator": "Abath, André J.", "date": "2008", "datestamp": 1426784178000, "description": "John McDowell and Bill Brewer famously defend the view that one can only have empirical beliefs if one’s perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs, where reasons are understood in terms of subject’s reasons. In this paper I show, first, that it is a consequence of the adoption of such a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs that children as old as 3 years of age have to considered as not having genuine empirical beliefs at all. But we have strong reasons to think that 3-year-old children have empirical beliefs, or so I argue. If this is the case, McDowell and Brewer’s requirement for one to have empirical beliefs faces a strong challenge. After showing this, I propose an alternative\n requirement for one to have empirical beliefs, and argue that it should be favoured over McDowell and Brewer’s requirement.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABAEBP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Empirical Beliefs, Perceptual Experiences and Reasons", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Empirical Beliefs, Perceptual Experiences and Reasons ∗ This is a preprint version of an article whose final and definitive form is published in Manuscrito (2008, vol.31, no.2) ANDRÉ JOFFILY ABATH Universidade Federal da Paraíba Departamento de Filosofia Campus I, Cidade Universitária João Pessoa, Paraíba, 58059-900, Brasil E-mail: Abstract John McDowell and Bill Brewer famously defend the view that one can only have empirical beliefs if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs, where reasons are understood in terms of subject's reasons. In this paper I show, first, that it is a consequence of the adoption of such a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs that children as old as 3 years of age have to considered as not having genuine empirical beliefs at all. But we have strong reasons to think that 3-year-old children have empirical beliefs, or so I argue. If this is the case, McDowell and Brewer's requirement for one to have empirical beliefs faces a strong challenge. After showing this, I propose an alternative requirement for one to have empirical beliefs, and argue that it should be favoured over McDowell and Brewer's requirement. Keywords: empirical beliefs; perceptual experiences; reasons; John McDowell; Bill Brewer. Resumo John McDowell e Bill Brewer famosamente defendem a visão de que um sujeito pode ter crenças empíricas apenas se as experiências perceptuais do sujeito servirem de razões para tais crenças, onde razões são entendidas em termos de razões do sujeito. Neste artigo, mostro, primeiro, que é uma consequência da adoção desse requerimento para que um sujeito possua crenças empíricas que crianças já em seus 3 anos de idade têm que ser consideradas como não possuindo crenças empíricas. Porém, como argumentarei, temos fortes razões para crer que crianças em seus 3 anos de idade possuem crenças empíricas. Nesse caso, o requerimento de McDowell e Brewer para a posse de crenças empíricas enfrenta um forte desafio. Após argumentar nesse sentido, proponho um requerimento alternativo para a posse de crenças empíricas, e defendo que tal requerimento deve ser favorecido em detrimento do requerimento apresentado por McDowell e Brewer. empíricas; experiências perceptuais, razões; John McDowell; Bill Brewer. ∗ I'd like to thank Steve Laurence, Rob Hopkins, David Papineau, Dominic Gregory and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I also thank Capes Foundation, for funding this research. 2 1 Introduction In his Mind and World (1994) and elsewhere, John McDowell defends the view that one can only have empirical beliefs- i.e., beliefs that are about the external world around the subject -if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs. Bill Brewer (1999) agrees. In this paper, I will argue that the requirement that one can only have empirical beliefs if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs faces a serious challenge. More specifically, I will show that it is a consequence of this requirement that children as old as 3 years of age have to be considered as not having empirical beliefs. But we have strong reasons to believe that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs, or so I will argue. If this is the case, McDowell and Brewer's view faces a strong challenge. I will then go on to propose an alternative requirement for one to have empirical beliefs. I will argue that this requirement does not face the challenge that McDowell and Brewer's requirement faces, while, at the same time, it makes justice to the intuitions that motivate McDowell and Brewer to adopt their requirement in the first place. This paper is organized as follows. In section 2, I explain in detail what exactly McDowell and Brewer's claim that one can only have empirical beliefs if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs amounts to. In section 3, I challenge such claim by, first, arguing that we have strong reasons to believe that 3-year-old children have empirical beliefs and, second, by presenting empirical evidence suggesting that the perceptual experiences of 3-year-olds do not serve as reasons for their empirical beliefs. In section 4, I propose an alternative requirement 3 for one to have empirical beliefs and argue that we should favour it over McDowell and Brewer's requirement. 2 McDowell and Brewer's Subject's Reasons Thesis This section will be dedicated to the task of explaining, in detail, what McDowell and Brewer mean when they claim that one can only have empirical beliefs if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs. We will then be in a good position to evaluate this claim. Now, putting things more formally, we can say that McDowell and Brewer are committed to the following thesis: Perceptual Reasons Thesis A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such empirical beliefs. The clearest statement of a commitment to this thesis comes from Brewer. He writes: The first claim I aim to establish is this: ( R ) Perceptual experiences provide reasons for empirical beliefs. This is the sense in which I contend that there are genuinely epistemic requirements upon the very possibility of empirical belief...I argue that unless perceptual experiences provide reasons for empirical beliefs in precisely this sense - in which the subject's possession of such reasons is central to the question of whether the 4 beliefs in question are cases of knowledge - there can be no such beliefs at all about particular mind-independent objects that they are determinately thus and so. The epistemological relation between experiences and beliefs proposed by (R) is therefore a necessary condition upon the very possibility of empirical belief. (Brewer 1999, pp.18-19) Thus, according to Brewer, one can only have empirical beliefs in the first place if one's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such beliefs. Brewer is here agreeing with a point often made by McDowell. This passage is an example: In traditional empiricism the point of giving experience its foundational status is epistemological, but...I think the epistemological questions empiricism addresses give expression to an underlying worry about thought's contact with the world, knowledgeable or not. This worry reflects the thought that if we cannot see how experience could stand in relations of warrant to empirical belief, we put at risk our entitlement to the very idea of empirical objective content. (McDowell 2002, p.284) McDowell is here saying that, if one's perceptual experiences do not serve as reasons for empirical beliefs (do not stand in "relations of warrant" to empirical beliefs), then the very idea that such beliefs are about the world, that they have "empirical objective content", is put at risk. Thus, McDowell is making here the same point that Brewer is making above, that, in order for one to have empirical beliefs in the first place, one's perceptual experiences must serve as reasons for such beliefs. For, if this is not the case, then one's purported empirical beliefs cannot be said to be about the world at all 5 (cannot be said to have "empirical objective content"); that is, one cannot be said to have genuine empirical beliefs at all. I take it, then, that it is clear that McDowell and Brewer are committed to the idea that a subject will have empirical beliefs only if the perceptual experiences of the subject serve as reasons for such empirical beliefs. That is, they are committed to the Perceptual Reasons Thesis. Now, why is the Perceptual Reasons Thesis supposed to be true? Why is it the case that, in order for us to have empirical beliefs, our perceptual experiences must serve as reasons for these beliefs? McDowell and Brewer arrive at the Perceptual Reasons Thesis from a basic intuition, expressed by McDowell is this passage: If our activity in empirical thought is to be recognizable as bearing on reality at all, there must be external constraint. (McDowell 1994, p.9) External constraint is constraint from the world. So, according to McDowell, if purported empirical beliefs are not constrained by the world, they will not be about the world at all; which is to say that they will not be genuine empirical beliefs at all. The intuition here can be put on the following terms: Basic Intuition A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs are constrained by the world. So, according to the Basic Intuition, if a subject's purported empirical beliefs are not constrained by the world in any way whatsoever, then the subject cannot have beliefs 6 about the world around him; that is, the subject cannot have genuine empirical beliefs. For instance, if you are a brain in a vat, whose beliefs were never constrained by the external world, then you cannot have genuine beliefs about the world around you; that is, you cannot have genuine empirical beliefs. Now, both McDowell and Brewer agree that the world can only constrain our beliefs via perceptual experiences.1 For our only direct contact with the world is via perceptual experiences, which are taken to be "the world's direct impact upon a person's mind" (Brewer 1999, p. 9).2 The intuition in play here then, is, in Brewer's words, that, unless the beliefs of a subject about the world are systematically related in some way to these [perceptual] experiences, they are utterly insensitive to her actual physical environment. Even if a person's 'world-view' somehow survives this confinement (McDowell, 1994, 15ff), as a series of quasi-rational manipulations utterly isolated from any influence by the external world through perceptual experience - akin to the most abstract imaginable algebra perhaps - mind-independent reality drops out as irrelevant to whatever norms may govern it. It therefore fails to be a world-view, or a set of beliefs about that reality, at all. Thus, beliefs concern mind-independent reality only in virtue of standing in certain relations with perceptual experiences. (Brewer 1999, p.23/Brewer's italics) 1 The idea that external constraints from the world can only be obtained via perceptual experiences is clearly expressed by McDowell is this passage: "Now, how can we understand the idea that our thinking is answerable to the empirical world, if not by the idea that thinking is answerable to experience? How could a verdict from the empirical world - to which empirical thinking must be answerable if it is to be thinking at all - be delivered, if not by way of a verdict from (as W.V.Quine puts it) 'the tribunal of experience?'". (McDowell 1994, p.xii) 2 Notice that this assumes that most of our perceptual experiences are veridical, that only in a minority of cases we are deceived in perception, with illusions and hallucinations. And, when experiences are veridical, we perceive the world itself, and not some sort of representation of it. So, it is not McDowell's or Brewer's intention to provide us with an argument against skepticism. They are assuming the common-sensical view that, in most cases, we are not fooled in perceptual experience. See McDowell (1994, pp.111-113). 7 The intuition here, then, is that unless there are certain relations between perceptual experiences and the purported empirical beliefs of a subject, the subject will not have genuine empirical beliefs at all. For, if there were no such relations, purported empirical beliefs would not have any contact with the world. They would be in complete isolation from it. In which case they could not be about the external world at all, and would not be genuine empirical beliefs. Let us call this McDowell and Brewer's Basic Intuition Unpacked. It can be put more precisely like this: Basic Intuition Unpacked A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs stand in certain relations with S's perceptual experiences. In this paper, I will assume that McDowell and Brewer's Basic Intuition and Basic Intuition Unpacked are correct. If a subject's purported empirical beliefs do not stand in any sort of relations with perceptual experience, and are, therefore, not constrained by the world, then the subject does not have genuine empirical beliefs at all. Now, the Basic Intuition Unpacked only says that, in order for one to have empirical beliefs, there must be "certain relations" between one's perceptual experiences and empirical beliefs. But the kind of relations required is left open. For all that the Basic Intuition Unpacked says, these relations could be causal, rational, or of some other kind. But, for McDowell and Brewer, such relations have to be of a specific kind. For them, in order for us to have empirical beliefs, our perceptual 8 experiences must stand in rational relations with empirical beliefs, serving as reasons for them. So, McDowell and Brewer move from: Basic Intuition: A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs are constrained by the world. To: Basic Intuition Unpacked: A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs stand in certain relations with S's perceptual experiences. To: Perceptual Reasons Thesis: A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such empirical beliefs. What motivates this last move? For McDowell, what motivates this move is an intuition. He writes: My aim is to defend a non-traditional empiricism that retains the thought, inchoately present in traditional empiricism according to me, that the possibility of empirical objective content depends on a rational connection between experience and empirical belief... I take it to be intuitively obvious - if only philosophy did not distort our thinking - that empiricists were right to want what they do. (McDowell 2002, p.284/my italics) So, McDowell thinks it is "intuitively obvious" that one can have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs stand in rational relations with perceptual experiences. So, for 9 him, it is intuitively obvious that the Perceptual Reasons Thesis is the right way to specify the relations between perceptual experiences and empirical beliefs that are mentioned in the Basic Intuition Unpacked. Now, having somewhat clarified the motivation for the Perceptual Reasons Thesis, we have to clarify the thesis itself. In particular, we must clarify what it means to say that perceptual experiences serve as reasons for empirical beliefs. What kind of reasons are perceptual experiences supposed to be? Brewer says that We are interested here not just in any old reasons which there may be for making judgements or holding beliefs...But only in reasons for the subject to do these things, to take things to be actually the way he believes them to be. These must be the subject's own reasons, which figure as such from his point of view...they [perceptual experiences] must be motivating reasons for the subject. (Brewer 1999, pp.152152/Brewer's italics) And also that Coming to believe something for a reason in this sense essentially involves some conception of what one is up in doing so, some sense of why this is the right thing to do. Thus, if a person's reasons are to be cited as her reasons for believing or doing what she does, then she necessarily recognize them as such. In other words, the condition which forms the starting point of the present line of argument does indeed obtain: genuinely reason-giving explanations cite reasons which are necessarily recognized as such in some sense by the subject. (Brewer 1999, p.166/Brewer's italics) 10 McDowell also has this understanding of what sorts of reasons perceptual experiences are supposed to be, although he is less explicit. In a passage criticizing Peacocke, for instance, he claims to be interested in the "subject's reasons for believing something" (McDowell 1994, p.163/McDowell's italics). So, according to McDowell and Brewer, in order for something to be a reason (or a genuine reason) for a belief, it must be the subject's own reason for a belief (in which case it must be recognized as a reason by the subject). Thus, in order for, say, a proposition X to be a reason for a belief that P of a subject, it must be the case that X is the subject's own reason for believing that P. That is, it must be the case that, from the subject's point of view, it is because of X that he believes that P. If that is the case, then when McDowell and Brewer say that perceptual experiences are reasons for the empirical beliefs of a subject, they are in fact saying that, from the point of view of the subject, a given perceptual experience is a reason for adopting an empirical belief that P. That is, they are saying that, from the point of view of the subject, it is because of a given perceptual experience that he adopts an empirical belief that P. For instance, to say that my perceptual experience that the streets are wet is a reason for my belief that it has rained is, according to McDowell and Brewer, to say that, from my point of view, it is because I perceive that the streets are wet that I believe that it has rained. If, for instance, from my point if view, I believe that it has rained because someone told me so, and not because I perceived that the streets are wet (even I did perceived this), then my perceptual experience cannot be a reason for my belief that it has rained. For what I perceive is not my reason for believing that it has rained. Rather, what I was told is my reason for holding this belief. 11 So, according to McDowell and Brewer, perceptual experiences are supposed to be the subject's own reasons for a given empirical belief. Now, we have seen above that McDowell and Brewer are committed to the following thesis: Perceptual Reasons Thesis A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such empirical beliefs. Now we know that, according to them, perceptual experiences are supposed to be the subject's own reasons for empirical beliefs.3 McDowell and Brewer then seem committed to the following thesis, which is a developed version of the Perceptual Reasons Thesis: Subject's Reasons Thesis (1 st version) A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences are S's reasons for adopting such empirical beliefs. 3 Notice that there are complications here that I will be ignoring. At points McDowell says that, when a subject takes a perceptual experience as being his reason for a belief, it is the content of the experience that gives rational support to the belief, and not experiencing itself, or the fact that one has the experience in case. For the contents of perceptual experience are facts (at least when the experience is veridical), and facts can give rational support to beliefs. McDowell says, for instance, that: "In enjoying experiences one seems to, and in some cases does, take in facts; this makes the facts available to serve as rational credentials for judgements or beliefs based on experiences". (McDowell 1998, p.406) Here I will be ignoring these complications, for my target is the idea that one having empirical beliefs depends on one's perceptual experiences being one's reasons for such beliefs, and my argument against this is supposed to work irrespective of how exactly McDowell and Brewer take perceptual experiences to support empirical beliefs. For discussion, see Chen (2006), Dancy (2006) and McDowell (2006). 12 Now, before we go on, there is still one thing that needs to be clarified concerning the Subject's Reasons Thesis. Is it the case that, for every empirical belief of a subject, there should be a given perceptual experience that is the subject's reason for adopting the belief? That is, is the Subject's Reasons Thesis a requirement that applies to every single empirical belief that one might have? Well, I take it that this is not what McDowell and Brewer require. What they require is that, typically, a given perceptual experience of the subject should be his reason for adopting a given empirical belief. But there might be circumstances in which this is not the case (if a subject is extremely drunk, say, and unaware of what is leading him to form certain beliefs). McDowell suggests that this is the case by saying things like "Empirical judgements in general...had better have content of a sort that admits of empirical justification, even if there is none in the present case (say in a quite unsupported guess)"(McDowell 1994, p.6). So, I take it that what the Subject's Reasons Thesis requires is that, typically, the subject's perceptual experiences should be their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs, if the subject is to have empirical beliefs in the first place. If that is the case, then the Subject's Reasons Thesis can be revised in the following way: Subject's Reasons Thesis (final version) A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences are typically S's reasons for adopting such empirical beliefs. Now that we have a good understanding of what McDowell and Brewer are claiming, we can evaluate their claims. In the next section, I will argue that the Subject's Reasons Thesis faces a strong challenge. 13 3 Empirical Beliefs Without Subject's Reasons In the last section, we saw that McDowell and Brewer are committed to the Subject's Reasons Thesis. If the thesis is true, one will not have empirical beliefs unless one's perceptual experiences are (at least typically) one's reasons for adopting these beliefs. But, in this section, I will argue that we have good reasons to suppose that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs, despite the fact that their perceptual experiences are not their reasons for adopting these beliefs. In that case, the Subject's Reasons Thesis faces a strong challenge. 3.1 3 year-old's Empirical Beliefs Do 3-year-old children have genuine empirical beliefs? This is the question I want to consider now. Let me start approaching the problem by considering 3-year-old children's abilities to report what they see. In an experiment conducted by Gopnik and Graf (1988), 3-year-olds were shown the contents in a drawer. It contained objects such as a plastic spoon, a toy car, and an egg, among others. The drawer was closed, and the children were then asked what was inside the drawer. The result was that the children were almost always able to give a correct answer to this question (Gopnik & Garf 1988, p.1368). This was not, of course, a surprise. 3-year-olds typically have a vocabulary reaching 1000 words, and can produce complex sentences such as "Where mommy keep her pocket book?" (Pinker 1994, p.292). That is, 3-year-olds are well advanced in the process of language acquisition. At that stage, it is no surprise that children are able to report what they see, even after the objects are taken from their view. 14 It might, however, be objected that 3-year-olds are not in fact understanding what they are saying. A parrot might say "red" in front of red things, but a parrot is only reacting to certain stimuli, with no understanding of the response it is giving. (That is, with no understanding of what red is.) But is this the case with 3-year-olds? Certainly not. Pinker, for instance, says that between the late twos and the mid-threes, children's language blooms into fluent grammatical conversation so rapidly that it overwhelms the researchers who study it. Sentence length increases steadily, and because grammar is a discrete combinatorial system, the number of syntactic types increases exponentially, doubling every month, and reaching the thousands before the third birthday. (Pinker 1994, p.291) Such facts, by themselves, strongly suggest that 3-year-olds have an understanding of what they are saying. They are, after all, able to engage in conversation, and this capacity is typically taken to be a mark of understanding. If I am able to engage in a conversation about modems, it is very likely that I know what a modem is. But when we look more closely at the speech of 3-year-olds, it becomes even more difficult to deny that they understand what they are saying. For instance, Pinker presents reports of the speech of a child named Adam, from when he was 2 to his early threes. By his early threes he says things like "Can I keep a screwdriver just like a carpenter keep the screwdriver?" (Pinker 1994, p.293). It seems undeniable that Adam has at least a rough understanding of what a screwdriver is. He knows, for instance, how screwdrivers are kept by carpenters. He knows, moreover, that they are used by carpenters. That means that he knows what screwdrivers are used for. And what more could we ask in order to consider Adam as knowing what a screwdriver is? Adam is not an exception. His linguistic development is normal for his age. Thus, it seems 15 hard to deny that 3-year-olds have an understanding (at least a rough understanding) of what they are saying. Now, I take it that such unsurprising empirical facts strongly suggest that 3year-olds have empirical beliefs. If they are able to report what they see - for instance, that there is a toy car in the box - and understand what they are reporting, it seems clear that they believe that there is a toy car in the box. For instance, if, after hearing his 3-year-old daughter say that she has seen a toy car in a box, a father were to ask someone if his daughter thinks (or believes) that there is a toy car in the box, it seems very likely that the person would say: "Yes, of course". 3.2 Empirical Beliefs Without Subject's Reasons: The Evidence So, we have seen that we have good reasons to think that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. But according to the Subject's Reasons Thesis, one will not have empirical beliefs unless one's perceptual experiences are (at least typically) one's reasons for adopting these beliefs. In this section, I will present empirical evidence that, for the majority of 3-year-olds, their perceptual experiences are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. Nonetheless, we have good reasons to think that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. If this is the case, the Subject's Reasons Thesis faces a strong challenge. There are, by now, several experiments in the literature suggesting that, for the majority of 3-year-olds, their perceptual experiences are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. For instance, in an experiment conducted by Wimmer, Hogrefe and Perner (1988), 3 and 4-year-olds were presented with pictures in a box. They were then asked to say which pictures were in the box. When they answered this question 16 correctly, they were asked: "How do you know that?". When they answered it incorrectly, they were asked: "Why don't you know that?". 4-year-olds typically had no problem in answering the questions. However, according to the authors, in contrast, 3-year-olds were quite incompetent. Eight of ten 3-year-olds consistently failed the justification question. In most cases they did not respond the question at all. However, there was no difference between 3 and 4-year-olds in their ability to respond correctly to the knowledge question. In all cases where children had informational access to the content of the critical box they responded affirmatively to the knowledge question and could specify their content. (Wimmer, Hogrefe & Perner 1988, p.387) So, according to the results of this experiment, 4-year-olds both formed beliefs about the contents in the box and were able to linguistically present their reasons for adopting these beliefs, when asked to do so. In contrast, 3-year-olds formed beliefs about the contents in the box, but were unable to present their reasons for adopting these beliefs, when asked to do so. In particular, 3-year-olds were unable to present perceptual experiences as reasons for their beliefs. This experiment suggests, then, that 3-year-olds are typically unable to present perceptual experiences as reasons for empirical beliefs. When asked to present such reasons, they most often do not answer the question at all. It could be argued, however, that, even if 3-year-olds are typically not able to present perceptual experiences as their reasons for empirical beliefs, such experiences might still be their reasons for adopting these beliefs; it is just that 3-year-olds are not able to present their reasons linguistically. 17 In principle, this could be the case. But other experiments suggest that this is actually not true. Consider, for instance, an experiment conducted by Gopnik and O'Neill (1991), designed to test if young children are able to identify the sources of their beliefs; that is, designed to test if young children are able to identify what led them to adopt their beliefs.4 The subjects in the experiment were twelve 3-year-olds, twelve 4-year-olds and twelve 5-year-olds. The procedure was as follows. A red tunnel (made out of foam) was constructed, and placed in front of the children. The children were then either shown objects (such as a ball, a toy car and plastic spoon) on the other side of the tunnel, or were told which objects were on the other side of the tunnel, or were asked to feel the objects on the other side of the tunnel. When they were shown the objects, they were then asked to say which object they had seen. The equivalent question was asked in the cases where the child had been told about the objects, and felt the objects. If they answered this first question correctly, they were then asked the source question: "How do you know what's inside the tunnel?". If they were unable to reply to this question, they were asked: "Did you see it, did you feel it or did I tell you?" These three questions were presented separately, so the child could answer only "yes" or "no". These are much simpler questions than "How do you know that?", and the idea was that, if children were able to identify the sources of their beliefs, they would be able to answer them correctly. Where to answer them correctly is, of course, to say "yes" to what actually led them to form the belief, and "no" to what did not. Thus, if they formed a belief by seeing the object, they should answer "yes" to the question "Did you see it?", and "no" to "Did you feel it?" and "Did I tell you?". 4 For another experiment along the same lines, see Gopnik & Graf (1988). 18 The results were the following. Among the 5-year-olds, 83% of the children made no errors in answering the questions. Among the 4-year-olds, 75% of the children made no errors in answering the questions. These percentages are in stark contrast with the percentage of 3-year-olds who made no errors. Among this age group, only 17% of the children made no errors in answering the questions (Gopnik & O'Neill 1991, p.392). In more detail, the results for the 3-year-olds were as follows: After the initial "How do you know what's inside" source question, 10 of the 12 children responded on each trial with a stereotyped response such as "I don't know" or "cause", silence, or irrelevant information about the object. When given the three forced-choice alternatives separately, the most common error was to say "yes" to more than one alternative. (Gopnik & O' Neill 1991, p.393) I think these results are clear enough. They suggest that most 3-year-olds are not capable of identifying the sources of their empirical beliefs. In particular, it suggests that most 3-year-olds are not capable of identifying perceptual experiences as being sources of their empirical beliefs. Most of them are, after all, committing errors when asked if it was one given sensory experience or another that led them to form a given belief. For most of them, if they formed an empirical belief by, say, seeing a given object on the other side of the red tunnel, they might be able to answer "yes" if asked if they know that a given object was on the other side of the red tunnel because they saw it. But they also tend to answer "yes" when asked if they know that because they heard it, of felt it. But they formed the belief via only one sensory modality: either by seeing it, or by feeling it, or by being told. If they tend to answer "yes" when asked if they formed the belief by seeing the object and by, say, feeling the object, then it seems that they are not actually capable of taking a given experience as being what 19 led them to form a given belief. If they were capable of such, questions such as "did you see it?" or "did you feel it?" should be easy to answer. In fact, as we have seen, most 4 and 5-year-olds had no problem in answering the questions correctly. Since most 3-year-olds were unable to answer the questions correctly, it seems that they are not capable of taking a given experience as being the source of a given belief. For our purposes, this is important because it strongly suggests that the problem is not that most 3-year-olds take perceptual experiences as being their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs, but are incapable of presenting these reasons linguistically. Rather, the problem is that, typically, 3-year-olds are unable to take a given perceptual experience as being what led them to form a given empirical belief. And, if that is the case, then, for the majority of 3-year-olds, from their point of view, it is not because they have certain perceptual experiences that they adopt certain empirical beliefs. For a given empirical belief that P of a typical 3-year-old, caused by a certain perceptual experience E, he will be unable to identify E as being what led him to form the belief. And, if that is so, it cannot be the case that, from the point of view of the 3-year-old, it is because of E that he adopted the belief that P. Since he is unable to identify E as the source of the belief, E cannot be his reason for adopting the belief. This seems to be typically the case for 3-year-olds. Most of them seem to be unable to identify a given perceptual experience as being the source of a given belief. If that is the case, for the majority of 3-year-olds, a given perceptual experience is not, from their point of view, a reason for adopting a given empirical belief. That is, for the majority of 3-year-olds, their perceptual experiences are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. But, as we have seen, we have good reasons to think that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. And the details of the experiments presented here only give further support to this idea, as the 3-year-olds in the experiments were able 20 to report what objects they had seen, felt, or being told to be on the other side of the red tunnel. Only having answered such questions correctly were they asked how they knew that. This strongly suggests that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. But the perceptual experiences of the majority of 3-year-olds are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. What we have, then, is that, on the one hand, we have good reasons to think that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. On the other hand, we have empirical evidence that the perceptual experiences of the majority of 3-year-olds are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. For many, this might be unsurprising, and unproblematic. But, for McDowell and Brewer's Subject's Reasons Thesis, it represents a serious challenge. According to their Subject's Reasons Thesis, subjects for whom perceptual experiences are not typically their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs should not be considered to have empirical beliefs at all. So, according to the Subject's Reasons Thesis, most 3-yearolds should not be considered as having empirical beliefs. But we have good reasons to take 3-year-olds as having empirical beliefs. This is, then, a serious challenge to the thesis. I do not take this as showing that the Subject's Reasons Thesis is false once and for all. For McDowell and Brewer might bite the bullet and insist, if it is a consequence of the Subject's Reasons Thesis that 3-year-olds do not have empirical beliefs, so be it: 3-year-olds should then be considered as not having empirical beliefs. I take this to be a very hard bullet to bite. Given that 3-year-old children are well advanced in the process of language acquisition, that they report what they see, and understand what they are reporting, it seems to verge on the absurd to deny that they have empirical beliefs. Still, McDowell and Brewer might wish to bite the hard 21 bullet. They might wish to say that they are stipulating a meaning for "belief", and that if there are counter-intuitive consequences that follow from such a stipulation, so be it. I will then not suppose that the results presented here show that the Subject's Reasons Thesis is false once for all. But what seems undeniable is that the results presented here represent a strong challenge to the Subject's Reasons Thesis. A challenge that disfavours the adoption of the Subject's Reasons Thesis as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs. Moreover, as I will show next, an alternative requirement for one to have empirical beliefs, that satisfies McDowell and Brewer's Basic Intuition and Basic Intuition Unpacked, is available. And this alternative requirement does not face the problem that the Subject's Reasons Thesis does face. Accordingly, we have good reasons to favour this alternative requirement over the Subject's Reasons Thesis. 4 The External Reasons Thesis In the last section, we saw that the Subject's Reasons Thesis suffers from a serious problem. That does not mean, however, that the Perceptual Reasons Thesis cannot be read in another way, that could avoid such a problem. The Perceptual Reasons Thesis, remember, is the following: Perceptual Reasons Thesis A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if S's perceptual experiences serve as reasons for such empirical beliefs. McDowell and Brewer think this thesis should be read in terms of subject's reasons. Thus, the Subject's Reasons Thesis. But we are not forced to read the thesis in such a way. Given the problems that the Subject's Reasons Thesis faces, someone could try to read the Perceptual Reasons Thesis in some other way, which might avoid such 22 problems, while, at the same time, satisfying the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition Unpacked. In this section, I will present such an alternative way of reading the Perceptual Reasons Thesis. What I will defend is the view that McDowell and Brewer could read the Perceptual Reasons Thesis in a way in which perceptual experiences are not taken as being subject's reasons. After all, it is precisely the requirement that perceptual experiences should be the subjects' reasons for their empirical beliefs that leads to the problems considered in the previous section. Given this, McDowell and Brewer could (and, as I will argue, should) read the Perceptual Reasons Thesis in a less demanding way, no longer taking perceptual experiences as being the subjects' reasons for their empirical beliefs. That is, perceptual experiences might be taken as reasons for empirical beliefs, and this might be taken as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs in the first place, but it need not be required that these are reasons such that subjects are aware of them; it need not be required that, from the point of view of the subject, it is because of a given perceptual experience that he adopts an empirical belief that P. Perceptual experiences might be taken as being reasons for empirical beliefs in a different sense. A natural way to read the Perceptual Reasons Thesis, distinct from the Subject's Reasons Thesis, is in terms of external reasons.5 I will say that one has an external reason for a belief when the belief is the outcome of a reliable process, where a reliable process is a process that tends to produce (i.e., produces a high ratio of) true beliefs.6 I assume that perception is, in normal circumstances (when the mechanisms that underline perceptual capacities are working properly, and when the environment is not manipulated in ways that can deceive us, for example) a reliable process. Let us say, then, that "normal perception" is a reliable process. We can now introduce the following argument: (i) A subject S has an external reason for any given empirical belief P when P is the outcome of a reliable process. 5 I do not suppose, however, that this is the only alternative reading of the Perceptual Reasons Thesis according to which reasons are not understood in terms of subject's reasons. Other readings might be available. 6 For a reply to McDowell exploring the reliabilist option, see Brandom (1998). For a detailed presentation of epistemological reliabilism, see Goldman (1986). 23 (ii) Normal perception is a reliable process. (iii) Thus, when S has an empirical belief P that is the outcome of normal perception, S has an external reason for P. Given this, it seems that we can read the Perceptual Reasons Thesis as the External Reasons Thesis: External Reasons Thesis A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs are at least typically the outcome of normal perceptions. Since for an empirical belief to be the outcome of normal perceptions is for it to have an external reason, we can say that, in the External Reasons Thesis, normal perceptions play the role of external reasons for empirical beliefs. Notice that the External Reasons Thesis allows for us to have empirical beliefs that are the outcome of abnormal perceptions, such as hallucinations. What the thesis requires is that, typically, our empirical beliefs should be the outcome of normal perceptions; it does not require that, in order for us to have a given empirical belief, it must be the outcome of a normal perception. So, if all our purported empirical beliefs were the result of abnormal perceptions, such as hallucinations, we would not have empirical beliefs. Let me be clear about one thing. I do not wish to argue here for an externalist account of reasons for beliefs - one in which subjects need not be aware of what serves as a reason for their beliefs - as opposed to an internalist account of reasons for beliefs - one in which subjects need to be aware of what serves as a reason for their beliefs. McDowell and Brewer, of course, favour an internalist account of reasons for beliefs. I will not argue here that internalism about reasons for beliefs is false, and externalism is true. What I will argue is that, given McDowell and Brewer's worries, revealed in the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition unpacked, they need not take the internalist route, for an externalist account of reasons for beliefs (as the one adopted in the External Reasons Thesis) will respect both the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition Unpacked. So, given their worries, they might well adopt the External Reasons Thesis as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs. And, given the problems that the Subject's Reasons Thesis faces, they in fact should adopt the 24 External Reasons Thesis. This does not mean, of course, that internalism about reasons for beliefs is false in general, and externalism is true. In particular, it does mean that an externalist account of reasons is the adequate one in a theory of knowledge. That is, it does not mean that one having an external reason for the belief that p (and assuming p to be true) is sufficient for one to have the knowledge that p. 7 It only means that, given McDowell and Brewer's worries, revealed in the Basic Intuition and Basic Intuition unpacked, they should go for an externalist account of reasons for beliefs. This will be my line of argument. So, what I will now show is that the External Reasons Thesis does in fact satisfy the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition Unpacked. These intuitions, remember, are the following: Basic Intuition A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs are constrained by the world. Basic Intuition Unpacked A subject S will have empirical beliefs only if such beliefs stand in certain relations with S's perceptual experiences. As we have seen, normal perceptions are perceptual experiences under normal conditions. That is, perceptual experiences in which the mechanisms that underline perceptual capacities are working properly, and in which the environment perceived is not manipulated in ways that can deceive us (the environment perceived is like our everyday environment in the relevant ways). Now, given this, normal perceptions are, at least usually, perceptions of the world (assuming a form of realism about perception; assuming that we perceive the world, and not sense data). If when we are not deceived we perceive the world, then, when we are having normal perceptions, we will typically perceive the world.8 For if the environment is not manipulated in ways that can deceive us, and if the mechanisms that underline perceptual states are working properly, then we will in most cases perceive the world. 7 For a recent discussion of this issue, see Bonjour & Sosa (2003). 8 Although there will be exceptions, such as perceptions of the Muller-Lyer lines. In a case such as this, we do not perceive the world as it is, for we perceive the lines as being of different lengths, when they are not. And this happens even though our perceptions are normal, in the sense above. 25 Now, according to the Basic Intuition, empirical beliefs must be constrained by the world itself. But if, in normal perceptions, we perceive the world, then when empirical beliefs are the outcome of normal perceptions, they might be said to be caused by the world itself, in a certain sense. If in normal perceptions we tend to perceive the world, when these perceptions cause empirical beliefs in us, it can be said that it is the world that is causing such beliefs. If this is the case, then when empirical beliefs are the outcome of normal perceptions, they are constrained by the world. After all, they are caused by the world, in a certain sense. So, I take it that the adoption of the External Reasons Thesis as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs is in accordance with the Basic Intuition. Since the External Reasons Thesis requires that empirical beliefs are the outcome of normal perceptions, and since to be the outcome of normal perceptions is to be constrained by the world, the External Reasons Thesis requires that our beliefs are constrained by the world. The External Reasons Thesis is also in accordance with the Basic intuition Unpacked. It requires that empirical beliefs are the outcome of normal perceptions, and, if this is the case, then empirical beliefs must stand in certain relations with perceptual experiences, as stated in the Basic Intuition Unpacked. So, up to this point, the External Reasons Thesis seems to do at least as good a job as the Subject's Reasons Thesis as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs. But I think it does a better job. For it can easily accommodate the results of section 3. In that section, I showed that we have good reasons to take 3-year-olds as having empirical beliefs, despite the fact that they are not able to take perceptual experiences as reasons for such beliefs. The Subject's Reasons Thesis cannot accommodate such a result. For, according to the thesis, if a subject cannot take perceptual experiences as reasons for his purported empirical beliefs, then the subject has no empirical beliefs. But the External Reasons Thesis can accommodate the results of section 3. The beliefs of 3-year-olds about the world around them are, at least typically, the outcome of normal perceptions. There might be instances of illusion, hallucination, but in the typical case, when a child believes, for instance, that there is a car in front of her, such a belief is the outcome of a normal perception of a car. 3-year-olds may not be good in taking perceptual experiences as reasons, but there is no reason to suppose that their beliefs are not typically the outcome of normal perceptions. Since the External Reasons Thesis only requires that this is so in order for them to have beliefs, 3-yearolds satisfy the requirement. 26 So, the External Reasons Thesis satisfies the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition Unpacked, while it does not suffer from the problems that affect the Subject's Reasons Thesis. We then have good reasons to favour the External Reasons Thesis over the Subject's Reasons Thesis. Like the Subject's Reasons Thesis, the External Reasons Thesis is in accordance with the Basic Intuition and the Basic Intuition Unpacked. But the Subject's Reasons Thesis cannot accommodate the results of the last section, since it has as a consequence that 3-year-olds should not be considered as having empirical beliefs, when we have good reasons to think that they should. The External Reasons Thesis can accommodate such results. So, we have good reasons to favour the External Reasons Thesis over the Subject's Reasons Thesis. 5 Conclusion In this paper I argued that McDowell and Brewer's view that one can only have empirical beliefs if one's perceptual experiences are one's reasons for adopting such beliefs faces a strong challenge. More specifically, I argued that we have strong reasons to believe that 3-year-olds have empirical beliefs. I then showed that there is evidence that, for the majority of 3-year-olds, their perceptual experiences are not their reasons for adopting empirical beliefs. According to McDowell and Brewer's view, if this is the case we have to consider these children as not having genuine empirical beliefs at all. But we have strong reasons to believe that they do have empirical beliefs, in which case McDowell and Brewer's view faces a strong challenge, that disfavours the adoption of the Subject's Reasons Thesis as a requirement for one to have empirical beliefs. I then introduced an alternative requirement for one to have empirical beliefs - the External Reasons Thesis -, a requirement that does not face this same challenge, and that, at the same time, 27 respects the basic intuitions that motivate McDowell and Brewer to adopt their requirement in the first place. Thus, we have good reasons to favour the External Reasons Thesis over the Subject's Reasons Thesis. References Bonjour, L. & Sosa, E. Epistemic Justification: Internalism vs. Externalism, Foundations vs. Virtues. , 2003. Brandom, R. "Perception and rational constraint". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LVIII, pp.369-374, 1998. Brewer, B. Perception and Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Chen, C.K. "Empirical content and rational constraint". Inquiry, 49, pp. 242-264, 2006. Dancy, J. "Acting in the light of the appearances". In: C.Macdonald & G.Macdonald (eds.) (2006), pp.121-133. Goldman, A. Epistemology and Cognition. Cambridge, University Press, 1986. Gopnik, A. & Graf, P. "Knowing how you know: young children's abilities to identify and remember the sources of their beliefs". Child Development, 59, pp.1366-1371, 1988. Gopnik, A. & O'Neill, D. "Young children's abilities to identify the sources of their beliefs". Developmental Psychology, 27, pp.390-397, 1991. 28 Macdonald, C. & Macdonald, G. McDowell and his Critics. , 2006. McDowell, J. Mind and World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. McDowell, J. "Reply to commentators". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LVIII, pp. 403-431, 1998. McDowell, J. "Responses". In: N.H.Smith (ed.) (2002), pp.269-305. McDowell, J. "Reply to Jonathan Dancy". In C.Macdonald & G.Macdonald (eds.) (2006), pp.134-141. Pinker, S. The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind. London: Penguin, 1994. Putnam, H. Reason, Truth and History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Smith, N.H. Reading McDowell: On Mind and World. London, New York: Routledge, 2002. Wimmer, H., Hografe, J. & Perner, J. "Children's understanding of informational access as a source of knowledge". Child Development, 59, pp. 386-396, 1988.
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{ "creator": "Abad Espinoza, Luis Gregorio", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1579942839000, "description": "Cultural landscapes represent a complex category where the nature-culture dichotomy seem to not be able to unfold the main features and the profound relations that humans have with the environment. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the saltpans of Se-ovlje (Slovene Istria) and Janubio (Lanzarote--Canary Islands) this article examines informant`s perceptions about the awareness of the importance and the enhancement of the holistic values of both saltpans, as well as the impacts and benefits of tourism. Comparing these perceptions about both cultural landscapes, I try to suggest that the complex fruitfully relations between humans and nature in these saltpans are at odds with the neoliberal logic of nature which exploit and commoditize its resources depriving them of their respective agency. A sustainability to contrast the harmful activities of the market ought to be understood not as a simply isolation and fencing of nature for the sake of conservation, but as a preservation that need to foster the continuity of the deep interactions between human culture and non-human nature which are the core of the cultural landscapes.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABATRA-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes: the case of Sečovlje and Janubio saltpans", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121 Vol. 17 N.o 4. Págs. 671‐693. Julio‐Septiembre 2019 h t t p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 2 5 1 4 5 / j . p a s o s . 2 0 1 9 . 1 7 . 0 4 8 www .pasosonline.org Abstract: Cultural landscapes represent a complex category where the nature ‐culture dichotomy seem to not be able to unfold the main features and the profound relations that humans have with the environment. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the saltpans of Sečovlje (Slovene Istria) and Janubio (Lanzarote‐ ‐Canary Islands) this article examines informant`s perceptions about the awareness of the importance and the enhancement of the holistic values of both saltpans, as well as the impacts and benefits of tourism. Comparing these perceptions about both cultural landscapes, I try to suggest that the complex fruitfully relations between humans and nature in these saltpans are at odds with the neoliberal logic of nature which exploit and commoditize its resources depriving them of their respective agency. A sustainability to contrast the harmful activities of the market ought to be understood not as a simply isolation and fencing of nature for the sake of conservation, but as a preservation that need to foster the continuity of the deep interactions between human culture and non ‐human nature which are the core of the cultural landscapes. Keywords: Cultural landscapes; Sečovlje saltpans; Janubio saltpans; Culture ‐nature relations; Enhancement of the values. El replanteamiento y la mejora del patrimonio natural y cultural de los paisajes culturales: el caso de Sečovlje y Janubio saltpans Resumen: Los paisajes culturales representan una categoría compleja en la que la dicotomía naturaleza‐ ‐cultura parece no poder desplegar las características principales y las relaciones profundas que los humanos tienen con el medio ambiente. A partir de los datos etnográficos recopilados en las salinas de Sečovlje (Istria eslovena) y Janubio (Islas Canarias, Lanzarote), este artículo examina las percepciones de los informantes sobre la conciencia de la importancia y la mejora de los valores holísticos de ambas salinas, así como la Impactos y beneficios del turismo. Al comparar estas percepciones sobre ambos paisajes culturales, trato de sugerir que las complejas relaciones fructíferas entre los seres humanos y la naturaleza en estas salinas están en desacuerdo con la lógica neoliberal de la naturaleza que explota y comercializa sus recursos privándolos de su agencia respectiva. Una sostenibilidad para contrastar las actividades dañinas del mercado debe entenderse no como un simple aislamiento y cercado de la naturaleza en aras de la conservación, sino como una preservación que debe fomentar la continuidad de las interacciones profundas entre la cultura humana y la no humana. Naturaleza que son el núcleo de los paisajes culturales. Palabras Clave: paisajes culturales; Salinas de Sečovlje; Salinas de Janubio; Relaciones cultura ‐naturaleza; Mejora de los valores. The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes: the case of Sečovlje and Janubio saltpans Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza* University of Milan ‐Bicocca (Itália) Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza * University of Milan ‐Bicocca (Itália); E ‐mail: 1. Society and nature a trivial dichotomy or a complex relationship? Since the beginning of mankind people usually moved to different parts of the world to look for shelter, food and mostly explore the unknown. Indeed, the human being has been able to put the roots in every territory and landscape which they transformed and adapted to survive or in the words of Ellen PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 672 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes (1996) utilizing nature, by transforming and assimilating it into culture. Be that as it may, it seems that almost all ecosystems and landscapes around the world have been influenced or even ''domesticated'' by humans (Kareiva et al., 2007), however, this kind of domestication of the environment it is to be understood not only in utilitaristic Marxian terms as the historical materialism or human praxis in nature (Marx, 1994), where the latter is only a mean to subdue and extract its resources for the sake of the so called positivistic/evolutionistic development which has characterized the western "civilizing enterprise" of the industrial revolution up to now. On the contrary the natural environment has always played an important role for every society around the world, not only as a mere passive object to take advantage of its resources, but mostly for the meaning that different cultures attached to it, creating profound relations with the natural world that shaped their cosmologies, rituals, social structures, namely the way of "dwelling" and "being in the world" (Heidegger, 1962,1971), or the different ontologies which are the essential features of human nature. It is this kind of interactions and relations that each culture has with its own nature, which can be regarded as one of the most important issues in our own contemporary society. Due to the environmental problems, fostered by the neoliberal machine which indiscriminately imposes its own logic of nature everywhere, these are development, exploitation and destruction of the natural environment, that the importance of the traditional practices and engagement with the nature that some communities have been maintaining until these days still represent the moral values which evidently contrast the harming activities of the neoliberal market and its own never ‐ending logic of development. For these people, nature is more than a thing to observe, measure and quantify or better to sell and buy as a mere commodity in the market, therefore the stark cartesian ‐western dualism of culture and nature is incapable to understand the very complex interplay that exists between these two categories. Nature and culture often cannot be resolved into a single dichotomy (Strathern, 1980), for this reason a somewhat radical western naturalistic ontology hinder us to better understand and explore the deep engagement and relations that some societies even in the "developed and modern" west have with their natural environment and how important are the conceptions of nature and its practices of environmental interactions (Ingold, 1992) to provide a different alternatives of thinking about the nature and its importance for all living and non ‐living beings. Needless to say, the people who are used to dwell and live in natural environments such as the cultural landscapes and its traditional activities which I will treat in this article, have different conceptualizations of the nature in which they interact and perceive in their everyday lives. For them, as I argued above natural environment is not a mere brute fact, as the philosopher John Searle points out when he refers to the objects or reality independent of human consciousness (Searle, 1995). This kind of materiality and opacity of the nature it is not to be understood in isolation and devoid with meaning and values that each society endow it, as Descola (1992) perfectly explains: "the principles of the construction of social reality are primarily to be sought in the relations between human beings and their natural environment". Indeed, nature is the place where the mental and the material (Godelier, 1984) collide and conjoin each other forming a constant interaction where one of the most important aims is the equilibrium of the entire ecosystem, moreover these are the deep relations with the environment which most traditional and decentralized social systems have used to deploy so far, in fact they tended to develop means of regulating local ecosystems which were better geared to sustainability than modern economics (Rappaport, 1968, 1979). Nevertheless, sustainability in a strict sense of term of the western Eurocentric conception of protection and conservation of the environment is a merely chimera, thus usually nature is treated as a mere piece of museum to protect and encapsulate in the time for the only purpose to maintain a virgin or pristine untouchable nature with no human interaction. However, I think this is the somewhat naturalistic western paradox, whence on one hand the ontological separated domain of nature is only a wild object that must be dominated and transformed by human culture and economic rationality, on the other, nature must be protected and maintained in a state of purity and wilderness without human action, hence any human impact and activity although harmless must be regarded as a threat for the preservation of the virgin nature. Thus, in either cases the culture ‐nature dualism is strikingly evident and could be understood in the metaphoric terms of human exploitation in the former and human contemplation in the latter. It is this dichotomy between culture and nature that need to be challenged to attain a better scrutiny in the complex relations which exists among humans and non ‐humans, that is the characteristic complexity of the whole nature and its living and non ‐living beings. In the last decades, ecological anthropology has showed that most of the so called tribal or traditional societies around the world deploy different PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 673 conceptualizations of nature and therefore the western dualism cannot apply for them (see, for example, Reichel ‐Dolmatoff, 1971; Seeger, 1981; Karim, 1981; Howell, 1984, Århem, 1990 and Descola, 1994). In this respect, it could be argued that only these societies have different conceptions of nature and the western dualism it is to be applied only in the west? Or to put it different, could be diverse conceptions of nature applied in the western cultural landscapes? The relations between local communities and the environment of these landscapes are more complex than a trivial western dichotomy? These questions I will try to answer in this article, analysing and comparing the saltpans and cultural landscapes of Sečovlje (Slovene Istria) and Janubio (Lanzarote ‐Canary Islands) to demonstrate that these western cultural landscapes represent a holistic interaction between humans and their environment, where the traditional activities of salt harvesting are still being maintained nonetheless the neoliberal activities of industrial salt production and mass tourism. An ecological approach in anthropology will not neglect the complex interactions that these communities of salt workers have with the natural environment of the saltpans and moreover what different actors such as tourists and stakeholders of both territories think about the awareness of the importance of these values. This obviously emphasize that nature is not passive at all even in a western context, whereby it could be said that nature may be good to think (Lévi ‐Strauss, 1962) or as Descola (1992) points out a nature that may be good to socialize. Thus, cultural landscapes in this sense show how nature is also good to dwell, live and interact, such as the manifold activities which are still practiced within in by the local communities, for this reason it is worth analysing below the evolution of the concepts of the cultural landscapes which have been changing through the years. 2. Cultural landscapes an irreducibility interaction of values Despite all the problems that humans have had to cope with nature, therefore the interplay between these two categories have not always been easy, nonetheless in some places of the world they finally reached some type of harmony with it, in fact some landscapes are considered sacred for a lot of communities spread around the globe and the relationship between each other have been maintained over the years. Furthermore, these kinds of relations are mostly intertwined and hence permeate the economic, social, ecological and geographical factors, which determine the continuous development of the landscape and its conservation in the time. Thus, if humans modify the world around them on an enormous scale, and have done so through co ‐evolutionary interactions for many thousands of years (Ellen, 1996), on what grounds a landscape might be regarded as cultural? If as I argued above every landscape around the world underwent a somewhat direct or indirect anthropic impact and transformation, whereby it might be said that all landscapes with which humans routinely interact are cultural (Ellen, 1996). Following the assumption in which each landscape in the world it is to be understood as cultural, we are falling in a culturalist vortex where nature is a simple cultural construct, namely a universal object whose meaning depends on the cultural context. Nevertheless, considering a landscape simply as natural, hence mainly an object external to our domain and independent of our thought, we are still falling in another no less dangerous materialist vortex. Both way of conceptualizations of the landscape are naively trapped in the reductionist pitfalls of the vaunted simplistic naturalistic ontology, namely a cultural domain that is considered "particular" or "multicultural" and a natural "universal" or "monona‐ turalism" domain (Viveiros de Castro, 1998). In short, naturalism creates a specific ontological domain, a place of order and necessity where nothing happens without a reason or a cause (Descola, 1996), or in which certain things in nature owe their existence and development to a principle extraneous both to chance and to the effects of human will (Rosset, 1973). It seems that a naturalistic point of view, whether culturalist or materialist deploy the same stark culture ‐nature dualism whose reductionist approach could not help to understand the complex features of the cultural landscapes, where both nature and culture collide and conjoin in an interaction process which have been changed, maintained and enhanced over the time. However, it is plausible to analyse the evolution of the concept of cultural landscape and its main features, mainly for the importance of the values that this category encloses and strives to maintain nonetheless neoliberism and its consumerist ‐polluting society. The term cultural landscape was introduced for the first time by the German Geographer Otto Schlüter in the early twentieth century and is him to whom is credited the first academic use of that term (James and Martin, 1981). It is worth noting that the word landscape, combines land with a verb of Germanic origin scapjan/schaffen, which means, literally, shaped lands. Lands were conceived as modelled by natural forces, and its shapes(s) in turn formed object(s) to be represented by landscape paintings PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 674 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes (James and Martin, 1981). In 1908, Schlüter argued that by defining geography as Landschaftskunde (landscape science) geography would be given a thematic logic that does not exist in any other discipline (Elkins, 1989). Furthermore, the German geographer defined two forms of landscape: 1) the Urlandschaft (original landscape) or landscape that existed before human impacts and transformations, 2) and the Kulturlandschaft (cultural landscape), the landscape created by human culture. Thus, the principal task of geography was to track the changes in these two landscapes (James and Martin, 1981). As a result, the term "cultural landscape" has been a fundamental concept in geography and was formally defined as "landscape modified by human activity" by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel in the 1890s (Jones, 2003). According to these concepts, there is a neat distinction between a mere passive objective nature as the original landscape and the cultural landscape, hence transformed and created by human culture. Subsequently, it was the human geographer Carl O. Sauer who nonetheless endorsing a dualistic view of the landscape, it was him that in a more dedicated and influential manner, will promote and develop the idea of the cultural landscapes (James and Martin, 1981). Unlike the other authors cited, this human geographer went beyond in the analysis of the cultural landscapes, whereas for him the physical environment was a medium through which human culture acts, and therefore fostering the development, changing and rejuvenation of the landscape throughout the time and the pass of cultures (Sauer, 1925). Consequently, according to his famous concept: "the cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area the medium, the cultural landscape is the result" (Sauer, 1925). Nevertheless, some decades have passed since the ingenious and original concept coined by Sauer, it seems than even to date some international organizations such as UNESCO are still acknowledging willy ‐nilly the useful but nonetheless reductionist and dualistic view of a such complex category as cultural landscapes. In short, according to a somewhat trivial culture ‐nature dichotomy, cultural landscapes are cultural properties and represent the "combined works of nature and of man" (World Heritage Centre, 2008). Be that as it may, in 1992 The World Heritage Convention became the first international legal instrument to recognise and protect cultural landscapes (UNESCO, 1996). Three categories of cultural landscapes are included in the World Heritage Convention: (1) ''clearly defined landscapes designed and created intentionally by humans'' this embraces garden and pa‐ rkland landscapes, (2) ''organically evolved landscapes'' these results from an initial social, economic, administrative, and/or religious imperative and has developed its present form by association with and in response to its natural environment. (including ''relict'' and ''continuing'' landscapes), and (3) ''associative cultural landscapes'' that have powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent (World Heritage Centre, 2008). It is evident to notice in these three categories of cultural landscapes, that humans modified the natural environment and adapted to it for sundry purposes, therefore it is a explicitly one ‐sided peaceful interaction between people and nature, namely the environment has been affected by anthropic activities, mostly of those activities were agricultural, architectural/aesthetic and most of them were related with sustainable land ‐use aspects and religious beliefs which provided a sustainable development and the enhancement of the natural and cultural values. As far as these concepts might appear convincing to the reader, they are yet obscuring the two ‐sided interrelationships which exist between the people to whom the environment it is to be lived, perceived and above all provide the affordances (Gibson, 1979), that influence and shape the way in which each culture adjusts and interacts with its environment. Furthermore, the diverse ways of perception of the environment differ according to the interactions and taskscapes that each society develop over the time, namely the array of the tasks that people practiced and fostered being engaged in the activities of dwelling the landscape (Ingold, 1993). Thus, in the case of the saltpans, the salt worker who used to dwell and work in that environment have a very different and more profound perception than a tourist who only visit the site for a little while. For the former, the salpans represent the place where he interacts with his fellows, harvests the salt with traditional methods taught by his ancestors or older workers, feels the scorching sun of the summer, the smell of the sea, but mostly following Ingold (1993) he is connected with a landscape and "through living in it, the landscape becomes a part of him, just as he is a part of it", therefore to whom that cultural landscape is much more than place for leisure or to visit for a mere discounted tourist package bought in the website, for him this landscape it is to be understood as a complex interrelations of senses, hence only who is dwelling in that environment can understand what a cultural landscape really is. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 675 The perceptions and the relations which the people have with nature need to be taken seriously, otherwise the meaning of the cultural landscape will appear blurred if we only apply the clear ‐cut cartesian distinction that separates body ‐mind and nature ‐society. Perception in this sense is not the attainment of the mind in the body, but an organism as a whole in its environment (Gibson, 1979). As one of the classics in anthropology showed us, much of the relations between a so called "primitive" society and nature and its species (cattle), are intermingled in a continuum process of intimate interactions, thus for the Nuer of southern Sudan, cattle and men sustain life by their reciprocal services to one another in a real symbiotic relationship, moreover the harsh characteristics of the environmental system directly conditions Nuer life and influences their social structure (Evans ‐Pritchard, 1940). At this point, it seems to me plausible to elucidate the complex features that deploy the western cultural landscapes of Sečovlje (Slovene Istria) and Janubio (Lanzarote), thus, both saltpans are located nearby mass tourism destinations and are facing the same problems such as: the lack of awareness of the importance of its resources by the territory, the salt market of the savage capitalism which threatens the conservation and continuity of the traditional activities of salt harvesting, and a tourism market which treat both saltpans and its values as a mere commodity to sell and indiscriminately exploit the precious resources of the whole human ‐environment relations. Hence, might the perceptions of other actors such as tourists differ from the perceptions of the salt workers about the saltpans? Could different stakeholders of both territories understand the complex relations that exist in a cultural landscape? Which kind of tourism in contrast to mass tourism would fit better in fostering the enhancement of the values of the satpans? These questions and those posed in the first part were asked to the informants of both territories, therefore focusing on the perceptions of the individuals involved in the saltpans about different issues related to the preservation and valorisation of the resources, as well as the impact of tourism. For these reasons, saltpans as a cultural landscape ought to be analysed and explored in the multidimensional interactions between humankind and nature without overlooking the phenomenological aspects that enclose each landscape and its dwellers. Before to discuss the analysis of the data, I will give a brief description bellow of the main features of both saltpans. 3. The Sečovlje Salina Nature Park The (SSNP) represents a good example of a cultural landscape, indeed the society and nature are still maintaining the interplay between each other despite the different social, political, economic and geographical changes over the years. This park is situated on the Adriatic coast, at the mouth of the Dragonja River, in the southernmost stretch of the coastline of the Piran Bay. The Secovlje Salina, extended over 6,5 km2, is among the most important natural and cultural heritage sites in Slovenia, and therefore designated as the Nature Park, Ramsar Site, Natura 2000 site and a cultural monument of national importance (Sovinc, 2008). The Park was proclaimed in 1990 by the municipality of Piran with the aim of preserving and enhancing the natural and cultural heritage of the territory and was protected by the State in 2001 with the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park law, accepted by the Slovenian Government. In short, the Park represents a great heritage for the whole Slovene Istria. The Sečovlje Salina Nature Park is the best example of an "open ‐air museum" in Slovenia, and could be considered as a major cultural resource that represents a genuine example of conservation and enhancement of the traditions of salt workers, where the heritage is the lifestyle and work of salt workers of past centuries1 The Park is divided in three protected areas (KPSS, 2011): - the protected area that indicates the portion of the park called Lera, this is the part of the park where active salt production takes place; - the protected area that indicates the portion of the park called Fontanigge; - the protected area that indicates the part around the saltpans. Lera includes 294 ha and is divided into an area for the crystallization and solidification of seawater. In this area salt is produced following the medieval tradition. Lera is characterized by animal and plant habitat delimited by different salinity salt fields, the canals and levees of saltpans. The area of Fontanigge includes 314 ha and is located in the middle of the Grand Canal and the Dragonja River (KPSS, 2011). Thanks to the exceptional ecological and cultural values, in 1993 Sečovlje Salina was designated Slovenia's first Ramsar Site (Škornik et al., 2004). PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 676 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes The entire Sečovlje saltpans are considered as an ethnological, technological, historical and archi‐ tectural heritage and landscape, both at and beyond the national level (Sovinc, 2012). Indeed, since 2004 are part of the European project called Natura 2000 (Vodeb, 2014). The Strunjan and Sečovlje salt pans are unique on the eastern Adriatic coast in producing salt by means of an entirely traditional process which involves the daily gathering of the brine on the biosediment -the petola, which is an artificial grown crust that prevents the mixing of the salt and the sea mud on the bottom of the crystallization basin, and it functions as a biological filter (Sovinc, 2011). This method historically implemented exclusively in the space between Trieste and Pago, has been preserved only in these saltpans. This traditional method of production not only keeps the landscape characteristics of saltpans, but also helps to preserve the natural and cultural values of the area. The cultural heritage of the Sečovlje saltpans includes (KPSS, 2011): - The salt museum: the cultural historical monument protected at national level; - The Sečovlje saltpans: the cultural historical monument; - Sezza, Villa marittima, the peninsula of Sezza: registered archaeological site. Figure 1: The Sečovlje Salina Nature Park Source: by the author In the park there are (under the rules of a protected area) developed several activities for tourists and other subjects: guided tours, workshops that allow people to appreciate and learn about the flora and fauna, various educational programs, some events (the traditional festival of salt workers), various sports and recreational activities (jogging, trekking, cycling), holistic activities (meditation, yoga and other activities for spiritual relaxation) exhibitions (ex tempore) and other activities. The park with its ecosystem is also the ideal place for research (KPSS, 2011). One important fact is the project called "Saltworks ‐Eco ‐touristic valorization of the Salt ‐pans between Italy and Slovenia 2007 ‐2013", funded by the European Union which intended to enhance, protect and promote the Italian saltpans of Cervia and Comacchio and the Slovenian saltpans of Strunjan and Sečovlje2. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 677 4. Site of scientific interest of Janubio The Janubio saltpans are located in the south west of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and cover an area of 168,6 ha within the town of Yaiza3. The construction of these family run saltpans began in 1895 and finished in 1945, one of the most interesting facts about it, is the picturesque and peculiar landscape due to the Timanfaya eruption between 1730 and 1736 where the lava flows extremely modified the saltpans closing the old gulf and allowing the creation of the inner lagoon and the further creation of the saltpans4. Thanks to its natural and cultural heritage, the saltpans since 1987 have been included in the Canary Islands Network for Protected Natural Areas (Red Canaria de Espacios Naturales Protegidos), first as a natural landscape and as site of scientific interest nowadays. Its norms of conservation were finally approved on July 20, 2006, by the (COTMAC), "Ordenación del Territorio y Medio Ambiente de Canarias", and published in the "Boletín Oficial de Canarias 27/2007". Furthermore, are integrated in the core zone of the Lanzarote Biosphere Reserve, which includes conservation and landscape maintenance as one of the great values that justified the declaration by UNESCO in 1993. The entire surface of the Site of Scientific Interest is considered as an area of environmental sensitivity5. Figure 2: Janubio saltpans Source: by the author In addition, Janubio saltpans have been declared International Bird Area (IBA), and special protection area (SPA), moreover are part of the Natura 2000 and Ramsar convention. One important fact is the wish of The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to include the Janubio saltpans in the red book of threatened landscapes. In fact, the saltpans own two declarations as a Site of Cultural Interest, one of them under the category of Monument and the other as a Paleontological zone. Subsequently, the Insular Planning of Lanzarote 1991, declared it "Sistema de Interés General del Medio Físico", and recommends to be equipped as a tourist attraction6. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 678 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes Whereas, in 1990 the General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Government of the Canary Islands undertook an initiative following the program of the develop of the outermost regions of the European Union "REGIS". In fact, the restoration of saltpans of the Canary Islands were the aim at that time. As a result, the pretention was to help the salt industry and improve the production and commercialization, as well as promote cultural tourism and ecotourism (Puche Riart et al., 2009). Nevertheless, unlike the nearby El Carmen saltpans in Fuerteventura which have been restored completly, only a small part was restored in the Janubio saltpans (Puche Riart et al., 2009). Whereas, Janubio saltpans are the biggest and one of the most important saltpans in the islands, the contruction of a salt museum was an important objective long ago (Marín and Luengo, 1994). As a matter of fact, the project Centro Turístico Casa De La Sal, promoted by the Lanzarote Island Council and the so called Plan Futures7, was intended to enhance the natural and cultural values of the saltpans, building different facilities such as salt museum, interpretation center, viewpoint, paths and so on, mostly to provide sustainable deveopment in the territory8. Unfortunately, the idea has never taken place, despite being included in the Canary Islands Network for Protected Natural Areas (Red Canaria de Espacios Naturales Protegidos, ley 12/87), have been harmed due to the aggregate extraction. Nonetheless, these saltpans have been exploited since the 19th century and still active nowadays (Puche Riart et al., 2009). 5. Methods This study engaged 12 individuals involved in both saltpans (n=6, in Sečovlje and n=6 in Janubio), a period of participant observation and in depth semi ‐structured interviews were conducted between September 2015 and April 2016. It is worth noting, that between these months I could carry out a somewhat deep ethnographic research in Sečovlje and its surrounding territories of Piran and Portorose where I have interviewed the informants, gathered the bibliography resources and mostly did the useful observations in the saltpans. I was fortunate to live and work in the tourism industry of the sea resort destination of Portorose for nearly 2 years, hence this permitted me to have enough time to carry out the research without facing some major inconvenient. Though the official language of this territory is Slovenian and my little knowledge of it, this was not a problem due to my knowledge of Italian, namely the second official language of the whole Istrian territory and in which most of the interviews were done, with the only exception of one interview that was done in English. Unfortunately, unlike the time that I spent in Sečovlje, in the case of Janubio I was only able to stay in the field for merely one month (April 2016), therefore the time for fieldwork and interviews was evidently shorter. However, I tried to gather as much information as I could regarding the saltpans, thus, thanks to the interviews and observations made in Janubio and the nearby towns of Lanzarote I could obtain some important data concerning the objective of the research, and whereby the comparison between both cultural landscapes could be attained. Furthermore, in the case of Janubio the realization of the interviews was not an obstacle, thus due to my knowledge of Spanish as a mother tongue and English. In addition, due to the topic and the phenomenological characteristics of the research, semi ‐structured interviews fitted better with the informants and they will to interpret they own point of view regarding the phenomenon. Semi ‐structured interviews are interviews that display a list of topics and questions to be discussed, sometimes without a defined order and, in most cases, without a precise formulation or canned responses (de Lillo, 2010). As a result, informants were selected for the interviews through a non ‐probability sampling, all the individuals who participated in the research are an important source of information for the analysis of this phenomenon, hence, they represent an objective sampling. In the objective sampling, sampling units are selected because they are in possession of aspects or particular characteristics which could better afford a careful exploration and understanding of the central themes and questions that the researcher will study (Ritchie et al., 2003). In short, the informants were indi‐ viduals who work on the saltpans or in the tourism industry, therefore informants were first contacted by e ‐mail or telephone, or in some cases directly in they work places. Subsequently, interviews were carried out in offices or in one specific location agreed with the person to be interviewed and lasted roughly 45 minutes to one hour. All interviews were recorded and whereupon transcribed for the final analysis of the data, moreover due to the privacy issues interviewee names were replaced with the respective roles of the informants. Furthermore, the period of participant observation, though a bit short in Janubio, nonetheless was very useful to better understand the main features of the saltpans and hence to gather clues and information prior to the interviews, thus I could observe closer the life of the salt workers and the way in which they perceive and dwell the suggestive environment of the saltpans. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 679 6. Results Results from the techniques of data collection were divided in three different key themes: 1) the awareness of the importance of the saltpans; 2) the enhancement of the values; and, 3) the benefits and impact of tourism. As I argued before, owed to the subjective characteristics of the interviews, it is worth emphasizing that the information given by the individuals was crucial to better explore the phenomenon. Indeed, informants tried to explain different peculiarities that ought not to be overlooked, and therefore the way in which they express their own perceptions about the importance of the values of the saltpans, differ among the people to whom the saltpans are a place in which they feel attached and connected, whether for diverse motives such as the awareness of the values that should be protected or for the different and profound relations that some people like the salt workers have with the natural environment, thus the majority of these perceptions contrast a lot with the way in which neoliberal activities such as mass tourism treat cultural landscapes and its important values. In this respect, qualitative research and its methods specially ethnography in this case and the techniques of participant observation and semi ‐semi structured interviews which are part of it, are fitter to understand and interpret the social reality in depth, therefore reality cannot be observed or measured, but must be interpreted and understood (Weber, 2002). For this reason, cultural landscapes ought to be approached and analyzed in a way that the complex relations and different perceptions which exist in the territory be highlighted, thus unfolding the somewhat hidden nuances which otherwise will remain covert if the subjective perceptions of the informants were not considered. As one of the forefathers of anthropology clearly points out: "social anthropology studies societies as moral, or symbolic, systems and not as natural systems, that it is less interested in process than in design, and that it therefore seeks patterns and not laws, demonstrates consistency and not necessary relations between social activities, and interprets rather than explains" (Evans ‐Pritchard, 1951). I think this quotation could well be applied not only in anthropology but in all social sciences that want to better explore such a complex reality as the cultural landscapes. 6.1. The awareness of the importance of the saltpans In the first key theme, informants were asked to describe their own conceptions about the importance of the saltpans and the different factors which undermine this awareness. During the interviews, I could discover some important cues about the neat difference in which some people approach to the cultural landscapes, hence, emphasizing the importance of the natural and cultural values that ought to be protected. The awareness for the protection of these values is in a stark contrast with a capitalistic logic of exploitation and mass consumption of the resources well known in sea resort destinations as both territories. As Ingold (1996) referring to the so ‐called rationalistic treatment of nature puts it: "Enlightenment thought has proclaimed the triumph of human reason over a recalcitrant nature. As a child of the Enlightenment, neoclassical economics developed as a science of human decision ‐making and its aggregate consequences, based on the premise that every individual act in the pursuit of rational self ‐interest". In short, either territories are a mass tourism destinations where natural environment has been modified, cementified and in the worst cases destroyed by the rationalistic logic of development, namely in these so ‐called sea resort destinations natural environment is a mere commodity to take advantage for the only purpose of earning as much money as possible, and therefore without thinking about the profound relations that some communities have with the not passive nature, and hence are extremely worthy of valuation. The hedonistic features of most of the sea resorts give no room for a better appreciation of nature and its important role for the people who use to live within it and continue to engage hitherto in traditional activities. For example, since 2013 within the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park there is an open ‐air spa which offers wellness treatments using the natural resources of the saltpans. However, according to the interviewees the most wellness facilities of mass tourism nearby the saltpans consider a spa in the middle of a Natural Park as a competition, and therefore not a sustainable example to follow, thus, an individual who is the manager of the Park seemed worried about this situation: "We don't want to compete with other wellness facilities... but unfortunately they see us as a competition and there's no real cooperation in the territory, in my opinion this represents an unfair competition that does not bring any benefit to the development of sustainable tourism in the area." I1 (Manager, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 680 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes In this instance, the lack of cooperation and awareness of the importance of the saltpans is evident, as a result, the informant argues that this kind of unfair competition doesn't provide any benefit to the saltpans and its resources. I can understand in his words that there is a problem about the cooperation in the territory, hence, it seems that most of the mass tourism facilities in the destination are worried about the services offered by the spa in the Park, namely this kind of unfair competition could harm the awareness of these resources and its important interactions of values. As I argued before, I used to work in a resort located in the centre of Portorse within only few km from Sečovlje Salina Nature Park. During my observations, I could note that most tourists preferred to stay within the resort consuming all the all ‐inclusive services offered by it, such as pools, private beach, sauna and other wellness facilities that obviously used the resources of the saltpans for its wellness treatments. Indeed, salt, mud and brine were natural resources from the saltpans that these facilities tried to promote, nonetheless, though ironically only few tourists know about the existence of the saltpans and their location. It seems logic that this kind of promotion has nothing to do with the awareness of the importance of the saltpans, this is to say, the resort is only aware about the cost and benefits of the promotion and consumption of these resources, thus, as the I1 in a provocative manner puts it: "most tourists in the resorts preferred to be closed in the claustrophobic boxes of the wellness treatments, instead to be outdoor and feel better the natural environment of the territory". The wellness facilities promoted by the resorts are at odds with the open ‐spa located in the middle of the saltpans, indeed, the people who work in the Park explained me that all the materials used for the construction of the spa were natural resources of the environment, namely wood, mud, salt, brine and it is worth noting that this spa use merely solar energy and being opened only in the sunny days of summer. This is the stark difference between a neoliberal logic of exploitation and commoditization of nature and the complex sustainable relations between human and nature in the cultural landscapes. According to the words of Christopher Tilley: "the neoliberal ‐capitalistic Western conception of landscape is that of a surface or volume like any other, open for exploitation and everywhere homogeneous in its potential exchange value for any particular project" (Tilley, 1994). This is the somewhat tragic situation of most of the mass tourism destinations, likewise the cultural landscapes which are located in the surroundings are increasingly threatened by this kind of logic of exploitation which try to encompass everything that could be sold and bought in the market for the mere sake of profit. Furthermore, due to the polluting activities promoted by mass tourism nearby both cultural landscapes, thus, it might be said that one of the main problems of the saltpans is the fragility of its environment, although Sečovlje saltpans have an outdoor spa, Janubio owns an astounding and almost surreal natural environment. Indeed, one informant explained how important are the Janubio saltpans in Lanzarote and for which reasons should be known and preserved: "The most saltpans here in Lanzarote have disappeared over the centuries, and only Janubio remains active with the traditional salt harvesting methods. In my opinion, every person needs to know and be aware of the importance of these saltpans." I9 (Tourist guide, Janubio saltpans) According to her, Janubio being the last saltpans in Lanzarote ought to be known and conserved, in fact these saltpans are the most important in the entire Canary Islands. Subsequently, most informants were agreed about the fragility of both saltpans, indeed, Sečovlje and Janubio are the few remaining active saltpans in either territories, for this reason be aware about its importance seemed fundamental according to the respondents to provide a better conservation in time. In speaking about the preservation of the cultural landscapes Sven Arntzen points out: "cultural landscapes have an identity value and so are regarded as worthy of preservation because they provide meaning to people's lives and activities" (Arntzen, 2003). It is the word "meaning" that need to be understood as a way of attachment to a certain place or environment, although the tourist guide is a part of the tourism industry and hence neither used to dwell nor worked in the saltpans, this not prevent her to recognize the importance of the saltpans as a heritage of Lanzarote. This is the difference between a mere objective nature to exploit and a nature to whom some people endow with agency. In this sense, nature is not a basic category to only extract its resources, but it is more a "higher order" category (Rappaport, 1971) which permeate humans and is permeated by them in a relation of reciprocity. Thus, worthy to be protected cultural landscapes represent the irreducible values that are intermingled among the community and the environment. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 681 Furthermore, other tourist guide of the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park gave us a very important clue about the awareness of tourists of the importance of these resources, indeed she identified the types of visitors who are more aware and more interested in visit the saltpans: "Tourists especially know about Sečovlje saltpans, but speaking about the awareness of its importance depends on the types of tourists. For example, hikers and those who want to spend their holidays in harmony with nature are mostly those that are more aware of the importance of the saltpans and the entire natural environment located on this territory." I3 (Tourist guide, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) For this informant, tourists which are more aware of the importance of Sečovlje saltpans are mostly those who want to be in harmony with nature, thus, one might wonder if these types of visitors are better tourists than those who spend their holidays in the all ‐inclusive hotels? It seems obvious that the unsustainable way of approaching to nature is one of the main harmful features of mass tourism, that is to say, the commoditization and transformation of nature in gloomy and sterilized concrete buildings have produced a hyper consumption of a rather limited natural resources. Indeed, most tourists in these destinations are used to spend their time in these all ‐inclusive facilities, albeit with high costs that afford them to attain the so ‐called selfish pleasures of luxury and amusement. Unlike those types of tourists, as far as I observed in the territory some hikers or adventure tourists are much more interested to be in the middle of the saltpans and therefore explore the nature and know more about the traditional activities of the salt workers. However, the motivations of the tourists to visit the saltpans may vary and depends on different factors and variables, nonetheless it is important to know the interpretations of the individuals to better understand the features of the visitors who are more interested in visit the saltpans. It reminds me an Italian backpacker who one day asked me which path would be better to follow to get to the saltpans, this fact surprised a bit, given that I was used to the usual very fashion clothed tourists that usually asked me only about how to get to the centre of Piran or to some fancy restaurant. According to the philosopher Arne Naess: "It is highly necessary to promote a better valorisation of a more sustainable ecological approaches to nature which ensure the full richness and diversity of life ‐forms on the earth" (Naess, 1995b). For this reason, it is increasingly necessary the awareness of the importance of the values that the saltpans enclosed within it, hence certain activities such as tourism must be compatible with the preservation and valuation of the complex relations and resources that comprise the cultural landscapes. Is it truth that both saltpans need to be protected to the harmful activities of mass tourism and other environmental degradations of capitalism, nonetheless this protection must be understood as the enhancement of the human ‐nature relations which the cultural landscapes used to deploy up to now, thus, the traditional activities of the saltpans ought to be carried on for a real valuation of the cultural landscape. In short, visitors who are really interested in the valorization of these resources need some information and a good accessibility to be more aware about the importance of the saltpans and know more of these protected areas. Unfortunately, according to the informant the lack of accessibility in Janubio represents a big problem to visit the saltpans: "In my opinion, not many visitors know about the saltpans, because here in Lanzarote is a little bit difficult to get around without a car, given that public transport doesn't take you everywhere in the island. In fact, the accessibility of the Janubio saltpans is not good and for me is one of the main reasons which tourists don't know much about these saltpans and its important resources." I9 (Tourist guide, Janubio saltpans) I can confirm the words of the informant, thus, when I first arrived in Lanzarote the first thing that I asked was how to get to Janubio saltpans, I felt a bit disappointed when I discovered that the better way to arrive there was to rent a private car, therefore I discarded this option because I retained it expensive and useless if one wants to move freely without much worries about the parking. At this point it remained me only the last two options, namely a private tourist bus and a public bus, in the end I decided to try both options. In the former case the private bus took me to the most important towns and places in Lanzarote, It was a pity that the bus only stopped for few minutes in the saltpans and the most strikingly thing was that the passengers could not get off to better glance Janubio, in the latter case, the public bus left me in "la Hoya" stop nearby the saltpans, it is worth noting that the PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 682 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes path to get from the stop to the saltpans was very harsh and neglected, indeed it was difficult for me to walk and finally take the first glance to the astounding landscape of Janubio. Furthermore, for the whole time that I stayed in Lanzarote I could observe that Janubio saltpans are less known by the average tourist than Sečovlje saltpans, that is, most of the visitors prefer to visit other renown tourist's places in the island. It seems that the lack of a good accessibility in Janubio hinder the will to visit this cultural landscape, whereas most of the visitors are prone to rely on the private tourist's buses that abound in the main towns, and therefore only stop near the saltpans and the passengers can barely take some pictures. In short, during the informal conversations that I had with some tourists, I could realize that most of them are willing to visit other attractions nearby or simply do not know much about the saltpans and its important values. In my opinion in both territories there is a not negligible problem of cooperation and awareness about the extremely importance of these cultural landscapes, that is, both saltpans represent the irreducible values of the interaction between culture and nature that have been carry on despite the noxious effects of the market activities. In this respect, Wang and Fu analyzing the cultural landscape of Jianan irrigation system in Taiwan baldly argue: "if the local people are lack of the identity and the necessary knowledge of the cultural landscape and cultural heritage, sometimes an irreversible damage to the cultural landscape would occur through the process of the public participation. The cooperation between local awareness and the academic researches would be important to avoid the degradation of the landscape" (Wang and Fu, 2011). It is this kind of cooperation that need to be fostered in both protected areas, not only for the sake of conservation as a museum can teach us, but it is the continuation of the traditional activities that represent the values of the cultural landscapes, and hence, the reciprocal relations of an active culture ‐nature collaboration (Plumwood, 2006) that need to be conserved, thus the awareness about the importance of these saltpans must be a priority. 6.2. The enhancement of the values In this theme, the main issue was the discussion about the enhancement of the so ‐called natural and cultural values. As I discussed since the first part of the article, the distinction between these values ought not to be understood as a mere dichotomy, indeed in the case of the cultural landscapes though western, there is a complex and non ‐trivial relationship among nature and culture that must be foregrounded for a subtler exploration of these puzzling values. That is, one of the most interesting features of both saltpans is the traditional salt harvesting methods which have been undertaken to date, thus, the preservation of this intangible heritage seemed very important by the informants to better enhance the deep values of these cultural landscapes. According to a neat culturalist approach characterized by the Boasian anthropology: "Human activities such as productive ones may produce culture and therefore incorporate cultural values" (Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952). In this sense, there is an overemphasizing of the cultural domain, that is to say, a mere cultural "appropriation of nature" (Ingold, 1986). The culturalist approach could not help us to consider the interrelations between humans and their "cultural activities" such as the salt harvesting methods and the non ‐human nature and all its species that dwell in it. "All things hang together" (Naess, 1989), and hence whichever activity undertaken by humans whether harmless as the cultural landscapes or harmful as the capitalist market will always confront to a nature with its own intentionality and not an inert object. The intangible heritage of the salt harvesting methods should be understood as a reciprocal fruitfully relations in which the salt workers have with the whole natural environment in which species with its own intentionalities dwell within it and not a mere tabula rasa to leave the imprint of the superior culture. However, in the last years some saltpans around the world including Sečovlje and Janubio are suffering the consequences of the savage capitalism and its industrial mass production of salt. During my observations I could note a big concern in both saltpans about this fact that are indiscriminately forcing a lot of saltpans around the world to closed, let alone the very bad effects not only to the salt workers and their livelihood, but also to the fragile natural environment that remains exposed to the non ‐ethical way of treatment the nature by market capitalism. As a matter of fact, most of the interviewees retained that the traditional salt harvesting methods should be preserved and enhanced to a better conservation of the saltpans and its values. Thus, the manager of Sečovlje Salina Nature Park reiterated the importance to maintain the salt production with its traditional medieval methods: PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 683 "I must emphasize that our goal was never to compete with the international market, as most people know it would have been much easier to produce salt in an industrial manner thinking obviously only to profit. However, we continue with a tradition of more than 700 years, our salt produced with these medieval methods is rich in minerals and is a sustainable product that enhances the natural and cultural heritage of the territory." I1 (Manager, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) During the conversations with this informant was not hard to note his concerns about the plight of the saltpans that are facing nowadays due to the increasingly savage market of salt, therefore he argued that unlike other territories such as north Africa where the intensity of the sun is higher during the year and thus fitter for the industrial salt production, in the Istrian territory of Sečovlje, despite the less intensity of sun it will nonetheless continue with the traditional salt harvesting methods. In short, it is worth noting how important is to maintain the traditional salt production to provide sustainability and a valuation of the resources, in contrast to the industrial methods and the inter‐ national market which have always seen the "inert" nature as an object to exploit and tame for the only sake of take advantage of its resources, hence, without thinking about the preservation and the acknowledge of the complex values that the saltpans host. Furthermore, in the case of Janubio, for most of the informants the traditional salt harvesting methods are regarded as much important as in Sečovlje, moreover a salt worker who works for many years in the saltpans describes the importance of these traditional methods: "We continue with a traditional salt production which obviously enhance the natural and cultural heritage. The harvesting method that we use does not harm the environment as the industrial methods." I7 (Salt worker, Janubio saltpans) Although Sečovlje saltpans are much bigger and the salt harvesting methods used are older than those used in Janubio, whereby in the former the traditional salt harvesting methods are medieval and those used in the latter dated from the beginning of the 20th century. Notwithstanding, we need not deny the complex way of interactions and dwelling in the environment even in Janubio that the salt workers have used to foster so far. It is from this relational context of people's engagement with the world, in the business of dwelling, that each place draws its unique significance, namely, this means that in dwelling in the world, we do not act upon it, or do things to it; rather we move along with it (Ingold, 1993, 2000). This is to say, that the natural environment of the saltpans is not an inert unmovable mass that only wait the action of human culture by its harvesting methods and the related activities of dwelling, moreover nature is not simply a medium in which human culture undertakes its practices as Sauer argued in his famous concept of cultural landscape. According to Val Plumwood, this concept of cultural landscape repeats the same Platonian ‐Aristotelian dualized and gendered conception between a rational ‐master principle and a formless ‐passive matter to be subdued, indeed she convincingly puts it:" with the father ‐ 'culture' counted as sole agent, and the mother as the mere "medium" or 'nurse', the result, the 'cultural landscape', is naturalized as the child of this Aristotelian father as sole creator" (Plumwood, 2006). Furthermore, the traditional salt harvesting methods of both saltpans ought to be regarded as not a sole cultural heritage which unwittingly underestimate the agency of the entire natural environment which participates in the cyclical processes of the so ‐called cultural production, but it is to be understood as a hybrid category in which diverse agencies are at stake. As a result, I can argue that in both protected areas the preservation of the traditional methods should be enhanced insofar the continue interplay of agencies not be downplayed as a mere cultural reductionism. However, the preservation and enhancement of these values depends mostly on the cooperation in the territory, and therefore different projects should be undertaken to provide a better consciousness and valorization of these important resources. For instance, unlike Sečovlje saltpans which own a salt museum, interpretation center, spa and other facilities which represent a sort of valorization of the resources, in Janubio for many years exists a project called Centro Turístico Casa De La Sal, which was intended to build a salt museum and an interpretation center, nonetheless this project have never been taken place to date. Nevertheless, an informant who is an employee of the tourist office of Arrecife in Lanzarote told me that it seems that something it is going to change, indeed in these words she describes the current situation of the project: PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 684 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes "The last time I talked with the person who is undertaking this project, he told me that the license to build the salt museum and the interpretation center is almost in the deadline, in fact he thinks that briefly those facilities will be built." I10 (Tourist office, Janubio saltpans) The undertaken of this ingenious project could evidently help to the enhancement of the whole values of the saltpans, moreover if this old project will take place someday will foster a better appreciation of the daily life of the salt workers and their deep relations with the natural environment which have been maintained through the time, thus, this will display to everyone the interrelations of values and intentionalities which are worthy of preservation. In this respect as Wang and Fu sharply point out: "the significant features of the cultural landscape were usually represented through the collective and numerous identical elements. Thus, the significant elements in the cultural landscape should be preserved and conserved with necessary legislative and technical instruments, to prevent or minimize the deterioration and change" (Wang and Fu, 2011). Consequently, the values that ought to be preserved and enhanced by the help of these facilities, represent the entire and irreducible heritage of this cultural landscape. Talking about this holistic heritage that represents the human activities in a sort of harmony with the natural environment, thus, in Sečovlje the open ‐air spa "Thalasso Spa Lepa Vida" tries to promote and valorize the traditions of the salt workers employing the natural resources of the saltpans: "The wooden structures resemble the salt workers houses where they could rest, these houses were built around the area of Lera by the Austro ‐Hungarian Empire and are still used for work and for rest of salt workers. The other main materials used for the construction of the spa were the stones and mud of the Sečovlje Salpans, all of which are natural materials from the Park to ensure sustainability and authenticity." I1 (Manager, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) Figure 3. Sečovlje saltpans, at the bottom Thalassso Lepa Vida spa Source: by the author PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 685 It is very interesting to see how the natural environment provides the resources to create some architectural and aesthetic structures like the spa located in the middle of the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, nonetheless these are not to be understood as commodities which the only aim is to fulfil human needs, thus, this natural environment ought to be approached as a live organism with its own species, spaces and agencies, that is, as Descola and Pálsson emphasize: "some scholars have argued that the relations between organism and their environments are reciprocal, not one ‐way. In the process of engaging with the environment, organism construct their own niches" (Descola and Pálsson, 1996). The beforehand citation reminds me when I was roaming in the Sečovlje saltpans during a sultry day staring to the art of salt harvesting, suddenly a salt worker approached me and told me that near the spa nest very precious birds that he could recognize by their songs. One of the outstanding features of human technical practices lies in their embeddedness in the current of sociality (Ingold, 1993), nevertheless this kind of sociality ought not to be considered as merely one ‐sided, namely emphasizing only the human domain and culture as the master of reason to whom nature is a separated ontological domain bereft with any kind of participation and inten‐ tionality. On the contrary this sociality could be regarded not only as two ‐sided, thus human ‐nature, but I think maybe there is perhaps room for a multi ‐sided sociality, that is, human agency and the manifold agencies of all organisms who dwell in the environment. In short, according to Ingold a dwelling is: "not a mere place of being, but a taskscape, an ensemble of mutually interlocking tasks that "come into being through movement" (Ingold, 2000). This is the way in which the salt workers dwell in their environment, therefore when they engage in the activity of salt harvesting they are in deep contact with other intentionalities of the natural environment that stimulate their senses and perceptions of what it is to "dwell". Thus, the complex relations between human and non ‐humans are one of the most important features of the cultural landscapes. Furthermore, the open ‐air spa could have a double function, the former as a health and wellness facility and the latter but the most important as a safeguard of the entire heritage of the site. After all this analysis of the data of both territories, it might be said that the values of Sečovlje are more enhanced and promoted than those of Janubio, indeed, according to the interviews and the period of participant observation in the field, I could confirm this hypothesis. Nevertheless, it seems that the salt products of both protected areas are requested mostly by tourists, therefore one informant who works on the shop of the salt products of Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, argues that thank to these products the territory has become more recognized: "These products are very popular among tourists, especially for foreigners. The first thing tourists want to do when they arrive in Piran is buy these products, I think thanks to the products of the Sečovlje Salpans, the territory and its resources have become much better known and appreciated in the world. Unfortunately, in my opinion there is no cooperation in the destination to enhance and promote the Sečovlje saltpans." I5 (Shop, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) It seems that the salt products of the saltpans are well known by tourists, thus, "Piranske soline" the official shops of the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park are well spread around Slovenia. This important fact could be regarded as sort of promotion of the resources of the saltpans, as well as a strategy to diffuse awareness of the importance of these values. However, the informant argues that there is no cooperation in the territory to enhance and promote these values, in fact the same problem has been highlighted in the first key theme, therefore it might be argued that the saltpans are not enough valued by the territory. On the other hand, even in the case of Janubio it seems that the salt products sold in the traditional small warehouse of the saltpans are appreciated by tourists, thus, this informant recount about this fact: "Some tourists buy the salt products and in my opinion, is very important that much more people recognize the benefits of the salt of the Janubio saltpans." I10 (Tourist office, Janubio saltpans) PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 686 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes Figure 4: The entrance of the warehouse in Janubio Source: by the author During my fieldwork observations in both territories, I could appreciate that nonetheless the difference between the rustic small warehouse of Janubio and the "modern" and a bit fancy shops of Sečovlje and the surroundings, there is a connexon of values that either shops try to promote. These values are the core of the heritage of these saltpans, namely the salt products are not only the masterpieces of the salt workers who skillfully and elegantly defy the sun, mud, water, wind, birds, this is to say the "wild natural environment" that need to be domesticated and as a mere medium provides its precious resources for the attainment of the final products that will appear on the shelves of the shops ready to be consumed and appreciated by the visitors. It is these "enchantment technologies" (Gell, 1998) which are behind every grain of salt produced in these environments that bewitch the visitors, hence each bag of salt could be considered as the metonymy of the diverse types of agencies which belong not only to the salt workers and their masterful skills, but also to the whole natural environment and its organisms which are engaged in the entire processes and activities of these cultural landscapes. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the rustic charm of the warehouse of Janubio could be an advantage due to its peculiar characteristics and moreover the undeniable breathtaking landscape of the saltpans. For these reasons, it is very important that both saltpans promote these values to keep alive the traditional salt harvesting methods and its astonishing holistic heritage. 6.3. The benefits and impact of tourism In this final key theme, I will treat a somewhat paradoxical issue about tourism in the so ‐called protected areas, thus the saltpans discussed in this article are both areas characterized by the fragility of the natural environment, in this sense, two logics are at odds in this case, namely mass tourism and its harmful activities promoted mostly by the sea resort destinations and a rather environmentalist logic that most of the protected areas around the world strive to deploy. One example of this situation might have been given by Bacon and his case studies about the wetlands of Jamaica and Trinidad in the Caribbean, despite they have been seriously impacted by mass tourism, according to him: "wetlands could serve as a diversification of tourism industry. Where the natural heritage requires protection and tourism need to be monitored through the methodology of the various national environmental and socio ‐economic criteria for assessing the potential use of wetlands for these purposes" (Bacon, 1987). PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 687 Far from being a neutral issue, the protection of the wetlands ought to be a high priority, but nonetheless different logics of nature collide, indeed, the harmful neoliberal activities of mass tourism which disrespect the natural environment and the radical conservationist logic that pretend to protect the so ‐called wilderness. The citation above seems to disregard the agency of nature and the relations that this has with the dwellers not the tourists of course, thus, nature is simply treated as an inoffensive prey that need to be protected from predators that are looking forward to hunting it and tear it to pieces. Regarding this matter, Descola points out: "by fetishizing nature as a transcendental object, the control of which would be displaced from predatory capitalism to the rational management of modern economics, the conservationist movements, far from questioning the foundations of western cosmology, tend rather to perpetuate the ontological dualism typical of modern ideology (Descola, 1996). Nevertheless, it is truth that the natural environment ought to be protected such as the case of the cultural landscapes, but this protection should not disregard the human and non ‐human relations who are at stake in these environments, thus, there is no need to hyper ‐separate nature and culture and represents nature as an absence of the human (Plumwood, 2006). In both saltpans it seems that tourism is an important issue, and therefore according to the infor‐ mants should be sustainable to not harm the fragile environment of them. As I described before, either protected areas are located nearby mass tourism destinations, hence, the most tourists are not much aware of these cultural landscapes and indeed are more likely to visit other tourist attractions in the territory. For example, it seems that the lack of accessibility is the main reason for this phenomenon: "I proposed that an electric bus could bring tourists to the Park, it is true that we are close to the centre of Portorose but we are at the same time too far away for tourists who don't want to walk and go so far... but unfortunately there is no cooperation on this territory for the enhancement and promotion of the resources of Sečovlje. It would be much better if the hotels instead of offering chocolates to the visitors better offer a bag of salt as a souvenir and brand that enhance the territory." I1 (Manager, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) Needless to say, that would be better if tourism would be monitored and therefore ought to follow the so ‐called pillars of sustainability to prevent any negative impact to the environment. Nevertheless, the somewhat utopian concept of sustainability needs to come to terms with the complex and reciprocal relations between humans and non ‐humans characterized by the cultural landscapes, thus, it might be said that both saltpans need conscious visitors that could foster the awareness about their important values. Furthermore, according to the informant an eco ‐friendly bus could be a good solution to invite visitors to the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park in a "sustainable" way, and therefore coping the lack of accessibility. In my opinion the powerful idea of sustainability needs to be less radical to acknowledge that environments such as cultural landscapes are far from being the Eden of nearly no human impact or a virgin pristine nature that should be fenced. For this reason, there is a need for a sustainability that aims to protect the interrelations among those humans and non ‐humans, that is the whole environment. In short, according to Arne Naess: "Most of the approaches to nature in the world could be compatible with nature, namely, only the Western approaches promoted by industrialized countries are against it" (Naess, 1995a). According to the clever idea of the informant, that is, of representing a bag of salt as a brand and souvenir of the territory to give to tourists, I think that this could be a strategy to enhance the resources of the saltpans and therefore to better improve the cooperation in the destination, namely, a seemingly frivolous bag of salt hides the collaborative and fruitfully interrelations between humans and non ‐humans which represent the core of the saltpans and moreover it is not merely the industrial salt bought in the supermarket. As I could observe in the field, the accessibility of Janubio saltpans is worse than Sečovlje, this is probably due to the characteristic of the volcanic landscape which surrounds the entire environment. However, I could argue that nonetheless this situation some visitors visit the saltpans, though less than in Sečovlje, mostly by private transport. Furthermore, an American guy who works for some years as a tourist guide in one of the main private tourist buses led mostly by British, describes why visitors choose to take the tourist bus: "As a tourist guide, I can argue that the people who decide to take our tourist bus want to know the most important tourist attractions in Lanzarote. In fact, we pass near the saltpans and explain them about it (but we don't stop it) ... I know that some tourists like to buy the salt products sold in the salt warehouse." I8 (Tourist guide, Janubio saltpans) PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 688 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes As I argued in the first key theme, Lanzarote is plenty of tourist buses which bring visitors to every corner of the island, indeed, there are different trips where you can explore the island form the north to the south visiting the most important tourist attractions. However, it is really a pity that these buses only stop for few minutes near the saltpans, and therefore as I described before you can't even get off to at least take a little glance and walk through the amazing colorful landscape of the saltpans. Furthermore, the informant told me that the tourist bus company does not allow to get off on the saltpans, nonetheless he gave me no motives for this decision, thus it seemed that perhaps he was unaware about this situation, therefore despite Janubio is located near to the most important tourist attractions of Lanzarote, such as Timanfaya National Park, el Golfo, Los Hervideros, Playa Blanca and the picturesque town of Yaiza it is impossible to visit Janubio by this type of transport, unless one rent a private car or rely to the slow and not efficient service of the public buses. According to the interviews and the observations undertaken in the field, one might say that Sečovlje saltpans are more visited and appreciated than Janubio, nonetheless both protected areas are suffering the lack of accessibility which in either cases undermines the willing of the visitors to visit these cultural landscapes, and therefore to appreciate and acknowledge their important values. As I argued before, tourism should be compatible with the moral values of the cultural landscapes, that is, visitors ought to be aware that the natural environment of the saltpans is neither a mere commodity as a Luna park in which people have fun with the rides and peculiarities of the place, nor a zoo where visitors delight their trip watching some exotic animals that usually are treated as toys to take some selfies. The deep values enclosed in these saltpans ought to be respected, and hence both territories have a moral commitment to foster campaigns about the awareness of the importance of these precious but threatened values, thus, to avoid any negative impact which could undermine the fragile environment and its holistic resources. In short, it might be argued that there is a need for a shift from the visitor perspective to the dweller perspective (Arntzen, 2003), to better esteem the complex non ‐dualistic interactions and integrations between humans and nature, moreover it is interesting to note that certain adventure tourists and hikers are rather close to the dweller perspective. In analysing the problematic issue about the respect and awareness of the environment of the saltpans, one informant who also works inside the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park describes some of the visitor's behaviour and certain rules that they need to follow: "There are also exceptions... some people are not aware of being inside a protected area and for this we are very careful to give information about the rules of behavior during their visit. For example, we explain that they must walk where there are marked paths and not to walk in the middle of the pools of salt. Unfortunately, sometimes there are people who do not follow certain rules, and therefore we have to remember them the appropriate behavior." I5 (Shop, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park) It is worth noting that during my frequent visits in these saltpans, it never happened to me to see a visitor polluting the environment or ill ‐behave, nonetheless according to the informant it seems that there are some visitors who do not respect the rules of the Park, and hence for this reason they need to remind them the appropriate behaviour, indeed, I could argue that the staff such as rangers works efficiently in Sečovlje, and therefore tourism is well managed and monitored. Unfortunately, unlike Sečovlje, the manifold facilities which visitors evidently would need for a better visit and appreciation of the resources, are almost inexistent in Janubio, hence I can say that these saltpans are not well equipped for tourism. Thus, even if Janubio is much smaller than Sečovlje, and therefore cannot support too much visitors, nonetheless would be highly necessary to undertake the old project of the construction of the interpretation centre and the salt museum which could bring a better valuation of the deep values of the saltpans and therefore strengthen the awareness of their importance. Furthermore, as I argued in the first key theme, most of the paths inside the saltpans are neglected, thus, I think this is the main reason whereby it is difficult to walk through the colourful salt pools to better appreciate the art and skills of the salt workers and their way of engagement with nature. For these reasons, most of the visitors are more likely to take some pictures at the viewpoint located above the saltpans or otherwise buy some products in the warehouse. With these words, a salt worker explains what the most tourists do when they visit Janubio: PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 689 "As you can see some tourists visit Janubio given the proximity to the Timanfaya National Park. They come here take some pictures and sometimes buy our products of the warehouse. In my opinion they really enjoy the environment and often they stop at the restaurant "Mirador de las salinas", which is located above the saltpans and where they can eat and mostly enjoy the amazing view of the saltpans." I7 (Salt worker, Janubio saltpans) The words of this salt worker reminds me a group of Japanese visitors who were taking some pictures in the viewpoint, this was a very warm sunny day and most of them were holding umbrellas and wearing caps, at some point they approached to the warehouse and bought a lot of salt bags to bring back home as a souvenir or perhaps for personal use, there, they only remained for few minutes and then immediately returned to their own transport without at least getting closer or walking through the paths. It seems obviously that maybe even for them, those black stony volcanic paths were difficult to get through, even if I think that this is the unique feature of this cultural landscape, nonetheless needs some care and a better maintenance, therefore a salt museum and the interpretation center could be the best thing to do for the enhancement of the entire values of the saltpans. Nevertheless, the building of these facilities are to be understood not as a petrification or suspension in the time like the museum does with its artworks, hence, the traditional activities of the cultural landscape ought to be carry on to foster a real valorization of the complex relations between human culture and non ‐human nature, that is, as Ingold points out: "the activities that comprise the taskcape are unending, the landscape is never complete: neither "build" nor "unbuild", it is perpetually under construction (Ingold, 1993). In my opinion, the somewhat cyclical and never ‐ending process of interrelations between humans and nature represent the main core and complexity of the so ‐called cultural landscapes. In addition, even if Sečovlje saltpans are much more visited and are better positioned as a tourist attraction than Janubio, nonetheless Janubio saltpans are located near to the Timanfaya National Park and others tourist attractions of Lanzarote, hence, I think this could be an advantage for the future sustainable tourism development in the territory, inasmuch that this respect and acknowledge the precious values of this cultural landscape. 7. Conclusion The puzzling nature ‐culture dichotomy has been well discussed in the field of humanities so far, this peculiar abstraction of the natural domain into a universal brute object to whom the master cultural domain acts as an absolute civilized tyrant, remains a bottomless vortex in which has been difficult to emancipate it, thus, this western naturalistic ontology represents an unsurmountable hurdle which prevent us to have a better appreciation of nature and its non ‐human dwellers, moreover the complex relations that humans have with them. As Marshall Sahlins points out regarding this western dualism: "As enchanted as our universe may still be, it is also still ordered by a distinction of culture and nature that is evident to virtually no one else but ourselves" (Sahlins, 2008). It is this way of conceptualization of nature and its submission with culture that I have tried to challenge in this article, hence, I have tried to suggest that ecological anthropology is well fit and in a good position to overcome this reductionist dualism, therefore emphasizing the interactions between a human culture permeated and influenced by a non ‐passive nature and a nature or non ‐human domain, being influenced as well, in a cyclical process of continuous interactions. As I have shown here, cultural landscapes are an interesting category in which the nature ‐culture relations ought not to be neglected, this is to say, they need to be approached and analysed by the useful tools of ethnographic research. For a better understanding of the complexity of the values which are enclosed in the cultural landscapes, one must consider the people who live within in and the way which they perceive and interact with the environment, thus, talking with them and live close to their environment could better help the analysis of these complex but astounding relations that people have with nature. Furthermore, cultural landscapes are a place where different agencies are at stake, namely they are to be understood as cultural, as well as natural, inasmuch humans and non ‐humans intentionalities not be obscured or merely naturalizing or culturalizing it. For these reasons, cultural landscapes might be better called "collaborative" or "interactive" landscapes (Plumwood, 2006), that is, collaboration and interaction are the most important features that need to be maintained and preserved for the sake of all living and non ‐living beings. The saltpans of Sečovlje located in the upper Adriatic and Janubio in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean are interesting examples of western cultural landscapes where the continuity of human PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 690 The rethinking and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage of the cultural landscapes and nature interactions is still present nonetheless capitalism and its harmful activities. However, future research needs to be done to better understand if the complex heritage of these cultural landscapes is enhanced or not by both territories, therefore whether a somewhat sustainable and respectful tourism could fit well for the appreciation and acknowledge of the values of these saltpans. As I argued in this article, some important clues I could obtain during my fieldwork observations, nonetheless this was not enough owed to the short period of fieldwork undertaken in Janubio that undermined the comparison of both saltpans and therefore the scope of the research. Nevertheless these issues, I have tried the best as I could to demonstrate that even in a western context, the complexity of the cultural landscapes like the saltpans of Sečovlje and Janubio should be highlighted and not downplayed for a better valuation of their precious values, thus, in enhancing the holistic values of human and non ‐human relations these saltpans will continue to foster the collaboration and interaction of culture and nature that has been the core and the life of these cultural landscapes. In short, both territories have the pledge to promote the awareness about these invaluable resources, hence, unlike the neoliberal logic of consumerism and mass tourism which deprive nature with its importance for all living and non ‐living beings, that is, backgrounding the agency of each organism who dwell in the environment, I have hope that perhaps there is a room for a more ethical, moral and sustainable tourism which would recognize the importance of the natural environment and its manifold intentionalities who always has been interacting with humans and their cultures, thus, forming complex and continuous relations such as the cultural landscapes that are worthy of preservation. Bibliography Århem, K. 1990. "Ecosofía makuna". In La selva humanizada: ecología alternativa en el trópico húmedo colombiano (ed.) F. Correa, 106 ‐26. Instituto Colombiano de Antropología. Bogotá. Arntzen, S. 2003. Cultural Landscape and Approaches to Nature - Ecophilosophical Perspectives. 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The Western Illusion of Human Nature : With Reflections on the Long History of Hierarchy, Equality and the Sublimation of Anarchy in the West, and Comparative Notes on Other Conceptions of the Human Condition, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. Sauer, C. 1925. The Morphology of Landscape. University of California Publications in Geography, 22: 19 ‐53. Searle, J. 1995. The Construction of Social Reality, London: Allen Lane. Seeger, A. 1981. Nature and Society in Central Brazil, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Škornik, I., Sovinc, A., Gogala, A. 2004. Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, CD ‐ROM, Soline Co. Ltd. Sovinc, A. 2008. Secovlje Salina Nature Park, Slovenia - new business model for preservation of wetlands at risk. Global NEST Journal, Vol 11, No 1, pp 19 ‐23, 2009. Sovinc, A. 2011. Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, Slovenia: Latest development and important cultural activities. In: Papayannis, T., Pritchard, D.: Culture and Wetlands in the Mediterranean: an Evolving Story. Athens, Med ‐INA, 227-234. Sovinc, A. 2012. Assessment of the use values of the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park (Slovenia). Annales: Series Historia Naturalis 22.2 (2012): 189 ‐196. Strathern, M. 1980. "No nature, no culture: the Hagen case". In Nature, culture and gender (eds.) Mac Cormack and M. Strathern, 174 ‐222. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. T i l l e y, Christopher. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape. Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg Publishers. UNESCO (United Nations Educational S, and Cultural Organization) (1996) Operational guidelines for the implementation of the world heritage convention. UNESCO, Paris. archive/opguide05 ‐annex3 ‐en.pdf Viveiros de Castro, E. 1998. "Cosmological deixis and Amerindian perspectivism." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4 (3): 469-88. Vodeb, K. 2014. Trajnostni razvoj turisticnih destinacij alpsko - jadranskega prostora. University of Primorska. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 17 N° 4. Julio-Septiembre 2019 ISSN 1695-7121 Luis Gregorio Abad Espinoza 693 Wang, Chun ‐Hsi and Fu, Chao ‐Ching. 2011. The Sustainable Development of the Cultural Landscape of Jianan Irrigation System in Taiwan. Presented at the ICOMOS 17th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, Paris, France. Weber, M. 2002 "Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology". In Readings in Economic Sociology (ed). N. W. Biggart, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, UK. World Heritage Centre. 2008. Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Paris: UNES‐ CO World Heritage Centre. Notas 1 Dedi. Secoveljske soline. (Retrieved from: ‐secoveljske ‐soline, accessed 17, October 2015) 2 Cooperazione territoriale europea programma per la cooperazione transfortaliera Italia Slovenia. (Retrieved from: http:// , accessed 8, January 2016) 3 Gobierno de Canarias Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación Territorial Dirección General de Ordenación del Territorio. (2006). Normas de conservación del sitio de interés científico del Janubio. 4 Salinas de Janubio. Historia. (Retrieved from: , accessed 10, March 2016) 5 Salinas de Janubio. Medioambiente. (Retrieved from: , accessed 10, March 2016) 6 See reference above. 7 Plan Marco de Competitividad del Turismo Español, better known as Plan Futures, was a Spanish plan launched 13, November 1991 to help and fund different touristic projects and activities in the country. 8 Plan Futures Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo Secretaria General de Turismo Promotor Cabildo Insular de Lanzarote. (1993). Proyecto de Demostración Centro Turístico Casa de la Sal Salinas de Janubio, Yaiza, Lanzarote, Canarias. Recibido: 25/02/2018 Reenviado: 18/02/2019 Aceptado: 29/03/2019 Sometido a evaluación por pares anónimos
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{ "creator": "Abbott, Russ", "date": "manuscript", "datestamp": 1587672863000, "description": "Fundamental to Computer Science is the distinction between abstractions and implementations. When that distinction is applied to various philosophical questions it yields the following conclusions. \n \n •\tEMERGENCE. It isn’t as mysterious as it’s made out to be; the possibility of strong emergence is not a threat to science.\n \n •\tINTERACTIONS BETWEEN HIGHER-LEVEL ENTITIES. Physical interaction among higher-level entities is illusory. Abstract interactions are the source of emergence, new domains of knowledge, and complex systems.\n \n •\tPHYSICS and the SPECIAL SCIENCES. The new domains of knowledge derived from abstract interactions are the basis of the autonomy of the special sciences. \n \n •\tDOWNWARD CAUSATION. It’s a zombie idea that should have a stake put through its heart and be replaced by downward entailment.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBAAI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Abstractions and Implementations", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
/62 Abstractions and implementations: a computer science perspective on emergence, causality, and multi-level autonomy Russ Abbott - Russ.Abbott@Gmail.com Department of Computer Science, California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Ca. 90032 USA Abstract. Fundamental to Computer Science is the distinction between abstractions and implementations. When that distinction is applied to various philosophical questions it yields the following conclusions.  Emergence. It isn't as mysterious as it's made out to be; the possibility of strong emergence is not a threat to science.  Causality and interactions. Physical interaction among higher-level entities is illusory. Abstract interactions are the source of emergence, new domains of knowledge, and complex systems.  The relationship between physics and the special sciences. The new domains of knowledge derived from abstract interactions are the basis of the autonomy of the special sciences.  Downward causation. It's a zombie idea that should have a stake put through its heart and be replaced by downward entailment. Contents A. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2 1. The computational turn .............................................................................................................. 3 2. Relationship to philosophical functionalism ............................................................................... 4 3. Abstractions, types, and kinds .................................................................................................... 5 4. Abstractions, implementations, and the ship of Theseus ........................................................... 5 5. What this paper is about ............................................................................................................. 6 B. Emergence ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Emergence without the mystery ................................................................................................. 8 2. Quasi-interactions and abstract interactions ............................................................................ 10 3. Strong emergence ..................................................................................................................... 17 4. Emergence summary ................................................................................................................ 20 C. The special sciences ...................................................................................................................... 21 1. The special sciences are to physics as software applications are to computer hardware ......... 21 2. Do the laws of physics entail all other laws? ............................................................................. 26 2/62 3. Summary position on the special sciences ................................................................................ 31 D. Review of causation ...................................................................................................................... 32 1. Common sense causality formalized: interventionist causality ................................................. 32 2. Physical causality: causal primitives and the exchange of conserved quantities ...................... 33 3. A computer science perspective on causality ........................................................................... 35 4. Ongoing underlying machines and pushy explainers ................................................................ 37 E. Downward causation entailment .................................................................................................. 38 1. Downward causation: a zombie idea ........................................................................................ 38 2. The origin of downward causation: Sperry and Campbell ......................................................... 39 3. Bedau on downward causation ................................................................................................. 39 4. A better way to look at downward causation ........................................................................... 41 F. What have we said? ...................................................................................................................... 47 References ............................................................................................................................................ 48 A. Appendix A. Why is there anything except physics? ..................................................................... 52 1. How are higher level entities held together? ............................................................................ 52 2. Which higher level entities will come to exist? ......................................................................... 53 B. Appendix B. Why there is anything except physics ....................................................................... 54 C. Appendix C. Platforms ................................................................................................................... 58 D. Appendix D: The first two definitions of causality in Ellis (2012)................................................... 59 E. Appendix E. Software developers build on firmer foundations than do engineers ....................... 61 A. Introduction Question: what do emergence, downward causation, and the relationship between physics and the special sciences have in common? Answer: the multi-level mystery. Fodor (1997) famously put the special sciences version of the multi-level mystery like this. The very existence of the special sciences testifies to reliable macro-level regularities that are realized by mechanisms whose physical substance is quite typically heterogeneous. Does anybody really doubt that mountains are made of all sorts of stuff? Does anybody really think that, since they are, generalizations about mountains-as-such won't continue to serve geology in good stead? Damn near everything we know about the world suggests that unimaginably complicated to-ings and fro-ings of bits and pieces at the extreme microlevel manage somehow to converge on stable macro-level properties. 3/62 On the other hand, the 'somehow' really is entirely mysterious. [Why should there be (how could there be)] macro-level regularities at all in a world where, by common consent, macro-level stabilities have to supervene on a buzzing, blooming confusion of micro-level interactions? ... So, then, why is there anything except physics? ... Well, I admit that I don't know why. I don't even know how to think about why. I expect to figure out why there is anything except physics the day before I figure out why there is anything at all. ... The world, it seems, runs in parallel, at many levels of description. You may find that perplexing; you certainly aren't obliged to like it. But I do think we had all better learn to live with it. I am not a professional philosopher. My PhD is in Computer Science, and I teach in a Department of Computer Science.1 In computer science we don't find a world that runs on many level perplexing. In fact, we like it that way. In this paper I'll explain why-and why that might be of interest to philosophers. 1. The computational turn The International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) defines its mission as promoting "scholarly dialogue on all aspects of the computational/informational turn and the use of computers in the service of philosophy."2 What is the "computational turn?" My sense is that it has to do with how we computer scientists tend to think and the possible uses that style of thinking might have in philosophy. Well, how do we think? In describing how we think I'll be using the term abstraction a lot. Abstraction is used in a number of ways in computer science. It's often said that abstraction is one of the core concepts of computer science. In this paper I'll be focusing on one particular sense of the word. I'll be using abstraction to mean an idea that has been fairly well thought out and pinned down but not necessarily specified in formal detail. An abstraction in this sense is something for which one has a fairly rigorous but not necessarily mathematically formal specification.3 The primary work of software development is (a) to identify the abstractions relevant to a domain of interest and then (b) to implement those abstractions as software. An example familiar to nearly everyone are the abstractions inherent in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. Word processors offer users the ability to create and manipulate documents. They offer this capability by making available the use and manipulation of such abstractions as: word, paragraph, footnote, section, etc. We all have a fairly clear idea of what we mean by these words, but we do not have a mathematically formal specification for any of them.4 1 I have had a long-standing interest in questions on the boundary of Computer Science and Philosophy and have presented and published papers in this area. See, for example (Abbott, 2008, 2009, 2010a, and 2010b). 2 From the mission page of the IACAP website: . 3 The other primary uses of the term abstraction in computer science are (a) the noun form of the verb to abstract, which we as software developers tend to do a lot, and (b) what one produces by abstracting. 4 One of the consequences of writing software that implements abstractions is that in the context of that software the abstractions are pinned down further. The details of what one means by word, paragraph, etc. are settled by the word processor. The decisions made by the software developer may not agree with every user's intuition, but there is no doubt what the software means by word, paragraph, etc. 4/62 One of the most important principles of modern software development is that the implementation of an abstraction should be invisible to users of the abstraction. People who use Microsoft Word do not know how it works internally-nor should they have to know. Modern software development does its best to build a conceptual firewall between the abstractions that software makes visible and the implementation of those abstractions. 2. Relationship to philosophical functionalism As I said, this paper is built to a great extent on the two notions of abstraction and (conceptually quarantined) implementation. This may sound like an echo of functionalism. For example, (Putnam, 1975) includes the following. [Two] systems can have quite different constitutions [e.g. they might be made of copper, cheese, or soul stuff] and be functionally isomorphic. To illustrate his point further Putnam asked how one should explain why a square peg can't fit into a round hole (of incompatible size). Should the explanation be given in terms of quantum mechanics or geometry? Putnam argued for geometry, pointing out that any explanation based on quantum mechanics can deal with only one specific peg, one specific hole, and one specific orientation of the peg with respect to the hole, etc. A geometrical explanation is much more general and hence more useful. Although he didn't say so explicitly, in arguing for the geometric explanation Putnam was making the case for abstractions: squares and circles. As long as the peg and hole implementations faithfully produce objects with the relevant square and circle properties, it makes more sense to discuss the insertion problem in terms of abstractions than in terms of any specific implementation. Three important differences between the approach I am advocating and functionalism come to mind. (a) Functionalism was intended as a theory of mind; software, of course, has nothing to do with theories of mind. (b) Functionalism tended to be descriptive; software development tends to be constructive. By this I mean that in software development one is continually building new abstractions by making use of existing abstractions. The sense that one can build a continuingly growing edifice of abstractions was not among the concerns of functionalism. (c) Functionalism tended to describe a relatively static world; one of software's most important properties is that something actually happens when software is executed by a computer. Software has two aspects: what it looks like as text and what it does when executed. Functionalism was not concerned about this sort of dual identity. I will be discussing all three of these aspects of software later in this paper. A word about implementation vs. realization. In the functionalism literature the term realizes is used in much the same way as implements is used in software. In both cases one is talking about a concrete embodiment of an abstraction. A difference, though, is that to implement implicitly incorporates a sense of intentionality whereas to realize doesn't. A software developer deliberately implements an abstraction as software. Nature realizes some (apparent) functionality with no intentionality implied. This doesn't make a naturally occurring realization less faithful to the abstraction it realizes than a programmer-produced implementation. Although nature is not intentional, a naturalized version of function is useful for understanding how evolution produces the complex (apparent) functionality it does. Either way, whether an implementation/realization is explicitly intentional or not the result is a concrete embodiment of an abstraction. 5/62 3. Abstractions, types, and kinds The more formal term used in computer science for what I've been calling an abstraction is type (also data type or abstract data type). Originally a type in software referred to a collection of possible values. Typical examples were the integers, Boolean values, characters, strings (of characters), etc. These types corresponded fairly closely to bit representations of data. As the discipline matured, we learned more about types as ways to organize our thinking about the information programs manipulate. An important step was the development of what were called enumerated types. These are types that are not associated with particular bit representations but that identify sets of possible symbolic values. Features were added to programming languages to allow programmers to declare their own enumerated types. A typical example might be the declaration of a type traffic-light-color consisting of the values red, yellow, green. Values in types of this sort were explicitly not linked to bit representations. They were understood simply as values, which were referred to by programmer-specified names. This was probably the first step toward type abstraction in software. As computer science continued to mature, it became clear that the most important property of a type was the sorts of things one could do with instances of that type. Without associated operations, a type is simply a list of opaque values. Types with operations were originally called abstract data types. The standard example (Liskov, 1974) is the (last-in-first-out, i.e. LIFO) stack. The operations declared for stacks were: push a value onto a stack, pop a value off a stack, examine the top element of a stack, and ask whether a stack is empty. These operations were defined formally through equations. For example, one can write an equation that says that a push followed by a pop leaves the stack as it was before the push. In parallel, much formal work was done on type systems. The most widely cited, the Hindley-Milner type system (Hindley, 1969) and (Milner, 1978), provides the theoretical underpinning for the Haskell programming language (Peyton Jones, 2003). The upshot is that all modern programming languages take types seriously. Types and their importance are now taught as part of the standard computer science curriculum beginning in the first computer science course. 4. Abstractions, implementations, and the ship of Theseus The paradox of the ship of Theseus offers a nice illustration of how thinking in terms of types or abstractions can be helpful. The question famously concerns the ship of Theseus, which was moored and maintained in the port of Athens. In the course of caring for the ship, each piece of the original was replaced-or at least that's how the story goes for the sake of the paradox. Is the resulting ship the same ship as the original? The paradox arises because the ship as an abstraction is being confused with the ship as an implementation. For the purposes of honoring Theseus the Athenians cared about a ship of the overall conformation and appearance as that used by Theseus-not about a relic, i.e., a ship as particular pieces of wood. Were that not the case, then any modification of the ship would dishonor Theseus. But the Athenians did not consider maintenance dishonor and were not concerned about particular pieces of wood. But they wanted more than just the idea of the ship. They wanted an implementation, something 6/62 concrete that they could look at and touch. So, is the ship whose component parts have been completely swapped out the same as the original? Thinking in terms of types and abstractions lets us say that the abstraction is the same, but the implementation is different. In software development the ship of Theseus would be known as a singleton. A singleton is an instance of a type that allows no more than one instance to be created. What would happen if, as the paradox is sometimes extended, the replaced pieces were put together as a second implementation. In a software system, this would violate the singleton rule of the Ship-of-Theseus type. The software would signal an exception condition-which means that the program would stop its normal course of operation and do what it can to handle the problem. I don't know what would have happened had this occurred in Athens. In philosophy the term kind is often used for the same basic idea as type in computer science. (Type is used in philosophy as well.) For the remainder of this paper I will use the term abstraction for the common core of these ideas. 5. What this paper is about Because our job as software developers is the creation and implementation of abstractions, we are typically skilled in understanding both (a) what it means to define new levels of abstraction5 and (b) what it takes (and whether it is even possible) to implement those new abstractions in terms of existing abstractions. One of my goals in this paper is to apply our approach to creating and embodying abstractions to philosophical issues. In particular, I will demystify the multi-level mystery. I'll explore abstraction and implementation in emergence, in the special sciences, and in downward causation.6 I'll also have a number of other things to say about these areas. In particular, I'll be dismissive of strong emergence-and eventually of emergence in general. I'll propose a way of settling the debate about whether the laws of physics entail the laws of the special sciences, and I'll suggest downward entailment as a better conceptual framework for understanding phenomena that are sometimes presented as examples of downward causation. A disclaimer: although the issues I discuss are often associated with the theory of mind, this paper is not about mind or consciousness. I don't believe we know enough about consciousness to be able to say anything useful about it-other than that it's a puzzle we have hardly begun to unravel. Notwithstanding my reluctance to address the issue of consciousness directly, the subject arises in a few places in the paper. 5 A level of abstraction is a collection of interrelated abstractions of sufficient completeness and usefulness to characterize a domain. The abstractions in Microsoft Word constitute a level of abstraction in this sense. 6 The terms downward causation and top-down causation are often used synonymously in the literature. My preference is for downward causation because it does not imply that one is starting from a top-most point-as top-down <anything> would. However, one of the primary references for this paper uses top-down causation rather than downward causation. I will use the two terms interchangeably and intend no difference between them. 7/62 B. Emergence Emergence has been on the philosophical stage for over a century and a half. McLaughlin (1992) traces it back to work by Mill in the mid-19th century. Emergence is one of a web of ideas associated with what has come to be known as complex systems.7 O'Connor and Wong (2012) characterize emergence this way. [E]mergent entities (properties or substances) 'arise' out of more fundamental entities and yet are 'novel' or 'irreducible' with respect to them. ... Each of the quoted terms is slippery in its own right, and their specifications yield the varied notions of emergence. Emergence appears to be something of a free lunch. Put a bunch of familiar things together and something new (and surprising and interesting and perhaps even useful) may pop out. In the late 20th century emergence seemed to represent much of what was good about complex systems. The term became very popular. However, by the turn of the century the terms complex system and emergence had become so overused and faddish that they lost much of their meaning. I stopped using them- although I'll relent for this paper. In the philosophical literature emergence has remained something of a mystery. As recently as 2008 the introduction to (Bedau and Humphreys, 2008) says that "the very idea of emergence seems opaque, and perhaps even incoherent." Perhaps because it seems so mysterious, philosophers have sliced and diced it to the point that I hardly recognize some of its uses. The primary divisions are weak and strong emergence. But there is also nominal emergence, pattern emergence, synchronic and diachronic emergence, static and dynamic emergence, epistemological and ontological emergence, probably others that I'm forgetting, still others of which I am not even aware, and various combinations of these. I would like to step back from all that and take another look. I have always thought that what was most important about emergence was the idea that a new and conceptually intellectually autonomous domain can be created from elements that have nothing to do with that domain. To take one of the standard unity-of-science examples, biology "emerges" from chemistry, yet the study of biological phenomena is in many ways autonomous of chemistry. In particular, the most fundamental idea in biology-evolution through diversity and selection-has no counterpart in chemistry and cannot be expressed using concepts from chemistry.8 It also became clear to me that what software developers do for a living is to produce emergence. For example, through the efforts of team of programmers, Microsoft Word "emerged" from the collection of lower level operations-i.e., the "code"-in terms of which it is implemented. Because emergence in this sense is so well understood in the context of software I believe that it can be explained in relatively straightforward terms in other contexts as well. 7 Other ideas related to complex systems include agent-based modeling, evolutionary processes, and various network topologies and effects. 8 Of course we now know-although Darwin didn't-that evolution depends on DNA, which is understood chemically, but that's a matter of implementation, not conceptualization. 8/62 1. Emergence without the mystery In software the term conceptual model refers to the collection of ideas that define how a software application operates. Consider the example of a word processor mentioned earlier. Its conceptual model, i.e., the level of abstraction it defines, is essentially what its Help system says about it. The Help system describes the program in terms of the abstractions that are relevant to how the user thinks about what the program can do.9 These abstractions-e.g., words, documents, tabs, rulers, ribbons, styles, formats, tables of contents, footnotes, possible errors (indicated, perhaps, by red squiggly underscores), etc.-refer to types (e.g. paragraph), relations (e.g., orphan-line rules for how paragraphs should be formatted on pages), and operations (e.g., how one can drag a selected piece of text from one place to another, or correct a spelling error). Standard (and best) practice in software development is to define a conceptual model independently of how it has been or will be implemented. Imagine writing a Help system before starting to write the program that it describes and then writing the program to be consistent with what the Help system says. In other words, a conceptual model is autonomous of and often precedes its implementation.10 The autonomy of some collection of entities, properties, etc. from the elements from which they "arise" is, of course, one of the distinguishing features of so-called emergent phenomena. In the case of software, the elements from which abstractions "arises" are the things one can write in a programming language. The conceptual model "arises" when the programmer puts those elements together in the right way. The creation of something new from something old is in some ways magical. How is it possible to build a word processor by putting together lines of code in a programming language that has no word processor concepts? Yet we do this sort of thing all the time. Every creative act-the composition of music, the authoring of a work of fiction, the construction of an architecturally original building, the evolution of a species with a new way to survive in the world, etc.-illustrates that same magic. Human beings and nature both do it. It is this sort of constructive creativity that I think is important about emergence. Creativity may be magical and mysterious; implementation is not.11 Although we often speak as if emergence is about higher-level (macro) elements emerging from lowerlevel (micro) elements, that's not always the case. Not all emergent phenomena are implemented in terms of lower level or micro elements. The (emergent) lifecycles of parasites-and there are probably as many species of parasites as non-parasites-are built from elements that are macro to their micro. Cordyceps is a particularly interesting example. Cordyceps is a species of fungus that infects a species of ants. Infected ants (are somehow induced by the fungal infection to) climb up and "clamp onto a leaf vein about 25 centimeters off the ground-a spot where the humidity and other conditions [tends to] be ideal for a fungus to grow." (Zimmer 2011) Once the ant clamps onto a leaf, the fungus attacks the muscles that would allow the ant to release its grip-dooming it to stay clamped onto the leaf. The 9 Or at least how the author of the Help system thinks the user thinks or wants the user to think. 10 This is similar to, but not exactly the same as, what is called defining the requirements of a system. 11 A longer discussion is available in Abbott (2010b). 9/62 fungus then produces a stalk, which releases fungal spores, which drift to the ground below and infect other ants. Cordyceps, like every parasite, exploits its host's resources for its own needs. But Cordyceps exploits its host's functionality12-e.g., the ant's ability to climb a plant stem and to clamp onto a leaf. Cordyceps' lifecycle is emergent; it didn't exist before Cordyceps invented it. (Of course that's true for virtually any species.) The description Cordyceps' life cycle involves both higher and lower level elements. The higher level elements are plants and ants and their properties and behaviors. The lower level elements include the biochemical reactions that result in the observed ant behavior. So Cordyceps implements its strange lifecycle by putting together the capabilities of both higher-level and lower-level elements. I want to emphasize that Cordyceps relies on the macro-properties and macro-capabilities of ants and plants. Unlike many decomposer species Cordyceps doesn't use ants simply as biochemical fuel, i.e., for the chemical properties of the stuff from which they are made. Cordyceps relies on ants' ability, as ants, to climb plant stems and to clamp onto plant leaves. For this step in its life cycle the fungus needs a way to position itself about 25 centimeters above the ground. It uses the macro properties and capabilities of ants to do this. It also needs a stable platform while it grows its stalk. Again it uses the macro properties of ants (their mandibles and disabled muscles) and plants (their leaves and veins) to achieve this. Although Cordyceps is quite micro compared to ants and plants, it builds its (emergent but micro-level) lifecycle upon the macro-level properties of pre-existing macro-level entities. We see a similar sort of emergence in our technology. Consider smart phones. Many of their components are pre-existing, but the phone's properties and functionalities are new. The phone is as emergent from its base of pre-existing elements as anything one can point to. Like Cordyceps, the "base" from which smart phones "arise" include elements that cannot all be said to be micro to the phone's macro. The telephone network and the GPS satellite system are both macro compared to a smart phone. Yet these are both pre-existing elements of the smart phone's "base." Other widely cited examples of emergence include the hardness of diamonds, flocks of birds, traffic jams, a steel canoe (it floats even though its parts don't), and biological life. In other words, emergence is all around us. Emergence appears when existing things are arranged in new ways. My claim is that this is exactly all there is to it: the putting together of existing things and capabilities to get new things and capabilities. The creativity that produces emergence may amaze us. But when examined more closely emergence is simply a matter of implementing new abstractions by making (often) clever use of what 12 Here and elsewhere, when I speak of functionality I intend it in a naturalized sense. One can describe ants in terms of how they behave and the functions that behavior achieves without implying that these functions are teleologically driven. A function in this sense is simply a behavior that produces a given result. There is no claim that either the behavior or the result has an intentional component. For example, one of the functional consequences of the earth spinning on its axis is the parade of alternating days and nights. Yet there is no claim that the earth is spinning in order to produce this result-or that the earth or its spinning could intend anything at all. 10/62 already exists. So what sorts of things are emergent? Everything except the fundamental particles of physics. If that trivializes the notion of emergence, so be it. Even if (as I hope) the preceding has demystified emergence-perhaps only by trivializing it-a number of questions remain. (a) What mechanisms enable emergence to occur? That is, what makes it possible to put existing things together in a stable way? We know the answer for atomic physics and chemistry, but what about other sorts of entities? (b) Even though we may understand how emergent entities are constituted, why do they come to exist at all? and (c) Which emergent elements will persist? Appendix A proposes a framework for approaching these questions. Why am I putting it an appendix? Although the how of emergence is very important, the proposed framework is not inspired by the computer science notions of abstractions and their implementations, which underlie the main thread of this article. 2. Quasi-interactions and abstract interactions Besides the three questions just raised regarding the mechanisms of emergence, there's another important question. How should we understand interactions among emergent entities? That is, when an ant (which is emergent) climbs the stem of a plant (which is emergent) and clamps onto one of its leaves (which is emergent), how should we describe that interaction. Should we describe it at the level at which I just expressed it, i.e., as emergent entities interacting in terms of their emergent properties and capabilities? Or should we describe it in terms of quantum physics, which in some sense is all there is. (This is similar to the question raised by Putnam (1975) about a square peg and a round hole.) The answer to this question provides a framework for much of the rest of the discussion. In broad terms I see emergent entities interacting in two distinct ways: quasi (physical) interactions and abstract (theoretical) interactions. Quasi-interactions To illustrate quasi interactions, I'd like to start with an extract from Bedau (1997). The passage is about downward causation, which I discuss later. For our purposes here, I want to concentrate on the interactions. Ordinary macro causation consists of causal relations among ordinary macro objects. Examples are when a rock thrown at a window cracks it, or an ocean wave hits a sand castle and demolishes it. But macro-level causes can also have micro-level effects. This is termed "downward causation." Downward causation is a straightforward consequence of ordinary macro causation. To see this, choose some micro piece of the macro effect and note that the macro cause is also responsible for the consequent changes in the micro piece of the macro effect. For example, consider the first molecular bond that broke when the window cracked. The [macro] rock caused that molecular bond to break. Like all macro objects, both rocks and windows are emergent. Did the impact of the rock cause the window to break? If so does this illustrate what Bedau calls "ordinary macro causation," i.e., causality (or interaction) at the level of emergent elements? More generally, does this illustrate interaction between macro (emergent) objects? If so, how should we understand such interactions? My position is that as an emergent object like a rock is an implementation of an abstraction. The same is true of a window. By definition, abstractions are abstract; they are not physical. Consequently, 11/62 abstractions cannot be causes of physical effects. The rock abstraction did not and could not cause the window abstraction to break in any physical sense of the term cause.13 As Bedau explains-although for his own purposes-the breaking of a window is a matter of bonds being broken. The bonds are part of the implementation of the window abstraction. Breaking those bonds interferes with that implementation, a consequence of which is that the original window abstraction ceases to exist. What broke the window abstraction's implementation? The rock abstraction's implementation. Were one to ask about the physical causes for bond breaking one would find oneself talking about the interactions among the electromagnetic forces in the rock and window implementations. To the extent that we want to talk about physical causation, it occurs only at the lowest level of physics. Regularities in quasi-interactions So what are we saying when we talk about interactions among higher level entities? Above, I said that Cordyceps relies on the ant-level capabilities of ants-their ability to climb plant stems and to clamp onto plant leaves. Ants, plant stems, ants climbing plant stems and clamping onto plant leaves all refer to macro-level entities and their interactions. Is it inconsistent to talk about these sorts of interactions and at the same time to say that abstractions can't interact physically? How is it possible for macro objects-which are implemented abstractions-to interact even though abstractions cannot participate in physical causal relationships. To answer that question I want first to look at how higher-level interactions occur in software. Are there interactions between abstractions in Microsoft Word? One that comes to mind is the interaction between the word abstraction and the document margin abstraction-which is typically set and indicated on the ruler (abstraction). One way to think about this interaction is that the margins keep the word abstractions confined to certain areas of the page (abstraction). Anyone who remembers manual typewriters will recall that margins were set physically by putting barriers in the way of the typewriter carriage to prevent it moving outside the margins. How are margins set in Microsoft word? The most straightforward answer is that the code that implements Microsoft Word is written so that the interaction between the margin abstraction and the word abstraction works as indicated. In saying this, I haven't really told you anything. Of course the code does it. Since it's the code that implements the abstractions, how else would it be done? It's the code that implements an abstraction that determines how that abstraction behaves. Let's look at the the-code-made-them-do-it argument more closely. Imagine that Microsoft Word were developed through an evolutionary process. One has a population of incomplete or inaccurate versions of the system. A version whose code more accurately implements the desired abstractions is more likely to survive than one whose code is less accurate. It's the job of the software developers to hurry evolution along by the "more fit" selecting elements of this population, combining them via crossover and mutation, keeping the offspring that come closer to the desired abstractions, and discarding the 13 See the discussion of physical causality below. 12/62 others.14 Of course software developers don't think of their jobs in these terms. They think that when they combine multiple versions of a system, i.e., crossover, they do it by picking the good parts of each. And they think of modifying existing code and writing new code, i.e., mutation, as driven by insight into how the new code will behave. But the result is pretty much the same. The code evolves to become a more and more accurate implementation of the desired abstractions.15 A part of the increasing accuracy of the implementation the individual abstractions interact in ways that are more faithful to the requirements. Does this carry over to the physical world? I would say that it does. Consider the heart as an implementation of a pump abstraction. The closer a heart implementation comes to providing pump functionality, the more likely it is that the organism with that heart implementation will survive. The parallel is that for an organism to persist in the world, its components must work together in certain functional ways. That implicit design16 sets implicit requirements for the components, which can evolve to realize those requirements more effectively.17 To return to the question of how abstractions interact, our answer is that their implementation are such that their interactions are what they are. To the extent that those interactions are stable and reliable, the abstractions themselves are more likely to persist. Does this relatively uninformative answer help explain how interactions among nature's abstractions work? I would say that it does. Nature creates abstractions through what is typically a long process of trial and error. As just discussed part of the job of creating abstractions is to create their interactions. As is the case for all naturally occurring evolutionary processes, those that survive do so because the way they interact with each other and with their environment permits them to survive. So whatever their interactions happen to be, the implemented abstractions that survive long enough for us to experience them are the ones whose interactions we see. 14 This is not as farfetched a description of the software development process as it may sound. 15 Another difference between software development as an evolutionary process and evolution in nature is that in nature the criteria for survival are not fixed in advance. In software, the criteria for survival are based on the software requirements, i.e., the conceptual model, which is fixed in advance. (Recall our previous analogy: write software that makes this user manual true.) Of course as any software developer can confirm, requirements themselves are rarely fixed. They often change during development. 16 All this talk of functionality and design is, of course, intended naturalistically. Even though nature is not teleological, elements that can be described functionally evolve. A heart can be described in terms of its effectiveness as a pump. Combinations of those elements can be seen as an implicit design that produces additional functionalities. Hearts, lungs, blood vessels, blood, and hemoglobin provide a way to distribute oxygen throughout an organism and to collect and dispose of carbon dioxide. Again, the naturalistic way of understanding this is that none of this is intentional, but this is, in fact, what happens. And all else being equal, the more effectively it happens the more likely the organism is to survive. 17 It's fair to ask where that design came from. The answer is that it didn't come from anywhere; it evolved. Implicit (random) designs that (happen to) persist establish implicit component requirements to which their component elements can evolve. Of course those implicit designs can themselves evolve as variants that persist more successfully come into being. 13/62 One might still ask what makes anyone think that nature's abstractions will interact at all? And if they do, why should those interactions show any degree of regularity? Here's one way to look at it. Since implemented abstractions are ultimately physical it's reasonable to suppose that they will interact in some ways. Physics tells us that forces are among the fundamental properties of the universe and that forces are "felt" by other elements of the universe. Not all forces are felt by all elements. The strong force is felt only by quarks. But nature is such that there are forces, and forces are felt, which is the basis of interactions. Why does that mean there will be regularities in the interactions among the (generally complex) implementations of higher level abstractions? Depending on how two implementations come together, the aggregation of their low level interactions may differ from one situation to another. In fact, that is what we find. It will be observed as a reliable regularity that when a rock (of at least a certain size and weight) hits (with at least a certain speed) a window (of a certain thicknesses and made of certain materials), the window breaks. But as the qualifications suggest it's not the case that every time a rock makes contact with a window, the window breaks. Because these apparent interactions are in reality interactions between abstraction implementations, it makes sense to refer to such interactions as quasiinteractions. One of the challenges faced by engineers is to keep track of all the special cases. (See Appendix E for a discussion of how engineering and computer science differ in this regard.) To the extent that interactions among rocks and windows is of general enough interest, one may see the development of a special science (or engineering specialty) to study them. The abstractions themselves don't interact; but their implementations interact in sufficiently regular ways that it is useful to speak as if the abstractions themselves are interacting. Some quasi-interactions will be regular enough that it makes sense to speak of them as laws of a special science. Others will not be. Nonetheless, no matter what the interactions are and no matter how regular they turn out to be, interactions among abstraction implementations, i.e., quasi-interactions, depend ultimately on properties of the implementations.18 To the extent that exceptions are observed (e.g., tempered glass, Gorilla Glass,TM HammerGlass,TM foam rocks used as stage and movie props), they can be added to the increasingly complex characterization of the regularity. An interventionist view of causality (discussed below) will justify referring to such quasi-interactions as causal relationships. And even though there is no physical causality between abstractions, there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of regularities in quasi-interactions to think causally at the rock/window macro level. These are the kinds of things we deal with in our daily lives. Regularities at these levels are reliable enough for most purposes. Abstract interactions There is a second and perhaps more significant way that interactions occur between abstractions. As an example, consider evolution again, this time as an abstract process. Evolution depends on (a) the combination and transmission of genetic (design/structural) information from parent(s) to child and 18 The famous case of the two "implementations" of jade are distinguishable by how their implementations interact chemically with the rest of the world. 14/62 (b) the possibility that mutation may occur during that transmission. These functional properties are themselves abstractions. Darwin thought about them without knowing how they are implemented. Once one starts to think about evolution in terms of these abstractions larger theories-such as the evolution of altruism, evolutionary population dynamics, genetic drift, etc.-can be built. Since the evolutionary process does not depend on how its underlying properties-(a) and (b) above-are implemented, evolutionary theory is autonomous and stands on its own as an independent domain of knowledge. Consequently, as a form of interaction evolution differs from the sort of quasi-interactions described above-which depend entirely on interactions between implementations. Evolution depends on the properties of the hypothesized abstractions and not on how those properties are implemented. A much simpler example-and one that we will encounter later-is Euclidean geometry. The theorems of Euclidean geometry derive from the axioms of Euclidean geometry. They have nothing to do with how a line, say, may be implemented physically. Truths based on the axioms of Euclidean geometry are abstract truths, which characterize how the abstractions of Euclidean geometry interact-which is why I have chosen to refer to these sorts of relationships as abstract interactions. But the truths of Euclidean geometry are not completely disassociated from the physical world. To the extent that elements of the physical world implement Euclidean abstractions one can apply the truths derived about those abstractions to these implantations. This is not to say that implementations will always be perfect and will necessarily persistent over long stretches of time. But as long as some implementations conform to some given abstractions conclusions derived from the properties of the abstractions can usefully be applied to the implementations. (I discuss this sort of top-down reasoning in the section on downward causation.) As yet another example of an interaction that depends on abstractions, consider the question of the optimal set of denominations of coins and currency-as discussed, for example, in (van Hove, 2001). Should one have denominations of, say, $1, $2, $4, $8, ..., or would some other set of denominations, such as our $1, $5, $10, ..., be better? Whatever the answer, the theory upon which the answer is based will be derived from the properties of numbers as abstractions and will be independent of the materials and mechanisms used to mint coins and print currency. The latter provides a means for implementing particular numerical values. But given any set of numerical values, theories about those values are built on the values as numbers. The theories have nothing to do with how those values are implemented.19, 20 Putnam's example of square pegs and round holes offers another nice illustration. The explanation based on geometry is an abstract interaction. To the extent that physical objects implement the abstractions of square peg and round hole it makes sense to apply geometrical results to the physical objects.-with the proviso that those results apply only so long as the physical objects remain faithful implementations of the geometrical abstractions. 19 Nor is it the case that the social or intrinsic value of the implementing materials matter. Even if one mints coins of "precious metals," the question still remains as to the denominations to mint. 20 In the section on downward entailment I will use the fact that it is possible to implement a Turing machine in the Game of Life to draw a conclusion about the Game of Life itself. 15/62 To a great extent the special sciences study three sorts of questions. (1) What abstractions appear to be useful in describing the phenomena in the domain of the science? (2) What theoretical consequences can be derived from those abstractions? (3) How do the phenomena being studied implement those abstractions, and how faithful are those implementations to the abstractions? Economics provides some nice additional examples. Economics is the study of how economic entities interact within a context in which interactions are defined by the allowable economic actions. Macroeconomic models are expressed in such terms as the money supply, the rate of inflation, the velocity of money, the unemployment rate, the interest rate on Treasury bills, etc. Clearly these are all abstractions. Given such abstractions, one can develop theories about how they interact. For example, the economic principle that markets will always clear expresses a theoretical relationship that can be derived from the definition of prices, supply, demand, and how abstract participants in economic markets behave. One can rely on such principles to the extent that the world faithfully implements the economic abstractions on which it is based. But we know that markets don't always clear. If they did, there would never be unemployment. Labor would lower its prices to the point where demand met supply. But for various reasons that doesn't happen. For example, wages tend to be sticky because employers don't want to reduce their employees' wages. This reluctance is not economic; it's psychological. Lowering someone's wage is likely to cause ill will, etc. In other words the abstraction of homo-economicus upon which the law of supply and demand is based is not implemented perfectly in the actual world. The incomplete or partial implementation of abstractions is common enough that theories can be developed to study its consequences. Two come immediately to mind. Fodor's example of Gresham's law is useful here. It is a statement about what happens when the abstraction of money is not reliably implemented. If units of money cannot be relied on to represent consistent units of value but are valued more for their implementations, the money abstraction will fail and the intended money implementations will be treated more in terms of their implementation than as the abstraction they were supposed to represent. The example of Cordyceps and the ants offers another good illustration. Cordyceps was able to interact with ants on two levels. By interfering with the ants' biochemistry it interacted with ants on the antimplementation level. In doing so, it didn't destroy the ant at an abstraction level; it modified how the abstraction worked-in ways that redounded to its own benefit. The more general case is the phenomenon of biological arms races in which one specie interacts with another specie's implementation in ways that benefit the former. The victimized specie is often able to evolve defenses so that its implementation is less vulnerable. The aggressor specie may then evolve ways around the new defense, etc. The same sort of phenomenon-vulnerable abstractions-drive much of our legal and regulatory system. Much of our police and judicial systems are intended to ensure-to the extent possible-that society operates according to abstractions we find useful. There is no such thing as private property, ownership, or contractual agreements in nature. But these abstract concepts are important enough that we spend significant effort to enable society to operate on the basis of those abstractions. 16/62 Of course once one starts down such a path, difficult cases will present themselves. What is fraud? What is competence with respect to the ability to enter into a contract? What are the appropriate consequences for not carrying out a contractual commitment? What are the various ways in which ownership may be transferred? How does your patent limit my right to do what I wish with things that I own? What are the liabilities of ownership? Etc. Many of these questions lead to ways in which the implementation of an abstraction may be compromised or subverted, which leads to more rules, which leads to more subversions, etc. In general whenever a system relies on abstract interactions, i.e., interactions between abstractions, the system is vulnerable to attacks on the implementations of those abstractions. In an evolutionary environment, if those abstractions contribute to the survival of entities that possess them, mechanisms to protect and shore up the implementations frequently appear. The development of complexity James Burke built a career21 identifying "connections"-which are typically prerequisite relationships- among technological developments. Virtually every technological creation is both enabled by and dependent upon pre-existing technologies. See, for example, (Ziman, 2000) and (Arthur, 2009) for discussions of technological innovation as an evolutionary process.22 The same enabling/dependency structure applies to other areas as well. In particular biological evolution builds new capabilities on top of previously evolved capabilities. I am not aware of any study that traces the history of biological technologies-although it would be a fascinating study-but (Lane, 2009) examines what he considers (by his own admission somewhat arbitrarily) the ten greatest inventions of evolution. In his discussion of each invention Lane describes how that invention works biochemically and what biological structures had to be in place before its development could occur. Among the inventions he discusses are photosynthesis, multi-cell organisms, sex, movement, and sight. Not only does Lane look backwards, he also describes some of the developments that depend on these inventions. For example, about motion Lane writes that [the rise of motility transformed the world from one dominated by organisms that were anchored in place]- lampshells, sea lilies, and so on, filtering food for a meager low-energy living-to a new, more active world, dominated by animals that move around. ... The new lifestyles that came with motility gave animals a particular reason to be in a particular place at a particular time, and indeed a different place at a different time. That is to say, it gave them purpose-deliberate, goal-directed behavior. ... Motility [also] brings with it a need to deal with rapidly changing environments, more interactions between plants and other animals, new lifestyles like predation, and more complex ecosystems. All these factors encouraged the development of better senses (better ways of 'sampling' the surrounding world) and a faster pace of evolution. ... At the heart of all this innovation is a single invention, which made it all possible: muscle. While not perhaps engendering the same sense of perfection as organs like the eye, when viewed down the 21 See his (2007, reprint), which was based on three TV mini-series produced by BBC and Time-Life. (See for details.) Other books and TV series followed. The current incarnation of Burke's perspective is the Knowledge Web (). 22 which is the title of (Ziman 2000). 17/62 microscope muscles are an awesomely purposeful-looking array of fibers acting in concert ... They are machines that convert chemical energy into mechanical force. [Emphasis added.] My field of computer science might be one of the purest examples of a domain in which new developments build on the old. In a later section I discuss the multiple levels of abstraction underlying most software products. Here I'd like to focus on a property possessed only by software. When a software developer writes code that implements a new abstraction, she has confidence that the abstractions she uses will work as advertised. Engineering and biological building blocks depend on physical implementations to operate properly. In contrast software is purely symbolic. Our lowest level element is the bit-a pure abstraction-and we build from there. Software development is one of the best examples of a domain that builds new abstractions by arranging existing abstractions in ways that will produce the new abstraction. Our focus is almost exclusively on thinking up new abstractions, which I believe is one reason that the range of areas to which software is applied and the breadth of abstractions that have been created has grown so explosively. 3. Strong emergence In this section I'd like to comment on what has been called strong emergence. In particular, I'd like to respond to the implicit disparagement of science that typically accompanies discussions of strong emergence. I want to focus on strong emergence as characterized by Bedau (2010). He declares that phenomena are to be considered strongly emergent when they have "irreducible causal powers." By this Bedau requires that strongly emergent causal powers ... be brute (i.e., unexplainable) natural phenomena that could at best play a primitive role in science. We should accept brute natural phenomena only if we are convinced that they cannot be explained. Earlier Bedau (2002) put it this way. Strong emergence starts where scientific explanation ends. In both articles, Bedau defines strong emergence in order to dismiss it as "scientifically irrelevant." That is not my intent. I think that's too superficial a view. Rather than give up on the idea, I'd like to examine it more closely and see what its implications are for science. I'll use this version of strong emergence because it imposes the most stringent requirement-the appearance of a new physical force, i.e., one for which no explanation is available. The literature-e.g., (Bedau 2010), (Chalmers 2006), (Kim 2007), (O'Connor 2013)-is fairly unanimous that strong emergence, were anything to exhibit it, would imply not only that physics is not causally closed but that its position as the ultimate authority for how the natural world works is under challenge. In other words, strong emergence, were it shown to exist, would be a spooky phenomenon that may lead to the overthrow of science. Chalmers (2006) puts it like this. Strong emergence, if it exists, can be used to reject the physicalist picture of the world as fundamentally incomplete. 18/62 I disagree. I don't see a possible violation of causal closure as a threat to science. I'd like to consider three phenomena that are (or were) good candidates for being labeled as strongly emergent. The first two are examples of brute, irreducible forces-forces for which prior to Einstein no scientific explanation existed. The third is still a mystery. All have strengthened science rather than weakened it. Dark energy Dark energy is reducible neither to the forces of the standard model of physics nor to gravity. It is a new force, brute and irreducible. It is not redundant. It is causally productive in that it causes the universe to expand in a direct physical way. In addition, dark energy satisfies Chalmers' (2006) condition that "truths concerning [strongly emergent phenomena] are not deducible even in principle from truths in the lowlevel domain" applies to dark energy. As the NASA dark energy web page23 puts it, no one understands why it should be there at all. But is dark energy emergent? As a property of space itself,24 wasn't dark energy there from the beginning? Perhaps not. According to Smolin (2012, p 172), space-along with its inherent dark energy-may itself be emergent. I think it is likely that space will turn out to be an illusion of the sort that temperature and pressure are-a useful way to organize our impressions of things on a large scale but only a rough and emergent way to see the world as whole. ... [The separation of time from space] leads to the revolutionary insight that space, at the quantum-mechanical level, is not fundamental at all but emergent from a deeper order. Sean Carroll agrees.25 Our best theories of reality are based on quantum mechanics, not on relativity, and I think that eventually we will understand space-time as an emergent semi-classical property, not at all fundamental. Time is very crucial in quantum mechanics, but space is only an approximate notion. Yet even though dark energy violates what the known laws of physics were before dark energy was "discovered," it has not brought physics to its knees. Why not? Because physics has expanded to include it. There is now a place in physics for dark energy. The same is true for the advance of the perihelion of Mercury. Prior to general relativity, no known force was able to explain that phenomenon. In some reasonable sense it was an example of strong emergence. Yet its existence didn't bring down science. On the contrary an advance in science was able to bring this formerly inexplicable phenomenon into its realm. 23 24 According to (Carroll 2013) dark energy is a property of space. The expansion of the universe is driven by the density of dark energy. As space expands, additional dark energy comes into existence along with the additional space. The result is a constant dark energy density and a constant rate of expansion, which produces an acceleration in the expansion itself. 25 From an online interview: . 19/62 Nuclear fusion Should energy from nuclear fusion be considered an example of strong emergence? Nuclear fusion seems to satisfy the requirements for strong emergence: smaller things-the atomic nuclei of deuterium (a proton and a neutron) and tritium (a proton and two neutrons)-are brought together to create a larger thing-the atomic nucleus of helium (two protons and two neutrons) plus an unattached neutron. (The same number of protons and neutrons go into the reaction as come out.) Yet the fusion process also produces energy. In emergence terms, helium nuclei emerge from a base of deuterium and tritium nuclei. Along with the helium nuclei one gets an extraordinary amount of energy. Before 20th century science, such a result would have been brute and irreducible. It would have seemed mysterious and strongly emergent. Now that we know how it works, must it forego that label and the associated mystique? Consciousness: using thought to control matter Chalmers (2006) and Bedau (2010) offer consciousness as the strongest remaining possibility for strong emergence. [A]re there strongly emergent phenomena? My own view is that the answer to this question is yes. I think there is exactly one clear case of a strongly emergent phenomenon, and that is the phenomenon of consciousness. (Chalmers, 2006) The leading contender for genuine strong emergence is conscious mental states. Our inability to have found any plausible micro-level explanation for conscious mental states might reflect just our ignorance, but another possibility is that these phenomena really are strongly emergent. (Bedau, 2010) Chalmers and Bedau focused primarily on the phenomenon of consciousness-what it's like to be something-rather than on its physical consequences. But suppose one could show that it is possible for thought to control matter. Would that qualify as strong emergence? The control of matter by thought is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) is an active area of research (Sellers, 2013), and neural engineering has established itself as a recognized engineering discipline. One of the most important application areas of the latter is motor rehabilitation-to allow people with motor deficits to manipulate objects by thinking about how they want the objects to move. Techniques exist for monitoring brain activity and translating it into control signals for engineered devices. Work in this area has been ongoing for more than a quarter of a century.26 Does this show that consciousness has causal powers? It certainly looks like it does. Yet this work has not produced a revolution in either physics or philosophy. Why not? Perhaps because subjective experience itself is not being used to control external physical devices. Only its neural correlates are used. This work makes no progress in understanding what subjective experience is and how it comes about. I agree with Chalmers (1995) that subjective experience is (still) the hard problem of consciousness. 26 See (Farina, Jensen, and Akay, 2013) for an up-to-date survey of the state of the art. 20/62 Yet by definition, subjective experience is subjective. How could something remain subjective and still have an observable objective effect? It would seem that the only way for subjective experience to have a physical effect is through its physical manifestation. Most naturalist philosophers agree that consciousness supervenes on brain activity. If brain activity that is correlated with thought can be used to control external physical devices, and if subjectively perceived images can be "read" by monitoring brain waves,27 why is this not causal consciousness? Researchers in Artificial intelligence (AI) complain that feats that would once have been considered demonstrations of "true" AI lose that status once we figure out how to do them. Perhaps consciousness researchers will soon voice a similar complaint. Violation of causal closure is not a problem for science Whether something violates the causal closure of the known laws of physics is not a problem for the scientific view of nature. All newly discovered forces-or equivalently the curvature of space-time and its consequences as described by general relativity-necessarily violate the causal closure of the existing forces and the known laws of physics. Otherwise they wouldn't be considered new forces. But once discovered, any new force will be (co-opted and) integrated into physics. Science will not be invalidated as our best approach for understanding nature. Being outside the causal closure of the known forces and laws of physics is the signature of a new force, not a sign of the death of science. If a phenomenon that looks like strong emergence were to be observed, the press would come up with a catchy name for it, and scientists would write grant applications and get to work. That's how science advances. 4. Emergence summary Emergence is best understood as the appearance of new abstractions and functionalities in what may be a new (implicit or explicit) conceptual domain and their implementation in terms of what already exists. Other widely cited examples of emergence include the hardness of diamonds, flocks of birds, traffic jams, a steel canoe (it floats even though its parts don't), and even life. The two most important features of emergence are (a) a new abstractly characterizable functionality or property and (b) an implementation of that abstraction in terms of the functionalities and properties of existing elements. The implementation may be complex: Microsoft Word involves millions of lines of code; living organisms involve complex, sophisticated, and coordinated chemistry in entities that range in size from a single cell to organisms with trillions of cells. Or it may be simple but clever: once one has perfected the technology for a watertight seal, a steel canoe is easy enough to build. But there is always a replicable implementation. In other words, emergence is a matter of implementing abstractions. Strong emergence refers to phenomena we can't (yet) imagine how either to explain or to produce through known science and engineering. But there is no reason to believe that any phenomena will enjoy a permanent status as strongly emergent. Even if a new force has to be introduced, it will be integrated into science. Consequently I recommend that we retire the category of strong emergence. 27 (Schoenmaker, et. al., 2013) recently demonstrated the ability to reconstruct subjectively perceived images by monitoring brain activity. 21/62 Perhaps the notion of emergence itself should be retired and replaced by the notion of the implementation of abstractions. C. The special sciences This section discusses the special sciences and their relation to physics. The first part draws an analogy between the special sciences and the kinds of conceptual models developed for computer applications. The second examines the debate about whether the laws of physics entail the laws of the special sciences. 1. The special sciences are to physics as software applications are to computer hardware Recall the opening extract from Fodor in which he expressed amazement that "unimaginably complicated to-ings and fro-ings of bits and pieces at the extreme micro-level manage somehow to converge on [the geologically] stable macro-level properties [of mountains]." One might make a similar observation about Microsoft Word. Unimaginably complicated to-ings and fro-ings of bits/voltages in a computer manage somehow to converge on Microsoft Word. Is this a fair comparison? To decide whether it is, let's consider the conceptual distance between the two ends of these two comparisons. Table 1 shows the conceptual steps in the two cases. In Fodor's example one might count: quantum physics to atomic physics, to chemistry to the special science of geology-since his immediate example was mountains. In the case of Microsoft Word one might count: physical machine to a virtual machine to a programming language abstract machine to Microsoft Word. I gave both sequence four steps. Could the steps be divided differently? Probably. Are the steps equally complex? It's difficult to say. Whether they are or not, the point I wish to make will not depend on the specific complexity of each step. It will depend primarily on the claim that each step defines an autonomous level of abstraction. Table 1. Levels of abstraction (from low to high) in the special sciences and computer applications Special sciences (e.g., geology) Applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) Chemistry Programming language abstract machine Atomic physics Virtual machine Quantum physics Physical computer I'll start by explaining the steps on the software side. Microsoft Word (and all other software applications) exist as lines of code written in a programming language.28 There are a number of ways to define the semantics of a programming language. Operational Semantics (Plotkin, 2004), one of the most intuitive, defines the semantics of a programming language in terms of how execution of constructs in the language affect what is known as the language's abstract machine. 28 The two most widely used language families are the C/C++ family and the Java family. Other widely used languages are C# for Microsoft applications and Objective C for Macintosh applications. 22/62 A language's abstract machine is a formally defined device that is capable of changing state, where a state is defined as the values of some of the parameters in terms of which the device is defined. A Turing machine is a simple example. A Turing machine consists of a finite automaton, a tape, and a read-write head that is positioned somewhere on the tape. The state of a Turing machine is the combination of the state of its finite automaton, the contents of its tape, and the position of its read-write head on the tape. A program in a programming languages describes manipulations of the language's abstract machine. The program is written in such a way that the manipulations result in the implementation of some collection of abstractions-in this case of Microsoft Word. In other words, the Microsoft Word software implements the Microsoft Word abstractions by arranging manipulations of the abstract machine of the programming language in which the Microsoft Word program is written. Programs in programming languages are processed by compilers. A compiler is a program that translates code in a programming language into code in a lower-level language. In practice most compilers translate what a programmer writes into instructions for what is known as a virtual machine. A virtual machine is a software implementation of an abstract machine. Perhaps confusingly, the target virtual machine for most compilers is generally not a software implementation of the programming language's abstract machine. It is a software implementation of an idealized physical computer for that abstract machine. The virtual machine for Microsoft programming languages is known as the Common Language Runtime.29 The virtual machine for the Java programming language is known as the Java Virtual Machine. As the table shows abstract machines are implemented by virtual machines. In reality, abstract machines are generally not realized at all. Programmers tend to think in terms of the abstract machines for the languages in which they write. But their code does not manipulate abstract machines. Their code is translated into instructions for the virtual machines that implement the abstract machine. Thus abstract machines, while present in the minds both of programmers and of virtual machine implementers is generally not realized directly. The final step is the implementation of the virtual machine in terms of instructions of some physical computer. For each family of physical computers-e.g., the one or more families of computers built by a computer manufacturer-there is a separate implementation for each virtual machine, i.e., one for the Java virtual machine, one for Microsoft's Common Language Runtime, etc. Each of those implementations manipulates the abstractions of a particular physical computer to implement the capabilities of a virtual machine. 29 The advantage of generating programs for a virtual machine is that when a program is run on a virtual machine the physical computer on which it is running is irrelevant. Java's motto is "Write once; run anywhere," which promises that a Java program will run the same way whether it is being run on a laptop manufactured by Asis or a desktop manufactured by Dell. So a compiler generates instructions to manipulate the abstractions of a virtual machine in a way that will produce the abstractions of the programming language's abstract machine. 23/62 Although software developers do not have to be concerned about it, there is yet an additional step. Each physical machine is implemented by logic gates and circuits. (See Appendix E for a discussion of the bit as the software primitive.) Is all that comparable in complexity to the four steps from quantum physics to geology? I think a case could be made that it is. Given the number of translations and implementations between Microsoft word and the physical computer on which it runs, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to look at the to-ings and fro-ings of bits in that physical computer-or voltages in the circuits that implements that computer-and understand how they correspond to the manipulation of Microsoft Word abstractions. Yet the convergence of those bit to-ings and fro-ings to Microsoft Word is successful. Complex as it may seem-or as I have made it seem-applications like Microsoft Word are a relatively simple case. Consider web applications that run in a browser. Examples include Gmail, Facebook, the New York Times website, Twitter, Google maps, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and others. Running in a browser adds a few additional layers of abstraction. The browser itself is an application (an "app"). Its connection to a physical computer is similar to the connection just described for Microsoft Word. One interacts with a browser as an app when one clicks the back button or enters a web address into the browser's address bar. A browser's relation to a physical computer is the same as that of Microsoft Word. But browsers are not web pages. Browsers provide a set of abstractions in terms of which web pages are implemented. These browser-level abstractions are defined in terms of such languages as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Implementation of a web page in a browser is similar in concept to implementation of an app in a programming language. By using a browser one is inserting additional levels of abstraction between a physical computer and what the user sees. Still, we're not done. There is often a significant conceptual distance between a browser's abstractions and those of a web page. The abstractions that a browser offers are perhaps as close to those of a web page as the abstractions of a virtual machine are to an app. Bridging the gap between a browser and a web page requires something like a programming language. Because such a gap exists, software developers have created frameworks and libraries that provide abstractions to help span that gap. These are to web pages something like the way programming languages are to apps. So we've now inserted these frameworks and libraries as yet an additional level of abstraction. It's also worth noting that there are a number of different browsers. The best known are Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox. These play roles similar to those played by the multiple hardware manufacturers. As you can see all this involves a great many implementations of many abstractions-which in the end are intended to be invisible to users. Beyond all that, many organizations that offer browser-based web services also provide apps that run on mobile phones. Of the web services in the list above, all except the Stanford Encyclopedia of 24/62 Philosophy30 have separate mobile phone apps. These apps run on the computer in mobile devices the same way that Microsoft Word runs on a laptop or desktop computer. Consider what that means. The abstractions that users associate with Gmail, Facebook, etc. are fairly consistent whether these services are accessed via a browser or via a mobile device application. Yet in almost all cases the apps that run on mobile devices offer significantly different access to those abstractions. If you have used any of these services on both a laptop (or desktop) and a mobile device you will have noticed the differences. So the abstractions are the same: Gmail deals with messages; the New York Times website deals with articles; etc. But users have somewhat different ways to interact with those abstractions depending on the platform. Furthermore, the apps that run on mobile devices differ from each other depending on the mobile device family. Apps for Android-based mobile devices are written in Java; apps for Apple mobile devices are written in Objective C. Why have I spent so much time enumerating this litany of software abstractions and their implementations? My point is that it's not at all unusual to find low level to-ings and fro-ings that converge-after many levels of abstraction-to high levels of abstraction. That to-ings and fro-ings in nature exhibit regularities that make it worthwhile for there to be special sciences to study them is no more remarkable than that to-ings and fro-ings of bits and voltages produce regularities that we as computer users understand and rely on. One might object that in the case of software-implemented abstractions, the bit/voltage to-ings and froings are all planned and coordinated in advance; so of course it's successful. Since nature doesn't plan, how can a similar convergence take place? The answer is that it doesn't always happen. When to-ings and fro-ings in nature don't converge to stable macro-level properties, macro-level properties don't appear. As Fodor says, mountains are made of all sorts of stuff. But mountains are also not made of all sorts of stuff. We don't have mountains of sand because sand isn't the sort of stuff whose underlying toings and fro-ings can converge to a stable mountain. If it were, perhaps we would. A point made in a recent article by Dennett (2012) applies. Dennett cited evolution as an example of competence without comprehension. One can generalize this to nature in general. Nature implements many abstractions without comprehending how the implementations work, i.e., without planning and without coordination. Nature often achieves competence in implementing abstractions by replacing insight and planning with trial-and-error over extremely long periods of time. Is it conceivable that nature can do in hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) of years something similar in the complexity of its abstraction layers to what teams of programmers have done in (mere) decades?31 I wouldn't bet against it. 30 To get the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on a mobile device requires that one use the mobile device's browser, not an app. 31 I'm granting the programmers decades to allow for both the implementation of the various intermediate levels of abstraction and the implementation of increasingly sophisticated versions of Microsoft Word. 25/62 How complex systems develop It's important to note that abstractions are not built only as layers. As the example of Cordyceps illustrates, collections of abstractions can be built at all levels. Perhaps this is most easily seen in terms of technological developments. Technology is not a matter of layer, one upon another. It is more a matter of collections of abstractions that are then available for building other abstractions. Television is one collection of abstractions; tablet computers are another. Neither rests upon the other. The existence of both allows the development of what is now called second screen television32 in which television viewers use tablets to interact in real time with web pages about the TV shows that they are watching. It has become standard practice in software to develop and distribute libraries that implement various collections of abstractions.33 Domains include artificial intelligence, various sciences, image processing, finance, data visualization, statistics, and many others, including a number of libraries for Bible studies. Most modern software systems depend on such libraries to provide initial sets of abstractions as a base upon which to build. Considering how complex many modern software systems are, why don't they collapse under their own weight? One reason is that the complexity is divided into multiple encapsulated implementations of relatively autonomous collections of abstractions. Each collection of abstractions can be implemented and tested separately. Once a collection exists, it can be used in the implementation of other abstractions. The implementations that use it need not be concerned about how it works. All that matters is that it works as advertised. Although this strategy of encapsulated implementations has not completely solved the problem, to a significant extent it has tamed the complexity demon. The effect is of a continuing growing catalog of collections of abstraction. Building a new capability does not require that one start from scratch and build the entire thing as a monolith. Building a new capability becomes more a matter of looking in the catalog, finding useful components, and figuring out how to put them together to achieve the desired result. Nature works in much the same way. Consider Cordyceps again. As a species it needs a way to transport itself to a spot where it could sprout a stalk which, when ripe, would rain down spores on potential future hosts. Let's anthropomorphize the design process. One approach would be to design a system to achieve that result by starting with basic physics. Since Cordyceps has no means for self-propulsion, doing so would seem virtually impossible. The alternative would be to look in nature's catalog of existing components and see whether anything there could be put to use. Cordyceps' solution-to use ants that can climb plants and latch onto leaf veins-was possible because plants and ants were already in the catalog. Cordyceps didn't have to design the ants or the plants. All it had to do was find a way to use their capabilities to satisfy its own needs. This is a much smaller and more feasible step than starting from scratch. 32 For example see (Odijk, Meij, and de Rijke, 2013) or (Simon, Comunello, and von Wangenheim 2013). 33 A Wikipedia page () lists many open source libraries. 26/62 The lesson is that it makes perfectly good sense to understand nature as consisting of multiple collections of abstractions. It also makes good sense to establish a special science to study some of these collections as autonomous domains. For both nature and software, though, it's important to remember that nothing would actually happen were the lowest level not to-ing and fro-ing. Cordyceps didn't have to design the lowest levels of ants and plants. But were those lowest levels not already to-ing and fro-ing, Cordyceps could not have been able to use ants and plants in its larger construction. This is essentially the same remark I made when discussing interaction among emergent entities. There are no higher-level forces or higher-level causal laws. It is only the lowest level of to-ings and fro-ings that make the world-both physical and software-go 'round. Appendix B discusses the importance of the special sciences from the perspective of a modern-day Laplacian demon. Could such a demon foresee how the future will unfold if it knows only physics and not the special sciences? My answer will be that it can't. Appendix C discusses platforms, a level of abstraction with additional richness and complexity. 2. Do the laws of physics entail all other laws? This section examines whether it is possible to deduce the laws of the special sciences from the laws of physics. This is not a new question. Very highly-regarded scientists have taken both sides. I believe, however, that the two sides have been talking past each other and that they do not disagree as much as they seem to. Two views of the special sciences: Einstein and Weinberg vs. Schrödinger and Anderson Einstein (1918) thought that all the laws of the special sciences could be derived from the laws of physics. In an address to the Berlin Physical Society he put it this way. The painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist ... each in his own fashion, tries to make for himself .. a simplified and intelligible picture of the world. What place does the theoretical physicist's picture of the world occupy among these? ... In regard to his subject matter ... the physicist ... must content himself with describing the most simple events which can be brought within the domain of our experience ... But what can be the attraction of getting to know such a tiny section of nature thoroughly, while one leaves everything subtler and more complex shyly and timidly alone? Does the product of such a modest effort deserve to be called by the proud name of a theory of the universe? In my belief the name is justified; for the general laws on which the structure of theoretical physics is based claim to be valid for any natural phenomenon whatsoever. With them, it ought to be possible to arrive at ... the theory of every natural process, including life, by means of pure deduction. ... The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those elementary universal laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. [emphasis added] Stephen Weinberg (1995) agrees. He calls this position grand reductionism. Grand reductionism is ... the view that all of nature is the way it is (with certain qualifications about initial conditions and historical accidents) because of simple universal laws, to which all other scientific laws may in some sense be reduced. In elaborating this point Weinberg takes the weather as an example. 27/62 [T]he reductionist regards the general theories governing air and water and radiation as being at a deeper level than theories about cold fronts or thunderstorms, not in the sense that they are more useful, but only in the sense that the latter can in principle be understood as mathematical consequences of the former. The reductionist program of physics is the search for the common source of all explanations. ... Reductionism ... provides the necessary insight that there are no autonomous laws of weather that are logically independent of the principles of physics. ... We don't know the final laws of nature, but we know that they are not expressed in terms of cold fronts or thunderstorms. ... Every field of science operates by formulating and testing generalizations that are sometimes dignified by being called principles or laws. ... But there are no principles of chemistry that simply stand on their own, without needing to be explained reductively from the properties of electrons and atomic nuclei, and in the same way there are no principles of psychology that are freestanding, in the sense that they do not need ultimately to be understood through the study of the human brain, which in turn must ultimately be understood on the basis of physics and chemistry. It seems to me that Weinberg is conflating two things: reductionism and entailment. The reductionist claim is that for any given higher level phenomenon or regularity one will be able to explain it in terms of lower level phenomena and laws. To use the terms introduced earlier, reduction is about both quasiinteractions and how higher level abstractions are implemented. The entailment claim is that one can start with the fundamental phenomena and their laws and from them prove all higher level laws as theorems. The entailment claim is that one can derive all abstract interactions by taking the fundamental laws of physics as a starting point. These are significantly different claims. The entailment claim is much more difficult since it requires that one both invent and prove all the higher level laws. It's hard to see how that could be accomplished. How could one derive the law of supply and demand or the theory of the evolution of altruism from the fundamental laws of physics? In contrast all that is required of reductionism is that for an given higher level phenomenon or regularities one can find an explanation for it in lower-level terms. I explore this distinction further below. In contrast to Einstein and Weinberg, in "What is Life" (1944), Erwin Schrödinger writes, Living matter, while not eluding the 'laws of physics' ... is likely to involve 'other laws,' [which] will form just as integral a part of [its] science. ... [F]rom all we have learnt about the structure of living matter, we must be prepared to find it working in a manner that cannot be reduced to the ordinary laws of physics. [N]ot on the ground that there is any 'new force' ... directing the behaviour of the atoms within a living organism, but because the construction is different from anything we have yet tested in the physical laboratory. Philip Anderson makes the same point in "More is Different" (1972). Like Schrödinger he first swears allegiance to scientific reductionism. Among the great majority of active scientists I think [the reductionist hypothesis] is accepted without question. The working of our minds and bodies, and of all the animate or inanimate matter of which we have any detailed knowledge, are assumed to be controlled by the same set of fundamental laws, which except under certain extreme conditions we feel we know pretty well. But Anderson goes on as follows. 28/62 [T]he reductionist hypothesis does not by any means imply a "constructionist"34 one: The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe. ... The constructionist hypothesis breaks down when confronted with the twin difficulties of scale and complexity. The behavior of large and complex aggregation of elementary particles, it turns out, is not to be understood in terms of a simple extrapolation of the properties of a few particles. Instead, at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear, and the understanding of the new behaviors requires research which I think is as fundamental in its nature as any other. ... At each stage entirely new laws, concepts, and generalizations are necessary. Anderson, Einstein, Schrödinger, and Weinberg are among the best physicists of all times. Each has been awarded the Nobel prize. Yet they seem to disagree (two on each side) about whether higher level regularities, i.e., the special sciences, can be derived from the fundamental laws of physics. Can these apparently contradictory positions be reconciled? In a recent workshop (Carroll, 2012) Weinberg re-iterated his position. In doing so, he may have revealed why his position and Anderson's are not as far apart as they seem. Weinberg explained35 what he means by entailment: that the fundamental laws of physics entail all other regularities. First he explained what he thinks is important: (a) which laws of nature are most fundamental and (b) whether they entail the other regularities. I am talking about what actually exists out there in the sense of entailment. Are the laws of thermodynamics, i.e., the gas laws, entailed by other laws like elementary particle physics? If so, one can talk about which laws are more fundamental. The fundamental levels are the levels from which the arrows of entailment go up. This gives a sense of order in nature. Then Weinberg acknowledges that what we as humans tend to encounter in the world are generally far removed from the elements to which the fundamental laws apply. There's no question that thermodynamics is worth studying on its own terms. And in fact as has often been pointed out, if you could follow the motion of every particle in a glass of water you would still miss the idea of what the temperature of the water is. The things we as humans are interested in are often things at a higher level. But what's important to him as a physicist is whether the things we encounter in our day-to-day lives are the way we find them because of more fundamental laws of nature. The question is whether or not principles, like the principles of thermodynamics, are what they are because of deeper principles. And if that kind of statement makes sense, as I think it does, then we have a sense of what is fundamental and what is not fundamental. It's a question of following the arrows of what explains what, of how nature works. One of the other participants asked whether Weinberg really meant entailment or simply that higher level laws must be compatible with lower level laws. His response, "No, I mean entailment." 34 Anderson uses constructionist to refer to the same process that Weinberg called entailment. 35 Lightly edited from a video of the workshop. 29/62 This issue came up repeatedly. Most of the participants had a hard time believing that Weinberg really meant logical entailment, that one can formally derive all other regularities in nature from the fundamental laws of physics. Another participant asked, "What justifies the belief that the lower levels entail everything above them?" Weinberg's answer: Well, of course, we don't know; that's what we're trying to figure out. But that's the way history has worked. We find that there really are entailments in nature. The paradigm is that Newton shows that the inverse square law entails Kepler's laws of planetary motion; Boltzmann shows that the statistical mechanics of large numbers of molecules entails the laws of thermodynamics. This is our bread and butter. But Weinberg understands why people have doubts about entailment. I think there is a reason why people are skeptical about this. It's the sort of thing Anderson wrote about in "More is Different." A lot of the features of higher level theories don't seem to depend very much on what is going on at the deeper levels. For example, in phase transitions there are certain numbers that describe how systems approach phase transitions. These are critical exponents, and you get the same critical exponents in a tremendous variety of entirely different contexts. It makes you think there are laws of phase transitions, which are somehow free-standing and do not require any deeper level to be entailed. They just are the way they are. But even though Weinberg understands the case against entailment, he insists on it anyway. I don't think that's right. I think you have bodies of formalism, like the renormalization group theory of phase transitions, or thermodynamics, which apply in a great variety of circumstances. But when they apply they apply because of the deeper level that says they apply here and they don't always apply. For example, Boltzmann made a tremendous step forward when he showed that the atomic theory-that molecules are bopping around-explains, or entails the laws of thermodynamics. And then it was realized that those laws apply in entirely different contexts. As Hawkins showed, the surface of a black hole has a certain temperature. But in all cases where thermodynamics applies we can show why it applies in terms of a deeper level-and it doesn't always apply. A black hole only obeys the laws of thermodynamics when it's big, when it contains many Plank masses. And in the last instants before a black hole evaporates the laws of thermodynamics no longer apply to it. It seems to me-and this is my interpretation of what Weinberg said-that the preceding begins to explain what Weinberg means by entailment. He is not saying that one can derive all of science- including such things as the renormalization group theory of phase transitions-from the fundamental laws of physics. He is saying that the fundamental laws of physics determine when those theories actually apply in nature. His next example seems to pin this down. To take an even more trivial example, the sum of the angles of a [physical] triangle [on earth] is 180 degrees. It doesn't matter if you make the triangle with pencil marks on a piece of paper or with sticks. In all those physical instances you get 180 degrees. You have to ask why that works in each case? The answer generally speaking is because the gravitational field on the surface of the earth is quite weak so it doesn't curve space very much. That's the reductionist answer to why the sum of the angles is 180 degrees. This originally struck me as a very strange remark. Surely Weinberg wasn't claiming that the laws of physics entail the theorems of plane geometry. And, in fact, he didn't say they did. He was saying 30/62 something about triangles on the surface of the earth, not about triangles in the abstract. I think everyone at the workshop was confused by this example. The video shows that no one responded to it. So there you have it. Weinberg is certainly not claiming that the theorem of plane geometry that says that the sum of the angles in a triangle comes to 180o is entailed by the fundamental laws of physics. He is saying that the laws of physics determine when that theorem applies to the material world. Weinberg goes on to explain his position further. It's important to keep in mind that Weinberg is a physicist; what's important to physicists is how the world actually works. All questions are fundamentally empirical: can we come up with usefully abstract and coherent descriptions of observed phenomena? There is a certain quality of "fundamentalness" that has some value in its own right. It's a question of following the arrows of determining what explains what when we describe how nature works. It is the goal that we have in physics. It's the goal that's been working out over the centuries. To deny the existence of more fundamental levels and less fundamental levels makes a lot of the history of physics pointless. If you discover a principle, like the principles of thermodynamics or the principle that sex ratios tend to be equal, male/female, you then ask why that principle is true. You might say that it's a fundamental law of life that organisms that have sexual reproduction tend to have equal numbers of males and females. But in fact we're not happy with that. We try to explain it in terms of a deeper level, which is evolutionary biology. But then we ask how evolution works? Well we explain that in terms of mutation and natural selection. Very often we can't do the whole job because historical accidents intervene, which by definition we can't explain. I'm not saying simply that quantum field theory "constrains" everything. I'm saying that wherever you find at any level a principle that certain things are always true, you have to explain it. The explanation will always be in terms of something more fundamental. If we agree on this I'm happy: until we get down to the fundamental laws of physics there are no free-standing principles at any level that do not have an ultimate explanation in terms of deeper principles. I think the italicized sentences are the key. Two ideas are involved here. The first is the notion of recognizing what Weinberg calls a principle, a regularity in nature. Weinberg is not saying that every regularity will be characterized in a formalism that can be derived from the fundamental laws of physics. After all, there are no obvious a priori limits to the sorts regularities one might find or the formal languages in which they are best described. There is no reason to expect that they can all be derived from physics via logical deduction. The fundamental laws of physics entail neither the principles of evolution nor the theorems of plane geometry.36 The second idea is to answer for each regularity the question why that regularity is found in nature, i.e., in the material world. This is as I understand him where entailment comes in. Weinberg says that to answer a question about why a regularity appears in nature one must look to see how nature implements/realizes the regularity, what physical mechanisms create and support it. When one does that one might find other regularities. When one then looks to see how those regularities persist in the 36 Of course, since Euclid's axioms entail the theorems of plane geometry, Euclid's axioms along with the fundamental laws of physics do also. But that's not the way one wants to look at this question. 31/62 material world, one may find still more regularities. Eventually this series of explanations leads to the fundamental laws of physics, which underlies them all. It now seems clear to me that the primary difference between Anderson and Schrödinger on the one hand and Weinberg (and presumably Einstein) on the other is that Anderson and Schrödinger were talking about the regularities themselves, i.e., which regularities one might find in nature, whereas Weinberg was talking about how those regularities are realized in the physical world. Schrödinger's claim that "Living matter ... is likely to involve 'other laws'" and Anderson's statement that "at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear" are about the regularities one might find at levels of complexity above fundamental physics. These are what I referred to earlier as abstract interactions. Weinberg seems quite comfortable with the idea that new regularities-such as the laws of thermodynamics or phase transitions or plane geometry-will be found and that new principles will be required to characterize them. His claim is that whenever such new regularities are found the answer to how those regularities are realized in the physical world will depend eventually on the fundamental laws of physics. In my terms Weinberg is insisting that whenever one finds a new abstraction that holds in nature one must ask how that abstraction is implemented. Anderson does not disagree. Anderson (1972) began by acknowledging that his position was fundamentally reductionist. "The working of our minds and bodies, and of all the animate or inanimate matter of which we have any detailed knowledge, are assumed to be controlled by the same set of fundamental laws." Schrödinger agrees: living matter does not elude the laws of physics. The difference between the two camps is one of perspective: whether one thinks about the world analytically or synthetically. Anderson touched on this issue toward the end of "More is different" (1972). [In general], the relationship between [a] system and its parts is intellectually a one-way street. Synthesis is expected to be all but impossible; analysis, on the other hand, may be not only possible but fruitful in all kinds of ways. Weinberg and Einstein take an analytical perspective. They insist that when one figures out how nature works, the answer will ultimately be based on the fundamental laws of physics. Anderson and Schrödinger take a synthetic perspective. They argue that as new levels of complexity come into existence, new abstractions will be found-and new laws and principles will be needed to describe them. When Weinberg says "there are no free-standing principles at any level that do not have an ultimate explanation in terms of deeper principles" he is not saying that there are no free standing principles. Indeed that the angles of any (abstract) plane triangle sum to 180 degrees has nothing to do with physics. Weinberg is saying that whenever one finds in nature a regularity that is characterized by a free standing principle, one is intellectually obligated to ask how nature realizes that regularity-in my terms how nature implements the abstractions that are used in the characterization of that principle- and in asking that one will be led inevitably to the fundamental laws of physics. 3. Summary position on the special sciences The preceding sections addressed the issue of the autonomy of the special sciences. Many of the laws of the special sciences are autonomous. They exist at the level of abstract interactions. But if these laws 32/62 apply to nature they must stand on physically implemented phenomena-which must obey the laws of physics. D. Review of causation The goal of science is to understand nature and to describe how it operates. Science, or at least physics, describes nature by using concepts from general relativity, the standard model of elementary particles, and quantum field theory. None of these use the language of causation. Physics is happy to say: here's how one can describe37 the world as it is, and here are some equations that can (in principle) be used to project such descriptions forward (and backward) in time. In saying that, however, there is no sense that anything is causing anything else. It is all descriptive, as if it were a 4-dimensional landscape. With this in mind, I'd like first to examine what I take to be the two most widely adopted philosophical approaches to thinking about causation. 1. Common sense causality formalized: interventionist causality Although the laws of physics don't make use of the notion of causality, science does and scientists do. Science derives its results from experiments, deliberate or natural. Typically the goal of an experiment is to identify the effect of varying just one thing while keeping everything else fixed. Does exposure to cowpox produce an immunity to smallpox? What pattern appears on the other side of a barrier toward which a stream of photons is directed if the barrier has one vs. two slits? Would it matter if a photon sensor were placed at one of the two slits in the two-slit case? Does smoking cause cancer? Computer scientist Judea Pearl (2009) and philosopher James Woodward (2003) both developed approaches to causality. Even though they worked separately their work comes to essentially the same conclusions: causality is involved when a change in one thing produces a change in another. Woodward (2011) characterizes what he calls the Difference-Making approach to causality. Suppose X and Y are variables. Then, in the simplest case, X is causally relevant (at the type level) to Y if and only if there is a possible intervention on X such that if such an intervention were to occur, the value of Y or the probability distribution of Y would change-in other words, some interventions on X make a difference for Y. Pearl (2011) puts what is essentially the same idea somewhat more formally. First he points out that causality cannot be inferred from joint probability distributions. The old saw is true: correlation does not imply causality. What we really care about is how changes lead to other changes. He summarizes this as follows. [The task of causal analysis] is to infer not only the likelihood of events under static conditions [which is the domain of statistical analysis], but also the dynamics of events under changing conditions, for example, changes induced by treatments or external interventions. 37 The description may be given in terms of complex numbers and probabilities, but it is still a well-defined description. 33/62 As part of his formalization Pearl invented what he refers to as a do operator, which sets the value of a probabilistic variable to a particular value. Performing a do operation is quite similar to Woodward's intervention.38 The two approaches to causality are enough alike that from here on I'll refer to them jointly as the Interventionist approach to causal explanation or Interventionist-style causality. For Pearl and Woodward causality is captured in causal models-often represented by directed graphs or by equations that relate variable values or conditional probabilities. Pearl provides an algebra and a calculus for causal models that allows one (a) to solve for some causal relationships in terms of others and (b) to compute numeric answers to causality questions. He shows that once one has a causal model it is possible to answer the standard causality questions by simple calculations. Woodward make it clear that his approach handles what he calls what-if-things-had-been-different questions (or w-questions). The Interventionist approach has been quite successful. Pearl has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, and Woodward dominates the philosophical literature on causality. Baedke (2012) argues that Interventionist-style causality "qualifies as a useful unifying explanatory approach when it comes to cross-methodological research efforts. It can act as a guiding rationale (i) to link causal models in molecular biology with statistical models derived from observational data analysis and (ii) to identify test-criteria for reciprocal transparent studies in different fields of research, which is a shared issue across the sciences." Pearl and Woodward agree on another point. A causal model does not explain how a causal relationship works, i.e., how a cause is physically connected to an effect. A causal model simply lets one record what one believes-on other grounds-the causal relationships to be and then provides tools for manipulating those relationships. 2. Physical causality: causal primitives and the exchange of conserved quantities As the preceding discussion points out, knowing that B is causally dependent (from an interventionist perspective) on A doesn't explain how a change in A comes to affect B. Interventionist causal relationships are phenomenal. One can see them, and one can confirm the causal relationship, but that's about it. It seems to me that in science, once the phenomenology of an area has been pinned down, the next step typically is to ask: what is the underlying mechanism? What is happening so that the phenomena and observed regularities come about? I like to think of this as the reverse engineering of nature: take it apart and figure out how it works. Broadbent (2011) suggests that an Interventionist causal relationship can be seen as claiming the existence of some underlying mechanism. As Baedke (2012) put it, "explanation [for an Interventionist causal relationship] is achieved when one shows how a phenomenon is produced by a mechanism." 38 Since Woodward does not formalize his notion of an intervention in the same way as Pearl he adds conditions to prevent an intervention on a presumed cause from having any effect on the intended effect other than directly through the cause itself. 34/62 What is a mechanism in the sense just described? Typically it is a string of more detailed causal relationships that lead from the original cause to the original effect. But what if one wanted to know how each of the internal steps worked? One could investigate those as well. But these answers will involve additional causal relationship steps. A regress of this sort raises at least two questions. (a) Are there causal primitives for which no internal mechanism exists? (b) How should one account for the difference in time and space-assuming there is a difference-between cause and effect? That is, how can there be causality at a distance in time and space? Dowe's (2000) theory of physical causation helps to fill in what's missing. Whereas Interventionist causality doesn't ask how a cause physically produces its effect, Dowe wants to know what's actually going on when one thing causes another. In seeking to understand what's really happening, Dowe finds himself looking for causation primitives-the most basic elements of causation. This is what he finds.  A world line is a curve in space-time joining the positions of a particle throughout its existence.  A causal interaction is an intersection of world lines that involves an exchange of a conserved quantity. Attractive as this approach is-and I do find it attractive-it seems to me that it doesn't quite work at the quantum level. (We'll see in a few paragraphs, though, why that's a good thing.) One problem is that there really aren't any particles. (See (Wilczek 2008), (Brooks, 2012), or (Hobson, 2013).) The best way to understand the goings on at the quantum level is to forget about particles and to think entirely in terms of fields. An electron, for example, has some value at all points in its field, i.e., for every point in the universe. But for all practical purposes an electron is localized to a small volume where its probability amplitudes are non-negligible. It is possible to trace something like the world line of an electron. But it is not a trajectory of points through space. The Schrödinger wave function characterizes the time-evolution of an electron's probability amplitude distribution throughout space. This leads to problems with Dowe's definition. If particles are really all-pervasive fields, it doesn't make sense to talk about the intersection of the world lines of two particles. The fields of all particles are always intersecting since each one fills space. What matters is when and where they interact, and that depends on the values of their probability amplitudes. Furthermore, the exchange of conserved quantities doesn't happen at a point in space or an instant in time. A photon is emitted by one field at one point in space and one instant in time and absorbed by another at a different point in space and a different instant in time. It is not even necessarily the case that the emitting event occurs before the absorption event. Feynman's classic (QED 1985) has an accessible discussion. Although this sounds like it causes trouble for Dowe's view of causality, it seems to me that these apparent problems make his approach more successful as a causal primitive. Dowe's approach offers a concrete physical criterion for what counts as a causal interaction-the exchange of a conserved quantity. And given the preceding interpretation in terms of quantum fields, the approach also accounts for the passage of time. Although causal interactions are primitive in the sense of not being 35/62 decomposable into smaller steps, they are not instantaneous. They occupy a certain amount of spacetime: they occur over a period of time, and they span some distance in space. 3. A computer science perspective on causality Suppose you are sitting at your computer working on a paper. The cursor is positioned in the text. You press the "e" key. An "e" appears on the screen at the cursor position and (as you are later able to confirm) an "e" has been inserted into the document at that spot. Does the key-press cause the "e" to appear on the screen and to be inserted into the text? This seems to fit the Interventionist template for a causal relation-change which key is pressed and the inserted letter will be different. Nevertheless my inclination would be to say that the key-press does not cause these results. The way most interactive programs work is that they set up what are sometimes called listeners. A listener is a chunk of software that is notified, i.e. activated, whenever a listened-for event (in this case a key press) occurs. In response to such a notification, the listener examines the notification and, depending on its content (the notification indicates which key was pressed, whether the control or shift keys were down, etc.), it takes one or another series of actions-in this case to insert an "e" on the screen and into the document. An analogy will help in thinking through the possible causal connection. Imagine you hear the phone ring. (The analogy is that you are a listener and are notified by the ringing that a call to your line has been made.) Suppose you pick up the phone and say "hello." Would you say that the ringing caused you to perform those actions? I doubt that many people would. In much the same way I would not say that pressing the "e" key caused the insertions of the "e" on the screen and into the document. More generally, causation tends not to be a standard frame of reference in computer science. Computers and the software they run are deterministic.39 It is totally predictable (for any input or supplied parameters) how they will behave. Such determinism notwithstanding, we don't talk about causality. Computer scientists and software developers do talk in terms of causal/mechanistic explanations. If you were to ask a software developer why the "e" appeared on the screen (i.e., what led to its appearance), she would say that it appeared on the screen because the user pressed the "e" key, which led to the program being notified of that user action, which led to the program taking certain actions, etc. The construction led to <something> happening40 is understood to mean something like set up a situation in which <something> happened. This way of speaking does not necessarily attribute the 39 There are programs that include randomization features. In some cases these are designed to depend on external signals to generate randomness. For example, the web site Random.org () generates random numbers based on what it calls "atmospheric noise." There are other programs in which (a) activities are designed to occur in parallel, (b) it may not be possible to determine the order in which such activities complete their actions, and (c) the order in which the completions occurs makes a difference to how the program functions. But to make this discussion as straightforward as possible, I will ignore those cases. 40 She may even use the term cause in place of led to, but I don't want that to confuse the situation. As explained in the text, the intuition is of greater disengagement than cause suggests. 36/62 <something> happening directly to whatever created the situation in which it happened. There is always a sense of disengagement of one thing from another. Perhaps one reason for this sense of disengagement is that there is no physical causation-of the sort discussed in the previous section-in software. As I said about abstractions earlier, since software is not physical it cannot be party to a physical interaction. I would also offer that this sort of disengagement carries over to our everyday experience. If you asked me whether flipping a light switch caused the light to go on, I would say that it didn't. Flipping the light switch enabled an electric current to flow through a circuit, which ..., which led to the light going on. The flipping of the switch didn't itself have any direct connection to the light going on. That's clear from noting that if the electricity had been turned off, flipping the switch would have had no effect. An interventionist might respond in three ways. As I said above, computer scientists do talk about causal (i.e., "because"-based) explanations. We are happy to tell stories about sequences of events and how one led to another. Interventionist causality is often understood to be a theory of causal explanation rather than a theory of causation. So in that sense it is compatible with practice in computer science. I realize that saying we are comfortable with causal explanations for software related phenomena but not with software causation may seem contradictory. I will simply leave it at that. A second response might be that Interventionist causality is about probabilities rather than physical causation. Smoking does indeed raise the probability of cancer occurring. And pressing the "e"-key does indeed raise the probability of an "e" appearing on the screen and in the document. So interventionist causality is consistent with computer science practice in this sense as well. Finally, and most interestingly, an interventionist might point out that if you follow the electrical circuits, pressing the "e"-key is in fact physically connected to the observed results. Pressing the "e"-key sends a signal from the keyboard to the computer, which triggers the software listener, which triggers the performance of the pre-programmed actions, which insert an "e" on the screen and into the document. At the hardware level, it is all driven in a forward chaining manner. One thing physically triggers another, which triggers another, etc. So from that perspective I would have a hard time arguing that pressing the "e" key does not cause an "e" to appear. The thing is, as a software person, I don't think in terms of what the hardware does. I think in terms of how the software is programmed. A hardware explanation in this case is like a behavioral explanation. It would be like saying that the ringing of the telephone causes you on some physiological level to pick it up and say "hello." And in fact, one might be able to trace the physiological connection: the sound of the phone, triggered vibrations in the ear, which triggered nerve firing to the auditory center of the brain, which triggered, ... which triggered your picking up the phone and saying "hello." But that's not how we think of our own behavior, and that's not how I think about software. As it turns out this is a nice illustration of two levels of abstraction. At the level of abstraction represented by a programming language, there are listeners, which are notified of events, which then 37/62 decide41 how to proceed. At the lower level of abstraction represented by hardware, events are forward chained: A triggers B, which triggers C, etc. The implementation of programming language abstractions in terms of hardware abstractions creates for the programmer (the illusion of?) the programming language's more disengaged level of abstraction. Blind to-ings and fro-ings at the hardware level become considered decision-making at the software level. Since this paper is not about mind or consciousness, I won't attempt to push this any further. But clearly there are parallels which might be worth further investigation. 4. Ongoing underlying machines and pushy explainers A computer science view of causality is similar to how Hoefer (2010) characterized the generally held view of the laws of nature. In the physical sciences, the assumption that there are fundamental, exceptionless laws of nature, and that they have some strong sort of modal force, usually goes unquestioned. Indeed, talk of laws "governing" and so on is so commonplace that it takes an effort of will to see it as metaphorical. We can characterize the usual assumptions about laws in this way: the laws of nature are assumed to be pushy explainers. They make things happen in certain ways , and by having this power, their existence lets us explain why things happen in certain ways. Much of the computer science view of the world is based on the notion of an underlying machine, which is always in operation doing something. These are the pushy explainers. Software provides a way to tap into that underlying activity and direct it in certain desired ways. A number of examples come to mind.  A general purpose computer is a machine that continually executes a fetch/execute cycle. An instruction is fetched from storage and then executed after which another instruction is fetched, etc. This ongoing underlying fetch/execute cycle powers everything else.  A database is a machine that stores information in tables. It is capable of creating new tables, modifying existing tables and the content, and responding to queries about the contents of tables. That ongoing underlying machine enables one to build and use databases. A database machine is typically implemented as software running on a general purpose computer. In the context of its use as a database, it's a database machine.  A browser is a machine that displays what is called a Document Object Model (DOM). Typically DOM's are expressed in a language called HTML, which browsers read and convert into a DOM. As the DOM is changed, e.g., by software (often written in JavaScript) as it interacts with the user or another computer (the server), what is displayed also changes. It is this ongoing underlying activity of the browser as a DOM displayer that enables web pages to be made visible. A browser is typically implemented as software running on a general purpose computer. In the context of its use as a browser, it's a DOM display and manipulation machine.  Earlier we discussed a keyboard connected to a computer. We portrayed this as two ongoing underlying machines. The keyboard itself is always available to respond to key presses and send signals regarding those key presses to a computer. Software listeners in the computer are 41 in the software sense of decide. Software decides how to proceed by executing what are known as conditional statements: if <condition> then <action 1> else <action 2>. 38/62 machines that respond to signals by taking various actions. So here we have two ongoing underlying machines-one mainly physical, the keyboard, and one mainly software, the listeners-that enable a user to interact through a keyboard with a document. How are these pushy explainers? From the pushy explainer perspective the universe is a machine whose ongoing activity is characterized by the laws of physics. The universe as a physics machine is similar to a general purpose computer as a fetch/execute machine or a browser as a DOM display machine. In all cases one is relying on certain ongoing underlying processes that carry everything else along with them. In this view there is no causality at all-except to the extent that one wants to think of causality as the consequences of the activity of the underlying machine. E. Downward causation entailment I would now like to turn to downward (or top-down) causation. 1. Downward causation: a zombie idea A zombie idea42 is one that has been shown to be mistaken but refuses to die. As far as I'm concerned top-down causation is a zombie idea. Even though there is near universal agreement that the fundamental laws of physics43 are sufficient to explain all observed phenomena, the Feb 2012 issue of Interface Focus (Ellis, Noble, and O'Connor 2012) was devoted to top-down causation, a phenomenon that on its face is not compatible with standard physics. A standard interpretation of top-down causation is that (a) there are naturally occurring phenomena- i.e., phenomena that are part of the natural44 world-that are not explainable by the fundamental laws of physics; (b) other, autonomous, laws govern those phenomena; (c) the entities those laws govern are higher level in the sense that they are composed of entities more elementary than themselves and are of a size, scale, or granularity significantly larger than that of the particles of which they are composed; and (d) the behavior of the entities those laws govern has an effect on lower level entities, including the fundamental elements of physics. In other words, top-down causation claims that phenomena occurring among macro entities and governed by their own autonomous laws are capable of affecting entities that are relatively micro with respect to them. A typical example-in fact one of the first to be used in this way-is a wheel rolling down a hill. The action of the wheel is governed by the wheel's geometry and the laws describing how a rolling circular object moves. Among the consequences of the wheel's motion is that the (cycloidal) trajectory followed by the particles that make up the wheel is determined by the wheel's shape and motion rather than by the fundamental laws of physics. Item (b) above does not necessarily imply that these other laws are mysterious-the mathematics of a rolling circle is not especially complex-only that they are not derivable from the fundamental laws of physics. 42 The notion of a zombie idea apparently first appeared in (Barer, Evans, Hertzman, and Johri, 1998). It's recently been popularized by Paul Krugman in his Conscience of a Liberal blog in the New York Times. 43 The fundamental laws of physics are generally taken to refer to general relativity along with what is called the standard model of elementary particles and forces understood from the perspective of quantum field theory. 44 I will follow (Ladyman and Ross 2006) in using natural rather than material or physical. 39/62 The laws of economics provide other examples. The "law" of supply and demand states that an excess of demand will result in an increase in price and that a deficit of demand will result in a reduction in price. It seems hopeless to attempt to reduce this law to or derive this law from the fundamental laws of physics. Yet economic laws have an effect on more elementary elements as money and goods change hands-and thereby move around in space. The preceding examples notwithstanding, top-down causation seems to make no scientific sense. If the behavior of an element is determined (even probabilistically) by one set of laws (the fundamental laws of physics), that behavior can't also be determined by another set of laws-unless the two sets of laws demand the same behavior of the particle. But in that case, the second set of laws is redundant and can be discarded. This is Kim's (e.g., 2005) causal exclusion argument, which makes top-down causation seem incoherent. Nonetheless the idea hasn't gone away. Top-down causation hasn't gone away because the (perhaps naïve) intuitive evidence in its favor seems so convincing. According to the introduction to (Ellis, et. al., 2012), "Many examples included in this issue provide good evidence for top-down causation." And indeed those examples, like the example of the wheel and the example of economic laws, seem, at least at first, quite convincing. I would argue that the Interface Focus examples do not illustrate top-down causation. They reflect something akin to top-down causation, which I will call downward entailment. They are implications of abstract interactions for the elements that implement the abstractions. 2. The origin of downward causation: Sperry and Campbell Although the term downward causation itself first appeared in Campbell (1974), Sperry (1970) used the wheel example in discussing the apparent phenomenon a few years earlier. I think of no simpler example to illustrate [downward causation] than the one of the wheel rolling downhill in which the displacement in time and space and the subsequent fate of the entire population of atoms, molecules, and other components within the system are determined very largely by the holistic properties of the whole wheel as a unit, like its shape, size, weight, etc. This little example nicely illustrates the problem. A wheel, a macro object, apparently causes its (micro) atoms and molecules to follow a trajectory that depends on the size and shape of the wheel itself. But is this problem unique to a wheel? What about the molecules in the fender of a car riding along the freeway? Or those in the finger of a passenger in the car? The position of the molecules depends on the motion of the car. Yet we are not bothered by that? (Or are we?) 3. Bedau on downward causation Bedau (2003) asserts that examples similar to Sperry's are not only unremarkable but "philosophically unproblematic." An ocean wave demolishes a sand castle, causing the violent dislocation of a grain of sand. A vortex in the draining bathtub causes a suspended dust speck to spin in a tight spiral. A traffic jam causes my car's motion to slow and become erratic. I take it as uncontroversial that such ordinary cases of downward causation are philosophically unproblematic. They violate no physical laws, they are not preempted by micro causes, and they are not viciously circular or incoherent. 40/62 The preceding statement surprises me since I thought that no form of downward causation was philosophically unproblematic. Given the allegedly unproblematic status of these instances of downward causation, it's not clear to me what else Bedau thinks need be said. Nevertheless, he continues by relating these examples to what he calls weak emergence.45 Having labeled a wave, a vortex, and a traffic jam as weakly emergent Bedau then labels the examples of downward causation presented above as weak macro causes and weak downward causation. He then retracts the assertion that they are instances of true downward causation, asserting that they are nothing more than the aggregation of micro causes. [A] weak macro cause is nothing more than the aggregation of micro causes. [Therefore,] macro and micro causes are not two things that can compete with each other for causal influence. One constitutes the other. So, the micro causes cannot exclude [via causal exclusion] weak macro causes. Bedau realizes that such a nothing-but position raises the issue of the autonomy of the macro causes. Bedau first explains the problem. The preceding discussion of downward causation emphasized that weak emergent phenomena are nothing more than the aggregation of the micro phenomena that constitute them. This prompts a final worry about whether the explanations of weak emergent phenomena are sufficiently autonomous. ... If the underlying explanation of the macro phenomena is merely the aggregation of micro explanations, then all the real explanatory power resides at the micro level and the macro phenomena are merely an effect of what happens at the micro level. In this case, weak emergent phenomena have no real macro-level explanatory autonomy ... He responds with an example. Consider a transit strike that causes a massive traffic jam that makes everyone in the office late to work. Each person's car is blocked by cars with particular and idiosyncratic causal histories. The traffic jam's ability to make people late is constituted by the ability of individual cars to block other cars. Aggregating the individual causal histories of each blocking car explains why everyone was late. However, the aggregate micro explanation obscures the fact that everyone would still have been late if the micro causal histories had been different. The transit strike raised the traffic density above a critical level. So, even if different individual cars had been on the highway, the traffic still would have been jammed and everyone still would have been late. The critical traffic density provides a macro explanation that is autonomous from any particular aggregate micro explanation. So the traffic density-a property of the macro traffic jam-is the (downward) cause of people being late. But it seems to me that this is essentially the same as saying that the fact that water draining from a bathtub forms a vortex is the (downward) cause of the trajectory of the dust caught in the flow. It's also a restatement of Sperry's example. The material of which a wheel is made doesn't matter. Whatever the material, the shape of the wheel (downwardly) causes the elements that make it up to follow particular trajectories. It seems that we are now back where we started-Bedau's assertion that certain forms of downward causation are philosophically unproblematic. It's not clear to me what we got out of this round trip. 45 Bedau included this discussion as part of his analysis of emergence. For our purposes here, though, the fact that Bedau labels a phenomenon as weakly emergent is not relevant to the issue of downward causation. 41/62 It seems to me that what's missing from Bedau's analysis are distinctions among quasi-interactions (Bedau's micro causes), abstract interactions (many of Bedau's macro causes), and abstract implementations (which should but don't appear in Bedau's discussion). 4. A better way to look at downward causation I think there's a better way to look at downward causation. O'Connor's definition of top-down causation As preliminary steps to a definition for top-down causation, O'Connor (2012) offers two other definitions for causation: causation as production and causation as counterfactual dependence. These appear to characterize causation in Dowe's sense and in the Interventionist sense respectively. (I've reproduced the definitions in Appendix D along with a brief discussion.) O'Connor then introduces a third definition of causation specifically for top-down causation. [Definition 3 of Causation from (O'Connor, 2012)] Causation, top-down: higher level or systemic features that shape dynamical processes at lower levels. This definition seems far too broad. Here is a list of higher level or systemic elements some of whose features would seem to "shape dynamical processes at lower levels": the plumbing in buildings, animal circulatory systems, streets and highways, most electronic communication systems, command-andcontrol systems (hierarchical or not), corporate charters, Robert's Rules of Order, and the syntactic structures of natural languages. As this list suggests, virtually any structure through which things move or any set of rules that specify or constrain how things operate or how they are organized would seem to have features that "shape dynamical processes at lower levels." But let's leave that issue and continue. O'Connor goes on to identify what he calls two varieties of top-down causation. [Continuation of Definition 3 of Causation from (O'Connor, 2012)] One variety of top-down causation involves constraints that preclude many forms of physical possibility present in unorganized matter, possibilities that would lead to systemic dissolution. A stronger, more controversial variety would involve higher level features exerting an irreducible, productive causal influence upon lower level processes. (See emergence: productive causal.) [The "see emergence" reference is part of O'Connor's definition.] I see the second variety as essentially the same as strong emergence, which I discussed earlier. It's the first variety of top-down causation that's most relevant here. The focus on preclusion in O'Connor's first variety of top-down causation strikes me as backwards. It seems to me that what's important is not that constraints "preclude many forms of physical possibility" but that the constraints create a new structure. For example, consider a simple hinged door. Screws hold the hinges to the door; other screws hold the hinges to the door jamb. The two sets of screws constrain the door components in very specific ways. What's important about the constraints is that the ensemble of door, door jam, screws, and hinges becomes a hinged door. Of course many other possibilities are precluded. But that's not really the point. It's the binding together in specific ways that's important. Consequently I find the use of the term constraints somewhat misleading. This usage is a fairly common, however; for example, see Hooker (2012). 42/62 Structure and organization are central to this discussion. Constraints bind components together to create new entities. Whether a constraint is as unsophisticated as the screws in the preceding example, as elegant as the use of gravity and component rigidity to sustain the structure of an arch, or as arcane as the strong force which binds quarks together to form nucleons and atomic nuclei, constraints are the enablers of higher level structure and functionality. As O'Connor's definition indicates, were the constraints that hold a composite entity together to fail, the entity would-by definition(!)-dissolve into its components and (most likely) assume one of the other forms of physical possibility. In my terms this is saying that when components are constrained to implement some higher level abstraction, then as long as the implementation persists properties of the abstraction can be applied to the components. From this broader perspective, it's not clear to me why O'Connor's definition doesn't imply that top-down causation is an inevitable consequence of the creation of any higher-level or composite entity, i.e., the implementation of virtually any new abstraction. Such a perspective would seem to strip the notion of top-down causality of much of its meaning. Since the primary function of a constraint is to hold things together, one of the fundamental issues concerns the nature and variety of forces available for doing that. I discuss this in Appendix A. Here I will simply assume that there are higher-level or composite entities and that they have been created by binding some components together in some organized way. The primary remaining question is whether there is anything worth saying about how higher-level entities shape the dynamical processes of some of their lower-level elements-i.e., what one can say about how properties of an abstraction apply to the components that implement the abstraction. It will be useful to look at Sperry's wheel again with this in mind. Implications of having implemented an abstraction Sperry's wheel is (let's assume) a collection of molecules that are bound together in such a way that their overall shape is that of a wheel. (Let's ignore the question of whether it's a wheel with spokes, a wheel rim with a tire mounted on it, a disk with a hole in the middle through which an axel is put and secured, etc. Let's just assume we have a wheel of some sort.) What is that really saying? It's saying that the forces that hold the molecules together to implement the wheel are stronger than the other forces those molecules are encountering, such as the buffeting of air molecules. Of course this doesn't mean that one couldn't break the wheel by applying still stronger forces, e.g., with a sledge hammer. But as long as the wheel is intact, that seems to be the situation. What are the forces that hold a wheel's molecules together, and does it make sense to say that they are strong enough to do the job? The forces are the standard electromagnetic forces. These are the forces that hold any compound of atoms or molecules together. Depending on the materials being held together and the shape in which they are held, these can be very strong forces. The atoms of a diamond, for example, are held together by the electromagnetic force; the forces that makes glue sticky and that enable it to bind other things together is also the electromagnetic force; friction is a consequence of the electromagnetic force. In fact, in our daily lives, besides the kinetic force implicit in momentum and pressure, the only forces most people encounter are gravity and the electromagnetic force. So it certainly makes sense to say that the electromagnetic force is strong enough to hold some molecules 43/62 together in the shape of a wheel, i.e., to implement a wheel with such abstract properties as a diameter and circumference. These properties pertain to a physical wheel because the molecules that implement the wheel are put together in specific ways. Once we have a wheel, what happens to it? The primary force to which the wheel itself is subject is gravity. Since gravity is a much weaker force than the forces that hold the wheel together the wheel remains in the shape of a wheel. If the wheel is on a hill, gravity will pull on it, and it will roll down the hill. Gravity is not strong enough to pull the molecules of the wheel apart, but it is strong enough to pull the wheel as a whole down the hill. As the wheel rolls down the hill, the molecules that implement it continue to be held together in a wheel shape-unless the wheel smashes into something that causes it to shatter. Consequently, the molecules that implement the wheel follow a cycloidal trajectory-unless the wheel has shattered, in which case they don't. With that we have Sperry's wheel example: the shape of the wheel-as long as it remains a wheel-determines the trajectories of the molecules that implement it. Central to the preceding discussion is the shape of the wheel (round) and the fact that as gravity pulls on the wheel, it rolls down the hill the way round objects roll. Churchill is credited46 with saying, "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." That's a good way of looking at what happened to the components of the wheel. The wheel components were put together in such a way as to produce a round object. Once the wheel was built, the trajectory of its components was determined by the fact that they were part of the implementation of a round object. If this is top-down causation, it's a promise that can't be kept Is this top-down causation? According to the Interface Focus definition it is. The shape of a wheel, certainly helps to47 shape the trajectories of those molecules. Furthermore, one can reasonably argue that this qualifies as Interventionist causality. The trajectories of the molecules depend on the shape of the wheel. Change the shape, and the trajectories will change. Yet there are reasons not to refer to this as a causal relationship. Earlier we said that an Interventioniststyle causal relationship promises (at least implicitly) that there is a physical mechanism that underlies that relationship. But that's not true in this case. There is no physical mechanism that relates the shape of the wheel-as a shape-to the wheel's molecules. A shape is an abstraction. As noted earlier, an abstraction cannot serve as a physical cause. A causal event-at least according to Dowe's definition-is an interaction between two physical elements. Since an abstraction is not physical, it can't be a party to a causal event. Therefore, it doesn't seem right to say that there is a physical causal relationship between the wheel's shape and the trajectories of the molecules that implement it. Downward entailment But there's certainly some connection between the wheel's shape and the trajectory of its implementing molecules. What is it? Rather than refer to the relationship between the shape of the wheel and the 46 Time, September 12, 1960. 47 I say "helps to" because gravity has something to do with it also. 44/62 trajectories of its molecule as causal, I suggest that we refer to it as one of entailment.48 The shape of the wheel entails the trajectories of the molecules. From the shape and motion of the wheel as a wheel and from the position of any molecule in the wheel's implementation, we can compute the trajectory of that molecule. Since the entailment is from properties of the implemented abstraction (the wheel's shape and motion) to a property of a lower-level element (its trajectory), it makes sense to call this downward entailment. This is another way of saying that the wheel as an implemented abstraction interacts with the surface of the earth and with gravity as described by Newton's laws and the principles of geometry. The elements that implement the wheel as an abstraction come along for the ride. As long as the implementation is intact the way the abstraction behaves enables one to compute how its components behave. This notion is not entirely new. What I'm calling downward entailment has been discussed elsewhere as mathematical causality.49 In other contexts mathematical causality refers to the idea that if a mathematical relationship holds among variables and if one can solve for one of the variables in terms of the others, the value of the solved-for variable is causally dependent (in the sense of mathematical causality) on the others.50, 51 There is an important proviso with regard to downward entailment. As I noted above, were the forces that bind the atoms and molecules into the shape of a wheel to fail, i.e., were the implementation of the wheel to break down, the wheel would break apart as it bounces down the hill, and the molecules that formerly made up the wheel would no longer be an implementation of a round object. Consequently there would be nothing from which to deduce the trajectories of those molecules. The entailment would fail because the abstract shape ceased to exist. Downward entailment applies in all cases in which an abstraction has been implemented. Once an instance of an abstraction exists, if that object behaves in the world and is operated upon in the world in terms of the abstraction it instantiates, then the implementing elements are carried along. Their fate is determined by the fate of the higher level element in its role as the higher level abstraction. This may have been what Bedau had in mind when he called downward causation philosophically unproblematic and what Kim (2007) had in mind when he responded to Sperry's examples as follows. 48 Although this is entailment in the same logical sense that Weinberg used the term-a consequence of a logical argument-the two uses of the term are not intended to echo each other. Weinberg's use of entailment suggested a relatively long and drawn out argument. As used here, entailment is expected to be a fairly direct logical consequence of a given situation. 49 (Schmid, 2006) refers to the causality inherent in Aristotle's formal cause as mathematical causality: a physical statue is mathematically causally dependent on the abstract idea of the statue, it's Aristotelian formal cause. In modern dress, this is not far from what I am calling downward entailment. 50 (Hofstadter and Sander, 2013) uses the term mathematical causality in this sense. (Birkhoff and Von Neumann, 1936) and (Plotnitsky, 2010) appear to be attempts to apply this sense of mathematical causality to quantum mechanics. 51 Mathematical causality differs from what might be called statistical causality-e.g., the second law of thermodynamics. 45/62 I fall from the ladder and break my arm. I walk to the kitchen for a drink of water and ten seconds later, all my limbs and organs have been displaced from my study to the kitchen. Sperry's bird flies into the blue yonder, and all of the bird's cells and molecules, too, have gone yonder. It doesn't seem to me that these cases present us with any special mysteries rooted in self-reflexivity, or that they show emergent causation to be something special and unique. For consider Sperry's bird: for simplicity, think of the bird's five constituent parts, its head, torso, two wings, and the tail. For the bird to move from point p1 to point p2 is for its five parts (together, undetached) to move from p1 to p2. The whole bird is at p1 at t1 and moving in a certain direction, and this causes, let us suppose, its tail to be at p2 at t2. There is nothing mysterious or incoherent about this. The cause-the bird's being at p1 at t1 and moving in a certain way-includes its tail's being at p1 at t1 and moving in a certain way. But that's all right: we expect an object's state at a given time to be an important causal factor for its state a short time later. And it is clear that Sperry's other examples, such as the water eddy and the rolling wheel, can be similarly accommodated. If downward entailment provides what I take to be a clearer understanding of this class of phenomena, should we dismiss the notion of top-down (or downward) causation? I'd say we should-and finally kill off that zombie idea. The notion of downward entailment gives us pretty much everything we want from top-down causality (except the mystery), and we get it with an additional depth of understanding. Downward entailment can impose real constraints: reducing one problem to another A mathematician and an engineer were at a conference. Returning from lunch they became concerned that they might be late for the afternoon session. Suddenly they spotted a dumpster on fire. The engineer noticed a garden hose hooked up to a spigot. He turned on the water and put out the fire. Then they hurried back to the conference, where they arrived just as the first presentation was about to begin. The next day they were again walking back from lunch, and again they were concerned about being late. As they passed the dumpster the mathematician struck a match and threw it in-thereby reducing today's problem to one that had already been solved. In mathematics, computer science, and probably many other fields, one reduces an unsolved problem U to a solved one S by showing how a solution to the solved problem can be used to solve the unsolved problem. Induction proofs parley this technique indefinitely. To prove something for the n+1 case one shows how a proof for the n case can be used to prove the n+1 case. Reduction can also be used to demonstrate a negative property such as undecidability. Suppose problem U is known to be Undecidable and suppose one wants to know whether problem S, which is Suspected of being undecidable, is in fact undecidable. If one can reduce U to S then one knows that S is undecidable. Why? Because if a solution to S can be used to construct a solution to U then if there is a solution to S, there is a solution to U. But we know that U is undecidable. Therefore there must not be a solution to S. Reduction enables downward entailment to offer a bonus-namely a framework in which higher level elements can impose formally provable limits on lower level elements. I'll illustrate with an example 46/62 from the Game-of-Life.52 It is known that one can implement an arbitrary Turing machine using the Game of Life as a platform. (Rendell, 2002) This shows that the Game of Life is Turing complete. Consequently it is (formally) undecidable whether a Game-of-Life grid started in an arbitrary initial position will ever reach a terminal, i.e., unchanging, state. It's worth looking at this from the perspective of downward entailment. The undecidability of the Game of Life is entailed by the facts that (a) it is possible to implement a Turing machine as a higher level abstraction with the Game of Life as the lower level and (b) the halting problem for Turning machines is undecidable. In other words, a negative property of the Game of Life is entailed by a negative property of a higher level structure that can be built within the Game of Life. This is a clear case in which we have downward entailment (something is true about a lower level because something is true about a higher level) rather than downward causation (the implemented Turing machine doesn't cause the Game-of-Life to be undecidable). This example also offers another illustrates of how a special science can be autonomous and not a logical consequence of a lower level. We can think of Turing's theory of computability as the "science" of Turing machines. It holds the same relationship to the rules of the Game of Life as the special sciences hold to the laws of fundamental physics. It is an autonomous science that gives us information about Turing machines. It cannot in any useful sense be said to be a consequence of the Game of Life rules.53 Let's take this a step further with a fantasy thought experiment-you'll have to give me a lot of room for this fantasy. Suppose we are scientists. We are investigating the Game-of-Life world, but we know very little about it, not even the transition rules. Let's assume that we run across a colony of Turing machines "in the wild" in the Game-of-Life world. (I warned that this would require a fairly generous suspension of disbelief.) We observe these creatures for a while and develop a science about them, namely the Theory of Computability. We capture some of them and show them along with the new science we developed to our friends the Game-of-Life physicists. Fascinated, the physicists ask themselves: how do these creatures, which are described by such an interesting science, exist in a Game-of-Life world? That's a good question. In fact, the answer is quite complex, but the physicists are up to it. By examining the internal mechanisms of these Turing machine 52 The Game of Life is a cellular automaton in which at each transition cells may switch states between live and dead, i.e., on or off, according to the following rule. A cell will be live after a transition if before the transition either (a) the cell and exactly two of its neighbors were live or (b) the cell (live or dead) had exactly three live neighbors. Otherwise the cell will be dead after the transition. 53 One could define what might be called an extended Game-of-Life device: a Game-of-Life grid with an attached Turing machines. One could then prove the usual computability theorems about the Turing machine part of this compound device. One might claim that this device is derived from the Game of Life and that everything we can know about it is derived from the rules of the Game of Life. Is that at all a useful way of looking at it? A Theory of Computability developed on the basis of this device is not in any useful sense a consequence of the rules of the Game of Life. That the Game-of-Life rules are unused assumptions in this theory doesn't give them any special claim on the theory. 47/62 creatures, the physicists discover not only how they exist in a Game-of-Life world but also the underlying Game-of-Life rules themselves. Everyone will have come out ahead. We have a new science of a new domain (Computability theory); we have discovered that this new domain can exist as higher level elements within a Game-of-Life world; as a result of examining how that can be, we have discovered more about how the Game-of-Life world itself works; and we have also discovered that some of the properties of the new domain entail some additional and otherwise unknown properties of the Game-of-Life. F. What have we said? As a computer scientist I have long believed that computational thinking can be of value when investigating philosophical questions. One of the fundamental principles of modern computer science is the distinction between a specified abstraction and the software that implements that abstraction. Adherence to that principle has enabled the software industry to develop enormously complex systems. I distinguished between two sorts of interactions among implementations of abstractions: quasiinteractions that depends on how the implementations work and abstract interactions that depend on properties of the abstractions themselves. I showed that a useful way to think about emergence is in terms of abstractions and their implementations. When looked at in this way, emergence loses its aura of mystery. I also pointed out that phenomena that at one point might have been candidates for strong emergence did not delegitimize science. I argued that the conceptual distance between (a1) software abstractions as seen by users and (b1) bits to-ing and fro-ing at the level of logic gates is comparable to the conceptual distance between (a2) the phenomena studied by the special sciences and (b2) fundamental physics. In investigating how these conceptual distances are bridged, I argued for the autonomy of many of the levels and collections of abstractions developed along the way. This discussion also offered insights into how complex systems are able to develop and not crumble under the weight of their own complexity. We visited the debate about whether the laws of physics entail the laws of the special sciences. In reviewing a video of a recent conference I suggested that the two sides were not as far apart as they seemed. One side was looking at the question of analysis; the other side was looking at the question of synthesis. Synthesis suggests that the special sciences can be autonomous; analysis replies that the important question for physicists is how entities that obey those laws can exist in a world governed by the fundamental laws of physics, i.e., how the abstractions that the laws describe are implemented. I reviewed causation and its conceptual role in computer science-namely that we tend to use the language of causation when telling stories about how something might have happened, but we don't use that language when thinking about how software operates. As part of this exploration I discussed how the programming language abstraction of the conditional expression creates what may seem like an illusion of choice. I also discussed the similarity between a computer science view of causality based on ongoing processes and the pushy explainer view of how the laws of physics enables physical explanations. 48/62 This paper was originally motivated by the striking persistence of the idea of top-down causality. It's fairly clear from a naturalistic perspective that there can't be anything like top-down causality. Yet the notion persists. I asked why. I pointed out that downward causation in the form reviewed is much too broad a concept. 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Pearl, Judea (2012) Causal Inference in Statistics: A Gentle Introduction. Tutorial presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM-12), American Statistical Association, San Diego, CA, July 29, 2012, . Pearl, Judea (2013) The Mathematics of Causal Inference: with Reflections on Machine Learning. Microsoft Research Machine Learning Summit 2013, April 23, 2013, . Peyton Jones, Simon, ed. (2003). Haskell 98 Language and Libraries: The Revised Report. Cambridge University Press. Plotkin, Gordon (2004) A Structural Approach to Operational Semantics. Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 60-61, 17-139. Plotnitsky, Arkady (2010) On physical and mathematical causality in quantum mechanics. Physica E, 42/3, 279-286, Elsevier. Putnam, Hilary (1975) Philosophy and our Mental Life. In Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge University Press, pp 291-303. Rendell, P. (2002) Turing universality of the game of life. In A. Adamatzky (ed.) Collision-Based Computing, Springer, 513-540. Rochet, Jean‐Charles, and Jean Tirole (2003) Platform competition in two‐sided markets. Journal of the European Economic Association 1.4 (2003): 990-1029. Schmid, Alexandre (2006) What Does Emergence in Computer Simulations? Simulation between Epistemological and Ontological Emergence. In Flaminio Squazzoni (Ed.) Epistemological Aspects of Computer Simulation in the Social Sciences, Second International Workshop, EPOS 2006, Brescia, Italy, October 5-6, 2006, Revised Selected and Invited Papers, Springer. 52/62 Schrödinger, Erwin (1944) What is Life? Lectures delivered at Trinity College Dublin. Available in What is Life, Cambridge University press, reprint edition (2012). Schoenmaker, Sanne, Markus Barth, Tom Heskes, and Marcel van Gerven (2013) Linear reconstruction of perceive images from human brain activity. NeuroImage, July 22, 2013, DOI: , Elsevier. Sellers, Eric W. (2013) New horizons in brain-computer interface research. Clinical Neurophysiology. 2013 January; 124(1): 2-4. Simon, Heloisa, Eros Comunello, and Aldo von Wangenheim (2013) Enrichment of Interactive Digital TV using Second Screen. International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 - 8887) Volume 64- No.22, February 2013 Smolin, Lee (2012) A Real Ensemble Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Foundations of Physics, 42/10 pp 1239-1261, Springer. Sperry, Roger (1970) An Objective Approach to Subjective Experience. Psychological Review, Vol. 77. van Hove, L. (2001) Optimal Denominations for Coins and bank notes: in Defense of the Principle of Least Effort. Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 33, 1015-21. Weinberg, S. (1995) Reductionism Redux. The New York Review of Books, October 5, 1995. Reprinted in Weinberg, S., Facing Up, Harvard University Press, 2001. Wilczek, Frank (2008) The Lightness of Being. Basic Books. Woodward, James (2003) Making things happen, Oxford University Press. Woodward, James (2011) Mechanisms revisited. Synthese, December 2011, Volume 183, Issue 3, pp 409-427. Ziman, John (2000), Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process. Cambridge University Press. Zimmer, Carl (2011) More eldritch ant horror! The Loom, Discover Magazine May 9, 2011: . A. Appendix A. Why is there anything except physics?54 1. How are higher level entities held together? Following is a key sentence in O'Connor's definition of Causation, top-down. One variety of top-down causation involves constraints that preclude many forms of physical possibility present in unorganized matter, possibilities that would lead to systemic dissolution. 54 The titles of this appendix and the next were selected as a salute to Loewer's identically titled articles (2007) and (2008). I have found Loewer's work in this area among the most insightful and informative of any that I have read. The appendices don't speak directly to his articles, however. 53/62 I noted that this sentence seemed to have been written backwards, that a constraint in this context holds something together. Indeed, a constraint limits something's freedom of movement. But the constraint is important in this context not because it enforces a limit but because it keeps the components of a larger structure from moving out of place. In other words, the reason we are interested in constraints is so that we can understand how it's possible to build entities at a higher level from those at a lower level. In this section I will offer a brief summary of my views about how things are held together-about how it's possible for there to be higher level entities. I discussed this issue in a number of earlier papers. The most recent is Abbott (2010b). As I see it, there are two broad classes of higher level entities: static and dynamic. The static entities are held together by virtue of their being in an energy well. Examples include atoms and molecules at the micro level, things at our level that are held together by screws, nails, etc., and solar systems and galaxies at the highest levels of granularity. In each case, energy is released when the entity is formed. A consequence of this is that static entities have less mass than the mass of their components taken separately55-which gives them a strong claim to their own ontological status. Because energy was released when static entities are created, to pull a static entity apart requires the addition of energy. Once created, a static entity needs no further energy to remain an entity-although static entities tend to deteriorate as a result of being buffeting by things around them. Dynamic entities are held together by ongoing expenditures of energy. Examples are living organisms and groupings of living organisms. A consequence of this is that dynamic entities have more mass than the mass of their components taken separately-which gives them also a strong claim to their own ontological status. Examples of dynamic entities include biological organisms as well as colonies, clubs, corporations, and countries. In all cases, were the members of the dynamic entity to stop expending energy to help hold the entity together, it would cease to exist as an entity. Dynamic entities typically include some static components: biological organisms include physical molecules, and corporations include corporate headquarters. One of the ways in which dynamic entities expend energy is in the maintenance of their static parts. There is a third but more artificial class of higher level entities. These are symbolic entities within computer systems. I have called them subsidized entities. They persist because there is no deterioration within the symbolic framework of computer systems. Of course computers themselves are subject to deterioration. But the energy used to maintain them doesn't count against the symbolic entities within. Symbolic entities thus live in a charmed world of pristine symbols-you can't break a bit-and pure structure. They are free from any worry about energy required to maintain them. For further discussion see Abbott (2010b). 2. Which higher level entities will come to exist? Related to the question of how higher-level entities are built is the question of which higher level entities will be built-and will persist. It seems to me that there is a separate answer for static and dynamic entities. The static entities that will come to exist are those that are at a local energy minimum. 55 Humphreys (1997) made a similar suggestion. 54/62 Since higher level static entities exist in energy wells, to the extent possible, nature will flow downhill in terms of energetics. This doesn't mean that there aren't local minima that are not global minima. Water behind a dam and combustible materials that aren't burning are two examples of local energy minima. Dynamic entities develop and persist through a process of evolution. Dynamic entities require energy to persist. Those that are able to supply themselves with energy will persist; those that can't won't. Over the long term, dynamic entities that are more effective at securing the necessary energy resources are the ones that will survive. Of course evolution depends on a mechanism for recording and reusing designs, and fitness depends on the environment. But my overall sense is that the world of dynamic entities can be understood in standard evolutionary terms. B. Appendix B. Why there is anything except physics Loewer (2008) explains what he takes to be Fodor's view of the relationship between the special sciences and physics as follows. [E]ach special science taxonomizes nature into natural kinds in terms of its own proprietary vocabulary. What makes a special science a science is that it contains lawful regularities stated in its proprietary vocabulary that ground explanations and counterfactuals. He is clear that what makes a special science regularity lawful is a fact that is irreducible to the laws and facts of fundamental physics (and other special sciences). That is, the lawfulness of special science regularities is a fact about the world as basic as and independent of the lawfulness of the laws of fundamental physics. Fodor's view can be illustrated with the help of a souped up version of Laplace's demon. The demon knows all the physical facts obtaining at all times and all the fundamental dynamical laws of physics, has perfect computational powers and also a "translation" manual connecting special science and physical vocabularies. The demon is thus able to tell which micro physical situations correspond to, for example, a philosophy conference and is able to determine which generalizations about philosophy conferences are true and which are false. It can do the same for all the special science. It will also be able to tell which special science regularities hold under counterfactual initial conditions and so which hold in all physically possible worlds (i.e. all the worlds at which the fundamental laws of physics obtain). But on Fodor's view the demon will not be able to discern which regularities are laws. Because of this "blindness" the demon will be missing those counterfactuals and explanations that are underwritten by special science laws and so will not have an understanding of special science phenomena. Although the demon will be able to predict and explain the motions of elementary particles (or whatever entities are physically fundamental) from the state of the universe at any time and so could have predicted the stock market crash of 1929 it will not understand why it crashed. To do that it would need to know economics. Loewer then offers what seems to me to be an ingenious proposal for how the special science laws can be understood as inherent in the fundamental nature of the universe. He requires only the laws of physics and the assumption that the entropy of the universe was very low at its beginning. I will not attempt to analyze or comment on Loewer's proposal. In this section I want simply to look at the hypothesized Laplacian demon and see how it might work. To start I want to strip the souped-up demon of its translation manual. As I understand it, the demon does not use its translation manual for computing. The primary use the demon makes of its translation 55/62 manual is to communicate a computed state of the world to those of us who want to see the world in terms of special science types. In making that claim I am bothered by the statement that the demon "is able to determine which generalizations about philosophy conferences are true and which are false." Since the demon doesn't know the laws of the special science of philosophy conferences, I don't understand how it can determine which generalizations are true and which are false. As I understand it for any putative regularity about philosophy conferences the demon could check to see if that regularity holds for a particular philosophy conference. But I don't see how it can verify the regularity in general. If it had the ability to do that, it would be able to check any purported special science law about philosophy conferences, which we said it was unable to do. Perhaps I'm missing something, but from here on I will limit my demon to working solely with that to which the fundamental dynamic laws of physics apply. My focus will be on the plausibility of such a more limited demon. My demon will be a quantum physics demon. Its job will be to take a given wave function of the universe and project it forward. Since quantum physics is deterministic we already know that such a job is possible in principle. Such a projection is not possible in this universe because the amount of computation required exceeds any conceivable computational power the known universe would be able to provide. But we are not worrying about that. We are assuming that the computational power is available. One might imagine this as if one had a quantum computer to which we gave the wave function of the universe and set it computing. And to the best of our knowledge, the universe itself is such a quantum computer, and it is doing that computation all the time. What does the wave function of the universe look like? It is a collection of hypothetical snapshots of the universe, where each snapshot shows the elements of the universe in one of its possible states. The collection of snapshots contains one snapshot for each possible combination of states. In other words, every possible state of the universe is in that collection.56 Each of these snapshots is associated with a probability amplitude. A probability amplitude is a complex number. The probability of the universe being in the configuration described by a snapshot is the snapshot's probability amplitude times its complex conjugate.57 In short, the wave function of the universe is a collection of all the possible states of the universe with something like a probability associated with each one. If we assume we are starting at a given state, the wave function will have 1 associated with that states' probability and 0 with all the others. 56 Not that it matters for our purposes, but that's a lot of snapshots. If, for example, there are 1080 atoms in the universe, and if each atom were limited to only two possible states, we are talking about 2(10^80) snapshots, where 10^80 means 1080. Of course atoms are not elementary, and each elementary piece, whatever it is, will have more than two possible states. The point is, we are talking about lots of snapshots. But as I said, that doesn't really matter for our purposes. It would matter if we were concerned about how much computing power it would take to do this computation. But we aren't. 57 The complex conjugate of a complex number is the complex number with the same real part and the negation of the imaginary part. The product of a complex number with its complex conjugate is always a real number: (a+ib)*(a-ib)=a2+b2. 56/62 In giving the "wave function of the universe" I am assuming that the entire universe is entangled and that it propagates as a single wave function.58 Quantum mechanics tells us we can propagate the wave function forward. The problem is that at the next step there will be multiple states with non-zero probability amplitudes. At the step after that, there will most likely be even more states with non-zero probability amplitudes. Etc. At the end of the computation, however far in future we ask the demon to compute, there will almost certainly be many states with non-zero probability amplitudes. So, even though the demon can compute the probabilities of all the possible configurations of the universe for this final step, when it's done computing we would like it to give us one answer. You might think of this as asking the demon to do the equivalent of collapsing the wave function at the end of the computation. How should the demon perform this collapse operation? That's where I think the interesting problems arise. One reasonable strategy would be for the demon to take all its snapshots at the end of the computation and group them into clusters of similar snapshots. Then weight each cluster by the probabilities of the snapshots it contains. Finally, as its collapsed answer the demon will select one snapshot at random from the cluster with the highest weight. In saying this, I haven't said either what we want similar to mean or how our clustering algorithm is supposed to work. For example, do we want to specify in advance the number of clusters we want to end up with? What is our criterion-if we want to specify it in advance-for how similar two snapshots must be to be included in the same cluster? I don't want to attempt answers to those questions, but for the rest of this section I want to look at what we might mean by similar. To make the discussion easier, I'm going to think of our snapshots in other terms. Instead of thinking of a snapshot as something like a list of all the elements in the universe with a state associated with each, I'd like to think of a snapshot as something more like an image composed of pixels. Imagine the universe as a 3-dimensional array of pixels. Let that be a snapshot. Since the wave function covers the entire universe, it seems just as reasonable to organize it as a three-dimensional array as a list of objects. Each pixel has, as usual, some color bits. It may also have other primitive properties such as charge, mass, etc. depending on where the actual objects are. When transformed in this way it may be easier to think of a reasonable way to assess similarity. To sharpen the problem a bit further, let's consider how we would assess similarity between two small regions of two snapshots. Can we compare snapshots of a single small region and determine how similar they are? We currently have software that can do pattern matching on images and compute a measure of how similar two images are. For example, one can give Google an image and ask it to find similar images. The algorithm works by looking for patterns such as large patches of sandy-colored areas (which may indicate a beach) or a great many horizontal and vertical lines (which may indicate buildings). Google's 58 What I am describing is essentially the many worlds version of quantum mechanics. See Carroll (2011), chapter 11 for an accessible discussion. 57/62 algorithm is much more sophisticated than that, but at its heart it's a pattern recognizer. Let's suppose that a similar algorithm could be constructed for our snapshots. Would that do the job? Suppose we started, say, with Schrödinger's cat and wanted to know whether the cat will be dead or alive after a certain amount of time. The problem, of course, is constructed so that there is a non-negligible probability of either. So we shouldn't be surprised if we don't expect to get a definitive answer. But restating the problem in terms of a cat raises additional problems. One serious problem is that our pattern recognition algorithm may not be able to distinguish a snapshot of a dead cat from that of a live cat that happened to be sleeping in the same position. (I'm assuming that the dead cat died just recently and hadn't yet started to decompose.) After all, the algorithm is doing relatively gross pattern matching. At that level of comparison a snapshot of a recently deceased cat would be virtually indistinguishable, even at the physiological level, from that of a sleeping live cat. Certainly someone knowledgeable about cats would know where to look and would know how to distinguish one from the other. But our similarity algorithm doesn't know anything about cats. All it has is snapshots, and all it can do is to compare them to each other in relatively simple ways. This illustrates one of the important properties of higher levels of abstraction, namely that certain differences matter much more than others. Relatively small differences in physiology matter much more than possible large differences in the shape, say, of food bowls. Our similarity algorithm would rate two scenes that are essentially identical except that one had a recently deceased cat and the other a live sleeping cat in the same position as quite similar. Yet it would rate two scenes with two cats sleeping in the same position but with differently sized, shaped, and positioned food bowl as very different. This would happen because the scenes with the different food bowls would have more differences from each other at the pixel level than the scenes with the dead and live cats. It's easy to construct other examples along these lines. Imagine two scenes that are identical except for the bank balances of two people. When examined at the pixel level the two scenes would appear virtually identical-the physical differences corresponding to the two bank balances are minimal. Yet in reality the differences could be vast. Could we modify our similarity measuring algorithm to be aware of which differences are important? One approach would be to build into the similarity measuring algorithm knowledge about the higher level structures about which differences matter. This seems like cheating since we are now building into our physics-level propagation system knowledge of higher level structures and functionalities. The original point was to show that all one needs is physics. But let's assume we took that route. How would it work? First, we would have to provide the similarity algorithm a way to parse a snapshot so that it could associate individual pixels with higher levels of organization. A pixel makes a difference in a structure only if it occurs in an important place in the structure. So the similarity algorithm would have to do far more than gross pattern matching. It would have to be able to do something like a syntactic analysis of the snapshot it is given. What role does each pixel play at each level of the given scene? Recall that we stripped our demon of the ability to do essentially this job. If we re-instated that capability, the parsing task would be taken care of. It's worth noting, though, that this parsing job is not at all trivial. 58/62 Once the snapshots are parsed the similarity algorithm would need to determine which differences in the higher level structures might make a difference. In other words, the similarity algorithm would need semantic information about the higher levels. In particular it would have to have information about what might be referred to as the control systems for these higher level structures. Nerve firings and other physiological details are part of the control system for biological entities. Bank balances are data used by the control systems for social entities. If two scenes differed in these areas the algorithm would then need a way to determine whether the differences mattered. The difference between, say, $10,000.00 and $10,000.01 won't make much of a difference. The difference between $110,000.00 and $11,000.00 is likely to make a much greater difference. But if you look just at the symbols, they differ in just one or two symbols. So knowledge about how to interpret the differences in snapshots would have to be built into the system. If we are dealing with people such an analysis would have to extend to the semantic analysis of language-both spoken and written. Perhaps the only difference between two scenes are the words someone is reading or hearing. The similarity algorithm would have to determine whether what one is seeing or hearing are words, and whether those words matter. In other words, at the semantic level in order to determine which differences make a difference, the similarity checker would have to know the laws of the relevant special sciences, which is exactly what we were trying to do without. Besides all that, the similarity checker would require constant updating to keep up with technological developments. For example, if the similarity checker were originally written before cell phones, it would have to be updated to recognize and understand cell phones once they become widespread. The same for other technologies and other newly evolved biology-such as bacterial resistance to anti-bacterial treatments, which might make a life-or-death difference. Now that we've examined it, this more difficult approach has two obvious problems. It would be so difficult to write that it's hardly imaginable that it could be coded. More importantly: even if it could be written-and continually updated-doing so would demonstrate the opposite of what was originally intended. It would show that to make a similarity judgment about two snapshots one would have to take into account all the laws of the special sciences that are relevant to the various differences. The laws of the special sciences describe real regularities. Consequently I conclude that it would make no sense to attempt to characterize all observed phenomena in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. Any such characterization will require directly or indirectly the reconstruction of the special sciences. C. Appendix C. Platforms A platform is a generalization of a level of abstraction. Most platforms enable interaction among users. Facebook is a good example. Facebook users interact by posting items to their Facebook pages and by looking at and commenting on items of the pages of other users. The repertoire of possible user actions (i.e., the abstractions) that Facebook makes available enables these interactions. 59/62 A platform often gives rise to what is known as an ecosystem of participants. In the case of Facebook, the ecosystem includes companies that advertise on Facebook, companies that develop games and other apps for Facebook users, and companies that develop tools to help companies that develop Facebook apps. Most platforms are multi-sided, which means that users can be grouped into multiple categories. The three categories just listed are three sides of the Facebook platform. Each group uses Facebook for a different purpose. Platforms are often subject to what is known as a network effect. The more regular users there are, the more valuable the platform is to each group. It's more valuable to other users because you don't want to be on a social network with no one else. It's more valuable to game and app developers because more users means more potential customers for your games. It's more valuable to advertisers because more users means more eyes on your ad. Similarly the more game and app developers there are, the more valuable the platform is to the regular users because they will have a wider variety of games and apps from which to choose. Because user-group size is so important there is intense competition among platform developers to become the preferred platform in a given area. Success for a platform in terms of a large user base means that the platform can support more niches. For example if there are enough users it is likely that there will be enough chess players among them for it to make sense for a game developer to develop an app that allows users to play chess with each other. In other words, as a platform grows in popularity it is likely to become increasingly rich and diverse. Multi-sided platforms are not limited to computer systems. Many businesses are also platform based. Among the first cited examples (Rochet and Tirole, 2003) was the credit card service, a platform that facilitates a certain form of interaction among buyers and sellers. It serves buyers by making it possible make purchases without carrying money or establishing credit-worthiness. It serves sellers by making it easier to make sales to unknown customers and then to collect payment. Other multi-sided platforms include shopping malls (customers and stores), markets (such as farmer's markets and stock markets) where buyers and sellers meet to transact business, communication systems like the telephone and the postal systems (there is a single group of users who want to communicate among themselves), and advertiser-supported media like television (the sides are viewers, show producers, and advertisers). For more on multi-sided platforms see (Evans, Hagiu, and Schmalensee, 2006), (Evans, 2013), and (Filistrucchi, Geradin, and van Damme, (2012). Multi-sided platforms offer a model for how natural ecosystems can develop. As a platform develops it becomes richer and more diverse. But it must start with a sufficiently broad and rich collection of abstractions to attract an initial set of users. That initial user base must be large enough to produce a cycle of self-reinforcing growth and development. D. Appendix D: The first two definitions of causality in Ellis (2012) The first Interface Focus definition of causation seems to correspond most closely to Dowe's (2000) what-actually-happens version of causality. I found some confusing points, though. Here is the definition. 60/62 [causation, definition 1 from (O'Connor 2012).] Causation as production: A productive cause of an effect is the set of factors that produce, bring about or make happen the effect. It is controversial whether causation in this basic, metaphysical sense ever obtains outside the realm of fundamental physics. (Causal closure-denying emergentism maintains that it does so obtain.) And on some philosophical views, there are no productive causes in this sense, only patterns of counterfactual dependence among types of events. It's not clear to me how to read this definition. The first sentence sounds like Interventionist causation since the Interventionist approach to causation is intended to identify factors that if triggered would bring the effect about. I originally suspected that the term productive has a technical sense in the causality literature and that its inclusion is intended to limit the bringing about to something that is directly physical-and thereby to exclude the Interventionist interpretation. But that doesn't seem to be the case. For one things, neither Dowe (2000) nor Woodward (2003) includes either productive or production in its index. Secondly, Hall (2004) seems to have coined this usage when he wrote that in contrast to dependent causation productive causation refers to the generation, bringing about, or production of an event. But Hall does not limit a productive cause to one that is necessarily either direct and physical. A productive cause need not be simultaneous with its effect and may be productive through transitivity. In fact, the focus of Hall (2004) is on situations involving omission, prevention, failed prevention (e.g., Billy tripped and was unable to prevent Suzy from throwing a stone at the window), double prevention (e.g., Billy prevents Valentino from sweet talking Suzy and thereby distracting her from throwing a stone at the window), over-determination (e.g., Billy and Suzy both throw stones at the window), and related causal complications. It is not a search for anything like a physical causal primitive.59 Yet Bobro (2013) says that for Leibnitz efficient cause and productive cause are synonyms. And according to The Free Dictionary,60 "efficient cause is frequently used interchangeably with proximate cause-the immediate act in the production of a particular effect."61 Based on the second sentence in the definition, and since the second Interface Focus definition seems to refer to Interventionist causation, my best guess is that this first definition is intended to refer to causation in the what-actually-happens sense, i.e., Dowe-style causation. A further source of confusion, though, is that Dowe, the primary expert on what-actually-happens causation, does not limit that form 59 For what it's worth, my sense is that for Hall, given a set of entities and a set of possible events, a cause is productive if there is no possible configuration of events that includes the effect but not the cause. In effect, this says that a cause is productive for an effect if the effect does not occur without it. Pearl (2000, p 310) says essentially the same thing. "[Hall's] notions of dependence and production closely parallel those of necessity and sufficient respectively." Pearl goes on to provide a formalization of productive in this sense. The formalization does not attempt to define a productive cause as one that's physically primitive. 60 61 But the waters are muddied for me by Cohen (2012), who says that Aristotle uses efficient and productive as synonymous but not necessarily to mean directly physical. An efficient cause, is "the primary source of change or rest" (194b30). According to Aristotle, an adviser is the cause of an action, a father is the cause of his child, and in general the producer is the cause of the product. Also, according to Falcon (2012), for Aristotle both the artisan and the art of bronze-casting are efficient causes for a statue. 61/62 of causation to fundamental physics. In response to a complaint by Craver that conserved-quantity causation seems to drive all causation down to fundamental physics Dowe notes (2012, p 873) that a steel ball possesses the conserved quantities mass and charge as much as an electron does. The second Interface Focus definition of causation refers straightforwardly to Interventionist-style causation. [causation, definition 2 from (O'Connor 2012).] Causation as counterfactual dependence: B counterfactually depends on A just in case B would not have occurred had A not occurred. Patterns of covariant dependence clearly obtain at many levels of nature, not just in physics. Plausibly, it is this minimalist notion of causation that guides methods for drawing causal conclusions from statistical data. E. Appendix E. Software developers build on firmer foundations than do engineers Much of what I said about creating and implementing abstractions applies to engineers as well as to software developers. Engineers, too, create products that embody new abstractions and functionalities. And they do it by putting together components that offer existing abstractions. "Smart" phones provide many examples. A nice one is the smart phone's ability to re-orient its display (portrait or landscape) depending on how the phone is held. How do engineers get phones to do that? They use a pre-existing device, the small-scale accelerometer, which had been developed for and has a wide range of uses in industrial and commercial products. One of its more familiar uses is in game controllers such as the Nintendo Wii. An accelerometer in a game controller can tell the software in the controller about the user's motion. When the user swings her arm as if holding a tennis racket, the controller can display a picture of someone swinging a racket in a way that parallels the user's movements. In a smart phone, the accelerometer is used much more simply-to let the software in the phone know how the phone was moved and how it is oriented. The point is that a device whose functionality had been used for one purpose is now used for another. Software developers have an important advantage over engineers.62 We need not be concerned about the reliability of our primitives. The lowest level software element is the bit. It is an atomic ideal. It cannot be decomposed into smaller elements, and it cannot wear out. As far as software developers are concerned, bits are forever; you can't break a bit. Engineers have no such solid foundation. When building something they must always be concerned about whether the components are appropriate for the application of the device. This is not a trivial issue; there is no a priori limit to the depth of analysis required to provide the assurance that the components will work when the device is put to use. For example, there are many different types of accelerometers. Some are quite rugged; others fail when not in a laboratory environment. In addition, there is trade-off between accelerometer size and sensitivity. 62 Confusingly software developers are often referred to as software engineers. 62/62 Larger accelerometers are better at sensing smaller movements, but heavier mobile phones don't sell as well. See (Lally, 2005). Issues of these sorts require engineers always to be looking down toward the physical foundations of the devices they use as well as up toward the new abstractions they are building. Only software developers (and God63) can be secure in the certainty of their knowledge of the fundamental elements of their universes. (See (Abbott, 2010a) for additional discussion.) 63 This analogy was suggested by Debora Shuger, private correspondence. She cited Barkan (2013, p 13) for a discussion of Plato's transmutation of the "public craftsman," i.e., engineer, into an equivalent for God.
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{ "creator": "Abbott, Russ", "date": "2015", "datestamp": 1587257143000, "description": "I discuss two categories of causal relationships: primitive causal interactions of the sort characterized by Phil Dowe and the more general manipulable causal relationships as defined by James Woodward. All primitive causal interactions are manipulable causal relationships, but there are manipulable causal relationships that are not primitive causal interactions. I’ll call the latter constructed causal relationships, and I’ll argue that constructed causal relationships serve as a foundation for both computing and complex systems. -/- Perhaps even more interesting are autonomous causal relationships. These are constructed causal relationships in which the causal mechanism resides primarily in the effect. A typical example is a software execution engine. Software execution engines are on the effect side of a cause-effect relationship in which software is the cause and the behavior of the execution engine is the effect. The mechanism responsible for that causal relationship resides in the execution engine.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBCCA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Causality, computing, and complexity", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
1 Causality, computing, and complexity Russ Abbott Department of Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles Abstract. I discuss two categories of causal relationships: primitive causal interactions of the sort characterized by Phil Dowe and the more general manipulable causal relationships as defined by James Woodward. All primitive causal interactions are manipulable causal relationships, but there are manipulable causal relationships that are not primitive causal interactions. I'll call the latter constructed causal relationships, and I'll argue that constructed causal relationships serve as a foundation for both computing and complex systems. Perhaps even more interesting are autonomous causal relationships. These are constructed causal relationships in which the causal mechanism resides primarily in the effect. A typical example is a software execution engine. Software execution engines are on the effect side of a cause-effect relationship in which software is the cause and the behavior of the execution engine is the effect. The mechanism responsible for that causal relationship resides in the execution engine. Introduction Causality has been a longstanding and controversial topic in philosophy. I think it's fair to say, though, that Phil Dowe's primitive causal interactions and James Woodward's manipulable causality currently reign as the primary ways to think about philosophical causality. See the section below on actions and events for some additional discussion. Primitive causal interactions Primitive causal interactions correspond to direct interactions-the sorts of interactions one associates with billiard balls hitting one another. (Dowe 2000) defines a [primitive1] causal interaction as follows. An object is anything found in the ontology of science (such as particles, waves or fields), or common sense (such as chairs, buildings, or people). A world line is the collection of points on a space-time (Minkowski) diagram which represents the history of an object. A causal interaction is an intersection of world lines which involves [an] exchange of a conserved quantity. For our purposes one can think of a primitive causal interaction as occurring at a single moment in time and at a single point in space.2 Manipulable causal relationships A manipulable causal relationship is defined by Woodward (2003, 2012/forthcoming), as follows.3 1 Dowe uses the term causal interaction rather than primitive causal interaction. He entitles his book Physical Causality reflecting his commitment to fundamental physical interactions. Hence my use of the term primitive. 2 Quantum interactions do not occur at a single moment in time or at a single point in space. They occur through an exchange of virtual particles. Emission and absorption occur at different moments and different locations. But this issue will not be relevant for this paper, which will be concerned with macro-level interactions. 3 Woodward's general definition is expressed in terms of probability distributions rather than just values. 2 2 X causes Y iff (i) there is a possible intervention4 that changes the value of X which is such that (ii) under this intervention the value of Y changes. The motto characterizing manipulable causal relationships is: when you wiggle X, Y wiggles. The idea is that X provides access to Y for the purpose of change. The more common term for Woodward-style causality is interventionist causality. I am using the term manipulable instead because it seems to reflect Woodward's intent more accurately. Woodward (2012/forthcoming) says that his approach serves our human desire to manipulate in the world. "Even if one wants to consign the notion of cause to the rubbish heap, one needs some way [to identify] relationships [that can be exploited] for manipulation and control."5 Philosophical causality can be a hall of mirrors Consider the following example: Bob killed the plant by not watering it. No conserved quantity is transferred between Bob and the plant. Yet from a manipulability perspective Bob's not watering the plant caused it to die. (We are assuming that it was Bob's practice to water the plant.) Changing Bob's behavior from watering the plant to not watering the plant changed the plant's fate from living to dying. So Bob's killing the plant by not watering it is a manipulable causal relationship that is not a primitive causal interaction. One can construct arbitrarily complex-and perhaps arbitrarily foolish and arbitrarily vexing-examples. What if Alice, noticing that Bob was no longer watering the plant, did so herself, thereby keeping it alive? Did Bob's not watering the plant cause it to stay alive-because his not watering it caused Alice to water it, which caused it to stay alive? I do not intend to be drawn into issues of this sort. See Paul and Hall (2012) for an extended discussion of examples like this. Constructed causal relationships I'll use the term constructed causal relationships for a manipulable causal relationship that is not a primitive causal interaction. Bob's killing the plant (or not killing the plant depending on whether Alice takes over the job) by not watering it are two examples. For another, consider a light switch or a water faucet. What happens when one turns the switch or faucet from Off to On? First of all, light starts shining or water starts flowing. And this happens so reliably that it makes sense to say that manipulable causal relationships exist between the position of the switch/faucet and the flowing or not flowing of the light/water.6 What role do actions and events play in manipulable causal relationships? When thinking about causal relationships it's important not to rely too heavily on the intuitive meaning of the verb to cause. One common understanding of to cause is to make happen: "X causes Y" is often taken to mean that X makes Y happen or X brings Y about. To cause is an active transitive verb: a subject does something to an object. To a great extent this is what the conserved-quantity-transfer notion of cause captures. Transferring a conserved quantity to or from an object typically makes something happen to that object. In particular the cause and the effect are both events. (This is the position that Paul and Hall take.) Schaeffer (2014) puts it this way. 4 An "intervention" is an idealized unconfounded manipulation of X that changes Y, if at all, only through X. 5 Although Woodward's approach may be motivated by a human goal of manipulation, it is not a commitment to a causality dependent on human manipulations. An intervention simply requires that something change, not that a human being change it. See, for example, (Woodward 2013, section 9) for a discussion. 6 More precisely and as discussed in the next section, the relationship between the position of the switch/faucet and the flow of light/water is persistent under the Off/On intervention in just those situations in which (perhaps somewhat circularly) the intervention results in water/light flowing or not. 3 3 The standard view of the causal relata is that they are of the category of event, and that their number is two, in the roles of cause and effect. So on the standard view, when the cue ball knocks the nine ball into the corner pocket, there is said to be an (actual) event e1 of the cue ball striking the nine ball, and an (actual, distinct) event e2 of the nine ball sinking into the corner pocket, such that e1 is cause and e2 effect. ... The standard view has, of course, been disputed on all counts. As to category, while the standard view casts the causal relata as events, one also finds considerable support for facts, and occasional support for such other entities as features, tropes, states of affairs, situations, and aspects. Allegiances are further complicated by disagreements over what events, facts, and these other creatures are. In the perspective taken here a manipulable causal relationship need not involve either an action or an event. Recall that for Woodward a manipulable causal relationship exists between X and Y (to simply somewhat) if changing X-i.e., intervening on X-results in a consistent change to Y. But X and Y themselves need not be actions or events. They can be static properties. All that is required is that the value(s) for Y must be determined for any given value(s) for X.7 A more straightforward way to put this is that a manipulable causal relationship is a functional dependency as defined in relational database theory.8 For example, in US addresses there is a manipulable causal relationship between ZIP code and state.9 Given a ZIP code, the state is determined. Furthermore, the ZIP code → state dependency is invariant under an intervention that changes ZIP code from one value to another. • If in a database system, one changes a person's ZIP code, then that person's state also changes-and in a manner consistent with other ZIP codes. • If an attempt is made to enter data showing two people with the same ZIP code but different states the system rejects that data. Another way to think about a manipulable causal relationship between X and Y is as if X were a remote control for Y: one can change Y by changing X. Although a nice metaphor and not a bad thought aid, this metaphor is misleading since most remote controls are linked to their controlled devices via a physical signal. As our database example shows no such direct physical link need necessarily exist. Woodward refers to the link between cause and effect as a generalization that is invariant under an intervention. Suppose there is a function f relating values of X to values of Y: Y = f(X). This relation is invariant under intervention I if and only if were X set through intervention I to some value x0, Y would then have the value f(x0).10 Woodward is careful not to require that the function f hold for every change to X. In this way he distinguishes a law of nature from a more limited generalization that holds under certain but not all conditions. For example, in our ZIP code example, it's possible that one may know a person's state but not a person's ZIP code. Furthermore there may be multiple people with unknown ZIP codes-each 7 X and Y may be collections of properties. 8 Wikipedia/Functional dependency has a good explanation. 9 This isn't a law of nature; it just happens to be the way ZIP codes are assigned. No ZIP code crosses a state border; every ZIP code is completely contained within some state. 10 I have been unable to find a clear direct statement by Woodward. The preceding was paraphrased from Hiddleston 2005. 4 4 residing in a different state. Setting the ZIP code for these people to unknown does not guarantee that they all have the same value for state. The only intervention under which the ZIP code → state dependency holds is one that sets ZIP code to some valid11 value. Causal mechanisms Earlier we said that manipulable causal relationships don't necessarily involve specific causal mechanisms. But they aren't magic either. For any manipulable causal relationship there must be some means whereby the dependency between cause and effect is maintained. For example, suppose you take a picture of yourself in a mirror, i.e., a selfie. There is a manipulable causal relationship between the visual presentation projected toward the mirror, the cause, and the image captured by the camera, the effect. Change, i.e., manipulate, your expression, and the captured image will change. The mirror provides a significant part of the causal mechanism linking cause to effect. Let's return to our switch example. What happens when we turn the switch from Off to On? The key to most constructed causal relationships is that a change to the cause changes the environment in such a way that the effect occurs. For example, flipping a light switch closes a circuit so that under normal circumstances-in which a voltage is available in the circuit, the rest of the circuit is unbroken, the light bulb is working properly, etc.-the light bulb produces light. A change to the cause results in a change to the effect even though the change to the cause does not transfer a conserved quantity to the effect: the kinetic energy involved in closing the switch was not transferred to the light bulb. An even simpler story applies to a water faucet. Turning it to On allows water to flow through the tap. On its own, turning the faucet to On does nothing to push water through the tap. But water flows through the tap only when the system has water and sufficient pressure. In addition, there must not be either a hole or a blockage in the pipe between the faucet and the tap. Furthermore, the pipe must not be made of sugar, which will dissolve as water flows through it. Similarly with the mirror example. The cause and the effect are in a manipulable causal relationship only if there is a source of light, the camera is working, there is room on the camera's memory card, nothing blocks the flow of light from cause to effect, etc. As these examples illustrate one can multiply almost endlessly conditions that must hold for an effect to occur in a constructed causal relationship. They also suggest a motivation for using the term constructed for these types of causal relationships. Such relationships depend on mechanisms in the environment. An electric switch lever, a faucet knob, and a mirror do nothing unless embedded within a larger construction. 11 According to the United States Postal Service there are somewhat more than 42,000 ZIP codes. Since there are 100,000 five-digits strings, fewer than half of all five-digit strings are valid ZIP codes. battery switch switch bulb bulb battery 5 5 Cause-and-effect in software Software is text-or when compiled some other static representation of information. On its own software does nothing. For software to have any dynamic properties it must be executed by a software execution engine. Let's compare a software execution engine to a Rube Goldberg machine such as the Self-Operating Napkin12 shown above. The two differ in two important ways. 1. A software execution engine follows directions encoded symbolically. A Rube Goldberg machine consists of a series of primitive causal interactions. There are no symbolic instructions. 2. A software execution engine runs on an independent energy supply-usually electricity from an external source. A Rube Goldberg machine is powered by multiple integrated sources of energy-usually the conversion of gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy although sometimes energy released through the action of living organisms or chemical energy as in combustion. The charm of a Rube Goldberg machine inheres in the mechanisms through which the release of energy from one source triggers the release of energy from the next. Without this cascading sequence of energy releases the machine would stop. Energetics, a primary concern for Rube Goldberg machines, is irrelevant in software execution engines. What are the causal relationships in software? Software is in a constructed causal relationship with its execution engine. The software is the cause; the actions of the engine are the effects. Software execution is something like a railroad train moving along its track-or multiple tracks if the software is multiply threaded. The software is the track; the execution engine is the train. Changing the software results in a change in the behavior of the execution engine. In many ways the cause and effect relationship between software and its execution engine resembles the way Laplace used the terms cause and effect when describing his demon. "We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future." [Emphasis added]13 12 The Self-Operating Napkin is activated when soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin. (From Wikipedia 2015.) 13 The rest of the description is as follows. "An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest 6 6 In using the terms cause and effect Laplace was not intending to add anything to physics. All he was saying is that the laws of physics (as understood at the time14) were sufficient to enable one to see the world in terms of cause and effect. Laplace didn't say explicitly how cause and effect are related to the laws of physics. Dowe's primitive causal interaction is an attempt to make the means of mapping the laws of physics onto the terms cause and effect more precise. Aaronson (2014) recently made a point similar to that of Laplace. The laws of physics aren't "suggestions," which particles obey when they feel like it but ignore when Uri Geller picks up a spoon.15 ... The world "obeys" them in much the same sense that a computer obeys its code. Hoefer (2015) characterizes this way of thinking as follows. The laws of nature are assumed to be pushy explainers. They make things happen in certain ways. [The laws of nature] are implicitly thought of as the cause of everything that happens. Hoefer goes on to deprecate this way of thinking-as if nature could be distinguished from her laws. Talk of laws "governing" ... is so commonplace that it takes an effort of will to see it as metaphorical. In contrast, in a world in which a software execution engine is running some software there are as Aaronson suggests two distinct things: the software and the execution engine. The software plays the role of pushy laws of nature-and hence is the cause of everything that happens. The execution engine plays the role of the material world, which "obeys" those laws. The software governs the engine; there is no metaphor. As indicated above, though, there are fundamental differences. • The laws of nature are neither expressed symbolically nor executed by physical objects. The laws of nature are not distinct from nature itself. It is only metaphorically that the laws of nature direct the behavior of material objects. In contrast software is distinct from an execution engine. It makes sense to say that software directs the behavior of the engine. • The physical world needs a source of energy if it is to "obey" the laws. More accurately, the laws of nature have built into them energetic requirements. That is not the case with a software execution engine. A software execution engine is assumed to be self-powered. Within a software-governed world, its energy source is not relevant. Software need not be concerned about whether the execution engine has sufficient energy to run. Autonomous causal mechanisms If software is the cause of the behavior of its software execution engine, what is the causal mechanism? The answer, of course, is that software execution engines are built to interpret software instructions. In bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes." 14 We now know that Laplace was incorrect on at least three counts. (i) Quantum randomness make prediction impossible. Laplace could be forgiven for this mistake since he did not know about quantum mechanics. (ii) Chaos makes prediction impossible. We now know that it's impossible (a) to know the forces and positions of nature with sufficient precision and then (b) computationally to propagate those forces and positions in a way that retains that level of precision over an extended time span to achieve Laplace's intended result. Laplace was not aware of chaos theory either. (iii) Biological evolution depends on (random) mutation and recombination. Laplace did not know about evolution, and had he known it's not clear what role he would have assigned to randomness in mutation and recombination. Had he assumed they are truly random, he would have known that prediction is not possible. Had he assumed that there is a non-random mechanism behind them-such as chaotic or quantum phenomena-he would have been stuck with the problems of (i) and (ii). 15 Uri Geller is a stage magician who "bends" spoons as part of his act. See, for example, (Randi 2006). 7 7 an inversion of the usual causal mechanism relationship-in which a cause produces an effect- software execution engines make themselves the effect of the software that serves as the cause. The cause-effect relationship still holds: the software is the cause; the behavior of the execution engine is the effect. It's just that the mechanism is backward. Instead of projecting cause to effect, the engine, whose behavior is the effect, maps the cause onto whatever effect it determines. Because the effect engine serves as the causal mechanism, I'll refer to this (perhaps paradoxically) as autonomous causality and to the effect as an autonomous effect. Anything capable of following symbolic instructions illustrates autonomous causality. Besides software execution engines, examples include human beings when acting as drivers obeying traffic signals and as soldiers following orders. Many entities that serve as autonomous effects can be programmed to provide effect components for multiple causal relationships. Examples include human beings, computers, trainable animals, and now robots. Because they can be programmed to provide the effect component for many different causal relationships, such entities are generally considered valuable resources. Review Let's review what we've said about causal relationships. • We are considering two kinds of causal relationships. o Primitive causal interactions are based on an exchange of a conserved quantity. o Manipulable causal relationships reflect situations in which an effect can be manipulated via some intervention on the cause. The cause acts as something like a remote control for the effect. • A manipulable causal relationship is formally equivalent to a functional dependency. As is the case with functional dependencies, manipulable causal relationships may connect sets of static properties as cause and effect. • Neither the cause nor the effect of a manipulable causal relationship need be either an event or an action. • All primitive causal interactions are manipulable causal relationships but not vice versa. • I am calling manipulable causal relationships that are not primitive causal interactions constructed causal relationships. • For every manipulable causal relationship, even those that connect static sets of properties, it is possible to identify some causal mechanism that brings about the causal relationship. There appear to be (at least) the following categories of causal mechanisms. o The causal mechanism may be a cascade of primitive causal interactions that begin at the cause and propagate to the effect thereby projecting changes in the cause onto changes to the effect. Think of a row of dominoes knocking each other over, the gears of a clock, a Rube Goldberg machine, chemical combustion, a nuclear reaction, or mechanisms that maintain homeostatic conditions such as a thermostat. o The causal mechanism may exist in the environment-and only under certain conditions-as in the example of an electric switch, a water faucet, or a mirror. o The causal mechanism may be built into the framework within which the relationship exists-as in the example of a functional dependency linking ZIP code to state. o the causal mechanism may be built into the effect-as in a software execution engine. I am calling this form of causality autonomous causality. 8 8 The Switch The final major bullet in the preceding section tells us that for every causal relationship some mechanism (broadly understood16) links the cause to the effect. I'll use the term Switch for any causal mechanism not involving the exchange of a conserved quantity. A Switch: a means or mechanism whereby a cause is linked to an effect in such a way that a change to the cause results in a consistent change to the effect without the exchange of a conserved quantity. Even though a Switch is intended to represent a physical realization of a constructed causal relationship, it is defined quite abstractly. • In software terms, a Switch is polymorphic: the types of the values to be assigned to the cause and effect are not specified. • Switch functionality is expressed abstractly: that a change to the cause results in a consistent change to the effect. But the specific change, e.g., the function that maps cause to effect and the mechanism that realizes that mapping are left open. These properties are left to the concrete realization of a Switch in any particular case. • Switches tend to lack of proportionality. They often have the property known as non-linearity: the magnitude of the change in the cause generally has little or no relationship to the magnitude of the change in the effect. This is not the case for primitive causal interactions. Since these depend on an exchange of a conserved quantity, the magnitude of the change in the cause is linked directly to the magnitude of the change in the effect. A Switch is a generic mechanisms for building manipulable causal relationships. In software terms a Switch is something like an abstract class; it can be understood as having an abstract method that maps cause values to effect values. To create a concrete manipulable causal relationship one (a) creates a non-abstract Switch subclass with a specific cause and effect and (b) builds a concrete implementation of the cause-to-effect mapping. As we'll see, switches are fundamental to both computing and complex systems. I'll use the term autonomous Switch for the switch component of an autonomous causal relationship. The Turing machine is an autonomous Switch Earlier we discussed how the causal mechanism that links software to its execution engine resides in the execution engine. A software execution engine is able to follow instructions expressed symbolically: it reads software and does what the software instructs it to do. This is fundamentally different from most other causal mechanisms. We referred to this as autonomous causality. In this section I want to look at a Turing machine, which I will claim is an autonomous Switch. A Turing machine is assumed to be in one of a finite number of pre-specified internal states. It is assumed to have a read/write head, which is positioned over a symbol from a finite alphabet-also fixed in advance-arranged in a finite but unbounded sequence. 17 As befits its name, the read/write head can 16 Online definitions of mechanism include the following. • a process or system used to produce a particular result (Merriam-Webster) • the agency or means by which an effect is produced (Dictionary.com and FreeDictionary.com) • a natural or established process by which something takes place or is brought about (Google.com and Oxford) • the technical aspects of doing something (Wordnet.com, Wordnet.dk, and vocabulary.com) See also the definitions at Onelook.com. 17 The unboundedness of the symbol sequence does not affect the step-by-step operations the machine is assumed capable of performing. At each step the device reads a symbol and then acts as described. 9 9 read the symbol over which it is positioned. Based on its current state and the symbol it reads, the machine (a) writes a replacement symbol (perhaps the same as the original), (b) either does not move the read/write head or moves the read/write head left or right, and (c) either changes its internal state to some different state or remains in the same internal state. Turing machines are frequently represented as collections of 5-tuples-often written as rules. (<statepre>, <symbolpre>) → (<statepost>, <symbolpost>, <move>) The <state> and <symbol> components are the values for the machine's internal state and the symbol being read/written before and after the rule is applied. The <move> value is one of {left, right, no-move}. Following Woodward (2003) and Pearl (2009) cause and effect can be represented by variables that assume values from predefined domains. It will often be useful to think of these values as n-tuples. So a cause may have values C = (c1, c2, ..., cn), and an effect may have values E = (e1, e2, ..., em). Modifying the cause from Ca to Cb results in a modification to the effect from Ea to Eb. Given this convention a Turing machine is an abstract Switch: the Cause value is a (<state>, <symbol>) pair; the Effect value is a (<state>, <symbol>, <move>) triple. A Turing machine is an abstract Switch because Turing offered no physical instructions for building his machines. All we can say is that the computational capability of a Turing machine is essentially that of a Switch. Turing machines are autonomous in that they provide the mechanism that links the cause to the effect. So Turing machines are autonomous Switches. In other words we can reframe the notion of a Turing machine as an autonomous Switch plus unbounded storage. Causality and functionality Most software has either a user manual or a functional specification (or both). Either one describes what's known as the software's functionality, i.e., what the software does when executed-assuming that what the software does when executed conforms to its manual or specification. Like a Turing machine, executing software implements an autonomous causal relationship: it's state/input is the cause; its behavior/output is the effect. The executing software itself provides the causal mechanism. Notwithstanding the unremarkable place the notion of functionality holds in computer science, that same notion seems to raise difficulties for the philosophy of biology. In that context, functionality is typically understood in terms of the role a function plays in the larger context of an organism. For example, one may say that the function of the heart is to pump blood and note that the pumping of blood is necessary for the survival of the organism. When understood in those terms, the heart is implicitly assumed to have a purpose, to do its part in the overall design of the organism. But philosophers object that design and teleology have no place in modern science. Nature doesn't design; nature doesn't operate in terms of purposes. One way around this problem is known as naturalizing functionality. The function exists because it was selected by evolution as one of the mechanisms that resulted in the survival of the organism. From this perspective one would say that the function of the heart is to pump blood, but one wouldn't say that the function of the heart is to produce a semi-regular rhythmic beating sound-even though the heart does both. From a causality perspective, the heart provides a causal mechanism that links various physiological states to both the circulation of blood and the generation of a beating sound. It seems to me that this is a simpler way of looking at it. Beating noises are a causal effect whether or not they are required for survival. So when speaking of functionality I will be referring to causal effects rather than to biological needs. 10 10 Causality and complex systems Steven Weinberg is a committed reductionist. He adopts (1995) a position he calls grand reductionism. All of nature is the way it is (with certain qualifications about initial conditions and historical accidents) because of simple universal laws, to which all other scientific laws may in some sense be reduced. Note how Weinberg brackets off "initial conditions and historical accidents." According to many biologists, much of biology is due to historical accidents and hence would not fall within Weinberg's grand reductionism perspective. As we will see, complex systems are built on the constructed causal relationships of historical accidents. I want to examine two examples. The gene scwitch Jacob and Monod (1961) won the Nobel prize for their discovery of what has come to be known as the gene switch. E. coli is capable of digesting lactose. To do so it produces an enzyme that helps in the digestion. But production of that enzyme uses cellular resources. Therefore it makes sense to produce the enzyme only when lactose is present. To accomplish this, E. coli produces a protein-known as a repressor-that binds to DNA just "upstream" of the genes for the lactose enzyme. The repressor protein blocks transcription of the enzyme genes. But when lactose is present, a lactose derivative binds to the repressor pulling it off the DNA. This unblocks transcription, resulting in the production of the enzyme. This is a Switch. The presence or absence of lactose is the cause; production of the lactose enzyme is the effect. Although the preceding sketches the essential causal process, as with most things in biology, the actual mechanism is more complex. Since Jacob and Monod's discovery, many examples of gene regulation processes have been observed. Savageau (2012) describes the situation like this. The rich variety of mechanisms governing gene expression is the result of historical accident. Why are there positive and negative regulators? God only knows. There is no design-what works, works; what doesn't is dead. The only rule is that there are no rules. Plant defense against herbivores As a second example consider how plants respond to herbivores. (Paraphrased from War et. al., 2012) Plants confront herbivores both directly-by producing specialized morphological structures or secondary metabolites and proteins that have toxic, repellent, and/or anti-nutritional effects on the herbivores-and indirectly. Indirect defenses are mediated by the release of a blend of Herbivore Induced Plant Volatiles (HIPVs) that attract natural enemies of the herbivores. For example, mechanically wounded cabbage leaves emit volatiles that attract parasitic wasps which prey on the herbivores. What I find especially worth noting is the combination of historical accident and causality. Through an extended process of co-evolution-more than 1/3 billion years-plants and the enemies of the plant's enemies have "agreed" on signaling compounds. The particular chemicals don't matter. All that matters is (a) that the chemical can be produced and emitted by the plant, (b) that it can be carried by air currents, and (c) that herbivore predators can evolve to respond to the chemical as an attractant. In causal terms, the attack of a herbivore is linked as a cause via a complex causal mechanism to an effect, which is a counter attack by a herbivore predator. In other words, the plant has turned an attack into a cause that produces a counter-attack effect. Such networks of contingently constructed causal relationships are typical of complex systems-which is one reason they are considered complex! 11 11 Bricolage Evolution is one historical accident piled atop another. A mutation or recombination that happens to enhance survival or reproduction is preserved. Once it exists, other evolutionary accidents can build on it. In "Évolution et bricolage" Jacob (1977) described this phenomenon as follows (slightly edited). It is hard to realize that the living world as we know it is just one among many possibilities-that its actual structure results from the history of the earth. Yet living organisms are historical structures, literally creations of history. They represent, not a perfect product of engineering, but a patchwork of odd sets pieced together when and where opportunities arose. The opportunism of natural selection is not simply a matter of indifference to the structure and operation of its products. It reflects the very nature of a historical process, full of contingency. [Evolution] works like a tinkerer, a tinkerer who does not know exactly what he is going to produce but uses whatever odds and ends are at his disposal. What he ultimately produces is generally related to no special project. Each product can be used in a number of different ways. What they have in common is "it might be of some use." For what? That depends on future opportunities. Yet each evolutionary product embodies a constructed causal relationship. The environment on which the causal mechanism depends is almost always the product of a history of historical accidents. Evolution thus reflects both causality in the sense of constructed causal relationships and randomness in the form of the accidental environments on which the causal relationships depend Conclusion Causality, which can be immensely confusing when one attempts to see it as a relationship between events makes much more sense when understood in terms of manipulable causal relationships. From that perspective causality can be seen as a foundation for both computing and complexity. References Aaronson, Scott (2014) This review of Max Tegmark's book also occurs infinitely often in the decimal expansion of π. Shetl-Optimized. Dowe, Phil (2000) Physical Causation, Cambridge University Press. Hiddleston, Eric (2005) Review of Woodward, Making things happen. The Philosophical Review, Vol. 114, No. 4 (Oct., 2005), pp. 545-547 Hoefer, Carl (2015, forthcoming) Causal Determinism. Zalta, Edward N. (ed), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Imai, Kosuke, Dustin Tingley, and Teppei Yamamoto (2013) Experimental Designs for Identifying Causal Mechanisms. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 176, no. 1 (January 2013): 5-51. Jacob, Francois (1977) Evolution and Tinkering. Science. Vol. 196, No. 4295. (Jun. 10, 1977), pp. 1161-1166. Jacob, Francois and Jacques Monod (1961) Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins. Journal of Molecular Biology 3: 318-56. Little, Daniel (2004) Causal mechanism. Michael Lewis-Beck, Alan Bryman, and Tim Futing Liao (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods, Sage Publications. Paul, Laurie and Ned Hall (2012) Causation: a user's guide. Oxford University Press. Pearl, Judea (2009) Causality (2e). Cambridge University Press. Randi, James (2006) James Randi exposes Uri Geller and Peter Popoff. YouTube. Savageau, Michael A. (2012) Phenotypes and Design Principles in System Design Space. In Walhout, Marian, Marc Vidal, Job Dekker (eds) Handbook of Systems Biology: Concepts and Insights. Academic Press. Schaeffer, Jonathan (2014) The Metaphysics of Causation. Zalta, Edward N. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition). 12 12 War, A. R., Paulraj, M. G., Ahmad, T., Buhroo, A. A., Hussain, B., Ignacimuthu, S., & Sharma, H. C. (2012). Mechanisms of plant defense against insect herbivores. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 7(10), 1306-1320. Weinberg, Steven (1995). Reductionism redux. The New York Review of Books. Wikipedia (2015) Rube Goldberg machine. Wikipedia. Woodward, James (2003) Making thigs happen. Oxford University Press. Woodward, James (2013) Causation and Manipulability. Edward N. Zalta (ed.)The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition). Woodward, James (2012/forthcoming) A Functional Account of Causation, Or, A Defense of the Legitimacy of Causal Thinking by Reference to the Only Standard that Matters-Usefulness (as Opposed to Metaphysics or Agreement with Intuitive Judgment). (2012 Philosophy of Science Association Presidential Address). Forthcoming in Philosophy of Science.
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{ "creator": "Bouckenooghe, Dave", "date": "2012", "datestamp": 1519655415000, "description": "With a diverse sample (N = 231 paired responses) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan, the authors tested for the main effects of perceived organizational politics and psychological\n capital on turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and supervisor-rated job performance. They also examined the moderating influence of psychological capital in the politics–outcomes relationships. Results provided good support for the proposed hypotheses. While perceived organizational politics was associated with all outcomes, psychological capital had a significant relationship with job satisfaction and supervisor-rated performance only. As hypothesized, the negative relationship of perceived organizational politics with job satisfaction and supervisor-rated performance was weaker when psychological capital was high. However, the result for turnover intentions was counter to expectations where the politics–turnover intention relationship\n was stronger when psychological capital was high.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBCEO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Combined Effects of Perceived Politics and Psychological Capital on Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intentions, and Performance", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 1 Combined Effects of Perceived Politics and Psychological Capital on Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intentions, and Performance Muhammad Abbas Faculty of Management Sciences Riphah International University, Sector I-14, Hajj Complex, Islamabad PAKISTAN Email: Usman Raja* Faculty of Business Brock University 500 Glenridge Ave. St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, CANADA Email: ; Wendy A. Darr Defense Scientist Directorate of Military Personnel Research and Analysis National Defense Headquarters Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0K2 Email: Dave Bouckenooghe Faculty of Business Brock University, 500 Glenridge Ave. St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1 CANADA Email: * Corresponding author Acknowledgements: This research was partially supported by Brock University research grant 112-348066. The authors would like to thank Gary Johns, Gary Greguras (Action Editor), and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that helped us in improving this paper. We also thank Aliya Moeen Zafar for her help in proofreading and editing this paper. Citation: Abbas, M. Raja, U., Darr, W., & Bouckenooghe, D. (August 2012). Combined Effects of Perceived Politics and Psychological Capital on Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intentions, and Performance. Journal of Management DOI: 10.1177/0149206312455243. This is final accepted version of the article (without proofread). The final publication is available at PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 2 Abstract With a diverse sample (n = 231 paired responses) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan, we tested for the main effects of perceived organizational politics and psychological capital on turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and supervisor rated job performance. We also examined the moderating influence of psychological capital in the politics - outcomes relationships. Results provided good support for the proposed hypotheses. While perceived organizational politics was associated with all outcomes, psychological capital had a significant relationship with job satisfaction and supervisor rated performance only. As hypothesized, the negative relationship of perceived organizational politics with job satisfaction and supervisor rated performance was weaker when psychological capital was high. However, the result for turnover intentions was counter to expectations where politics - turnover intention relationship was stronger when psychological capital was high. Keywords: Perceived Politics; Psychological Capital; Job Performance; Job Satisfaction; Turnover Intentions PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 3 COMBINED EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL ON JOB SATISFACTION, TURNOVER INTENTIONS, AND PERFORMANCE Over the past couple of decades, perceived organizational politics (POP) has remained an important subject of inquiry in the field of organizational behavior and is commonly viewed as a source of detrimental consequences for organizational members (e.g., Chang, Rosen, & Levy, 2009; Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989). However, despite two recent meta-analytic studies, the effects of POP on outcomes are still inconclusive. For example, Miller, Rutherford, and Kolodinsky's (2008) meta-analysis examining perceived politics and various employee outcomes such as job stress, job satisfaction, turnover, and organizational commitment suggests that POP is generally detrimental to personal and organizational effectiveness; yet their findings also reveal variation in effects across outcomes and certain settings. Specifically, the effects for job performance were much smaller than for other outcomes, and public sector employees were more likely to leave the organization in the face of organizational politics compared to private sector employees. In addition, the effects for organizational commitment were much lower in international samples than in domestic samples, suggesting the need for further exploration of POP theory in different cultures to determine its boundary conditions. Pointing to the lack of a theoretical understanding of how perceptions of politics influence employee outcomes, Chang et al. (2009) called for future researchers to examine the contextual and individual difference factors as moderators in such relationships. Although few studies have attempted to explore the moderating role of individual difference variables in the relationship between perceived politics and various outcomes, there remains a lack of understanding of the influence of an individual's composite psychological resources, particularly PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 4 hope and self-efficacy, on the relationship between perceived politics and outcomes such as turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and job performance. For example, Kacmar, Collins, Harris, and Judge (2009) found that Core Self Evaluations (which includes generalized self-efficacy) exacerbated the relationship between POP and job performance. Bozeman, Perrewe, Hochwarter, and Brymer (2001) found some mixed evidence whereby self-efficacy intensified the negative effects of perceived politics on job satisfaction; however, it did not moderate between POP-turnover intentions and POP-job stress relationships. On the contrary, we draw upon Conservation of Resource Theory (Hobfoll, 2011) to argue that psychological capital (PsyCap) comprising hope and self-efficacy will act as 'a solid resource reservoir' (Hobfoll, 2002: 318) and reduce the negative effects of politics on work outcomes. Thus, the study of psychological capital as a holistic core construct would better explain the moderating role of such constructs in the POP - outcomes relationships and would advance further knowledge in this domain. In addition, it is important to note that the majority of studies in this domain of research have been conducted in developed countries of North America and Europe. Tsui, Nifadkar, and Ou (2007) suggested that unless we test the theories largely developed in the US in non-Western settings, researchers and practitioners would have little confidence about their generalizability in other regions. We believe that our study will address this gap as it provides a rare opportunity to examine the applicability and validity of concepts largely developed in Western cultures. THEORY AND HYPOTHESES POP, PsyCap, and Workplace Outcomes Politics is an inevitable component of an organization's social fabric, which different people may perceive differently. Despite some discussion that some individuals thrive on PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 5 politics, using it to their advantage through the development of political skill (Ferris, Perrewe, Anthony, & Gilmore, 2000), this treatment of POP has typically been made in reference to the upper organizational echelon of executives (see Perrewe, Ferris, Frink, & Anthony, 2000). In the current study, we define perceived organizational politics as an individual's perceptions of others' self-interested acts or behaviors, frequently associated with manipulation of organizational policies, often using coercive tactics even at the expense of others for short-term gains (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991). These behaviors are perceived as subversive and contradict with the interests of other individuals and the organization (Vigoda, 2000). As an antecedent to workplace outcomes, POP has generally been regarded as a stressor. For example, while examining stressors, Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, and Boudreau (2000) found that POP loaded on a factor called hindrance stressors. The 'organizational development literature' also conceives perceived politics as a stressor that has detrimental impact on a person's resources. More specifically, Crawford, Lepine, and Rich (2010) suggest that POP activates an energy depletion process whereby an employee's sustained increases in effort to meet the perceived demands is met with an increase in compensatory actions and psychological processes that drain a person's individual resources. In addition, Chang et al. (2009) metaanalytically examined perceptions of politics as a hindrance stressor to find a stress-related connection to performance. In the light of these findings, POP is regarded as a hindrance stressor in the present examination. Despite recent meta-analytic evidence for variation in the effects of POP on outcomes (e.g., Miller et al., 2008), perceived politics can be summarized as having a generally positive relationship with turnover intentions (Chang et al., 2009), and a negative relationship with job satisfaction (Chang et al., 2009; Ferris & Kacmar, 1992) and job performance (Vigoda, 2000). PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 6 There is also some evidence available for the harmful effects of perceived organizational politics across cultures. For example, Vigoda (2001) found that British and Israeli employees reported similar levels of organizational politics at the workplace, however British employees responded to perceived politics with higher turnover intentions than Israeli employees. Vigoda (2001) attributed these findings to the difference in power distance (PD) between both cultures. Britain ranks higher on the national cultural dimension of power distance as compared to Israel (Hofstede, 1983). In high power distance cultures, individuals usually accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place. In these cultures, interpersonal conflict is considered a disruption of ordinary life (Hofstede, 1991). Similar to Britain, Pakistan also ranks high on power distance (Hofstede, 1983). In addition, Pakistan scores high uncertainty avoidance (UA), reacting adversely to uncertainty or a lack of control. Hofstede (2001) suggests that the combination of these two dimensions results in situations where leaders have ultimate power and authority, and that rules, laws, and regulations are developed to reinforce such leadership. In such a context, formal rules and regulations exist to further managerial interests at the expense of subordinates (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991), prompting turnover and lowered job satisfaction as employees' reactions to perceived politics in the workplace. Hence, we expect to replicate the findings that perceived politics would have harmful effects on outcomes in Pakistan. Hypothesis 1: Perceived organizational politics will be positively related to turnover intentions and negatively related to job satisfaction and job performance. Lately, researchers in domains of positive organizational behavior have stressed the need to focus on positive strengths and well-being of individuals in the workplace (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). The positive psychological approaches have emerged with a focus on what is right with people, rather than the traditional approaches of what is wrong with people (Luthans, PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 7 2002). This line of thinking has resulted in the coining of a term known as psychological capital (Avey, Luthans, & Youssef, 2010). Although psychological capital (PsyCap) comprises of four components named hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), research considers hope and efficacy to be the most significant in predicting various work-related outcomes (e.g., Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007; Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998a; Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Efficacy is "the employee's conviction or confidence about his or her abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, or courses of action needed to successfully execute a specific task within a given context" (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998b: 66). Similarly, hope is "a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)" (Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991: 287). Conceptually, self-efficacy and hope are assumed to be more significant factors than optimism and resiliency in predicting attitudes and organizational behavior (Bandura, 2012). Self-efficacy is considered to best meet the inclusion criteria for PsyCap in positive organizational behavior (Luthans, 2002). Similarly, of the three remaining facets of PsyCap 'hope' is the strongest predictor of work related outcomes and shares the strongest underlying common denominator with self-efficacy and (Luthans, 2002; Magaletta & Oliver, 1999; Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Efficacy and hope share the components of internalized motivation and energy, or the positive expectation of success for the reason of belief in one's individual abilities. Highly efficacious and hopeful employees would set challenging goals for themselves and selfselect into challenging assignments with motivation and tenacious effort toward success. Therefore, we focus on the efficacy and hope dimensions of psychological capital in this study. PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 8 Previous research has found PsyCap to be positively associated to job performance and satisfaction (Luthans, Avolio, et al., 2007), and negatively associated to organizational cynicism and turnover intentions (Avey et al., 2010). Based on its definition, individuals with high PsyCap are believed to possess the cognitive capacity of self-regulation (Bandura, 1997) that offers initiative, energy, and self-discipline necessary to reach one's goals (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). Thus we believe that being personal and psychological in nature, psychological capital will have similar effects on outcomes as those observed in US settings. Psychological capital, especially hope and self-efficacy, will give individuals more confidence and stimulate positive thinking, which would result in better performance, higher satisfaction, and lower possibility of leaving the job. Therefore, we suggest that: Hypothesis 2: PsyCap will be negatively related to turnover intentions and positively related to job satisfaction and job performance. The Moderating Role of Psychological Capital Recent studies have shown the relevance of COR theory to serve as a conceptual foundation for the role of individuals' psychological resources to cope with harmful effects of organizational politics (Kapoutsis, Papalexandris, Nikolopoulos, Hochwarter, & Ferris, 2011). Hindrance stressors tend to dampen motivation, which thwarts performance and personal goal attainment and growth (LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005). This theory helps in delineating the processes by which resources such as psychological capital assist individuals to cope with stressors. Individuals who possess key resources such as hope and self-efficacy 'might be more capable of selecting, altering, and implementing their other resources to meet stressful demands' (Hobfoll, 2002: 308). When faced with an environmental stressor (e.g., organizational politics), individuals PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 9 exert efforts to successfully cope with it in order to maintain a balance (Hobfoll, 2011). The success of these efforts depends on the psychological resources these individuals possess (Treadway et al., 2005).Therefore, individual differences in internal psychological resources are likely to play an influential role in the attribution of resource loss as salient. Here, resource loss could refer to perceived loss of tangible goals due to politics in the workplace or to a perceived loss of cognitive or emotional coping resources dedicated to addressing politics as a stressor. We argue that high PsyCap individuals, because of their level of confidence in pursuing challenging tasks (Bandura, 1997), their capacity to derive multiple pathways to be successful (Snyder, 1994), and their ability to persevere in the face of obstacles (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998a), are less likely to perceive organizational politics as threatening or harmful. These individuals possess the cognitive capacity of self-regulation (Bandura, 1997) that offers initiative, pro-activeness, and self-discipline necessary to reach the desired goals, even when there is a lack of extrinsic motivators (Luthans & Youssef, 2007) and absence of feedback (Judge, Jackson, Shaw, Scott, & Rich, 2007). Therefore, they are less likely to experience the typical negative outcomes (e.g., lowered job satisfaction and performance) associated with organizational politics. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) posit that hope plays the role of a buffering agent against psychological distress, addiction, and dysfunctional behavior. Studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between hope and academic and athletic performance, mental and physical health, and the ability to cope with adversity (Snyder, 1994; Snyder et al., 1991). Similarly, Caprara, Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, and Cervone (2004) investigated the ability of efficacy beliefs to predict psychosocial outcomes among high school students. These authors found that selfefficacy beliefs predicted lower problem-behaviors (depression and aggression) and attainment PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 10 of greater grades. Moreover, high efficacious individuals are less likely to expect failures or loss of confidence when faced with negative feedback, setbacks, uncertainties, and difficulties (Bandura & Locke, 2003). When combined, these psychological resource capacities form the cognitive, emotional, and motivational bases (Bandura & Locke, 2003; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) through which individuals mitigate the detrimental effects of negativity (Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Based on these arguments, we believe that when individuals perceive the organizational activities and procedures to be politically driven, their psychological capital may help them to minimize the salience of resource loss associated with these activities, allowing them to cope better with these stressors, thereby reducing the influence of POP on outcomes. Consequently, we suggest: Hypothesis 3: PsyCap will moderate the relationship between POP and outcomes (turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and job performance) such that the relationship will be weaker when PsyCap is high. METHODS Sample and Data Collection Procedures Perceptions of politics can vary considerably across organizations. In order to capture maximum variance in politics, we decided to collect data from a variety of organizations. Through personal and professional contacts of the first author, we were able to gain access to employees in six branches of private banks, local offices of two textile-manufacturing firms, three offices of a government ministry, and customer service offices of a telecommunication company in Faisalabad, which is the third largest city of Pakistan. We decided to target all whitecollar employees in each location for two reasons. First, we believe that organizational politics is PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 11 more likely to play a role among managers and professional workers because they have to manage people and resources. Second, due to low education levels, we believed that lower level blue collar workers would not be able to respond to a questionnaire in English effectively. We collected data through onsite administration of a questionnaire with self and supervisory-report versions. A cover letter explained the purpose of the study to the respondents, assured them of strictest confidentiality of responses, and mentioned that participation was voluntary. Respondents completed the self-report version that contained items related to POP, PsyCap, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction. In addition, they reported their name, age, gender, occupational level, education, and work experience in the demographics part of the survey. The supervisor of each respondent completed the supervisor-report version that contained questions on job performance. Both the respondents and their supervisors returned the completed questionnaires to one of the authors without having access to each other's responses. Each supervisor knew his / her subordinates for more than six months and had done at least one performance appraisal for him / her. Of the 300 distributed questionnaires, we received 237 completed self-report responses. We were able to get supervisor reports from 79 supervisors for 231 of the respondents. Therefore, our final response rate for the 231 usable paired (231 employee and 231 supervisor responses) responses was 77%. We distributed 48 surveys among the government workers, 154 in bank branches, 33 in the telecom company, and 65 in the textile firms. The response rates for government offices, banks, telecom, and textile firms were 75%, 78%, 76%, and 75% respectively. The majority of respondents (80.1%) were male with an average age of 31 years (SD = 8.1). The sample included several occupational levels comprising 16% entry level (clerical and IT staff) workers, 80% supervisory and middle managers, and 4% upper middle and topPERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 12 level managers. The average tenure was 4.80 (SD = 6.48) years. About 31% of the respondents had an undergraduate university degree while 69% held graduate degrees. A total of 79 supervisors reported for the 231 respondents, which could result in nesting of data. With supervisor as a grouping variable, we ran the null model in HLM to calculate between and within group variance for job performance in our dataset. This procedure estimated whether it was feasible to run a more complex model controlling for nesting of data based on supervisor as the higher-order level in our dataset. The results revealed that within group variance (R2 = .27) was substantially higher than between group variance (R2 = .08) and the F statistic for the ratio of the two variances was not significant (F (78, 152) = .22, n.s). Put differently, the data suggest that supervisors as a grouping variable do not explain sufficient variance to justify the use of HLM analysis controlling for nesting of data (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992). Measures All constructs were measured using self-reported instruments except for job performance, which was measured using supervisory ratings to avoid method bias issues. Responses for all variables, with exception of PsyCap, were assessed using a 5-point Likert type scale with anchors of 1 = 'strongly disagree', 2 = 'disagree', 3 = 'neither disagree/nor agree', 4 = 'agree', and 5 = 'strongly agree'. The responses for psychological capital were measured using a 6-point Likert-scale with anchors ranging from 1 = 'strongly disagree', 2 = 'disagree', 3 = 'somewhat disagree' 4 = 'somewhat agree', 5 = 'agree', to 6 = 'strongly agree'. For all measures, higher score corresponded to higher levels of the construct. Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POP). We used the 12-item Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) by Kacmar and Ferris (1991) to assess this construct. This PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 13 scale contains three sub-dimensions of perceived politics: general political behavior (six items), go along to get ahead (four items), and pay and promotion policies (two items). Examples of items include "people build themselves up by tearing others down", for the first dimension, "employees are encouraged to speak out (reverse-coded)" for the second, and "Pay and promotion policies are not politically applied (reverse-coded)" for the third dimension. As we were interested in examining the effects of overall perceived politics on outcomes, we conducted a second order confirmatory factor analysis to see if the three-dimensional construct did load on to a single latent factor. The results of CFA revealed a good fit for a latent single factor model (2 = 84.76, df = 53, CFI = .94, GFI = .94, IFI = .95, RMSEA = .05). Therefore, we used an additive measure by taking average of all items to create overall POP such that high scores reflected high perceived politics1. This treatment of POP measure has been used in past research (e.g., Randall, Cropanzano, Bormann, & Birjulin, 1999; Rosen, Levy, & Hall, 2006). Cronbach's alpha reliability of the POP measure was .73. Psychological Capital (PsyCap). We measured efficacy and hope using 12-items (six items for each measure) from Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007). Examples of items include "if I should find myself in a jam at work, I could think of many ways to get out of it" for hope; "I feel confident analyzing a long-term problem to find its solution" for efficacy. We conducted a second order CFA to see if both hope and efficacy loaded on to a single latent factor. Results yielded a good fit for a latent single factor model (2 = 102.91, df = 52, CFI = .95, GFI =.94, IFI = .95, RMSEA = .06). Therefore, to create overall psychological capital, we averaged scores on all 12 items such that a high score reflected high psychological capital. The internal consistency reliability of PsyCap was .89. 1 We ran our analyses using a measure based on mean of the means of dimensions. The results did not differ compared to the additive measure. PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 14 Outcomes. A 3-item scale by Vigoda (2000) was used to measure turnover intentions. This measure included items such as "I often think about quitting this job". The reliability of this measure was .76. We measured overall job satisfaction using a 6-item scale developed by Agho, Price, and Mueller (1992), which contained questions such as "I feel fairly well satisfied with my present job" and "I find real enjoyment in my work." The reliability of this measure was .67. Supervisor responses to a 7-item scale developed by Williams and Anderson (1991) were used to measure job performance. Sample items include, "This person adequately completes assigned duties" and "This person performs tasks that are expected of him/her." The alpha reliability was .77. Control Variables. We used age and tenure as control variables because of their possible effects on job outcomes. A one-way ANOVA comparing job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intentions across gender, education, and organizations revealed that there were significant differences in turnover intentions (F = 34.02, p < .000) and job satisfaction (F = 14.60, p < .000) across organizations. Post-hoc analyses showed that the differences were only between the two groups of organizations in the public and private sectors. Hence, we used a dummy variable (0 = "Private," 1 = "Public") to control for the effects of organization type. RESULTS POP, PsyCap, and Outcomes Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and estimates of reliability (coefficient alpha) for all measures. All the zero-order bivariate correlations were in the expected direction. -----------------------------Insert Table 1 about here PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 15 ------------------------------ We used multiple linear regression analyses to test all main effect hypotheses (H1 and H2). We entered age, tenure, and organizational type in the first step followed by the independent variables. Table 2 (step 3) presents the results for the main effects of POP and PsyCap on the outcomes. POP was positively related to turnover intention (β = .26, p < .001) and negatively to job satisfaction (β = -.29, p < .001) and job performance (β = -.21, p < .05). These results support hypothesis 1. Similarly, Table 2 shows that psychological capital was positively related to job satisfaction (β = .56, p < .001) and job performance (β = .54, p < .001), but its relationship with turnover intentions (β = -.01, n.s) was not significant. These results render support to hypothesis 2 for satisfaction and performance only. -----------------------------Insert Table 2 about here ------------------------------ Moderating Influence of PsyCap We used moderated multiple regression (MMR) analyses (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003) to test hypotheses 3. We entered the control variables in the first step followed by independent and the moderator variables in the next step. In the third step, we entered a product term of independent and moderator variable, which if significant, confirmed moderation. We centered the variables by subtracting the overall mean from the individual values for the moderated regression analyses. In addition, we also obtained the variance inflation factor (VIF) scores (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998) and the tolerance statistics (Tabachnick & PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 16 Fidell, 2001), which measure the extent to which collinearity among predictors affects the precision of a regression model. VIF scores of less than 5 (Chatterjee & Price, 1991) and tolerance scores above .10 (Hair et al., 1998) are typically considered acceptable. The VIF scores were below 3 (Tolerance > .3) in all analyses indicating that multicollinearity was not a problem. Results presented in Table 2 (step 3) show that controlling for the effects of POP and PsyCap, the interaction term of POP x PsyCap was significant for turnover intentions (β = .14, p < .05; ΔR2 = .02, p < .05), job performance (β = .33, p < .001; ΔR2 = .09, p < .001), and job satisfaction (β = .17, p < .01; ΔR2 = .02, p < .01). The additional variance explained by the interaction term falls within or exceeds the typical range for moderator effects in nonexperimental field studies (e.g., Chaplin, 1991). We plotted the significant interactions for high and low (Mean ± SD) values of the moderator. The plots of the significant interactions are displayed in figures 1 through 3. Figure 1 shows that, contrary to our hypothesis, the positive POP-turnover intentions relationship was stronger when PsyCap was high. Simple slope tests using the procedure recommended by Aiken and West (1991) revealed that the slope for high levels of PsyCap was significant (β = 0.79, p < .001), however the slope for low levels of PsyCap was not significant (β = -.23, ns). Figure 2 shows the plot of significant interaction for job satisfaction. The slope for high psychological capital was not significant (β = -.04, ns), but the slope line for low psychological capital was significant (β = -.74, p < .01). Figure 3 shows the plot of simple slopes for job performance. The relationship between perceived politics and job performance was significantly negative for low levels of PsyCap (β = -1.26, p < .001) and significantly positive for high levels of PsyCap (β = .32, p < .01). Hence, the results supported hypothesis 3 for job performance and job satisfaction only. PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 17 ----------------------------------------------Insert Figures 1 through 3 about here ------------------------------------------------ Figures 2 and 3 indicate that there was one outlier cell, where psychological capital was low and perceived organizational politics was high, tended to have greater effects. Therefore, we conducted the Bobko procedure (Bobko, 1986) as a robustness check for ordinal interaction effects. The results for the first contrast (comparing means for low politics and high PsyCap; low politics and low PsyCap; high politics and high PsyCap) using a one-way analysis of variance showed that there were no significant differences between the three means (Fperformance = 1.59, n.s.; F satisfaction = 1.64, n.s.). The second contrast revealed that these three conditions were significantly different from the condition in which respondents were scoring high on politics and low on PsyCap (t performance = 5.19, p < 0.001; t satisfaction = 4.49, p < 0.001). DISCUSSION Despite general agreement amongst researchers, empirical evidence has revealed variations in the influence of POP on outcomes. In this research, we not only tested for the moderating role of psychological capital in accounting for some of the observed variation in effects, but also incorporated the COR theoretical framework to better understand how psychological capital of hope and efficacy can play a role in employee efforts to address POP as a hindrance stressor. Our findings clearly support the assertion that when employees perceive politics in the workplace, it reduces their satisfaction and performance and increases the likelihood that they would leave the organization. These findings provide support for the idea of perceived politics PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 18 being detrimental to desired outcomes at workplace. The results of our study also support the idea that psychological capital has a positive effect on desired outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance, but not intentions to quit. In addition, we found good support for the moderating influence of PsyCap in the POP-outcomes relationship. Interestingly, and contrary to our expectations, the negative relationship between perceived politics and intentions to quit was stronger when PsyCap was high. In retrospect, it is possible that individuals with high psychological capital, being more skillful and confident, think of leaving their jobs if they perceive high politics. They might want to seek better working environment and start looking for options in the wake of high-perceived politics. For example, it has been suggested that high performers would be more likely to quit when salaries and promotion policies are not aligned (Allen & Griffeth, 1999), as they have greater tangible resources such as a proven performance track record or other employment opportunities to draw upon (Jackofsky, 1984). Moreover, research on employability suggests that an organizational environment that does not foster its members' development and employability, increases employees' turnover intentions (Nauta, van Vianen, van der Heijden, van Dam, & Willemsen, 2009). Our findings suggest that psychological resources function the same way, equipping individuals with the cognitive and emotional resources necessary to push them away from a threatening political workplace. The results for moderating effects of PsyCap in the relationship between POP and job satisfaction and performance were in the expected direction. In both cases, the observed negative relationship was stronger when psychological capital was low. The results indicate that perceived organizational politics is going to be a bigger concern for those with low psychological capital. Perceived politics does not seem to have negative impact on the satisfaction and performance of PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 19 individuals with high psychological resources (i.e., hope and efficacy). Our finding that psychological capital comprising hope and efficacy acts as a threatneutralizer by reducing the negative effects of politics on performance deserves further attention as it apparently contradicts with the findings of Kacmar et al. (2009). Drawing upon trait activation theory, Kacmar et al. (2009) found that core self-evaluations (which include generalized self-efficacy) intensified the deleterious effects of perceived politics on job performance. We believe that efficacy in conjunction with hope creates a positive resource for individuals that help them to take up the challenge of perceived politics instead of reacting negatively to it. Social psychologists argue that these psychological resources should be studied collectively, as they do not act in isolation (Fredrickson, 2001; Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Instead, such resources together provide support to each other through a shared underlying mechanism (Luthans, Avolio et al., 2007) that binds them and helps individuals to use them effectively when faced with stressful situations (Hobfoll, 2002). More specifically, a person with no hope and high efficacy is less likely to effectively deal with hurdles as compared to an individual who not only has the required confidence but also has hope that his / her efforts would lead to positive outcomes. We believe that our findings support this line of thought and confirm the idea that efficacy and hope together act to minimize the harmful effects of POP on job outcomes. A comparison of the zero-order correlations reported in Table 1 against the meta-analytic uncorrected associations reported in Miller et al. (2008) provides an opportunity to compare results for main effects in Western cultures to those examined in this study. With respect to turnover intentions and job performance, it appears that our obtained associations (r =.30 for turnover intentions and r = -.08 for job performance) are almost identical to those found for PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 20 Miller et al's (r =.33 for turnover intentions and r = -.09 for job performance) domestic samples (i.e., North American, generally thought to be low on the cultural values of power distance and uncertainty). Although the perceived politics - satisfaction association was almost half the size (r = -.21) compared to that observed in Miller et al's meta-analysis for domestic samples (r = -.40), the confidence interval (-.73 to -.17) included the correlation observed in our study. Taken together, these findings suggest that results from the past research in Western context generalize well to Pakistani context. Perceived organizational politics, perhaps, is much more personal in nature and less susceptible to contextual influences. This examination is consistent with the call to examine theories, mostly developed and tested in Western settings, in a non-Western context. Our deliberate exploratory examination of cultural context is consistent with Johns' (2006) directions for future researchers in the field of organizational behavior. While this study provides some evidence for external validity or generalizability of the examined relationships, it also points to the need for more direct examinations of context by incorporating discrete contextual features (e.g., cultural values) in future examinations of POP. Implications for Practice Our study provides some valuable managerial implications. For example, managers should be wary of the harmful implications of workplace politics. They should address potential contributors to perceived organizational politics, such as ambiguous policies and procedures, poor communication, and lack of proper feedback and guidance to minimize the adverse effects on employees. Managers of organizations that are going through mergers, downsizing, or restructuring should be even more vigilant, as these processes also tend to increase uncertainty and politics in the work environment. It would be prudent for organizations to re-examine their selection criteria in hiring individuals, to include characteristics such as hope and efficacy, as PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 21 these can buffer new hires from the influence of politics. The design and implementation of training interventions can benefit by incorporating methods that help in enhancing the psychological resources, especially hope and efficacy of employees so that they are better equipped to cope with demanding and stressful work environment. Strengths and Limitations The current study has several strengths. First, responding to the call of Fineman (2006), this study integrates the positivityand negativity-oriented research. In particular, we enhance our understanding of the organizational politics and psychological capital theories in a new cultural setting significantly different from North America and Europe. Exploring the main and moderating effects in such setting extends our understanding and provides evidence for external validity of research domains dominated by Western samples. Second, we collected our filed data from multiple sources, which reduced the possibility of method bias. Detection of significant interactions for self-reported perceived politics and supervisory-reported performance, where the interaction accounted for 9% additional variance, is rare. Third, this study provides strong evidence for main effects of overall psychological capital on job satisfaction, and supervisorrated job performance. Finally, our findings provide support for the role of psychological capital (i.e., hope and self-efficacy combined) as a threat-neutralizer as compared to previous findings of efficacy as a threat-amplifier. This study has several limitations that need to be noted. One of the limitations has to do with common method bias. Although we attempted to circumvent this possibility by assessing job performance using supervisory ratings, this was not the case with the other examined variables. However, the obtained results for the main effects of POP are generally consistent when compared to those reported in past research. Moreover, significant interactions suggest that PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 22 method variance was not an issue as it works against detection of such interaction effects. A second limitation is the slightly lower reliability of job satisfaction (α = .67). Nevertheless, the obtained associations between POP and outcomes are consistent with the meta analytic findings of Miller and colleagues (2008). A third limitation is that we included only two of the four dimensions of psychological capital. Although we do not expect our findings to change if the remaining two dimensions are included because efficacy and hope are the dominant dimensions and have stronger effects, some differences in effect size cannot be ruled out. Future Research Directions Future research in this area should examine the role of other plausible individual and contextual moderators in the relationship between perceived politics and outcomes. For example, exploring the effects of the Big Five traits on the POP-outcomes relationship might provide insight into our understanding of the interplay of person and situation factors in determining various attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Acknowledging possible differences in the domain of POP across nations, future research needs a direct comparison of non-Western and Western samples to explore the moderating influence of discrete cultural contextual factors (e.g., cultural values). Future studies should also focus on providing a more detailed analysis of the dimensionality of POP and their relative influence on job outcomes. Similarly, research may continue to explore the viability and vitality of PsyCap as a construct that can help improve our understanding of organizational behavior. Being a state-like characteristic that is amenable to development, psychological capital may hold better promise for organizational effectiveness against the dominant trait theories. PsyCap, being a composite of positive psychological resources, has inherent proactive coping mechanism and goal-orientation that may buffer against challenge and hindrance related stressors such as role stressors, heavy PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 23 workload, time pressure, and job scope. Testing models that directly examine such role of PsyCap would provide more insight into the buffering capacities of these resources. Conclusion Asia has an important role in the global economy as multinationals are increasingly moving to Asian regions. Unless we test the theories largely developed in the US in non-Western settings, researchers and practitioners would have little confidence about their generalizability in those regions (Tsui et al., 2007). Our study provides some insights into the generalizability of concepts such as perceived organizational politics and psychological capital in Pakistan. 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Journal of Management, 33, 774-800. PERCEIVED POLITICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL 30 Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, Correlations, and Reliabilities Note. N = 231; Alpha reliabilities presented in parenthesis. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics; PsyCap = Psychological Capital. a. Organizational type: 0 = Private; 1 = Public. * p < .05 ** p < .01 Mean S.D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. Age 30.82 8.10 -- 2. Tenure 4.89 6.49 .76** -- 3. Organization a 0.17 0.37 .36** .43** -- 4. PsyCap 4.52 0.82 .01 .08 .12 (.89) 5. POP 3.06 0.54 -.03 -.01 -.05 .11 (.73) 6. Turnover Intentions 2.92 0.93 -.30** -.29** -.35** -.05 .30** (.76) 7. Job Satisfaction 3.62 0.52 .14* .15* .24** .49** -.21** -.29** (.67) 8. Job Performance 3.80 0.59 -.01 .03 .05 .43** -.08 -.09 .53** (.77) 31 Table 2 Results for Main Effects and Moderated Regression Analyses Note. N = 231; POP = Perceived Organizational Politics; PsyCap = Psychological Capital. a. Organizational type: 0 = Private; 1 = Public. * p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001 Turnover Intentions Job Satisfaction Job Performance β ∆R2 β ∆R2 β ∆R2 Step 1 Age -.16* .04 -.07 Tenure -.06 .03 .06 Organization a -.27*** .16*** .21** .06** .06 .00 Step2 Age -.16* .09 -.03 Tenure -.06 .01 .01 Organization a -.25*** .14** .00 POP .29*** -.24*** -.11* PsyCap -.05 .08*** .51*** .28*** .44*** .19*** Step 3 Age -.15* .09 -.01 Tenure -.06 .01 .00 Organization a -.26*** .14** .00 POP .26*** -.29*** -.21* PsyCap -.01 .56*** .54*** POP x PsyCap .14* .02* .17** .02** .33*** .09*** 32 Figure 1 Interactive Effects of PsyCap and POP on Turnover Intentions 33 Figure 2 Interactive Effects of PsyCap and POP on Job Satisfaction 34 Figure 3 Interactive Effects of PsyCap and POP on Supervisory-Rated Job Performance
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{ "creator": "Fischer, Bob", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1587274039000, "description": "It is common for conservationists to refer to non-native species that have undesirable impacts on humans as “invasive”. We argue that the classification of any species as “invasive” constitutes wrongful discrimination. Moreover, we argue that its being wrong to categorize a species as invasive is perfectly compatible with it being morally permissible to kill animals—assuming that conservationists “kill equally”. It simply is not compatible with the double standard that conservationists tend to employ in their decisions about who lives and who dies.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBDDI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Don’t Demean “Invasives”: Conservation and Wrongful Species Discrimination", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Animals 2019, 9, 871; Article Don't Demean "Invasives": Conservation and Wrongful Species Discrimination C.E. Abbate 1, * and Bob Fischer 2, * Simple Summary: According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), "invasive" species are "alien" or non-native species "whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health". On this basis, many state agencies encourage the eradication of invasive species. We argue that this constitutes wrongful discrimination against members of endangered species. Although there may well be cases where it is permissible to kill them, the reasons that these agencies provide often do not justify the killing. More importantly for our purposes, the killing is not the only injustice here. Additionally, it is wrong to categorize animals as invasive, and we show how to reach this conclusion by borrowing from Deborah Hellman's account of wrongful discrimination. Abstract: It is common for conservationists to refer to non-native species that have undesirable impacts on humans as "invasive". We argue that the classification of any species as "invasive" constitutes wrongful discrimination. Moreover, we argue that its being wrong to categorize a species as invasive is perfectly compatible with it being morally permissible to kill animals- assuming that conservationists "kill equally". It simply is not compatible with the double standard that conservationists tend to employ in their decisions about who lives and who dies. Keywords: invasive species; discrimination; animal rights 1. Introduction In the summer of 2019, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) updated its webpage on the "invasive green iguana". Green iguanas are native to Central America, but starting in the 1960s, people began to notice them roaming wild. Although the timeline is unclear, it seems that they were brought into the US as pets. Some were released into the wild by their owners; others probably escaped. Since then, they have flourished in Florida with especially large populations in the southern part of the state. Richard Engeman, a biologist for the National Wildlife Research Center, said in 2018: "There's no real way to come up with a valid estimate of the number of green iguanas in Florida. But the number would be gigantic. You could put any number of zeros behind a number, and I would believe it". [1] This has led to predictable conflicts. According to the FWC: "Green iguanas cause damage to residential and commercial landscape vegetation and are often considered a nuisance by property owners... Some green iguanas cause damage to infrastructure by digging burrows that erode and collapse sidewalks, foundations, seawalls, berms and canal banks. Green iguanas may also leave droppings on docks, moored boats, seawalls, porches, decks, pool platforms, and inside swimming pools. Although primarily herbivores, researchers found the remains of tree snails in the stomachs of green iguanas in Animals 2019, 9, x 2 of 14 Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, suggesting that iguanas could present a threat to native and endangered species of tree snails. In Bahia Honda State Park, green iguanas have consumed nickerbean, which is a host plant of the endangered Miami Blue butterfly. As is the case with other reptiles, green iguanas can also transmit the infectious bacterium Salmonella to humans through contact with water or surfaces contaminated by their feces". [2] Additionally, green iguanas appear to be responsible for power, phone, and Internet outages, as they both chew through cables and stretch themselves across power lines [1]. There is also some evidence that, on occasion, they use the burrows of other threatened species, such as the Florida burrowing owl [3]. Based on these concerns, the FWC urged homeowners to "kill green iguanas on their own property whenever possible" [2]. A few weeks later, however, they had to qualify that comment. In a press release, FWC Commissioner Rodney Barreto said: "Unfortunately, the message has been conveyed that we are asking the public to just go out there and shoot them up. This is not what we are about; this is not the 'wild west'. If you are not capable of safely removing iguanas from your property, please seek assistance from professionals who do this for a living". [4] The FWC press release was partially motivated by a surprising amount of national coverage, which only increased after a man was hunting iguanas with a pellet gun and accidentally shot the person who was maintaining his pool [5]. However, the FWC has not changed its basic position. In the FAQ portion of its site on the green iguana, it now says this: "Green iguanas are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty laws and can be humanely killed on private property year-round with landowner permission. The FWC encourages removal of green iguanas from private properties by landowners. Members of the public may also remove and kill iguanas from 22 FWC-managed public lands without a license or permit under Executive Order 17-11. Captured iguanas cannot be relocated and released at other locations in Florida. Homeowners that trap iguanas on their property may be able to obtain euthanasia services from local exotic veterinarians, humane societies or animal control offices depending on the location and availability of services". [2] Florida may not be the "wild west", but for the green iguanas, there is not much difference between the revised statement and the original one. We do not tell this story because it is unique. To the contrary, this kind of invasive species "management" is entirely ordinary, as there have been many cases in which Fish and Wildlife commissions have tried to enlist the public to "manage" invasive species. In Texas, for instance, the state recently removed the requirement that people have a hunting license before killing feral hogs, Louisiana has long offered a bounty on nutria to encourage hunters to pursue them, Illinois offers grants to Asian carp processors to encourage them to create consumer demand for these fish, Georgia has asked its anglers to kill northern snakeheads, and Pennsylvania recently told the public to kill spotted lanternflies [6-10]. Instead, we tell this story because we want to explore a side of it that has not received sufficient attention in animal rights theory-namely, the extent of wrongful discrimination. Animal rights theory claims that at least some animals are moral patients, i.e., beings who are deserving of direct moral consideration. We acknowledge that not all animals are moral patients, as Animals 2019, 9, x 3 of 14 some may not even be sentient (such as bivalves). Plainly, there is debate about the ground of moral status. Perhaps the most prominent options are associated with utilitarianism and the rights view. Peter Singer [11], for instance, argues that sentience is both necessary and sufficient for being a moral patient. By contrast, Tom Regan [12] argues that being an experiencing-subject-of-a-life is sufficient for having moral rights. We assume that, given their neurological and behavioral complexity, green iguanas are both sentient and subjects-of-a-life. Studies indicate that reptiles, including iguanas, experience pain [13,14], attempt to maximize sensory pleasure [15,16], experience basic emotional states [15-17], and engage in the kind of social behavior that people once assumed to be unique to mammals [18]. For instance, green iguanas have emotional responses to stressful handling experiences, which indicates "emotional fever" [19]. Although few researchers have explored reptile intelligence, the studies that have been conducted indicate that reptiles have some sophisticated cognitive capacities, including the ability to solve complex problems and apply what they have learned in the future [20,21]. Given our limited knowledge of reptile mental life and the evidence that points to reptile cognitive complexity, we ought to adopt a policy that errs on the side of caution by giving green iguanas the benefit of the doubt and treating them as if they are moral patients, as Regan [12] (p. 320) suggests for the case of late-term fetuses. Given as much, the standard story from animal rights theory is that animals are victims of speciesism, often defined as the "prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species" [11] (p. 6). Regan [12] (p. 155) claims that the paradigm case of speciesism is when animals are denied membership in the moral community because they do not belong to the human species. Regan [22] (p. 47), like Singer, emphasizes that it is speciesist to ignore the interests of animals or count them as less than the interests of human beings "simply because animals do not belong to the 'right' species". Obviously enough, any anti-speciesist is going to have serious objections to the killings that we have described. Granted, it is not costless to have green iguanas around. However, that hardly shows that the FWC has given adequate reasons for aggressive lethal management. On the one hand, we have the most significant harms that sentient beings can suffer: acute pain and death. On the other, we have weak evidence that the green iguanas have negative impacts on native species and strong evidence that they are inconvenient for human beings, raising concerns about sidewalk integrity, aesthetics, disease transmission, and the like. Moreover, even if the iguanas cause serious harm to the environment, it does not follow that they are causing serious harm to the rights-bearing parts of the environment-those individuals who are experiencing subjects-of-a-life. So, if people insist that the iguanas be killed, they seem to be guilty of speciesism. We might surmise, then, that there is little left for animal rights theory to say about this situation. The interests of green iguanas are being discounted relative to the interests of human beings "simply because they don't belong to the 'right' species", and, as a result, they are being unjustly killed. But on our view, neither Singer's nor Regan's anti-speciesist theories explain the full extent of the discrimination at play. We suspect that what is particularly objectionable about the way green iguanas are being understood and targeted is that they are being wrongfully discriminated against, even relative to other non-human animals. To see whether this intuition can be defended, we extend Deborah Hellman's [23] discrimination ethic to argue that the classification of green iguanas as "invasive" constitutes a kind of wrongful discrimination that is not explained by traditional accounts of speciesism. Moreover, we argue that its being wrong to categorize the green iguanas as invasive is perfectly compatible with its being morally permissible to kill them-assuming that conservationists "kill equally". It simply is not compatible with the standard that conservationists tend to employ in their decisions about who lives and who dies. We are not the first to criticize the way that conservationists classify certain "problem" species as "invasive". Mark Sagoff [24-26] argues against this practice based on a number of conceptual problems: the lack of a clear account of "harm to the natural environment", the difficulty of protecting harm impacts even after settling on an account, the overlooked species-richness that invasive species can provide, and so on. Dan Perry [27] argues that conservationists are too quick to set aside other strategies that might be employed to manage invasive species, such as translocation. Evans et al. [28] Animals 2019, 9, x 4 of 14 make a similar point, arguing for adaptive management over programs that seek to eliminate the relevant species. David Frank [29] argues that given the value assumptions built into the concept invasiveness, it is reasonable for those with differing values to reject the ways in which biologists use it to justify management practices. However, this is essentially all that environmental philosophers have had to say about the use of the term "invasive" to describe "problem" species. And while we are sympathetic to these and related criticisms, they leave a central moral issue unexplored. Is it objectionable to categorize green iguanas-and the members of many other species-as invasive simply because doing so harms those animals? In our view, the answer to that question is "No." The reason to object to this categorization is not simply that it is harmful for green iguanas to be so categorized. It is also demeaning in a way that deserves special attention. 2. Some Preliminaries Before we begin in earnest, though, we should be clear about the meaning of the terms "native species", "introduction", "alien species", and "invasive species" as they are crucial to this discussion. Here are the definitions that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) [30] employs: "Native species" means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, a species that, other than as a result of an introduction, historically occurred or currently occurs in that ecosystem. "Introduction" means the intentional or unintentional escape, release, dissemination, or placement of a species into an ecosystem as a result of human activity. "Alien species" means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, any species, including its seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to that ecosystem. "Invasive species" means an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. There are many questions we might ask about these definitions. For instance, Homo sapiens is, of course, just one species among many. What is ecologically significant about changes that humans cause as opposed to changes that non-human species cause? Also, given that ecosystems are just groups of living and non-living entities interacting in various ways, how do we draw the boundaries of ecosystems in non-arbitrary ways? Furthermore, when we talk about species "historically occurring" in a particular ecosystem, what is the relevant timeframe? At some point in history, every single species was new to an ecosystem. Why not say that every species is an alien species? When we try to use the above definitions to determine which species count as "native" and "alien", a lot turns on what counts as "an introduction". Introductions are human introductions-that is, human beings either intentionally or unintentionally played some role in bringing the species from one ecosystem to another as opposed to, say, animals migrating "naturally". Obviously, there are going to be lots of cases that make these definitions seem objectionably imprecise. How should we think about a case where birds take up new nesting grounds on their own accord, but would not have if their previous nesting grounds had not been polluted by, say, a distant leak in an oil tanker-or if climate change were not happening? How should we think about a case where rats migrate from one island to another via more than one method-say, both clinging to driftwood and stowing away on ships? What about cases where species are introduced, but there is a sense in which human beings are creating an entirely new ecosystem, as occurred when American cities brought squirrels into their parks in the 19th century [31]? Animals 2019, 9, x 5 of 14 We raise these questions not to suggest that they cannot be answered, but to point out that they will be very difficult to answer without explicitly appealing to an anthropocentric perspective. We draw a sharp divide between humans and non-humans; we care about some timescales and not others; we think of ourselves as being responsible for some impacts and not others; etc. As Marc Bekoff [32] suggests, conservation biology is not a value-free enterprise. It presupposes certain human goals, and it attempts to achieve those against a theoretical backdrop that is itself structured, in part, by our interests. This is most obvious, of course, in the USDA's [30] definition of "invasive species," which stipulates that a species counts as invasive only if it "does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health". Because human goals and interests influence the ways in which conservationists categorize free-roaming animals, these classifications are subject to moral evaluation. 3. Hellman Equality-Based View of Wrongful Discrimination This leads us to the fundamental moral problem with categorizing green iguanas as "invasive". To explain our concern, let us consider the way that Hellman [23] thinks about discrimination. We cannot argue for her view in detail here, as that would involve an extended discussion of all the rival accounts of discrimination. Our aim here is more modest. We simply want to show that (a) this is an attractive theory of discrimination on independent grounds; (b) though it excludes non-human animals, it can and should be extended to include them insofar as it is compatible with an animal rights ethic; and (c) if it is, we obtain a novel explanation-not reducible to the traditional appeal to speciesism-for our intuition that there is something distinctively wrong about categorizing green iguanas as invasive. As Hellman points out, humans are in the business of drawing distinctions, i.e., discriminating amongst different types of creatures. Following Hellman, let us define discrimination as: drawing distinctions between creatures on the basis of some trait they possess or lack. Sometimes, of course, drawing distinctions among people on the basis of their attributes is important or unavoidable, so it follows that some instances of discrimination are permissible. Our initial concern, then, is to identify wrongful instances of discrimination and provide an account of why they are wrong. We are interested in developing an ethic of discrimination that can address morally suspect instances of discrimination among non-human animals that are not adequately addressed by animal rights theory. As mentioned, traditional animal rights theory does not directly address inter-nonhuman-species discrimination, and it is not designed to address cases where species membership is actually relevant-as it is in wildlife management contexts, where the fact that an individual is a member of a species often does explain why she poses a threat to members of another species. We draw on Hellman's plausible human-rights based discrimination ethic, as her rights-based approach is likely to be compatible with an animal rights framework. In doing so, we accept Hellman's claim that discrimination is wrongful when it demeans, whereby to demean someone is "not merely to insult but also to put down, to diminish, and denigrate", and "to do so in a way that has the power or capacity to put the other down" [23] (pp. 8, 29). Hellman's account of wrongful discrimination stems from a "bedrock moral principle": the equal moral worth of all persons [23] (p. 6). This principle contains two sub-principles: (1) all persons have inherent value, and this requires that we treat each other with respect, and (2) the moral worth of persons does not vary according to one's traits and, thus, does not come in degrees [23] (p. 6). The bedrock principle of equal moral worth, then, demands that we acknowledge that all people are: (1) entitled to respect and (2) equally worthy [23] (p. 6). In addition, there are two distinct ways we might violate the bedrock moral principle of the equal moral worth of persons: (1) we could fail to respect their inherent value, or (2) we could fail to treat them as moral equals. This suggests that the ideas of inherent value and equal worth can come apart [23] (pp 19, 170). To see how inherent value and equal worth can come apart, Hellman [23] (p. 18) notes that there are things we can do to persons that would violate or deny their inherent value that have "nothing to do with a concern for equality". For instance, "[i]f X kills Y, he fails to respect her inherent worth- but there is not an equality issue here" [23] (p. 18). While this case involves a clear violation of Y's Animals 2019, 9, x 6 of 14 right to life, there are other situations in which the only right at issue is the right to be treated as an equal [23] (p. 19). For instance, someone might not have a right to rent a certain apartment, in the sense that he has no legitimate complaint against the landlord if the landlord rents it to someone else; that loss does not offend the potential renter's inherent value [23]. After all, to fail to respect the inherent worth of another is to treat them like a mere means, tool, or resource, and when a landlord refuses to rent to a person, that person is not treated like a mere means, tool, or resource. But this does not mean that the person has not been wronged. After all, his equal worth can still be offended by racist selection criteria-if, for instance, the apartment complex rents only to whites [23] (p. 19). By drawing a distinction between white and Black applicants, the landlord demeans potential Black renters by expressing that they have less moral worth than white people. Another example. Suppose that X is a thief, but he only robs women. While X certainly fails to respect the inherent value of the women he robs, insofar as he treats them as mere means to his ends, he wrongs the women in another way too: he fails to treat them as equally worthy, as he targets women exclusively. Persons, then, have not only inherent value, but also equal moral worth. A benefit of Hellman's account, then, is that it can account for wrongful differentiation that does not involve the violation of standard rights, such as the right to bodily integrity or property rights [23] (p. 10). While many assume that a commitment to the equal moral worth of persons entails that people are owed, as a matter of justice, something like freedom, resources, or welfare, Hellman [23] (pp. 170-172) emphasizes that the equal moral worth of persons also commits us to treating one another as equally worthy. As she puts it, "the fact that we share a common humanity requires that we be treated as worthy as others" [23] (pp. 47-48). Central to Hellman's account of wrongful discrimination, then, are the ideas of "equality" and "equal worth", in addition to the ideas of "respect" and "inherent value," which are the concepts fundamental to animal rights theory. In particular, Hellman proposes that wrongful discrimination is concerned with the norms of equality. When you draw distinctions that demean, you fail to treat persons as moral equals, and this constitutes wrongful discrimination. But when does discrimination demean? Hellman [23] (p. 32) suggests that whether discrimination demeans is often determined by the meaning of the discrimination in that context, as fixed by its historical and current social significance. As she points out, "our common history and culture and its conventions and social understandings... determine which actions express a rejection of the equal humanity of others" [23] (p. 35). For instance, there is arguably a moral difference between being denied a job because your last name begins with an A and being denied a job because you are a woman [23]. When someone draws distinctions on the basis of attributes that define a group that has been mistreated in the past or currently has some kind of diminished status, there is a high probability that the distinction demeans. This is because "when laws and policies group people on the basis of some ["minority"] traits, sometimes the context and culture invest these distinctions with a meaning that other distinctions do not have" [23] (p. 25). Because our distinctions are often symbolically loaded, we must take seriously the social nature of discrimination, as what it means to express deep disrespect, to some extent, depends on culture, context, convention, and traditions [23]. Cultural meanings are attached to certain traits, such as race and sex, and "classifications made on the basis of these traits carries with [them] baggage of social significance, or association with other traits that are deeply derogatory" [23] (p. 40). Thus, the history of mistreatment and the current social status of people with a particular characteristic are relevant to determining whether instances of discrimination on the basis of that characteristic are wrong (i.e., demeaning). We are not implying that it is easy to determine the meaning of a particular instance of discrimination. Sometimes, historical and present-day meanings diverge in significant ways. In other cases, a culture contains competing respect norms that leave the meaning of an act underdetermined. Still, it seems plausible that there are some cases where we can indeed determine the meaning of a particular act of discrimination. As we argue, this is true of the case with which we began. To recap: Hellman proposes that the fundamental wrong-making feature of wrongful classifications is explained in terms of what you express or what you do when you draw distinctions. Animals 2019, 9, x 7 of 14 What you express is largely determined by convention, and conventions sometimes invest distinctions with a meaning that demeans. If you demean when you discriminate, then that discrimination is wrong. Consequently, discrimination can be wrong even if no one feels demeaned, stigmatized, or degraded, and it can be wrong even if the discriminator does not act with bad intentions [23] (p. 27). 4. Extending Hellman's Account of Discrimination Given that Hellman focuses exclusively on humanity in her discrimination ethic, we assume that she does not endorse Singer's [33] claim that "all animals are equal". Hellman, it seems, is guilty of wrongful discrimination insofar as, in determining who is protected by the norm of equality, she implicitly draws a distinction between "humans" and "non-human animals" that demeans nonhuman animals. That is, Hellman's implicit distinction between "humans" and "non-humans" denies the equal moral worth of animals because, given the historical context of speciesist discrimination, it expresses the idea that humans, and not non-human animals, are worthy of serious moral concern. Surely, if someone were to build an anti-discrimination ethic around the principle of "the morally equality of white people", this would demean Black people. Although this principle does not logically entail that Black people have lower moral status than white people, the principle nevertheless draws a distinction between white people and non-white people. Given the historical and current social context of racial prejudice, this discrimination expresses that Black people are worth less than white people, thereby demeaning Blacks. In defending her anthropocentric theory of wrongful discrimination, Hellman might make the claim that there is a morally relevant difference between humans and non-human animals that justifies the distinction she has implicitly drawn between these groups. Here, we simply take for granted that the argument from species overlap-often referred to as the "argument from marginal cases"-provides sufficient reason to reject such a position. As many have argued, there does not appear to be any morally significant characteristic that all humans possess and all non-humans lack. Thus, we have no moral basis for granting special moral protection to a being just because she is a member of the species Homo sapiens. To do so would be speciesist, and speciesism is no less problematic than racism, sexism, and other oppressive "isms". Once we come to accept that there is no morally relevant difference between human and nonhuman animals, we are in a position to extend Hellman's account of wrongful discrimination so that it goes beyond the equality of "persons" and encompasses a notion of equality for animals, human and non-human. In addition, Hellman's discrimination ethic, when extended to non-human animals, seems to be compatible with animal rights theory, which recognizes the equal inherent value of animals. According to Regan [12], the concept of inherent value is a categorical notion-it does not vary on the basis of an individual's traits. Thus, humans do not have more inherent value than animals, even though rational humans can, while animals cannot, do poetry and math. Likewise, a professional physicist does not have more inherent value than the average person, even though a professional physicist can, while the average person cannot, do advanced physics. Yet, while Regan stresses that animals have equal inherent value, he does not explicitly make the further claim that animals have equal moral worth, and, as mentioned earlier, the ideas of "inherent value" and "equal moral worth" can come apart. Consider the following two cases: Sarah enslaves Joe and uses him as a mere means to her ends. Maria encounters Sam and Jake, who are both starving to death. Sarah has two meals with her. Because she thinks Sam is more attractive, she gives both meals to Sam, leaving Jake to starve to death. Sarah treats Joe like a mere means to her ends, thereby failing to recognize his inherent value. Yet because Maria does not use Jake as a mere means to her ends, she does not deny his inherent value. Animals 2019, 9, x 8 of 14 But surely, she has still done something wrong. We can explain the wrongness of her behavior not by drawing on the notion of inherent value, but by drawing on the notion of equal worth. Maria acts wrongly because she fails to treat Sam and Jake as equally worthy. Assuming we should accept the norm of equality, we should acknowledge that morality requires that we refrain from drawing distinctions that demean animals, as such distinctions deny the equal moral worth of animals. 5. Applying the Account If we are prepared to accept this extended version of Hellman's discrimination ethic, then we just need to show the following: when we categorize green iguanas as invasive, we fail to treat them as equally worthy relative to other animals. To make this case, we need to get clear on what makes a classification constitute wrongful discrimination-i.e., what makes it demeaning. As discussed, Hellman suggests that we assess this by looking at the larger social context in which the discrimination occurs, the identity of the speaker, and the content of the language that is used. As we argue, the content of the term "invasive" and the context in which it occurs, certainly appear to be demeaning. But crucially, this is confirmed by the position of power that conservationists enjoy. 5.1. Content and Context It is fairly clear that the term "invasive" demeans. In general, conservation biologists do not value animals as equals, and that is perhaps most obvious in the way that they typically see individual animals as expendable for the sake of species preservation. However, to categorize animals as invasive means, for all practical purposes, "worthy of extermination". To call iguanas invasive, then, is tantamount to saying that their kind is not worthy of existence (at least within a given region). Roughly the same is true of categorizing the iguanas as "alien". Consider why so many people object to describing undocumented immigrants as "illegal aliens". Such a characterization strongly implies that these individuals are not like "us" in any of the relevant ways, do not belong in the country, and do not deserve the same sort of consideration that we give even to non-migrant foreigners. We should only expect more dramatic implications when similar language is applied to non-human animals, given the way that they are already devalued by so much of the population. By categorizing species as alien, we express that they are not valuable and are worthy of extermination. There is a history of using genocidal practices to eliminate creatures who are classified as "invasive". For instance, after the population of "invasive" cane toads exploded in Australia, members of the public engaged in "cane toad management" by playing "cane toad sports", such as cane toad golf and cane toad cricket-both of which used cane toads as balls. In fact, a Northern Territory Member of Parliament encouraged the public to attack the cane toads with cricket bats and golf clubs. Obviously, there is speciesism at work here. But it is crucial to see that speciesism does not exhaust the issue: cane toads are not just undervalued relative to human beings; they are also undervalued relative to non-human animals who are not members of "invasive" species. Both layers of discrimination are objectionable, but animal rights theory has not paid as much attention to the second. Some animals are demeaned, even relative to other non-human animals. Moreover, while speciesism refers to the discounting of the interests of animals solely based on their species membership, our concern is not just that the interests of the green iguanas are discounted. After all, green iguanas do not have a preference regarding how they are categorized by wildlife managers. But still, we are concerned that the mere categorization of green iguanas as "invasive" is wrongful, insofar as the categorization puts some animals down-diminishes them- relative to animals who are not members of species labelled "invasive". Our claim is that it puts green iguanas down, in part, because of the historical and current treatment of animals deemed "invasive," which involves systematic killing, often in terrible ways. Given this invasive-abusing context, drawing distinctions between "invasive" and "non-invasive" has a demeaning meaning that other wildlife management distinctions do not have, such as the distinction between "introduced species" Animals 2019, 9, x 9 of 14 and "native species". It is a category that has been historically, and is still currently, used to justify exterminating species (or, at least, trying to), and, for that reason, its use indicates that the members of the species in question are less valuable than other "noninvasive" animals. Someone might object that the real problem with the term "invasive" is that it puts animals at risk of serious harm. Granted, this is a very bad consequence of being so categorized. But our claim is that even if there were not such a risk in a particular case, the term would still demean. Again, the history of using the term "invasive" to justify harm imposition is relevant to the meaning it has when applied to any individual, at risk of harm or not, in much the way that racial slurs can demean even in cases when their use does not put anyone at risk. In short, we need to separate the consequentialist objection to categorizing animals as "invasive" from the rights-based one. When we focus on the latter, one central question concerns how animals are being viewed, and given the history of the term "invasive", where its application is used to "justify" mass killing, "invasive" species" are being viewed as less valuable than non-human animals generally. They are being demeaned. 5.2. The Power of Conservationists Note that all this is especially objectionable, because the categorization of green iguanas as invasive is highly public and putatively authoritative. We are not the only ones to think that the former consideration affects the seriousness of degradation. Consider, for instance, what Judith Hill says: "...an agent who treats his victim as something less than a person in public places, for the whole world to observe, demonstrates a conviction that her worthlessness is so extreme that all the world can be counted upon to regard him as justified in treating her accordingly. In short, the more public the display of contempt, the stronger is the imputation of moral worthlessness." [34] (p. 42) Relatedly, we might think that part of what is so objectionable about the case of the green iguanas is the idea that a government agency can simply say that we ought to kill green iguanas on sight based on their being "invasive", with every reason to think that their intended audience will accept their justification as entirely adequate. Green iguanas matter so little that "all the world can be counted upon to regard [the FWC] as justified in treating [the green iguanas] accordingly". However, the publicity is not the only factor that matters. Additionally, it is significant that that the FWC speaks with a certain sort of authority. The FWC speaks both for the state and the scientific community, and, as a result, its pronouncements have a special force. The FWC can, more or less by fiat, make it reasonable for ordinary citizens to think that they ought to kill green iguanas whenever possible; and with that power, they can affect the moral situation of ordinary citizens-they can make it excusable to take the lives of these animals. Arguably, they cannot actually make it permissible: they cannot cancel the rights that green iguanas have, as such rights are not the product of social conventions. They can, however, influence the epistemic situation of ordinary citizens such that it can be perfectly reasonable for them to think that they act as responsible citizens when they kill animals who modestly set back human interests. That kind of power makes the FWC's use of the term "invasive" particularly heinous, as it creates an environment in which people can be more or less blamelessly recruited into very serious wrongdoing. The FWC is creating an environment that is hostile to animal liberation efforts, and in a way that is particularly destructive for the members of one species. They are severing the normal link between wrongdoing and culpability, which damages our moral culture in a way that gives green iguanas special cause for complaint. Obviously, green iguanas cannot recognize this state of affairs for what it is-much less complain about it. Thus, our claim is not that iguanas are somehow injured directly by this unequal treatment. Of course, that sort of thing certainly happens. Consider, for instance, how members of certain racialized groups are injured directly when they recognize the unfairness of a moral culture that provides people with excuses for acting wrongly toward them. Non-human animals are not the Animals 2019, 9, x 10 of 14 victims of this kind of harm. But the point we are making is not about such harm. Instead, it is about a particularly serious kind of inequality-one that does not depend on the victim's appreciation for its reality. 5.3. Discrimination in the Conservation Movement The green iguanas are not, of course, the only victims of inequality. Insofar as many wild animals have a right to our aid-given the many ways in which we have harmed them-other "conservation" categorization schemes are problematic too. Recall that conservationists are especially active in campaigning against the killing of iconic animals, such as tigers, gorillas, pandas, elephants, rhinos, and polar bears. As Small [35] (p. 232) points out, conservation organizations, as well as the public at large, are "extremely sympathetic to a select number of well-known and admired species, variously called flagship, charismatic, iconic, emblematic, marquee and poster species". While charismatic megafauna receive a considerable amount of attention from conservationists, the majority of species in need of protection are often ignored. Hugh Possingham [36] observes that, while there are approximately 20,000 species in urgent need of protection, only 80 species-commonly referred to as "celebrity species"-are recipients of conservation efforts or resources. As a result, species that are less attractive receive little attention from conservation groups. Conservationists, then, are guilty of wrongful discrimination when they make it a priority to preserve "charismatic megafauna" while failing to dedicate similar energy, time, and resources to preserving less charismatic animals. Essentially, conservationists who grant greater protection to "charismatic" species express that not all animals are equally valuable, thereby violating the bedrock moral principle of the equal worth of animals. In choosing to first and foremost protect those "spectacular" species, they may neither violate the inherent worth of less charismatic animals, nor infringe upon the individual autonomy of less charismatic non-human animals. Yet, the equal worth of animals may still be "offended by the selection criteria used" [23] (p. 19)-namely, the selection criteria when deciding which species to prioritize in conservation efforts. To defend the decision to prioritize charismatic megafauna, conservationists often argue that charismatic megafaunas are flagship species: "popular, charismatic species that serve as symbols and rallying points to stimulate conservation awareness and action" [37]. For instance, Sybille Klenzendorf [38], the director of World Wildlife Fund's species program, claims that focusing on flagship species is an effective conservation tactic, as "[t]hese large, charismatic species are ... the ones that require the largest amount of wild habitat, and by preserving them we save the less impressive species too". Surely, in order to protect tigers, we must protect tiger habitat and ensure that prey animals are protected. The claim, then, is that by protecting flagship species, an umbrella effect will follow, whereby less spectacular species, as well as entire landscapes, will also be preserved. Flagship species, then, are assumed to be umbrella species: a species whose habit needs are extensive enough such that, in the effort to set aside enough space for them, conservationists simultaneously create enough habit for many other species. But as prominent biologist Daniel Simberloff [39] (p. 247) argues, "whether many other species will really fall under the umbrella is a matter of faith rather than research." As he claims, a flagship is not necessarily a good indicator or umbrella species, since there is not always biodiversity (for instance, diversity of invertebrates, reptiles, or amphibians) in the habitats of charismatic megafauna [39]. Likewise, Williams et al. [40] conclude that areas where the "Big Five" African mammals (lions, leopards, elephants, African buffalo, and rhinos) are found do not have a higher rate of biodiversity than other random areas of land. Small [35] (p. 232) substantiates these reports, finding that "there is only limited evidence of 'trickle-down' benefits to rare, endemic and endangered species." The moral of the story is that when conservationists focus exclusively on preserving select charismatic species, they fail to promote overall biodiversity. Thus, conservationists cannot justify prioritizing "flagship species" by appealing to an "umbrella effect". If conservationists were to take our discrimination ethic seriously, they would come to see that it is wrong to draw distinctions that express the anti-egalitarian message that some animals are worth less than others. The problem with the conservation movement is not simply that conservationists Animals 2019, 9, x 11 of 14 fail to treat animals with respect or that they treat animals as if they lacked inherent worth, though those accusations are often fair. Additionally, the conservation movement has policies and practices that wrongfully discriminate, insofar as they express that some animals have less moral worth than others. Still, we might think that failures to aid are often less problematic than actively causing harm. So, it remains the case that there is a particular grievous wrong being done to green iguanas-and members of similar species-who are categorized in ways that make them targets. 6. Animal Rights Theory and Killing Our aim was to explain how animal rights theory can and should register a particular moral complaint against the practice of categorizing some animals as "invasive". Someone might worry, however, that despite all we have said, the real issue is the killing, and discrimination is only objectionable when it results in the systematic culling of particular animals. In closing, then, we want to stress that the issue of killing is, in fact, separate from the issue of discrimination. We can see this most easily by reflecting on the conditions under which animal rights theory actually sanctions killing -namely, when the aim is to protect rights and discrimination is carefully avoided. Regan's [12] animal rights theory provides us with two principles for handling cases where there are conflicts between rights: the "miniride" principle and the "worse-off" principle. Miniride says, in essence, that we should minimize the number of individuals whose rights are overridden when we are considering comparable rights violations: "[W]hen we must choose between overriding the rights of many who are innocent or the rights of few who are innocent, and when each affected individual will be harmed in a prima facie comparable way, then we ought to choose to override the rights of the few in preference to overriding the rights of the many." [12] (p. 305) This principle makes it possible to generate cases where it would be perfectly appropriate to kill green iguanas. Suppose-contrary to fact-that the following were true: Green iguanas prey on a particular tree frog. The tree frog is itself an "alien" species, introduced in the same way that green iguanas were, namely, by being abandoned by former owners who originally imported them as pets. The tree frog is not the only food that iguanas can eat; they just happen to have a strong preference for the tree frogs over the plant and insect options available to them. Any given iguana will eat thousands of tree frogs over the course of her lifetime; as a result, iguanas are, collectively, bringing the tree frog population down to a critical level. We have no way to translocate the members of either species, and reproductive management is not possible. The only feasible way to spare tree frogs from predation is to kill the iguanas. In such circumstances, it may be true that we must choose between overriding the rights of many who are innocent (the tree frogs, who we have placed in harm's way, and so to whom we have a duty of aid) or the rights of the few who are innocent (the green iguanas, who are innocent threats). Moreover, each affected individual will be harmed in a prima facie comparable way, namely, by dying. So, according to Regan's miniride principle, we ought to choose to override the rights of the few rather than override the rights of the many. But the reason for choosing to kill iguanas over the frogs does not express the belief that iguanas have less moral worth than tree frogs. We are just trying to minimize the number of comparable rights violations. Regan himself, then, implicitly acknowledges that in forced-choice situations, our decisions about who lives and who dies ought to respect norms of equality. You receive no extra consideration simply because you are a human or a charismatic animal. Thus, when faced with difficult moral Animals 2019, 9, x 12 of 14 dilemmas that involve prima facie comparable harms, we ought not to draw distinctions on the basis of arbitrary characteristics, such as race, species, intelligence, or charisma. Rather, we ought to make these difficult life and death decisions only by looking at the numbers. In doing so, we avoid demeaning those who already get the raw end of the deal. Conservationists may object that this is wildly idealistic. Given limited conservation budgets, non-lethal strategies are often unavailable. In addition, if lethal strategies are forbidden, then conservationists will have their hands tied. Species will be lost and ecosystems will change. No one has ever claimed that animal rights theory fits neatly with traditional conservation goals. We grant that it would be massively more difficult for wildlife managers to achieve their aims in a rights-respecting way. To some degree, that is a way of condemning those aims. However, it is worth remembering that we are still in the early days of animal rights theory. The core framework is only a few decades old, and it has mostly been used to criticize common practices-not in seeking to reform them. It would be good to see more work that tries to defend some range of conservation projects in a rights-respecting way. If there are surprising points of agreement between conservationists and animal rights theorists, then that may make it slightly easier to convince conservationists that animal rights theory is worth taking seriously. If not, then the battle lines will be clearer. 7. Conclusion For the foreseeable future, we will be called upon to make painful decisions about which animals live and which animals die. In many cases, the right decision will not be obvious, as we are not always confident about the effects of intervening in ecosystems. But we can be confident that we have made at least one morally sound decision if we refuse to draw distinctions among animals that categorize some, but not others, as "invasive". In other words, we can be confident that we have made at least one morally sound conservation decision when we refuse to draw distinctions that demean. Author Contributions: Writing-original draft preparation, C.E.A. and B.F. The authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of this article. Funding: This research received no external funding. Acknowledgments: The authors thank Amanda Standlee for her editorial work. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. References 1. Rushing, E.; Christensen, D. Out of control iguanas infesting South Florida. SunSentinel 2018. Available (accessed on 25 October 2019). 2. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. Invasive green iguana 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 3. Mckie, A.C.; Hammond, J.E.; Smith, H.T.; Jr., W.E.M. Invasive green iguana interaction in a burrowing owl colony in Florida. Fla. Field Nat. 2005, 33, 125-127. 4. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. FWC provides additional information on iguana removal 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 5. Garger, K. Florida iguana hunter misses target, hits pool boy with pellet gun. New York Post 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 6. Ordmandy, R. East Texas game wardens comment on new feral hog hunting law. KTRE 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 7. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Nutria control program 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). Animals 2019, 9, x 13 of 14 8. Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Asian carp market value program summary 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 9. Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Invasive snakehead fish caught in Gwinnett County 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 10. Bogel-Burroughs, N. 'Squash it! Smash it!': Pennsylvania implores residents to kill an invasive bug on sight. New York Times 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 11. Singer, P. Animal Liberation; Avon Books: New York, USA, 1975. 12. Regan, T. The Case for Animals Rights; University of California: Berkeley, CA, USA, 1983. 13. Bertelsen, M.; Sauer, C. Alfaxalone anaesthesia in the green iguana (Iguana iguana). Vet. Anaesth. Analg. 2011, 38, 461-466. 14. Mosley, C.A.; Dyson, D.; Smith, D.A. The cardiovascular dose-response effects of isoflurane alone and combined with butorphanol in the green iguana (Iguana iguana). Vet. Anaesth. Analg. 2004, 31, 1, 64-72. 15. Cabanac, M. Emotion and phylogeny. J. Consciousness Stud. 1999, 6, 176-190. 16. Ramirez, J. and Cabanac, M. Pleasure, the common currency of emotions. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2003, 1000, 1, 293-295. 17. Lambert, H.; Carder, G.; D'Cruze, N. Given the Cold Shoulder: A review of the scientific literature for evidence of reptile sentience. Animals 2019, 9, 821, . 18. Burghardt, G. Of iguanas and dinosaurs: Social behavior and communication in neonate reptiles. Am. Zool. 1977, 17, 177-190. 19. Cabanac, A.; Cabanac, M. Heart rate response to gentle handling of frog and lizard. Behav. Processes 2000, 52, 89-95. 20. Burghardt, M. Environmental enrichment and cognitive complexity in reptiles and amphibians: Concepts, review, and implications for captive populations. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 2013, 147, 286-298. 21. Leal, M.; Powell, B. Behavioral flexibility and problem-solving in a tropical lizard. Biol. Lett. 2012, 8, 28- 30. 22. Regan, T. Animal Rights, Human Wrongs; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: Lanham, MD, USA, 2003. 23. Hellman, D. When is Discrimination Wrong?; Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, UK, 2008. 24. Sagoff, M. Do non-native species threaten the natural environment? J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 2005, 18, 215-236. 25. Sagoff, M. Who is the invader? Alien species, property rights, and the police power. Soc. Philos. Policy 2009, 26, 26-52. 26. Sagoff, M. Environmental harm: Political not biological. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 2009, 22, 81-88. 27. Perry, D. Animal rights and environmental wrongs: The case of the grey squirrel in northern Italy. Essays Philos. 2004, 5, 26. 28. Evans, J.M.; Wilkie, A.C.; Burkhardt, J. Adaptive management of nonnative species: Moving beyond the "either-or" through experimental pluarlism. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 2008, 21, 521-539. 29. Frank, D. Disagreement or denialism? "Invasive species denialism" and ethical disagreement in science. Synthese 2019, 1-29. 30. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Definitions. Executive Order 13112 2019. Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 31. Benson, E. The Urbanization of the eastern gray squirrel in the United States. J. Am. Hist. 2013, 100, 691- 710. 32. Bekoff, M. Ignoring Nature No More: The Case for Compassionate Conservation; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA, 2013. 33. Singer, P. Animals are equal. In Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd ed.; Regan, T., Singer, P., Eds.; Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, 1989. 34. Hill, J. Pornography and degradation. Hypatia 1989, 2, 39-54. 35. Small, E. The new Noah's Ark: Beautiful and useful species only. Biodiversity 2011, 12, 232-247. 36. Possingham, H.; Possingham, S.D. Clash of the icons: Who's to Choose?, Decis Point 2013, 69, 4-5. 37. Heywood, V.H. Global Biodiversity Assessment; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, MA, UK, 1995. Animals 2019, 9, x 14 of 14 38. Macguire, E. Beauty trumps beast in conversation efforts. CNN 2012 Available online: (accessed on 25 October 2019). 39. Simberloff, D. Flagships, umbrellas, and keystones: Is single-species management passé in the landscape era? Biol. Conserv. 1998, 83, 247-257. 40. Williams, P.; Burgess, N.; Rahbeck, C. Flagship Species, ecological complementarity and conserving the diversity of mammals and birds in Sub-Saharan Africa. Anim. Conserv. 2000, 3, 249-260. © 2019 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ().
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{ "creator": "Festl, Michael G.", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1588492839000, "description": "nan", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBDPD-2", "language": "de", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Diderots Politik der Darstellung", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Studia philosophica 77/2018 11 Einleitung: Diderots Politik der Darstellung Zu widersprüchlich. So lautete 1984 das Verdikt von Paul Vernière, dem Herausgeber des Gesamtwerks, in Bezug auf Diderots politische Relevanz.1 Vernières Einschätzung entsprach dem Urteil vieler früherer Deutungen und befeuerte bis in die ersten Jahre des 21. Jahrhunderts hinein immer wieder die Auffassung, dass es sich bei den Schriften von Denis Diderot um geistund variantenreiche Literatur handle, die allerdings weder auf einen konsistenten propositionalen Gehalt hin gelesen werden könne, noch mittels einer vertieften philologischen Analyse für politische Philosophie fruchtbar zu machen sei. Diese Einschätzung wird von aktuellen Forschungsarbeiten2 und auch von den hier versammelten Beiträgen zum Schwerpunkt Diderot zurückgewiesen. Zwar gehen nicht alle Autoren und Autorinnen der vorliegenden Beiträge so weit wie etwa Anthony Strugnell, der Diderot 1999 als den politischsten Schriftsteller der Aufklärungszeit würdigte.3 Sie sprechen dem Werk von Diderot und insbesondere dem hier ins Zentrum gerückten Text Le Paradoxe sur le comédien allerdings eine politische Bedeutung zu. Es dauerte lange, bis das Werk von Denis Diderot von der Wissenschaft auch hinsichtlich seiner politischen Aussagekraft ernst genommen wurde. Falsch wäre jedoch zu behaupten, dass die politische Dimension erst im 21. Jahrhundert Anerkennung fand. Wie etwa Isabelle Deflers nachweist, lässt sich seit den 1960er Jahren innerhalb der Philosophie ein wachsendes Interesse an Diderots politischem Denken feststellen, das nach 1990 eine Akzentuierung erfährt.4 Dieses Interesse richtete sich in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts mehrheitlich auf die späten Schriften von Diderot. Ernüchtert über die Erfahrungen am Hof der Zarin Katharina, verfasste der Aufklärer ab 1773/74 bis zu seinem Tode im Jahr 1 Paul Vernière: Diderot et les contradictions de sa pensée politique, Revue des sciences morales et politiques, (1984) 269-285. 2 Andreas Heyer: Materialien zum politischen Denken Diderots. Eine Werkmonographie (Hamburg: Kovac, 2004). Jean Starobinski: Diderot, un diable de ramage (Paris: Gallimard, 2012). Franck Salaün (Ed.): Le langage politique de Diderot (Paris: Hermann, 2014). Isabelle Deflers (Hg.): Denis Diderot und die Macht (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2015). 3 Diderot habe nie versucht, so Strugnell, seine Gedanken in eine Theorie zu fassen, "il reste néanmoins l'écrivain le plus politique des Lumières". Anthony Strugnell: Politique, in: Dictionnaires Diderot (Paris: Champion, 1999) 410. 4 Vorher bereits Werner Krauss, Hans Mayer (Hg.): Grundpositionen der französischen Aufklärung, Berlin 1955. Georges Dulac: Sur la pratique politique d'un philosophe, in: La Pensée (1984) 61-71. Merle Perkins: Diderot and the Space-Time Continuum. His Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Politics (Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation, 1982). Alain Ménil: Diderot et le drame. Thêatre et politique (Paris: Presses Univ. de France, 1995). Einleitung12 1783 verschiedene Texte, in denen die Monarchie als Staatsform vehement abgelehnt, ein neues Verständnis politischer Repräsentation gefordert und viele Belange der Politik und des Gesellschaftsvertrags direkter angesprochen werden.5 Selbst wenn Diderot auch in diesen Jahren im strengen Sinn keinen Traktat verfasste wie etwa Hobbes im Leviathan, Rousseau in Contrat social oder Montesquieu mit L'Esprit des lois, so sind in Diderots späten Schriften die politischen Anliegen, Überlegungen und Argumente unverstellter zugänglich. Heute wird in der Diderot-Forschung das Augenmerk auf alle Textsorten ausgedehnt. Eine Untersuchung der politischen Dimensionen des Werks von Diderot, so der Forschungsstand, muss auch die formale Gestaltung in eine Analyse miteinbeziehen.6 Denn Fragen zur Politik sind im Werk von Diderot stets verknüpft mit Fragen über die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Darstellung und Repräsentation. Wer diese Dimensionen ausklammert, verpasst dementsprechend nicht selten Pointen, welche Diderot in Bezug auf das Politische gezielt konstruiert.7 Die ästhetische Virtuosität von Diderots Dichtung wird heute eigens als unverzichtbare Dimension ihres politischen Gehalts sichtbar gemacht. Konsequenterweise werden in jüngster Zeit auch jene Texte auf ihre politische Sprengkraft hin gelesen, die innerhalb der Philosophie bislang vor allem als Beitrag zur ästhetischen Theorie interpretiert wurden.8 Diderots Paradoxe sur le comédien, dessen sozial-politische Bedeutung hier in den Fokus gerückt wird, ist ein solcher Text. Sein nachhaltiger Einfluss auf die Theaterästhetik und Schauspieltheorie der Moderne ist unbestritten. Bertolt Brecht etwa oder auch Theodor W. Adorno schliessen an den Mimesis-Diskurs, wie Diderot ihn eröffnete und zu Grunde legte, an.9 Die bei Diderot angestrebte 5 Georges Dulac: Le discours de Pétersbourg, in: Franck Salaün (Ed.): Le langage politique de Diderot (Paris: Hermann, 2014) 125-173. Christine Abbt: Politischer Sinn und Sinnlichkeit. Die Forderung nach 'contre-forces' in Diderots Observations sur le Nakaz, in: Figurationen 2/2017, hg. von A. Honold: Arbeit der Sinne. Diderot und Co. (Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau, 2017) 66-79. 6 Carlo Strenger: Fear of insignificance. Searching for meaning in the twenty-first century (Basingstoke: 2011). 7 Dies zeigen etwa Susan Pinette: Diderot's Dialogic Difference, in: The French Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Dec., 2007), 339-350. Oder auch: Thomas Klinkert: Diderots subversive Ästhetik, in: Isabelle Deflers: Denis Diderot und die Macht, op. cit., 181-194. 8 Vgl. James Harriman-Smith: Comédien-Actor-Paradox: The Anglo-French of Diderot's Paradoxe sur le comédien, Theater Journal 65 (2015) 83-96. Christina Vogel: Theatralität der Gefühle. Überlegungen zur Emotionalität am Beispiel von Denis Diderots Paradox über den Schauspieler, Philologica Jassyensia (2016), 1841-5377. Guangqian Zhu: À propos du Paradoxe sur le comédien de Diderot, Société Diderot, Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie 52 (2017) 87-99. 9 Edmundo Henrique, Morim de Carvalho: Le paradoxe sur le comédien ou La comédie de l'intellect. Diderot, Jouvet, Brecht, Lacoue-Labarthe, Valéry (Paris: L'Hartmattan, 2009) Volume I. Susanne Schmieden: Brechts Diderot-Gesellschaft oder Von der Möglichkeit einer anderen theatralischen Wissenschaft, in: Christine Abbt, Peter Schnyder (Hg.), Formen des Politischen. Studia philosophica 77/2018 13 und umgesetzte Entzauberung des Mythos der Identifikation des Schauspielers mit seiner Rolle erschliesst Konsequenzen weit über den Theaterraum hinaus sowohl in Bezug auf Anthropologie und Erkenntnistheorie als auch in Bezug auf Ethik und Politik. Diderot begann mit der Arbeit an der kurzen Paradox-Schrift 1769. Zeitlebens überarbeitete er den Text, welcher in einer ersten Fassung zunächst 1770 in der Literarischen Korrespondenz von Melchior Grimm unter dem Titel Observations sur une brochure intitulée Garrick ou les acteurs anglais erschienen war. Aus Anspielungen im Text und weiteren Hinweisen lässt sich rekonstruieren, dass Diderot diese erste Fassung zwischen 1770 und 1773 weiter überarbeitete und danach unter der Überschrift der Paradox-Schrift erneut auch noch einmal 1777/78 und noch einmal 1783. Zur Publikation kam die letzte Version erst posthum im Jahre 1830.10 Im Paradox über den Schauspieler lässt Diderot zwei Sprecher miteinander in einen Dialog treten und über das Theater und die Schauspielerei diskutieren. In Bezug auf die Frage nach der idealen Schauspielkunst werden sich die Dialogpartner nicht einig. Provokant sind dabei insbesondere die Vorstellungen des Ersten Sprechers. Diese brechen mit der im 18. Jahrhundert verbreiteten Konvention. Statt Einfühlung, Empathie und Verschmelzung zwischen Darstellendem und Dargestelltem fordert der Erste Sprecher vom Schauspieler einen kühlen Kopf, eine ausgezeichnete Beobachtungsgabe und Urteilskraft. Der Darsteller darf nie vergessen, dass er nur spielt. Die anspruchsvolle und von Diderot zum aufklärerischen Vorbild erhobene Meisterschaft besteht darin, die gegenläufigen Verfahren von Annäherung und Distanzierung oder, anders gesagt, von Imitation und Rationalität in sich zu verbinden. Diese Verbindung von, abstrakt betrachtet, sich ausschliessenden Prozessen realisiert sich nicht durch eine Auflösung der Spannung, sondern sie impliziert, wie Philipp Lacou-Labarthe es ausdrückt, "einen Durchgang durchs Extrem, eine Art 'Maximierung'".11 Der stilisierte Schauspieler (oder die Schauspielerin) treibt sich selbst an, Nicht-Identität einerseits zu überwinden und dabei andererseits das Scheitern dieses Versuchs zu antizipieren und zu beobachten. Imitation verstanden als die Kunst der grösstmöglichen Aneignung der Identität einer anderen Person lässt gleichermassen ReDenis Diderots Virtuosität und ihre Rezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum (1746-2016), erscheint in: Das unsichere Wissen der Literatur (Freiburg i. Br.: Rombach, 2018). 10 Zur Editionsgeschichte des Paradox-Texts vgl. Marco Baschera: Das Dramatische Denken. Studien zur Beziehung von Theorie und Theater anhand von Kant: Kritik der reinen Vernunft und Denis Diderot: Paradoxe sur le comédien (Heidelberg: Winter, 1989). Laurent Versini: Chronologie, in: Diderot: Oeuvres, 5 Bd., Bd. 1, (1994) XIV-XCIX. 11 Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: Paradox und Mimesis, in: ders.: Die Nachahmung der Modernen. Typographien II, übers. von Thomas Schestag (Basel: Engeler, 2003) 11-33, 18. Einleitung14 präsentierbarkeit und Nicht-Repräsentierbarkeit des Menschen aufscheinen, erfahrund denkbar werden,12 und damit die Kernideen der Aufklärung im Lebensvollzug konkretisieren: Freiheit und Gleichheit. Was als Ideal eines Akts der Schauspielerei gilt, findet beim Zuschauer in gewisser Hinsicht eine Wiederholung. Einerseits fordert Diderot in seinem Text auf vielfältige Weise eine Vertiefung der Divergenz zwischen Spielendem und Zuschauendem.13 Das Publikum soll sich vergessen, während es der Handlung auf der Bühne folgt. Nicht der Schauspieler, sondern die gespielte Rolle soll in einer gelungenen Darstellung alle Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen. Der Unterschied zwischen Darstellendem und Dargestelltem fällt in diesem Moment nicht auf. Die Illusion soll möglichst umfassend wirksam werden. Authentizität ist bei Diderot eine Kategorie des Künstlichen. 'Echt' wirken kann, was gespielt ist und woran die Tatsache, dass es gespielt ist, verborgen bleibt. Da eine Aufführung aber nicht unendlich dauert, konfrontiert sie den Zuschauer andererseits mit der Tatsache, dass das, was eben noch wahr war, nicht mehr umfasst als Kunst; dass diese Effekte der Darstellungen immer und auf alle wirken, der Mensch also keine unveränderlich-stabile Natur besitzt, sondern veränderlich ist und beeinflussbar durch das Zusammenspiel mit und von Anderen. Sowohl der Kunstschaffende als auch der Kunstrezipierende werden bei Diderot auf ihre Verschiedenheit, Gleichheit und gegenseitige Bezogenheit hin aufgeklärt, auf ihre Differenz und ihre Ähnlichkeit zurückgeführt und darauf, "un être modifiable relié à d'autres" zu sein.14 Die hier versammelten Beiträge befassen sich einerseits mit den Bedeutungen, Wirkungen und Dimensionen des Akts des Schauspiels. Andererseits werden die Wirkungen dieser Kunst auf eine Zuschauerin bzw. auf das Publikum diskutiert. Wenn der Schauspieler das Publikum so kühn und kalt zu täuschen vermag, was bedeutet das dann in Bezug auf den Gesellschaftsvertrag? Welche Gefahren bedeuten Manipulation, Täuschung und Betrug für eine Demokratie? Einige Artikel rücken Diderots Text in einen ideengeschichtlichen Kontext, etwa u. a. zu Heinrich von Kleist oder zu Jonathan Swift, und streichen die analytischen Aspekte von Diderots Text in Bezug auf Macht und Machtbeziehungen hervor. Einige Beiträge befragen das philosophische Profil, das Diderot entwirft und grenzen es von sentimentalistischen Positionen in Bezug auf Solidarität und Empathie ab bzw. zeigen Linien auf, die zwischen Diderots Text und anderen Positionen der Aufklärung zum Beispiel in Bezug auf moralischen Fortschritt bestehen. 12 Abigail Zitin: Thinking Like an Artist: Hogarth, Diderot, and the Aesthetics of Technique, Eighteenth-Century studies 46 (2013) 555-570. 13 Franck Salaün: Rira, rira pas? La place du spectateur selon Diderot, in: Bénédicte Louvat-Molozay, Franck Salaün: Le Spectateur de théâtre à l'âge classique (XVII/XVIII siècles) (Montpellier: l'entretemps, 2008) 183-194, 187. 14 Franck Salaün: Rira, rira pas?, op. cit., 193. Studia philosophica 77/2018 15 Alle dargelegten Beiträge beziehen sich dabei mindestens auf diesen einen ausgewählten Paradox-Text von Diderot und entfalten davon ausgehend Bezüge, Kritik und Interpretationen. So verschieden die Zugänge und aufgegriffenen Aspekte in den einzelnen Artikeln sind, so gibt es unweigerlich Überschneidungen in Bezug auf Informationen zum Originaltext oder auch in Bezug auf die Verwendung einzelner Textstellen. Um die beabsichtigte Diskussion in den Beiträgen je plausibel zu machen, ist es allerdings unvermeidbar, dass der zugrundeliegende Text jeweils noch einmal wenigstens ansatzweise referiert und die davon angestossenen Überlegungen in den Kontext zur Vorlage von Diderot gerückt wird. Für eine Leserin oder einen Leser ergeben sich daraus allenfalls Wiederholungen bei der Rezeption, die aufgrund der Ausrichtung des Schwerpunkts nicht gänzlich verhindert werden konnten. Der vorliegende Schwerpunkt wird durch einen Beitrag von Alexander Honold eröffnet, der sowohl die zentrale Rolle der Dialogform und des Zweiten Sprechers für Diderots Text entschlüsselt als auch erläutert, worin das Paradox des Schauspielers laut Diderot tatsächlich besteht. Adrien Paschoud und Barbara Selmeci Castioni arbeiten im Anschluss die zentrale Stellung heraus, die das Paradox über den Schauspieler in Diderots Überlegungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen Drama und Gedächtnis einnimmt und zeigen, dass Diderots Text auch eine Diskussion über Gedächtnistheorie und die Frage der Vermittlung unterschiedlicher Zeitdimensionen beinhaltet. Susanne Schmieden untersucht den hier im Mittelpunkt stehenden Text Diderots in Bezug auf den Begriff des künstlichen Gefühls und hebt auf dieser Basis nicht nur die wirkungsästhetischen, sondern auch die politischen Potentiale der diderot'schen Position hervor. Janelle Pötzsch fragt nach der politischen Bedeutung des Texts von Diderot, indem sie die Parallelen zwischen Diderots Paradox über den Schauspieler und Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Reisen herausarbeitet und dabei deutlich macht, inwiefern beide Texte in Überlegungen zu Macht und Machtbeziehungen kulminieren. Robin Celikates diskutiert Diderots Text zum Theater als Beitrag über die Rolle politischer Emotionen und erläutert, inwiefern Diderots Schauspieler ein Ideal demokratischer Subjektivität vorstellt. Christine Abbt begreift den Text von Diderot als Reflexion über die Bedeutung der Erfahrung des Paradoxen für die Herausbildung einer Haltung von Skepsis und Solidarität und fragt, welche Funktion Diderot dabei der Empathie zuschreibt. Michael G. Festl schliesslich untersucht, was Diderots Konzeptionen von Fortschritt in den Feldern Wissenschaft, Kunst und Gesellschaft eint und was sie trennt. Viele der hier vorgelegten Beiträge gehen zurück auf eine Lektüre-Tagung am Internationalen Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften (IFK) in Wien im Dezember 2016. Christine Abbt und Michael G. Festl
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{ "creator": "Abbas, Muhammad", "date": "2015", "datestamp": 1588219974000, "description": "We investigated the impact of psychological capital (PsyCap) on supervisory-rated innovative performance and job stress. Data collected from a diverse sample (N = 237 paired responses) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan provided good support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that PsyCap is positively related to innovative job performance and negatively related to job stress. High PsyCap individuals were rated as exhibiting more innovative behaviours by their supervisors than low PsyCap individuals. Particularly, we found that high PsyCap individuals were more likely to generate, acquire support for, and implement novel ideas in their workplace. Similarly, individuals with high PsyCap reported lower levels of job stress as compared to their low PsyCap counterparts.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBIOP-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Impact of psychological capital on innovative performance and job stress", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences Revue canadienne des sciences de l'administration 32: 128-138 (2015) Published online 17 April 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1314Impact of psychological capital on innovative performance and job stressMuhammad Abbas* Riphah International University*Please address correspondence to: Muhammad Abbas, Faculty of Management Sciences, Riphah International University, Sector I-14, Islamabad Pakistan. Email: ; Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 128Usman Raja Brock UniversityAbstract We investigated the impact of psychological capital (PsyCap) on supervisory-rated innovative performance and job stress. Data collected from a diverse sample (N = 237 paired responses) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan provided good support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that PsyCap is positively related to innovative job performance and negatively related to job stress. High PsyCap individuals were rated as exhibiting more innovative behaviours by their supervisors than low PsyCap individuals. Particularly, we found that high PsyCap individuals were more likely to generate, acquire support for, and implement novel ideas in their workplace. Similarly, individuals with high PsyCap reported lower levels of job stress as compared to their low PsyCap counterparts. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Keywords: psychological capital, supervisory-rated innovative performance, job stress, PakistanRésumé Nous avons étudié l'impact du capital psychologique (PsyCap) sur la performance novatrice évaluée par un superviseur et le stress au travail. Les données collectées à partir d'un échantillon varié (N=237 réponses couplées) d'employés de plusieurs organisations au Pakistan ont amplement appuyé nos hypothèses. Les résultats montrent que le PsyCap est positivement relié à la performance novatrice au travail et négativement relié au stress professionnel. Les superviseurs estiment que les employés ayant un PsyCap élevé ont des comportements plus novateurs que les personnes ayant un PsyCap faible. De façon plus spécifique, l'étude révèle que les personnes qui ont un PsyCap élevé sont plus susceptibles de générer, de faire appuyer et de mettre en oeuvre des idées novatrices à leur lieu de travail. Par ailleurs, ces personnes affirment avoir de faibles niveaux de stress professionnel comparativement à leurs collègues qui ont un PsyCap faible. Mots-clés : capital psychologique, performance novatrice évaluée par un superviseur, stress professionnel, PakistanIn order to gain a competitive advantage in today's highly competitive global environment, firms must be innovative (McAdam & Keogh, 2004). Particularly, employee innovative behaviours (e.g., developing, adopting, and implementing new ideas for products and work methods) are important resources that make an organization successful in dynamic business environments (Yuan & Woodman, 2010). Moreover, organizations require innovative people to sustain their competitive positions in the market (Zhou & Shalley, 2008). Keeping in mind the importance of innovations for organizational sustainability, extant research has focused on contextual (Amabile, 1988; Carson & Carson, 1993) as well as dispositional (Furnham & Bachtiar, 2008; Tierney & Farmer, 2002) factors that stimulate innovative behaviours in the workplace.Another main concern of organizations in the current changing environment is the increased possibility of job stress at work. Organizations unable to promise job security cannot in turn expect more loyalty and creativity from employees. Fiercely competitive environments where employees are constantly under pressure to improvise and innovate lead to job stress. Stress then leads to a variety of psychological and physiological problems among employees (Revicki & May, 1985; Zhong et al., 2009). Further, job stress is considered a major contributor to health-related issues in organizations today, resulting in billions of dollars in the form of lost productivity and medical expenses (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997; Robertson, Cooper, Williams, & Williams, 1990). Occupational stress-related costs were estimated at billions of dollars per year in the US alone (Conti & Burton, 1994; Greenberg et al., 2003). This has made job stress an important variable of interest in organizational research over the past few decades. Researchers are constantly trying to identify variables that either induce stress or are helpful in reducing the detrimental effects of stress.Can J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAPsychological capital (PsyCap), which refers to an individual's positive psychological resources (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), is one such variable that, theoretically, is relevant to both innovation and stress. It can potentially provide a necessary repository of psychological resources that help effectively innovate work-related ideas and reduce job stress. Derived from positive organizational behaviours, PsyCap is composed of four components including hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. PsyCap has been found to be related to various important job outcomes such as job performance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions (Abbas, Raja, Darr, & Bouckenooghe, 2014; Luthans, Norman, Avolio, & Avey, 2008). Although several studies have recently investigated the relationship between PsyCap and creativity (Luthans, Youssef, & Rawski, 2011; Rego, Sousa, & Marques, 2012; Sweetman, Luthans, Avey, & Luthans, 2011), they all used exercises and scales that were restricted to the idea generation phase of innovation and had less relevance to jobrelated innovative performance. In addition, Luthans et al. (2011) relied on self-reports for both psychological capital and creativity, while Sweetman et al. (2011) recognized the limitations of focusing on the idea generation phase and called upon future research to draw from an alternative measure of creative performance. Creativity refers to behaviours pertaining to the generation of novel and useful ideas (Amabile, 1988; Oldham & Cummings, 1996), whereas innovative behaviours include not only the generation of new ideas but also the adoption of others' ideas that are new to one's organization or work unit (Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993; Yuan & Woodman, 2010). Although creative performance or creativity is closely linked to innovative behaviours, creativity is only a starting point. Innovation, on the other hand, includes the different steps for the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization at different levels (Yuan & Woodman, 2010). An individual's innovative behaviours are the composite of complex behavioural tasks including idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization (Janssen, 2001; Kanter, 1988; Scott & Bruce, 1994). Scholars have suggested that all types of innovations start with the idea generation phase, which involves the generation of novel and useful ideas in any domain (Woodman et al., 1993). The next phase is idea development, which involves mobilizing support and acquiring approvals for the idea from peers and/or supervisor(s) (Kanter, 1988). The last phase relates to idea realization, which is the transformation of these ideas into useful applications within a work role or group, or within the entire organization (Kanter, 1988). These behaviours are demonstrated in the different stages of development and are characterized by discontinuous activities (Kanter, 1988). In addition, individuals may be involved in any combination of these behaviours at any time (Scott & Bruce, 1994). Therefore, by not considering a more composite measure of individuals' innovative behaviours,Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 129the current evidence on PsyCap and creativity may be inconclusive. Similarly, although research shows PsyCap is related to job stress, the number of studies examining this relationship is limited. More importantly, our insight into the efficacy of psychological resources in reducing stress in newer contexts such as that of Pakistan is even more so limited. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the viability of PsyCap as a predictor of reduced stress in newer work settings. Both job stress and innovative performance are high impact variables in organizations such that even a small variation in these could translate into an enormous amount of revenue for organizations. For example, just a two percent variance in stress or innovation in an organization with 500 employees translates into 10 employees being either stressed or innovative. The high impact of stress on losses in individual productivity or the even more severe outcomes associated with depression make even a small variance in it very important. Similarly, innovation is something that defines the survival of an organization in today's competitive environment, which makes it very important to focus on factors that could provide organizations with a marginal edge over their competitors in terms of capacity to innovate. Finally, researchers have emphasized the importance of conducting innovation-related research "among organizations in emerging economies," particularly in Asian settings (Drazin & Schoonhoven, 1996, p. 1081). For example, Bartram and Rimmer (2012, p. 1) have noted that "the economic dominance of China and India and their near neighbors has triggered enormous curiosity among HR researchers." Until these theories are tested in non-US settings, HR researchers will have little confidence in the generalizability of these models. In fact, management scholars recently have called for ample testing and replication of existing theories to develop a reliable body of knowledge that can be used by managers for "evidence based decision [s]" (Hambrick, 2007; Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006). Our study responds to these calls and extends the theory of PsyCap to an Eastern context (i.e., Pakistan), thereby providing external validity to the findings of research in Western contexts. Using the framework of Fredrickson's (2004) broaden-andbuild theory, we examine the impact of positive PsyCap on supervisory-rated innovative performance and job stress in Pakistan.Theory and Hypotheses Psychological Capital In recent years, organizational behaviour research has significantly shifted from seeing individuals as coping with weaknesses to seeing them as able to enhance their strengths and wellbeing in the workplace (Cameron & Caza, 2004; Wright, 2003). Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000)Can J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAposited that "[n]o longer do the dominant theories view the individual as a passive vessel 'responding' to 'stimuli'; rather, individuals are now seen as decision makers, with choices, preferences, and the possibility of becoming masterful, efficacious, or, in malignant circumstances, helpless and hopeless" (p. 8). Derived from this line of thinking, PsyCap has emerged as a positively oriented higher-order construct (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). This higher-order PsyCap is defined individual's positive psychological state of development and is characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007, p. 3).Positive PsyCap has been found to be related to various job outcomes such as job performance, job satisfaction (Abbas et al., 2014; Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007), turnover intentions (Avey, Luthans, & Youssef, 2010), and cynicism (Avey, Wernsing, & Luthans, 2008). Although the majority of the studies on PsyCap have been conducted in North America, particularly in the US, there are a handful of studies that have examined the impact of various components of PsyCap on job outcomes in non-US settings (Abbas et al., 2014; Luthans, Combs, Clapp-Smith, & Nadkarni, 2006).Psychological Capital and Innovative Behaviours Although some recent studies have examined the impact of a variety of psychological resource capacities on creativity, these resources have been separately linked with creativity or innovation-related outcomes. For example, Rego, Machado, Leal, and Cunha (2009) investigated the relationship between hope and creativity, while Rego, Sousa, Marques, and Cunha (2012) examined the relationship between optimism and creativity. Similarly, Tierney and Farmer (2002) investigated the relationship between efficacy and creative performance. Research suggests that the positive psychological resources of efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism have the potential to trigger innovative behaviours in the workplace. However, these resources do not act in isolation. Instead, they provide support for each other through an underlying shared mechanism (Fredrickson, 2001; Hobfoll, 2002; Magaletta & Oliver, 1999); hence, they should be studied collectively (Abbas et al., 2014; Luthans, Avolio, et al., 2007). Empirical research also supports the notion that studying PsyCap as a core construct predicts job outcomes better than any of its individual components (Luthans, Avolio, et al., 2007; Sweetman et al., 2011).right © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 130Asmentioned above, positive PsyCap is characterized by the presence of hope, optimism, efficacy, and resilience. Hope involves the willpower to perform creatively and the waypower for the creative exploration of multiple pathways to reach a goal (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007). According to Snyder, Lapointe, Crowson, and Early (1998), high hope individuals use agentic (goal directed) thinking to move along a pathway and continue to progress. This agentic and pathway thinking is iterative in nature (see Snyder, Harris, et al., 1991). Hope has been found to be associated with academic and athletic performance, as well as mental and physical health (Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991). In addition, high hope individuals tend to be independent thinkers (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007). Hopeful individuals take risks and look for alternative pathways when old ones are blocked (Snyder, 1994). Hopeful employees "tend to be creative and resourceful, even with tight budgets" (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007, p. 74). These individuals actively work on creative ideas for solving problems, and they regard problems and opportunities from different angles (Zhou & George, 2003). Because of their ability to generate alterative pathways and their creative approaches to tasks, high hope individuals are likely to generate and apply innovative ideas in the workplace. Similarly, optimism is positively associated with mental health (Seligman, 1998). Optimists tend to maintain positive expectations about results (Avey et al., 2008), and Rego, Sousa, Marques, and Cunha (2012) found that optimistic individuals also tend to be more creative. Optimistic leaders pursue new and creative approaches towards problem solving (Peterson,Walumbwa, Byron, &Myrowitz, 2008). Moreover, optimists tend to take credit for and expect positive events in their lives while distancing themselves from unfavourable life events. Hence, it is less likely that these individuals will experience self-blame and despair when working on innovative solutions for their problems. Therefore, we expected that optimism will help individuals generate and apply innovative approaches in the accomplishment of their tasks. In a similar vein, Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) and Bandura and Locke (2003) found that self-efficacy had a strong positive relationship with work-related performance. According to Bandura and Locke (2003), self-efficacy helps with perseverance in the face of obstacles. Efficacious individuals are inventive, resourceful (Bandura, 1986), and creative (Tierney & Farmer, 2002). Therefore, we expected highly efficacious individuals to be more likely to generate and apply innovative ideas in their workplace. Finally, resilience helps individuals become flexible and adaptable during highly uncertain situations (Coutu, 2002). Resilient individuals are optimistic, energetic towards life, curious, and open to new experiences (Block & Kremen, 1996). These individuals are also humorous (Wolin & Wolin, 1993) and use creative exploration (Cohler, 1987). Resilient individuals elicit positive emotions in themselves as well as in others (Fredrickson, 2004), which may help them create a supportive environment that facilitatesCan J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAinnovative behaviours. Resilient leaders are likely to encourage themselves and even their subordinates to take risks and exhibit innovative behaviours (Peterson et al., 2008). Therefore, it is likely that resilience helps individuals apply innovative approaches to their work, acquire support for new ideas, and bounce back when faced with difficulties in the implementation of new ideas. Together, high PsyCap individuals are thought to put forth intentional efforts to produce creative ways of attaining goals. Being relevant to positive organizational change, PsyCap is considered an individual-level higher-order factor that facilitates change (Avey et al., 2008). Individuals high on PsyCap are able to develop new pathways (hope) to attain their goals. These individuals possess the confidence (efficacy) necessary to arrive at desired goals using alternative paths (hope), have positive attribution and outlook for the future (optimism), and are able to bounce back from setbacks (resilience) in the case of any difficulty or failure that may arise due to the implementation of innovative ideas (Avey et al., 2008; Luthans et al., 2007). It follows that these positive psychological resource capacities may help employees exhibit innovative behaviours by broadening the options they perceive and helping them exert effort to reach goals using their willpower and waypower, even in the face of initial failure and setbacks. In a similar vein, we draw on broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) to explain the relationship between PsyCap and innovative performance. Past research on positive PsyCap has also used the broaden-and-build framework to understand the effects of positive PsyCap on a variety of job outcomes (Avey, Reichard, Luthans, & Mhatre, 2011; Norman, Avey, Nimnicht, & Pigeon, 2010; Walumbwa, Peterson, Avolio, & Hartnell, 2010). According to broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions share the capacity to broaden people's momentary thought-action repositories and widen the array of thoughts and actions that come to their minds (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Fredrickson, 2001), thereby increasing the potential for the demonstration of innovative behaviours such as sharing creative ideas and providing suggestions for improvements at work (Avey, Luthans, & Youssef, 2010; Avey, Reichard, et al., 2011). This theory further posits that positive emotions and orientations broaden people's attention and focus as well as their patterns of thinking (Fredrickson, 2001; Isen, 2000; Kahn & Isen, 1993). These emotions and orientations also help individuals make connections between divergent stimuli (Isen, 1999) and therefore can be expressed as innovative behaviours (Avey et al., 2011). Research on PsyCap suggests that PsyCap contributes to positive emotions. Avey et al. (2008) found that hope, optimism, efficacy, and resilience produce positive emotions among individuals while Avey, Wernsing, and Mhatre (2011) also found PsyCap to be a source of positive emotions. Therefore, it is possible that positive PsyCap of hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience use positive emotions toCopyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 131develop broader thought-action repertoires that are manifested as innovative performance. The broadened inventory of positive psychological resources such as hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience may be helpful in problem solving and enhancing creativity since employees with a positive mindset are more creative (Luthans et al., 2011; Rego, Sousa, and Marques, 2012). Employees with a positive mindset may not only be able to generate innovative ideas but may also acquire approvals from colleagues to support their ideas and transform them into useful applications in the workplace. Together, these psychological resources have cognitive, affective, motivational, and decisional components (Bandura & Locke, 2003; Peterson, 2000) that help employees successfully develop and implement work-related innovative ideas. Besides, high PsyCap individuals possess the cognitive capacity of self-regulation (Bandura, 1991), which provides the initiative, pro-activeness, and self-discipline necessary for reaching their goals (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). Overall, high PsyCap individuals have a built-in creative tendency to develop multiple pathways to accomplish their goals and invest their efforts in generating, promoting, and realizing job-related innovative behaviours. Consequently, we hypothesized:H1: Psychological capital is positively related to innovative performance.Psychological Capital and Job Stress Past research suggests that the PsyCap components of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism are positive psychological resources that collectively act as "a solid resource reservoir" (Hobfoll, 2002, p. 318). Individuals with a greater pool of such resources are less likely to experience job stress. Social psychologists have suggested that these positive psychological resources provide support to each other through an underlying shared mechanism (Fredrickson, 2001; Youssef & Luthans, 2007) that binds them together, broadens momentary thought-action repertoires, and helps individuals experience low job stress (Hobfoll, 2002). The hope component of PsyCap has been found to be associated with mental and physical health, and an ability to cope with adversity (Snyder et al., 1991). Optimism is negatively associated with depression and positively associated with mental health (Seligman, 1998). Optimists continue to work hard and actively manage the problems they face while pursuing desirable outcomes (Kluemper, Little, & DeGroot, 2009). Similarly, research suggests that highly efficacious individuals experience low job stress and burnout (Salanova, Peiró, & Schaufeli, 2002). According to Bandura and Locke (2003), self-efficacy beliefs help individuals persevere in the face of obstacles and cope with distressing and self-debilitating emotional states that hinder the execution of activities. Moreover, resilient individualsCan J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAhave the ability to adapt positively when faced with risk and adversity (Masten & Reed, 2002). According to broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions share the capacity to broaden people's momentary thought-action repositories, widen the array of thoughts and actions that come to their minds, and provide a positive outlook of the external environment (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Fredrickson, 2001), thereby helping individuals avoid experiencing high stress (Siu, Cheung & Lui, 2014). Studies suggest that the broadened inventory of positive psychological resources, such as hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience, may be helpful in promoting low stress (Ong, Bergeman, Bisconti, & Wallace, 2006; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Avey, Luthans, and Jensen (2009) found PsyCap to be a positive resource that combats occupational stress. These positive psychological resources possess cognitive, affective, and motivational components (Bandura & Locke, 2003; Peterson, 2000) that keep individuals away from stress. Taken together, high PsyCap individuals, being confident in their beliefs and hopeful, optimistic, and highly resilient in the face of obstacles, are less likely to report job stress. Consequently, we : Psychological capital is negatively related to job stress.Methods Sample and Data Collection Procedures The data were collected through the personal administration of questionnaires at private banks, local offices of textile firms, offices of a government ministry, and the customer service offices of a telecommunication company in Faisalabad, which is the third largest city in Pakistan. Of the 237 complete responses, about 17% of the surveys were received from government workers, 50% from bank branches, 21% from textile firms, and the remaining received from the telecom company. As English is the medium of instruction at the college and university level and people in Faisalabad read and understand English, we did not translate the questionnaires into the local language. We used personal and professional contacts to gain entry permission from the concerned organizations. The questionnaires included a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study to the respondents and assuring them of strict confidentiality. No significant events took place during the collection of data in these organizations. The participation was voluntary and respondents completed a self-report version of the questionnaire, which included the measures of PsyCap and job stress. The respondents also reported their gender, age, occupational level, education, andwork experience. The supervisor of each respondent completed the supervisor-report version, which contained questions on innovative performance. Theright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 132questionnaire was completed by the respective supervisor of each respondent. Both the respondents and their supervisors separately returned the completed surveys to one of the authors without having access to each other's responses. We distributed 300 questionnaires, of which 237 usable paired (self and supervisor-report) responses were received for a response rate of 79%. The majority of respondents (79%) were male, the average age was 31 (SD = 8.03) years, and the average tenure was 4.80 (SD = 6.43) years. The sample represents several occupational levels including 16% entry level workers (clerical and technical staff), 80% supervisory and middle managers, and 4% upper-middle and top-level managers, with education levels ranging from 14 years of education to graduate degrees including MBAs. Measures Psychological capital and job stress were measured using self-reports. However, to avoid self-report bias issues, innovative performance was measured using supervisoryreports. Higher responses obtained against a variable represent a higher level of that construct. The following questionnaires were used for the collection of data. Psychological capital. PsyCap was measured by a 24item Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ: Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007). Examples of the items include, "I feel confident analyzing a long-term problem to find a solution," "If I should find myself in a jam at work, I could think of many ways to get out of it," "When I have a setback at work, I have trouble recovering from it, moving on," and "When things are uncertain for me at work, I usually expect the best." The responses for PsyCap were taken using a 6-point Likert-scale with anchors of 1 = "Strongly disagree" through to 6 = "Strongly agree." Psychological capital has been theorized and operationzed as a higher-order latent construct in previous studies; therefore, we conducted a second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to see if all four dimensions loaded onto a single latent factor. The results yielded a good fit for a latent single-factor model (χ2 = 437.90, df = 244, comparative fit index [CFI] = .88, goodness-of-fit index [GFI] =.87, incremental fit index [IFI] = .89, and root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .05). Therefore, to create an overall PsyCap, we averaged the scores on all 24 items such that a high score reflects high PsyCap. The internal consistency reliability of PsyCap was α = .83. Innovative performance. Supervisory-rated innovative performance was measured using six items from the Janssen's (2001) scale for individual innovative behaviour in the workplace that is based on Kanter's (1988) work on stages of innovation and covers several necessary phases (i.e., idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization) of individuals' innovative behaviours. Two items each on this questionnaire assessed idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. Sample items included "GeneratesCan J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAoriginal solutions to problems," "Mobilizes support for innovative ideas," and "Transforms innovative ideas into useful applications." The responses for innovative performance were taken using a 7-point Likert-scale with anchors 1 = "Never," through to 7 = "Always." Previous research shows that these three dimensions combine additively to create an overall scale of individual innovative behaviour (Janssen, 2001, 2004); therefore, we conducted a second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to see if the 3-dimensional construct did load onto a single latent factor. The results of the CFA revealed a good fit for a latent single-factor model (χ2= 8.63, df = 6, comparative fit index [CFI] = .99, goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = .98, incremental fit index [IFI] = .99, and root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .04). Therefore, we used an additive measure by taking the average of all items to create an overall innovative performance score such that high scores reflect high innovative performance. The reliability of the innovative performance measure was α = .89. We also conducted additional analyses to see if PsyCap significantly predicts all three phases of innovative performance (i.e., idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization). For this purpose, we conducted a three-factor CFA for innovative performance. The results of the CFA revealed a good fit for a three-factor model. These results were almost identical to the result for the latent single-factor model (χ2 = 8.63, df = 6, comparative fit index [CFI] = .99, goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = .98, incremental fit index [IFI] = .99, and root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .04). Job stress. Job stress was measured by a shortened version (9 items) of the original 13-item Job Stress Scale developed by Parker and DeCotiis (1983). The shortened version was previously used by Jamal and Baba (1992). This scale was used because of its good psychometric properties as reported in recent studies conducted in Western settings (Burton, Hoobler, & Scheuer, 2012; Hunter, & Thatcher, 2007) and in Pakistan (Jamal, 2007, 2010). The items include "Sometimes when I think about my job I get a tight feeling in my chest" and "I have too much work and too little time to do it in." The reliability of this scale is α = .71. Responses for job stress were taken using a 5-point scale with anchors of 1 = "strongly disagree," through to 5 = "strongly agree." Control variables. We included age, gender, and organization type as controls for all outcomes. Past research suggests that creativity (Furnham & Bachtiar, 2008; Lau, & Cheung, 2010; Wu, Cheng, Ip, & McBride-Chang, 2005) and job stress (Antoniou, Polychroni, & Vlachakis, 2006) may vary across gender and different age groups; therefore, age and gender were included as control variables. Further, a one-way ANOVA comparing innovative performance and job stress across organizations and occupational levels revealed that significant differences in job stress (F = 5.42, p < .02) were found for different organizationCopyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 133types. In addition, the post-hoc analysis revealed that the differences were only between the 1 public sector and 3 private sector organizations. The post-hoc further revealed that the average level of job stress in private organizations was higher than the average job stress in public organizations. Hence, we created a dummy variable (0 = "Private," 1 = "Public) to control for the effects of organization type.Results Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, bivariate correlations, and estimates of reliability (coefficient alpha). The zero-order bivariate correlations between PsyCap, job stress, and innovative performance were in the expected direction. Psychological capital was negatively related to job stress (r = -.15, p < .05) and positively related to innovative performance (r = .20, p < .01). In addition, PsyCap was positively and significantly related to idea generation (r = .17, p < .01), idea support (r = .18, p < .01), and idea implementation (r = .17, p < .01). Multiple regression analysis was used to test all the main effect hypotheses. Age, gender, and organizational type (control variables) were entered in the first step followed by the independent variable. Table 2 presents the regression results for the effect of PsyCap on job stress and innovative performance. The results revealed that PsyCap was positively related to innovative performance (β = .21, p < .001; ΔR2 = .04, p < .001) and negatively related to job stress (β = - .13, p < .05; ΔR2 = .02, p < .05). These results render support for H1 and H2. Moreover, PsyCap explained 4% additional variance in innovative performance and 2% additional variance in job stress. We also conducted a dimension-wise analysis for innovative performance. The control variables were entered in the first step, followed by the independent variable. Table 3 presents the regression results for the effect of PsyCap on the three phases of innovative performance. The results suggest that PsyCap is positively related to idea generation (β = .18, p < .01; ΔR2 = .03, p < .01), idea support (β = .19, p < .01; ΔR2 = .04, p < .01), and idea implementation (β = .17, p < .05; ΔR2 = .02, p < .05). These results provide evidence that PsyCap significantly predicts all phases of innovative behaviours including idea generation, idea support, and idea implementation.Discussion and Conclusion Summary We tested for the main effects of PsyCap on employee innovative performance and job stress. Consistent with Sweetman et al. (2011), our findings clearly support the assertion that individuals who are high in PsyCap are moreCan J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, Correlations, and Reliabilities Mean S.D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Gender 1.20 .40 2. Age 30.71 8.03 -27** 3. Organization type .16 .372 -14* .37** 4. Job stress 2.94 .58 -.10 -.06 -.15* (.71) 5. Innovative performance 4.53 1.09 -.01 -.05 -.06 -.09 (.89) 6. Idea generation 4.58 1.27 .01 -.09 0.10 -.10 .88** (.86) 7. Idea support 4.61 1.19 .02 -.08 -.09 -.09 .85** .66** (.76) 8. Idea implementation 4.39 1.31 -.04 .04 .03 -.06 .86** .63** .58** (.81) 9. Psychological capital 4.31 .56 .01 .02 .16* -.15* .20** .17** .18** .17** (.83) Note. N = 237; Cronbach's alphas presented in parenthesis; for organizational type, 0 = "Private" and 1 = "Public"; gender was coded as "1" for male and "2" for female. *p < .05, **p < .01 Table 2 Regression Results for Psychological Capital, Innovative Performance, and Job Stress Innovative performance Job stress β ΔR2 Β ΔR2 Step 1: Gender -.02 -.13* Age -.03 -.04 Organization type -.05 .01 -.16* .04* Step 2: Psychological capital .21** .04** -.13* .02* Note. N = 237; Standardized Coefficients are reported. For organizational type, 0 = "Private" and 1 = "Public"; gender was coded as "1" for male and "2" for female. *p < .05; **p < .001 able 3 egression Results for Psychological Capital and hases of Innovative Performance Idea generation Idea support Idea implementation Β ΔR2 β ΔR2 Β ΔR2 tep 1: ender -.02 .00 -.03 ge -.06 -.06 .03 rganization type -.08 .01 -.07 .01 .01 .00 tep 2: sychological apital .18** .03** .19** .04** .17* .02* ote. N = 237; Standardized Coefficients are reported. For organiational type, 0 = "Private" and 1 = "Public"; gender was coded as 1" for male and "2" for female. p < .05; **p < .01 PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAlikely to exhibit innovative behaviours in the workplace than their low PsyCap counterparts. Our results reveal that high PsyCap individuals, due to their natural tendency towards exhibiting innovative behaviours, take initiatives in the generation, promotion, and realization of new ideas in their work roles. Our findings also reveal that individuals with high PsyCap report lower job stress than individuals with low PsyCap. This suggests that high PsyCap individuals, because of their positive orientation and resilient approach towards the external environment, are able to handle stress well. Despite its theoretical appeal and importance in today's workplace, no previous study has investigated the relationship between PsyCap and supervisory-rated innovative job performance. The current study provides an extension to the theory of PsyCap by exploring its link with employees' innovative performance and job stress. In addition, the studyCopyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 134T R P S G A O S P c N z " * tests the PsyCap theory, predominantly developed and tested in Western settings, in an Eastern setting and therefore provides external validity to this theory. With the exception of a few studies (Combs, Clapp-Smith, & Nadkarni, 2010; Luthans et al., 2006), the majority of the previous studies on PsyCap, including the study by Sweetman et al. (2011), have been conducted in North American settings. Recently, Avey et al. (2011) conducted a meta-analytic study and found that the correlations for PsyCap and a variety of work-related outcomes were stronger in US samples as opposed to non-US samples. These authors called for future research to examine the relative influence of PsyCap on other important job outcomes across cultures. As a result, a comparison of the zero-order correlations reported in Table 1 against the studies conducted in USCan J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAsettings provides an opportunity to compare the results for main effects in Western cultures to those examined in this study. Unfortunately, we were unable to compare our observed correlations for PsyCap and job stress with the meta-analytic associations reported by Avey et al. (2011) because these authors did not compare the bivariate correlations across countries separately for each outcome. In addition, these authors did not include any study examining the association between PsyCap and innovative behaviour. In another recent study, Luthans et al. (2011) examined the impact of PsyCap on innovation. Unfortunately, these authors did not report the bivariate correlations in their study; therefore, we could not compare the effect size for PsyCap and innovative performance observed in our study with Luthans et al.'s (2011) findings. Finally, we compared our observed associations for PsyCap and innovative performance against the correlations reported by Sweetman et al. (2011). It appears that the correlations observed in our study were relatively weaker (r =.20, p <.01) than those observed by Sweetman et al. (2011) in a US sample (r = .25, p < .001). The results for the associations of PsyCap with all phases of innovative performance were also relatively weaker in our study compared to those reported by Sweetman et al. For job stress, we compared the correlations observed in our study with those observed by Avey et al. (2009). The zero-order bivariate correlations in our study (r = -.15, p <.05) were relatively weaker than those found by Avey et al. (2009) in the US sample (r = -.35, p <.001). These comparisons suggest that the effects of PsyCap on innovative performance and job stress, although significant, are weaker in Pakistani settings than in US settings. These findings are consistent with the meta-analytic findings of Avey et al. (2011) who found that the effects of PsyCap on a variety of job outcomes were stronger in US settings than nonUS settings. That said, our results suggest that PsyCap, in general, has a negative effect on job stress and a positive effect on innovative job performance. In other words, consistent with the Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory, the results of this study suggest that the broadened thought-action repertoires and expanded inventory of positive psychological resources have the capacity to enhance innovative performance and reduce job stress. Our findings further suggest that the results from past research in Western settings generalize well to the Pakistani context, which suggests that PsyCap is perhaps personal in nature and less context dependent (Abbas et al., 2014). Our study also provides further evidence of the effect of PsyCap on all dimensions of innovative performance. Our findings suggest that PsyCap significantly affects all phases of innovative behaviours including idea generation, idea support, and idea implementation. In other words, individuals with high PsyCap cannot only generate new ideas but are also able to mobilize support for innovative ideas and implement those ideas in the workplace.Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 135Contributions to Scholarship Our study extends the theory of PsyCap to an Eastern context (i.e., Pakistan) and provides external validity to the findings of research in Western contexts. Using the framework of Fredrickson's (2004) broaden-and-build theory, we examined the impact of positive PsyCap on supervisory-rated innovative performance and job stress in Pakistan. Past research on PsyCap and creativity focused only on the idea generation phase of innovative work behaviours. Our study used a more composite measure of innovative performance. The findings suggest that PsyCap significantly affects all phases of innovative behaviours including idea generation, idea support, and idea implementation. These findings support the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) and suggest that positive psychological resources broaden the thought-action repertoires and help individuals to generate, mobilize, and implement innovative ideas in their workplace. We also found that individuals with high PsyCap experienced low levels of job stress. In addition, we compared the bivariate correlations observed in our study with those reported in past studies conducted in Western settings. The correlations observed in our study were relatively weaker than those observed in the previous studies. These findings are consistent with the meta-analytic findings of Avey et al. (2011) who found that the effects of PsyCap on a variety of job outcomes were stronger in US settings than in non-US settings. Applied Implications This study also has implications for practicing managers. Since PsyCap is composed of state-like resource capacities and is open to development (Luthans, Avey, & Patera, 2008), managers can develop their employees' PsyCap through various training interventions. This will help employees foster new and innovative ways of accomplishing their tasks. High PsyCap individuals, due to their positive psychological resources, may offer a competitive advantage to their organizations. Managers should also be careful with regards to assigning relatively stressful tasks to those who are low on PsyCap as these individuals are more likely to experience job stress. Limitations and Future Research Directions There are several limitations to the current study. As with most research, there is a possibility of method bias since PsyCap and job stress were measured using self-reports. However, this should not be an issue in the case of innovative performance as it was measured using supervisory-rated responses. Second, we did not measure other relevant personality factors such as proactive personality and openness to experience, which may affect innovative performance;Can J Adm Sci 32(2), 128-138 (2015) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND JOB OUTCOMES ABBAS AND RAJAtherefore, we were unable to examine the relative strength of PsyCap. Future research can address this by comparing the predictive ability of PsyCap with other creativity-related personality traits. A comparison of PsyCap with other personality traits in predicting creative behaviours would help in understanding the relative strength of positive PsyCap. Recently, Byron, Khazanchi, and Nazarian (2010) conducted a meta-analytic study and tested the effects of work-related stressors on creativity. These authors found that uncontrollable stressors had a negative effect on creativity, whereas controllable stressors had a positive effect. Future research should examine the buffering or exacerbating role of positive PsyCap in predicting creativity in the face of work stressors. We collected data from a diverse sample of employees working in banks, a government ministry, a telecommunications firm, and textile firms. Although innovation may not be as highly desirable in these industries as in high-tech firms, the generation and implementation of new ideas and methods of improvement is required for nearly all jobs (Shalley & Gilson, 2004) and all organization types (Damanpour, 1991; Lyons, Chatman, & Joyce, 2007). That said, future research should examine the effects of positive PsyCap on innovative behaviours within industries where innovation is highly critical for sustainable organizational growth. Finally, longitudinal research designs are vitally important to our understanding of the directions of influence between PsyCap and job outcomes. 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{ "creator": "Abbate, Giampaolo", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1562788670000, "description": "nan", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBLDS-3", "language": "it", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "L’assenza di sinonimia tra metabolé, kínesis e génsis nella dottrina Aristotelica del divenire", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 85 L'ASSENZA DI SINΟNIMIA TRA METABOLÉ, KÍNESIS E GÉNESIS NELLA DOTTRINA ARISTOTELICA DEL DIVENIRE Giampaolo Abbate Universidade de Lisboa RESUMO: A partire, soprattutto, dal commentario di Simplicio di Silicio alla Fisica, si ritiene che nell'ambito della sua dottrina naturale Aristotele abbia sostenuto che κίνησις (movimento) e γένεσις (generazione) sono specie di un genere rappresentato dalla μεταβολή (cambiamento). Per cui, riguardo alla relazione che ha luogo tra κίνησις e γένεσις da un lato, e μεταβολή dall'altro, si assume solitamente che μεταβολή è sinonimo sia di κίνησις che di γένεσις. Però, io credo che Aristotele abbia rifiutato una tale prospettiva e piuttosto ha concepito e descritto la relazione tra questi tre termini secondo un rapporto di omonimia. Infatti, nella misura in cui ci sono tanti tipi di μεταβολή o κίνησις quanti sono i significati di "è" (III, 1, 201a 8-9), sia μεταβολή sia κίνησις sono due πολλαχῶς λεγόμενα le cui differenti realizzazioni a malapena connotano i medesimi oggetti. Inoltre, la definizione di μεταβολή quale un passaggio ἔκ τινος εἴς τι (V, 1, 225a 1-2) non può essere in linea con la trattazione di γένεσις e κίνησις che ci è data rispettivamente nel primo e nel terzo libro. PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Aristotele, Fisica, movimento, cambiamento, generazione ABSTRACT: On the basis, particularly, of the commentary by Simplicius on Physics, Aristotle is reportedly held to have maintained in the doctrine of nature of his own that κίνησις (motion) and γένεσις (generation) are species which μεταβολή (change) is the genus of. Therefore, as far as this kind of relationship between κίνησις and γένεσις on one hand, and μεταβολή on the other hand, is concerned, it is usually assumed that μεταβολή is synonymous with both κίνησις and γένεσις. I claim that Aristotle rejected such a view and instead did perceive and comprehend the relationship among these three terms as of the nature of a homonymy. As matter of fact, to the extent that there are as many types of μεταβολή or κίνησις as there are meanings of the word 'is' (III, 1, 201a 8-9), either μεταβολή and κίνησις are two πολλαχῶς λεγόμενα whose different instantiations can be hardly said equivalent in connotation. Besides, the definition of μεταβολή as a passage ἔκ τινος εἴς τι (V, 1, 225a 1-2) cannot agree with the treatment of γένεσις and κίνησις given in the first and third book respectively. KEYWORDS: Aristotle, Physics, motion, change, generation Una delle prime preoccupazioni di Aristotele nella Fisica è mettere in evidenza che si può tentare di istituire una "scienza fisica" già solo a partire dal mero fatto di riscontrare degli enti naturali che sono mossi (κινούμενα). Di qui, tentare di istituire una scienza ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 86 propriamente detta del divenire, o per lo meno intraprendere uno studio della φύσις. Ciò significa che la Fisica può svilupparsi intorno a questioni concernenti gli enti naturali, considerati non in quanto tali, ma esclusivamente sotto l'ottica della loro possibilità di muoversi. Infatti, fin quasi dal principio della stessa opera, in I, 2, 184b 25, a 5 e a 12 sgg., lo Stagirita contrappone all'indagine intorno all'essere inteso come uno e immobile (ἕν καὶ ἀκίνητον), l'indagine intorno alla natura, cui spetta considerare e difendere la possibilità che vi sia un oggetto determinabile come movimento, la κίνησις. Il modo in cui egli introduce questa possibilità indica chiaramente che si tratta, per ora, non più che un'ipotesi di lavoro (ἡμῖν δ'ὑποκείσθω), che dovrà trovare conferma o meno, attraverso un'altra indagine, più fondamentale1. Questa ipotesi la si ritrova in Metafisica, VI, 1, 1025b 3-10, ove si tenta un approccio all'oggetto proprio della "scienza metafisica", che gli permetta di affermare che ciò che è oggetto di tale scienza sono i principi e le cause degli enti che sono in quanto sono. Per giustificare questa presa di posizione Aristotele tiene conto dello statuto della scienze particolari in relazione ai principi e alle cause (1025b 11-16), sottolineando nel medesimo tempo la fondamentale differenza tra queste scienze particolari, che concernono un genere determinato e, quindi, un determinato tipo di enti, e la πρώτη φιλοσοφία, che si occupa dell'essere in quanto essere2. Al che, Aristotele si preoccupa di aggiungere che le scienze particolari non si occupano della stessa essenza dell'ente determinato che gli sia oggetto, presupponendo con ciò che soltanto la filosofia prima può contemporaneamente occuparsi della essenza e dell'esistenza del suo oggetto (1025b 16-18). In altri termini, contrariamente alle scienze particolari, la "scienza metafisica", proprio perché è la scienza prima e universale, ha il privilegio di porre in questione l'esistenza del suo stesso oggetto. Con la precisazione, come ben evidenziato dai commentatori antichi e dagli interpreti moderni 3 , che tutto ciò non vuole affatto significare che la "scienza 1 Come ribadito anche in Fisica, VIII, 3, 253b 2-6. 2 Si consideri, in particolare, la successione della preposizione ἀλλά in 1025b 7 e 9. 3 Simplicio, Simplicii in Aristotelis Physicorum. Libros quattor priores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen IX), ed. Hermannus Diels, Berolini 1882, p. 27 sgg.; Eudemo di Rodi, Ibid., p. 48, 8-26; Giovanni Filopono, Ioannis Philoponi in Aristotelis Physicorum. Libros quinque priores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen XVI) ed. Hieronymus Vitelli, Berolini 1888, p. 27, 4 sgg.; Tommaso d'Aquino, Sancti Thomae de Aquino Expositio libri Posteriorum Analyticorum, liber 1, l. 5 n. 7, Textum Leoninum Romae 1882 editum; V. Décarie, L'objet de la métaphysique selon Aristote, Paris-Montreal 1961, p. 113; J. Moreau, Aristote et son École, Paris 1962, pp. 78 e 86-87; G. Reale, L'impossibilità di intendere univocamente l'essere e la tavola dei significati di esso secondo Aristotele, "Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica", ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 87 metafisica" possa fare altrettanto per gli oggetti propri alle scienze particolari: una tale scienza non ha come compito quello di dimostrare i principi delle scienze particolari, cioè a dire la matematica e la fisica (tra le altre)4, ma si distingue da queste perché può e deve rendere ragione dell'esistenza e essenza del suo oggetto, senza però essere in grado di fare altrettanto per i singoli oggetti delle scienze particolari. Pertanto, poste queste condizioni, quando nella Fisica si assume che gli enti naturali, o la maggior parte di essi, secondo induzione (ἐκ τῆς ἐπαγωγῆς), sono mossi, e in quanto tali non pongono in questione l'esistenza del movimento5, ciò è in conformità alle regole fondamentali della metodologia aristotelica. Ne consegue che lo studio in questa opera del movimento e di ogni forma di mutamento in generale, è solo una parte del complesso degli otto libri che la costituiscono, senza esserne nemmeno il primo, se è vero che nella successione dei diversi temi affrontati, appare solo in terza posizione, cioè dopo lo studio della generazione in generale e della φύσις. Infatti, è solo nei primi tre capitoli del terzo libro che viene effettivamente sottoposta ad analisi la nozione di κίνησις, sulla quale lo Stagirita sembra fondare l'intera indagine della Fisica. Il significato della collocazione di tale analisi del movimento nell'articolazione degli argomenti fin dall'antichità ha provocato più di un imbarazzo. Giacché, benché lo studio della κίνησις si comprende piuttosto facilmente nell'ambito della ricerca sulla φύσις, in quanto questa sia definita come 'principio del movimento e della quiete' all'interno di ciascun ente naturale (II, 1, 192b 13-14: τούτων μὲν γὰρ ἕκαστον ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἀρχὴν ἔχει κινήσεως καὶ στάσεως), bisogna nondimeno riconoscere che di primo acchito non si coglie altrettanto facilmente perché Aristotele si senta obbligato a iniziare la sua esposizione a partire dallo studio sulla generazione, γένεσις (libro I), seguito da quello sulla φύσις (libro II) e a seguire quello sul movimento, κίνησις, (libro III), per giungere in seguito allo studio del mutamento, μεταβολή (libro V), per poi riprendere la questione del movimento nel senso particolare di "moto locale", φορά (libri VI e VIII), dopo aver insistito sul rapporto tra motore e mosso 56 (1964), pp. 289-326; Aristotele, Metafisica, Saggio introduttivo, testo greco con traduzione a fronte e commentario di G. Reale, Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1993, 3 voll., vol. III, nn. 2-7, pp. 293-295; E. Berti, Physique et métaphysique selon Aristote, in I. Düring (hrsg. v.), Naturphilosophie bei Aristoteles und Theophrast, Verhandlungen des 4. Symposium Aristotelicum, veranstaltet in Göteborg, August 1966, Heidelberg 1969, pp. 18-31: 24-25. 4 Come dice Berti, op. cit., agli occhi di Aristotele la "scienza metafisica" non deve stabilire i principi delle scienze particolari, ma solo fondarne la possibilità. 5 Si consideri Metafisica, VI, 1025b 19 -21; b 26-27; 1026a 12. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 88 (libro VII)6 la cui indagine ha termine con la discussione sul Primo motore immobile (libro VIII)7. I commentatori antichi hanno creduto di superare questa difficoltà riconducendo tali tematiche alla problematica della μεταβολή, un tentativo, come vedremo appresso, riconosciuto valido anche da gran parte degli interpreti moderni, che hanno fatto appello all'evoluzione del pensiero di Aristotele. Per meglio rappresentare questa difficoltà e mostrare l'insufficienza della tradizionale prospettiva di stampo fondamentalmente riduzionista, mi accingerò ad affrontare in successione le seguenti tre questioni8: 1) μεταβολή è sinonimo di κίνησις? 2) μεταβολή è sinonimo di γένεσις? 3) la μεταβολή è il genere di cui la γένεσις e la κίνησις sarebbero le specie? 1. Μεταβολή e κίνησις Il problema del rapporto tra κίνησις e μεταβολή è certamente al culmine dell'intera problematica aristotelica del divenire. La ragione la si può trovare già nel passo iniziale del secondo libro, sopra citato, ove Aristotele si richiama esplicitamente ad entrambe le due nozioni in una delle definizioni più celebri della φύσις come principio di ogni mutamento e movimento. Molto probabilmente, ciò è dovuto ad una serie di passi che hanno favorito la lettura tradizionale all'interno dei primi tre capitoli del libro III, tra i quali troviamo innanzitutto la celebre definizione della κίνησις (III, 1, 201a 27-34) come ἐντελέχεια di ciò che è mosso in potenza (ἡ δὲ τοῦ δυνάμει) in quanto tale, giacché vi è movimento qualora la cosa è in atto esclusivamente in quanto movibile, e non in quanto per se stessa (ὅταν ἐντελεχείᾳ ὂν ἐνεργῇ οὐχ αὐτὸ ἀλλ'ᾗ κινητόν, κίνησίς ἐστιν). Considerando il carattere apparentemente universale di questa definizione, si è portati a pensare che sotto la denominazione di κίνησις si tratterebbe in senso ampio di ogni forma di μεταβολή, al di là di ogni specificazione di ordine terminologico. 6 Aristotele distingue tra il motore in potenza (τὸ κινητικόν) e il motore in atto o movente (τὸ κινοῦν), e, analogamente, distingue tra mosso in potenza (τὸ κινητόν) o movibile e mosso in atto (τὸ κινούμενον). 7 Sulla complessa ricostruzione della struttura dell'opera, non posso che rimandare a Aristotle's Physics, A revised text with introduction and commentary by William David Ross, Oxford 1936, 1979, pp. 1-19, 102-118; Aristote, Physique, texte établi et traduit par Henry Carteron, Paris 1926, 1966, vol. I, pp. 1-9, e gli articoli di Augustin Mansion, Étude critique sur le texte de la Physique d'Aristote, "Revue de Philologie", 47, 1923, pp. 541 e Note sur les traductions arabo-latines de la Physique d'Aristote dans la tradition manuscrite, "Revue néoscolastique de la Philosophie", 37, 1934, pp. 202-218. 8 In parte in linea con L. Couloubaritsis, La Physique d'Aristote. L'avènement de la science Physique, Bruxelles, 1997, pp. 54 sgg. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 89 Così sembra confermare V, 1, 224a 21b 10 (il brano iniziale di tutto il capitolo), dove si ha una palese sovrapposizione tra i due termini: prima si inizia a parlare di μεταβολή, poi si continua la medesima argomentazione facendo uso del termine κίνησις, infine si termina nuovamente con il termine μεταβολή, parlando della generazione e corruzione (φθορά). Senza, ovviamente, dimenticare la classificazione delle differenti μεταβολαί di V, 1, 225a 2-10 (che affronteremo successivamente), secondo la quale la κίνησις è detta essere un particolare genere di μεταβολή. Ma di contro, c'è una serie numerosa di passi che smentiscono una tale interpretazione, mostrando come Aristotele, seppur usi esplicitamente il termine μεταβολή riferendosi in via generale anche alla κίνησις, implicitamente per μεταβολή egli intende principalmente la generazione e la corruzione. In V, 1, 225a 11-12, Aristotele sottintende chiaramente che ciò che accomuna un mutamento, che ha luogo κατὰ ἀντίφασιν, ad un movimento ἐν τοῖς ἐναντίοις è l'avvenire entrambi tra due termini comunque in opposizione (κατὰ ἀντίθεσιν), cioè l'uno in quanto la negazione dell'altro, τὰ ἀντικείμενα, come accennato in V, 1, 225a 13 e 19, ma come espresso distintamente in VIII, 7, 261a 32-36: ogni κίνησις e μεταβολή è ἐξ'ἀντικειμένων εἰς ἀντικείμενα. Solo che, a ben vedere, l'opposizione tra gli estremi, in quanto l'uno negazione dell'altro, è, naturalmente, maggiormente data se questi sono contradditori, o considerati come tali, tanto è vero che, come dimostrano gli esempi di I, 5 e 7 il movimento tra 'musico' e 'non-musico', 'bianco' e 'non-bianco', 'proporzionato' (ἡρμοσμένον) e 'nonproporzionato' (ἀναρμόστον) -, se vogliamo descrivere il movimento propriamente κατὰ ἀντίθεσιν dobbiamo indicare uno degli estremi come la totale privazione (στέρεσις, definita in I, 7, 191a 13-14, il contrario della forma) dell'altro estremo (con la ben nota apposizione dell'α privativo), quasi, appunto, gli fosse contrapposto secondo contraddizione, come si ricava dagli esempi di I, 7, 190b 14-16: il 'non-musico' (ἄμουσος), il 'non-avere figura' (ἀσχημοσύνη), il 'non-avere-forma' (ἀμορφία) e il 'non-ordine' (ἀτάξία). Abbiamo chiara conferma di questa lettura in V, 2, 226b 1 sgg. Qui viene descritta l'alterazione (ἀλλοίωσις) usando il termine μεταβολή, nonostante la netta distinzione tra μεταβολή e κίνησις di cui in V, 1, 225b 8, e che l'alterazione sia detta κίνησις della qualità (τοῦ ποιοῦ). Il fatto è che il filosofo si preoccupa di descrivere l'alterazione sottolineando come il suo essere movimento da un contrario ad un altro (ἐξ'ἐναντίου εἰς ἐναντίον) nell'ambito della medesima forma (ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ εἴδει), è cambiare dalla forma a ciò che è opposto alla forma, o cambiare da ciò che è opposto alla forma alla forma stessa, cioè ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 90 l'alterazione può dirsi μεταβολή solo se viene descritta come se avvenisse tra termini contradditori. È solo la μεταβολή che specificamente si produce differentemente a seconda della presenza (παρουσίᾳ) o assenza (ἀπουσίᾳ) dei contrari come detto senza equivoci in I, 7, 191a 7 -, più che la κίνησις, nonostante che una simile caratterizzazione della μεταβολή non sia in contrasto con la definizione della κίνησις vista sopra. Nel quinto libro Aristotele descrive ogni mutamento come un passaggio dall'essere una cosa all'esserlo un'altra, cioè ἔκ τινος εἴς τι, trovando conferma in sua personale analisi etimologica del termine μεταβολή, il quale esprime una successione (μετά), cioè a dire la distinzione di uno stato posteriore da uno stato anteriore (V, 1, 225a 1-2). Ma in VI, 5, 235b 5-11, τὸ μεταβάλλον, 'ciò che muta', oltre che essere descritto semplicemente come ciò che muta ἔκ τινος εἴς τι, è descritto come ciò che si distacca da o si lascia dietro (ἐξίσταται ἢ ἀπολείπεν αὐτό) ciò da cui (ἐξ'οὗ) cambia. Una descrizione che meglio rimarca come il mutamento sia solo tra contradditori, per cui τὸ μεταβάλλον non può che essere o nell'uno o nell'altro degli estremi dello stesso processo di mutamento, tanto è vero che è necessario che ciò che è cambiato, non appena è cambiato, sia in ciò verso cui è cambiato (ἀνάγκη τὸ μεταβεβληκός, ὅτε πρῶτον μεταβέβληκεν, εἶναι ἐν ᾧ μεταβέβληκεν). Infatti, continua Aristotele in 235b 13-15, nel mutamento tra i contradditori quando ciò che cambia è cambiato dal non-essere all'essere, ha abbandonato l'essere (μεταβέβληκεν ἔκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἴς τὸ ὄν, ἀπολελείπεν τὸ μὴ ὄν). Ciò per cui, τὸ μεταβάλλον, in senso proprio, si riferisce solo astrattamente a ciò che può essere soggetto ad un movimento che è sempre tra contrari e i termini intermedi a questi (V, 1, 224b 29: ἐν τοῖς ἐναντίοις καὶ τοῖς μεταξύ), nei quali potrebbe arrestarsi prima di giungere al termine del processo, per cui τὸ μεταβάλλον, 'ciò che si muove', non deve obbligatoriamente stare o nell'uno o nell'altro degli estremi del movimento. Del resto, come riconosce lo stesso Stagirita poco dopo in VI, 5, 235b 29-30, se in generale tutto ciò può dirsi di ogni mutamento, è particolarmente evidente per il mutamento tra i contradditori. Ora, il rapporto tra i libri III e V ha suscitato parecchie perplessità, soprattutto tra i moderni. Infatti, per quanto riguarda i commentatori antichi, se si tiene conto del commento di misura limitata di Temistio e dell'assenza pressoché totale di un commento al libro V da parte di Filopono, non è sempre facile ottenere un'idea precisa della loro posizione. Certamente, ci si può chiedere con ragione se l'attenzione sproporzionata che Filopono pone al libro III, non possa spiegarsi, tra le diverse ipotesi, in base al fatto che per lui la differenza tra due i libri sarebbe trascurabile. Questa ipotesi ci sembra quanto più verosimile nella misura in cui ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 91 l'unico commentatore che registra una certa differenza tra i due libri, cioè Simplicio9, non la ritiene di grande importanza. In effetti, a suo dire il libro V apporta non più che una distinzione supplementare, ancora inesistente nel libro III, tra κίνησις e γένεσις. Questa affermazione, in parte giustificata, non deve sorprenderci, giacché altro non è che la prosecuzione dell'argomentazione iniziale del suo commento. Infatti, Simplicio inizia il suo studio del libro I, in particolare il capitolo 7, a partire dai dati fornitigli dai primi due capitoli del libro V. Ovviamente, egli prende le dovute precauzioni, specialmente quando si tratta di spiegare la distinzione tra κίνησις e γένεσις nel libro V attraverso la equiparazione a prima vista un po' curiosamente tra μεταβολή e γένεσις, che egli d'altronde scopre all'interno di un passaggio del libro I ove è impiegato il termine μεταβολή: I, 8, 191b 31-33. Ma ci si può poi domandare come è possibile conciliare questa terminologia con quella che egli mantiene per il libro V, in virtù della quale la μεταβολή è come il genere di cui la γένεσις e la κίνησις sarebbero le specie, che è la terza delle questioni alle quali risponderò in seguito. Penso che nel parlare di μεταβολή a fianco della γένεσις, questo grande commentatore della Fisica anticipi un problema che solo nel testo di V, 1-2, sarà esplicitamente riconosciuto come tale, allorché questo stesso problema nell'ambito del libro I, al capitolo 7, appartiene a tutt'altra questione, preliminare a tutte le distinzioni e specificazioni ulteriori, cioè la differenza tra 'generazione assoluta' e 'generazione non assoluta', cioè secondo accidente, come mostrerò più sotto. Nel tematizzare una distinzione il cui uso nel libro I ha ben poco a che fare con l'analisi del libro V, Simplicio mette in ombra, invero, le differenti problematiche che ne susseguono. Ugualmente, dall'altro lato, nel distinguere in modo insufficiente tra μεταβολή e κίνησις nel libro III, e, dunque, nel farne dei sinonimi, egli disconosce il senso stesso dell'analisi della κίνησις che qui non può essere in alcun modo ridotta a quella della μεταβολή, come mostrerò nei suoi fondamenti all'interno della terza sezione. Alcuni interpreti moderni10 hanno creduto di poter ravvisare la sinonimia tra κίνησις e μεταβολή sulla base di un passo del libro IV, cioè 10, 218b 19-20, visto come cerniera tra il 9 Simplicio, op. cit., p. 417, 3-9; Simplicii In Aristotelis Physicorum libros quattor posteriores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen X), edidit Hermannus Diels, Berolini 1895, p. 801, 3-9. 10 L. Robin, Aristote, Paris 1944, p. 129; G. Rodier, Sur la composition de la Physique d'Aristote, "Archiv für die Geschichte der philosophie", 8 (1895), pp. 450-460 e 9 (1896), pp. 185-189; ora in Études de Philosophie grecque, pp. 155-164; Ross, op. cit., pp. 44 sgg.; Aristoteles, Physikvorlesung, übersetzt von Hans Wagner, Berlin 1967, p. 486. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 92 libro III, che esporrebbe una concezione imprecisa di μεταβολή e κίνησις, e il libro V, dei quali fornirà di essi una migliore distinzione. In questo passo Aristotele afferma che per ora è indifferente parlare di μεταβολή o κίνησις (μηδὲν δὲ διαφερέτω λέγειν ἡμῖν ἐν τῷ παρόντι κίνησιν ἢ μεταβολήν). Ma v'è da chiedersi: che qui egli non creda di dover distinguere provvisoriamente, ἐν τῷ παρόντι, tra κίνησις e μεταβολή, ne segue necessariamente che nei libri III e IV questi termini sono sinonimi? La risposta non può che essere negativa, per cui si converrà che non vi è affermata alcuna sinonimia tra questi termini. Del resto, se si integra il significato di questa asserzione con il contesto al quale appartiene propriamente, che è quello della ricerca sulla natura del tempo, appare evidente che si tratta di affermare solo una certa mancanza di produttività di quella distinzione in merito a questa stessa ricerca. In altri termini, dal punto di vista della problematica del tempo importa poco scegliere tra μεταβολή e κίνησις. Questa piccola puntualizzazione in rapporto a ciò che è tradizionalmente sottinteso assume, così, un certo peso: bisogna sostituire all'identità affermata a torto per questo passaggio tra μεταβολή e κίνησις, una contrapposizione tra le due, sia questa già stata stabilita sia da predicarsi ulteriormente. Per cui, questo testo non può essere invocato per affermare la sinonimia tra κίνησις e μεταβολή nel libro III che gli è precedente. Io direi, piuttosto, che esso può essere citato per mostrare altro. Se si tiene conto, nuovamente, del fatto che questo testo appare nel corso dell'analisi del tempo, viene mostrato un elemento importante, e cioè il cambiamento come passaggio da uno stato all'altro, vista la nota definizione del tempo come "il numero del movimento secondo il prima e il dopo". Tutto ciò significa che la questione del tempo prepara effettivamente a far emergere l'analisi della μεταβολή, che mette precisamente in gioco un passaggio entro il quale si abbia un rivolgimento direi, quasi, un sovvertimento da uno stato contrario ad un altro, vale a dire entro un'opposizione. Che in questo passo vi sia, quindi, un legame tra κίνησις e μεταβολή, senza che ancora la loro distinzione sia stabilita, mette in mostra come nello svolgimento dell'analisi aristotelica esso rappresenti una tappa intermedia, che, dopo aver affrontato la questione della κίνησις, prepara ad affrontare quella della μεταβολή, attraverso la questione del tempo. Ecco che il testo del libro IV contribuisce a discernere meglio l'andamento del ragionamento svolto tra la definizione di κίνησις stabilita nel libro III e l'analisi della μεταβολή del libro V, che segue immediatamente l'analisi del tempo di IV, 10-14. Una volta sollevata questa difficoltà, si comprende in che misura Aristotele non sostenga esplicitamente in alcun luogo della sua opera la sinonimia tra κίνησις e μεταβολή, ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 93 ma piuttosto il contrario, come sembra sancire in V, 5, 229a 31: διαφέρει μεταβολὴ κινήσεως. D'altra parte, è assai difficile indurre a priori una tale sinonimia esclusivamente sulla base di un approccio che dal punto di vista metodologico sarebbe ancora tutto da stabilirsi. Perché una tale sinonimia possa affermarsi, bisognerebbe mostrare che tutto ciò che concerne la κίνησις nel libro III può ugualmente concernere la μεταβολή di cui al libro V, e viceversa, anche se a ben vedere le problematiche affrontate nei due libri sono assai specifiche e molto difficilmente potrebbero essere viste come identiche. Penso, piuttosto, che queste differenti indagini non possano che trovare una certa unità che au fil dell'avanzamento dell'indagine lungo tutta la Fisica, unite, però, nella differenza reciproca. Una differenza che, comunque, non deve essere radicalizzata al punto da vedere tra i differenti libri un'incompatibilità di fondo, come sembrano presupporre due studi molto lontani tra loro sia sul piano cronologico sia riguardo alla propria impostazione, che per la loro importanza vale la pena prendere in considerazione, anche se non in dettaglio. Paul Tannery11, matematico e storico della scienza, già vedeva una netta opposizione tra due trattati: il primo composto dai libri I IV e VIII, che si occupa dei τὰ φυσικά, il secondo composto dai libri V VI, riguardante τὸ περὶ κινήσεως, che sarebbe anteriore al primo, nella misura in cui sarebbe meno prossimo alle moderne concezioni scientifiche del movimento. Su tutt'altro fronte, ben più recentemente, abbiamo Schramm12, il cui studio si occupa dei paradossi di Zenone da Aristotele discussi in VI, 2 e VIII, 8. Dallo studio comparativo di questi due testi egli è portato a opporre la problematica del movimento del libro III, ove il movimento è studiato secondo i concetti di 'potenza' e 'atto', alla problematica del mutamento del libro V, ove il movimento non è più studiato secondo l'opposizione dei concetti di 'potenza' e 'atto', ma, secondo lui, come una forma di mutamento. Ora, poco importa qui discutere sui risultati dello studio sia di Schramm13 che di Tannery 14 , ciò che conta è il pieno riconoscimento di una netta distinzione delle problematiche trattate nei libri III e V, e delle difficoltà conseguenti, per quanto se ne abbia 11 P. Tannery, Sur la composition de la Physique d'Aristote, "Archiv für die Geschichte der Philosophie", 7 (1894), pp. 225-229 e 9 (1896), pp. 115-118. 12 M. Schramm, Die Bedeutung der Bewegungslehre des Aristoteles für seine beiden Lösungen der zenonischen Paradoxie, Frankfurt a. M. 1962, pp. 12-62. 13 Secondo il quale, dalla presenza e dalla assenza della coppia 'potenza' e 'atto' rispettivamente in VI, 2 e VIII, 8, arguisce che il primo testo presenta una confutazione degli argomenti di Zenone più antica di quella presente nel secondo testo impregnato di una prospettiva finalista. 14 Gia ampiamente criticato da mostrarne la fallibilità da Rodier, op. cit., e Ross, op. cit., pp. 7-8. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 94 voluto trovare una dimostrazione e una soluzione in modo fin troppo intuitivo e, per così dire, empirico. Una distinzione, invece, nemmeno riconosciuta, o a malapena, dagli studiosi di impostazione genetista à la Jaeger15, animati dalla preoccupazione di trovare una struttura ordinata e coerente dell'intero trattato della Fisica. Al più, la differenza tra i libri III e V viene spiegata secondo una supposta démarche del pensiero aristotelico in senso strettamente progressivo, cioè a dire, secondo approssimazioni successive che conducono ad un'esattezza e precisazione crescenti a compimento di una visione organica, o pressoché tale. Ma, curiosamente, questi interpreti si accontentano di questa supposizione di fondo, senza discernere rigorosamente ciò che distinguerebbe un'approssimazione all'altra e, dunque, senza riferirci il senso esatto di questa progressione della riflessione aristotelica. A ben vedere, non fanno altro che ritornare, in modo più o meno esplicito, alla soluzione proposta da Simplicio: il libro III rappresenterebbe una prima tappa nel presentare una concezione ancora confusa di κίνησις e μεταβολή, che il libro V andrà, poi, a definire in modo più congruo e preciso. Rodier è molto esplicito nell'affermare la perfetta sinonimia tra κίνησις e μεταβολή, riaffermata da Wagner nel suo commentario alla Fisica su una base più prettamente filologica. Secondo lo studioso tedesco, Aristotele generalmente impiega la sua terminologia liberamente e l'adatta ogni volta alle esigenza concrete di ciò che di volta in volta è oggetto della sua ricerca, per cui, lo Stagirita non avrebbe avuto motivo di precisare la distinzione tra mutamento e movimento, trattati nel libro III a livello ancora iniziale. Ma se è pur vero che generalmente Aristotele adatta il suo linguaggio alla natura del problema trattato, si deve notare nientemeno che questa impostazione metodologica ha comunque i suoi limiti e un suo campo determinato di applicazione, per cui, resta sempre da sapere fino a che punto e dove la si può efficacemente applicare. Sicuramente, non nel caso dei primi tre capitoli del libro III. In conclusione, ci sembra acquisito che a differenza di quanto si sottintende comunemente, la sinonimia tra κίνησις e μεταβολή non è un dato indiscutibile da accettarsi immediatamente, ma, anzi, se si considera separatamente ciascuna delle due nozioni e le difficoltà che ne conseguono, prontamente emergono molti problemi relativamente alla loro reciproca compatibilità. 15 Oltre allo stesso Jaeger e Ross, Rodier, Wagner già citati, si consideri anche Carteron, op. cit., pp. 10-14, A.E. Taylor, Aristotle, London 1912, 19192; P. Gohlke, "Gnomon", 4 (1928), pp. 625-637. Per una rassegna generale più che esaustiva della influenza dell'interpretazione jaegeriana si veda A. P. Mesquita, Obras completas de Aristóteles. Introdução geral, Vol. I, Tomo I, Lisboa 2005, pp. 341-438. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 95 2. Μεταβολή e γένεσις Come mostrato da Couloubaritsis16 e altri, se è vero che Aristotele fu probabilmente il primo ad aver tematizzato il termine μεταβολή, è anche vero che esso e la sua corrispondente espressione verbale, μεταβάλλειν, sono relativamente recenti nel linguaggio filosofico e anche nella stessa lingua greca. Se ne trova una citazione in Pindaro, Pitica, IV, 4, 292: χρόνῳ μεταβολαὶ λήξαντος οὔρου ἱστίων17, ma se anche il testo è di per sé piuttosto chiaro - si tratta di un mutamento di vele -, non permette di comprenderne realmente il senso e la portata. Niente ci permette di affermar in via indubitabile che si tratta d'una prima forma del termine capace di prefigurare fattivamente il fenomeno della μεταβολή. Se ne trova traccia anche in Eraclito18: μεταβάλλον ἀναπαεύται, ma la sua presenza, eccezionale nell'ambito del suo linguaggio, rende difficile ogni valutazione. Naturalmente, possono trovarsi altre occorrenze di μεταβολή nella dossografia, ma, va da sé, che si riscontra un uso del termine molto difficilmente corrispondente al linguaggio originale dei filosofi presocratici, ben, piuttosto, più aderente a quello degli stessi dossografi19. Ma è soprattutto da Platone che i due termini in questione cominciano ad assumere un significato in direzione di quello che avranno nell'opera di Aristotele. In effetti, si trova in Platone, a fianco di un uso corrente di μεταβολή (ad esempio, in Teeteto, 167a, 182d; Parmenide, 162b-c, ecc.), un uso più tecnico, secondo il quale il mutamento sarebbe legato alla problematica dell'istante, in quanto modificazione istantanea da uno stato all'altro20. Del resto, anche in Aristotele troviamo un uso comune di μεταβολή per la designazione dei 16 Cf. Couloubaritsis, op. cit., pp. 55-57. 17 Cf. W.J. Slater, Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin 1969, p. 331. 18 DK 22 B 84a (= Plotino, Enneadi, IV, 8 (6), 1, 14). 19 Sostanzialmente, non se ne ha traccia in Esiodo e Omero. In quest'ultimo l'unico passo che sembra avvicinarsi al termine in questione è Iliade, 8, 93-94: Ὀδυσσεῦ, πῇ φεύγεις μετὰ νῶτα βαλὼν κακὸς ὡς ἐν ὁμίλῳ, senza che si possa sottintendere il sintagma μετὰ νῶτα βαλὼν ("volgendo la schiena") come una tmesi di μεταβάλλων (come fanno i dizionari Liddell Scott Jones e Montanari, s.v.), visto che non significa necessariamente una μεταβολή in senso stretto. Di contro, è certo che vi si trova un impiego del verbo βάλλειν, e più raramente del sostantivo βολή", che, secondo le sue diverse accezioni, anticipa il significato filosofico del termine μεταβολή. Si può pensare che l'aggiunta della particella μετά nel greco posteriore, può aver contribuito a rinforzare il senso di 'lanciare', 'porre' e 'gettare', ecc., di βάλλειν e βολή", introducendovi in modo caratteristico il senso di 'alterità'. Inoltre, in Omero il senso di 'alterità' è talvolta reso dall'espressione ἑτέρωσε che arricchisce il senso di 'lanciare' in βάλλειν, allargandone l'area semantica attraverso un'accezione di 'spostamento', come si può rilevare in numerosi luoghi tra l'Odissea (9, 470; 16, 179) e l'Iliade (4, 16; 5, 722; 8, 306; 17, 40; 21, 104). Questa accezione di 'spostamento' che sembra aver prevalso in senso derivato in μεταβολή e μεταβάλλειν, non penso che non possa avere avuto una certa influenza nella successiva riflessione filosofica da parte di Aristotele. 20 Cf. G.E.L. Owen, Tithénai tà phainómena, in S. Mansion (ed.), Aristote et les problèmes de méthode, Louvain 1961, pp. 83-103: pp. 92 sgg. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 96 mutamenti di ogni sorta, compresi i mutamenti relativi all'attività dell'uomo, come ad esempio il mutamento di regime politico (Politica, III, 1, 1275b 35; V, 1, 1304b 6, V, 4; ecc.), o un mutamento di ordine commerciale (Politica, I, 9, 1257b 22; 10, 1258b 4), quale come sinonimo di ἀλλαγή". In Poetica I, 1, 1452a 22-23, si può trovare un riferimento al termine μεταβολή in merito alla peripezia (περιπετεῖα) nell'azione tragica, considerata un mutamento in quanto rivolgimento dell'azione in senso contrario, cioè il cosiddetto 'colpo di scena', la μετάβασις tipica dell'azione tragica21. Ma anche detto ciò, si deve riconoscere che prima del tentativo esplicito di Aristotele di tematizzare il termine, a dispetto degli approcci occasionali di Platone, il termine μεταβολή non presentava alcun uso filosofico. Ora, com'è più che noto, la nozione fondamentale che attraversa tutta la storia della filosofia greca dalle sue origini non è quella indicata dal termine μεταβολή, bensì quella indicata dal termine γένεσις. Questa constatazione da sola potrebbe essere sufficiente per spiegare perché lo Stagirita intraprende la sua ricerca fisica dall'analisi della generazione. Si sarebbe tentati di dire che, fedele al suo metodo abituale, si applica a confutare dialetticamente i suoi predecessori per fondare la sua concezione del divenire. Nulla si oppone a questa interpretazione, poiché al termine della sua analisi della generazione, Aristotele s'impegna (nel capitolo 8 del primo libro) a mostrare contro Parmenide che vi è una possibilità di venire all'essere sia dal non essere sia dall'essere. Ma il modo in cui Aristotele usa il termine γένεσις nel libro I ci autorizza a metterlo in comparazione con il termine μεταβολή per verificare se siano sinonimi o no. Come viene detto in I, 7, 190a 21 b 9, la generazione è detta in molti modi, ma in senso assoluto (ἁπλῶς) vi è generazione solo delle sostanze, per il quale si ha generazione sempre solo da un sostrato determinato (ἐξ'ὑποκειμένου), cioè da una cosa verso un'altra cosa (τὸ ἔκ τινος γίγνεσθαί τι), e non come il semplice diventare una cosa un'altra (μὴ τόδε γίγνεσθαί τι). Ciò significa che la generazione assoluta implica sempre che ciò che venga generato (τὸ γιγνόμενον) sorga da qualcosa che permanga e sottostia (ὃ ὑπομένει, ὑπόκειται) 21 Cf. E.S. Belfiore, Il piacere del tragico. Aristotele e la poetica, Roma 2003, pp. 95 sgg.; G. Compagnino, Il logos della poesia in Aristotele, in "Siculorum Gymnasium", Rassegna della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università di Catania, n.s., anno LIV, nn.1-2 (2001), pp. 44-124; F.L. Lucas, The Reverse of Aristotle (an essay on peripeteia) "Classical Review", Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 5, 6 (1923), pp. 98-104; V. Goldschimdt, Temps physique et temps tragique chez Aristote, Paris 1982, pp. 267 sgg. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 97 all'intero processo, come le piante e gli animali che si generano dal seme, e in genere tutte le cose che subiscono una trasformazione materiale (τὰ τρεπόμενα κατὰ τὴν ὕλην). Aristotele è molto scrupoloso nell'evidenziare il significato ontologico di questo 'da' (ἐκ). Infatti, nella generazione non assoluta che ha luogo a partire da ciò che non permane, come uno stato opposto ad un altro, è indifferente dire che "una cosa si genera da un'altra", o che "una cosa diventa un'altra" (τὸ ἐκ τοῦ ἀντικειμένου καὶ μὴ ὑπομένοντος ἀμφοτέρως λέγεται, καὶ ἐκ τοῦδε καὶ τόδε τόδε). Ad esempio, la generazione del 'musico' dal 'nonmusico', ove non si ha il sorgere di una nuova cosa, ma la comparsa di una qualità che può generarsi è qualità solo di un certo sostrato (in questo caso, 'uomo'), cioè in quanto detta di un sostrato, mentre le sostanze non sono mai dette di altro22. Ecco che Aristotele parla della γένεσις al quale corrispondono le diversi voci della coniugazione del verbo γίγνεσθαι, come il passaggio da un terminus a quo (τὸ γιγνόμενον) ad un terminus ad quem (ὃ γίγνεται)23. Una volta concepito la generazione come una sorta di passaggio da uno stato all'altro (ἔκ τινος εἴς τι), si comprende come gli interpreti antichi e moderni abbiano potuto vedere il libro I all'interno della cornice interpretativa della nozione di μεταβολή, così come esposta nel libro V. Egli classifica, in 225a 2-10, la generazione come il mutamento dal non-sostrato al sostrato (ἐκ μὴ ὑποκειμένου εἰς ὑποκείμενον), opposta alla corruzione, quale mutamento dal sostrato al non-sostrato (ἐξ'ὑποκειμένου εἰς μὴ ὑποκείμενον); in altre parole, l'una è il passaggio dal non-essere alla sostanza, cioè all'essere, l'altra è il passaggio dalla sostanza al non-essere: due mutamenti reciprocamente opposti tra termini contradditori l'uno all'altro (225a 13: μεταβολὴ κατὰ ἀντίφασιν), visto che non è possibile alcun termine intermedio (μεταξύ) tra l'essere e il non-essere. Mentre ogni κίνησις è un mutamento tra estremi contrari (ἐν τοῖς ἐναντίοις), i quali tra essi ammettono termini intermedi, in quanto mutamento da sostrato a sostrato (ἐκ ὑποκειμένου εἰς ὑποκείμενον), come ribadito negli stessi termini in V, 5, 229a 30-32. Ora, se poniamo attenzione all'indicazione ripetuta dello stato finale accanto allo stato iniziale, ma ben distinto da esso con la preposizione εἰς anche nella sezione successiva, 225a 10-20 (sempre dedicata alla generazione), sembra che Aristotele qui si preoccupi di 22 Cf. anche L. Angioni, Aristóteles. Física I e II. Prefácio, tradução, introdução e comentários, Campinas, SP 2009, pp. 18-19, 196-197. 23 Secondo la nota espressione di W. Wieland, Die aristotelische Physik. Untersuchungen über die Grundlegung der Naturwissenschaft und die sprachlichen Bedingungen der Prinzipienforschung bei Aristoteles, Göttingen 1962, 19702, n. 2 p. 113. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 98 evidenziare soprattutto il risultato a (εἰς) cui giunge la generazione. Questo è particolarmente evidente, se questa sezione venga paragonata alla sezione di I, 7, di cui dicevo poco fa, ove, seppur citato, lo stato finale è come messo in ombra dall'indicazione dello stato iniziale con la presenza costante della preposizione ἐκ in contrapposizione implicita alla totale assenza di εἰς. Per cui, pare che con il termine μεταβολή si venga a porre in luce lo stato finale della generazione (o corruzione), quale sovvertimento dello stato iniziale, a differenza del termine γένεσις con il quale si pone in luce piuttosto lo stato iniziale, quale sorgere di una nuova cosa. Una differenza notevole che trova piena conferma quasi all'inizio di V, 1, in 224b 7-10, quando Aristotele afferma che la μεταβολή prende nome (ὀνομάζεται) più (μᾶλλον) rispetto a ciò verso cui (εἰς ὅ) la stessa μεταβολή è finalizzata, e non da ciò da cui (ἐξ'οὗ) ha avuto inizio, mostrando come esempi proprio la generazione e la corruzione. Così, dunque, non credo sia facilmente sostenibile un'uguaglianza di significato tra μεταβολή e γένεσις. Riferendoci sempre solamente al libro I, ove Aristotele critica la concezione del divenire data dai suoi predecessori rispondendo alla questione se i principi sia uno o molti, si constata che ivi egli non sottopone a questione la tematica della μεταβολή, ma solo quella della γένεσις. È solo retrospettivamente, una volta giunti al libro V, all'interno del quale per la prima volta si affronta ex professo la tematica della μεταβολή, che ci si rende conto che certi dati del libro I ben si accorderebbero, in una certa forma, con quelli messi in evidenza nei primi due capitoli del libro V. Partendo da queste constatazioni, la più parte dei commentatori hanno creduto di poter interpretare pressoché integralmente, senza ulteriori approfondimenti, il libro I dal punto di vista offerto dal libro V, al punto da impiegare il termine μεταβολή (o le traduzioni che gli corrispondono) per chiarire l'analisi della γένεσις 24. È in questa misura che si pone la questione se davvero in Aristotele si può identificare γένεσις con μεταβολή, e, quindi, con 'divenire', come si fa abitualmente. 24 Basti considerare Temistio, Themistii in Aristotelis Physica paraphrasis (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen V pars II), ed. Henricus Schenkl, Berolini, 1900, l'inizio e pp. 23 sgg.; Simplicio, op. cit., pp. 20-258; Filopono, op. cit, pp. 20-193; Ross, op. cit., pp. 19 sgg. et passim; Wagner, op. cit., pp. 344 sgg.; Robin, op. cit., pp. 71 sgg.; J. Moreau, op. cit., pp. 86 sgg.; A. Falcon, Aristotle and the science of nature. Unity without uniformity, Cambridge 2005, pp. 26 sgg.; A. Mansion, Introduction à la Physique aristotélicienne, Louvain-laNeuve, 1913, 1945, ristampato con procedimento anastatico 1972, 1987, benché talvolta parli di changement nell'analisi da lui proposta del libro I, tende tuttavia ad evitare il termine di changement a vantaggio del termine più corretto di devenir (nel terzo capitolo). D'altra parte, F. Solmsen, Aristotle's System of the Physical World. A Comparison with his Predecessors, Ithaca (N.Y.) 1960, part II. Chap. 4, e Wieland, op. cit., Kap. I, § 9, intravede questa differenza semantica, ma non sembra che ne tragga le dovute conseguenze; allo stesso modo i più recenti Aristoteles, Fisica, introducción, traducción y notas de Guillermo R. de Echandía, Madrid 1995; Aristoteles, Fisica, texto revisado y traducido por José Luis Calvo Martínez, Madrid 1996; Aristotele, La fisica, nuova ed. a/c di Luigi Ruggiu, con testo greco a fronte, Milano 2008. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 99 A sostegno di questa lettura, si può tener conto del fatto che Aristotele usa in tre luoghi del primo libro il termine μεταβολή. Però, ad un esame più attento si nota che si tratta di un uso secondo il significato corrente, più comune, e non secondo il significato più tecnico datoci dal libro V. Questo è innegabile per il primo dei tre luoghi, I, 3, 186a 13-16, all'inizio della critica che lo Stagirita indirizza agli Eleati, ma ben prima che venga ad essere posta in questione il problema della γένεσις. Infatti, qui μεταβολή assume il senso ordinario di 'modificazione' completa che qualche cosa può subire, ciò che esclude ogni riferimento a qualche specificazione determinata di questa modificazione o ai fondamenti dello stesso processo. Per gli altri due luoghi la questione è più delicata, perché sono all'interno proprio della problematica della γένεσις: nel primo, 7, 191a 3-7, viene preso in considerazione una modificazione compiuta attraverso la presenza o l'assenza di uno dei contrari, mentre il secondo, 8, 191b 31-33 (citato poc'anzi) indica il cambiamento in generale, ὅλως μεταβολή. Ma i contesti nei quali il termine in questione occorre attesta che la loro presenza è, se non del tutto marginale, non così capace di influenzare in modo determinante l'andamento dell'argomentazione riguardo alla problematica della generazione. Al più, si può supporre che la loro presenza possa far riferimento ad una nuova problematica quale è data, appunto, del rapporto possibile tra μεταβολή e γένεσις, anche se, in verità, questo rapporto non sembra, poi, essere espressamente in rilievo e assunto a tema. Tuttavia, per quanto questo rapporto possa considerarsi possibile, non va disconosciuto il fatto che lo Stagirita pare evitare intenzionalmente l'uso del termine μεταβολή nel contesto della discussione sulla γένεσις. Questo atteggiamento non sembra essere un caso, ma, al contrario, sembra avere un significato ben preciso che ha necessità di essere chiarito. Del resto, questa questione rinvia di fatto ad una questione più generale, di tipo metodologico: il termine μεταβολή, la cui tematizzazione non avrà luogo che nel libro V, può servire a chiarire la problematica propria del libro I incentrata sulla γένεσις? Ancora più incisivamente: che senso ha esattamente l'impiego di una nozione per chiarire il significato di un'altra, quando questa è sviluppata assai anteriormente a quella? Non dovrebbe semmai essere il contrario, cioè impiegare la nozione espressa dal termine γένεσις, già ampiamente trattata nel libro I, per chiarire il significato di quella espressa da μεταβολή, sviluppata successivamente nel libro V? Certo, è possibile che certi elementi del libro I prefigurino nozioni successive, ma tutto il problema sta nel sapere se le problematiche che le integrano ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 100 possono essere ridotte le une alle altre, o invece, esse non sono altro che momenti meramente successivi, e per questo differenti, dell'intero sviluppo della dottrina fisica di Aristotele. Credo che si tratti di una questione metodologica essenziale all'interno di questo sviluppo, con la quale si sono scontrati molti commentatori. In questo caso, non pare vi siano reali motivazioni per compiere questa possibile riduzione a priori, a meno che naturalmente non la si assuma come punto di partenza per un'interpretazione di tipo dogmatico, i cui termini e significati siano tutti da concentrarsi in uno solo, di cui si avrà avuto cura di mostrarne l'esemplarità mediante un'analisi squisitamente filosofica, come tendono a fare molto spesso gli interpreti di scuola analitica25. Pertanto, mi sembra inutile e fuorviante introdurre, come si è sempre fatto, un'espressione dalla comprensione non immediata come μεταβολή, per leggere il libro I della Fisica. Introdurre in questo libro un elemento che va oltre la problematica propriamente detta della γένεσις, significherebbe cercarvi ciò che, in verità, il testo non ci sta dicendo, con il rischio, paradossalmente, di non rilevare ciò vi è effettivamente presente e gli è proprio. D'altronde, va da sé che quando si applica un metodo che ha l'ambizione di voler essere strettamente aderenti al testo, la prima regola da seguire è quella di rispettare il linguaggio proprio dell'autore, in modo che anche se fosse giusto, in ultima istanza, identificare i termini μεταβολή e γένεσις nulla ci autorizza a porre pregiudizialmente questa identità fin dall'inizio della Fisica. In breve, conviene tenere sempre presente il carattere specifico dell'analisi del libro I, non solo perché s'inscrive storicamente con l'analisi del divenire svolta dai presocratici con il cui pensiero è strettamente in rapporto, come anche riconosciuto dalla più parte degli interpreti antichi e moderni, ma anche perché, più profondamente, ha come compito precipuo la tematizzazione filosofica del verbo γίγνεσθαι, senza che per tale tematizzazione si abbia bisogno all'occorrenza di rifarsi alla nozione di μεταβολή. In conclusione, non posso ritenere che nell'ambito della ricerca svolta nel libro I vi sia una reale sinonimia tra μεταβολή e γένεσις. 3. La μεταβολή è un genere le cui specie sono γένεσις e κίνησις? 25 Come ben rileva Couloubaritsis, op. cit., p. 58. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 101 Simplicio, dall'ottica della sua lettura neoplatonizzante, su questa questione ha ancora una volta fornito un'interpretazione del testo della Fisica che è venuta ad imporsi fino ai giorni nostri. Egli pensa26 che Aristotele definisca e determini nel libro V la μεταβολή come qualcosa di comune e più generale della κίνησις, nel senso che la κίνησις non sarebbe che un caso particolare della μεταβολή, allo stesso modo di come una specie sta in rapporto al suo genere. A partire da questa lettura del libro V e in parte dal De generatione et corruptione27, si è venuta a sviluppare tra gli storiografi la tesi secondo cui la μεταβολή sarebbe il genere di cui la γένεσις (assieme al suo opposto la φθορά) e la κίνησις sarebbero la specie. Tra i numerosi interpreti moderni c'è chi accetta dichiaratamente questa tesi senza riserve, pur con gli opportuni distinguo, o chi l'accetta mostrando un atteggiamento di tacito assenso. Si è creduto di non dover criticare questa tesi, perché la si considera ovviamente valida per il solo fatto che Aristotele pone per la prima volta nel libro V la distinzione tra κίνησις e μεταβολή 28. In particolare, Ross denomina la μεταβολή come un termine indicante un genere (generic term) rispetto alla κίνησις e alla γένεσις. A sua volta Wagner nel suo commentario riprende questa lettura, quando qualifica la μεταβολή come un concetto di carattere sovraordinato (Oberbegriff), del quale la κίνησις non costituirebbe che un tipo particolare (Typus). Lo studioso tedesco sembra addirittura portare alle estreme conseguenze l'interpretazione tradizionale, quando considera la μεταβολή come qualcosa di superiore alla κίνησις 29. Tale supposta sinonimia tra μεταβολή e κίνησις da un lato, e tra μεταβολή e γένεσις dall'altro lato, quale un rapporto genere/specie, sarebbe certamente in sintonia con l'enunciazione della συνωνυμία data in Categorie, 1, 1a 6-12, secondo cui si dicono sinonime le cose delle quali è comune il nome e la definizione corrispondente al nome è la medesima. Ad esempio, è detto 'animale' sia l'uomo sia il bue, perché se si esplicasse la definizione di ciascuno dei due, per entrambi varrà la stessa definizione di 'animale'. Più precisamente, 26 V. sopra n. 9. 27 In effetti, l'interpretazione tradizionale s'è basata anche su questa opera, ove si ha una prima tematizzazione dei diversi tipi di generazione, cioè, generazione assoluta e generazione relativa. Cf., M. Migliori, Rapporti fra la Metafisica e il De generatione et corruptione di Aristotele, "Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica", 85, 1993, 513522: 521-522; F. Solmsen, op. cit., pp. 321-378; G.A. Seeck, Über die Elemente in der Kosmologie des Aristoteles. Untersuchungen zu De generatione et corruptione und De caelo, Munich 1964. 28 Cf. Ross, op. cit., pp. 45-46; Wagner, op. cit., p. 594; O. Hamelin, Le Système d'Aristote, Paris 1920, pp. 310311; Aristote, La Métaphysique, par Jean Tricot, Paris 1953, 19662, vol. I, n. 4 pp. 378-379; Reale, op. cit., n. 3 pp. 536-537; Solmsen, op. cit., pp. 178-179. 29 Wagner, op. cit., p. 466. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 102 'uomo' e 'bue' non sono sinonimi in quanto considerati per se stessi, giacché i propri nomi e le definizioni corrispondenti sono diversi, ma sono sinonimi in riferimento alla determinazione 'animale' comune ad entrambi in quanto genere, del quale 'uomo' e 'bue' sono due singole specie30. La sinonimia tra genere e specie viene ribadita in vari luoghi dei Topici: 1) "il genere e la specie sono sinonimi" (IV, 3, 123a 28); 2) "si può anche esaminare se il genere e la specie non siano sinonimi, in realtà il genere si predica di tutte le specie secondo un designazione sinonima" (IV, 6, 127b 5-6); 3) "tutti i generi si predicano in forma sinonima delle specie, poiché queste ricevono tanto il nome quanto il discorso definitorio dei generi" (II, 2, 109b 6-7); 4) "gli oggetti che, secondo una nozione comune, ricevono un unico discorso definitorio, sono sinonimi" (VI, 10, 148a 24-25)31. Come abbiamo visto nelle sezioni precedenti, una possibile definizione del genere μεταβολή è quella di essere un processo di modificazione da una cosa all'altra, ἔκ τινος εἴς τι, ma un tale processo assume diversa natura, e, dunque, definizione, se si tratta di γένεσις e φθορά da un lato, e κίνησις dall'altro lato. Nelle prime si tratta di un vero e proprio sovvertimento di ciò da cui ha inizio il processo, con il sorgere ex novo o la distruzione di qualcosa, atto a provocare l'esistenza di un sostrato o la sua scomparsa. Nel secondo, al contrario, qualunque sia il processo di modificazione, è sempre atto a conservare il sostrato entro cui ha inizio e fine il processo. Non potrebbe esserci alcuna κίνησις se non si conservasse il sostrato che sottostà all'intero movimento di una della sue proprietà dall'inizio alla fine; reciprocamente, non potrebbe esserci il medesimo e unico movimento, se non si riferisse alle proprietà di un medesimo e unico sostrato dal quale ricevono sussistenza. Nel primo caso si ha a che fare con l'essere in senso assoluto, nel secondo caso con l'essere in senso accidentale. Non sembra davvero che ci sia una natura comune di cui κίνησις e γένεσις debbano compartecipare, e dalla quale condividere proprietà comuni, come, invece, per l'essere capaci di muoversi da sé sia per 'bue' che 'uomo', giacché è una proprietà che gli deriva dall'essere entrambi specie del genere 'animale'. Ovvio, sia la κίνησις sia la γένεσις possono indicarsi come una certa modificazione della realtà naturale, però impropriamente possono dirsi la stessa cosa, cioè, in termini prettamente aristotelici, solo in senso accidentale possono dirsi la stessa cosa, cioè ancora, 30 Cf. Aristoteles' Kategorien, übersetzt und erlaütert von K. Oehler, Berlin 1984, p. 161. 31 Si consideri, per completezza, tutto 10, 148a 23 b 22. La traduzione dei passi è tratta da I Topici, traduzione, introduzione e commento di A. Zadro, Napoli, 1974. Cf. anche J.A. Segurado e Campos, Aristóles. Tópicos, Lisboa 2007, pp. 271, 350, 432-433. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 103 come ci insegna lo stesso Stagirita in De generatione et corruptione I, 6, 322b 31 sgg., solo ὁμωνύμως possono dirsi identiche32. In Categorie, 1, 1a 1-6, si dicono omonime le cose delle quali sono il nome è comune, ma la definizione corrispondente è diversa. Pertanto, sia la κίνησις sia la γένεσις sono dette 'modificazione', ma se si esplica che cos'è per ciascuna di esse l'essere una modificazione, si darà una definizione propria di ciascuna. Uno stesso nome che conviene a cose differenti. Possiamo ulteriormente dire che μεταβολή è un πολλαχῶς λεγόμενον 33 per il quale la molteplicità dei significati che esso chiama in causa è totalmente irrelata, o pressoché tale, come illustra bene Topici, I, 15, 106a 9 sgg., quando enuncia la regola per riconoscere se un termine è omonimo o no34. Pertanto, contrariamente all'interpretazione usuale, penso che tra μεταβολή e κίνησις da un lato, e tra μεταβολή e γένεσις dall'altro lato, non vi è alcuna sinonimia, ma anzi, non più che omonimia. Del resto, in primis v'è da chiedersi: la definizione del genere μεταβολή come ἔκ τινος εἴς τι può dirsi davvero la definizione più generale, più ampia, per ogni possibile modificazione, cioè per ogni forma di divenire? O, piuttosto, sembra essere una tale definizione la definizione che abbiamo visto per κίνησις in III, 1, come l'atto di ciò che è movibile in quanto movibile? Si è tentati a rispondere affermativamente alla seconda delle due domande, visto l'implicazione di un concetto, come 'atto', tra i principali e fondamentali di tutta la dottrina fisica e metafisica di Aristotele. Pare essere questa, semmai, la nozione fondamentale a cui riportare ogni μεταβολή e κίνησις, come pare mostrare il seguito del passo in III, 1, e ciò che lo precede, in 200b 33 201a 1, in cui Aristotele classifica τὸ μεταβάλλον secondo le categorie della quantità, qualità e del luogo allo stesso e identico modo in cui lo fa per la κίνησις in V, 1, 225b 5-9, quando, invece, non avviene il contrario: non vengono mai esplicitamente suddivisi e classificati i diversi movimenti in relazione alla definizione di μεταβολή data in V, 1, 225a 1-2, ovverosia come ἔκ τινος εἴς τι. 32 Cf. M. Migliori, Aristotele. La generazione e la corruzione, Introduzione, traduzione e commento, Napoli 1976, 188. 33 Naturalmente, non nel medesimo senso nel quale lo è l'essere. Aristotele è ben attento ad avvertirci in Metafisica, IV, 2, 1035a 34, che l'essere non può dirsi per omonimia. 34 "Se in molti modi o in un solo modo si dice, dal punto di vista della specie, deve considerarsi in base a quanto segue. Prima di tutto osservare dell'opposto se si dice in molti modi, sia che esso differisca per la specie, sia per il nome. Alcune cose infatti immediatamente anche per i loro nomi sono diverse far loro e discordanti. Per esempio nella voce, il grave è opposto all'acuto, nella massa corporea lo è l'ottuso [...] Per alcune cose non vi è in alcun modo discordanza nei nomi, ma è immediatamente chiara per la loro differenza di specie, come per il bianco e per il nero". ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 104 Credo che sia evidente che abbiamo qui un'ulteriore dimostrazione della semplice omonimia tra μεταβολή e κίνησις, come finanche tra κίνησις e γένεσις in I, 5, 188b 21-26, ove si parla della generazione e corruzione che finora abbiamo conosciuto solo come mutamenti tra contraddittori incredibilmente in termini di cambiamenti tra contrari e ciò che è intermedio a questi. Vi è, pertanto, un completa omonimia trasversale tra tutti e tre termini μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις, a smentire definitivamente l'interpretazione tradizionale di Simplicio. Comunque sia, inoltre, tentare di definire il movimento come un passaggio ἔκ τινος εἴς τι significa cadere in circolo vizioso, una petitio principii, come già rilevavano nel Medio Evo i commenti di Avicenna, Tommaso e Cresca35. Che questa interpretazione si sia imposta al punto da diventare un luogo comune degli studi aristotelici e, dunque, da ritenersi pressoché indiscutibile, è da associarsi alla mancanza di una riflessione sistematica sul rapporto tra l'essere e il mutamento in Aristotele. Infatti, la nozione di μεταβολή non è disgiunta dalla problematica dell'essere, nel senso che è indissociabile da quattro delle dieci categorie aristoteliche, cioè a dire la sostanza, la qualità, la quantità e il luogo. Lo stesso Stagirita enumera nella classificazione del libro V i differenti movimenti corrispondentemente a ciascuna di queste quattro modalità d'essere: la generazione e la corruzione; l'alterazione, l'aumento e la diminuzione, il moto locale o spostamento, rettilineo o circolare. Questo significa, come dice espressamente Aristotele in III, 1, 201a 8-9, che esistono tante forme di μεταβολή e κίνησις quanto ce ne sono dell'essere (ὥστε κινήσεως καὶ μεταβολῆς ἔστιν εἴδη τοσαῦτα ὅσα τοῦ ὄντος), ciò per cui, nella misura che alla plurivocità dell'essere corrisponde espressamente una plurivocità di modalità di μεταβολή e κίνησις, ne consegue immediatamente (tanto quanto nel caso dell'essere) l'impossibilità di considerare il mutamento nel suo complesso (la ὅλως μεταβολή di cui sopra) come genere, di cui le sue diverse modalità ne sarebbero specie. In altre parole, la concezione aristotelica della plurivocità dell'essere comprende necessariamente una concezione plurivoca del mutamento. Consideriamo più in dettaglio quanto appena detto. In Metafisica, III, 3, 998b 22-27, all'interno della settima aporia a proposito della possibilità se i generi ultimi (τὰ ἀνωτάτω τῶν γένων) siano principi delle cose, o piuttosto predicati di queste, Aristotele nega recisamente 35 Come annota puntualmente R. Brague, Note sur la défintion du mouvement (Physique, III, 1-3), in F. De Gandt et P. Souffrin (ed.), La Physique d'Aristote et le conditions d'une science de la nature, Actes du Colloque organisé par le Séminaire d'Epistémologie et d'Histoire des Sciences de Nice, Paris 1991, pp. 107-120, n. 10 p. 119. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 105 che l'essere e l'uno possano essere un genere, anche se si predicano di ogni cosa, visto che ogni cosa è ed è una. Infatti, è "necessario che le differenze (τὰς διαφοράς) di ciascun genere siano e che ciascuna differenza sia una. Però, è impossibile che le specie di un genere (τὰ εἴδη τοῦ γένους) si predichino delle proprie differenze, o che il genere senza le sue specie si predichi delle proprie differenze. Ne segue che, se l'essere e l'uno sono generi, nessuna differenza potrà essere né essere una". Più esplicitamente, se l'essere e l'uno fossero generi, si darebbe proprio il caso di generi predicabili delle differenze, perché, appunto, è necessario che ogni differenza sia e sia una, e questo è assurdo. Come risulta chiaramente, se l'essere fosse un genere, le differenze non sarebbero, quindi, tutte le cose si ridurrebbero ad una sola, come avveniva, secondo Aristotele, in Parmenide36. Per la stessa ragione, l'essere e l'uno non possono essere sostanza di nulla, ovverosia sostanze la cui essenza sia sic et simpliciter il fatto di essere (αὐτὸ ὄν, esse ipsum) e di essere-uno (αὐτὸ ἕν, unum ipsum), perché ciò condurrebbe ugualmente a concludere, assieme a Parmenide, che tutti gli enti sono uno solo e che in tale ente consiste l'essere 37 . C'è un passo, a questo proposito, in cui Aristotele afferma perentoriamente: "l'essere non è sostanza di nulla, perché l'essere non è un genere" (Analitici Posteriori, II, 7, 92b 13-14: τὸ δ'εἶναι οὐκ οὐσία οὐδενί οὐ γὰρ γένος τὸ ὄν). Proviamo ad applicare queste conclusioni ad un esame attento del supposto genere μεταβολή del quale κίνησις e γένεσις sarebbero le specie. Se supponiamo che la definizione della μεταβολή come genere sia, nuovamente, il passaggio ἔκ τινος εἴς τι, potremmo stabilire sempre sulla base della classificazione data in V, 1, 225a 2-10 -, che la specie κίνησις si distingue all'interno del genere perché viene differenziata dall'essere una μεταβολή tra contrari, da sostrato a sostrato, mentre la specie γένεσις viene distinta all'interno del genere in quanto differenziata dall'essere un μεταβολή tra contradditori, dal non-sostrato al sostrato. Ma entrambe le differenze 'da un estremo contraddittorio all'altro' e 'da un estremo contrario all'altro', sono esse stesse un passaggio ἔκ τινος εἴς τι, ciò significa che il genere μεταβολή si predica delle sue differenze senza le sue specie, cioè le specie κίνησις e γένεσις verrebbero a predicarsi esse stesse delle proprie differenze. Ne seguirebbe che, come nel caso dell'essere come genere in rapporto alle sue differenze che sono, le differenze 'da un estremo 36 Sull'impossibilità di considerare l'essere un genere, Cf. P. Aubenque, Le problème de l'être chez Aristote. Essai sur la problématique aritotélicienne, Paris 1962, pp. 226 sgg.; E. Berti, Le problème de la substantialité de l'être et de l'un dans la Métaphysique, in P. Aubenque (éd.), Etudes sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, Paris 1979, pp. 181-208; G. Reale, Il concetto di "filosofia prima" e l'unità della Metafisica di Aristotele, Milano 1961, 19946, p. 66. 37 Si consideri tutto Metafisica, III, 4, 1001a 4-29, parte dell'undicesima aporia. ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 106 contraddittorio all'altro' e 'da un estremo contrario all'altro', per poter essere vere differenze della μεταβολή, non dovrebbero indicare, in verità, alcuna μεταβολή (posto che il genere mai può predicarsi delle proprie differenze). Più precisamente, questo significa che non si darebbe alcuna differenza all'interno del mutamento, cioè non esisterebbero differenti mutamenti più mutamenti -, giacché tutti i mutamenti possibili si ridurrebbero ad unico ed identico mutamento, cioè si avrebbe un solo ente la cui sostanza sic et simpliciter è quella di essere in mutamento. In altri termini, se si ponesse la μεταβολή come genere si avrebbe l'ipostatizzazione dell'essere sottoposto al divenire ad un solo ente determinato, allo stesso modo dell'essere parmenideo ridotto a sostanza unica (sempre secondo l'interpretazione aristotelica). Ed è a ciò che molto probabilmente lo Stagirita si riferisce, quando in III, 1, 200b 33 201a 3, molto perentoriamente afferma che non può esserci alcun movimento e mutamento quale un alcunché di comune ad ogni singolo mutamento e movimento determinato secondo la sostanza, o la qualità, o la quantità, o il luogo (κοινὸν ἐπὶ τούτων), quale fosse esso stesso un ente individuale oltre le cose (παρὰ τὰ πράγματα), memore, forse, delle discussioni del Sofista e di chi voleva fare della μεταβολή un'Idea separata e trascendente. In conclusione, credo che si manifesti con sufficiente chiarezza che l'interpretazione che vuole che la μεταβολή sia da considerarsi un genere, sia incompatibile con uno dei tratti fondamentali della intera ontologia aristotelica. Ma è, altresì, contro il testo della Fisica dove in nessun luogo viene affermata un'identità sotto questi termini. Del resto, nell'economia dell'intera ricerca fisica, come già dicevo all'inizio, la problematica della μεταβολή non costituisce nella Fisica che un momento, seppure assai importante, e non la nozione centrale intorno alla quale ruoterebbe tutta la ricerca sul divenire, come sembra sottintendere l'interpretazione tradizionale. Letteratura critica citata e utilizzata ANGIONI L., Aristóteles. Física I e II. Prefácio, tradução, introdução e comentários, Campinas, 2009 AUBENQUE P., Le problème de l'être chez Aristote. Essai sur la problématique aritotélicienne, Paris 1962 BELFIORE E.S., Il piacere del tragico. Aristotele e la poetica, Roma 2003 BERTI E., Le problème de la substantialité de l'être et de l'un dans la Métaphysique, in P. Aubenque (éd.), Etudes sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, Paris 1979, 181-208 ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 107 . Physique et métaphysique selon Aristote, in I. Düring (hrsg. v.), Naturphilosophie bei Aristoteles und Theophrast, Verhandlungen des 4. Symposium Aristotelicum, veranstaltet in Göteborg, August 1966, Heidelberg 1969, 18-31 BRAGUE R., Note sur la défintion du mouvement (Physique, III, 1-3), in F. De Gandt et P. Souffrin (éd.), La Physique d'Aristote et le conditions d'une science de la nature, Actes du Colloque organisé par le Séminaire d'Epistémologie et d'Histoire des Sciences de Nice, Paris 1991, 107-120 CALVO Martínez J.L., Aristoteles, Fisica, texto revisado y traducido, Madrid 1996 CARTERON H., Aristote, Physique, texte établi et traduit, Paris 1926, 1966, vol. I COMPAGNINO G., Il logos della poesia in Aristotele, in "Siculorum Gymnasium", Rassegna della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università di Catania, n.s., anno LIV, nn.1-2 (2001), 44-124 COULOUBARITSIS L., La Physique d'Aristote. L'avènement de la science Physique, Bruxelles, 1997 DECARIE V., L'objet de la métaphysique selon Aristote, Paris-Montreal 1961, p. 113; ECHANDÍA G.R. de, Aristoteles, Fisica, introducción, traducción y notas, Madrid 1995 FALCON A., Aristotle and the science of nature. Unity without uniformity, Cambridge 2005 FILOPONO G., Ioannis Philoponi in Aristotelis Physicorum. Libros quinque priores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen XVI) ed. Hieronymus Vitelli, Berolini 1888 GOHLKE P., "Gnomon", 4 (1928), 625-637 GOLDSCHIMDT V., Temps physique et temps tragique chez Aristote, Paris 1982 HAMELIN O., Le Système d'Aristote, Paris 1920 LUCAS F.L., The Reverse of Aristotle (an essay on peripeteia) "Classical Review", Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 5, 6 (1923), 98-104 MANSION A., Étude critique sur le texte de la Physique d'Aristote, "Revue de Philologie", 47, 1923, 541 MANSION A., Introduction à la Physique aristotélicienne, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1913, 1945, ristampato con procedimento anastatico 1972, 1987 MANSION A., Note sur les traductions arabo-latines de la Physique d'Aristote dans la tradition manuscrite, "Revue néoscolastique de la Philosophie", 37, 1934, 202-218 MIGLIORI M., Aristotele. La generazione e la corruzione, Introduzione, traduzione e commento, Napoli 1976 MIGLIORI M., Rapporti fra la Metafisica e il De generatione et corruptione di Aristotele, "Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica", 85, 1993, 513-522 MESQUITA A. P., Obras completas de Aristóteles. Introdução geral, Vol. I, Tomo I, Lisboa 2005 MOREAU J., Aristote et son École, Paris 1962 OEHLER K., Aristoteles' Kategorien, Berlin 1984 ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 108 OWEN G.E.L., Tithénai tà phainómena, in S. Mansion (ed.), Aristote et les problèmes de méthode, Louvain 1961, 83-103 REALE G. (a/c di), Aristotele, Metafisica, Saggio introduttivo, testo greco con traduzione a fronte e commentario, Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1993, 3 voll. . Il concetto di "filosofia prima" e l'unità della Metafisica di Aristotele, Milano 1961, 19946 . L'impossibilità di intendere univocamente l'essere e la tavola dei significati di esso secondo Aristotele, "Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica", 56 (1964), 289-326 ROBIN L., Aristote, Paris 1944 RODIER G., Sur la composition de la Physique d'Aristote, "Archiv für die Geschichte der philosophie", 8 (1895), 450-460 ; 9 (1896), 185-189 ROSS W.D., Aristotle's Physics, A revised text with introduction and commentary, Oxford 1936, 1979 RUGGIU L., Aristotele, La fisica, Milano 2008 SCHRAMM M., Die Bedeutung der Bewegungslehre des Aristoteles für seine beiden Lösungen der zenonischen Paradoxie, Frankfurt a. M. 1962 SEECK G.A., Über die Elemente in der Kosmologie des Aristoteles. Untersuchungen zu De generatione et corruptione und De caelo, Münich 1964 SEGURADO e CAMPOS J.A., Aristóteles. Tópicos, Lisboa 2007 SIMPLICIO, Simplicii In Aristotelis Physicorum libros quattor posteriores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen X), edidit Hermannus Diels, Berolini 1895 . Simplicii in Aristotelis Physicorum. Libros quattor priores commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen IX), ed. Hermannus Diels, Berolini 1882 SLATER W.J., Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin 1969 SOLMSEN F., Aristotle's System of the Physical World. A Comparison with his Predecessors, Ithaca (N.Y.), 1960 TANNERY P., Sur la composition de la Physique d'Aristote, "Archiv für die Geschichte der Philosophie", 7 (1894), pp. 225-229; 9 (1896), 115-118 TAYLOR A.E., Aristotle, London 1912, 19192 TEMISTIO, Themistii in Aristotelis Physica paraphrasis (Commentaria in Aristotelem Greca, volumen V pars II), ed. Henricus Schenkl, Berolini, 1900 TOMMASO D'AQUINO, Sancti Thomae de Aquino Expositio libri Posteriorum Analyticorum, liber 1, l. 5 n. 7, Textum Leoninum Romae 1882 editum TRICOT J., Aristote, La Métaphysique, Paris 1953, 19662, vol. I WAGNER H., Aristoteles, Physikvorlesung, Berlin 1967 WIELAND W., Die aristotelische Physik. Untersuchungen über die Grundlegung der Naturwissenschaft und die sprachlichen Bedingungen der Prinzipienforschung bei Aristoteles, Göttingen 1962, 19702 ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLÁSSICA, vol. 10 no20, 2016 ISSN 1982-5323 Abbate, Giampaolo L'assenza di sinonimia tra μεταβολή, κίνησις e γένεσις nella dottrina aristotelica del divenire 109 ZADRO A., I Topici, traduzione, introduzione e commento, Napoli, 1974 [Recebido em dezembro de 2016; aceito em dezembro de 2016.]
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{ "creator": "Abbott, Russ", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1587408056000, "description": "As physical entities that translate symbols into physical actions, computers offer insights\n into the nature of meaning and agency.\n • Physical symbol systems, generically known as agents, link abstractions to material actions.\n The meaning of a symbol is defined as the physical actions an agent takes when the symbol is\n encountered.\n • An agent has autonomy when it has the power to select actions based on internal decision\n processes. Autonomy offers a partial escape from constraints imposed by direct physical\n influences such as gravity and the transfer of momentum. Swimming upstream is an\n example.\n • Symbols are names that can designate other entities. It appears difficult to explain the use of\n names and symbols in terms of more primitive functionality. The ability to use names and\n symbols, i.e., symbol grounding, may be a fundamental cognitive building block.\n • The standard understanding of causality—wiggling X results in Y wiggling—applies to both\n physical causes (e.g., one billiard ball hitting another) and symbolic causes (e.g., a traffic light\n changing color). Because symbols are abstract, they cannot produce direct physical effects.\n For a symbol to be a cause requires that the affected entity determine its own response. This\n is called autonomous causality.\n • This analysis of meaning and autonomy offers new perspectives on free will.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBMAS", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Meaning, autonomy, symbolic causality, and free will", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Meaning, Autonomy, Symbolic Causality, and Free Will Russ Abbott California State University, Los Angeles As physical entities that translate symbols into physical actions, computers offer insights into the nature of meaning and agency. Physical symbol systems, generically known as agents, link abstractions to material actions. The meaning of a symbol is defined as the physical actions an agent takes when the symbol is encountered. An agent has autonomy when it has the power to select actions based on internal decision processes. Autonomy offers a partial escape from constraints imposed by direct physical influences such as gravity and the transfer of momentum. Swimming upstream is an example. Symbols are names that can designate other entities. It appears difficult to explain the use of names and symbols in terms of more primitive functionality. The ability to use names and symbols, that is, symbol grounding, may be a fundamental cognitive building block. The standard understanding of causality-wiggling X results in Y wiggling-applies to both physical causes (e.g., one billiard ball hitting another) and symbolic causes (e.g., a traffic light changing color). Because symbols are abstract, they cannot produce direct physical effects. For a symbol to be a cause requires that the affected entity determine its own response. This is called autonomous causality. This analysis of meaning and autonomy offers new perspectives on free will. Keywords: autonomy, autonomous causality, free will, meaning, symbolic causation This article is divided into six parts. This introduction provides a roadmap. It also explains why it makes sense to discuss computers in an article in a psychology journal. Section two discusses how computers construct meaning. I use a player piano to illustrate an approach to meaning that is widely used in computer science: a symbol's meaning is the physical action(s) the system takes on encountering it. Section three introduces autonomy. Autonomy requires one energy flow to control another. A standard light switch illustrates how one energy flow, the energy that flips the switch, can control another, the current in a circuit. But not all such situations imply autonomy. A system consisting of a switch, a circuit, and a light source has no autonomy. For an entity to qualify as having autonomy it must contain both the controlling and controlled energy flows. Under this definition, the player piano introduced in section two can be understood as having a limited form of autonomy. In preparation for a discussion of how symbols can act as causes, section four examines the longstanding question of what a symbol is. That section also examines the ability of biological organisms to work with categories, concepts, and individuals. The section suggests that these abilities may be three aspects of a widespread cognitive capability: an ability to work with cognitive entities. Section five reframes the earlier discussion of autonomy in terms of symbols and causality. The final section examines the implications of the preceding sections for free will. Why Discuss Computers in a Psychology Journal? Newell and Simon (1976) characterize computers as physical symbol systems. As physical devices computers act in the material world; in addition, computers manipulate symbols. This joint capability is fundamental to how symbols get meaning. The definition of meaning outlined in section 2 will link symbols to actions. Doing so requires a bridge between the abstract and the physical. A physical symbol system provides that bridge. A corollary is that any entity, including human beings, capable of giving meaning to symbols must be a physical symbol system. A second reason to include a discussion of computers is their transparency. Technology does not yet enable one to follow in detail the functioning of human (or animal) brains, much less their minds. The man-made nature of computers mitigates that problem. Even so, it may not always be feasible to explain how the detailed functioning of a computing system produces its higher level results. How Computers Transform Symbols to Meaning This section presents a simplified version of operational semantics (Fernández, 2014), a computer science approach to semantics. I use the player piano as an example. The modern equivalents of a player piano (electronic keyboards, digital pianos, digital synthesizers, etc.) are physical symbol systems. They can read and manipulate symbols-in the form of digitized musical scores-and transform them into sounds. This article was published Online First September 21, 2017. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Russ Abbott, Department of Computer Science, California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90032. E-mail: T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. Review of General Psychology © 2017 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 22, No. 1, 85-94 1089-2680/18/$12.00 85 Assume that the internal logic of a modern player piano is expressed as software. That software includes commands to perform actions that produce sounds. An example might be an action to strike selected strings with felt-clad hammers. (These commands are similar to the more familiar print command, which performs an action that produces output.) Assume those commands are something like strike_C, strike_C#, strike_D, and so forth. (For simplicity, I limit the discussion to a single octave.) We can make up a simple notation for notes: C/4 means the note C for a quarter note. Using this notation, the first four bars of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" might appear as follows (the lyrics are added for the reader's convenience): E/4 D/4C/4D/4E/4 E/4 E/2 D/4 D/4 D/2 E/4 G/4 G/2 Ma ry had a lit tle Lamb, lit tle Lamb, lit tle lamb. Music is produced when our device reads such a score and translates its symbols into physical acts. How Symbols Are Converted to Actions Converting symbols to actions sounds like an impossibility; symbols are abstract, and actions are physical. Yet it is commonplace for computers to control physical devices on the basis of symbolic computations. A player piano is such a device. The software representing the player piano's logic will consist of two primary components. An outer layer iterates through the score symbols. For each symbol it calls a subcomponent, perhaps called play_score_symbol, to convert that symbol into an action. The job of play_score_symbol is to do whatever the symbol given to it means. The body of play_score_symbol might look something like the following (note that == tests for equality): if score_symbol == C then strike_C; if score_symbol == C then strike_C#; if score_symbol == D then strike_D; . . . In other words, for each score_symbol, perform the action associated with that symbol. In doing so, the player piano gives each score_symbol a meaning by linking it to a specific action. Note how arbitrary the association of symbols with actions are. Had play_score_symbol associated symbols with commands to strike keys other than those shown, the symbols would have had those other meanings-at least for this player piano. One might object that these symbols have well-established meanings independent of this player piano and that if play_ score_symbol had associated symbols with commands to play notes that were not consistent with those well-established meanings, play_score_symbol would be wrong. I think that calling it wrong is not the best way to look at it; I prefer inconsistent. To communicate, people must agree about what symbols mean. There must be, as Baumeister and Monroe (2014) would probably argue, a cultural aspect. If a symbol means the same thing to multiple people, that is because they agreed to make it have that meaning. But these cultural agreements do not create the meanings. I doubt that anyone would argue that the symbol C has a meaning independent of how people (or player pianos) interpret it. A shared culture allows us to make the meaning one person gives a symbol consistent with the meaning others give that symbol. But I would not say that culture-absent the people, if that is even meaningful-provides a meaning on its own. In other words, the meaning is not "out there" waiting to be discovered. It must be created by each individual-and then synchronized among individuals so that they can communicate with each other. Actions Are Not Necessarily External For a computer (or our player piano) to take an action does not always imply that the action is evident to an outside observer. Actions often change the internal state of the system. For example, the discussion above ignored the time value of symbols. (Recall that C/4 means a C for a quarter note.) We did not discuss how the system treats quarter notes differently from, say, half notes. One way for the system to do that would be to store, for each note being played, the time duration over which the sound should be produced. Storing that information involves a change to the internal state of the system. That too is a physical act. But it is not one that an outside observer can easily see. I selected a player piano as an example because much of what it does results in externally observable actions (i.e., the production of sounds). In contrast, most of the actions performed by most computing systems involve internal state changes. These actions are still physical: The physical state of the computer changes. But these state changes are not easily observed from outside. Yet making these internal state changes is part of a symbol's meaning. Operational semantics consist of just this: characterizing the external actions and internal state changes that occur when a symbol or symbolic construct is interpreted. Autonomy Although it may seem strange to say so, a player piano as just described exhibits a simple form of autonomy. It determines, through its internal logic, what a symbol means. A symbol cannot force a meaning on the player piano. The meaning of a symbol is determined internally. I realize how strange that may sound. But look again at the code above. It is the code that selects for each symbol what the player piano's response will be. Contrast this with how a billiard ball responds when hit by another ball. The ball that was hit has no choice about how to respond. One might argue that the software inside a player piano is fixed and that therefore the way the software interprets symbols is fixed-so there is no room for autonomy. That, I claim, is another question. Autonomy turns on whether an entity follows its own internal rules, fixed or not. The rest of this section examines autonomy in more detail. Switches and Two-Level Energy Flows Move a light switch to the on position, and an associated light source (i.e., bulb, LED, etc.) emits light-assuming the circuit is intact, the light source is functioning, current is supplied to the circuit, and so forth. Move it to the off position, and the light source stops emitting light. T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 86 ABBOTT A switch has the crucially important property that it allows one energy flow to control another. A light switch controls current in a circuit. The energy used to flip the switch (i.e., the energy expended by a person when flipping the switch) is not the same energy flow as the energy in the circuit. Although not sufficient for autonomy, this two-level mechanism is an important prerequisite. It is worth stopping to appreciate the power of switches. Switches enable human beings to use their own energy to control devices they could not otherwise control. Much of civilization depends on devices that are powered by nonhuman energy but controlled by human beings. And of course the transistor, the fundamental computer building block, is at heart a switch. Switches and Autonomy Switches do not on their own imbue something with autonomy. Whether or not a light source emits light is controlled from outside the light source. Neither the light source nor its circuit has anything to say in the matter. Neither has the means to determine when the switch is flipped. Autonomy arises when an entity includes switches within itself and when it is organized to use those switches to control the expenditure of its energy resources. To make this point clearer, I will examine two biological examples, both involving E. coli cells. One does not involve autonomy; the other does. François Jacob and Jacques Monod (Jacob & Monod, 1961) famously discovered gene switches. For their work they were awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In E. coli, genes involved with the metabolism of lactose are expressed only when lactose is present. (The presence of glucose is also a factor, but for our purposes that can be ignored.) The presence of lactose (actually a byproduct of lactose) flips a switch for the expression of the lactose metabolism genes. The switch mechanism involves a protein (called a repressor), which normally attaches to the DNA immediately prior to the relevant genes. The repressor blocks RNA polymerase from reading and transcribing the gene. When present, the lactose byproduct attaches to the repressor and pulls it off the DNA. This unblocks the RNA polymerase access to the genes. The genes are then read and transcribed. This mechanism fits our switch pattern. The presence of lactose unblocks the chemical energy that enables RNA polymerase to crawl the DNA strand and read and transcribe genes. This mechanism does not reflect autonomy. There is no decision-making process within the bacterium that controls the expression of the genes. A gene switch is a chemical reaction that functions in much the same way as a light switch. In effect, lactose reaches into the cell and flips a switch. In contrast I would credit E. coli with autonomy in how it navigates a liquid nutrient-rich environment (see Hu & Tu, 2014). Each E. coli cell moves through its environment by alternating runs and tumbles. When the cell's flagella rotate counterclockwise a run occurs; the cell moves in a straight line. (The name notwithstanding, E. coli flagella are stiff rather than whip-like; when rotating counterclockwise they produce an outboard motor effect.) When the flagella rotate clockwise a tumble occurs; the cell moves randomly and reorients itself for the next run. E. coli internal chemistry is capable of sensing a difference in nutrient concentration between its front and rear. That difference determines for how long a run persists. If the cell is moving along a nutrient up-gradient, runs continue longer; otherwise, they stop sooner. The cell then tumbles and reorients itself (randomly) for the next run. The effect is to move the cell toward a nutrient source. This too is a switch. The chemical decision-making process is one energy flow. It controls another energy flow, which powers the flagella. I credit E. coli with autonomy because it contains both the decision-making process and the energy flow controlled by that process. Symbols Consider the following line from the program snippet shown earlier: if score_symbol C then strike_C; Every word-like element in that line, "if," "score_symbol," "", "C", "then," "strike_C," represents a symbol. Recall that many of these appear multiple times in the program. Each appearance of one of these elements represents the same symbol. That raises two questions: (1) What does one mean by "the same symbol?" (2) What is that "same symbol" entity? This issue is not unique to computer science. The same question arises in every academic discipline that uses symbols. If a symbol, say, x, appears multiple times in a mathematical expression, it is generally understood that each appearance represents "the same" symbol. The question of what a symbol is has a long philosophical history. See, for example, Balaguer, 2016; Bricker, 2016; Floridi, 2017; Nelson, 2016; Orilia and Swoyer, 2016; and Reicher, 2016. Space limitations preclude a review of this literature. I find it useful to think of symbols as similar to names. For example, consider the name John. One might find that name in a baby name book. One might select that name for one's own baby-after which John, when used in the appropriate context, refers to that child. The name itself, however, is independent of any person. If two people are both named John, it is said that they have "the same name." No one seems confused by statements of this sort. Yet I suspect it would be very difficult to provide a rigorous completion for the sentence "A name is ___," where the blank is filled in by properties that characterize names. Newell and Simon (1976) noted that a symbol has two properties: It can be manipulated as an entity, and it is capable of designating something else. Names also have those properties- although Newell and Simon do not note the similarity. This is what Helen Keller realized in her flash of insight. She called it the mystery of language. Things have names; names can refer to things (Keller, 1903). Interestingly, Keller experienced her realization as like a memory. "I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten-a thrill of returning thought." It is as if the ability to connect names (or more generally symbols) to things comes built into our brains. I realize that in saying a symbol is a name, I have not solved the problem of what a symbol is. I have only reformulated the question to ask what a name is. The question raised above of how to define the word name begins to point toward an answer. A name is not defined by a set T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 87MEANING, AUTONOMY of properties; it is defined by how it is used. This is different from many nouns: Fire, for example, can be defined by a set of properties. Virtually any term can be a name if it is used as a name, that is, as a concise way to refer to something. Concepts, Categories, and Individuals I speculate that a wide range of organisms have the ability to work with what might be called cognitive entities (such as concepts, categories, and individuals) and that names and symbols represent an advanced version of this basic cognitive ability. Concept neurons. Quiroga (2012) has shown that humans have "concept neurons." (See also the discussion in Quiroga, Fried, & Koch, 2013.) Originally called "Jennifer Anniston neurons" and "Halle Berry neurons" (because both actresses were used in these experiments), these neurons are triggered by a wide range of pictures of their subjects, including full face, profile, close-up, full body, and the subject dressed in various outfits. Even more striking, the same neurons responded to the printed names of these actresses! This suggests that these neurons were responding to concepts, not visual patterns. Concept neurons are also found in nonhumans. Both carrion crows and rhesus macaques have neurons that respond to specific numerical amounts. A particular neuron will respond to both one dot and one beep. Another will respond to both two dots and two beeps. Other neurons will respond to numeric values up to at least four dots and four beeps (Ditz & Nieder, 2015). Suggestive evidence of conceptualization. Loukola, Perry, Coscos, and Chittka (2017) recently showed that bumble bees are able to learn a task that seems to require conceptualization. To obtain a reward, bees were required to move a ball to a target location. Bees that observed another bee perform the task generally learned the task faster. The observation scenario involved three balls. The two closest to the target were fixed in place. The demonstrator bee was thus forced to move the most distant ball. When the observer bees were tested, all three balls were mobile. The observer bees moved the ball closest to the target. Loukola put it this way (Loukola et al. 2017, p. 836): [T]he bees did not simply copy the behavior of the demonstrator but rather improved on the observed behavior by using a more optimal route. These results suggest that bees may recognize ball as a category and each of the balls as an instance of that category. Other experiments also suggest animal conceptualization. In an early language learning experiment a chimpanzee constructed the lexigram sequence "coke that is orange" to request an orange soda (Rumbaugh, 1977). And then there is Alex, Irene Pepperberg's parrot. For 25 years, I have taught Gray parrots meaningful use of English speech (e.g., to label objects colors, shapes, categories, quantities, and absence). Using this code, my oldest subject, Alex, exhibits cognitive capacities comparable to those of marine mammals, apes, and sometimes 4-year-old children. (Pepperberg, 2002, p. 83) Alex could correctly answer questions about individual objects such as "What color?" or "What shape?", about comparisons between objects such as "What's different?" or "What's same?" [with respect to the properties color, shape, and size (large, small)], and about collections of objects such as "How many?". Alex was even able to answer "none" to a "What's different?" question if there were no differences in the trained properties or to a question such as "How many red blocks?" if there were no red blocks in a given collection. (Pepperberg, 1999). Categorization. One way to study conceptualization is through categorization. Smith (Smith, Zakrzewski, Johnson, Valleau, & Church, 2016) provides a broad survey of animal categorization capabilities. A wide range of nonhuman animals exhibit categorization capabilities. Smith notes that Categorization has conferred fitness advantages on vertebrates for hundreds of millions of years. For example, vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) have developed call signs that warn group members to behave appropriately at the sight of martial eagles (Polemaetus bellicosus). (e.g., Cheney & Seyfarth, 1990) In a sense, these calls denote or "name" members of the category eagle. (p. 1) Since the call "names" a category, the category may function very much like a concept. Discrete entities. Implicit but often unmentioned in studies of categorization is an ability to perceive discrete entities. After all, what are categories other than ways to group discrete entities? A number of experiments have tested animals' ability to treat entities as persisting over time. • Many animals achieve full (i.e., Piaget stage IV) object permanence (Gómez, 2005; Zentall & Pattison, 2016). • Dogs (a) remained near a fallen owner, (b) avoided a deceptive human, and (c) preferred a human that provided valid information about the location of a reward over an uninformative human (Roberts & Macpherson, 2016). Abstractions A wide range of animals have evolved the ability to work with such cognitive entities as collections, concepts, individuals, names, and symbols. I would go so far as to refer to this sort of capability as an ability to form abstractions. Consider the significant fitness advantage possessed by entities capable of responding to their environment in terms of abstractions-such as friend versus foe, food versus predator, danger versus safety, or nutritious versus toxic-compared with those capable of responding only to raw sensory signals (such as photon impacts). Given the enormous fitness advantage that abstractions offer, it seems quite likely that means for creating at least some forms of abstraction evolved not long after the emergence of means for sensing the environment. Since each sensing instance is likely to differ in some way from every other sensing instance, what use is the ability to sense unless one can form abstractions from signals and then act on the basis of the abstraction? The ability to use names and symbols to represent cognitive entities-the symbol grounding problem-may be a primitive cognitive building block (Harnad, 1990). Symbols as Causes: Autonomous Causality This section examines causality more carefully. Following are two of the most widely used philosophical definitions: T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 88 ABBOTT Physical causality (Dowe, 2000). A causal interaction involves the transfer of a quantity of some conserved property from one entity to another. The entity from which the conserved property is transferred is considered the cause. The entity to which the quantity is transferred reflects the effect of the transfer. A standard example is a billiard ball. When a moving billiard ball hits a stationary billiard ball, momentum is transferred from the former to the latter. Although physicists might describe such an interaction in more symmetric terms, human intuition is that the impact of the moving billiard ball causes the originally stationary billiard ball to move. This approach to causation, while useful and convincing, is limited to direct physical interactions. Interventionist causality (Pearl, 2000; Woodward, 2003). X has a causal relationship to Y if and only if there is a possible intervention directed toward X that, in changing the probability distribution of X, results in a change to the probability distribution of Y. Interventionist causality attempts to capture the intuition that if wiggling X results in Y wiggling, then X has a causal relationship to Y. Another way of putting it is that X has a causal relationship to Y if X can serve as something like a remote control for Y. Interventionist causality characterizes most people's intuitive understanding of causality. Although interventionist causality requires that an empirical link be established between the cause (wiggling X) and the effect (Y wiggling), it does not require that one be able to explain the physical mechanism through which the cause produces the effect. Symbols as Causes Intuitive as it is, interventionist causality implies what may seem to be an unexpected result: Symbols can serve as causes. 1. A traffic light changing color causes traffic to stop or start. When a driver sees a traffic light, she converts the photons, that is, the physical elements received from the world, into a symbol such as RedLight or GreenLight. She understands that symbol and responds with some physical action-pressing the brake or accelerator- which in turn produces a physical effect on the vehicle. 2. Lowering or raising the price of an item causes more or fewer of those items to be sold. A more complex series of steps can be laid out for this interaction. Causal interactions of this sort are so commonplace that we hardly think about them. Yet pinning down the causal mechanism produces some surprising results. Autonomous Causality Symbols have two defining properties. 1. They are abstract and cannot produce physical effects. As Rosen (2014) points out, abstract entities are by definition causally inefficacious. 2. They have no distinctive individual properties. Symbols are arbitrary and interchangeable. It sounds paradoxical, but (a) there is nothing distinctive about a symbol, other, perhaps, than an arbitrary label; yet (b) each symbol is distinguishable from all other symbols. (This does not hold for names, which are often designed to have aesthetic and semantic characteristics.) A propertyless abstract entity such as a symbol would not seem to be a promising candidate to serve as a cause. A symbol's very abstractness excludes it from causing a physical effect. Even if one could get around this problem, since symbols have no individual properties, there would seem to be no way for specific symbols to produce specific effects. Yet we know that symbols serve as causes and that different symbols-RedLight versus GreenLight-produce different effects. Similarly, each of our note symbols, C, C, . . . , produces a different sound. The issue of symbols as causes, sometimes known as mental causation (Robb & Heil, 2014), has a long and vexing philosophical history. Yet at a common-sense level, there is no mystery. Symbols serve as causes when they are interpreted by agents. It is because of the way an agent interprets a RedLight that it means "Stop" to that agent, and it is because of the way a player piano interprets note symbols that they mean particular sounds. Before going on I would like to look more carefully at the preceding sentence. I wrote that a red light means "Stop" because of the way an agent interprets it. I didn't write that a red light means "Stop" because that is its generally accepted, that is, cultural, meaning. To understand the distinction consider the following example. Consider a company that builds an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle's software determines how it behaves on the road. Nothing prevents the company from writing software that interprets a red light to mean "Go." Of course, it would be foolish for the company to write software that interprets a red light to mean "Go." Doing so would likely ruin the company's sales; it would open the company to liability claims; and it might even result in criminal charges. But it would not be impossible to write such software. Such software would not change the culturally accepted meaning of a red light, but it would determine the meaning of red lights for the vehicles in which it was installed. On the other hand, even a symbol's culturally accepted meaning can change. Suppose all companies wrote their software to interpret a red light to mean "Go." Suppose the laws were changed to make going through an intersection with a red light legal and going through an intersection with a green light illegal. Suppose all drivers changed their interpretations of red and green lights accordingly. Presumably someone new to that society would decide that the culturally accepted meaning of a red light is "Go." (Something similar actually occurred. In 1967, Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right. Because people were so cautious, there were fewer accidents than usual. Accidents returned to their normal rate after two years; Flock, 2012). Since the agent that interprets a symbol determines what the symbol's effect will be, I call this autonomous causality. Autonomous causality is a very strange notion, paradoxical even. As indicated earlier, a billiard ball that is struck has no choice about how it is affected. Momentum is transferred to it, like it or not. Yet when a symbol "strikes" an agent-that is, when an agent encounters a symbol-how the agent responds depends on the agent itself. T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 89MEANING, AUTONOMY When speaking of the physics of causation. Laplace (1814/ 1951) famously said (emphasis added), "We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future." But with autonomous causality it is not quite that simple. Instead of the laws of physics pushing the world around, agents themselves determine how they will respond to symbolic causes. The usual caveat applies: No laws of physics may be violated. In short, an agent has autonomy when it uses internal rules to determine how to respond to symbols. Not all interpreters are as simple as our example player piano. A jazz player piano may interpret a symbol to mean a certain note but play a different but related note. Similarly, a human being, and perhaps even an autonomous vehicle, may interpret a red light to mean "Stop" but then make the further decision to go through the intersection anyway. (How would you program an autonomous vehicle to behave if (a) it were headed to a hospital with a passenger with an emergency medical condition and (b) it came upon a red light at an intersection with no cross traffic? I would write the software to run the light after ensuring that there was no cross traffic.) How Difficult Is It to Forecast Agent Decisions? If having autonomy means that an agent uses internal decisionmaking processes to determine its behavior, how much can an outside observer predict about those processes? Often not very much. Many agents are quite complex. Their internal decision-making processes may be so complex that even if one knew all the relevant details one might still not understand how they produce the results they do. Consider AlphaGo, the computer system that recently beat the world Go champion (see Moyer, 2016 for a popular description). AlphaGo's design combines two multilayer artificial neural nets with tree search (Silver et al., 2016). (Readers need not understand these technologies to understand the implications of this example.) An artificial neural net consists of a network in which the edges are given weights that determine the extent to which the node at one end effects the node at the other. The weights are determined through machine learning techniques. In the course of its development, AlphaGo examined millions of Go games and played more millions of games against itself (Koch, 2016). In general, it is not possible to explain in any meaningful sense what it means for a weight to have a particular value. One can only conclude that the values that were arrived at work better than others. Neural nets are particularly opaque in this way. But even traditional software is often so logically complex (or contorted or poorly documented) that one may not be able to explain how it works. As a simple example, imagine software that uses the Pythagorean theorem to compute the third side of a right triangle and then uses that result to estimate the time required for a trip. If the software includes the relevant arithmetic operations but with no explanation for why those operations are being performed, one may have difficulty explaining why the software estimates trip times successfully. All an observer would see is a sequence of computer instructions that perform arithmetic but might have no idea what the intention of the programmer was when writing those instructions. The difficulty of understanding how agents make decisions is compounded by the fact that agents may change. Many biological organisms change (i.e., learn) as they experience their environments. Children go to school to learn effective ways to respond to symbols. People study with the goal of improving their performance. Society implements and publicizes policies that are intended to deter certain behaviors. Although the effectiveness of these practices varies from individual to individual, the effect is that agents change their decision-making processes based on their experiences. Consider AlphaGo again. As it trained, it modified the weights in its neural net. This is standard machine learning. More interestingly, expert Go players were able to extract new strategies by watching AlphaGo play. AlphaGo has created a unique and extremely powerful approach to the game of Go. [After] an exhaustive analysis of the five games between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol and of three games AlphaGo played against itself shortly before the match, . . . it became clear to us that AlphaGo represents not only a scientific and technological advancement, but also a milestone in human understanding of Go. Unconstrained by human biases, and free to experiment with radical new approaches, AlphaGo has demonstrated great open-mindedness and invigorated the game with creative new strategies. (Hui, 2016, p. 1) AlphaGo invented Go strategies that no human had considered-and presumably would not have predicted. Much simpler examples illustrate similar phenomena. Consider a database system. Presented with a query about information that is not in its database, the system will not provide a useful answer. But once that information is stored in the database, the same query will return a more useful answer. The point is that most entities have internal states that play a role in the entity's decision-making processes. Those internal states may change. Often those changes occur as a result of interacting with the external world. To know about them all, an observer would need complete information about the entity's history, which generally is not available. Autonomy consists of the ability of an agent to apply its decision-making apparatus to symbolic information and then to use the result to control how it behaves. Since most agents' decision-making processes depend in part on the agent's internal state, and since an agent's internal state generally depends on its history, which is virtually impossible for an outside observer to know in detail, no outside observer can be confident that it will be able to forecast how an autonomous agent will behave. Implications for Free Will I will end by examining some implications for free will. Following is a paraphrased extract from physicist Sabine Hossenfelder (2016): According to our best present understanding, everything that happens in our universe is due to four forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force. These forces conform to one of two types of laws. One type is deterministic, which means that the past entirely predicts the future. [This is the Laplacian universe mentioned earlier.] There is no free will in such a law because there is no freedom. (p. 1) T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 90 ABBOTT The other type, which appears in quantum mechanics, has a random component. But the randomness cannot be influenced by anything. There is no free will in such a law either-just some randomness sprinkled over the determinism. These forces and the laws that characterize their physical effects have been extremely well studied; they leave no room for free will. (p. 1) Dispiriting as this may sound, Hossenfelder goes on to say that these facts do not preclude one from making choices or decisions. I will explain this in terms of the framework developed above. People Interact With the World in Two Ways: Physically and Symbolically • We interact physically when we experience and are affected by physical properties such as gravity, momentum, temperature, and so forth • We interact symbolically when we read, speak, listen to others, or identify things we see, hear, touch, and so forth It is the destiny of autonomous agents always to be mediating between these two forms of interaction. Recall the automobile driver. Her interaction with the world involved a) the (physical) photons that entered her eyes; b) the (symbolic) interpretation of those photons as a red or green traffic light; c) the (physical) forces to which she and her car are subjected; d) the (symbolic) decision regarding how to respond to the traffic light; and e) the (physical) act of pressing the brake or the accelerator. The two levels operate with distinctly different rules. The physical level operates according to the laws of physics. The symbolic level operates according to internal information processing rules. The symbolic level operates according to rules constrained in part by logic and computer science. To take a classic example, Turing (1937) proved that it is not possible to determine for an arbitrary computer program whether it will ever stop. That question, known as the halting problem, has nothing to do with the laws of physics. Yet symbol processing as performed by both human beings and computers is constrained by that result. The broader conclusion is that laws apply at the symbolic level that to not appear at the physics level. Here is how two Nobel prize winners put it: [L]iving matter, while not eluding the "laws of physics" . . . is likely to involve "other laws," [which] will form just as integral a part of [its] science. - Schrödinger (1944/2012), p. 68 [The] workings of all the animate and inanimate matter of which we have any detailed knowledge are . . . controlled by the . . . fundamental laws [of physics]. . . . [W]e must all start with reductionism, which I fully accept. [Even so, the] behavior of large and complex aggregates of elementary particles is not to be understood in terms of a simple extrapolation of the properties of a few particles. Instead, at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear. - Anderson (1972), p. 393. For additional discussion, see Abbott (in press). Such a two-level perspective has been noted by a number of philosophers. For example, Dennett (2003) writes (emphasis added), Nonhuman animals can engage in voluntary actions of sorts. The bird that flies wherever it wants is voluntarily wheeling this way and that, voluntarily moving its wings. (p. 48) The aspects of a bird's actions that Dennett refers to as voluntary correspond to actions I would describe as being directed by a bird's decision-making processes. I would describe birds as being autonomous in that their behaviors derive from internal rules. Neither Anderson, Dennett, Hossenfelder, nor Schrödinger would deny that the internal decision-making processes also depend on the forces of physics. After all they are physical activities and hence subject to the laws of physics. Yet both Dennett and Hossenfelder find it useful to distinguish the direct forces of physics from those that run an agent's decision-making processes. (Neither Anderson nor Schrödinger discuss this issue.) These two manifestations of the forces of physics produce different sorts of effects. Some forces of physics effect agents directly in what I have referred to as a Laplacian manner. Some forces of physics run agents' decision-making processes and produce their effects indirectly as a result of symbolic processing. So even though both manifestations obey the same physical laws, they contribute to an agent's behavior very differently. As a simple example consider a railroad train. It is propelled forward by energy generated by burning fuel. Yet its direction of motion may be determined by a switch that controls which track it will take. The energy required to control the switch is miniscule compared to the energy that powers the forward motion. Both forms of energy obey the laws of physics; they affect the train quite differently. What Is Free Will and Where Does It Fit In? Dennett does not consider what he calls the voluntary actions of birds to reflect free will. For him, autonomy appears not to be the same as free will. But Dennett does talk about free will. Humans differ from every other species in that we represent our reasons to ourselves and others. This is what gives us the power, and the obligation, to think ahead, to anticipate, to see the consequences of our actions, to be able to evaluate those actions in the light of what other people tell us, and to share our wisdom with each other. That's what makes us free in a way that no bird is free. . . . We have added a layer on top of the bird's (and the ape's and the dolphin's) capacity to decide what to do next. . . . Your dog can be "asked" to do a variety of voluntary things, but it cannot ask why you make that request. A male baboon can "ask" a nearby female for some grooming, but neither of them can discuss the likely outcome of compliance with this request, which might have serious consequences . . . if the male is not the alpha male of the troop. (p. 48) For Dennett, free will consists of the ability to think ahead before acting. [Evolution produced] creatures capable of considering different courses of action in advance of committing to any one of them, and weighting them on the basis of some projection of the probable outcome of each. In the quest by brains to produce a useful future, this T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 91MEANING, AUTONOMY is a major improvement over the risky business of blind trial and error, since, as Karl Popper (1978) once put it, it permits some of your hypotheses to die in your stead. (p. 45) The ability to anticipate the consequences of actions and then to make a choice based on that analysis offers significant advantages. This, Dennett says, is the only kind of free will worth having. Dennett does not say whether he would argue that computing systems such as AlphaGo, which also select actions after analyzing multiple possibilities, also have free will. Computers have played games using what are called look-ahead strategies for decades. I know of no one who has attributed free will to them. Baumeister (Baumeister, 2014; Baumeister & Masicampo, 2010; Baumeister & Monroe, 2014) adopts a similar approach. Free will is the ability to think things through before acting- especially about things having to do with one's social situation: Culture includes systems that require people to follow rules, and so a capacity for self-regulation according to rules would be very useful. Culture is based on information, so the ability to communicate and alter behavior on the basis of communicated information is important. Rational choice would be highly useful to deduce implications for action from abstract guidelines such as laws and moral principles, as well as for functioning as an economic agent in a marketplace (another vital aspect of culture). In both cases, and perhaps more generally, the ability to base actions on ideas is central to being a civilized person. Developing the capacity to control action in this way presumably comprised the key steps in the evolution of free will. (Baumeister & Monroe, 2014, p. 12) Even If We Have Free Will, Why Bother to Exercise It? I am not convinced that the preceding adequately characterizes free will. But assuming that free will has to do with the ability to think things through before acting, the question arises as to why one should bother. After all, one's thought processes are determined by the forces of nature. (They are performed by physical materials, which must follow the laws of nature.) Therefore the outcome of those thought processes are predetermined. Why spend the time and energy to think? Hossenfelder's answer is that thinking is the way to answer a question for which one does not yet have an answer. Suppose that in thinking through how it should respond to some situation, an agent needs to perform some calculation. Even though the answer is predetermined, the agent must still do the calculation to determine the answer. Searle (2001) offers the following scenario: Imagine that you are in a restaurant and you are given a choice between veal and pork, and you have to make up your mind. You cannot refuse to exercise free will. [It makes no sense to say] "Look, I am a determinist-que sera sera-I'll just wait and see what I order." . . . We cannot think away our free will. (p. 494) Long ago, Augustine of Hippo (391-395) raised a similar question. Why is one responsible for one's choices even though God has foreknowledge of one's choices? His answer: Everyone has the power to make his own decisions; that is no less true even though God knows what one will decide. The essence of this argument is that even if one agrees that the laws of nature predetermine the outcome of any thought process, one cannot refuse to do the thinking-if the possibility of refusing to do something is even coherent in the context of determinism. Deterrence and Free Will The discussion so far provides a rationale for implementing deterrence against criminal behavior, whether or not agents have free will. The traditional argument is that if agents have free will, deterrence can be effective. That argument holds even for the sort of free will espoused by Dennett and Baumeister-the ability to think ahead before acting. An agent that can anticipate negative consequences can refrain from taking actions that produce those consequences. But, the argument also goes, agents without free will are not responsible for their behavior. For them, deterrence will be ineffective. That is not the case. As we saw, agents may be reprogrammed by their experiences: An agent that sees lawbreaking being punished may reprogram itself not to break the law. That is the case even if the act of self-reprogramming does not rely on free will. AlphaGo illustrates this phenomenon. No one would claim that computer systems have free will-other, perhaps, than the ability to think ahead. Yet AlphaGo reprograms itself on the basis of what are effectively rewards and punishments based on its actions. The result is that it reprograms itself to act "properly," that is, to play winning moves and to win games. Since deterrence works with computer systems, there is no reason to believe it will not work with biological systems, free will or not. Consciousness None of the preceding mentioned consciousness. No need was found to distinguish between biological and computer-based agents. This is not to argue either (a) that computers have what most people would regard as consciousness or (b) that there is no such thing as consciousness. I strongly encourage efforts to develop a scientific understanding of subjective experience-which I take to be synonymous with consciousness. I find myself concluding, however, that meaning and autonomy do not require consciousness. Yet I do not dismiss the relevance of consciousness for meaning. Consciousness makes meaning come alive, adding to it awareness, depth, richness, and intensity, both conceptual and emotional. In my view, free will requires consciousness in two ways: a) Like qualia, free will is a subjective experience. b) It is not clear what it would mean to attribute free will to an agent without consciousness. Searle (2010) characterizes free will as a response to experiencing three causal gaps: between reasoning and deciding, between deciding and initiating an action, and between initiating an action and (if the action spans an extended period) seeing it through. But, as Searle says, these are gaps in subjective experience, that is, consciousness. I agree that understanding free will as commonly understood will depend on understanding consciousness, which seems to me the greater mystery. T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 92 ABBOTT Summary To summarize, I would emphasize the following: • Meaning involves the transformation of symbols, that is, abstractions, into physical actions. • Although computers and biological organisms do this regularly, such transformations are quite extraordinary. Symbols are nonmaterial, not subject to the laws of physics. Yet agents' physical behaviors depend on their symbolprocessing rules. • Because these rules are internal, I call such agents autonomous. • Because these rules are often inaccessible to outside observers and because they may depend on the agent's history, it may not be feasible to predict an agent's behavior. By acting physically in response to symbols, autonomous agents link the abstract to the material. References Abbott, R. (in press). A software-inspired constructive view of nature. In Berkich, Don (Ed.) 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Nonexistent objects. In Edward N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information. Robb, D., & Heil, J. (2014). Mental causation. In Edward N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information. T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 93MEANING, AUTONOMY Roberts, W. A., & Macpherson, K. (2016). Of dogs and men. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25, 313-321. .1177/0963721416665007 Rosen, G. (2014). Abstract objects. In Edward N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information. Rumbaugh, D. M. (1977). Language learning by a chimpanzee. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. Schrödinger, E. (2012). What is life? New York, NY: Cambridge University press. (Original work published 1944). Searle, J. R. (2001). Free will as a problem in neurobiology. Philosophy, 76, 491-514. Searle, J. R. (2010). Consciousness and the problem of free will. In R. F. Baumeister, A. R. Mele, & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Free will and consciousness: How might they work? (pp. 121-134). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. .003.0008 Silver, D., Huang, A., Maddison, C. J., Guez, A., Sifre, L., van den Driessche, G., . . . Hassabis, D. (2016). Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search. Nature, 529, 484-489. . Smith, J. D., Zakrzewski, A. C., Johnson, J. M., Valleau, J. C., & Church, B. A. (2016). Categorization: The view from animal cognition. Behavioral Sciences, 6, 12. Turing, A. (1937). On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, s2-42, 230-265. Woodward, J. (2003). Making things happen: A theory of causal explanation New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Zentall, T. R., & Pattison, K. F. (2016). Now you see it, now you don't: Object permanence in dogs. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25, 357-362. Received December 8, 2016 Revision received June 15, 2017 Accepted July 27, 2017 T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 94 ABBOTT
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{ "creator": "Abbate, C. E.", "date": "2014", "datestamp": 1588373010000, "description": "Higher-order thought theories maintain that consciousness involves the having of higher-order thoughts about mental states. In response to these theories of consciousness, an attempt is often made to illustrate that nonhuman animals possess said consciousness, overlooking an alarming consequence: attributing higher-order thought to nonhuman animals might entail that they should be held morally accountable for their actions. I argue that moral responsibility requires more than higher-order thought: moral agency requires a specific higher-order thought which concerns a belief about the rightness or wrongness of affecting another’s mental states. This “moral thought” about the rightness or wrongness is not yet demonstrated in even the most intelligent nonhuman animals, thus we should suspend our judgments about the “rightness” or “wrongness” of their actions while further questioning the recent insistence on developing an animal morality.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBNAN-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Nonhuman Animals: Not Necessarily Saints or Sinners", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Between the Species Nonhuman Animals: Not Necessarily Saints or Sinners ABSTRACT Higher-order thought theories maintain that consciousness involves the having of higher-order thoughts about mental states. In response to these theories of consciousness, an attempt is often made to illustrate that nonhuman animals possess said consciousness, overlooking a potential consequence: attributing higher-order thought to nonhuman animals might entail that they should be held morally accountable for their actions. I argue that moral responsibility requires more than higher-order thought: moral agency requires a specific higherorder thought which concerns a belief about the rightness or wrongness of affecting another's mental states. This "moral thought" about the rightness or wrongness is not yet demonstrated in even the most intelligent nonhuman animals, thus we should suspend our judgments about the "rightness" or "wrongness" of their actions while further questioning the recent insistence on developing an animal morality. C.E. Abbate Volume 17, Issue 1 Jun 2014 © Between the Species, 2014 1. Introduction Higher-order thought (HOT) theories of consciousness assume that a mental state is conscious only if the subject has (or is disposed to have) a further higher-order thought, belief, C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 or judgment that she is in said mental state (Rosenthal 1986; Carruthers 2000). A mental state being conscious, then, cannot be reduced to the mere having of mental states; rather, consciousness is said to arise only when one has a further higher-order belief or thought about a lower-order mental state of, say, pain. In keeping with the criteria of such theories of consciousness, certain HOT theorists such as Gennaro (1993, 2009) and Lurz (2011) attempt to illustrate that nonhuman animals are conscious, even according to a HOT standard. Presumably, by doing so, the moral arena will be extended to nonhuman animals, who too are said to be conscious according to even a HOT standard. Although animal ethicists would consider this a victory, what is commonly overlooked is a potentially alarming consequence: attributing higher-order thought to nonhuman animals might require that we hold them morally accountable for their actions. As Francescotti writes, "one is a moral agent only if one is capable of having thoughts about the welfare of others- which would consist, at least in part, in thoughts about the mental states of others" (2007, 246). Thus, we must proceed cautiously so that the attempt to demonstrate higher-order thought in nonhuman animals avoids a commitment to moral agency. The concern, then, is the following: if HOT theories of consciousness are correct, the only way to ensure that nonhuman animals are afforded direct moral consideration is to demonstrate that they possess HOT. Yet, if nonhuman animals meet the criteria for having HOT, they could be said to be moral agents since "higher-order intentionality seems relevant to the issue of moral agency" (Francescotti 2007, 246). In the following discussion, I will demonstrate that there is a specific type of higher-order thought that is necessary for moral agency: moral thought third-order intentionality, which concerns a belief about the rightness or wrongness of affecting another's mental states. Such a higher-order thought, as I call it "moral thought," requires that one be able to not only, for instance, desire to deceive another or produce a false belief in another, but also that one possess a further higher-order belief C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 that such a desire to deceive is either right or wrong. This "moral thought" about the rightness or wrongness of a given desire cannot be demonstrated, with certainty, in even the most intelligent of fully developed nonhuman animals. Thus we can ensure the moral considerability of nonhuman animals under a HOT theory of consciousness without a commitment to the view that they are therefore moral agents. While this conclusion might seem rather obvious, it is useful in motivating a critical response to the growing movement to demonstrate that nonhuman animals are moral beings or subjects. 2. What is consciousness? Mental states such as beliefs, desires, perceptions, and sensations are either unconscious or conscious. For example, one may have a belief that "today is Thursday" without consciously entertaining it because her mind is preoccupied with some other matter, such as the consciously entertained belief that it is raining outside and the desire to find an umbrella. Pains and bodily sensations can also be unconscious: one can have a pain in her leg, even though the subject is preoccupied with some other matter and is not consciously attending to the pain. This possession of an unconscious state of pain is one example of how a being could be said to have a pain without actually experiencing or feeling the pain (Carruthers 1992). A debate within consciousness studies concerns what it means for a mental state to be "phenomenally conscious." Phenomenal consciousness (p-consciousness) is defined by Block (1995) in terms of what it is like for the subject to have the conscious experiences she does. Carruthers points out that pconsciousness is the property only conscious mental states possess: it is the "property that perceptions and bodily sensations possess when there is something that it is like for a creature to undergo those events, or when the events in question possess a subjective feel" (2011, 374). Thus, the central claim is that a mental state is conscious only if it has a phenomenology of inner feel-a "something it is like" aspect, as coined by Nagel (1974). C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 Two important approaches to phenomenal consciousness are first-order representational (FOR) theories and higherorder representational theories (HOR). The primary focus of both representational approaches is an attempt to explain state consciousness (rather than creature consciousness). That is, the concern is not about the consciousness of a particular creature (such as whether or not Kimberly is conscious)-rather, the concern is whether or not a mental state is conscious, such as my belief that today is Thursday. As described by Lurz, "first-order representational (FOR) theories hold that mental states are conscious not because the subject is higher-order aware of having them but because the states themselves make the subject aware of the external environment" (2009, 9). Dretske (1995) and Tye (1995) explain consciousness in terms of world-directed or first-order intentional states: mental states such as perceptual experiences and bodily sensations are said to be conscious if they affect or are poised to affect one's belief-forming system. According to Carruthers (2005), if some form of first-order phenomenal consciousness is correct, then phenomenal consciousness will be widespread in the animal community. Since nonhuman animals often form beliefs about their environment based upon their perceptual states and bodily sensations, they are said to possess conscious perceptual states and experience bodily sensations under a FOR theory. Since a mental state can be phenomenally conscious, according to a FOR approach, even when it is not represented by another higher-order mental state, higher order representations (higher-order beliefs, perceptions, or thoughts) are not necessary for phenomenal consciousness. Higher-order representational (HOR) theories maintain that a mental state is conscious only when there is a higher-order representation of the mental state. Within HOR theories of consciousness there are two dominant approaches: HOP (Higherorder perception) and HOT (higher-order thought). HOP theorists (Armstrong 1980; Lycan 1996) maintain that consciousness is explained in terms of inner perception of mental states, which does not require the capacity to conceptualize mental states. While HOP theories pose little C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 threat to the claim of animal consciousness, HOT theories present a significant challenge to the claim that nonhuman animals are conscious. 3. A closer look at higher-order thought theories HOT theorists attempt to explain intransitive state consciousness in terms of transitive creature consciousness. Transitive consciousness is described as consciousness of something. Since mental states are not conscious of anything, transitive consciousness applies only to creatures and is thus a form of creature consciousness. Rowlands (2011, 536) notes that we can derive two central conclusions from the claim that intransitive state consciousness can be explained in terms of transitive creature consciousness: (1) a mental state M of creature C is (intransitively) conscious if and only if C is (transitively) conscious of M, and (2) creature C is (transitively) conscious of mental state M if and only if C has a thought to the effect that it has M. So, (1) a mental state possessed by an animal, such as pain, is (intransitively) conscious only if the animal is (transitively) conscious of the pain, and (2) a creature is (transitively) conscious of the pain only if the creature has a higher-order thought about the pain. The central claim is the following: transitive creature consciousness is ultimately explainable in terms of a higher-order thought-a thought about a mental state (from here on out, I will refer to transitive creature consciousness as simply "consciousness"). As Seager (2004) and Dretske (1995) point out, HOT theories seem to impose a great burden of conceptual ability since they maintain that consciousness requires the capacity to think about and conceptualize one's own thoughts. This is evident in Rosenthal's (1986) HOT account which maintains that a mental state is not conscious unless one is aware of that state-where awareness entails that one has a thought about the first-order mental state. Thus, to be conscious of something, or aware of something, is to be "in a mental state whose content pertains to that thing" (Rosenthal 1986, 27). C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 HOT theories thus present two possible conclusions regarding animal consciousness: 1) the denial that nonhuman animals are conscious, or 2) the granting of a greater conceptual capacity to nonhuman animals than they are traditionally credited with (Seager 2004). Carruthers (2000) and Davidson (1975) endorse the first line of thought by arguing that nonhuman animals are unable to meet the intellectual, cognitive, and conceptual standard of high-order thought theories. Others, as we will see, attempt to demonstrate HOT in nonhuman animals by pointing to their capacity for metacognition, mindreading, or even language. 4. The significance of animal consciousness As Carruthers (1992) points out, determining whether or not the mental states of nonhuman animals are conscious will shape the animal ethics debate. This is to say that the moral status of a being is fundamentally tied to its mental status: an entity must possess transitive creature consciousness (and thus intransitive state consciousness) in order for it to be morally considerable. Since only conscious mental states, and not unconscious mental states, have phenomenal properties or subjective feels, only creatures who possess conscious mental states can be said to have sentience: the fundamental criterion of moral considerability in most accounts of animal ethics (Singer 1975; Francione 2000; Rollin 2006). If nonhuman animals are not sentient, they cannot be said to have phenomenal feels or subjective experiences of pain and suffering, thus making it asinine to criticize the exploitation of nonhuman animals on the ground that it forces nonhuman animals to endure excruciating pain and suffering. Nonhuman animals are commonly assumed to be sentient based on their behavioral and physiological responses to adverse stimuli which presumably indicate that nonhuman animals do in fact have mental states such as pain or pleasure (Singer 1975; Francione 2000; Rollin 2006). At first glance, it seems uncontroversial to attribute sentience to nonhuman animals based on their behavior and physiological make-up, yet if animal ethicists fail to provide an account of animal minds that satisfies the requirements of HOT theories, they remain C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 vulnerable to the challenges presented by certain HOT theorists who argue that consciousness requires an intellectual, cognitive, or conceptual component. According to Carruthers, since animals cannot think about their experiences, they can "have pains, [although] they do not feel pains" (Carruthers 1992, 2). This line of thought is echoed by Dennett, who claims that many philosophers mistakenly assume that all pain is "experienced pain" (Dennett 2008, 118). Although the central goal of this paper is to motivate a concern for nonhuman animals in conversations regarding HOT theories of consciousness, this discussion should not be misconstrued as an argument for HOT theories of consciousness. Rather, the intent is to illustrate that nonhuman animals have HOT, which prepares animal ethicists against the anticipated charge that nonhuman animals are not conscious due to a lack of cognitive sophistication. That is, if it turns out that HOT theories are correct (or even if popular opinion supports a HOT theory without it actually being correct), animal ethicists must demonstrate the capacity for HOT in nonhuman animals in order to ensure that they are afforded moral attention. Furthermore, demonstrating HOT in nonhuman animals is helpful in ensuring their moral considerability under any theory of consciousness. If we can illustrate that nonhuman animals have consciousness under a HOT account, then it is likely that animal consciousness will be demonstrable in any other theory of consciousness, since HOT is said to require the greatest conceptual burden. So, if we grant, for argument's sake, that a being is conscious only if it possesses higher-order thought, animal ethicists must illustrate the capacity for higher-order thought in nonhuman animals. Yet, if we grant that nonhuman animals have higherorder thought or intentionality in an attempt to ensure their moral considerability, we do so at the risk of attributing moral agency to them, which would entail that nonhuman animals can be "morally evaluated-praised or blamed-for [their] motives and actions" (Rowlands 2011, 519). We would then be justified in attributing notions such as guilty, morally blameworthy, violators of the moral law, and so forth to nonhuman animals. C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 While it is possible for such moral notions to apply to nonhuman animals, it would be a mistake to unreflectively assume that having HOT entails moral agency. Thus, the following discussion should not be misconstrued as an attempt to preserve or take for granted the widespread intuition that moral agency should not be attributed to nonhuman animals. Rather, this discussion should be perceived as a call for caution when attempting to demonstrate animal consciousness in the realm of HOT theories. It is a gentle reminder to refrain from too readily attributing the most sophisticated cognitive capacities to nonhuman animals for the sake of generating moral concern. It is a warning that we may find ourselves tempted to demonstrate that nonhuman animals possess highly unique and sophisticated capacities, beyond what is necessary for demonstrating higher-order thought. In avoiding this error, it will be helpful to first clarify what moral agency involves: (1) the capacity to form beliefs or thoughts about the mental states of others (this is described as "mindreading"), and (2) the ability to assess one's own beliefs, desires, or thoughts about the mental states of others as right or wrong. Keeping this description of moral agency in mind, the claim that HOT entails moral agency can be resisted in two ways: (1) by illustrating that nonhuman animals can have HOT without having the ability to mindread, thus denying that they necessarily have regard for the mental states of others even if they have metacognition, or (2) by denying that having higherorder thoughts about the mental states of others entails the further capacity to evaluate such thoughts as right or wrong. Thus, even if nonhuman animals have higher-order thoughts about their own mental states (metacognition) or the mental states of others (mindreading), neither necessarily entail moral agency. 5. Higher-order though, metacognition, and nonhuman animals The first requirement of moral agency entails the capacity to attribute mental states such as beliefs, desires, sensations, and perceptions to others. This is known as having a "theory of mind." If one cannot understand that others suffer, feel pain, C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 experience happiness, and so forth, then one cannot be held responsible for affecting another's mental states since one is unaware that one's actions affect others. In determining whether a HOT theory is committed to the conclusion that conscious beings have a theory of mind, we must first consider whether the having of higher-order thoughts about one's own mental states (metacognition) requires that one have higherorder thoughts about another's mental states (mindreading). A theory of mind, also known as mindreading, is defined by Lurz (2009, 282) as "the ability to predict, explain, or understand the behavior of other subjects by means of attributing mental states to them," which requires, at the very least, having higher-order thoughts about another's mental states. Carruthers (2000) maintains that metacognition entails mindreading: if nonhuman animals have higher-order thoughts about their own mental states, then they must necessarily be capable of having such thoughts about the mental states of others. This idea is often supported by an appeal to Evans's "generality constraint," which maintains that in order to have concepts, possessors of thought must be capable of combining the concepts they possess. So, if one has the concept of F, G, a, b, one must be able to combine the concepts and form the thoughts Fa, Ga, Fb, Gb (Evans: 1982, 100). Keeping this in mind, consider that an animal is capable of the following three thoughts: I walk, the fox walks, I am in pain. It thus has the concept of I, Fox, walk, and pain. According to the generality constraint, the animal should be able to combine the concepts in the following way: I walk, the fox walks, I am in pain, and the fox is in pain. Thus the animal must be able to conceive of other subjects (such as foxes) as having different mental properties, such as "the fox is in pain." This mindreading requirement is contested by certain philosophers of mind who argue that Carruthers overstates the requirements of HOT. Gennaro (2009) and Ridge (2001) argue that having higher-order thought does not require that one be able to mindread-one may very well have higher-order thoughts about one's own mental state without being capable of C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 having a higher-order thought about the mental states of others. Having higher-order thought only requires the thinker to have an implicit "I-thought" which distinguishes the thinker from outer objects, but those outer objects "need not always include the mental state of other conscious beings" (Gennaro 2004, 4566). Such a view is further substantiated by Goldman (2006) who argues that self-attribution of mental states is prior to the capacity to attribute mental states to others. Although Gennaro, Ridge, and Goldman agree that mindreading is sufficient for higher-order thought in nonhuman animals, their claim is that it is not necessary for higher-order thought. The claim that metacognition is possible in the absence of a mindreading capacity is often supported by an appeal to selfconfidence studies, such as the one conducted by Smith and Washburn (2005). In this study, monkeys learned to control a joystick to choose answers in discrimination tests about visual patterns on a computer screen. When they selected the correct answer, they received treats and when they chose incorrectly, they received dreaded timeouts. Unique to this study was a "pass" option, which a monkey could choose if the test was too difficult. When they selected the pass option, they moved to the next test, which was more desirable than a timeout but less pleasurable than receiving the treat. The monkeys were said to demonstrate a capacity for metacognition when they selected the pass button-that is, they were said to be capable of assessing their own level of confidence and understanding when they were uncertain. Understanding one's own uncertainty is an instance of metacognition or higher-order thought, yet nothing about this instance of metacognition required the monkey to have a higher-order thought about another's mental state. Another line of thought which suggests that metacognition is possible in the absence of a mindreading capacity is introduced by Lurz (2009), who points out that nonhuman animals could have "subject-less" higher-order thoughts or concepts without having even an idea of the self, let alone a concept of other minds. He asks us to compare animals' conceiving to our conceiving of rain and snow: just as we can be aware that it is raining without there being a thing or subject that is raining, a C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 nonhuman animal can be aware that "it hurts" without having a concept of a subject who is in pain. Thus, nonhuman animals could very well conceive of their mental states as subject-less features placed at a time. Lurz (2009, 195) concludes that "the HOT theory allows for the presence of conscious states even in the absence of any (either self-attributing or other-attributing) conscious higher-order thought." If higher-order thought does not require that one have thoughts about the mental states of others, it is not the case that nonhuman animals who have HOT necessarily have regard for others, which is required for moral agency. Thus, according to this view, having HOT by no means entails moral agency. 6. Higher-order thought, mindreading, and nonhuman animals Carruthers (2008) points out that these self-confidence studies fail to prove that the subject is incapable of mindreading, even though they demonstrate a capacity for higher-order thought without employing mindreading capacities in this particular instance. While these selfconfidence studies do indeed demonstrate the capacity for metacognition, they do not exclude the possibility of mindreading. Keeping this in mind, let us suppose that Carruthers is correct and that higher-order thought does in fact require mindreading. This, then, brings us back to the question of whether HOT entails moral agency. A distinct response is to argue that even if mindreading is necessary for consciousness, it is not sufficient for moral agency. So, even if we grant mindreading capabilities to nonhuman animals with the aim of demonstrating consciousness, they still have not met the conditions for moral agency. This is because in order to act as a moral agent, one must also be able to understand the significance (the rightness or wrongness) of affecting another's mental state. This involves, what I call, moral thought thirdorder intentionality, which in turn requires two things: (1) thirdorder intentionality, and (2) the ability to possess moral concepts, such as the concepts of rightness and wrongness. C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 Before proceeding, let us pause to consider what it means when we say that a certain mental state has intentionality. Intentionality refers to a representational character: the "aboutness" of a thought, belief, or desire. Thoughts, beliefs, and desires are intentional states because they are about something: one has a desire to drink water, a belief that it will rain, or a thought about a cat. First-order intentionality entails that a being has a belief, desire, or perception about something, such as a perception of the computer screen. According to HOT theory, one must have at least second-order intentional states in order to be conscious: a thought about another mental state, such as a thought about the perception of the computer screen. Let us apply these considerations of intentionality to the question of moral agency, which entails, at the very least, the capacity to form higher-order thoughts about the mental states of others (mindreading). According to Lurz (2011), evidence of mindreading is found when a being predicts, understands, explains, and manipulates the behaviors of others through an ability to hypothesize about what is going on in their mind. An example that is often pointed to in order to illustrate this capacity for mindreading in nonhuman animals is deception. Intentional deceptive behavior in nonhuman animals, also known as the desire to produce a false belief, is evidence of second-order intentionality. Deceptive behavior is observed in plover birds who lure foxes towards them by pretending to have a broken wing in order to distract the foxes from attacking their nest of eggs (Gould, 1999). Likewise, a female baboon is said to demonstrate deceptive behavior when she pretends to forage in order to prevent the alpha male from discovering that she is engaging in a sexual act with a subordinate male. These examples are said to point to an animal's ability to attribute mental states to others and to form a higher-order belief, desire, or thought about another's mental state: plover birds are said to desire to produce a false belief in the fox and the female baboon is said to desire to produce a false belief in the alpha male. In addition to these cases of deception, the ability to mindread is said to be apparent in nonhuman animals such as dogs who often run for help when their owner is in trouble C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 (Rogers 1997). Evidently, the dog is said to be capable of assessing the anxious mental state of his owner. Rogers (1997, 41) also points out that the capacity for mindreading is probable in certain animals who teach others, since teaching "may be a manifestation of the ability to assess the mental state of others." Teaching, it is said, involves mental-state attribution, since the teacher presumably attributes ignorance to the one who is taught. Further evidence of mindreading in the nonhuman animal world is apparent in rats who learn to avoid poison baits by observing the reactions of other rats who become ill by consuming the same bait (Dawkins, 1993). Countless empirical examples, beyond the ones mentioned in this paper, indicate a capacity for mindreading in all kinds of nonhuman animals. Yet, even when assuming that nonhuman animals possess HOT about the mental states of others, one remains uncommitted to the claim that nonhuman animals are thus moral agents. DeGrazia (1996, 172) draws an important distinction between being an agent and being a moral agent: those who perform intentional actions are classified as agents, while moral agency requires something more than just the performance of intentional actions. As he points out, nonhuman animals have desires, thoughts, and beliefs that explain their actions, which entails that these animals are agents, yet it does not mean that they are therefore moral agents. This is because moral agency demands more than just having HOTs about another's mental state: moral agency requires what I call moral thought third-order intentionality, which requires that one not only, for instance, desire to deceive another or produce a false belief in another, but that one possess the further higher-order belief that such a desire to deceive is either right or wrong. 7. Moral agency and moral thought third-order intentionality In supporting my thesis that nonhuman animals do not necessarily possess moral thought third-order intentionality, we can refer to Burmúdez (2003), who attributes HOT to nonhuman animals, yet maintains that metarepresentational thought (thinking about thinking) requires a complex, public language that is off-limits to nonhuman animals. In his C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 discussion, Bermúdez draws a distinction between having HOT about propositional mental states and having HOT about nonpropositional mental states, such as bodily sensations and perceptual experiences. He maintains that nonhuman animals, because they are unable to speak or interpret natural language, cannot possess mental-state concepts for propositional attitudes and thus cannot have HOTs about their own or another's propositional attitudes, although he acknowledges that they can have HOT about non-propositional mental states, such as bodily sensations and perceptual experiences. By appealing to Bermúdez's account, we can conclude that although nonhuman animals can form HOTs about another's mental state (what is referred to as perceptual mindreading) by representing the perceptual state of another and adjusting their behavior in accordance with such representation, they are incapable of forming a HOT about their own propositional attitudes, such as a thought about their desire to deceive. The idea that nonhuman animals can have perceptual or representational beliefs without propositional or conceptual content excludes the possibility that nonhuman animals possess moral concepts like rightness or wrongness, which are required for moral agency. Yet, let us suppose, contrary to Bermúdez (2003) and Glock (2000), that the having of any sort of higherorder thought requires the possession of concepts. Even if we demonstrate that nonhuman animals are able to possess concepts, we are not committed to the view that nonhuman animals necessarily possess moral concepts. This is because a HOT theory which retains the idea that concepts are the "building blocks of thought" only requires conscious beings to have the capacity to think in terms of simple concepts. The question, then, remains whether or not nonhuman animals can possess complex evaluative moral concepts, such as the concepts of rightness or wrongness. Since having concepts requires that one recognize or discriminate different types of things, we must consider whether nonhuman animals can discriminate right actions from actions that are not right (Allen 1999). Bekoff and Pierce (2009) point to the codes of conduct of certain species of animals that C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 are said to demonstrate at least a rudimentary understanding of right and wrong. As an example, they point to the rules used by coyotes concerning the training of cubs. If cubs bite too hard, they are ostracized by the rest of the group and often end up having to leave entirely. Chimpanzees are also said to demonstrate a sense of justice by setting upon those in the group who deviate from the code. Yet, one need not necessarily possess a moral concept of "right" or "wrong" in adhering to the code of conduct employed by these groups of animals: one can simply adhere to these rules because it is the norm of the group. That is, although nonhuman animals can distinguish an action that violates their group's code and threatens cooperative behavior from one that does not, this does not entail that they judge these particular actions to be right or wrong. Rather, nonhuman animals can be said to perform those actions which they find to be the most preferable after weighing competing desires, such as weighing the desire for cooperation against the desire for a pleasure associated with disruptive behavior. This line of thought is supported by Searle (2001) who argues that although nonhuman animals can engage in ends-mean reasoning, they cannot have desire-independent reasons for action. Keeping the "desire-independent action" thesis in mind, let us return to the actions of the plover birds or the female baboons. In such scenarios, we should not be so quick to judge that the animals formed a thought about the rightness or wrongness of their desire to affect another animal's mental state. Rather, a more plausible explanation is that the animals performed their actions out of a desire, such as the desire to avoid punishment or some other negative consequence like the pain the bird may feel from losing its eggs or the chastisement the baboon may receive from the alpha male. Thus, even if we acknowledge that nonhuman animals possess certain concepts, we still have no reason to assume that they employ moral concepts and evaluate their desires and beliefs. Rather, our evidence corroborates Searle's argument: nonhuman animals seem not to act independently from their desires. The coyote example is also useful in demonstrating Searle's theory. In demanding that the cubs leave the group for biting C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 too hard, the other coyotes seem to respond by "punishing" the behavior that threatens the group since there is a strong desire for cooperation. This line of thought can also be used to explain so-called altruistic actions noted by Gould and Gould (1999, 150): ''dolphins keep injured members of the group afloat, vampire bats share food with starving inhabitants of their colony, [and] elephants help form a defensive circle to protect the young of the herd,'' or the sense of fairness monkeys are said to demonstrate in their sharing of food (de Waal 2006). These apparent instances of moral behavior or "wild justice" can be explained in terms of desire-a desire for cooperation, survival, or a desire to help others-or in terms of psychological tendencies and capacities for empathy, order, cooperation and so forth. That is, we can explain these behaviors independently of attributing moral thought third-order intentionality, which requires the possession of moral concepts and HOTs about one's own propositional attitudes. To claim that nonhuman animals possess the concept of right or wrong entails that they are able to distinguish between moral and amoral desires, yet this is unlikely since it is improbable that a nonhuman animal possesses such rich evaluative concepts. As DeGrazia points out, there are certain concepts that nonhuman animals cannot have because their possession requires a sophisticated language and, evidently, nonhuman animals do not have a high level of linguistic ability (DeGrazia 1996, 157). Moral concepts, it seems, are example of concepts which are off limits to beings without sophisticated language because in order to have a concept like "rightness," one must be able to provide reasons or justification that support the conclusion that said action is right (DeGrazia 1996, 204). Until we are provided with convincing evidence that nonhuman animals are able to conceptualize morality, we should continue to describe these apparent "moral actions" in terms of desire. The underlying concern fundamental to this discussion is captured by Morgan's Canon: "in no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development" C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 (Morgan 1903, 59). This is not to say that we should always provide an inferior explanation of nonhuman animal cognition, but it is to say that we may at times lack the appropriate reasons or evidence needed to characterize nonhuman animals in the same way we characterize human beings. My prior discussion assumes that there are obvious similarities between nonhuman animals and human beings in regard to their capacity for metacognition; thus, to deny that nonhuman animals have "humanlike" characteristics in this respect would be anthropedenial: a blindness to the similarities of humans and certain nonhumans (de Waal 1999). Yet, there is a disanalogy in the moral agency discussion: we simply do not observe moral agency in nonhuman animals while in the selfconfidence studies or cases of deception we do in fact observe similarities between humans and nonhuman animals. There is a mean to be found between anthropomorphism and anthropodenial that involves recognizing the relevant similarities between humans and nonhumans while preserving the differences that cannot be reconciled. 8. Is it even desirable for nonhuman animals to be moral? We can thus conclude that nonhuman animals may be phenomenally conscious according to HOT theories of consciousness since there is significant evidence that they possess the capacity for higher-order thoughts about their own mental states and the mental states of others, yet they cannot be said to be moral agents since it has not been demonstrated that they can attribute the moral concepts of rightness or wrongness to their thoughts, desires, or beliefs. As a consequence, nonhuman animals should be neither blamed nor praised for their actions; thus we should not only refrain from calling nonhuman animals "bad" or "evil," but we should also suspend any tendency to classify certain nonhuman animals as "heroes" or "saints" that is, until we have further reason to support the claim that nonhuman animals possess complex moral concepts. Although this conclusion may seem obvious, we should stop to question the common tendency to characterize nonhuman C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 animals in an anthropomorphic way in an attempt to awaken or incite the public's moral attention. A paradigm example of this "good intentioned" anthropomorphism is apparent when the greyhound named Guinefort was venerated as a saint in mid13th century France after he was unjustly killed after saving a child's life (Salisbury 1994, 173). Recently, less extreme efforts have been made to demonstrate that certain nonhuman animals possess at least a primitive form of morality (Bekoff 2009; Rowlands 2012; de Waal 2006). The claim is that some of their actions are motivated by kindness, empathy, compassion, altruism, beneficence and so forth, which is assumed to demonstrate that nonhuman animals are at least moral subjects with their own sense of morality. The fundamental goal, it seems, is to refute human moral exceptionalism: the idea that humans alone are capable of acting morally (Rowlands 2012). While Bekoff, Rowlands, and de Waal concede that these sorts of behaviors do not demonstrate full blown moral agency, they adamantly insist that they are indicators of at least a primitive moral code, thus concluding that humans are not the only moral beings. A pressing concern remains: why are we so adamant about demonstrating that nonhuman animals can act morally or that they are often "motivated by moral reasons" (Rowlands 2012), acting in ways that express more than just pro-social behavior (Bekoff 2009)? Do we really want to, by pointing to the "moral dimension" of nonhuman animals, open the door to clichés such as the claim that human beings are justified in eating meat or exploiting nonhuman animals because they "deserve" such treatment since they themselves viciously and cruelly kill, hurt, and injure other animals? If virtuous behavior is possible, so then is vicious behavior, yet seldom do we see significant attention afforded to animal behavior that could easily be characterized as vicious or cruel: ant colonies which are said to fight genocidal wars and enslave other ants (Foitzik & Herbers 2007), male bottlenose dolphins who aggressively "herd" females by chasing, biting, and slamming into them with their bodies (Connor et al 1992), and ducks, geese, and white-fronted C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 bee-eaters who commonly engage in forced mating (Emlen & Wrege 1986). If we can illustrate the capacity for higher-order thought in nonhuman animals (beliefs and desires) without presupposing that they possess a "moral code," it seems superfluous and even dangerous to direct our efforts at describing their so-called moral traits. Thus, animal ethicists should pause to consider that it may very well be contrary and detrimental to the animal ethics vision to spend so much energy demonstrating how humanlike certain nonhuman animals are in their ability to act morally. This is not to suggest that we should refuse to investigate, out of respect and wonder for nonhuman animals, their complex mental life. Sure, it stimulates a response of awe, appreciation, and wonder when we hear about the hungry rhesus monkeys who would not take food if doing so gave another monkey an electric shock, the gorilla who rescued a child who fell into her enclosure at the zoo, or the canine who weaved in and out traffic in order to rescue his unconscious companion in the midst of a busy highway. But if these "moral behaviors" are: (1) not needed to ground a theory of animal consciousness, and (2) irrelevant to the discussion of genuine moral agency, why is there such a relentless philosophical determination to characterize these actions as moral? 9. Conclusion We should remain open to describing the behavior of nonhuman animals in terms of pro-social behavior rather than as moral behavior. Characterizing the behaviors of nonhuman animals as "moral" is seemingly unhelpful: it is not conducive to the goal of ensuring their moral considerability, and furthermore, it may in fact provide a justification (however bad it might be) or motivation for killing or exploiting them. Consciousness does not require the capacity for moral behavior, even under a HOT theory of consciousness, and it would behoove the animal ethicist to recognize this, lest they risk denying consciousness or moral consideration to other, less sophisticated or less interesting nonhuman animals. Thus, C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 rather than try to satisfy the anthropocentric demands of western morality that valorizes humanlike traits and characteristics, animal ethicists should remain firm in pursuing an account of animal consciousness and moral considerability that does not aspire to demonstrate how much nonhuman animals are like human beings in their ability to act morally. In doing so, we should respect the possibility that nonhuman animals and human beings are indeed different in regard to their cognitive and moral capacities, yet this difference does not entail the inferiority of nonhuman animals. As far as we know, it is only human beings who can, with their more sophisticated intellectual capacities, perform vicious, atrocious, cruel and deceptive actions such as mass genocide, killing, raping, stealing, and other heinous crimes. In the spirit of Nietzsche, who writes in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that "man is the cruelest animal," we should recognize that nonhuman animals possess limited cognitive capacities and are thus indeed unlike human beings, yet this intellectual or cognitive difference is one that we should, for once, embrace for the sake of all nonhuman animals. We should consider whether comparing nonhuman animals to human beings is insulting and offensive to nonhuman animals animals, since human beings, with our "morality," are the only beings we have reason to believe are "so artfully, so artistically cruel" (Dostoyevsky 2002, 238). References Allen, Colin. 1999. "Animal Concepts Revisited: The Use of Self-Monitoring as an Empirical Approach." Erkenntnis 51: 33-40. Armstrong, David. 1980. The Nature of Mind and Other Essays. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Bekoff, Marc and Jessica Pierce. 2009. Wild Justice. London: University of Chicago Press. C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 Bermúdez, José Luis. 2000. "Consciousness, Higher-order thought, and Stimulus Reinforcement." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23:194-195. Bermúdez, Jose Luis. 2003. Thinking Without Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Block, Ned. 1995. "On a Confusion About the Function of Consciousness." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18: 227247. Carruthers, Peter. 1992. The Animal Issue: Moral Theory in Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carruthers, Peter. 2011. "Animal Mentality: Its character, extension, and moral significance." In The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics, edited by Tom Beauchamp and R.G. Frey. New York: Oxford University Press. Carruthers, Peter. 1992. "Can Animals Feel Pain in the Morally Relevant Sense? No." The Ag Bioethics Forum 4: 2. Carruthers, Peter. 2008. "Meta-cognition in Animals: A Skeptical Look." Mind & Language 23: 58-89. Carruthers, Peter. 1998. ''Natural Theories of Consciousness.'' 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Evans, Gareth. 1982. The Varieties of Reference. Edited by John McDowell. Oxford: Oxford University Press. C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 Foitzik, Susanne and Joan Herbers. 2007. "Colony Structure of a Slave Making Ant." Evolution 55: 316-323. Francescotti, Robert. 2007. "Animal Mind and Animal Ethics: An introduction." The Journal of Ethics 11: 239-252. Francione, Gary. 2000. Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Gennaro, Rocco. 2009. "Animals, Consciousness, and Ithoughts." In The Philosophy of Animal Minds. Edited by Robert Lurz. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gennaro, Rocco. 1993. "Brute Experiences and Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness." Philosophical Papers 22: 51-69. Gennaro Rocco. 2004. "Higher-order Thoughts, Animal Consciousness and Misrepresentations: A Reply to Carruthers and Levin." In Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness: An Anthology. Edited by Gennaro. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Glock, Hans. 2000. "Animals, Thoughts, and Concepts." Synthese 123: 35-64. Goldman, Alvin. 2006. Simulating Minds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gould, James and Carol Gould. 1999. The Animal Mind (Second Edition). New York: Scientific American Library. Lurz, Robert. 1999. "Animal Consciousness." Journal of Philosophical Research 24: 149-168. Lurz, Robert. 2009. The Philosophy of Animal Minds. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lurz, Robert. 2011. Mindreading Animals. Cambridge: MIT Press. C C.E. Abbate © Between the Species, 2014 Vol. 17, Issue 1 Lycan, William. 1996. Consciousness and Experience. Cambridge: MIT Press. Morgan, C. Lloyd. 1903. An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. London: W. Scott. Nagel, Thomas. 1974. "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" Philosophical Review 83: 435-450. Ridge, Michael. 2001. "Taking Solipsism Seriously: Nonhuman Animals and Metacognitive Theories of Consciousness." Philosophical Studies 103: 315-340. Rogers, Lesley. 1997. Minds of Their Own. 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Burghardt. Cambridge: MIT Press. Singer, Peter. 1975. Animal Liberation. New York: Avon Books. Smith, David, and D. Washburn. 2005. "Uncertainty Monitoring and Metacognition by Animals." Current Directions in Psychological Science 14: 19-24. Tye, Michael. 1995. Ten Problems of Consciousness. Cambridge: MIT Press.
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{ "creator": "Abbott, Russ", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1587109103000, "description": "This paper explores some of the factors that make complex systems complex. We first examine the history of complex systems. It was Aristotle’s insight that how elements are joined together helps determine the properties of the resulting whole. We find (a) that scientific reductionism does not provide a sufficient explanation; (b) that to understand complex systems, one must identify and trace energy flows; and (c) that disproportionate causality, including global tipping points, are all around us. Disproportionate causality results from the wide availability of energy stores. We discuss three categories of emergent phenomena—static, dynamic, and\n adaptive—and recommend retiring the term emergent, except perhaps as a synonym for creative. Finally, we find that virtually all communication is stigmergic.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABBWMC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "What Makes Complex Systems Complex?", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
What Makes Complex Systems Complex? Russ Abbott Department of Computer Science, California State University Abstract This paper explores some of the factors that make complex systems complex. We first examine the history of complex systems. It was Aristotle's insight that how elements are joined together helps determine the properties of the resulting whole. We find (a) that scientific reductionism does not provide a sufficient explanation; (b) that to understand complex systems, one must identify and trace energy flows; and (c) that disproportionate causality, including global tipping points, are all around us. Disproportionate causality results from the wide availability of energy stores. We discuss three categories of emergent phenomena-static, dynamic, and adaptive-and recommend retiring the term emergent, except perhaps as a synonym for creative. Finally, we find that virtually all communication is stigmergic. Keywords: complex systems, reductionism, energy flows, tipping points, emergence In Memoriam David Pines, co-founder of the Santa Fe Institute, passed away May 3, 2018. An obituary on the Santa Fe Institute website (2018a) describes him as follows. Pines was a longtime advocate for describing the properties of systems that arise from the behaviors of their underlying components in terms of "emergence." He is best known for his contributions to understanding the phenomena that emerge from the complex interactions of the elementary constituents of matter. Although I never met him, the numerous warm and admiring remembrances make it clear that Professor Pines made significant contributions to many fields; his founding and continuing support of the Santa Fe Institute was just one of them. One can get a sense of him as a person from a lecture he gave a year and a half before his death (Pines, 2016). Journal on Policy and Complex Systems • Volume 4, Number 2 • Fall 2018 doi: 10.18278/jpcs.4.2.6 Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 78 In his honor, this paper includes a number of extracts from his work about emergence. I don't agree with everything he said, but I want to offer an additional minor platform for his voice. ¿Qué hace que los sistemas complejos sean complejos? Resumen Este documento explora algunos de los factores para hacer que los sistemas complejos sean complejos. Primero examinamos la historia de los sistemas complejos. Según Aristóteles, la forma en que se unen los elementos ayuda a determinar las propiedades del todo resultante. Encontramos (a) que el reduccionismo científico no proporciona una explicación suficiente; (b) que para comprender sistemas complejos, uno debe identificar y rastrear los flujos de energía; y (c) esa causalidad desproporcionada, incluidos los puntos de inflexión a nivel mundial, nos rodean. La causalidad desproporcionada resulta de la amplia disponibilidad de tiendas de energía. Discutimos tres categorías de fenómenos emergentes-estáticos, dinámicos y adaptativos-y recomendamos retirar el término emergente, excepto tal vez como sinónimo de creativo. Finalmente, encontramos que prácticamente todas las comunicaciones son estigmáticas. Palabras clave: sistemas complejos, reduccionismo, flujos de energía, puntos de inflexión, emergencia 是什么让复杂系统变得复杂? 摘要 本文探索了一些使复杂系统变得复杂的因素.笔者首先检验 了复杂系统的历史.亚里士多德认为,各种因素的结合方 式帮助确定了起决定作用的因素的性质.笔者发现,(a) 科学还原论没有提供一个充足的解释;(b)为理解复杂系 统,则必须识别并追踪能量流;(c)不成比例的因果关 What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 79 系,包括全球临界点,都围绕在人们身边.不成比例的因果 关系是由能量储存的广泛可获得性所导致的.笔者探讨了突 发现象的三种类型--静态,动态和适应,并提出淘汰"突 发"这一术语,转而用创造性代替.笔者结论发现,几乎一 切沟通都具有共识主动性( stigmergic). 关键词:复杂系统,还原论,能量流,临界点,突现 1. Introduction Nearly three and a half decades after the founding of the Santa Fe Institute-year zero for the modern study of complex systems- there is still no widely accepted definition of what a complex system is. Yet interest in the field continues, as evidenced by the titles both of this journal and of the conference from which the papers in this edition sprang. This paper continues the exploration of what makes complex systems complex. It begins with a brief history of complex systems-in Section 2-and then examines three broad categories of factors that contribute to complexity. Section 3 examines disproportionate causality- the phenomenon that a spark can start a fire. Examples include global (e.g., climate) tipping points, control systems, switches, symbolic causes, and the prerequisite to it all, available energy. Section 4 returns to what seems like a wellworn area: emergence. It proposes three fairly clean-cut subcategories of emergence, static, dynamic, and adaptive, and concludes that adaptive emergence is a synonym for the creative process. Section 5 suggests that stigmergy characterizes nearly all communication. That section highlights the inevitable material traces associated with communication. Section 6 looks back over the paper and offers a summary. 2. A Brief History of the Idea of Complex Systems Quite a few steps were required to flesh out the idea of a complex system. 2.1 Aristotle Aristotle took one of the earliest. In the Metaphysics (350 BCE), he asked what it is about an integrated "whole," what we might call a system, that distinguishes it from a pile of its parts. His answer was that a whole consists of both matter and design, which he calls form. He said that the way a whole's components are organized and joined together contributes both to its properties and to its persistence as a unified entity. Over the years, this has been compressed to the whole is more than the sum of its parts- i.e., structure and design matter. Was this a new insight? Wheels with axels were known for five millennia prior to Aristotle (see Gasser, 2003). Wheels with axels certainly incorporate Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 80 design features. And they have properties their components lack individually. So the principle that design matters was known-at least intuitively-long before Aristotle. Yet, an explosion of Greek technology occurred in the century after Aristotle. Did Aristotle help trigger it? I know of no research on that question. 2.2 Science, Reductionism, and Anti-Reductionism One can trace the birth of modern science, and with it reductionism, to the mid-sixteenth century. By the mid-seventeenth century, Hooke (1665) expected the microscope to show us "all the secret workings of Nature [managed as if] by Wheels, and Engines, and Springs." Soon afterwards, Fontenelle (1686) expressed the common view that "the universe is like a watch, only bigger." Yet he was skeptical (see letters, 1766) that the clockwork universe metaphor extended to biology. Suppose animals are machines. When you put Monsieur Dog Machine and Mlle. Dog Machine together, soon you have little Puppy Machines. But two Watches might lie together all their lives without ever producing a puppy watch. By the mid-nineteenth century, Mill (1843, Bk. III, Ch.6, §1) was more direct. The phenomena of life bear no analogy to any of the effects produced by the components of the body considered as physical agents. No mere summing up of the separate actions of its elements will ever amount to the action of the living body itself. 2.3 British Emergentists In the early twentieth century, British emergentists postulated that the world is divided into discrete strata arranged in order of increasing ... complexity. Fundamental physics is the base level, followed by chemistry, biology, and psychology (and possibly sociology). To each level corresponds a special science, whose task is to elucidate [the laws of] that level. -O'Connor (2015) In other words, nature builds upwards by developing coherent and internally consistent levels. The emergentists picture of a multi-layered world is more relevant than they imagined. Computational systems are indeed developed along these lines. The lowest level consists of programs written in the language of the bare computer. Operating systems, e.g., Window, Unix, MacOS, and higher level programming languages follow until we reach user applications. Modern technology also fits the emergentist mold. The cell phone incorporates devices that depend on an enormous number of technologies. A flaw in the emergentist vision is that the levels are not a strict hierarchy. For example, the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis lives on Polyethylene tereWhat Makes Complex Systems Complex? 81 phthalate (PET), the primary material used in the manufacture of single-use plastic beverage bottles (Yoshida et al., 2016). 2.4 General System1 Theory, Autopoiesis, and Dissipative Structures Schrödinger (1944) and then Von Bertalanffy (1968) added another insight: the importance of open systems and the importation of energy. In What is life (1944) Schrödinger wrote the following. The device by which an organism maintains itself stationary at a fairly high level of orderliness ... consists in continually sucking orderliness from its environment. Von Bertalanffy (1968) elaborated and extended this idea. Living systems are open systems, maintaining themselves in exchange of materials with environment, and in a continuous building up and breaking down of their components. ... But in an open system, and especially in a living organism, not only is there entropy production owing to irreversible processes, but the organism feeds, to use an expression of Schrödinger's, from negative entropy, importing complex organic molecules, using their energy, and rendering back the simpler end products to 1 One often sees both General System Theory and General Systems Theory. Von Bertalanffy favored the singular, but he didn't object to the plural. the environment. Thus, living systems, [maintain] themselves in a steady state by the importation of materials rich in free energy. Arguably, von Bertalanffy was the first to take the next step. He asked what, if anything, do self-sustaining entities have in common? This led him to General System Theory (1972). Originally von Bertalanffy focused on biological systems. As early as 1928 he wrote, Since the fundamental character of the living thing is its organization, the customary investigation of the single parts and processes cannot provide a complete explanation of the vital phenomena. The chief task of biology must be to discover the laws of biological systems (at all levels of organization). One can characterize General System Theory as an attempt to give Aristotle's notion of a form a scientific footing. What organizing principles enable systems to survive and function? Work in the field blossomed after World War II. von Bertalanffy (1949- 1951) wrote that one must maintain a system-level view while not giving in to the mysticism of holism. Biology, psychology, sociology and other sciences generally acknowledge the central position of the concept of wholeness. What Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 82 is meant by this concept is indicated by expressions such as system, gestalt, organism, interaction, the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and the like. These concepts have often been misused and are of a vague and somewhat mystical character. General System Theory attempts to formulate these concepts in an exact language. Soon, others began publishing in the field. Attempting to integrate general system theory with the then-popular quasi-discipline of cybernetics, Ashby (1957), wrote: Cybernetics offers a method for the scientific treatment of systems in which [a system's very complexity] is too important to be ignored. Rapoport and Horvath (1959) proposed the notion of "organized complexity," situated between "organized simplicity" and "chaotic complexity"- anticipating the notion of complexity as residing at the edge of chaos. Simon (1962) proposed an early definition of complex system. A complex system consists of a large number of parts that interact in a non-simple way. In such systems, the whole is more than the sum of the parts, not in an ultimate, metaphysical sense, but in the important pragmatic sense that, given the properties of the parts and the laws of their interaction, it is not a trivial matter to infer the properties of the whole. In the face of complexity, an in-principle reductionist may be at the same time a pragmatic holist. Schrödinger (1944) asked about linking physics and chemistry to biology. Present-day physics and chemistry cannot account for what happens within a living organism. All atoms are constantly in motion due to heat. Any lawfulness and orderliness that one might think of is made inoperative by the unceasing heat motion. How much heat motion? Hoffmann (2012, p. 145) compares it to a car in a windstorm. Every molecular machine in our bodies is hit by a fast-moving water molecule about every 10-13 seconds. [The] power input from the random pounding of water molecules is a hundred million times larger than the power output of our machines! [For a windstorm to have the same effect on a car,] the storm would need a wind speed of an astounding seventy thousand miles per hour! To defend against such disorder, biological organisms continually rebuild and repair themselves. In a review of Maturana and Varela's (1980) autopoiesis, Luisi (2003) argued that all biological organisms have "a semipermeable chemical boundary within which What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 83 they are capable of self-maintenance by self-generation of their components from within." Although the term autopoiesis has been dismissed as lacking scientific rigor, it may be understood to refer to such self-maintenance activities. Generalizing further, social systems-i.e., groupings of living organisms such as families, packs, corporations, countries, etc.-also hold themselves together. For social systems autopoiesis may be understood as self-maintenance within a self-created social boundary (Luisi, 2014). The boundary may consist of means to determine whether an entity belongs to an organization-e.g., distinctive markings or odor. Somewhat more controversially, Prigogine developed and popularized the notion of dissipative structures. Typically, a dissipative structure develops in systems of partially constrained materials through which energy is pumped. Prigogine's idea was that systems that remain in a steady state but far from equilibrium develop internal structures as a way to dissipate the energy that flows through them. His "Exploring Complexity" (1987) lays out his overall perspective. [We] are obliged to acknowledge the existence of stochastic processes if we want to avoid the paradox of referring the variety of natural phenomena to a program printed at the moment of the Big Bang. ... It appears now that the gap between "simple" and "complex," between "disorder" and "order" is narrower than it was thought before. Complexity is no longer limited to biology or human sciences: It is invading the physical sciences and appears deeply rooted in the laws of nature. The basic characteristics of complexity are irreversibility and stochasticity. For a long time, the interest of thermodynamics concentrated on isolated systems at equilibrium. Today, interest has shifted to non-equilibrium, to systems interacting with their surroundings through an entropy flow. This interaction means that we are dealing with "embedded" systems [such as] towns or living systems, which can only survive because of their embedding in their environment. There is [a] basic difference with classical mechanics in which the world appears as a museum that conserves everything, including information. The world of thermodynamics is a world of processes, destroying and creating information. Think of the evolution of temperature, the inhomogeneity of which disappears without leaving any trace. Prigogine is known in some circles as "the poet of thermodynamics." He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 84 structures." Yet Anderson and Stein (1987) argue that dissipative structures in real, physical, open systems unconstrained by artificial boundaries will be chaotic and unstable and are not well suited for the production of stable emergent activity. Another concern is that biological organisms "choose" when and how to import and use energy. Dissipative structures make no such "choices." Energy is pushed through them. 2.5 Agents and Evolutionary Processes The goal of understanding complex systems remained elusive. Little progress was made until 1984 when the founding of the Santa Fe Institute re-energized the field (see German, 2018). Figure 1. Frequency of appearance of complex adaptive system in published books. The vertical axis shows the percentage of books in which the term appears-starting at 0%. The raw numbers are not of interest. What matters are the relative values. The Ngram search looked for complex adaptive systems. The term complex system is so generic that it appears in contexts that are not about the sorts of complex systems we are discussing. Figure 1 shows a Google Ngram plot of the appearances of complex adaptive system in published books. An early peak appears two years after von Bertalanffy's summary work (1968) followed by a rebirth due to the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). Ngram data goes only through 2008. Manual searches suggest that usage continued to grow through 2012 but has since declined. The Santa Fe Institute created an interest in adaptation, and more generally in evolutionary processes. John Holland's genetic algorithm (1975, 1992) lays out a straightforward approach to applying the insights of evolution to a wide range of problems. The genetic algorithm and its derivatives have become widely-used approaches to problems with very large search spaces, and Holland's ideas were incorporated into the SFI view of complex adaptive systems. What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 85 Viewing complex systems through an evolutionary lens brings insight to phenomena that are otherwise difficult to understand. Arthur explains (2015a, 2015b) how an evolutionary perspective changes the way one thinks about economics. The behaviors of individual agents produce system-level patterns. The agents respond to those patterns by altering their individual behaviors. The altered behaviors produce changed patterns, etc. We need to see social and economic systems ... as a web of incentives that always induce further behavior. One of the best known agentbased example is Prisoner's Dilemma. Two agents chose, privately, whether to cooperate with or to defect on each other. The payoffs are so arranged that mutual defection leads to meager but positive results for both agents. Mutual cooperation produces better results for both agents. The catch is that if one agent cooperates and the other defects, the cooperator does worse than mutual defection while the defector does better than mutual cooperation. In such an environment defection is the only rational choice. In what is known as Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, agents interact multiple times. The best possible result would be achieved by an agent that repeatedly defects against a continually cooperating partner. But in environments in which such "sucker" partners are eliminated by evolutionary pressure, always-defect is not an effective long term strategy. The best feasible strategy is for agents to cooperate with cooperating partners-even though there is no mechanism for making promises about future behavior. 2.6 Review So Far So far, we have seen complex systems come into focus in a number of ways. 1. Aristotle observed that a system has different properties from an aggregation of its components. This typically occurs when component organization makes a difference. 2. Mill and others observed that even when components are put together in well thought-out ways, it seems unlikely that one can construct a living system. 3. The British emergentists suggested thinking in terms of layers in which higher levels are developed from elements of lower levels. 4. Schrödinger, von Bertalanffy, Maturana, and Prigogine observed that biological organisms-and hence complex systems in general-must be open to their surroundings. They import energy and materials and export waste energy and materials. 5. The Santa Fe Institute added a focus on agents and adaptation. Systems consist of individual agents, each of which is capable of pursuing its own ends. The combination of these individual activities produces macro-scale patterns. Agents may observe the patterns they created and Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 86 modify their behavior to achieve better results. Such adaptations may change the macro patterns, leading to further adaptations, etc. Even given these insights, most complexity scholars agree that there is no standard definition for a complex system. But many mutually consistent characterizations-if not definitions- have been proposed. Recent characterizations follow Simon's lead. A complex system consists of: • large networks of components, lacking central control, that give rise to complex collective behavior by following simple rules of operations.-Mitchell (2009) • many interacting parts whose collective behavior is more than the sum of the individual behaviors.- Newman (2011) • an ensemble of many elements, which are interacting in a disordered way, resulting in robust organization and memory.-Ladyman, Lambert, and Wiesner (2013) • a number of components that interact in such a way that it is difficult to determine, ex ante, by simply concentrating on the components, what the aggregate behavior of the overall system will be.-Axtell et al. (2016) • many interacting parts that produce collective behaviors that exceed and even transcend the capabilities of the constituents.-Center for the Study of Complex Systems, U. Mich. (2017) • systems in which many agents interact and adapt to one another and their environments. These interactions and adaptations result in evolutionary processes and often surprising "emergent" behaviors at the macro level.-Santa Fe Institute website (2018b) Common to the above is the observation that when many elements interact the result is often not easily predictable. One contributing factor, known as disproportionate causality, involves situations in which a system's response to a stimulus dwarfs the stimulus itself. Section 3 explores this area. Section 4 discusses emergence, interactions among many elements that produce macro patterns. Section 5 generalizes the notion of stigmergy, i.e., communication through traces left in the environment. Each contributes to complexity in its own way. 3. Disproportionate Causality Poli (2017) suggests a "golden rule" for distinguishing between (a) complex problems and systems and (b) problems and systems that are merely complicated. Complicated problems [and systems ] originate from causes that can be individually distinguished ; ... for each input to the system there is a proportionate output. ... On the other hand, complex problems and systems result from networks of multiple interacting causes that cannot be individually distinguished; ... small inputs may What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 87 result in disproportionate effects. [Emphasis added] This section discusses three categories of disproportionate causality: tipping points, switches, and symbolic effects. It also discusses the enabling mechanism: energy storage and accessibility. 3.1 Macro Tipping Points Lamberson and Page (2012) define a tipping point as "a discontinuity between current and future states of a system." A direct tip occurs when a gradual change in the value of a variable leads to a [discontinuous] jump in that same variable in the future. A contextual tip occurs when a gradual change in one variable leads to a discontinuous jump in another. The Fire Model (Wilensky, 1997) packaged with NetLogo (Wilensky, 1999) explores the effect of tree density on the spread of fires. If a fire starts at the left edge of the forest (see Figure 2), how much of the forest will it destroy? Figure 2. The NetLogo Fire Model. The NetLogo Behavior Space exploration tool allows one to run a model with different values of the driving variables-density in this case. When applied to the Fire Model, the tool produced the results in Figure 2. There is a contextual tipping point between density values 59 and 60. Tipping points frequently mark a boundary between attractor states. The attractors in the fire model are (a) the fire burns out relatively quickly Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 88 and (b) the fire spreads to most of the forest. Climate change is pushing the world toward a catastrophic tipping point (Spooner, 2018). The [Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC)] is like a giant conveyor belt of water. It transports warm, salty water to the north Atlantic where it gets very cold and sinks. Once in the deep ocean the water flows back southwards and then all around the world's oceans. This conveyor belt includes the Gulf Stream and is one of the most important transporters of heat in the climate system. Caesar, Rahmstorf, Robinson, Feulner, and Saba (2018) reports on recent findings. [The AMOC] is a highly nonlinear system with a critical threshold. ... In recent years the AMOC appears to have reached a record low, [an unprecedented event in the past millennium]. ... Continued global warming is likely to further weaken the AMOC, via changes to the hydrological cycle, sea-ice loss, and accelerated melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Rahmstorf, one of the investigators, explains the concern (Carrington, 2018). We don't know where [the AMOC] tipping point is and should avoid disrupting it at all costs. To conclude this section, I would like to discuss a case in which the violation of a tipping point was at least partly corrected. During the early-twentieth-century wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone park. As reported by Kuhne (2018) their disappearance allowed the elk population to explode. Since elk browse on willows, the additional elk reduced the number of willows, the food source for the beaver, causing those animal to abandon smaller streams. The loss of beaver ponds ... lowered water tables and compressed the area of bare, moist substrate needed for willow establishment. ... Thus, the loss of wolves ... caused multiple changes in the ecosystem's biological and physical processes, creating an alternative state where herbaceous vegetation dominated riparian corridors, where willows were predominately sparse in distribution and short in stature, and where beaver, once abundant, were absent.-Marshall, Thompson Hobbs, and Cooper (2013) In 1995 and 1996, 31 Canadian wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone (Phillips & Smith, 1997). During the following decade, the wolf population shot up to about 170 and then declined to about 100. During the same period, the elk population declined from about 19,000 to about 5,000. These are now stable and sustainable popuWhat Makes Complex Systems Complex? 89 lations (Smith et al., 2016). However, the prior elimination of the wolves had pushed the system into a different attractor, which turned out to be resilient (strange use of that word in this context) to wolf restoration. Beavers have not returned to their previous population level, and willows are not as tall as they were before wolves were eliminated (Marshall et al., 2013). So this story is only a partial success. 3.2 Everyday Tipping Points: Switches and Other Control Mechanisms If the tipping points discussed above represent dramatic ecological transitions, the world familiar to most people includes many quotidian tipping points. The triggering of these familiar tipping points is essential both to our survival as biological organisms and to the smooth running of society. They all reflect disproportionate causality. This section examines some familiar examples of disproportionate causality: control systems and switches. A control system allows one to control the operation of a device or process through the expenditure of minimal amounts of energy. Think of a car with power steering. Turn the steering wheel, and the car changes direction. Consider how much energy would be required to change a car's direction if the only option were the application of a force to one side or another. So a car with power steering produces a significant effect with minimal causal input. Gene switches provide an interesting example of a control system in nature. Briefly, genes are sequences of DNA that code (indirectly) for proteins. To produce the protein associated with a gene, RNA polymerase binds to the DNA at a location known as a promoter, which is near the start of the gene. It then transcribes the gene to produce messenger-RNA (mRNA), which is decoded by ribosomes to produce the associated protein. Between each promoter and the gene sits another sequence of DNA known as an operator. When a repressor binds to an operator it blocks RNA polymerase from transcribing the genetic DNA and switches off the production of the protein. This is a gene switch. Gene switches are vital to biological organisms. They provide a means for organs to manufacture the proteins needed for their own functioning and make it possible for some cells to become eyes while others become feet. Perhaps an even more striking example of disproportionate causality is the everyday switch. Imagine a switch that controls, say, an electric light. Turn the switch to the on setting, and the light goes on; turn it to the off setting, and the light goes off. The amount of energy required to move the switch from on to off can be minimal. Yet the effect can be arbitrarily large, depending on what the switch controls. The switch is the prototypical example of disproportionate causality. Of course switches are also important in another context: computing. The transistor is essentially a switch. In computing, switches matter not because of their disproportionality effect Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 90 but because they can be organized to control each other. 3.3 Sources of Easily Accessible Energy Switches involve two energy sources. One flips the switch; the other is the energy flow the switch controls. Switches can exist only if there are such energy flows. To explain energy flows, we start with a brief overview of our planetary energy flows. The earth as a whole is an open system. It receives energy from the sun. Most of the energy used on earth is solar energy captured via photosynthesis. The average rate of energy capture by photosynthesis is about three times the power consumption of civilization. Besides energy captured by photosynthesis, we capture solar energy in the form of wind energy, hydroelectric energy, and biomass energy. We also capture solar energy with solar technologies. Non-solar energy sources include geothermal energy and wave and tidal energy. Whatever its source, energy is generally stored before it is used. Energy captured by photosynthesis is stored initially as glucose. Energy from other sources is either already stored, e.g., as fossil fuels, or is stored in other ways. To be useful, an energy store must release energy on demand. By definition, an easily tapped store of energy can release more energy than is required to trigger it and represents potential disproportionate causality. Triggering mechanisms make energy stores possible. Without a triggering mechanism, a putative energy store would release its energy spontaneously-and would not be a useful store. In short, energy is received from the sun and converted to more stable forms for storage. Stored energy is accessed and released as needed for life processes or for other uses such as transportation, manufacturing, household needs, computation, etc. We live in a world with myriad energy stores. Each biological organism, human beings included, is such a store. Technology provides others such as batteries and fuels. The existence of many energy stores creates the possibility of chain reactions. Explosion chain reactions of are all too familiar-and we do our best to protect against them. But we are less successful controlling other chain reactions. Examples include a crowd becoming a mob, an online message "going viral," a style becoming a fad, or public opinion swinging to a "strongman" in response to a terrorist threat. Governmental structures, such as a constitution and separation of powers, help throttle such chain reactions. But they do not always succeed. Systems with many easily tapped stores of energy are of necessity less stable and more complex. 3.4 Symbolic Causes and Autonomous Causality The preceding sections discussed disproportionate causality in situations in which the cause was perhaps physically quite small. This section explores symbolic causality. What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 91 Pearl (2000) and Woodward (2003) independently defined what is called interventionist causality, a formalization of the intuition that if wiggling X results in Y wiggling, then X has a causal relationship to Y. Unlike physical causality (Dowe, 2000)-in which a physical quantity, such as momentum, is transferred from cause to effect (think one billiard ball hitting another)-interventionist causality does not require such a transfer. Consider our light switch example. The causal mechanism is clear-a switch controls an energy flow-but no physical quantity is transmitted from the agent that flipped the switch to the light. Symbolic causes are even further removed from direct physical causality. A traffic light changing color causes cars to start/stop. The color change is a symbolic cause. Following are the primary properties of symbols. i. Symbols are abstract, and by definition, causally inefficacious (Rosen, 2014). ii. Symbols have no intrinsic properties. Interchanging symbols in a mathematical or logical argument has no formal consequences. iii. A symbol's only property is that it can be distinguished from other symbols. How can an abstract and causally inefficacious symbol be a cause? A symbol produces an effect only when the element on the "effect side" of the relationship attaches a meaning to the symbol-e.g., a car's driver attaches a meaning to a traffic light's color. To connect a symbolic cause to a physical effect requires an interpreter to transform a symbol into physical action. The agent that responds to the symbol determines the effect. I call this autonomous causation (Abbott, 2018). Notice how extraordinary this is. Laplace (1814) famously wrote (emphasis added), The present state of the universe is the effect of its past and the cause of its future. Laplace was talking about the laws of physics. Laplacian causality leaves no room for symbolic causes: you don't expect a rock to respond to a traffic light. Instead of the laws of physics pushing the world around, autonomous agents "choose" how to respond to symbols. This doesn't negate the laws of physics. It simply establishes two sources of causation. For example, walking uphill involves both the force of gravity and a decision to walk against that force. This sort of two-pronged causality typifies autonomy. Nor is it an argument for dualism. It is a recognition that the forces at play in the informational world are typically small compared to those at play in the physical world. When a driver, human or autonomous, sees a traffic light, she (it) converts the photons to a symbol: RedLight or GreenLight. She (it) responds to that symbol by pressing the brake or accelerator, which causes her (its) vehicle to act Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 92 in the world. In purely physical terms, the photons from the light caused the car to stop or go-an extreme case of disproportionate causality. Dual causality makes unraveling the causes of an autonomous agents' actions potentially quite difficult. What do we know about how an agent will choose to behave? In the case of human agents, we may not know very much. A person's response to a symbol depends on both her inborn decision-making processes and how experience, including schooling, modified those decision-making processes. Without a person's history, her response to a symbol may be undiscoverable except by giving her the symbol and watching what she does. Notice how different this is from physical causality. When one object is struck by another, the struck object receives transmitted momentum and reacts as expected. It has no choice in the matter. When an agent is "struck" by a symbol it is up to the agent how to respond. (Not stopping at a red light has consequences, but it is still up to the agent.) Even knowing an agent's decision-making processes doesn't necessarily mean that one knows how the agent will behave. Consider AlphaGo, the computer program that beat the world Go champion (Moyer, 2016; Silver et al., 2016.) We know exactly how it was programed, how it was trained, and the process it uses to select a move. Yet no one is able to predict its moves except by running the program. After all, it picks better moves than anyone else. The lesson is that difficult as it may be to predict the behavior of some physical systems-because of chaos, attractors, tipping points, etc.-predicting the behavior of autonomous agents is more difficult still. Systems that include interactions among autonomous agents are often quite resistant to predictions about how they will play out. 4. Emergence So far we have examined the history of complex systems and how dis-proportionate causality contributes to complexity. This section looks at phenomena often labeled emergent. There tend to be two lines of thought about how broad a view to take of emergence. 4.1 Emergence Involves Autonomous Agents This perspective focuses on autonomous agents and their interactions. Refer back to the characterizations of complex systems at the end of Section 2. In those and similar examples, the agents are typically either humans or biological organisms-as, for example, in flocking. They are considered autonomous because each agent determines for itself how it will act. It makes that determination based on its environment and on the actions of its neighbors. Autonomy is understood as the ability of an agent to decide for itself how to act: it is self-governing. 4.2 Emergence Includes the Interaction of Entities in Purely Non-Symbolic Ways An alternative is to take a broader view. Recall the Santa Fe Institute obituary What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 93 for David Pines. For Pines emergence does not require autonomous agents. Interacting elementary particles may produce emergence. Pines (2014) elaborated his position. When electrons or atoms or individuals or societies interact with one another or their environment, the collective behavior of the whole is different from that of its parts. We call this resulting behavior emergent. Emergence thus refers to collective phenomena or behaviors in complex adaptive systems that are not present in their individual parts. [emphasis added] Examples of emergent behavior are everywhere, from birds flocking, fireflies synchronizing, ants colonizing, fish schooling, individuals self-organizing into neighborhoods in cities-all with no leaders or central control-to the Big Bang, the formation of galaxies and stars and planets, the evolution of life on earth from its origins until now, the folding of proteins, the assembly of cells, the crystallization of atoms in a liquid, the superconductivity of electrons in some metals, the changing global climate, or the development of consciousness in an infant. [emphasis added] O'Connor (2015) sketches a similarly broad position. Emergence is a notorious philosophical term of art. ... We might roughly characterize the shared meaning thus: emergent entities (properties or substances) "arise" out of more fundamental entities and yet are "novel" or "irreducible" with respect to them. Anderson also takes a broad view of emergence. In his celebrated "More is Different" (1972), he applies the notion of emergence, if not the word itself, to elementary particles. The behavior of large and complex aggregates of elementary particles ... is not to be understood in terms of a simple extrapolation of the properties of a few particles. Instead, at each level of complexity, entirely new properties appear. ... The whole becomes not merely more, but very different from the sum of its parts. [emphasis added] Also with elementary particles in mind, Stein and Newman (2013) associate emergence with behaviors such as phase transitions, which are not predictable at the level of individual particles. They note in addition that since salt is not a complex system but does exhibit this sort of abrupt phase transition, emergence is not confined to complex systems. 4.3 Reconciling These Perspectives These perspectives can be reconciled by generalizing the notion of autonomy. Barandiaran, Di Paolo, and Rohde (2009) define agent in a way that allows a bacterium to be an agent. Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 94 An agent is an autonomous organization capable of adaptively regulating its coupling with the environment according to the norms established by its own viability conditions. I suggest a similar definition but without the viability conditions. To explain, I'll first present a cartoon version of spin glasses (adapted from Stein and Newman). Imagine a surface in which tops are fixed to the corners of a square. Each top may set its spin to be either clockwise or counter-clockwise. In Figure 3, three of the tops are spinning clockwise. The spin of the fourth is shown as unknown. If this were a simulation, each top would be able to set (or reverse) its spin once each time step. Suppose the surface imposes constraints requiring some spins to align, indicated by the = sign, and some to be opposite each other, which I'll call anti-align, indicated by the ≠ sign. In Figure 3, three of the spins (top left, top right, and bottom right) must align. Given these constraints, there is no way for the lower left top to select a spin that will satisfy all the constraints. The problem is that it must align with the lower right top and anti-align with the top at the upper left. But the tops at the lower right and upper left must each align with the top at the upper right, which requires that they align with each other. So this set of constraints cannot all be satisfied at once. That's true even if some or all of the tops flip their spins. How does this relate to autonomy? Each top is autonomous in the sense that it has a choice-in some sense-about whether to spin clockwise or counter-clockwise. Certainly this is a minimal level of autonomy. But it's not very different from the level of autonomy of flocking boids (Reynolds, 1987). Each boid has the ability to change its velocity by a small amount at each time step. That level of autonomy seems comparable to the ability to flip one's spin. So although each top represents a relatively primitive physical entity, it has sufficient autonomy to adjust its coupling with its environment. The same holds for other examples in which interactions among relatively elementary entities produce emergent results. Although the entities may be limited in their capabilities, each couples with its environment according to internal rules, which it follows independently. These internal self-directing rules make these entities self-governing, i.e., autonomous. Spin glasses are relevant to the study of complex systems in that, among other things, complex systems tend to have partially incompatible constraints. When a constraint prompts one eleFigure 3. A cartoon spin glass example. What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 95 ment to modify how it relates to its environment, that change may lead some of its neighbors to change, which may lead some of their neighbors to change, etc., producing a cascade of changes that may ripple across the entire system. Effects of this sort appear in flocking. When one boid changes course to avoid an obstacle, others act in response, etc. Such effects also appear in Schelling's famous segregation model (1971) and elsewhere. The conclusion is that autonomy requires little beyond a certain level of internally-driven rule-based behavior. Complex interactions may occur when even simple autonomous entities interact. With this broader view of autonomy, the two versions of emergence no longer conflict. 4.4 Static Emergence Given Pines' view of emergence-in which every galaxy, every solar system, every chemical compound, every biological organism, every ecological system, every social organization, and every engineered object is emergent- does the term have any meaning left? Abbott (2015) concluded that given its burden of intellectual baggage there is little reason to continue to use it. Yet, the term retains a useful sense. To get at it, this section and the following two examine three categories of emergence: static, dynamic, and adaptive. Static emergence involves the transformation of one or more physical things into one or more products. Static emergence occurs both in nature and as a result of human effort. Examples include the transformation of sodium and chlorine to salt (natural) and the construction of most engineered artifacts (human). Static emergence tends to occur over a defined and limited time span, which is typically short compared to the lifetime of the resulting product. In most static emergent processes, our interest centers on the products produced. For example, Markvicka, Bartlett, Huang, and Majidi (2018) report on the development of self-healing electronic materials. In some important cases, though, the focus is on energy. Static emergence is usually exergonic: energy is released. But photosynthesis, also a form of static emergence, is endergonic: energy is captured. Two other energy-related instances of static emergence are also central to modern civilization. The energy that photosynthesis captures is produced on the sun through hydrogen fusion, a static emergent process which converts hydrogen to helium. That conversion releases enormous amounts of energy, which we experience as sunshine. Were it not for that static emergent solar process, photosynthesis would have no energy to capture. A second class of exergonic static emergent processes are those through which we generate energy for ourselves: nuclear fission and the combustion of fossil fuels. In both cases, we are interested in the energy, but the (by-) products create problems. Some of the products of nuclear fission remain radioactive for many years. Combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 96 A process may be exergonic overall even though some of its products store energy. The sequence of reactions that converts ADP to ATP, life's energy currency, is exergonic. But ATP, which results from adding a phosphate group to ADP, has more energy than the ADP and phosphate group from which it is constructed. The additional energy comes from glucose, which is broken down. More energy is released from glucose than is stored in ATP. Static emergence produces many important products: materials (old and new), chemical compounds (including medicines), and engineered artifacts. It also produces the energy that powers both life on earth and human civilization. In the bigger picture, static emergence creates solar systems and galaxies along with the heavier elements, which are produced in stars. I find it not useful to apply the term emergence to these processes. They are fairly well understood and don't need the mystification that the term emergence adds. 4.5 Dynamic Emergence Dynamic emergence involves a continuing process that creates-and more importantly maintains-an ongoing entity. Like static emergence, dynamic emergence occurs both in nature and through human effort. Because maintenance requires a continuing supply of energy and materials, dynamic emergence must involve open systems. Non-biological examples include the earth's weather system and its global network of ocean currents. In these cases, energy from the sun, but no materials, is imported. Biological examples include every biological organism as well as biological collectives such as packs, flocks, families, clans, ant and bee colonies, tribes, and ecologies. One can construct an strikingly long list of social examples. The conceptually simpler cases include geopolitical entities such as neighborhoods, villages, towns, cities, countries, military and trade alliances (such as NATO and NAFTA), and supra-national organizations (such as the European Union, the World Trade Alliance, the World Court, and the United Nations). Other familiar examples include businesses, universities, academic organizations (such as the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas), ongoing publications (ranging from Paul Krugman's regular column in the New York Times to the Journal for Policy and Complex Systems), and religious organizations (ranging from the local to the transnational). Other examples include clubs (such as private golf clubs and bowling leagues), online communities, and musical groups (the Postmodern Jukebox to the Los Angeles Master Chorale). The political realm teems with dynamically emergent entities: political parties, legislative caucuses (such as the House Climate Solutions Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus), and political and social advocacy groups and movements (such as the ACLU, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Black Lives Matter Global Network, and the Southern Policy Law Center), What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 97 and lobbying associations (such as the AARP, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association, and the National Rifle Association). Still other groups include service organizations (such as the PTA, Planned Parenthood, Doctors without Borders, and the League of Women Voters), and mutual support and educational organizations (such as Alcoholics anonymous, the American Association of Individual Investors, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness). As the preceding suggest, dynamically emergent entities play significant roles in society. Dynamically emergent entities are autopoietic: they sustain and maintain themselves from within. They must be open systems. Some are well-established; others are evanescent. Dynamically emergent entity tend to be relatively easy to initiate but more difficult to sustain. Consider biological reproduction, establishing a successful business, or building a social movement. The creation step is almost always easier than maintenance. Its protean nature explains how dynamic emergence adds complexity to complex systems. But as with static emergence, I see no benefit in applying the term emergence to these processes. 4.6 Adaptive Emergence Adaptive emergence refers to modified or new properties or patterns of behavior that develop either in response to features of the physical, social, economic, or political environment, or sometimes simply as a continuation of ongoing processes, e.g., advances in science. Adaptive emergent properties and patterns are frequently fitness-enhancing in that they often increase the relative fitness-or perceived relative fitness-of the entities that adopt or develop them. Climate change is a non-biological example of adaptive emergence. It consists of recognizable patterns of meteorological changes that have arisen in response to changes in the earth's surface and atmosphere. Climate change does not enhance the "fitness" of the climate. Biological evolution, on scales from bacteria to the largest organisms, both rapid and long term, illustrates quintessential adaptive emergence. Biological evolution reflects changes in form and behavior that enhance fitness. Important as static and dynamic emergence are, adaptive emergence may represent the most powerful of the three categories. It is about change. Here is how I would compare the three. • Static emergence focusses on fixed, stable, and typically purely physical entities. To the extent that they can be considered systems at all, the products of static emergence are closed systems at equilibrium. Even in our example of the production of glucose through photosynthesis, the product, glucose, is a static entity at equilibrium. To release its energy requires the addition of activation energy. • Dynamic emergence focusses on entities that must continually renew Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 98 themselves. Entities based on dynamic emergence are open systems and must continually find and import energy and other resources. Dynamically emergent entities can often be understood as agents. They interact with each other and with the environment. • Adaptive emergence is probably the most important category from a societal perspective. Policy makers respond continually to newly emergent properties and patterns of behavior. At the same time, they must avoid policies that will produce unwanted adaptations. The rest of this section sketches a few examples of adaptive emergence. Unintended consequences: using the structure and processes of society for unintended purposes. One of the most widely discussed categories of adaptive emergence is that of unintended consequences. Unintended consequences occur when people or organizations respond to a public policy in unanticipated ways. The response typically helps the person or organization but fails to further-and sometimes even foils-the policy goals. Freakonomics radio (2012) devoted a show to three examples of unintended consequences. Cobras in Dehli. To rid Delhi of cobras during the British occupation, the governor offered a bounty. In response, the citizens of Delhi started cobra farms. So, the government ended the bounty, and the farmers released their cobras-producing a cobra problem much worse than the original. Rats in Hanoi. There is a similar story about rats in Hanoi. The French offered a bounty for rat tails. People started rat farms, cut off the tails, and traded them to the government for the bounty. Pigs in Ft Benning. Ft. Benning was plagued with feral pigs. The authorities offered to pay for pig tails. Residents bought pig tails from slaughterhouses or pig farmers. In all three cases, a mechanism intended to solve a problem was exploited for other purposes. Birth tourism illustrates how people exploit what they see as loopholes in the law. To take advantage of the law that grants citizenship to anyone born in the US or Canada, non-citizen pregnant women arrange to give birth in one of these countries. Saipan has become a popular US destination. To encourage tourism, the government supported a 2009 change in immigration policy that allows Chinese citizens to enter the US visa free for up to 45 days, more than enough time to have a baby (see Emont, 2017; Mullaney, 2018). Miami has become a birth-tourism destination for Russians (McFadden, Fitzpatrick, Connor and Schecter, 2018). Vancouver is the favored Canadian destination. Non-resident mothWhat Makes Complex Systems Complex? 99 ers now account for nearly 20% of all births at Richmond Hospital in British Columbia. See Young (2018) for details. Tax avoidance schemes also fit into this category. To SWAT is to make a false report of a crime in progress as a way to lure a police SWAT team to the home of an adversary (Jaffe, 2016). In a recent incident (Criss, Hassan, & Stapleton, 2017), a SWAT team killed a civilian who had innocently moved his hands toward his waist after answering the door for an unexpected SWAT team visit. In the preceding examples, people took advantage of government-established structures and processes. The following examples represent more organically emergent phenomena. Live streaming of video games. The most popular platform is Twitch. On average one million people are watching Twitch streams at any moment (Herrman, 2018). There are two ways to look at Twitch. One is that it's people playing video games and other people watching. The other is that you are playing a game while someone sits on the couch. There's a level of interaction that's just not there in standard media. -Clark (2017) Players and viewers talk to each other and feel part of a relatively intimate group. Open source software. Although not a new phenomenon, open source software continues to propel change. Personal live streaming took off with the development of Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) (. com/). Anyone can download it and start live-streaming. Last mile and flexible local transportation. Local transportation is an ongoing urban issue. Attempts to address it include MicroTransit (Vock, 2017), bike sharing, Uber/Lyft, and others. Electric scooter sharing companies have recently sprung up nationwide. Universal Basic Income (UBI). The idea is discussed with increasing frequency as a way to address both poverty and job loss due to AI and robotics. So far there are no significant successful trials. In fact, Finland recently discontinued a UBI trial (Olli-Nilsson, 2018). But discussions and experimentation continues. The Canadian province of Ontario is currently running a trial UBI program (Bergstein, 2018). Tracking online activity. Techniques have been developed to track the websites people visit and the products they consider buying. With this information advertisers can place targeted ads in ad space they buy in real time as people move from one website to another. Privacy features are added to browsers and apps. In response to having their online activity mined for advertising opportunities people are asking for ways to ensure their privacy. Internet companies respond by offering features that they say enhance privacy and give users more control over what information is collected and how it is used. Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 100 Meta abstractions. A meta-abstraction is a generalizations of similar advances in related fields. Here are three that have emerged in recent years. • Meta-heuristics (Luke, 2013). Meta-heuristic are a class of general computational techniques for solving optimization problems. They include hill climbing, genetic algorithms, ant colony optimization, swarm optimization, and others. • Discovery science is the development of methods for discovering scientific knowledge through machine learning, data mining, and big data analysis. • Category theory is finding increasingly widespread application. One application is Compositionality, which studies how parts compose to create wholes. It is applied to physics, natural language processing, cognitive science, and game theory. So-called populist and nationalist movements have gained strength in many countries around the world. The result is often authoritarian governments with increasingly powerful executives. Markets exhibit so many adaptive emergent properties that they deserve a section for themselves. This subsection is just an overview. Soros (2009) used the term reflexivity to refer to markets in which participant actions lead other participant to develop strategies, which, when acted upon, lead to more strategies, more actions, etc. The Santa Fe Artificial Stock Market (Arthur, Holland, LeBaron, Palmer, & Tayler, 1997; Palmer, Arthur, Holland, LeBaron and Tayler, 1994), illustrates how reflexivity can produce endogenous bubbles and crashes. Suppose some automated investors "discover" a trading forecast that says, "A price rise in the last k periods is likely to be followed by a rise in next." Suppose also, some (perhaps the same) investors "discover" a trading forecasts that says, "If the current price is more than y times the fundamental earnings value, expect it to fall." The first strategy causes bubble behavior: If the price rises, investors buy-thus validating it, which may cause a further rise, etc. Eventually this drives the price high enough to trigger the second strategy. Investors sell. The price drops, which switches off the upward forecasts, causing other investors to sell; and a crash ensues. The market becomes an ecology of continually changing forecasts. Econophysics is the formal study of these and related phenomena. Researchers have established that many markets have common statistical properties, known as stylized facts (see Cont, 2001). Huber and Sornette (2016) claim that "econophysics provides the methods, concepts, and tools to scientifically account for reflexivity." Bubbles are generally considered undesirable. But Sornette and Janeway What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 101 argue that they often serve a useful societal function. Bubbles are one of our most constructive collective processes. They lead to extraordinary commitment-beyond what would be justified by a standard cost-benefit analysis.-Sornette (2014) Janeway (2013, 2015) explains why this matters. Speculation has often occurred around technological innovations, including canals, railroads, electrification, automobiles, aviation, computers, and the Internet. These bubbles eventually burst, causing lots of economic damage. But we still had trains after the 1893 crash, we still use electricity despite the 1929 crash, and we have the Internet, despite the dotcom bubble. Without the mania of bubbles, unproven yet economically revolutionary technologies may not attract sufficient investment to get off the ground. As the preceding illustrate, a broad range of phenomena might qualify as adaptive emergence. They reflect changes that may be more or less newsworthy but are not considered abnormal. Virtually all societal states include features people can turn to their advantage. That's how evolution works. It's not clear that applying the term emergence to them as a group enhances understanding. An exchange from the movie Ratatouille (Bird & Pinkava, 2007) sums it up. Father: Son, you can't change nature! Son: Change is nature, dad. 4.7 Binding Forces, Gateways, and the Creative Constructionist Perspective Pines (2014) called emergence "A unifying theme for 21st century science." The central task of theoretical physics in our time is no longer to write down the ultimate equations, but rather to catalogue and understand emergent behavior in its many guises, including potentially life itself. [The] physics of the 21st century [must] transition from the science of the past, so intimately linked to reductionism, to the study of complex adaptive matter. ... In the search for an understanding of emergence, Pines recommended studying emergent collective patterns and regularities [which are] are the gateways to emergent behavior. Pines re-emphasized the importance of gateways in his 2016 lecture. Cataloging and connecting these gateways is a first step toward developing a "Physics of Emergence" that would encompass quantum, classical, and living matter, social, and economic behavior. Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 102 Here I respectfully disagree. I doubt that we will uncover a generalized physics of emergence. As noted much earlier, Aristotle knew that the way components are organized and bound together helps determine the properties of the resulting whole. So one very important question is: what are nature's binding forces? But we already know the answer. Physics and chemistry tell us how to make statically emergent entities. Dynamically emergent entities are held together by specialized applications of imported energy. The forces are not at issue. It's how the energy is used and how components are organized that matters for the properties of the whole. Emergence is not a mysterious force or property that appears if things are arranged just right. Emergence reflects a perspective more than anything else. Science is famously analytic: take things apart to see how they work. The flip side is synthesis: put things together to get something new. If science is about analysis, technology is about synthesis. Synthesis (technology) depends on analysis (science). We wouldn't have mobile phones were it not for a long list of scientific discoveries, including quantum mechanics (for transistors), the theory of electromagnetism (for the phone's computer and the communication network), optics (for the phone's camera), astrophysics, relativity (for GPS), and on and on. The more science learns about how nature works, the broader the range of forces and materials available to engineers to put together in new ways. Emergence is the perspective that it is possible to put things together to create new things. We do it with technology. Nature does it through evolution. Some professions specialize in emergence: engineering and computer science, of course, but also the creative arts and even accounting. Every engineered device and every computer program has new properties. So does every new song, every new novel, every new work of art, and every new tax avoidance scheme. These are all instances of adaptive emergence. Emergence is essentially another word for creativity- with either nature or human beings as the creative element. Anderson (1972) discussed and dismissed what he called the constructionist hypothesis. The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe. Applied to software, my field, this is undoubtedly true. One can't understand a software system consisting of millions of lines of code by a simple extrapolation of the properties of operations like addition and subtraction. Yet software developers do what Anderson suggests is not possible: construct multi-million-line software systems by combining primitive operations. How is that possible? Most large systems are composed of components: libraries, frameworks, modules, etc. Each component has both a specification-a description of the functional capabilities it offers-and an implemenWhat Makes Complex Systems Complex? 103 tation-how it works. It has become a rule in software design to separate a component's specification from its implementation. This rule allows software developers to construct new functional capabilities one level at a time. At each level one need know only the functions the components perform. One need not know how the primitive operations were put together to create those components. In the case of software, intelligent design is necessary to get from components at one level to the next higher level of functionality. In nature even intelligence is not necessary. As (Dennett, 2009) said, "competence does not require comprehension." Many kinds of animals have hearts, which work more or less the same way. Once a heart is developed-by trial and error-it can serve as a component for many animals. This constructionist process works very well. See Abbott (2019) for an extended discussion. To give Pines his due, he may have had in mind the phenomenon that many substances exhibit similar properties during phase transitions, e.g., from gas to liquid. I think this is similar to the phenomenon that hearts in different kinds of animals pump blood in more or less the same way. Consider this computer science example. Implement a Turing machine using the Game of Life (Rendell, 2002). All the results of the theory of computability suddenly apply. Yet those results are not meaningful at the underlying Game-of-Life level. But with creativity, they can emerge. Putnam (1975) makes a similar point-but without using the term emergence. He says that the only reasonable way to explain why a square peg (with sides of length d) won't fit through a round hole (with diameter d) is that the board [containing the hole] is rigid, the peg is rigid, and as a matter of geometrical fact, the [diameter of the] hole is smaller than the [diagonal of the] peg. In other words, with the creativity of human minds, the truths of geometry emerge from the interactions of elementary particles. Abbott (2015) offers a similar example. A block of steel sinks in water, but when shaped as a bowl it floats. Yet punch holes in the bowl and it no longer floats. Floating emerges from the interaction of water molecules and the organized steel molecules. But like computability and geometry, it is not meaningful at the particle level. Adaptive emergence is a creative process. I doubt we will find a physics that accounts for it. 5. Stigmergy: Communication in the Material World So far we have reviewed the history of complex systems and discussed two important factors: disproportionate causality and emergence. Two other (and related) areas that are central to complex systems are networks and communication. Both have been intensively studied for years. This secJournal on Policy and Complex Systems 104 tion does not focus directly on either, but it does explore a somewhat unusual perspective on one of them: communication. The perspective derives from the observation that nearly all communication involves leaving traces in the environment for others to observe. Grassé (1959) introduced the term stigmergy to refer to the phenomenon that traces insects leave in an environment often stimulate actions by other insects. For social insects, this phenomenon serves a proto-communication-like function. Although referring to it as (intentional) communication strikes me as anthropomorphism, stigmergy provides an important means to coordinate the activities of multiple agents-which makes it directly relevant to complex systems. Ant foraging and termite nest building are widely cited examples. This section generalizes the notion of stigmergy to virtually all communication, illustrating how communication is necessarily a more complex process than we assume. 5.1 Stigmergy as a General Coordinating Mechanism Heylighen (2016) cites Wikipedia as an example of stigmergy as a coordinating mechanism. Readers are stimulated to improve and expand the writings of previous contributors. In situations in which subsequent actions are stimulated by the trace left by previous actions, virtually all evolved processes that require coordination rely at some level on stigmergy. Heylighen also sees stigmergy as underlying the "invisible hand" of markets. After an economic transaction, the trade price, if public, serves as a trace that stimulates further activity. In both Wikipedia and economic transactions, a common practice is to record not only the activity itself but also the change it reflects. Consider the voluminous history kept about prices and Wikipedia's history pages. The change record itself can serve as an action trigger. I would extend the reach of stigmergy still further. Consider, for example, intra-organism communication via, say, hormones released into the blood stream. The hormones serve as a trace one organ leaves, which triggers an activity by another. As another example, consider that when attacked by herbivores the damaged plants release volatile chemicals. Insects that prey on the attacking herbivores can sense those chemicals and follow the trail to their prey. Plants may then evolve better targeted chemicals, which result in more defenders coming to their rescue. The rescuers may also evolve more sharply focused sensing mechanisms. Inter-species stigmergic proto-communication can facilitate evolution. 5.2 Communication is Almost Never a Non-Stop Journey Even more generally, news services and interview shows reflect stigmerWhat Makes Complex Systems Complex? 105 gy. They provide an artificial environment in which agents can leave traces for others to observe. Those who provide the information-i.e., newsmakers, entertainers, "guests" on interview shows, etc.-do so with the intention of having those traces observed. These media make explicit what had been implicit: information may be imprinted on the environment for others to observe. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Slack, YouTube, etc. extend this functionality to the general public. Finally, I would categorize as stigmergic all communication mediated by mechanisms that allow a physical record to be recorded at one time and observed at another-any communication not involving direct physical interaction (such as tapping someone on the shoulder). Airport travelers decide which way to turn on seeing signs pointing to "Baggage claim" or "Terminal C." An important feature of stigmergic communication is that what is recorded is treated symbolically or proto-symbolically by the observer. This enables non-symbols, e.g., insect pheromones or volatile plant chemicals, to function as proto-symbols, e.g., indications of a path to food. Human beings have extended this process to symbolic communication. Some environments not only record traces, they also act on them and provide services for users. Email messages are traces that are created and then directed to specific targets. Instant messaging systems provide a similar service. Shopping websites make it as convenient as possible for potential customers to create purchase messages to be left for venders. An extraordinary amount of human activity involves communicating through stigmergic systems. Even software reflects stigmergy. When a programer writes software, she creates traces for a computer to observe and to act on. This indirection makes writing software often surprisingly challenging. It is misleading to say that the computer does exactly what one tells it to do. It is not like driving a car: turn the steering wheel, and the car changes direction. When writing software, one must be aware that what one writes will be read and interpreted by another agent, the computer. As in all the cases discussed, the actions taken by the observer depend on the observer-autonomous causality again-not on the programer's intentions. The humble programmer can do little more than leave expressions in the path of an oncoming computer and hope that when the computer encounters them it will do as she wishes. Like fish, which are not aware they are swimming in water, we exist in a shared information environment. We cannot escape leaving traces in our environment. As mentioned in the section on adaptive emergence, tracking systems record the websites we visit and the products we examine. We are like prey being tracked by predators. We would like to make ourselves invisible, Journal on Policy and Complex Systems 106 but our very existence leaves traces in the environment. We also exploit the fact that the environment can record information. We record information for others to observe-email messages, etc. as mentioned above-as well as for our future selves. Clark and Chalmers (1998) call the latter the extended mind. No one remembers telephone numbers; our "contacts" lists remember them for us. One societal consequence is the "emergence" of new problems. Many people feel overwhelmed by news and data. The current US president is an expert at manipulating people through tweets. Society has never before encountered these situations and does not know how to respond. The media that facilitate communication are the original multi-sided platforms (e.g., Hagiu & Wright, 2015). 6. Summary So, why are complex systems com-plex? We presented a brief history of complex systems from Aristotle to the present and found that complexity has many parents. • To understand a system one must understand not only its component parts, but also their organization and the forces that hold them together. • A system of any complexity must be open so that it can draw energy and other resources from its environment. Such systems are generally both stable and far from equilibrium. • Such systems must have means (a) for acquiring those resources, (b) for making use of them to maintain itself, and (c) for eliminating waste products. • Far-from-equilibrium systems can exist only in an environment of available energy. • Environments with plentiful energy flows may have critical tipping points. • Systems that depend on energy usually have means to store and to access it. • Energy storage mechanisms exhibit disproportionate causality: more energy is released than is required to trigger the release. • Energy storage mechanisms abound in both the biosphere and human society. • A world of many easily triggered energy stores opens itself to cascading chain reactions. • In a world with symbol processing entities-and even proto-symbol processing entities-energy can be released in response to symbols or proto-symbols. This can create nearly unboundedly disproportional effects. • Emergent phenomena may be classified as static, dynamic, or adaptive. All contribute to complexity. • Given its quasi-mystical baggage, the term emergence should be retired. What Makes Complex Systems Complex? 107 • Adaptive emergence is a synonym for creativity. Nature, without consciousness, and human beings, with it, continually create new phenomena, thereby adding complexity to the world. • Other than direct contact, communication is always stigmergic. It is mediated by a physical trace, which subjects it to misinterpretation, to deception, and to third-party observation. • Stigmergy encourages the development of new environments that enable stigmergic communication. If a new environment becomes widely used it can be very valuable. References Abbott, R. (2015). The end of (traditional) emergence: Introducing reactive emergence. Journal on Policy and Complex Systems, 2(2), 91-107. Abbott, R. (2018). 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No I don't want myself to be solved, simple, mechanical, algorithmic, elegant solutions are boringI don't want steps concrete, all constantly afar from each other with the reek of old shoes and beaten leather, the same step over and over again, no matter how high you're going, how is the high of constant tire a highwhen you're simply fluctuating in a plane of monotony, with a pretence, a scary pretence, a dangerously betraying pretence of progresswhen in fact you're dragging routine ahead, falling in love with order, such order-ous order, such line-like squar-ey syllables surrounding voices and shivering in its callous, dirty, delirious companionship to the crowdoh how safe and sound, with the chirps, ah the chirpsthe chirpness of each chirpthese chirpsah aren't they overratedhow beautiful is the morningno it s forced, it wasn't beautifulwhat was beautiful was not looked atthe beauty was pulled out of thin airat the instant! At the call of the instant! Ah you needed beautyso you forced those sights and smells and sounds and senses to be beautifulah the chirpsare those chirps beautiful? How can the pleasure of beauty emerge out of a distant blur in simple expectation of beauty? Why do you expect beauty to be at the same points in space and time, why do you bicker out the dirty mud and pull out scraps and old feathers and grey stones and hurt and wound your hands and oh there s blood! There s blood everywhere! Eh you're not stopping, you scrap down the rocky rock-dom with your bloody, beautiful, damned, desperate hands for beauty in the same, same ohso -same places crying in its same-ness, deeper and deeper and then you cry when your hands are hurt and your face is burnt and there is a whisp-ey voice of rolling sweat sliding in shame by those foreheads so upfront by the light that linger by without any botherwhy would it bother? Ah the light goes awaynow you're struck by a sudden stroke of dark, dark darkness, look there s still blood on those hands, but you can't seeyou feel the pain, you hear it hitting the rock bottom of nothingness where you dug bare for your unfair part of beautynow there s nothingnow there s painyou feel tears by the broken chin stump on by the wheels, wheels going where? Did those wheels have somewhere to goand now the stump chin and drooping body scares you in its embracenow you know that you are, you arebut ah you so desperately so-so desperately needed that wisp of beautydidn't know what that was did younow you didn't know you didn't knowjust thought you'd know when that comeshow come it never passedhow come you never knewhow come you're so naivenow everything hurts youthe naivety and how such a thing existsthe existence of something hurts youah the simple existence of a dainty epiphenomenon scares youoh screws, ah the pain, now the dark has gotten darker, ah that s beautifulwaitthere is painbut the darkness of the dark is contemplatable, how dark it goes from simply dark to shitthat s-dark to holy-shit -I'm-trapped to wait this is beautiful. I may die, but it s dark, it s dainty, it hurts, it feels alive, it feels dead, it s killing me, it s seductive, I'm falling for it, ah it s killing me, how am I falling for it? It s alive, it s getting meI'm not deadbut I want a death these hands bringeverything is so void of meaning that the ratethe rate-the rate of changechangechangehow luxuriousmay I utter it before I diedo I have the luxury of uttering itcan I do it again? Change, ha it s a highit s a high in uttering those letters togetherc-h-a-n-g-e , beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! There is lightI didn't need light, I needed pain in the hands of desperacynow there I lightand there are sights I don't want to see, the dark made the "I" into a mould of vulnerable, profuse, ugly, crying wholeah I needed thatthe laze was comforting, the laze allowed me to utter and 'be' in the luxury of c-h-a-n-g-e, it strangled me and dragged me along those muted stairways where laughters dieand I loved how I felt alive, there was pain, and ah the lights too strong, it hurts, the hurt I'm used to, I despise the hurt I'm used todespise it so fullyah the light is so loud it shivers within my body, rings like a rolling crescendothis feels low, I wanted lazeI loved the comfort of strangle and lazelonged for the strangle
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{ "creator": "Abdelrahim, Afnan Ali Mohamed", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1597310513000, "description": "Abstract: malaria is one of the most frequent hemoparasitic infections in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Malaria in Sudan is the major public health problem. This study was aimed to investigate the association of intraleukocytic pigment with malaria infection (severity, diagnosis and prognosis), and to investigate the correlation of parasite density levels with Malaria Severity. A total of 176 participants was drawn from the population of sudanese patient above 5 years, who attended or were admitted to the Bashayer Hospital, with diagnosis suggestive of malaria, they were selected for inclusion in the study. Blood films were examined first for malaria parasites diagnosis ,this was followed by detection of malaria pigment in both negative and positive films.Then Immunochromatography test was done, Subsequently haemoglobin concentration was determined. This study was approves that malaria pigment in peripheral blood leukocytes is evident for malaria disease , and makes the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful in malaria diagnosis, especially in patients with an illness consistent clinically with malaria but with negative blood smear due to haemolytic anaemia .A total of 176, 73 male and 103 female aged from 7 years to 69 years , drawn to Bashayer hospital with symptoms of malaria showed ICT positive result .Blood films were positive in 98(55.7%) and negative in 78 (44.3%) of patients . Malaria pigment was observed with the mean (22.07). There was an association between ICT and malaria pigment (P-value = 0.000).There was no association between BF and malaria pigment ( P-value = 0.40).This study also approved that malaria pigment can be used in prognosis, were thirty five patient showed complications(19.9%) and 141 showed no complication(80.1%) ,there was association between complications and malaria pigment ( P-value = 0.004) .This study also validates the presence of malaria pigment in leukocyte as a marker for disease severity, there was association between severity and malaria pigment (P-value = 0.02). While there is no association between density and severity (P-value = 0.980). So we conclued, intraleukocytic malaria pigment produced by parasites during intra erythrocytic development is associated with severe disease, mortality and it is a useful diagnostic indicator in anaemic patients with negative blood smears. The varied complexities of the current diagnostic methods make the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful. Secondly, malaria pigment is significantly associated with severe malaria. Thirdly, parasitaemia levels are neither associated nor correlated with malaria severity and therefore parasitaemia alone is not a reliable measure of malaria severity. We recommend the use of malaria pigment as marker for malaria disease severity. We recommend that parasitaemia should not be used alone as an indicator of malaria severity. We further recommend that, the presence of pigment in leukocytes to be adopted for diagnosis of malaria especially in cases of negative blood films, and recommend using malaria pigment as indicator for malaria prognosis.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDAOI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Association of Intraleukocytic Malaria Pigment with Disease Severity, Diagnosis and Prognosis in Sudanese Patients", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 13 Association of Intraleukocytic Malaria Pigment with Disease Severity, Diagnosis and Prognosis in Sudanese Patients Afnan Ali Mohamed Abdelrahim University: Khartoum university Abstract: malaria is one of the most frequent hemoparasitic infections in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Malaria in Sudan is the major public health problem. This study was aimed to investigate the association of intraleukocytic pigment with malaria infection (severity, diagnosis and prognosis), and to investigate the correlation of parasite density levels with Malaria Severity. A total of 176 participants was drawn from the population of sudanese patient above 5 years, who attended or were admitted to the Bashayer Hospital, with diagnosis suggestive of malaria, they were selected for inclusion in the study. Blood films were examined first for malaria parasites diagnosis ,this was followed by detection of malaria pigment in both negative and positive films.Then Immunochromatography test was done, Subsequently haemoglobin concentration was determined. This study was approves that malaria pigment in peripheral blood leukocytes is evident for malaria disease , and makes the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful in malaria diagnosis, especially in patients with an illness consistent clinically with malaria but with negative blood smear due to haemolytic anaemia .A total of 176, 73 male and 103 female aged from 7 years to 69 years , drawn to Bashayer hospital with symptoms of malaria showed ICT positive result .Blood films were positive in 98(55.7%) and negative in 78 (44.3%) of patients . Malaria pigment was observed with the mean (22.07). There was an association between ICT and malaria pigment (P-value = 0.000).There was no association between BF and malaria pigment ( P-value = 0.40).This study also approved that malaria pigment can be used in prognosis, were thirty five patient showed complications(19.9%) and 141 showed no complication(80.1%) ,there was association between complications and malaria pigment ( P-value = 0.004) .This study also validates the presence of malaria pigment in leukocyte as a marker for disease severity, there was association between severity and malaria pigment (P-value = 0.02). While there is no association between density and severity (P-value = 0.980). So we conclued, intraleukocytic malaria pigment produced by parasites during intra erythrocytic development is associated with severe disease, mortality and it is a useful diagnostic indicator in anaemic patients with negative blood smears. The varied complexities of the current diagnostic methods make the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful. Secondly, malaria pigment is significantly associated with severe malaria. Thirdly, parasitaemia levels are neither associated nor correlated with malaria severity and therefore parasitaemia alone is not a reliable measure of malaria severity. We recommend the use of malaria pigment as marker for malaria disease severity. We recommend that parasitaemia should not be used alone as an indicator of malaria severity. We further recommend that, the presence of pigment in leukocytes to be adopted for diagnosis of malaria especially in cases of negative blood films, and recommend using malaria pigment as indicator for malaria prognosis. Keywords--malaria; pigment;leukocytes 1. INTRODUCTION Malaria is one of the most frequent hemoparasitic infections in tropical and sub-tropical countries, and it is most important parasitic disease worldwide. According to the latest estimates, released in December 2014 by WHO, there were about 198 million cases of malaria in 2013, with estimated 584 000 deaths .Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. Malaria in Sudan is the major public health problem. It leads to an estimated 7.510 million cases and 35000 deaths every year(1).Malaria parasites belong to the genus Plasmodium (phylum Apicomplexa. In humans, malaria is caused by P. falciparum, P. vivax , P.ovale and P.malariae .Among those infected, P. falciparum is the most common species identified followed by P. vivax . Although P. falciparum traditionally accounts for the majority of deaths, recent evidence suggests that P. vivax malaria is associated with potentially life-threatening conditions about as often as with a diagnosis of falciparum infection . (2) Mortality due malaria has been increase partly due to delayed identification of severe cases. Mortality due to malaria can be reduced by stratification of patients for appropriate treatment and medical attention. All this can only be achieved with correct diagnosis. Misdiagnosis can occur in area where the patient with an illness consistent clinically with severe malaria but with negative blood smear due to haemolytic anaemia ,malaria pigment or (haemozoni(H2)) the end product of the detoxification of haem in peripheral blood leukocytes (monocytes and granulocytes) is evident for malaria disease in greater than 90% of patients with malaria . 2. MATERILS AND METHODS 2.1 Study Design: A prospective study design was used to assess intraleukocytic malaria pigment as it relates to malaria International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 14 severity, diagnosis and prognosis. This was a hospital based Cross sectional study. Conducted in Khartoum. 2.2 Study Plan: Blood films for malaria were examined first for malaria parasites ,this was followed by detection of pigment in both negative and positive blood films .Then Immunochromatography test was done, Subsequently haemoglobin concentration was determined. 2.3 Study Area: The study was conducted over a period of six months from November 2014 to April 2015 in Khartoum state At the Bashayer hospital. 2.4 Study Population and Sample Size: A total of 176 participants was drawn from the population of sudanese patient above 5 years, who attended or were admitted to the Bashayer hospital, with diagnosis suggestive of malaria, , were selected for inclusion in the study. 2.5 Inclusion Criteria: Patients above 5 years with P.falciprum malaria infection 2.6 Exclusion Criteria: Patients below 5 years with or without malaria infection 2.7 Methods: 2.7.1 Stained Blood Films: Thick and thin blood films for malaria were made on clean grease-free slides. Blood was obtained by finger pricking. The thin blood film was fixed with absolute methanol, and stained appropriately using Giemsa's staining method, these smears were stained with ten percent. Giemsa at pH 7.2 7.4 for 15 minutes. Giemsa stain is the most commonly used of the Romanowsky stains and is the best for routine diagnosis because of its applicability to both thick and thin smears, its stability on storage and its constant and reproducible staining quality over a wide range of temperatures . The stained films were then examined microscopically using 100 x objectives to estimating the parasite . One hundred microscope fields of the thick films were examined at l00x magnification before assigning a negative result. 2.7.2 Immunochromatography Test (ICT): Immuno chromatography tests based on the capture of the parasite antigen from the peripheral blood using monoclonal anti-HRP-II antibodies and anti-aldolase antibodies against the parasite antigen targets was used. ABON PLUS was used 2.7.3 Determination of malaria Severity: In this study, haemoglobin concentrations the main determinants of malaria severity. 2.7.4 Determination of Haemoglobin: Haemoglobin concentrations in the patients were determined by the SYSMEX device.Venous blood was collected in EDTA tube. 2.7.5 Determination of Parasitemia: Determinations of parasitemia were done using thick blood smears. Parasites density was estimated by crosses . Between 10 -100 fields (depending on parasitemia) were examined to determine the average number of trophozoites per thick film field. Ten fields are sufficient when the parasite density is high. For designation of the relative parasite count on a thick film, a simple code of from one to four crosses or the plus sign is used to report parasite numbers: + (1+) = 1 - 10 parasites per 100 thick film fields + + (2+) = 11 - 100 parasites per 100 thick film fields + + + (3+) = 1 - 10 parasites per one thick film field + + + + (4+) = > 10 parasites per one thick film field 2.7.6 Determination of presence and quantities of the malaria pigment in leukocytes: Was done using thin smears. Thin smears were fixed in absolute methanol for one minute before staining. These smears were then stained using Giemsa method for 15 minutes, then determined the white blood cell differential counts manually. Intraleukocytic malaria pigment was detected on thin films by counting 500 leukocytes and determining the proportions of haemozoin-containing neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes. Total pigment-laden leukocytes per microlitre 3) (were calculated as follows: Total Pigment-Laden Leukocytes*Per Microlitre = (Percent pigment-laden leukocytes* [in a count of 500WBCs])x (absolute WBC count per microlitre) X (percent leukocytes* in differential count of peripheral blood) leukocytes* = neutrophils, lymphocytes or monocytes 2.8 Data Entry, Analysis and Presentation: Microsoft Excel and SPSS were used to enter these data for analysis. Data is presented in the results as tables and figures. 3.RESULTS 3.1 Frequency Tables 3.1.1 Gender: The study population according to gender was 73 males and 103 females .They were drawn to Bashayer hospital for malaria investigation or admitted for treatment. Table (1) Table (1) Frequenc y Perce nt Perce nt Cumulative Percent Male 73 41.5 41.5 41.5 Femal e 103 58.5 58.5 100 Total 176 100 100 International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 15 3.1.2 (Age): The study population according to age categories was from 7 years to 69 years with age mean (34.59), median (33), and mode (22) .Table (2) Table (2) N Mean Median Mode Age 176 34.59 33 22 3.1.3 Malaria Pigmentation: Malaria pigment was observed with the mean (22.07), median (17), and mode (10). Table (3) Table (3) N Mean Median Mode Malaria Pigment 176 22.07 17 10 3.1.4 BF: Out of 176 blood films examined for malaria parasites 98(55.7%) were positive and 78 (44.3%) were negative of patients. Table (4). Table (4) Frequency Percent Percent Cumulative Percent Positive 98 55.7 55.7 55.7 Negative 78 44.3 44.3 100 Total 176 100 100  Chi square test for association between BF and Malaria Pigment (No association P-value = 0.40). 3.1.5 ICT: All patients were positive by RDTS. Figure (1) Figure (1): Frequency of positive results by ICT (RDTS)  Chi square test for association ICT and Malaria Pigment (There is association P-value = 0.000). 3.1.6 Severity: Disease severity among the malaria patients was, 38(21.6%) not sever, 138 (78.4%) with sever disease. Table (5) Table (5) Frequen cy percent percent Cumulat ive % Not Severe 38 21.6 21.6 21.6 Severe 138 78.4 78.4 100 Total 176 100 100  Chi square test for association between Severity and Malaria Pigment (There is association P-value = 0. 02). 3.1.7 Complications: Thirty five (19.9%) of the individuals were with malaria complications .Table (6). Table (6) Frequency Percent Percent Cumulative Percent Positive 35 19.9 19.9 19.9 Negative 141 80.1 80.1 100 Total 176 100 100 0 50 100 150 200 Positive Negative Frequency Frequency International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 16  Chi square test for association between Complications and Malaria Pigment (There is association P-value = 0.004).  P-value more than 0.05 means there is No association.  P-value less than 0.05 means there is association. 3.1.8 Anaemia: Anaemia was found In 111 (63.1%) of the Patients .Table (7). Table (7) Frequency Percent Percent Cumulative Percent Positive 111 63.1 63.1 63.1 Negative 65 36.9 36.9 100 Total 176 100 100 3.1.9 Density: Among the positive malaria cases by microscopy the density was 43 were with one cross, 27 with 2 crosses, 23 with 3crosses and 27 with 4 crosses. Figure (2) Figure (2): Density of parasitemia among positive cases by crosses 3.2 Cross Tabulation: 3.2.1 Density * Severity Cross tabulation : No association between density and severity (P-value = 0.980) .Table (8) Table (8) Severity Total Severe Not Severe Density + Count 9 34 43 Expected Count 9.3 33.7 43 ++ Count 5 22 27 Expected Count 5.8 21.2 27 +++ Count 5 18 23 Expected Count 5 18 23 ++++ Count 7 20 27 0 20 40 60 43 27 23 27 56 Frequency Frequency International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 17 Chi square test for association between Density and Severity (No association P-value = 0.980)  P-value more than 0.05 means there is No association.  P-value less than 0.05 means there is association. 3.2.2 Complications * Severity Cross tabulation: There was association between Complications and Severity (P-value = 0.000) Table (9). Table (9) Complications Severity Total Severe Not Severe Positive Count 22 13 35 Expected Count 7.6 27.4 35 Negative Count 16 125 141 Expected Count 30.4 110.6 141 Total Count 38 138 176 Expected Count 38 138 176 Chi square test for association between Complications and Severity (There is Association P-value = 0.000)  P-value more than 0.05 means there is No association.  P-value less than 0.05 means there is association. 4.DISCUSSION A total of 176, 73 male and 103 female aged from 7 years to 69 years with age mean(34.59), median(33),mode(22).drawn to Bashayer hospital with symptoms of malaria showed ICT positive result .Blood films were positive in 98(55.7%) and negative in 78 (44.3%) of patients. Malaria pigment was observed with the mean (22.07). There was an association between ICT and Malaria Pigment (Pvalue = 0.000).There was no association between BF and Malaria Pigment (P-value = 0.40). This result approves that malaria pigment in peripheral blood leukocytes is evident for malaria disease and makes the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful in diagnosis especially in patients with an illness consistent clinically with malaria but with negative blood smear due to haemolytic anaemia . Our study result is similar to the result obtained by (Bojang 4) ). Who reported that malaria pigment has been shown to be a useful diagnostic indicator in anaemic patients with negative blood smears. Our study showed an association between malaria pigment and complications( haemolytic anemia, black water fever, coma) .Thirty five patient showed complications(19.9 percent) and 141 showed no complication(80.1 percent) ,There was association between Complications and Malaria Pigment ( P-value = 0.004) .This result approved that malaria pigment can be used in prognosis. Our result agreed with (Kirsten E.Lyke et al ((5) finding who stated that total PMN pigment burden in patients with malaria was higher in those with cerebral manifestations and with combined cerebral manifestations and severe anemia , and that pigment was associated with a fatal outcome in patients with malaria., and demonstrates that pigmented leukocyte are associated with cerebral malaria and with death in patients with severe malaria .This our study showed an association between severity and complication , there was association between Complications and Severity (P-value = 0.000),this agreed with recent studies postulated that , the association of intraleukocytic malaria pigment with severity of malaria may facilitate the reduction of mortality from severe infection, and documented the association of severe and fatal malaria with the increased presence of malaria haemozoin in peripheral phagocytes. (Lell et al ((6) Our study showed an association between severity and malaria pigment, There was association between Severity and Malaria Pigment (P-value = 0. 02). While there is no association between density and severity, there was no association between Density and Severity International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 13-18 18 (No Association P-value = 0.980), this our result agreed with (Kirsten E.Lyke et al (5) ).This study validates the presence of malaria pigment in leukocyte as a marker for disease severity. Malaria pigment, recognizable within the cytoplasm of phagocytic cells by light microscopy may represent a peripheral marker for parasite biomass. 5. Conclusion The major conclusions that can be drawn from this study are: Firstly, intraleukocytic malaria pigment produced by parasites during intra erythrocytic development is associated with severe disease, mortality and it a useful diagnostic indicator in anaemic patients with negative blood smears. . The varied complexities of the current diagnostic methods make the method of pigment determination appropriate and useful. Secondly, malaria pigment is significantly associated with severe malaria. Thirdly, parasitaemia levels are neither associated nor correlated with malaria severity and therefore parasitaemia alone is not a reliable measure of malaria severity. Finally we can conclude that there is justification to reject the hypothesis for no association, since pigment-laden leukocyte, showed significant association with malaria severity, diagnosis and prognosis. Based on these results, the assessment of intraleukocytic pigment appears to be valuable for more detailed characterization of patients who present with P. falciparum clinical symptoms consistent with a malarial illness. REFERENCES (1)WWW. WHO.Com, Malaria Global )2)Baird Jk. "Evidence And Implications Of Mortality Associated With Acute Plasmodium Vivax Malaria". Clinical Microbiology Reviews (2013) 26 (1): 36-57. 3) )World Health Organisation. W. H. O. Criteria on Severe Falciparum Malaria in -The Medical Algorithms Project. Chapter 24. Institute for Algorithmic Medicine,) 2006( (4) Bojang, K.,. Progress And Challenges In The Diagnosis Of Severe Malaria. )2005( (5)Kirsten E.Lyke, Dapa A.Diallo, Alassane Dicko Association Of Interleukocytic Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria Pigment With Disease Severity, Clinical Manifestation And Prognosis In Sever Malaria. April 29, (2003) (6)Lell, B., Missinou, M. A., Issifou, S., Matsiegui, P. B., Olola, C. H., Taylor, T. E. And Kremsner, P. G. Assessment Of A Simplified Method For Counting Leukocytic Malaria Pigment. Am J Trop Med Hyg., (2005) 73 (3):588-92.
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{ "creator": "Salikhov, Ravshan", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1596960044000, "description": "Abstract: The article highlights the role of public-private partnership in the socio-economic life of the countries and the importance of these relations in ensuring the welfare of the population in Uzbekistan. As well as, the importance of public-private partnerships for parties substantiate theoretically.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDAOU", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Advantages of Using Public-Private Partnership for the Parties in Uzbekistan", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2019, Pages: 41-42 41 Advantages of Using Public-Private Partnership for the Parties in Uzbekistan Zukhra Abdikarimova, Ravshan Salikhov Master, Tashkent State University of Economics, Tashkent, Uzbekistan E-mail address: Abstract: The article highlights the role of public-private partnership in the socio-economic life of the countries and the importance of these relations in ensuring the welfare of the population in Uzbekistan. As well as, the importance of public-private partnerships for parties substantiate theoretically. Keywords: public, private sector, partnership relations, infrastructure projects, economic development. 1. INTRODUCTION In the modern world, public-private partnerships have been developing in new content in many countries through the reform of the infrastructure, as well as finding new sources of funding and the use of effective managerial methods. In turn, these relationships have led to widespread changes in the world, and have shown the path of development in many countries. Around the world, there is a steady increase in the number of countries which are developing by using various forms of partnerships between the public and private sectors. In the current period, the private sector's involvement in public-private partnerships enhances their economic activity and leads to new changes in the society. At the same time, this partnership shows their attractiveness for the state, to solve social problems, the creation of social facilities, the implementation of public services, the most important of which is the role of this partnership in addressing the rational use of the limited budget and many other opportunities. As well as, this partnership is more attractive for private sector to create high scale of opportunities. In other words, it can be explained by the fact that recently this concept has started to be called the "innovative partnership" formed between the government and the business community. The notion and mechanism of public-private partnership is absolutely new for Uzbekistan. However, it is so important for the country to apply to this partnership because of some reasons. For instance, the number of population has increased nearly twice since years of independence. In 1991, the number of population was 20607.7 million people, whereas the number increased and reach to 33254, 1 people in 2018. That is 61,4 % more compared to the number in 1991. In that case, the problem of providing population with infrastructure is becoming more actual problem for the country. As well as, it should be considered not only providing population with infrastructure but also quality of it should be considered. The most important social infrastructure and economic infrastructure are owned by the state in Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, the state budget is limited and cannot provide with all types of infrastructure alone. On the other hand, private sector has not got enough capability to implement and invest most of the infrastructure projects alone in Uzbekistan. Because, most of the infrastructure demand high level of investment and return only is expected for long-run period. It may be difficult for private sector to invest for infrastructure without state support. The public-private partnership models will be the best option for parties to obtain their goals because of the following advantages of using this mechanism: The advantages of using the public-private partnership mechanism for parties are as follows: For public sector For private sector The opportunity to engage private investors to build a facility will help to implement infrastructure projects in the current period without increasing the debt burden, even in the absence of sufficient budgetary funds. Strengthening the conditions for cooperation with the public sector within the framework of the long-term agreement. Not just the ability to buy the object, but also the ability to purchase services through bundles associated with its size and quality, which in turn promotes competition in the market of socially significant services. The possibility of cofinancing the project and the availability of additional safeguards. Distribution of project risks among partners. The presence of a government partner's contribution to the risksharing project. The resources and powers of the private partner can provide socially significant services, improve quality and look for different Providing additional paid services that reduce costs in the process of setting up or managing a project, and the ability to increase its profits International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2019, Pages: 41-42 42 solutions that reduce the cost of customer service and the high intensity of attracting new technologies. through the use of various solutions. Supporting effective market mechanism in reducing state involvement in the economy. Establishment of safeguards in the areas traditionally functioning by the state. The possibility of a broader access to innovation in the design of the project, and the immediate solution of issues related to investor involvement with the private initiative. The private partner seeks to find out how to independently examine the project structure, propose a draft, and reduce the term of the contract. As well as, the government is planning to solve the following problems by using this model in Uzbekistan: increasing the amount of private investment by uniting the resources of the public and private sectors; improving employment and quality of life of the population; attracting foreign financial, material, intellectual and other resources and rational use modern foreign management methods; promoting the effectiveness of state property management. In conclusion the condition of limited state budget and unlimited demand for quality of service and normal living of the population, development of these relations remains as a main task of the country's economy. Consolidation of partnership relations can lead to significant socio-economic changes in the country. Using this mechanism is more attractive for both parties. Mutual relations between state and private sector can give a lot of opportunities for parties to reach their goals. REFERENCES: 1. E.R. Yascombe. Public-Private Partnerships. Principles of policy and finance. 2007. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2. Public-Private Partnerships. Reference Guide. © 2014 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank 3. A Guidebook On Public-Private Partnership In Infrastructure. Copyright © United Nations 2011 4. HK Yong. Public-Private Partnerships Policy and Practice. A Reference Guide. © Commonwealth Secretariat 2010.
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared by incorporating of waste tires into polydisperse commercial polystyrene in a melt-mixing method. The rheological characterization of PS and PS/composite have been studied and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The complex modulus (G*) were evaluated and compared with those of unfilled PS. The dynamic mechanical properties and stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results.\n The results showed that the value of G* at  = 1.0 radian/s is 1.8104 and 4.4104 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. This difference rises at low frequencies-branch to be the value of G* at  = 0.06 radian/s is 8.8102 and 7.8103 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. Generally G* increases by the addition of rubber as filler for PS", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDCMO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Complex Modulus of Waste Tires Reinforced Polystyrene", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 8-11 8 Complex Modulus of Waste Tires Reinforced Polystyrene Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract: In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared by incorporating of waste tires into polydisperse commercial polystyrene in a melt-mixing method. The rheological characterization of PS and PS/composite have been studied and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The complex modulus (G*) were evaluated and compared with those of unfilled PS. The dynamic mechanical properties and stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results. The results showed that the value of G* at  = 1.0 radian/s is 1.8104 and 4.4104 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. This difference rises at low frequencies-branch to be the value of G* at  = 0.06 radian/s is 8.8102 and 7.8103 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. Generally G* increases by the addition of rubber as filler for PS Keywords: Polystyrene/waste tires composite, Rheology, Complex modulus 1. INTRODUCTION The growth rate of the use of particulate filled polymers is very fast in all fields of application Household articles and automotive parts are equally prepared from them. In the early stages, the sole reason for the introduction of fillers was to decrease the price of the polymer. However, as a result of filling all properties of the polymer change, a new polymer is in fact created. Some characteristics improve, while others deteriorate, and properties must be optimised to utilize all potentials of particulate filling. Optimization must include all aspects of the composites from component properties, through structure and especially interactions [1]. Disposal of waste rubber material is a global problem, and used tires constitute the largest volume of scrap rubber. Recycling of waste tires is essential due to economic and environmental reasons. Utilization of ground waste rubber has been reviewed recently. Finely ground waste tire rubber has been used as filler in rubbers and in thermoplastics [2]. Physical properties and processability are reported to be adversely affected when large volumes of waste rubber is added to a rubber compound. Dynamic mechanical analysis over a wide range of temperature and frequencies permits the determination of the viscoelastic behavior of molten polymers and, in particular, the study the glass transition of reinforced composites. Therefore, the investigations of the polymer composites using the mechanical and the dynamic mechanical analysis are becoming of great interesting [3-18]. The purpose of this work was to characterize in details the complex modulus of rubber filled polystyrene compared to the original material of unfilled polystyrene. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Samples preparation and characterization PS/waste tires composite was prepared by introducing waste tires into commercial PS with molecular weight about 210 7 g/mol. The waste tires were shredded into small particles sizes of about 2 mm. The mixture of PS and 12 wt % shredded tires are dry mixed by hand-mixing for around half an hour and heated at 300°C for 2 hours. Followed by preparation the samples of filled and unfilled PS for the rheological measurements under compression-mold at 190°C for 3 hours and 15 bars in a disc form with diameter 8 mm and thickness 2.2 mm. 3. MEASUREMENTS The dynamic mechanical measurements were performed for PS and PS composite by using an ARES-Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific). The rheometer was operated in the dynamic mode on the plate-plate geometry of 8mm diameter and about 2 mm gap. The gap size changes with the temperatures and is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The measurements were performed in this study for the samples under nitrogen atmosphere, strain amplitude 1%, over temperature ranged from 120 to 220°C and angular frequency ( ) varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 8-11 9 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this study the experiments data which measured over a wide range of the temperature are shifted into a single log -log curve at a reference temperature T0 by using of the time-temperature superposition principle which described by Williams-LandelFerry [19] as, log aT = -C1 (T-T0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures along the log frequency,  axis as shown in Fig.1 and in vertical direction is given purely by bT (bT = 00/ TT  [20] ). Where  is the material density. Figure 1 shows the shear complex modulus (G*) as a function of frequency at temperatures ranged from 120 to 220°C. By choosing the reference temperature at 180°C, the horizontal shift factor shifts the high temperatures data of G* toward right side at low frequencies-branch along of G* which measured at 180°C and those at the low temperatures are shifted at high frequenciesbranch as shown in Figure 1. The vertical shift factor rises G* of the high temperatures to G* of 180°C and decreases those at low temperatures to reach G* of 180°C as shown in Figure 3. Because G* modulus decreases with increasing the temperatures as it is clear from Fig.1 . The master curves of the shear complex modulus, G* for PS and PS/waste tires at 180°C are logarithmically plotted against the angular frequency as seen in Figure 2. This quantity of G* is a combination of the storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G'') as, G*= G' + i G'' [21] . Where, G' is the ability of the material to store energy in the cycle of the deformation and G'' is the energy dissipated as heat in this cycle. Master curves of G* for PS and PS/waste tires display three distinct regions of behavior and that is typically for flexible-chain monodisperse homopolymer. These region are : the dynamic glass transition, rubbery plateau, and flow zones from the right side to the left side. At the flow regime, G* decreases further as shown in Figure 2. This corresponding to the complete relaxation of polymer chains at low shear rate, where the time allowed for relaxation is longer than the longest relaxation time in the polymer. The dynamic glass transition zone is located at high frequencies at which the shear rate is higher than the average relaxation time of the polymer chain. Therefore, the chains can not adjust quickly enough to dissipate the applied stress as a result, the observed modulus is high. As the deformation shear rate decreases, G* decreases until the intermediate regime of a rubber-like plateau is observed. This rubber-like region is somewhat flat and it is nearly independent on the frequency over the frequency range from about 1103 to 10 radians/s as shown in Figure 2. This rubber like behavior reflects the elasticity of the polymer and it is due to the entanglement of the chains, this entanglement depends on the type and the long of the chains. From the beginning of this regime of the rubber-like, G* is observed to rise for PS/waste tires composite than this of the original PS and this increase is significantly continued over the flow regime too at low frequencies as shown in Figure 2. As an example, the value of G* at  = 1.0 radian/s is 1.8104 and 4.4104 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. But this difference rises at low frequencies-branch to be the value of G* at  = 0.06 radian/s is 8.8102 and 7.8103 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. Generally this increase in G* by the addition of rubber as filler for PS is may be because the interaction between the rubber particles and the PS chains which increases the stiffness of the chains. The significant increase at low frequencies (means at long time and high temperature) may be due to the formation of the rubber-PS network. Since the formation of this matrix increases with the time at high temperature. 5. CONCLUSION In this study the PS/waste tires composite were prepared. The Rheological properties for PS composite are evaluated and compared to those of the original material of unfilled PS. These properties are determined by ARES Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures, ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results showed that the value of G* at  = 1.0 radian/s is 1.8104 and 4.4104 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. This difference rises at low frequencies-branch to be the value of G* at  = 0.06 radian/s is 8.8102 and 7.8103 Pa for PS and PS/waste tires, respectively. Generally G* increases by the addition of rubber as filler for PS 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at research center Juelich, Germany are greatly acknowledged. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 8-11 10 REFERENCES [1]. B.Pukanszky, E.Fekete, " Adhesion and surface modification", Advances in Polymer Science, V139, P.110-153,SpringerVerlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1999. [2]. J. I. Kim , S. H. Ryu , Y. W. Chang, " Mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of waste rubber powder/HDPE composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V.77, P. 2595-2602, 2000. [3]. W.Guo, M.Ashida, "Dynamic viscoelasticities for short fiber-thermoplastic elastomer composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V50, P.1435-1443,1993 . [4]. P. K. Sengupta, D. Mukhopadhyay ,"A dynamic mechanical study on unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites" J.of Applied Polymer Science,V51, P.831-840, 1994 [5]. G. Kalaprasad, G. Mathew, C. Pavithran, S. Thomas , "Melt rheological behavior of intimately mixed short sisal-glass hybrid fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites. I. Untreated fibers",J. of Applied Polymer Science, V89, P.432-442, 2003 [6]. L. Ibarra, A. Macías, E. Palma , "Viscoelastic properties of short carbon fiber thermoplastic (SBS) elastomer composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science V57, P.831-842, 1995 [7]. P. V. Joseph, G. Mathew, K. Joseph, S. Thomas, P. Pradeep," Mechanical properties of short sisal fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites: Comparison of experimental data with theoretical predictions", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V88, P.602-611, 2003 [8]. V. M. Murty, S. K. De, S. S. Bhagawan, R. Sivaramakrishnan, S. K. Athithan, "Viscoelastic properties of short-fiberreinforced rubber composites and the role of adhesion", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V28, P.3485-3495, 1983 [9]. D. Roy, A. K. Bhowmick, S. K. De, "Dynamic mechanical properties of short carbon fiber-filled styrene-isoprenestyrene block copolymer", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V49, P.263-273, 1993 [10]. S.Yano, S. Hirose, H. Hatakeyama, B. Westerlind, M.Rigdahl, "Dynamic viscoelasticity of isoprene rubber reinforced with short cellulose fibers" J.of Applied Polymer Science, V40, P.657-667, 1990 [11]. G. Kalaprasad, S. Thomas, "Melt rheological behavior of intimately mixed short sisal-glass hybrid fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites. II. Chemical modification", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V89, P.443-450, 2003 [12]. Xiaoyi Gong , "The dynamic mechanical behavior of random-in-plane short fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composites", Polymers for Advanced Technologies, V7, P.141-145, 1996 [13]. L.Ibarra, C.Chamorro , "Short fiber-elastomer composites. Effects of matrix and fiber level on swelling and mechanical and dynamic properties", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V43, P.1805-1819, 1991 [14]. Michio Ashida, Toru Noguchi, Satoshi Mashimo, "Effect of matrix's type on the dynamic properties for short fiberelastomer composite", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V30, P.1011-1021, 1985 [15]. L.I.Rueda, C.C. Antón, M. C. Rodríguez, "Viscoelastic properties of short fiber filled SBR composites",Angewandte Makromolekulare Chemie, V160, P.29-39, 1988 [16]. L. Ibarra, " Dynamic properties of short fiber-EPDM matrix composites as a function of strain amplitude", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V54, P.1721-1730, 1994 [17]. M. Ashida, T. Noguchi, S. Mashimo, "Dynamic moduli for short fiber-CR composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V29, P.661-670, 1984 [18]. A. K. Rana, B. C. Mitra, A. N. Banerjee, "Short jute fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites: Dynamic mechanical study" J.of Applied Polymer Science, V71, P.531-539, 1999 [19]. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980) [20]. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, "Synthesis Characterization, Rheological Properties and Microscopic Dynamic of Polymers with low Plateau Moduli" Phd's thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000. [21]. G.Heinrich, M.Klueppel, " Recent advances in the theory of filler networking in elastomers", Advances in Polymer Sciences, V160, P.1-44, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2002. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 8-11 11 Figure 1:Experiments data of G* were measured at different temperature as a function of  for PS and PS composite and shifted at T0 = 180°C by using aT and bT . Figure 2: Master curve of G* as a function of  for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C. 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 102 103 104 105 106 107 PS-composite PS G * P a  rad/s 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 102 103 104 105 106 107 aT aT bT high temp. PS-composite: shifted data at 180°C un-shifted data at different temperatures G * P a  rad/s
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared using the melt-mixing method. The viscoelastic properties of PS and PS/composite have been evaluated and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The dynamic and complex viscosity of the PS composites were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. \n The results showed that the frequency,  is shifted from 0.46 to 0.072 radians/s and the value of dynamic viscosity increases from 5.0104 to 1.3105 Pa.s by the addition of the rubber for PS. Zero-shear viscosity, 0 was found to be increased from is 9.5104 for PS/waste tire composite to 4.5104 for PS.\n The flow activation energy is calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software to be 1.063 105 and 1.46 105 J/mol.K for Ps and PS composite, respectively.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDDAC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Dynamic and Complex Viscosity of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 12-15 12 Dynamic and Complex Viscosity of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract: In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared using the melt-mixing method. The viscoelastic properties of PS and PS/composite have been evaluated and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The dynamic and complex viscosity of the PS composites were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. The results showed that the frequency,  is shifted from 0.46 to 0.072 radians/s and the value of dynamic viscosity increases from 5.0104 to 1.3105 Pa.s by the addition of the rubber for PS. Zero-shear viscosity, 0 was found to be increased from is 9.5104 for PS/waste tire composite to 4.5104 for PS. The flow activation energy is calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software to be 1.063 10 5 and 1.46 105 J/mol.K for Ps and PS composite, respectively. Keywords: Polystyrene/ waste tires composites, Dynamic and Complex Viscosity. 1. INTRODUCTION The growth rate of the use of particulate filled polymers is very fast in all fields of application Household articles and automotive parts are equally prepared from them. In the early stages, the sole reason for the introduction of fillers was to decrease the price of the polymer. However, as a result of filling all properties of the polymer change, a new polymer is in fact created. Some characteristics improve, while others deteriorate, and properties must be optimised to utilize all potentials of particulate filling. Optimization must include all aspects of the composites from component properties, through structure and especially interactions [1]. Composite materials are created by combining two or more components to achieve desired properties, which could not be obtained with the separate components. The use of reinforcing fillers, which can reduce material costs and improve certain properties, is increasing in thermoplastic polymer composites. The advantages of polymer composites on performance, economy, or ecology have accelerated the research activities in the field of polymer composites in terms of academic and industrial interests [2-18]. The motivation for this work was to evaluate in details the dynamic and complex viscosity for rubber filled polystyrene compared to the original material of unfilled polystyrene. 2. EXPERIMENTAL PART Samples preparation and characterization PS/waste tires composite was prepared by introducing waste tires into commercial PS with molecular weight about 2107 g/mol. The waste tires were shredded into small particles sizes of about 2 mm. The mixture of PS and 12 wt % shredded tires are dry mixed by hand-mixing for around half an hour and heated at 300°C for 2 hours. Followed by preparation the samples of filled and unfilled PS for the rheological measurements under compression-mold at 190°C for 3 hours and 15 bars in a disc form with diameter 8 mm and thickness 2.2 mm. 3. MEASUREMENTS The dynamic mechanical measurements were performed for PS and PS composite by using an ARES-Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific). The rheometer was operated in the dynamic mode on the plate-plate geometry of 8mm diameter and about 2 mm gap. The gap size changes with the temperatures and is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The measurements were performed in this study for the samples under nitrogen atmosphere, strain amplitude 1%, over temperature ranged from 120 to 220°C and angular frequency ( ) varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 12-15 13 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this study the experiments data which measured over a wide range of the temperature are shifted into a single log -log curve at a reference temperature T0 by using of the time-temperature superposition principle which described by Williams-LandelFerry [19] as, log aT = -C1 (T-T0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures along the log frequency,  axis and in vertical direction is given purely by bT (bT = 00/ TT  [20] ). Where  is the material density. The complex viscosity * is plotted as a function of frequency,  in Figure 1 for PS and PS/waste tire. * falls rapidly with increasing  as shown in Figure 1. At very low shear rates * is called the melt viscosity, 0 ( zero-shear viscosity), at which the viscosity is independent on the frequency. The flow activation energy is calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software to be 1.063 105 and 1.46 105 J/mol.K for Ps and PS composite, respectively. The addition of the rubber alters the beginning of the plateau in the viscosity as shown in Figure 1 . Since it is shifted from 0.46 to 0.072 radians/s as shown in Figure 1 and the value of 0 increases from 5.010 4 to 1.3105 Pa.s by the addition of the rubber for PS. This because the increase in the compaction due to the introduction of the rubber. These values of 0 are again tested and evaluated from the modeling of the experiments data (Fig.2) of the viscosity by using Winter theory. This theoretical model is a spectrum was empirically expressed by Winter et al. [39] and it depends on the transition zone ,entanglement and flow regime as explained earlier in details in the theoretical part. It is clear from Figure 2 the plateau of the viscosity at low frequencies and the difference between 0 for PS/waste tire and the original material of PS is more significant. Where 0 for PS/waste tire is 9.510 4 compared to 4.5104 of PS as shown in Figure 2. 5. CONCLUSION Polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared in this study by incorporating small particles of waste tires into polydisperse commercial polystyrene (PS) in a melt-mixing method. The dynamic and complex viscosity of PS composites were evaluated and compared to those of the original material of unfilled PS. These properties are determined by ARES Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures, ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results showed that the frequency,  is shifted from 0.46 to 0.072 radians/s and the value of dynamic viscosity increases from 5.0104 to 1.3105 Pa.s by the addition of the rubber for PS. Zero-shear viscosity, 0 was found to be increased from is 9.510 4 for PS/waste tire composite to 4.5104 for PS The flow activation energy is calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software to be 1.063 10 5 and 1.46 105 J/mol.K for Ps and PS composite, respectively. 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at research center Juelich, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES [1]. B.Pukanszky, E.Fekete, " Adhesion and surface modification", Advances in Polymer Science, V139, P.110-153,SpringerVerlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1999. [2]. Andries Voet , "Reinforcement of elastomers by fillers: Review of period 1967-1976", J. of Polymer Science: Macromolecular Reviews, V15, P.327-373, 1980. [3]. R. P. Kumar, M. L. Amma, S. Thomas, "Short sisal fiber reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V58, P.597-612,1995. [4]. V. M. Murty, S. K. De , "Short-fiber-reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P. 1355-1368, 1984 [5]. J.George, S. S. Bhagawan, N. Prabhakaran, S. Thomas, "Short pineapple-leaf-fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science V57, P.843-854,1995 [6]. V. M. Murty, S. K. De ,"Effect of particulate fillers on short jute fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites",J. of Applied Polymer Science,V27, P.4611-4622, 1982 [7]. D. Nabi Saheb, J. P. Jog ,"Natural fiber polymer composites: A review" Advances in Polymer Technology,V18, P.351-363,1999 [8]. E. Ruckenstein, L.Hong , "Conducting rubberlike copolymer-carbon fiber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V53, P.923-932, 1994. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 12-15 14 [9]. K. L. Fung, R. K.Li, S. C. Tjong , "Interface modification on the properties of sisal fiberreinforced polypropylene composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V85, P.169-176, 2002 [10]. S.K.Kutty, G. B. Nando , "Short kevlar fiber-thermoplastic polyurethane composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V43, P.1913-1923, 1991 [11]. Wolfgang G. Glasser, Razaina Taib, Rajesh K. Jain, Ron Kander, "Fiber-reinforced cellulosic thermoplastic composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V73, P.1329-1340, 1999 [12]. M.Shibata, K.Ozawa, N.Teramoto, R.Yosomiya, H.Takeishi, "Biocomposites Made from Short Abaca Fiber and Biodegradable Polyesters" Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V288, P.35-43, 2003 [13]. R. S. Rajeev, A. K. Bhowmick, S. K. De, S. Bandyopadhyay , "Short melamine fiber filled nitrile rubber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.544-558, 2003 [14]. C.Vajrasthira, T.Amornsakchai, S. Bualek-Limcharoen, "Fiber-matrix interactions in aramid-short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V87, P.1059-1067, 2003 [15]. M.A. Martins, I. Joekes, "Tire rubber-sisal composites: Effect of mercerization and acetylation on reinforcement", J.of Applied Polymer Science V89, P.2507-2515, 2003 [16]. V. G. Geethamma, R. Joseph, S.Thomas,"Short coir fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites: Effects of fiber length, orientation, and alkali treatment" J. of Applied Polymer Science,V55, P.583-594, 1995 [17]. D. K. Setua, B. Dutta, "Short silk fiber-reinforced polychloroprene rubber composites",J.of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P.3097-3114, 1984 [18]. J.Son, D. J. Gardner, S. O'Neill, C. Metaxas, "Understanding the viscoelastic properties of extruded polypropylene wood plastic composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V89, P.1638-1644, 2003 [19]. M.Baumgaerted, M.E.De Rosa, J.Machado, M.Masse, H.H.Winter, "The relaxation time spectrum of nearly monodisperse polybutadiene melts" Rheol.Acta, V31, P.75-82,1992. Figure 1: Master curve of * as a function of  for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C. 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 101 102 103 104 105 106 0 PS-composite PS  * P a .s  rad/s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 12-15 15 Figure 2: Determination of 0 theoretically for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180° 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 101 102 103 104 105 106 0 Ps-composite theo. PS theo.  P a .s  rad/s
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: Polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared in this study by incorporating small particles of waste tires into polydisperse commercial polystyrene (PS) in a melt-mixing method. The dynamic mechanical properties of PS and PS/composite were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The shear compliance of PS composite were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. The shear compliance were studied and evaluated. Where the values of J' at  = 0.06 radians/s are 110-4 and 5.310-5 Pa-1 for PS and PS composite, respectively At  = 0.1 radians/s the addition of the rubber alters the value of J'' from 1.610-4 to 8.410-5 Pa-1. That means the stability of PS is enhanced by the incorporation of the rubber", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDDMA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Dynamic Mechanical Analysis for Waste Tires Reinforced Polystyrene: Shear Compliance", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 51-54 51 Dynamic Mechanical Analysis for Waste Tires Reinforced Polystyrene: Shear Compliance Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract: Polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared in this study by incorporating small particles of waste tires into polydisperse commercial polystyrene (PS) in a melt-mixing method. The dynamic mechanical properties of PS and PS/composite were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The shear compliance of PS composite were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. The shear compliance were studied and evaluated. Where the values of J' at  = 0.06 radians/s are 110-4 and 5.310-5 Pa-1 for PS and PS composite, respectively At  = 0.1 radians/s the addition of the rubber alters the value of J'' from 1.610-4 to 8.410-5 Pa-1. That means the stability of PS is enhanced by the incorporation of the rubber Keywords: Polystyrene composite, Waste tires, Dynamic mechanical spectroscopy, Shear Compliance. 1. INTRODUCTION Composite materials are created by combining two or more components to achieve desired properties, which could not be obtained with the separate components. The use of reinforcing fillers, which can reduce material costs and improve certain properties, is increasing in thermoplastic polymer composites. The advantages of polymer composites on performance, economy, or ecology have accelerated the research activities in the field of polymer composites in terms of academic and industrial interests [1-18]. Disposal of waste rubber material is a global problem, and used tires constitute the largest volume of scrap rubber. Recycling of waste tires is essential due to economic and environmental reasons. Utilization of ground waste rubber has been reviewed recently. Finely ground waste tire rubber has been used as filler in rubbers and in thermoplastics [19]. Physical properties and processability are reported to be adversely affected when large volumes of waste rubber is added to a rubber compound. The purpose of this work was to characterize in details the shear compliance of rubber filled polystyrene compared to the original material of unfilled polystyrene. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Samples preparation and characterization PS/waste tires composite was prepared by introducing waste tires into commercial PS with molecular weight about 2107 g/mol. The waste tires were shredded into small particles sizes of about 2 mm. The mixture of PS and 12 wt % shredded tires are dry mixed by hand-mixing for around half an hour and heated at 300°C for 2 hours. Followed by preparation the samples of filled and unfilled PS for the rheological measurements under compression-mold at 190°C for 3 hours and 15 bars in a disc form with diameter 8 mm and thickness 2.2 mm. 3. MEASUREMENTS The dynamic mechanical measurements were performed for PS and PS composite by using an ARES-Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific). The rheometer was operated in the dynamic mode on the plate-plate geometry of 8mm diameter and about 2 mm gap. The gap size changes with the temperatures and is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The measurements were performed in this study for the samples under nitrogen atmosphere, strain amplitude 1%, over temperature ranged from 120 to 220°C and angular frequency ( ) varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 51-54 52 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Figures 1-2 give the dynamic data of filled and unfilled PS at various frequencies and temperatures along with the constructed master curves for J' and J'' as a function of the reduced frequency (WaT). J'() is a measure of the energy stored and recovered per deformation cycle, therefore is called the storage compliance. J''() is a measure of the energy dissipated as heat per cycle of the sinusoidal deformation, for that is called the loss compliance. The Master curves of J'() and J''() show three regions because of the wide range of the temperatures at which the samples were measured. These regions are the same as in the G* () curves as explained above. The values of J'() and J''() for PS are changed by the addition of the rubber filler in particular at low frequencies as shown in Figures 1-2. These Figures show significant enhancement in the moduli for filled PS at low frequencies which are associated to the melt (flow) regime at high temperatures. Where the values of J' at  = 0.06 radians/s are 110-4 and 5.310-5 Pa-1 for PS and PS composite, respectively as shown in Figure 5. And in Figure 6 at  = 0.1 radians/s the addition of the rubber alters the value of J'' from 1.610-4 to 8.410-5 Pa-1. That means the stability of PS is enhanced by the incorporation of the rubber. Because the increase in the stiffness and strength of the PS chains by the addition of the rubber. The significant increase at low frequencies (means at long time and high temperature) may be due to the formation of the rubber-PS network. Since the formation of this matrix increases with the time at high temperature. That is confirmed in the dynamic shear compliances J' and J'' as seen in Figures 1-2. 5. CONCLUSION In this study the waste tires reused in the production of PS composite. The dynamic mechanical properties for PS composite are evaluated and compared to those of the original material of unfilled PS. These properties are determined by ARES Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures, ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The shear compliance were studied and evaluated. Where the values of J' at  = 0.06 radians/s are 110-4 and 5.310-5 Pa-1 for PS and PS composite, respectively At  = 0.1 radians/s the addition of the rubber alters the value of J'' from 1.610-4 to 8.410-5 Pa-1. That means the stability of PS is enhanced by the incorporation of the rubber 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at research center Juelich, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. B.Pukanszky, E.Fekete, " Adhesion and surface modification", Advances in Polymer Science, V139, P.110153,Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1999. 2. Andries Voet , "Reinforcement of elastomers by fillers: Review of period 1967-1976", J. of Polymer Science: Macromolecular Reviews, V15, P.327-373, 1980. 3. R. P. Kumar, M. L. Amma, S. Thomas, "Short sisal fiber reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V58, P.597-612,1995. 4. V. M. Murty, S. K. De , "Short-fiber-reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P. 1355-1368, 1984 5. J.George, S. S. Bhagawan, N. Prabhakaran, S. Thomas, "Short pineapple-leaf-fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science V57, P.843-854,1995 6. V. M. Murty, S. K. De ,"Effect of particulate fillers on short jute fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites",J. of Applied Polymer Science,V27, P.4611-4622, 1982 7. D. Nabi Saheb, J. P. Jog ,"Natural fiber polymer composites: A review" Advances in Polymer Technology,V18, P.351-363,1999 8. E. Ruckenstein, L.Hong , "Conducting rubberlike copolymer-carbon fiber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V53, P.923-932, 1994. 9. K. L. Fung, R. K.Li, S. C. Tjong , "Interface modification on the properties of sisal fiberreinforced polypropylene composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V85, P.169-176, 2002 10. S.K.Kutty, G. B. Nando , "Short kevlar fiber-thermoplastic polyurethane composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V43, P.1913-1923, 1991 11. Wolfgang G. Glasser, Razaina Taib, Rajesh K. Jain, Ron Kander, "Fiber-reinforced cellulosic thermoplastic composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V73, P.1329-1340, 1999 International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 51-54 53 12. M.Shibata, K.Ozawa, N.Teramoto, R.Yosomiya, H.Takeishi, "Biocomposites Made from Short Abaca Fiber and Biodegradable Polyesters" Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V288, P.35-43, 2003 13. R. S. Rajeev, A. K. Bhowmick, S. K. De, S. Bandyopadhyay , "Short melamine fiber filled nitrile rubber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.544-558, 2003 14. C.Vajrasthira, T.Amornsakchai, S. Bualek-Limcharoen, "Fiber-matrix interactions in aramid-short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V87, P.1059-1067, 2003 15. M.A. Martins, I. Joekes, "Tire rubber-sisal composites: Effect of mercerization and acetylation on reinforcement", J.of Applied Polymer Science V89, P.2507-2515, 2003 16. V. G. Geethamma, R. Joseph, S.Thomas,"Short coir fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites: Effects of fiber length, orientation, and alkali treatment" J. of Applied Polymer Science,V55, P.583-594, 1995 17. D. K. Setua, B. Dutta, "Short silk fiber-reinforced polychloroprene rubber composites",J.of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P.3097-3114, 1984 18. J.Son, D. J. Gardner, S. O'Neill, C. Metaxas, "Understanding the viscoelastic properties of extruded polypropylene wood plastic composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V89, P.1638-1644, 2003 19. J. I. Kim , S. H. Ryu , Y. W. Chang, " Mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of waste rubber powder/HDPE composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V.77, P. 2595-2602, 2000. Figure 1: Master curve of J' as a function of  for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 Pure PS PS/rubber J ' P a -1  rad/s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 8, August - 2018, Pages: 51-54 54 Figure 2: Master curve of J'' as a function of  for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C. 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 Pure PS PS/rubber J " P a -1  rad/s
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1594972845000, "description": "Abstract: Waste polyethylene (PE) bags were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. The bitumen/PE blend was prepared by mixing homogenously commercial bitumen with waste PE in the molten state. The samples of bitumen blend and bitumen base were rheologically analyzied. The rheological properties such as complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity of bitumen and bitumen blend were studied using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from-10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results evidence that the shear compliance and torque are improved by the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDDMP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Bitumen Composites: Part II", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 5-8 5 Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Bitumen Composites: Part II Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt E-mail: Abstract: Waste polyethylene (PE) bags were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. The bitumen/PE blend was prepared by mixing homogenously commercial bitumen with waste PE in the molten state. The samples of bitumen blend and bitumen base were rheologically analyzied. The rheological properties such as complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity of bitumen and bitumen blend were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from-10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results evidence that the shear compliance and torque are improved by the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen. Keywords: bitumen; rheology, waste plastics. 1. INTRODUCTION Bitumen is the black adhesive that binds flexible pavements on roads and airfields together. Bitumen is also used in other areas of application, such as waterproofing, flooring and joint materials. Almost all bitumen originates from crude oil and is the residue of a refining process. It is well-known that bitumen is a very complex and temperature dependent material consisting of hydrocarbon molecules. Naphtenic-base crude oils often give a large yield of bitumen that may be of good quality, while paraffinic crude oils may give bitumen of good quality or yield bitumen not suitable for road construction [1]. Nowadays a very large majority of the roads are constructed using a mixture of bitumen (5 wt %) and mineral aggregates. Notwithstanding this low bitumen content, the performance of the road pavement depends to a large extent on the properties of bitumen itself, since it constitutes the only deformable component. The correlation between the complex colloidal structure of bitumen and its viscoelastic response is therefore a subject of scientific and technical interest [2 -7]. Polymer additives are well-known to improve the rheological properties of bitumen The polymer addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation at high temperature.Besides, the fracture properties including critical stress intensity factor (K1C) at low temperature of polymer modified bitumens (PmB's) were shown to be higher than those of the bitumen base.To determine the crack propagation mechanism controlling fracture properties, previous studies have focused on establishing the relationship between the fracture properties and the morphology of polymer modified bitumen [8]. The addition of synthetic polymers to enhance service properties over a wide range of temperatures in road paving applications was considered a long time ago and nowadays has become a real alternative. As has been pointed out in relevant papers about bitumen and polymer/ bitumen blends[9 -18 ] understanding the interactions of asphaltene and maltene (main components of bitumen) with the polymer, is a crucial point to gain insight into the routes to improve the capacities of these systems. In recent years, the volume of municipal plastic waste (MPW) has increased greatly, and this has resulted in a critical problem for modern society and future generations. Polyolefins, poly(ethylene terephthalate), Polyvinylchloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) are among the most common components of plastic waste because they are among the most frequently used commercial plastics in our daily lives and in industry.Recycling mixed plastic residues in the form of blends is attractive from academic and industrial points of view because of the improvements in the impact strength , dimensional stability, stress cracking, and processability with respect to virgin blends[19]. In the present study, waste plastics are used as a filler for making bituminous roof mastic up to a level of 20 wt %. The viscoelasticity of a bitumen modified with waste 9wt% PE is analysed and compared to bitumen base. 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Waste plastics were collected from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The waste plastics and commercial bitumen were weighted and heated individually in an oven until melt. Molten waste plastic was poured into the molten bitumen and stirred vigorously to give a homogenous sample. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing. Measurements Solid-state dynamic viscoelastic measurements of all the pure bitumen and bitumen blends samples were accomplished in a Solid state institute, Research center Juelich, Germany. In this study we used an ARESrheometer (Advanced Rheology Expanded System, Rheometric Scientific Co.,) in the dynamic mode, under International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 5-8 6 nitrogen atmosphere, plate-plate geometry with 25 mm in diameter to determine the rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 25°C to 160°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. A sample ( about 1.0 g) was placed in the lower plate then the upper parallel plate was lowered for a tight contact with the sample. All the samples were held at a constant temperature of 50°C for 10 min, cooled to 25°C and measured at temperatures (25, 40, 60, 80, 100, 110, 120, 130°C, 145°C and 160°C). The applied strain were 2%. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In this section the master curves at 25°C of the storage (J') and loss compliance (J'') versus  are presented in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. J'() is a measure of the energy stored and recovered per deformation cycle, therefore is called the storage compliance. And J''() is a measure of the energy dissipated as heat per cycle of the sinusoidal deformation, for that is called the loss compliance. Figures 1-2 show the dynamic shear compliances moduli for bitumen blends compared to pure bitumen. These Figures show clearly two regions reflect the behavior of the material under the measured temperatures as a function of. As shown in Figures 1-2 the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen affect on the J'() and J''() moduli. Since these moduli are enhanced for the bitumen blends. This is clear at  ~ 5.210 3 radians/s where the value of J' changed from 1.510 -7 for neat bitumen to 1.010 -7 Pa -1 in the case of bitumen/PE blend. But at low frequencies the effect is more noticeable. since at  ~ 5.910-2 radians/s, the values of J' become 4.010 -5 and 1.310 -6 Pa -1 for pure bitumen, and bitumen blend, respectively. The same effect is observed also for J'' moduli in Figure 2. In this Figure at  ~ 91 radians/s the values of J'' are 4.310 -7 and 1.910 -8 Pa -1 for neat bitumen, bitumen-PE, respectively. This because of the matrix formation between the PE chains and bitumen which leads to increase the strength and stiffness. This increase in the stiffness and strength by the introduction of the waste PE to bitumen is confirmed also in the shear creep stress, J(t) in Figure 3. This Figure show J(t) as a function of time for pure bitumen and bitumen blends. As shown in Figure 3 J(t) increases with time and the difference between the values of J(t) in the case of neat bitumen and bitumen blends is higher at long times than at short times. Since at t ~ 200 seconds, the values of J(t) are, 1.110 -3 and 1.410 -5 Pa -1 for neat bitumen and bitumen-PE, respectively. This indicates the improvement of the stability of the bitumen for a long time by the addition of the waste PE due to network of bitumenPE. The torque in NM as a function of frequency for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are logarithmically plotted at 100°C in Figure 4. The torque decreases with decreasing the shear rates as shown in Figure 7.This Figure evidences also that the addition of waste plastics to bitumen enhances the torque. Since the torque increases from 5.010 -4 to 1.310 -3 , 2.710 -2 , 3.210 -1 , 4.310 0 and 5.710 1 NM by the addition of 3, 7, 9,13 and 20 % PET , respectively. This because the formation of the bitumen-plastic matrix which leads to increase stiffness of the bitumen blends. 4. CONCLUSION Waste PE bags were used as a modifier in making improved bitumen. The blend compared to bitumen base was subjected to evaluate their response against temperature and frequency sweeps. By using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode and parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from - 10 to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. It was found that shear compliance and torque are enhanced by the incorporation of waste 9wt%PE. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout and Dr.S. Khale at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES [1] Y.Edwards, P.Redelius,Energy & Fuels, V17, P.511-520, 2003. [2] O. Gonzalez, J. J. Pena, M. E. Munoz, A. Santamaria, A. Perez-Lepe, F. Martinez-Boza, and C. Gallegos, V16, P. 1256 -1263, Energy Fuels, 2002. [3] Y.Khakimullin, A.Murafa, Z. Sungatova, E.Nagumanova, V.Khozin, V.36, P. 423-428, 2000. [4] A. Pérez-Lepe, F. J. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, O. González, M. E. Muñoz and A. Santamaría, Fuel, V 82, P. 1339-1348, 2003. [5] P. R. Herrington, Y.Wu and M. C. Forbes, Fuel, V 78, P. 101-110 , 1999. [6] A. Chaala, C.Roy and A. Ait-Kadi, Fuel, V 75, P. 15751583, 1996. [7] L.Champion-Lapalu, A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, D. Martin, J.P. Planche, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.143-147, 2002. [8] A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V286, P.126-137, 2001. [9] X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Fuel, V76, P. 1353-1359, 1997. [10] A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, G. M. McNally, F. Andrews and J. Clarke, Polymer, V 40, P. 6337-6349, 1999. [11] Y. Ryabikin, V.Zashkvara , PETROLEUM CHEMISTRY,V43 P.286-288, 2003 [12] A.Kishita, S. Takahashi, H.Kamimura, M.Miki, T.Moriya, H.Enomoto, JOURNAL OF THE JAPAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE V46, P.215-221, 2003. [13] J.Jehlicka, O.Urban, J.Pokorny, SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 5-8 7 BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY ,V59, P.23412352, 2003. [14] S.Rahmani, W.McCaffrey, J.Elliott, et al., IND ENG CHEM RES V42, P.4101-4108, 2003. [15] M.Rodriguez-Valverde, M.Cabrerizo-Vilchez, A. PaezDuenas , et al., COLLOID SURFACE A, V222, P. 233251, 2003 . [16] J.Brocks, R.Summons, R.Buick, et al., ORG GEOCHEM V34, P.1161-1175, 2003 [17] 7. J.Bryan, K.Mirotchnik, A.Kantzas, J CAN PETROL TECHNOL V42, P. 29-34, 2003 [18] A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 53155326, 2000. [19] R.M. C. Santana, S. Manrich, Journal of Applied Polymer Science V88, P.2861-2867, 2003. [20] J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). [21] Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000. [22] A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, C.Scramoncin, D. Martin, J.P.Planche, Energy & Fuels, P.575-584, 2000. [23] F.Martinez-Boza, P. Partal, B.Conde, C.Gallegos, Energy & Fuels, V14, P. 131-137, 2000. Figure 1: Master curves of J' for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C Figure 2: Master curves of J'' for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C Figure 3: The shear creep for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 ne a t b itum e n b it.-9 % P E J ' P a -1  ra d /s 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 9 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 p ure b itum e n b it . -9 % P E J " P a -1  ra d /s 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 ne a t b itum e n b it . -9 % P E J t P a -1 t im e , s International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 5-8 8 Figure 4: Master curves of the torque for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 9 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 ne a t b itum e n b it.-9 % P E to rq u e N M  ra d /s
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{ "creator": "Shobaki, Mazen J. Al", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1581330691000, "description": "The study aimed to identify E- Learning strategies and their relation to the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, Al-Aqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society is from the senior management, where the number of senior management in the universities in question is 206. The random stratified sample was selected and (SPSS) was used for statistical data analysis. The study found a significant relationship between E- Learning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. It also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they do not care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in following up the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities does not care about providing the appropriate budget for E- Learning. The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an E- Learning budget and encourage employees to continue using E- Learning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDESI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "E-Learning Strategies in Developing Research Performance Efficiency: Higher Education Institutions", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 8 E-Learning Strategies in Developing Research Performance Efficiency: Higher Education Institutions Samia A. M. Abdalmenem 1 , Samer M. Arqawi 2 , Youssef M. Abu Amuna 3 , Samy S. Abu Naser 4 , Mazen J. Al Shobaki 5 1Department of Management and Financial Business, Al-Quds Open University 2Department of Management and Financial Business, Palestine Technical University-(Kadoorei) 3,4Department of Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine 5Dean of Bait Al-Mqds College for technical Science, GazaPalestine , , , , Abstract: The study aimed to identify ELearning strategies and their relation to the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, Al-Aqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society is from the senior management, where the number of senior management in the universities in question is 206. The random stratified sample was selected and (SPSS) was used for statistical data analysis. The study found a significant relationship between ELearning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. It also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they do not care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in following up the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities does not care about providing the appropriate budget for ELearning. The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an ELearning budget and encourage employees to continue using ELearning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research. Keywords: Research Performance, Performance Efficiency, ELearning Strategies, Universities, Palestine. 1. INTRODUCTION ELearning is a modern term, a product of science and technology in the field of education. It involves the planning, implementation, evaluation and development of ELearning, educational and non-educational institutions. There are specialized centers in curriculum design and development, for the labor market. ELearning seeks to achieve goals and functions that contribute to solving educational and scientific problems, developing them through active educational programs, employing them on the Internet, providing feedback, and reaching educational efficiency in educational and research performance. Education technology provides academics with the expertise needed to develop their performance. It helps academics to keep abreast of new academic matters and scientific research. Their use is supported by helping the teacher overcome temporal and spatial boundaries, saving time and effort in delivering skills, knowledge, ELearning contributes to changing the role of teacher and learner. The learner has become a scholar and an explorer of knowledge. Scientific research is the second goal that universities seek to achieve. It is a societal necessity that contributes to the presence of universities in society through it. ELearning is a means of education that aims to interact through the use of computer technology, which stimulates the development of skills, enhance creativity using modern electronic methods, and provides ELearning content to all students both inside and outside the university, and contributes to the learning process in an easy and enjoyable way For the learner, achieves the principle of equal educational opportunities, aims to increase the efficiency, quality, and flexibility of education. One of the objectives to be achieved from ELearning is what Abo Khatwa (2013) provides: a rich, multi-source learning environment, redefining roles, creating incentives, promoting communication between the learning process, modeling education, , With the preparation of a generation of teachers and students able to deal with modern technology skillfully. It can be said that the importance of ELearning is reflected in improving the quality of higher education and its development through the improvement of methods and teaching techniques to cope with the general development of modern international technology, and education is required to search for methods and educational models to meet many challenges. Universities because of its ability to deliver the content of educational programs, activities and courses online. ELearning strategies vary in order to suit learners' abilities, diversity of goals, and decisions. The strategies used are defined through ELearning, namely how education International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 9 is provided to learners. ELearning includes the design of different learning strategies that help achieve the objectives. ELearning strategies include a number of procedures; to provide ELearning content that helps learners to achieve educational goals with great skill and professionalism. It can be said that the importance of ELearning is reflected in improving the quality of higher education and its development through the improvement of methods and teaching techniques to cope with the general development of modern international technology, and education is required to search for methods and educational models to meet many challenges. Universities because of its ability to deliver the content of educational programs, activities and courses online. ELearning strategies vary in order to suit learners' abilities, diversity of goals, and decisions. The strategies used are defined through ELearning, namely how education is provided to learners. ELearning includes the design of different learning strategies that help achieve the objectives. ELearning strategies include a number of procedures; to provide ELearning content that helps learners to achieve educational goals with great skill and professionalism. The increasing efficiency of research performance is linked to the ability of universities to employ ELearning to improve research. There are scientific studies that have proved that employing ELearning strategies in an effective manner can contribute effectively to the development of the educational process and enhance the communication between the parties to the educational and research process. And the wide spread of communications and information technology from the variables affecting universities, which reflected their effects on university performance. Despite the growing growth of ELearning, there are many challenges facing its application in Palestinian and foreign universities, which need special budgets, experts, content development, and information security protection. Although the experience of Palestinian universities is adopting ELearning strategies compared to foreign universities, ELearning strategies that contribute to increased educational and research performance. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FirstELearning Strategies The process of education is a part and an important element for the progress of any institution. This process comes through the effectiveness or influence of individuals and employees in the institution through values and systems, which are able to bring organizational change constantly, and also improve the performance of the institution depending on the use of expertise and human skills, (Jad Al-Rab, 2015), with the spread of modern technologies in the era of technological development emerged methods and tools that helped to raise the efficiency of university education and research, e-learning has become an important part to raise the educational process, prompting many universities and research centers interest in the different strategies of education, support, and adapted in the optimal use in the educational process. The Junghoon study (2007) illustrates strategies that promote e-learning: 1. Establish supportive strategies based on the type of university. 2. Evolution of ELearning system quality. 3. Strengthen the support system for academics and learners. 4. The development of a common knowledge system between universities and industry. 5. Strengthening international cooperation for ELearning . (Catherine and Chen, 2016) concluded that there are five positive learning strategies in this area and that the use of computer skills in education improves the credibility of education, and students prefer to use computer literacy skills. While the study (Lamushi, 2016).) To the following: 1. Effective ELearning begins with effective planning, and the vital part of this planning includes educational strategies. 2. Most of the strategies used in the traditional environment can be used as an ELearning environment. 3. ELearning project strategies are the most appropriate student-centered learning strategies, whose studies have confirmed their impact and effectiveness in development. While (El-Banna and Sorour, 2009) study showed that there is a statistically significant direct effect of selfefficacy in the internet on the efficiency of research performance and a statistically significant direct effect of general self-efficacy on the efficiency of research performance (Radwan, 2013): 1. The results of the study confirm the availability of material aspects such as databases, laboratories, and financial support through research chairs. 2. Despite the importance of the human element there is a clear lack in this element, whether it is the existence of the researcher is efficient in terms of preparation and training, as well as in the management of the movement of scientific research in universities. 3. The great need for emerging universities is noted for many of the ingredients of research success. El-Baz (2015) also found that information technology, knowledge management and distance training are key strategic ingredients for building organizational learning. It also found the ability of universities to cope with the rapid changes in teaching and scientific research. Distance training in universities reduces training time, and there are many weaknesses in the availability of technology. The study (Al-Otaibi, 2010) found the following results: 1. There is a positive impact on the application of the principles of TQM on the efficiency of academic performance in Saudi universities. International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 10 2. The study showed that there is a positive effect to follow the educational process on the efficiency of academic performance in Saudi universities. 3. The study showed that there is a positive impact of human resources development on the efficiency of academic performance. From the above, the areas of ELearning strategies and research performance can be identified as shown in the following table (1): Table 1: Areas of ELearning strategies and research performance ELearning Strategies Requirements for ELearning Planning, organization, skill, interaction, feedback, problem solving, goals. Plans, strategies Learning strategies for online student activities, ELearning strategy, online learning strategy, multimedia presentation strategy. Techniques (Logistics) Strategies (ELearning contracts, e-discussion, e-lecture, ELearning, self-orientation, web exploration, project strategies, e-collaboration strategy, e-simulation, e-strategy). Human resources, financial resources, infrastructure. The concept of ELearning strategies can be summarized as follows: Table 2: The concept of ELearning strategies Author The Concept (Katharine& Others, 6102) The e-learning strategy seeks to promote transformative approaches to teaching and learning, curricula that have a positive impact on students, faculty, employers, and other stakeholders, connect learners, create a sense of belonging, and enable them to participate through the core value of collaboration across a wide range of communities through dialogue and electronic interaction. (Cengiz, 6102) Explain that it is a pattern or plan to integrate the main objectives of online learning through the mentor to access digital content to help organize the learning process through e-learning. (Michelle,B & others, 6102) Is to provide online programs, to further improve students' success in e-learning. (Uikar, 6100) It is seen as goals, outcomes, vision, mission, values, organization performance indicators, and specific goals that assist in e-learning and demonstrate the value of e-learning. (Al-Dossari, 2014) It is defined as mental processes or skills that help the learner to recognize and acquire different forms of knowledge, information or performance, and enable him to organize information in memory, integrate it, study learning materials, organize the study process, the environment, and understand what he learns with e-learning. (Ahmad, 2012) Demonstrated as a set of requirements that have made e-learning the strategic choice, namely the need for continuing education, flexible, communication, and openness to others, and relies on making education unrelated to place or time of learning, which is based on learning, self-learning and effective. As for the analysis of the concept of e-learning strategies, after introducing the definition (Uikar, 2014) which is the objectives and results, vision, mission, values, performance indicators of the organization, and specific objectives help in e-learning, and demonstrate the value of e-learning. The researchers believe that ELearning strategies can be defined as: An integrated curriculum that uses a variety of methods, tools, and programs related to improving and developing the educational process, which contributes to the process of increasing the efficiency of performance in universities, achieving their goals, in addition to improving the knowledge, and access by the learner and teacher, which helps him to create, which in turn leads To attract, attract customers, loyalty to universities, and its reflection on the culture of society. The objectives of e-learning strategies are as follows (Quality Program, 2012): Helps faculty members and their assistants prepare teaching material for students, compensate for lack of experience in each other, and provide them with advanced skills. Addresses the lack of academic and training cadres in some educational sectors through virtual classrooms, and achieves full interaction, directly with teacher and learner. It works on a variety of tools. The new educational system assumes different learners in tendencies, attitudes, preparations, and desires, and thus provides different ways to access the information and tools in a variety that suits the difference in the qualities of the learners. Helps to achieve equal educational opportunities, where the learner can overcome the obstacles of time and distance if the adoption of education on the Internet, as ELearning is able to provide. International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 11 Helps students search for information by communicating with peers, searching databases online, and through social media. To achieve these goals, there is a set of requirements to reach the objectives of ELearning, as follows: 1. To amend the education policy at the university level, so that technology is an essential tool in scientific education at all stages, which contribute to communication between faculty members and students. 2. Providing physical, human and infrastructure requirements, preparing appropriate electronic programs and courses, and training the elements of the educational system. Dr. Mr. Jad Al-Rab addressed these requirements in the writing of university administration and higher education institutions development strategies and improvement curricula (2010). 3. Conduct research, studies, and experiences in the field of ELearning, comprehensive evaluation, and continuous improvement. Second: The efficiency of research performance Knowledge is the basis for the creation of new opportunities, as it becomes clear that the results of research conducted by universities must be used to create new tools and better conditions for future life (Jad AlRab, 2015), and since the process of university development is not limited to quantitative growth, Decisions should be taken to increase the performance of scientific research, develop strategies that contribute to the coordination between universities and scientific research centers, and contribute to financial support for all pillars of scientific research such as magazines, libraries, periodicals, consultations, training courses and scholarship. Concept of research performance efficiency: The development of research performance in universities has become an urgent requirement, as contemporary progress has produced a square whose facets are the university, scientific research, technology, and society, and without a correlation between them is not right for one party to perform, and being properly without interaction with the other party (Hottenrott & Thorwarth, 2011). The definition of university research performance is defined by Hamid, 2013, as the sum of the activities of a faculty, department, college, or university in order to contribute to development and scientific progress, which can be measured in several ways, including: , Quote, or peer appreciation. Chiang Kao & Hwei-Lan Pao defines research performance as the research product or product of research activity that contributes to scientific progress. The ability to use a range of research activities in less time and effort, which contribute to the development of the university, and progress through the university or its clients to produce the best research results, the results of which contribute to the development and development of society. It also includes the use of all research strategies that contribute to the development of the university and its departments, and their outputs are capable of scientific and practical development in universities. The researchers believe that there are indicators to evaluate the activity of graduate studies and research, as follows: 1. The adequacy and efficiency of faculty members. 2. Number of professors, assistants, assistant teachers and recruits. 3. The efficiency of organizational and human structures in the field of graduate studies 4. Percentage of expenditure on scientific research and higher studies at the national level, and at the level of each research institution. 5. Number of researchers obtaining degrees from abroad. 6. Number of scientists, researchers and distinguished at the international level in their fields of specialization. 7. The efficiency and adequacy of the resources and the physical, laboratory and research capabilities. 8. Number of researchers or researchers who have received certificates of appreciation or rewards. 9. The nature of the relationship between the university and local universities and conferences research assignments research participation. 10. Quality of Graduate Studies and Research Provided. 11. The degree of influx of expatriates from Arab and foreign countries. 12. The degree to which researchers from outside the university, and mental image. 13. Increase external demand for postgraduate graduates. 14. The efficiency of university senior management in the development and creation of financial resources. 15. Number of messages or research rejected or written off and approved. 16. Scope of scientific Secretariat prevailing in the research institution. 17. The average time to complete the Master's and Ph.D. 18. Internal migration rates from public to private universities. Research Performance Objectives: Scientific research is one of the main objectives of any university, and ranks second in importance after academic education, and has become a prominent role in the theoretical and applied fields, as the progress of any country is measured by the importance of scientific research, and its efforts in the investment of what is accumulated Providing funding to universities and research centers to perform their functions effectively and excellently (Jad Al-Rab, 2015). Mushtaha (2013) argues that the importance of research can be understood when we consider the following points: International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 12 Research means for those students who have to write master's or doctoral dissertations, to meet professional needs, or to have a higher status of social structure. For professionals, research may mean a source of income. For philosophers and thinkers, research may mean the outlet for new ideas and insights. For literature practitioners, research may mean developing new methods and creative work. For analysts and thinkers, research may generate new theories. Some of those interested in scientific research, as confirmed by Al-Quds Open University, 2013, believe that the main principles related to research performance (scientific research) are as follows: Fact: The researcher should focus his attention on finding out facts, and the possibility of disseminating them to expand human knowledge, and enhance the human capacity to exploit this knowledge to achieve vital goals. Freedom: The researcher must comply with the scientific limitations imposed on the freedom of scientific research through the rules of the democratic system for the adequate protection of human life. Responsibility: The researcher must be fully responsible for all research, and experiences, especially with regard to the direct effects on human life, mental health, and physical. Integrity and integrity: The researcher must do his work according to the requirements of scientific methods. E Mastery of work: the researcher must transfer the values and objectives of scientific correct without bias. Cooperation: Enhances cooperation by maintaining an open atmosphere, assistance and trust among dealers. Figure 1: The basic principles of the efficiency of research performance Source: Prepared by researchers in light of the basic principles of scientific research at Al Quds Open University. According to the above plan, the basic principles are the characteristics of good research. The research process is not a personal process, but rather a scientific, social, cultural and human work that must be based on ideals, values, knowledge and ethics. In the use of information. In the theoretical framework, the following question is answered: What is the level of efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities from the point of view of senior management? The next hypothesis is also tested There is a relationship between the strategy of ELearning and the efficiency of research performance in universities from the point of view of senior management 3. LITERATURE REVIEW  Study of (Abdalmenem et al., 2019) aimed to identify e-learning strategies and their relation to increasing the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, AlAqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society consists of senior management in Palestinian universities, where the number of senior management personnel in the universities was 206. The random stratified sample was selected, and the Statistical Analysis of Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used. The study found a significant relationship between e-learning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. It Reality Freedom Coprations Responsibility Straightness Perfection Activities Comparative Operations Informati on Researcher Using Measurement Expectations Feedback International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 13 also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in the sequence of policies to implement the development of scientific research. The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities interested in providing the appropriate budget for e-learning. The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an e-learning budget and encourage employees to continue using e-learning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research.  Study of (Al-Anzi, 2016), aimed at understanding the relationship between the use of ICT applications and increasing the ability of scientific research among faculty members, the latest applications of education technology used in the delivery of services, and their impact on improving research performance. The results showed that there was a clear reduction in the periodic updating of the ICT tools and other media of the Commission. The results also indicate a good rise in the contribution of ICT education and information technology to improving research levels.  Study of (Al-Baz, 2015) aimed to characterize the current situation of applying the organizational learning portal in some Egyptian universities and some foreign universities operating in Egypt. And to analyze the most important challenges and constraints that limit the effectiveness of applying the organizational learning portal. And identify the most important indicators of measuring the culture of excellence while identifying the basic pillars to build a culture of excellence in different administrative sites. The results showed that the preparation of information technology, knowledge management, and distance training is one of the basic strategic elements needed to build organizational learning. And that there was a capacity for universities to cope with rapid changes in teaching and scientific research. Distance training at universities reduces training time, and there are many weaknesses in the availability of technology.  Study of (Brown & Sun Park, 2015) which aimed to compare online asynchronous master lectures with their traditional counterparts, and to evaluate practices and research through self-efficacy. The results showed that knowledge improved and selfefficacy in research among students. And that there is little difference between online learners and faceto-face imitation education.  Study of (Pilar Ficapal-Cusía & Joan Boada-Graub, 2015) Aimed to develop business strategies and processes to deal with and solve the situation associated with a particular job, design the process of joint assessment based on individual performance, group performance, generate thinking processes, to enable students to assimilate, and then generalize the concepts and procedures developed for other situations you will encounter in the environment Work, and develop education strategies that enhance performance. The results showed that the issuance of choices and expansion of electronic methodology. (Eg, time management, task planning, problem solving, decision-making and use of ICT systems), personality traits such as: (effective communication, critical thinking, personality and relationships) and systematic nature of adaptation with new situations, and self-learning.  Study of (Nicholas et al., 2014) aimed at identifying strategies used to identify a community-based approach and addressing the challenges of education in different communities throughout Nigeria. The results show that strategies focus on bringing together community stakeholders to create awareness, identify issues related to education, develop appropriate educational programs that address issues and improve the quality of education in communities. The system provides a framework for continually evaluating students' academic performance.  Study of (David & Serradell, 2014) aimed at identifying innovations that affect all teaching methods, ELearning methods, and the detection of variables such as the university's strategy towards ICT adoption. (ICT) to identify the students' abilities to use digital technology in the educational process by teachers and students, or to choose a methodology that simulates digital education the results showed that motivation is the main variable that affects the performance of students over the Internet, which emphasizes the importance of this factor as a source of educational efficiency. Positive impact on student performance and positive impact on student performance from adoption of innovations in teaching and learning technology.  Study of (Morais et al., 2014) aimed to identify the capacities of European higher education institutions in education, examine the level of European higher education institutions in ELearning, and the possibility of generalizing its experience to benefit as many students as possible. The results showed that ELearning offers greater flexibility in education than traditional learning. And that ELearning generates many ways that stimulate and enrich International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 14 discussions, and ELearning contributes to the exploitation of time. And that ELearning is classified in quality assurance processes.  Study of (Al-Gamal, 2014) aimed to identify the availability of the requirements of the success of electronic management in universities, to identify the size of the role played by electronic management in increasing the efficiency of university performance. The results showed that there were differences in the views of the study groups on the variables of the study. And that there is a significant impact between the quality of electronic service, and the efficiency of university performance.  Study of (Al-Saadi, 2013) aimed to determine the requirements of using ELearning in the faculties of the University of Maysan from the point of view of the faculty members to determine the requirements for design, implementation and evaluation of the use of ELearning in the faculties of the University of Maysan from the point of view of the faculty members, and identify the requirements for the training of faculty members to use ELearning in University of Maysan University. The results showed that the requirements of the e-course and the requirements of the training of faculty members were of great importance. And that the requirements of the physical education environment were of medium importance.  Study of (Al-Matari, 2013) aimed to develop a questionnaire to diagnose the reality of ELearning in Arab universities in the light of quality standards, to obtain high reliability and stability of the questionnaire. The most important findings were that the questionnaire has a high degree of honesty and consistency. And that the other two criteria (leadership and administrative organization, material and technical resources, human and financial) all indicate that the one-dimensional questionnaire. METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES: The methodology of the study and its procedures is a major focus through which the practical aspect of the study is accomplished. The data required to conduct the statistical analysis are obtained in order to reach the results that are interpreted in the light of the study literature on the subject of the study. 4. COMMUNITY AND STUDY SAMPLE: The research society includes: (senior management) in the Palestinian and foreign universities, which are: (Islamic University, Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, University of Munster, University of Ottawa and Suez Canal University). Table 3: Distribution of the study population No. University Senior Management 1. Palestinian Universities Islamic University 012 2. Al-Azhar University 22 3. Al-Aqsa University 20 4. Foreign Universities University of Munster 52 5. University of Ottawa 52 6. Suez Canal University 83 Total 008 STUDY TOOL The study tool was prepared by studying the administrative literature and previous studies related to the subject of the study. A number of university professors were consulted in determining the dimensions of the questionnaires and their sentences. In light of the opinion of the arbitrators, some of the clauses of the questionnaire were modified in terms of deletion, addition, and modification, so that the questionnaire will be finalized. Gradient (1-5) was used to measure respondents' responses to the questionnaire sections. The questionnaire consisted of a main Areas consisting of (14) sub-Areas (strategic planning efficiency of research performance) as shown in the following table (4). Table 4: Axes and paragraphs included in the questionnaires of the study Areas Paragraphs ELearning Strategies 00 E Planning Strategy 5 Efficiency of research performance 5 Source: Prepared by researchers. RELIABILITY AND STABILITY OF THE STUDY TOOL The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed in two ways: A. Certification of the arbitrators "virtual honesty": The study tool presented in its preliminary form to a group of arbitrators from specialists in the academic, administrative, professional, statistical, and educational technology, the researchers responded to the views of the arbitrators and make the necessary deletion and amendment in the light of the proposals submitted, the questionnaire was thus finalized. International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 15 B. Internal consistency: The internal consistency refers to the consistency of each paragraph of the questionnaire with the area to which this paragraph belongs. Table 5: Internal honesty of the questionnaire axes No. ELearning Strategies Pearson Coefficient Of Correlation Probability Value (Sig.) 1. Strategic Planning 0.918** 0.000 2. Efficiency of research performance 0.927** 0.000 *The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.05. * *The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.01. The stability of the research questionnaire was verified by Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha and the split-half test and the results were as shown in Table (6). Table 6: Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha and split-half test to measure the stability of the upper management questionnaire No. Areas Number Of Paragraphs Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha Split-Half Test 1. Strategic Planning 7 0.933 0.938 2. Efficiency of research performance 7 0.953 0.950 ELearning Strategies 14 0.963 0.962 The results shown in the previous table indicate that the value of Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha is high for the axes, with values ranging from 0.933 to 0.953. The results were similar to Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha, ranging between 0.938-0.950. This means that the resolution tool is accurate in measuring what is being measured, and that the stability coefficient is high and satisfies the research purposes. 5. DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE The relative weights of ELearning strategies in foreign and Palestinian universities were determined from the point of view of senior management, as shown in the table: Table 7: Arithmetic mean, relative weight, and value (T) of ELearning strategies from the point of view of senior management Areas Universities SMA Standard Deviation Relative Weight% T Test Value Morality PValue ELearning Strategies Foreign 3.43 0.76 68.57 4.593 1.111 Palestinian 6.35 1.19 57.8 0.32 0.314 It is clear from the above table that the mean of ELearning strategies from the point of view of senior management in foreign universities (3.43) is higher than the default (3) and the value of t is equal to (4.593), which is statistically significant at (0.01). This is due to the availability of material and human resources, continuous follow-up to the development of the technological education process, and the development of ELearning strategies. For Palestinian universities, the arithmetic average of ELearning strategies was (2.89). The value of (T) was equal to (0.32) and in statistical terms (0.314) which is greater than (0.05), thus increasing the average of ELearning strategies from the point of view of senior management in Palestinian universities Not statistically significant, researchers attribute this to financial situations and crises, and inability to implement strategic plans. The efficiency of research performance from the point of view of senior management in the universities under study: The efficiency of research performance was determined from the senior management point of view using the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, relative weight, test value "T" and "Sig" as shown in the following table: Table 8: The arithmetic average, the standard deviation, the value of (T) and the relative weight of the efficiency of the research performance from the point of view of senior management No. Efficiency of university performance (research) SMA Standard Deviation Relative Weight% T Test Value Morality PValue Ranking 1. Senior management participates in research that develops university performance 3.55 1.29 71.03 5.59 0.00 2 2. Motivate employees to spend abroad 3.46 1.40 69.29 -0.87 0.39 6 3. The senior management follows the policies of implementing the development of scientific research 2.93 1.44 58.51 0.97 0.33 18 International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 16 4. Is working on a future plan for scientific research 3.07 1.23 61.42 0.67 0.50 13 5. The senior management in its plan is constantly developing research centers 3.05 1.16 60.92 1.69 0.09 14 6. Facilitates participation in scientific conferences 3.13 1.34 62.70 0.45 0.65 11 7. Helps to disseminate electronically researched scientific research 3.04 1.33 60.71 0.93 0.35 16 Efficiency of university performance (research) 3.11 150 62.14 7.65 0.000 The value of (T) of the table at the level of significance of 0.05 about 1.98 The senior management agreed that the relative weight of the pillars of the efficiency of research performance was the paragraph (senior management participation in research that develops the university performance). It ranked first with a relative weight of 71.03, an average of 3.55, a test value of 5.59, and Sig value (0.05). This is a statistical function at the mean level (α≤ 0.05), indicating that the average response rate for this paragraph has significantly increased the degree of neutrality. There is considerable agreement by the respondents on this paragraph. The researchers attribute this to the nature of the work of senior management, which is specialized in planning, development and development of strategies and policies in line with the requirements of the university. While paragraph XV (follow the senior management policies to implement the development of scientific research) ranked last relative weight (58.51%), the mean (2.93), the test value (0.97), and the probability value (Sig) = (00.00), which is below the level (0.05). Therefore, this is a statistically significant at the level of significance (α≤0.05), indicating that the average response to this paragraph is less than the low degree of neutrality, indicating that there is little approval from the sample on this paragraph. The researchers attributed this to the difficult economic situation in the Palestinian universities, which delayed the implementation of the development of scientific research, and directed Palestinian universities to the attention of academic education. As for foreign universities, they follow the policies of implementing scientific research, but seek to be better for technological development. In general, the views of the senior management agreed on the importance of the efficiency of the research performance, and obtained an approval ratio with an average of 3.11 indicating that the average response rate of this Areas exceeded the level of neutrality, which is (3) The researchers attributed this to the efforts of universities to develop scientific research centers, libraries and conferences that contribute to the dissemination of the culture of scientific research and help to solve the problems of society. The relative weights of the research efficiency aspects from the point of view of senior management in foreign and Palestinian universities: Table 9: Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, relative weight, T test value, and morale in universities for the Areas of efficient research performance from the point of view of senior management Areas Universities SMA Standard Deviation Relative Weight% Test Value Morality PValue Efficiency of research performance Foreign 3.11 1.23 62.10 0.21 1.25 Palestinian 3.10 1.00 60.29 0.93 0.356 It is clear from the previous table that the relative weight (62.10%) and the arithmetic mean of the efficiency of research performance from the point of view of senior management in foreign universities (3.11) is higher than the default average (3) Statistically significant value (0.00). The researchers attributed this to the fact that senior management always strives to raise the efficiency of research performance, and sets future aspirations to achieve long-term future plans that contribute to supporting scientific research in all fields. For Palestinian universities, the relative weight (62.29%) and the arithmetic average of the efficiency of the research performance (3.11) and the value of (T) was equal (0.93) and is statistically significant value (0.000). 6. TEST THE HYPOTHESIS There is a significant relationship between the strategies of ELearning and increase the efficiency of research performance in universities. To answer this hypothesis, correlation coefficients and the probability value (Sig) were used to find the relationship and the level of significance from the point of view of senior management. Table 10: correlation coefficient between ELearning strategies and increase the efficiency of research performance in universities from the point of view of senior management International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research (IJAPR) ISSN: 2643-9603 Vol. 3 Issue 9, September - 2019, Pages: 8-19 17 No. Hypothesis Pearson Coefficient Of Correlation Probability Value (Sig.) 1. There is a significant correlation between the total areas of ELearning strategies and ELearning planning strategy. 1.332* 1.111 2. There is a significant relationship between the total areas of ELearning strategies and the efficiency of research performance. 1.516* 1.111 *The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.05. The above table shows that the correlation coefficient is 0.902 and that the probability value (Sig) is equal to 0.00 and is less than the significance level (α≤0.05). This indicates a statistically significant relationship between the ELearning strategies and the efficiency of the research performance In the universities. This is due to the interest of senior management in presenting strategic plans that focus on ELearning through the vision and mission of universities and quadratic analysis, which in turn reflects on the efficiency of research performance. 7. RESULTS The study found a significant relationship between ELearning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. I have reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they do not care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in following up the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. The study showed that senior management in Palestinian universities does not care to provide the appropriate budget for ELearning. The study showed that the senior management in foreign universities is interested in providing the appropriate budget. The sample of the study considers that ELearning is a strategic requirement that contributes to the development of education. 8. RECOMMENDATIONS The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an ELearning budget and encourage employees to continue using ELearning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research. The study also recommended the importance of presenting educational content in a simple and easy way. And the establishment of a flexible technological infrastructure. 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{ "creator": "Azis, Harry Azhar", "date": "2020", "datestamp": 1597843283000, "description": "This research investigates the primary constraint causing the low competitiveness of Indonesian footwear exports compared to Vietnam with new information from a number of the latest studies. This study uses Reveal Comparative Advantage (RCA) and the Trade Specialization Index (TSI). Differences in culture, economic structure, and firm rivalry all contribute to Indonesia’s power competitiveness. This research adds a competitive advantage to study the factors that hamper the low competitiveness of Indonesian footwear against Vietnam. The results show that Indonesia’s comparative advantage is more moderate than Vietnam, with an average RCA of 4, while Vietnam is 9. The average value of TSI is Indonesia close to 1 and Vietnam 1. The primary constraints are workers’ wages higher than Vietnam, and business services such as R & D have not utilized. The development of the footwear industry policy must identify from upstream to downstream. The affirmative system made must be used to overcome short-medium term problems.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDFEC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia and Vietnam", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia and Vietnam Abstract This research investigates the primary constraint causing the low competitiveness of Indonesian footwear exports compared to Vietnam with new information from a number of the latest studies. This study uses Reveal Comparative Advantage (RCA) and the Trade Specialization Index (TSI). Differences in culture, economic structure, and firm rivalry all contribute to Indonesia's power competitiveness. This research adds a competitive advantage to study the factors that hamper the low competitiveness of Indonesian footwear against Vietnam. The results show that Indonesia's comparative advantage is more moderate than Vietnam, with an average RCA of 4, while Vietnam is 9. The average value of TSI is Indonesia close to 1 and Vietnam 1. The primary constraints are workers' wages higher than Vietnam, and business services such as R & D have not utilized. The development of the footwear industry policy must identify from upstream to downstream. The affirmative system made must be used to overcome short-medium term problems. Keywords: international trade, competitive products, footwear exports, exports Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau faktor utama penyebab rendahnya daya saing ekspor alas kaki Indonesia dibanding Vietnam dengan menarik informasi dari sejumlah studi terbaru. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan Reveal Comparative Advantage (RCA) dan Indeks Spesialisasi Perdagangan (ISP). Perbedaan dalam budaya, struktur ekonomi, dan persaingan perusahaan, semuanya turut berkontribusi menentukan keberhasilan daya saing Indonesia. Jadi, penelitian ini menambahkan pendekatan daya saing kompetitif untuk mengetahui faktor yang menjadi hambatan rendahnya daya saing alas kaki Indonesia terhadap Vietnam. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan keunggulan komparatif Indonesia lebih rendah dari Vienam, dengan rata-rata RCA sebesar 4, sementara Vietnam 9. Untuk ISP, nilai rata-rata Indonesia mendekati 1, dan Vietnam 1. Penyebab utama karena upah pekerja yang lebih tinggi dari Vietnam dan layanan bisnis seperti R&D belum dimanfaatkan secara maksimal. Pengembangan kebijakan industri alas kaki harus diidentifikasi dari hulu ke hilir secara komprehensif dan berkelanjutan. Kebijakan afirmatif yang dibuat harus benar-benar digunakan untuk mengatasi masalah jangka pendek-menengah. Kata Kunci: perdagangan internasional, daya saing produk, ekspor alas kaki, ekspor JEL Classification: F13, F12, F17 How to Cite: Abdulkadir, A., Afriana, Wendra., & Azis, H. A. (2020). Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam. Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi, 9(2), 269-284. doi: . Amanah Abdulkadir1, Wendra Afriana2*, Harry Azhar Azis3 *Corresponding author Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 P-ISSN: 2087-2046; E-ISSN: 2476-9223 Received: April, 21, 2020; Revised: July 15, 2020; Accepted: July 20, 2020. 1Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang. Jl.l. HS. Ronggo Waluyo, Karawang, West Java, Indonesia 2,3Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan, Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia. Email: , , DOI: Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 270 DOI: Introduction In most Asian countries, economic growth and development depend on export activities (Tsen, 2006). Bernard & Jensen (1999) argues that exports have a positive relationship with economic growth and contribute to increasing a country's productivity. Footwear is one of the commodities that have contributed significantly to Indonesia's economic growth. With a production of 1.41 billion pairs of shoes in 2018, Indonesia provides around 4.6% of the total world shoe production (Indonesia Ministry of Industry, 2019). However, referring to data from the Indonesia Ministry of Trade (2020), Indonesia's export commodities are still dominated by mineral exports (HS 27), which reached 14 percent or US$ 22.2 billion. The second position is occupied by plantation commodities such as animal or vegetable oil by 11.36 percent, Followed by commodity commodities and electrical equipment and parts by 5.51 percent, Then followed by commodities other than railroad/tram and its components by 5.27 percent. These products tend to increase in value and quantity of exports except mineral and vegetable/vegetable oil commodities, which have decreased in 2019 but still dominate. Meanwhile, footwear products (HS 64) always experience an increase in the national export share and ranks tenth of the national export commodity. For 2019, the contribution of footwear to domestic exports will be 2.85 percent. The footwear export industry has a significant role in bringing in foreign exchange. The industry is labor-intensive and plays a vital role in employment. The footwear industry can absorb an additional workforce of 24 people from 795 thousand people in 2017 to 819 thousand people in 2018 (Indonesia Ministry of Industry, 2019). The United States is the leading market destination for Indonesia. The exports of Indonesian footwear products to the United States in the last five years (2014-2018) increased compared to its footwear exports to the rest of the world (UN Comtrade, 2019). Among the five biggest footwear exporters in the world, only Vietnam in ASEAN, whose footwear exports have exceeded Indonesia in the last five years? As a result, Indonesia is the fifth largest footwear exporter globally and accounts for 2.85 percent of global exports. Exports become one of the strengths of the regional economy. The role of shipping is vital to support the economic growth of a region. The success of an area in international trade can also saw from the competitiveness of its export products. Export competitiveness becomes the driving factor of region export performance. Competitiveness has become the key to a region to succeed in its participation in globalization and world free trade (Bustami & Hidayat, 2013). Not surprisingly, every country competes to increase its superior product exports to continue competing in the international market. Thus, to increase Indonesia's competitiveness against Vietnam, the first step taken is to increase the number of its exports. Furthermore, several studies reveal that a country's competitiveness can saw from the size of its exports. Altomonte et al. (2012) show that dynamic exports can measure a country's competitiveness. Whereas Porter (1990) explains, entrepreneurs can take advantage of certain regions' comparative advantage to gain competitiveness. That is, dynamic exports are the right size for competitiveness. 271 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: There are have various problems faced in export footwear, such as low-cost labor. Indonesia and Vietnam are both known as low-wage countries. However, Vietnam's wages are far lower than in Indonesia. It has attracted many investors to relocate their factories to Vietnam. Schmitz (2006) reveals that Vietnam emerged as a significant shoe exporter to Europe and the United States, perhaps because Taiwanese and Koreans helped build production capabilities and regulate the supply of all inputs needed in low-wage regions, such as Vietnam, China and India (Hoang & Hong, 2016). As a result, FDI in Vietnam has increased in recent years. In 2003, this share was 49% (Anh et al., 2006. cited by Hoang & Hong, 2016), but in 2015, this share increased by up to 80% (Hoang & Hong, 2016). Labor costs in Vietnam are still lower compared to its other neighbors, Thailand, and China. Vietnamese factory workers only get two-thirds of what their colleagues bring home in China. Thus, many companies prefer to move production to lower-cost regions such as Vietnam. The 2019 Total Workforce Index (TWI) report revealed the average monthly salary of Vietnamese workers at only US $ 242, the seventh of the regional average of US $ 1802. If footwear is a 'strategic' sector, does Indonesia, which has higher wages for workers than Vietnam, imply slower long-term export growth? An indicator of comparative advantage and competitive advantage in footwear introduced to check whether competitiveness in this industry boosts growth. To increase competitiveness, factors that must consider are not only those related to their comparative advantages (size of exports) and their competitive advantages. Reis & Farole (2012) stated that the obstacles major developing countries to compete in international trade generally behind the border, namely internal factors in a country such as logistics, customs, financing, conditions of production factors, and lack competition (Ridhwan et al. 2015). Meanwhile, Chan et al. (2004) state that competitive advantage positively influences company performance. Furthermore, the firm's strategy to gain a competitive advantage of footwear are manipulating the various resources needed and control those resources directly because these resources are the key to producing competitive advantage (Reed & DeFillipi, 1990. cited by Rijamampianina, 2003). This study will try to evaluate the gap by investigating the competitive and comparative advantages of Indonesia and Vietnam simultaneously in the footwear industry. Previous studies have only examined on one side, either comparative advantage (Amador & Cabral, 2008; Adulyanukosol & Silpcharu, 2020; Maqbool et al. (2018) or competitive advantage (Vuong et al. 2019; Zhang, 2018; Phan et al., 2016; Hoang & Hong, 2016; Batista et al., 2016). Thus, we add to the literature by examining not only based on empirical results (comparative advantage) but also a competitive advantage. By analyzing the competitiveness of the footwear industry from two sides (comparative and competitive), we will get a complete picture of the advantages of the footwear industry in both countries. Thus, this research aims is to review the primary constraints causing the low competitiveness of Indonesian footwear exports compared to Vietnam by drawing information from several recent studies. To understand the competitiveness issues that Indonesia will continue to face in the medium term, we offer a detailed analysis of Indonesian and Vietnamese footwear's comparative and competitive advantages. Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 272 DOI: Methods This research investigates the factors that cause the competitiveness of the Indonesian footwear industry is lower than in Vietnam. We follow the methodology developed by Faustino (2008) to show whether Indonesia has comparative advantages or even relative disadvantages in the footwear industry. Meanwhile, to find out how much comparative advantage it has, we will use the methodology developed by Hinloopen (2001), which explicitly explains the concept of reveal comparative advantage (RCA), which was first introduced by Balassa (1965). According to him, there are four classifications used to determine the size of a country's comparative competitiveness, as explained in Table 1. Tabel 1. RCA Classification Classification Explanation 0<RCA ≤ 1 No comparative advantage 1<RCA ≤ 2 Week comparative advantage 2<RCA ≤ 4 Moderate comparative advantage RCA >4 Strong comparative advantage Source: Abtew (2017) To present the RCA index results, we use to export data from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Division (UN COMTRADE) website, World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS). Mathematically the RCA Balasssa can be calculated with the following formula: Where: Xij is the value of commodity exports j from country i Xit is the total export value (product j) of country i Wj is the export value of commodity j in the world. Wt is the total world export value. After knowing the strengths of Indonesia and Vietnam's comparative advantages, we will detail the RCA determinants. To find out, we follow the approach developed by Lundmark (2010). According to him, RCA determines the product, production efficiency, geographical characteristics, and government policy. Furthermore, to further assure the strength of the comparative advantages of the two countries, afterward, we will use the trade specialization approach from Amable (2000). This approach measures the relationship between comparative advantage and trade specialization, positive or negative on economic growth. Furthermore, the method of Hotopp et al. (2005) explains that, with trade specialization, export productivity will increase. As a result, the comparative advantage of footwear products increases. 273 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: Further, comparative advantage measures are a determinant of trade patterns, which leads to international trade specialization to be determined by several supply and demand factors (Abtew, 2017). According to Tambunan (2003), the comparative advantage of a country can measure using the TSI method. The formula of TSI: Where: Xia is the value of commodity exports in country j Mia is the value of imported commodities i in country j TSI identifies the growth rate of a commodity: First, TSI -1.00 to 0.50 means the product has low competitiveness or an importing country, in an introduction stage. Second, TSI -0.51 to 0.00 shows the industry has very low competitiveness, or the level of production is not high enough to reach its economies of scale, or the country is in import substitution stage. Third, TSIs 0.01 to 0.80 means the country has strong competitiveness and is expanding exports or in a growth stage. Fourth, TSI 0.81 to 1.00 means the commodity is in the maturation stage in world trade or already has powerful competitiveness. Fifth, TSIs 0 to 1.00, means the industry of country B cannot compete with country A in their domestic markets, and local production is less than domestic demand. Moreover, the principle of RCA is also mostly designed and sustained through a highly localized process. Differences in national values, culture, economic structures, institutions, and histories all contribute to competitiveness success (Abtew, 2017), which are those factors that are a competitive advantage. Further, competitive advantage was first introduced by Porter (1990) as a tool of analysis in increasing competitiveness. Sachitra & Chong (2016) described the four main attributes used in Diamond National Porter to determine a country's competitive advantage: condition factors, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, and firm's strategy structure rivalry. From the four attributes, the condition factor is considered the most appropriate in determining a country's competitive advantage. For this reason, this research will also investigate in detail these factors. It hope that the full investigation will not only based on empirical values from the results of RCA or TSI scores but also on the research of factors that considered t o contribute to the success of competitiveness (Porter Diamond Model), can help provide recommendations for making appropriate policies in the face of obstacles major in the footwear industry. Results and Discussion This section will reveal comparative (market share) & competitive advantages (strategy, structure, and firm rivalry) between Indonesia and Vietnam. Thus, the competitiveness between the two countries will be known. Then, the next step is to provide relevant recommendations for improving the productivity improvement of footwear exports. The measurement of comparative advantage uses RCA. Comparative advantage is revealed if RCA > 1. Table 2 shows that Vietnamese RCA has been maintained in the top 5 and become the highest RCA among ASEAN footwear exporters. However, Vietnam's RCA Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 274 DOI: shows a slow downward trend in 2014 of 11.8 and down to 9.62 in 2017, which shows that Vietnam's comparative was obvious and competitive at an early stage, but not optimistically in the next few years. Table 2. RCA of ASEAN Countries Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Indonesia 3.94 4.39 4.75 4.61 4.61 Malaysia 0.08 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.07 Singapore 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.06 0.05 Thailand 0.51 0.44 0.38 0.39 0.39 Vietnam 11.8 10.2 9.81 9.62 Meanwhile, Indonesia, even in second place, showed a steady and upward trend. Indonesian RCA increases every year (2014-2016) and stagnant in 2017 and 2018. It implies that Indonesia's comparative advantage is getting stronger while Vietnam is weakening. If Indonesia wants to surpass Vietnam in comparative advantage, then Indonesia must increase its number of exports. Furthermore, several studies reveal that a country's competitiveness can saw from the size of its exports. Altomonte et al. (2012) showed that dynamic exports could saw to measure a country's competitiveness. In contrast, Porter (1990) explains that entrepreneurs can take advantage of a particular region's comparative advantage to gain competitiveness. That is, dynamic exports are the right size for competitiveness. However, the way to use this depends on other Indonesia capabilities discussed in the following content. The first step taken by Indonesia to increase the number of footwear exports is to identify well the specialization that each type of footwear product has. To measure it, use the Trade Specialization Index (TSI). Some research shows the impact of product specialization. Hotopp et al. (2005) examine how exporters' performance is associated with by-product specialization or diversification and shows that companies that can develop more diverse products have better export productivity than those who do not. Meanwhile, Companies tend to focus on specific product ranges rather than various items that allow for economies of scale to be exploited (Baldwin & Gu, 2004; Vuong et al. 2019). No different, Amable (2000) shows inter-industry specialization and comparative advantage in electronics has a positive effect on productivity growth. Besides, education seems to act complementary to trade specialization and strengthen the positive impact of electronics. Table 3. TSI for HS 6404 of ASEAN Member Countries Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Vietnam 1 0.99 0.99 0.98 0.99 Indonesia 0.91 0.92 1 0.84 0.78 Cambodia 0.94 0.96 0.98 0.98 0.98 Myanmar 0.09 0.25 0.69 0.89 0.98 Thailand 0.21 0.06 -0.04 -0.4 Singapore -0.29 -0.23 -0.59 -0.23 275 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: Table 3 shows calculation of TSI of footwear products (HS 6404) among ASEAN member countries, that Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia have the highest TSI compared to others. The three countries have TSI values of 1 and almost during the last five years (20142018). It means that the product has extreme competitiveness. Meanwhile, TSI calculation results with HS 6403 (footwear products with outer soles made of rubber, plastic, leather or composition leather and leather uppers (not including orthopedic footwear, skating shoes with ice or roller skates attached, and pedestal toy legs)) shows that Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia are still the three countries that dominate the highest value for this HS 6403 product, with a value of 1 and almost 1 (see Table 4). The three countries' TSI values fluctuate, the top three led by Vietnam and followed by Cambodia and Indonesia. In 2015, Vietnam's TSI went down to 0.98, and stagnant until 2018. Cambodia's TSI fluctuated, from 0.98 in 2014, then stagnated at 0.99 for two years and dropped to 0.98 in 2017. The three countries' TSI is positive (above 0 to 1) for HS 6403 products. They have strong competitiveness and have the potential to be exporting the product. Table 4. TSI of HS 6403 of ASEAN Member Countries Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Vietnam 1 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 Indonesia 0.93 0.93 1 0.93 0.92 Cambodia 0.98 0.99 0.99 0.98 0.98 Myanmar 0.53 0.58 0.7 0.67 0.78 Thailand NA 0.48 0.48 0.52 0.41 Singapore NA -0.38 -0.33 -0.94 -0.36 Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia also as significant producers of HS 6402 products (see Table 5). HS 6402 is a footwear product with an outer sole and rubber or plastic top (excluding waterproof footwear from heading 6401, orthopedic footwear, skating shoes with ice or roller skates attached, and toy footwear). For this product, Indonesia ranks third, and Cambodia ranks second. Indonesia's TSI in 2016 was 0, while Vietnam's 0.98, and Cambodia's 0.42. The data for this product is somewhat surprising. In 2014 Cambodia had a negative TSI (-0.75), which was much lower than Indonesia, but in just two years, Cambodia moved from an importer to an exporting country. Table 5. TSI for HS 6402 in ASEAN Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Vietnam 1 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 Indonesia 0.74 0.74 0 0.63 0.56 Cambodia -0.75 0.62 0.42 0.95 0.94 Myanmar 0.5 0.53 0.86 0.88 0.86 Thailand 0.34 0.24 0.28 0.18 Singapore -0.15 -0.1 -0.2 -0.19 Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 276 DOI: Overall, the TSI for footwear products HS 6402, HS 6403, and HS 6404 are always above 0.5. Indonesia has a comparative advantage to be an exporter of these footwear products. Indonesia's specialization in footwear exports indicates that Indonesia has the capital to compete with footwear products from Vietnam because Indonesia has a comparative advantage as much as Vietnam. However, efforts to increase Indonesia's comparative advantage are not only influenced by its export productivity. However, it also influenced by Vietnam's competitive advantage. To analyze the competitive advantage between Indonesia and Vietnam, it will use the national diamond porter method. This method is considered suitable, which is more descriptive. The main attributes used to measure competitive advantages are strategy, structure, and firm rivalry. Several studies have shown that there are factors that can affect an increase in competitiveness. Ridhwan et al. (2015) argued that Indonesia still has problems in four factors: labor (skill set), logistics, policy, and domestic institutions, which should be a concern of the government for increasing Indonesia's footwear export competitiveness. Furthermore, Cho & Moon (2013) argued that Indonesia's efforts to increase competitiveness are at a developing stage: physical factors (business environment) and human factors. Other vital factors that have contributed to efforts to increase competitive advantages in the condition factor in the footwear industry are innovation and information technology. Adulyanukosol & Silpcharu (2020) revealed that four factors influence the competitive advantage of footwear design in the Thai footwear industry. Namely, design, market analysis, innovation, and information technology. Furthermore, referring to the results of a literature study, the primary constraint related to Indonesia's condition factor is the labor costs in Vietnam lower than Indonesia. Thus, it will be easier for Vietnam to attract companies to place their production in Vietnam. In 2016, there were more than 700 footwear companies in Vietnam, while in Indonesia only 472. This result shows in Table 6. Table 6. Number of Footwear Companies in Vietnam and Indonesia in 2016 Indicator Indonesia Vietnam Number of firms 472 More 700 Number of workers 795,490 1,5 millions Source: Indonesian Footwear Association (APRISINDO) (2017); Vietnam Industry (2020). The minimum wage for Vietnamese workers is at the lowest level of 48-69 cents/hour. At the same time, that number for Mexican workers is 56-73 cents/hour, Peru: 1.17 USD/ hour, Chile: 1.86 USD/hour. In line with these, Figure 1 shows that manufacturing labor cost per hour for Vietnam is lowest that China and Mexico. As a result, many old suppliers have turned into liaison agents for new suppliers in low-wage countries like Vietnam (Schmitz, 2006). With low wages, which is the main reason companies were there in the first place. It indicates that Vietnamese export firms continue to enjoy the labor advantages, and significantly increased the comparative advantages of the middleand low-grade products of footwear through large-scale production, cost reduction and other ways. On the other hand, 277 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: it also shows that Vietnamese footwear products are low in added value and still rely on low grade, low quality, and low price to penetrate the international market. In the past two years, the human factor, namely labor, is considered a very influential factor in the competitiveness of footwear exports in Indonesia. Indonesia has high labor costs. The wages of footwear and footwear workers in Indonesia are considered high. Referring to data from the Board of Trustees of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo), the average minimum wage for shoe workers in Tangerang, Banten, is the location of the most shoe and footwear industry in Indonesia, reached the US$ 179 or around Rp1.7 million / month. While Vietnam is US$ 95/month, and Cambodia is only US$ 61/month. Figure 1. Manufacturing labor costs per hour for China, Vietnam, Mexico from 2016 to 2020 (in U.S. dollars) Source: Duffin (2019). Therefore, one of the triggers of the declining trend in world import demand for Indonesian footwear products is because foreign companies prefer to invest in other countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. It is based on one of them because the wages of workers in Vietnam are cheap (Indonesia Ministry of Trade, 2020). Furthermore, in the last five years, the minimum wage is the highest compared to China and Vietnam. Indonesia's minimum wage increase reached 37.95% compared to China, only 17.5%, and Vietnam by 26%. High minimum wages can cause unemployment. In the interim analysis, the company will choose to move the factory to an area with a lower UMR. As a result, layoffs occur. This condition is in line with the results of the study of Ridhwan et al. (2015), which shows that minimum wages that are too high can cause layoffs and relocation of factories to provinces with a lower regional minimum salary (UMR). The cost of dismissal is high, around 50 times the weekly salary. It corroborated by the research of Takii and Ramstetter (2007), which stated that the regional minimum wage policy and the high cost of layoffs could hamper the improvement of footwear export competitiveness. Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 278 DOI: Moreover, although wages are still low relative to Indonesia, Vietnam cannot rely on a low-cost. Low costs labor in Vietnam led to lower production costs. The impact, an added value, is also little. For example, for shoes at low prices, research and development costs, design, and marketing are too small. In effect, the added value is low. Simply put, this is due to the percentage of unskilled labor, reaching 50% of the total workforce. Consequently, companies have weaknesses in managerial skills, inefficient organization, and limitations in supplying other resources (GDS, 2011; Hoang & Hong, 2016). Furthermore, Hoang & Hong (2016) argue that low-cost workers' competitive advantage will not last long. Vietnamese shoe manufacturers must find other benefits in manufacturing. The reason, technological development will have an impact on the demands of skilled labor. For this reason, investment in information technology must become Vietnam's concern. Several studies have shown that increasing information technology investment is relatively beneficial for young Vietnamese residents who can work in international companies with high wages and social status (Shillabeer 2013). Sakellariou & Patrinos (2003) studied the impact of computer use on workers' salaries in Vietnam. Workers with higher education get a higher average annual wage increase than lower-skilled workers. Overall, the competitive advantage of low-cost labor is not sustainable. Vietnamese footwear producers have to find and change their business strategy based on other benefits in production processing (Hoang & Hong, 2016). At the same time, Indonesia, a country with higher wages than Vietnam, has positive effects on the domestic economy. The benefit of this position is to have a skilled workforce; thus, an organization is more efficient. GDS (2011) argued that, although Vietnamese were having the competitive advantage of cheap labor, 50% of the workforce in the footwear industry is unskilled. It is clear to prove that low-cost labor strategy will not last long. To accommodate the problem of high labor costs, Indonesia must: First, improve the workforce; with an improved quality of labor, it will reduce labor costs incurred so that companies will be more efficient. Second, properly arrange labor wage policies. To increase worker's real income, the government can help provide subsidies in the form of workers' housing, transportation, or education costs for workers' children without increasing labor costs for companies. Table 7. Top Footwear Exporting Countries in 2015-2019 Exporters Share in value in world's exports, % in 2015 Share in value in world's exports, % in 2016 Share in value in world's exports, % in 2017 Share in value in world's exports, % in 2018 Share in value in world's exports, % in 2019 World 100 100 100 100 100 China 21.01 18.05 17.07 16.08 16.06 Italy 14.09 15.05 15.01 15.01 14.02 Vietnam 9 8.08 8.09 9.04 13.04 Germany 4.07 5.03 6.04 6.07 6.07 Indonesia 4.05 4.06 5 5 4 Source: UN Comtrade, 2020. 279 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: As a low-cost country, Vietnam competes through an aggressive pricing strategy, made possible by extraordinary low production costs. For a company, the low cost associated with making a profit. As a result, Vietnam is the third-largest player on global footwear export (see Table 7). Vietnamese exports of footwear have increased by an average annual rate of 9.45 percent for five years. At the same time, Indonesian footwear exports have increased by 4.62 percent. The value of Indonesian footwear exports estimated at US$2.6 billion in 2019. Growth has been particularly strong in the post-financial crisis period since 2009, which coincides with a generalized depreciation of the Indonesian rupiah vis-à-vis the US dollar and other major consumer-market currencies. Table 8. The Major Destination For Indonesian Footwear Importers Share in value in Indonesia's exports, % in 2015 Share in value in Indonesia's exports, % in 2016 Share in value in Indonesia's exports, % in 2017 Share in value in Indonesia's exports, % in 2018 Share in value in Indonesia's exports, % in 2019 World 100 100 100 100 100 USA 26 25.03 27.01 27.08 33 China 7.07 7.06 9.04 10.02 12.08 Germany 8.07 9.09 8.08 8.08 8.04 Belgium 8.02 7.05 8.01 8 7.04 Japan 5.04 5.05 5 4.08 4.08 United Kingdom 7.08 5.09 5.06 5.07 4.01 Source: UN Comtrade, 2020. Overall, Vietnam has seen footwear exports increase more quickly than Indonesia. Indonesia's global market share is highest in uppers made from textile products (HS 6403), trailing only China, Vietnam, and Belgium in terms of global exports. Indonesian footwear products have a substantial worldwide reach and imported by 142 different countries around the world (The Conference Board of Canada, 2018). The top five countries account for more than half of the total, with the United States by far the most common destination for Indonesian footwear, followed by China, Germany, Belgium, and Japan. It can be seen in Table 8. Moreover, Vietnam and Indonesia always occupy the top position as the most significant footwear exporting country in ASEAN. In 2016, the value of Indonesian and Vietnamese footwear exports declined, along with the number of world exports, which also fell. However, the Indonesian export demand increased again in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, even Vietnam's exports increased in 2017, but the number of footwear exports was lower compared to 2015 (see table 7). These result show that there is an increasingly important dependence on some specific economies in the world. The unstable development and crisis of these economies could negatively impact the footwear export of Vietnam and Indonesia. In addition to wages, the low utilization of business services also makes Indonesia unable to optimize footwear exports' productivity. Indonesia ranked second-lowest with a percentage of 24%, while Vietnam was ranked third (30%). Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Volume 9 (2), 2020: 269 284 280 DOI: Figure 2. Low Share of Business Services in Exports Source: The Conference Board of Canada, 2018. As can be seen in Figure 2, business services account for 24 percent of Indonesian footwear exports in total. Specifically, Figure 3 shows that Indonesia captures just 28 per cent of computer services, 32 per cent of R&D, and 39 per cent of machinery and equipment leasing. The low usage of services in footwear R&D will have consequences for weak competition competence. There is a strong relationship between investment in R&D and the demand for skilled labor. Companies that have high intentions of R&D will need higherskilled work. In the future, the need for skilled labor expected to continue to increase in line with product culture, which has a shorter life cycle and demands high R & D capability in every company. Figure 3. Domestic share of servicers involved in exports are low for some industries Source: The Conference Board of Canada, 2018. Thus, overall, Indonesia faces several significant obstacles in efforts to increase its competitiveness against Vietnam, namely, higher employee wages and low utilization of business services, especially in R&D services. If Indonesia can make the high-wageest conditions to improve the quality of workers, then the added value will increase. After all, the high quality of human resources is needed to drive the development of R&D that can attract foreign investors to innovate in the footwear industry. The result is that export productivity will also increase. Furthermore, the successful export of footwear products as an assembly segment must supported by other factors, such as highly skilled R & D, technology, and human resources. 281 Amanah Abdulkadir Footwear Export Competitiveness of Indonesia-Vietnam DOI: Some of the previous studies show that innovation, research, and development (R&D) and human resources as a driver of competitiveness. Rua & França (2014) concluded that the competitive advantage in the Portuguese footwear industry must be based on value-added products and developed through innovative manufacturing processes and differentiation to take advantage of economies of scope (Batista et al., 2017). Ortega et al. (2014) mentioned that both exports and innovation and R&D are critical factors for the growth of firms and economies. They find that firms that invest in R&D are considerably more likely to export, but the reverse is not valid. Even though exporting does not stimulate investment in R & D, exports and R & D have a joint effect on improving productivity. Smith et al. (2002) also found that R&D is essential for being an exporting firm. The positive relationship between exports and innovation also found by DiPietro & Anoruo (2006), and Correia & Gouveia (2015). The research of Chadha (2009) also analyzes the export performance of 131 Indian pharmaceutical firms for the period 1989-2004. The results indicate that technology proxied by foreign patent rights has a positive impact on exports. It suggests that developing countries with innovation skills for process innovations can penetrate international markets in the later stages of the product cycle using patents, the barriers to trade in the early stages of the product cycle. In their study for Vietnam's SME Sector, Nguyen et al. (2007) find that innovation as measured directly by new products, new production processes, and improvement of existing products, are essential determinants of exports by Vietnamese SMEs. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that Vietnam is comparatively superior compared to Indonesia, with an average value of RCA of 9 and TSI 1. While RCA Indonesia is only four, and TSI is close to 1. The analysis with Diamond National Porter shows that Indonesia still faces significant challenges in wages and the low share of business service. With the condition of Vietnam, which is known as a low-cost country, it will be easier to attract investors. This result implements the development of footwear industry policies that must identify from upstream to downstream comprehensive and sustainably. Affirmative policies made must be used to overcome short-medium term problems. Some strategies suggested improving it. Strategies suggested are: First, improving the quality of the workforce. High wages, combined with high-quality workers, will produce comparative advantages for Indonesia. Second, increasing productivity. Third, increasing R&D activity, and 4) increasing awareness of more environmentally friendly specifications. If those policies can implement as well as possible, The Indonesian footwear industry will grow positively. Then Indonesia's footwear exports will equal or even exceed Vietnam's exports. References Abtew, M. A. (2017). 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M., Wicaksono, G., Nurliana, L., Bary, P., Suryani, F. T., & Satyanugroho, R. (2015). Analysis of National Industry Competitiveness and Strategy in the Era of the ASEAN Economic Community and Free Trade. Working Paper. WP/3/2015. Bank Indonesia Rijamampianina, R., Abratt, R, & February, Y. (2003). A Framework for Concentric Diversification through Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Management Decision, 41(4), 362-371. . Rua, O. M. L., & França, A. (2014). Determinantes Estratégicos do Desempenho das Exportações: o Papel da Vantagem Competitiva. Working Paper. Instituto Politécnico de Leiria. Sachitra, V., & Chong, S. C. (2016). Firm-Level Competitive Advantage in the Agricultural Sector: A Research Agenda. British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade, 12(3), 1-12. Schmitz, H. (2006). Learning and Earning in Global Garment and Footwear Chains. The European Journal of Development Research, 18(4), 546-571. . org/10.1080/09578810601070688 Sakellariou, C. N., & Patrinos, H. A. (2003). Technology, Computers, and Wages: Evidence from a Developing Economy. Research Working Paper No. WPS 3008. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. Shillabeer, A. G. (2013). The impact of IT development outsourcing on worker dynamics in Vietnam. In: Mandal, P (eds). Proceeding of the International Conference on Managing the Asian Century, 153-162. Singapore: Springer. Smith, V., Madsen, E. S., & Hansen, M. D (2002). Do R&D Investments Affect Export Performance? CIE Discussion Papers 2002-09. University of Copenhagen. Takii, S. & Ramstetter, E.D. (2007). Survey of Recent Developments, Bulletin of Indonesia Economic Studies. 43(3), 295-322. Tambunan, T. (2003). International Trade and Balance of Payments, Theory, and Empirical Findings. Jakarta: LP3ES. The Conference Board of Canada. (2018). An Analysis of the Global Value Chain for Indonesian Footwear Exports. Retrieve from uploads/2018-02-25-Report-1211.03d.pdf Tsen, WH (2006). Granger Causality Tests Amongst Openness to International Trade, Human Capital Accumulation, and Econom. International Economic Journal, 20(3), 285-302. United Nations Commodity Trade. 2020. United Nations Commodity Trade Statistic Database. Vietnam Industry. (2020). Footwear. Retrieve from . nghd/31/footwear.html Vuong, Q. H., Vu, T. H., Doan, Q. H., & Ho, M. T. (2019). Determinants Of Vietnamese Footwear Exporting Firms' Market Selection: A Multinomial Logistic Analysis Of Panel Data. Heliyon, 5 (10), 1-8. Zhang, C. (2018). An Empirical Analysis on Export Status Quo And International Competitiveness of Chinese Footwear Products. Leather and Footwear Journal, 18(3), 187-194. .
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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1581330691000, "description": "The study aimed to identify e-learning strategies and their relation to increasing the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, Al-Aqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society consists of senior management in Palestinian universities, where the number of senior management personnel in the universities was 206. The random stratified sample was selected, and the Statistical Analysis of Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used. The study found a significant relationship between e-learning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities.\n It also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in the sequence of policies to implement the development of scientific research.\n The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities interested in providing the appropriate budget for elearning.\n The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an e-learning budget and encourage employees to continue using e-learning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and\n support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDIRP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Improving Research Performance Efficiency in Palestinian Universities Using E-learning Strategies", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 20 Improving Research Performance Efficiency in Palestinian Universities Using E-learning Strategies Samia A. M. Abdalmenem 1 , Rasha O. Owda 2 , Maram O. Owda 3 , Samy S. Abu Naser 4 , Mazen J. Al Shobaki 5, Youssef M. Abu Amuna 6 1Department of Management and Financial Business, Al-Quds Open University 2,3,4Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine 4Department of Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine 5Dean of Bait Al-Mqds College for technical Science, GazaPalestine 1Samia.Monen@Gmail.Com, , , , , Abstract: The study aimed to identify e-learning strategies and their relation to increasing the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, Al-Aqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society consists of senior management in Palestinian universities, where the number of senior management personnel in the universities was 206. The random stratified sample was selected, and the Statistical Analysis of Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used. The study found a significant relationship between e-learning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. It also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in the sequence of policies to implement the development of scientific research. The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities interested in providing the appropriate budget for elearning. The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an e-learning budget and encourage employees to continue using e-learning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research. Keywords: Efficiency, Research performance, e-Learning strategies, Palestinian universities. 1. INTRODUCTION E-learning considered as one of present day wording, and it is an after effect of consolidating science and innovation in the instructive field. E-learning takes an interest in arranging, usage, assessment, and the improvement of e-learning in instructive and non-instructive foundations. Likewise, there are specific focuses in the educational program plan and improvement, and change them into modern electronic stages to keep pace with the suitable changes in labor advertise. E-learning seeks to achieve objectives and functions that contribute to solving educational and scientific problems, and developing them through active educational programs, using Internet, and providing feedback, access to educational efficiency in the educational and research performance. [1] Training innovation gives scholastics the essential aptitude to build up their presentation. E-learning adds to changing the job of the instructor and the student. The student has turned into a scientist and voyager of information. Concerning the instructor, he turned into an organizer, guide, facilitator, evaluator, and development. The learner has become a scholar and an explorer of knowledge. Scientific research is the second goal that universities seek to achieve. It is a societal necessity that contributes to the presence of universities in society through it. E-learning is a means of education that aims to interact through the use of computer technology, which stimulates the development of skills, enhance creativity using modern electronic methods, and provides e-learning content to all students both inside and outside the university. Also E-learning contributes to the learning process in an easy and enjoyable way for learner, achieves the principle of equal educational opportunities, and aims to increase the efficiency, quality, and flexibility of education process. One of the objectives of e-learning is to provide a rich and multi-source learning environment, and redefine roles of learning. Others objectives such as: create incentives, encourage communication inside educational process, model education, exchange educational experiences through channels Communication with the preparation of a International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 21 generation of teachers and students whom are able to deal with modern technology skillfully. [2] [3] It can be said that the importance of e-learning is reflected in improving the quality of higher education and its development through the improvement of methods and teaching techniques to cope with the general development of modern international technology. Education has become required to search for methods and educational models to face many challenges because of its ability to deliver the content of educational programs, activities and courses online. E-learning strategies vary in order to suit learners' abilities, diversity of goals, and decisions. The strategies used are defined through e-learning, which is how education is provided to learners. E-learning includes the design of different learning strategies that help to achieve objectives. The e-learning strategies include a number of measures to provide E-learning content that helps learners to achieve educational goals with great skill and professionalism. Increasing research performance efficiency is linked to the ability of universities to employ e-learning to improve research. There are scientific studies that prove that employing E-learning strategies in an effective manner can contribute effectively to the development of the educational process and to enhance the communication between the parties to the educational and research process. Wide spread of communications and information technology are important variables affecting universities, which reflected their effects on university performance. Despite the increasing growth of e-learning, there are many challenges facing its application in Palestinian and foreign universities, which need special budgets, experts, content development, and information security protection. Although the experience of Palestinian universities in adopting Elearning strategies compared with foreign universities still new, the paper aimed to search about E-learning strategies that contribute to increasing research performance by reviewing the problem, objectives, and importance of learning strategies through desk study, field, and finally the research plan. Expanding the proficiency of research execution is identified with the capacity of colleges to utilize e-learning out how to improve inquire about. Higher, across the board correspondence, and data advances are compelling factors in colleges, which mirrored their impacts on college execution. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 E-learning strategies The procedure of instruction is a section and a significant segment of any foundation's advancement. This procedure gets through the viability or effect of people and workers in the association through qualities and frameworks that are prepared to do continually achieving hierarchical change and improving the exhibition of the association dependent on the use of ability. Spread of present day advancements in the time of mechanical improvement, techniques and instruments have developed that have raised the proficiency of college training and research. E-learning has turned into a significant piece of the instructive procedure. The various systems of training, support, and adjusted in the ideal use in the instructive procedure. E-learning defines as an activity that uses technology with the Internet and facilitates learning and education, and the Internet is easily associated with content on a computer. [4] Resenbeg (2007) calls attention to that when discussing elearning methodologies, we should understand that they are initially the consequence of general training techniques, and focused on that e-learning systems are one of the types of instruction procedures that significantly influence the presentation and effectiveness of an instructive organization. [5] Fig.1. E-learning Concept The e-learning system looks to advance transformational approaches in educating and instructing, and educational plans that positively affect understudies, staff, managers and different partners, associate students, make a feeling of having a place, and empower them to take an interest through the guiding principle of coordinated effort over a gathering A wide scope of social orders through exchange and electronic communication .It is an example or plan to coordinate the principle targets of Web based educating through a guide to get to advanced substance to add to sorting out learning through e-learning. [6] According to Abu Naser et al. (2019), e-learning strategies can be summarized as follows: [7] 1 The concept of e-learning strategies is not an e-learning term, but an integrated approach through which educational and research performance can be improved. 2. The application of the concept of e-learning strategies and programs is linked to the vision and mission of the universities, which contribute to the achievement of their objectives and the goals of the dealers together. 3. The application of programs and methods of using elearning strategies leads to employee satisfaction, which International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 22 contributes to improved capacity and willingness to perform in universities. 4. Is the source of attracting and attracting students who believe that the educational process is for them fun and easy, and helps them to innovate, which in turn contributes to increase the efficiency of performance as indicated by the focus group. Catherine (2016) study found five positive learning strategies in this area and that the use of computer skill in education improves the credibility of education, and students favor the use of computer learning skill. [8] Different investigations with respect to the achievement of logical research in developing colleges in Saudi Arabia have uncovered the accessibility of material perspectives, for example, databases, labs, and budgetary help for society through research seats. Data innovation, information the executives and separation preparing are one of the key vital elements for structure hierarchical learning. It additionally found the capacity of colleges to adapt to the fast changes in educating and logical research. Separation preparing in colleges decreases preparing time, and there are numerous shortcomings in the accessibility of innovation.[9] [10] From the above, the areas of e-learning strategies and research performance can be identified as described below in the table (1). Table 1: e-learning strategies implementation e-learning strategies Implementation requirements 1 Planning, organization, skill, interaction, feedback, problem solving, goals. Plans, strategies 2 E-learning strategies, web-based learning strategy, multimedia software scientific presentation strategy. Technology 3 E-learning contracts, e-discussion, e-lecture, participatory e-learning, self-orientation, web exploration, project strategies, e-collaborative strategy, e-simulation, e-problem solving strategy Human resources, financial resources, infrastructure Source: Authors As e-learning strategies became an important part of modern education process, there are many objectives and types of elearning. One of the most important objectives is helping employees and their aides get ready showing material for understudies, make up for absence of involvement in one another, and give them propelled aptitudes. E-learning deals with an assortment of instruments. The new instructive framework expect various students in inclinations, mentalities, arrangements, and wants, and along these lines gives various approaches to get to the data and devices in an assortment that suits the distinction in the characteristics of the students. Also it can address the absence of scholarly and preparing frameworks in some instructive areas through virtual study halls, and accomplishes full collaboration, straightforwardly with educator and student. Accomplishes equivalent instructive chances, where the student can defeat the obstructions of time and separation if the selection of training on the Web, as e-learning can give. E-learning enables understudies to look for data by speaking with companions, looking through databases on the web, and through online networking. [11] To achieve e-learning objectives, essential procedures must take place in learning and planning to success such as changing the approach of training at the college level, with the goal that innovation is a fundamental device in the instructive science at all stages, which adds to correspondence among personnel and understudies. Add to that giving physical, human and framework prerequisites, getting ready suitable electronic projects and courses, and preparing the components of the instructive framework. Dr. Mr. Gad Ruler to these prerequisites recorded as a hard copy the administration of colleges and establishments of advanced education improvement procedures and strategies for development. Also direct research, studies, and encounters in the field of elearning, far reaching appraisal, and consistent improvement. [12] E-learning strategies could be arranged as follow: [13] 1. Multimedia strategy. 2. The scientific e-statement. 3. Electronic declamation. 4. Scientific e-experimentation. 5. Cooperative education. 6. Electronic training. 7. Self-education. 8. Electronic simulations. Whatever the strategy used in e-learning, it still considered as integrated curriculum uses a set of methods, tools, and associated programs to improve and develop the educational process, which contributes to the process of increasing the efficiency of performance in universities, achieving their goals. [14] In addition of that, to improving knowledge, accessed by the learner and the teacher, which helps him to creativity, which in turn leads to attract, attract customers, loyalty to universities, and its reflection on the culture of society. [15] 2.1 Scientific research efficiency Information is the reason for the production of new chances, as it has turned out to be certain that the consequences of research by colleges must be utilized to make new devices and better conditions for future life. Since the procedure of college improvement isn't restricted to quantitative development, extension of occasions and exercises, yet should take choices to raise the exhibition of logical research, and create methodologies that add to coordination among colleges and logical research focuses, International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 23 and add to budgetary help for all mainstays of logical research, magazines, libraries , Periodicals, counseling, instructional classes, and grants. [16] The development of research performance in universities has become an urgent requirement, where modern progress has produced a square represented in the university, scientific research, technology, and society, and without linking between them is not right for one party to perform, and being properly without interaction with the other party. Hamid (2013) explained the definition of university research performance as the sum of the activities of a faculty, department, college, or university in order to contribute to development and scientific progress, which can be measured in several ways, including: the amount of publication, quotation, or peer assessment. [17] Research performance defined as the research product or product of research activity that contributes to scientific progress. It is also the ability to use a range of research activities with minimal time and effort, which contribute to the development of the university, and progress through the practice of the university or its customers to produce the best research results, and whose results contribute to the development, community and development. It also includes the use of all research strategies that contribute to the development and development of the university and its departments, and its outputs are capable of scientific and practical development in universities. [18] [19] Logical research is one of the principle targets of any college, and positions second in significance after scholastic instruction, and has turned into a conspicuous job in the hypothetical and connected fields, as the advancement of any nation is estimated by the significance of logical research, and the endeavors applied in contributing what is amassed giving subsidizing to colleges and research focuses to play out their capacities viably and superbly. [20] There are many indicators that can be used to measure university research performance; those indicators are summarized in the following table (2). [21] Table 2: Indicators of university research performance Indicator 1 1. The adequacy and efficiency of faculty members at the university. 2 Number of professors, assistants, assistant teachers and repeaters. 3 Efficiency of organizational and human structures in the field of graduate studies. 4 Percentage of expenditure on scientific research and graduate studies at the national level and at the level of each research institution. 5 Number of researchers with degrees from abroad. 6 The number of scientists, researchers and distinguished at the international level within their fields of specialization. 7 Efficiency and adequacy of resources and physical, laboratory and research resources. 8 Number of researches or researchers who have received certificates of appreciation or awards. 9 The nature of the relationship between the university and local universities and conferences research assignments research participation. 10 Quality of postgraduate studies and research provided. Source: Gad El-Rab, S. (2009). Indicators and benchmarks Measuring and Evaluating Performance Strategic: Approach for Continuous Improvement and Competitive Excellence, Cairo, New Book Library, p. 162. Another scholars debate that university research performance must be built on special criteria diverse between fact, freedom, responsibility, integrity, mastery of work, and cooperate. The basic principles are specifications for good research, and that the research process is not a personal process, but a scientific, social, cultural and humane work must be based on the basis of ideals, values, knowledge, ethics, and the researcher must be a degree of responsibility in the use of information. [22] From the theoretical framework, the following question is answered : Q1: What is the level of scientific research efficiency in foreign and Palestinian universities from the point of view of senior management? The following hypothesis is tested: H1: There is a relationship between e-learning strategy and scientific research efficiency performance in educational institutions from the point of view of senior management. 3. RESEARCH DESIGN 3.1 Methodology of the study The methodology of the study and its procedures is a major focus through which the practical aspect of the study is accomplished. The data required to conduct the statistical analysis are obtained in order to reach the results that are interpreted in the light of the study literature on the subject of the study. 3.2 Population and sampling The study conducted on (senior management) in the Palestinian and foreign universities, which are: (Islamic University, Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, University of Munster, University of Ottawa and Suez Canal University) as shown in table (3). Table 3: Distribution of the society of the study No. The University Total 1. Palestinian Universities Islamic University 106 2. Al-Azhar University 65 3. AL-Aqsa University 64 4. Foreign Universities Moneyster University 75 5. Ottawa University 95 6. Suez Canal 38 International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 24 University Total 443 The random stratified sample was used by the university to reach (206) individual. A sample of 30 unit was chosen to test the internal consistency, structural honesty, and stability of the questionnaire. 3.3 Research tool The research instrument was prepared by studying the Since the nature of hypothesis and the variables involved are the ones that control the selection of the appropriate tool, accordingly, the researchers have prepared a measure for that study commensurate with its objectives and requirements, the elements of e-learning strategy and university research efficiency performance. The process of designing and preparing the study scale has gone through several stages and steps: 1. Review the literature of e-learning strategy, and previous studies on the subject of the current study. 2. Collect and define scale paragraphs. 3. Formulation of the standard expressions according to the study sample. 4. Set the meter instructions. 5. Correct the meter. 6. Conduct a study of stability and honesty of the scale. The first dimension referring to e-learning strategy prepared by the authors from (14) paragraphs. The second dimension of the instrument which measures university research efficiency performance, was developed by the authors also from (7) paragraphs as shown in table (4). Table 4: Dimensions and paragraphs Fields Paragraphs E-learning strategies 14 Electronic Planning Strategy 7 University research efficiency performance 7 Source: Authors Also Trustees validity has been conducted by a group of expert in e-learning and academic research. Those statements were further revised and modified by the experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression. 3.4 Validity and reliability assessment The truth of the questionnaire was confirmed in two ways: A. The truth of the arbitrators: "The truth is apparent": The study tool was presented in its initial form to a group of arbitrators consisting of (24) of specialists in the academic, administrative, professional, statistical and educational technology. The researchers responded to the opinions of the arbitrators and the necessary deletion and modification In the light of the proposals submitted, and thus the questionnaire was finalized. B. Internal consistency: The consistency of the internal consistency means the consistency of each paragraph of the questionnaire with the area to which this paragraph belongs. Table 5: Content Validity No. eLearning Strategies Pearson Co. Sig. 1. Strategic Planning 0.918** 0.000 2. University research efficiency performance 0.927** 0.000 * The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.05. * * The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.01. The stability of the research questionnaire was verified by the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient and the midterm fragmentation and the results were as shown in Table (6). Table 6: Alpha Cronbach and the midterm split No. Areas Paragraphs Cronbach's coefficient alpha Halfspilt Test 3. Strategic Planning 7 0.933 0.938 4. University research efficiency performance 7 0.953 0.950 E-Learning Strategies 14 0.963 0.962 The results shown in Table (6) show that the value of the Cronbach alpha coefficient is high for all dimensions, with values ranging between (0.933 and 0.963). The results for split-half was similar to the Alpha-Cronbach method, ranging between (0.938-0.962). This means that the questionnaire is accurate in measuring what is being measured and that the stability coefficient is high and fulfills the research objectives. 3.5 Data analysis The relative weights of e-learning strategies in foreign and Palestinian universities were determined from the point of view of senior management, as shown in table (7) Table 7: The arithmetic mean, the relative weight, and the value of (T) of e-learning strategies Field Universities SMA S.D. R.W. Ttest P.V. E-Learning Strategies Foreign Universities 3.56 0.86 68.78 4.692 0.000 Palestinian Universities 2.91 1.3 58 0.34 0.318 Table (7) shows that the mean of e-learning strategies from the point of view of senior management in foreign universities (3.56) is higher than the default average (3). The International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 25 value of test t is equal to (4.692), which is statistically significant at (0.01). This is due to the availability of material and human resources, continuous follow-up to the development of the technological education process, and the development of e-learning strategies. The average of E-learning strategies (2.91), the value of test t is equal to (0.33) with statistical significance (0.318), which is greater than 0.05, thus increasing the average of e-learning strategies from the point of view of senior management in Palestinian universities is not statistically significant, researchers attribute this to financial situations, crises, and inability to implement strategic plans. University research efficiency performance was determined from the senior management point of view using the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, relative weight, test value "T" and "Sig" as shown in the following table (8). Table 8: Descriptive analysis for university research efficiency performance No. University research efficiency performance SMA S.D. R.W. Ttest P.V Rank 1. Senior management is involved in research that develops university performance 3.55 1.29 71.03 5.59 0.00 1 2. Top management motivates employees to study abroad 3.46 1.40 69.29 -0.87 0.39 2 3. The senior management follows the policies of implementing the development of scientific research 2.93 1.44 58.51 0.97 0.33 7 4. Senior management is working on a future plan for scientific research 3.07 1.23 61.42 0.67 0.50 4 5. Top management puts in its plan the continuous development of scientific research centers 3.05 1.16 60.92 1.69 0.09 5 6. Senior management facilitates participation in scientific conferences 3.13 1.34 62.70 0.45 0.65 3 7. Top management helps disseminate scientific research electronically 3.04 1.33 60.71 0.93 0.35 6 University research efficiency performance 3.11 1.5 62.14 7.56 0.000 *The value of (T) of the table at the level of significance of 0.05 about 1.98 From data analysis in table (8), senior administration concurred that university research efficiency performance was passages (1,2,6) positioned first with an overall load of 71.03%,.69.29%, and 62.70% separately, mean (3.11) and test esteem (7.56), and the likelihood of (sig.) = (0.000), which is less than level (0.05). Along these lines they measurably noteworthy at the degree of essentialness (α≤ 0.05), showing that the normal reaction to this passage has expanded over the level of lack of bias to a moderate degree, which implies that there is extensive endorsement by the respondents on this section. In general, the views of the senior management agreed on the dimension of university research efficiency performance and obtained an approval ratio with an average of 3.11 indicating that the average response level of this axis has increased to a neutral level (3) where it exceeded the middle class. The researchers attributed this to the fact that universities seek to increase the efficiency of university research, and put them on top of their priorities, to reach the research excellence in the light of global technological development. The relative weights of dimensions of university research efficiency performance from the point of view of senior management in foreign and Palestinian universities: Table 9: Descriptive analysis for university research efficiency performance between universities No . Field University SM A S-D R.W Ttest P.V 1. university research efficiency performanc e Foreign Universitie s 3.50 1.2 3 62.1 0 0.2 1 1.25 2. Palestinian Universitie s 3.10 1.0 0 61.2 9 0.9 3 0.35 6 Table (9) shows that the relative weight (62.10%) and the arithmetic average of university research efficiency performance from the point of view of senior management in foreign universities (3.11) is higher than the default average (3), where the value of the test (T) is equal to (0.21) and is statistically significant value at (0.00). The researchers attributed this to the fact that the senior management sets out a strategic plan that set out the objectives of the universities and the methods of upgrading the universities research quality, as it strives to reach high quality outputs in elearning. For the Palestinian universities, the relative weight was 61.29%, the mean university research efficiency performance was 3.10 and the value of T was (0.93) and the statistical value was 0.000. This is due to the physical conditions experienced by the universities of the Gaza Strip because of the poor economic situation in the Gaza Strip and the number of unapproved universities, which affected all aspects of life in the universities, which in turn affected university research efficiency performance. 3.6 Hypothesis Test is a significant relationship between the strategies of e-learning and university research efficiency performance. To answer this hypothesis, correlation coefficients and the probability value (Sig) were used to find the relationship and the level of significance from the point of view of senior management. Table 10: Correlation coefficient between e-learning strategies and university research efficiency performance Hypothesis Pearson Sig. There is a significant relationship between the total areas of e-learning strategies and university research efficiency performance *0.902 0.000 International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 26 Table (10) shows that the correlation coefficient is (0.902) and that the probability value (Sig) is equal to (0.00) and is less than the significance level (α≤ 0.05). This indicates a statistically significant relationship between e-learning strategies and university research efficiency performance due to the interest of the senior management in presenting strategic plans that focus on e-learning through the vision and mission of universities and quadratic analysis, which in turn reflects on university research efficiency performance. According to that, we accept hypothesis H1 and refuse H0. 4. CONCLUSION The study found that there is a significant relationship between e-learning strategies and increasing university research efficiency performance. The study also showed senior management does not follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. The study found that there is more support for university research efficiency in both foreign and Palestinian universities. This indicates that research performance plays an important role in universal classification for any university. It also reached the participation of senior management in research that develops university performance in universities. The investigation suggested that the top administration in the Palestinian colleges should focus on giving e-learning spending plan and urge workers to keep utilizing e-learning techniques The Palestinian colleges ought to embrace and bolster recognized looks into, and the significance of empowering the execution of approaches for the advancement of logical research. The study additionally prescribed the significance of showing instructive substance in a straightforward and simple way. Also, the foundation of a complex adaptable mechanical framework. The study additionally prescribed the need to improve the environment of e-learning by attempting to give the prerequisites of e-learning, spreading the way of life of scientific research through e-learning procedures, and crafted by twinning between Palestinian and foreign colleges to profit by the encounters of remote colleges here, and the reception of clear approaches that empower laborers utilize their opportunity to build up their research performance. REFERENCES [1] Gad El-Rab, S. (2015). Modern Trends in Business Management, Cairo, Academy Library, (2015), p. 101. [2] Alkarzon, M. (2016). Gender Differences In Attitudes Toward Online Training In Qatar Private Institutions Ph.D. Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment Northern Illinois University, (2016) ,p11. [3] Brown, J., Park, H. (2015). 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[12] Al-Fawal, M., Ibraheem, R. (2013). The Effectiveness of Some Active Learning Strategies", from the point of view of secondary school teachers, Tishreen Journal for Research and Scientific Studies, vol. 35, issue 6 , pp. 239-257. [13] Al hila A. A., Al Shobaki, M. J., Abu Naser, S. S. & Abu Amuna, Y. M. (2017). Proposed Model for Learning Organization as an Entry to Organizational Excellence from the Standpoint of Teaching Staff in Palestinian Higher Educational Institutions in Gaza Strip, International Journal of Education and Learning, vol. 6, issue 1, pp. 1-28. [14] Nwangwu, E. (2014). Video Editing and Production Skills Possessed by Computer Education Lecturers for Effective Instructional Delivery in Colleges of Education in South-East One of Nigeria, Computer education reaches Journal,vol.11, issue 1, pp.109-118. International Journal of Academic Information Systems Research (IJAISR) ISSN: 2643-9026 Vol. 3 Issue 8, August - 2019, Pages: 20-27 27 [15] Mohammed Al-Saeed, M. (2015) Series of E-Learning Strategies, University of Majma'a, p. 29. [16] Abdel-Aal, A. (2011). Obstacles to Electronic Publishing and Not to Benefit from It in Arab Universities: Sohag University as a Model: Cybrarians Journal, vol. 26, pp. 1-9. [17] Al Shobaki, M. J., Abu Naser, S. S., Abu Amuna, Y. M. & El Talla, S. A. (2018). The Availability of Smart Organization Dimensions in Technical Colleges in Palestine, International Journal of Academic Management Science Research, vol. 2, issue 5, pp. 126. [18] Redenbeg, M. (2010). e -learning strategy: The eLearning Guild, David Holcombe Publishing. [19] Kang, M., Heo, H., Jo, II., Shin, J. & Seo. J. (2010). Developing an Educational Performance Indicator for New Millennium Learners, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, vol. 43, issue. 2, pp. 157- 170. [20] Abu Galwa, N. (2014). The effectiveness of a training program based on active learning strategies and mathematical skills involved in the international study in the development of teaching performance for teachers, PhD. Dissertation, Ain Shams University, Egypt. [21] Al-Shemary, Y. (2013). Organizational Culture and its Relationship to Improving Educational Performance from the Perspective of Students of King Khalid Military College, Riyadh, Master Dissertation, KSA. [22] Merrill, M.D. (1983). The Component display theory, In C.M. Regolith(Ed), Instructional design theories and models: An overview of their current status, U.S.A. N.J: Lawrence, Erlbaum associates.
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{ "creator": "Tuğba Seda, Çolak", "date": "2020", "datestamp": 1600082174000, "description": "Today the world is suffering from coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic illness, and people all around the world stay at home due to its rapid spread. People including students gather information and government instructions through TVs, social media and others around them. Since the classes were canceled in many countries, the novel coronavirus affects students’ interest in coursework. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TV news, social media and communication with people on interest in coursework, and mediating roles of fear of contamination, depression, and anxiety on these effects. A path analysis was carried out with the data collected from 773 college students. The results showed that interest in coursework was most strongly affected by communication with people. This was due to its direct and indirect effects. Social media and TV News did not directly affect interest in coursework, but indirectly affected. The study also found that among the three mediator variables, the mediator roles of anxiety was bigger than the others. Understanding the findings of this research has become very important to us, especially at a time when face-to-face lessons have been canceled all over the world and transitioned to online education. Specific recommendations for practitioners and limitations for future research were also provided in the study.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDITF", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Investigating the Factors Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Undergraduate Students’ Interests in Coursework", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies, 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 © 2014 International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies (IJPES) is supported by Educational Researches and Publications Association (ERPA) International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies Investigating the Factors Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Undergraduate Students' Interests in Coursework Abdi Güngör1, Mehmet Akif Karaman2, Halil İbrahim Sari3, Tuğba Seda Çolak4 1,4 Düzce University, Turkey, 2,3 Kilis 7 Aralik University, Turkey ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Received 27.03.2020 Received in revised form 04.06.2020 Accepted 19.06.2020 Available online 12.09.2020 Today the world is suffering from coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic illness, and people all around the world stay at home due to its rapid spread. People including students gather information and government instructions through TVs, social media and others around them. Since the classes were canceled in many countries, the novel coronavirus affects students' interest in coursework. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TV news, social media and communication with people on interest in coursework, and mediating roles of fear of contamination, depression, and anxiety on these effects. A path analysis was carried out with the data collected from 773 college students. The results showed that interest in coursework was most strongly affected by communication with people. This was due to its direct and indirect effects. Social media and TV News did not directly affect interest in coursework, but indirectly affected. The study also found that among the three mediator variables, the mediator roles of anxiety was bigger than the others. Understanding the findings of this research has become very important to us, especially at a time when face-to-face lessons have been canceled all over the world and transitioned to online education. Specific recommendations for practitioners and limitations for future research were also provided in the study. © 2020 IJPES. All rights reserved Keywords:1 COVID-19, stress, anxiety, fear, interest in coursework, path analysis 1. Introduction Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has quickly affected all over the world, and caused serious physical and mental health issues. After the first case COVID-19 illness was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, many people died in China and the coronavirus spread all around the world. Only 44 cases were identified in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019. However, as of 20 January 2020, 282 cases from four countries including China, Thailand, Japan and the Republic of Korea and six deaths were reported. Then, the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled COVID-19 as the pandemic disease on March 11th, 2020 ("WHO DirectorGeneral's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 11 March 2020," n.d.). In the update by 26 March 2020 from WHO (2020), for example, in more than 130 countries, 462,684 cases were confirmed, and 20,834 deaths were reported ("Novel Coronavirus situation reports," n.d.). Thus, COVID-19 has been quickly spreading all over the world, and having negative impacts on health, social, economic, politic, and education systems ("Coronavirus disease 2019," 2020; Cauchemez, Ferguson, Wachtel, Tegnell, Saour, Duncan, & Nicoll, 2009; Effler, Carcione, Giele, Dowse, Goggin, & Mak, 2010; Ingram, 2016). Similarly, the first case was observed in Turkey on March 10th, 2020, and the number of cases and deaths has increased quickly. 1 Corresponding author's address: Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Studies, Guidance and Psychological Counseling Program, Duzce University, Duzce, Turkey, 81620 Telephone: 0380 542 13 55 ETX: 2435 Fax: 0380 542 13 66 e-mail: International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 2 Therefore, COVID-19 pandemic has caused threats to people in health, social, economic, educational areas. The literature well documented the negative impacts of pandemic diseases on society, students and education systems (e.g. Cauchemez et al., 2009; Van, McLaws, Crimmins, MacIntyre, & Seale, 2010). Even though, most patients of COVID-19 have been adults and children are less susceptible, school closures in many countries have been implemented to prevent the spreading of the virus (Wikipedia Contributors, 2020). According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), governments all around the world have announced nationwide closures of schools, which affected more than 80% of the world's student population (UNESCO, n.d.). In Turkey, by 16th March 2020, Ministry of National Education announced to close the schools from kindergartens to high schools for at least until the end of April, as a proactive action. In addition, The Council of Higher Education in Turkey decided to close universities and initiate online education during the spring semester. Overall, uncertainty and school closures can have negative effects on students' interests in schools, and the factors that affect students' interests in schools should be explored in terms of minimizing the effects of a pandemic on education (Cauchemez et al., 2009). One of those factors that can affect school interests can be infrormatin regarding COVID-19 transmitted through media and social media. As expected, the news and information related to COVID-19 have been taken huge parts in the media (e.g. TV) and social media (La et al., 2020; Roose & Gabriel, 2020; Signorini, Segre, & Polgreen, 2011). Especially after people were ordered to stay home, news and communication on social media increased by over 50 percent in many countries (Isaac & Frenkel, 2020), and, for example, exposure to social media can have negative effects on students (Maglunog & Dy, 2019). Therefore, students are exposed to a high volume of news and information about COVID-19, and this can be one of the potential reasons that can diminish their interests in the school by shifting their focus from school to concerns related to pandemic. It should also be noted that such information or news is not necessarily true, or even can be misleading. For example, Pandey, Patni, Singh, Sood, and Singh (2010) examined 142 youtube videos that had relevant information about the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic on June 26, 2009, regarding their usefulness and viewership. Results showed that 61.3% of the videos included useful information while 23% had misleading knowledge about the Influenza pandemic. In addition, viewership shared 70.5% of the useful videos, the share proportion of misleading videos was 17.5%. In conclusion, being interested in media, social media, or daily communication about COVID-19 are potential external factors reducing interest in school. However, the effects of media, social media, and communication with others on reduced school interest can be delivered through other factors. In this sense, stress, anxiety, and fear of contamination are potential mediating variables, which are underlying factors on the association between such external factors (media, social media, and daily communication) and reduced school interest. 1.1. Stress, Fear, and Anxiety Related to Pandemic Pandemic issues can lead to emotional responses, such as higher levels of anger, stress, fear, or anxiety in society. In turn, those emotions can lead to behaviors of panic, resistance, blaming others and government, overburdening of healthcare, and abandoning responsibilities (Perrin, McCabe, Everly, & Links, 2009). Pandemics such as SARS or COVID-19 have considerable social and psychological impacts on society (Perrin et al., 2009). Although COVID-19 has been studied in terms of its physiological symptoms and effects, its' mental effects and consequences on patients and healthcare workers have not been well addressed (Xiang et al., 2020). Fear is one of those initial reactions in such pandemic (Perrin et al., 2009). Fear is defined as a negative emotional reaction to a threatening stimulus, which generally leads to defensive responses (Labar, 2016). In this regard, COVID-19 pandemic causes several threats for human health, so people can experience higher levels of fear during the outbreak. Another negative emotion that can arise from the pandemic can he anxiety. Anxiety refers to unease emotion regarding a potentially negative, unpredictable situation (Labar, 2016; Lake & Labar, 2011). COVID-19, by its nature, causes a high levels of uncertainty in terms of physical and mental health, economic, education and other areas. Therefore, it is a risk factor for escalated level of anxiety. COVID19 outbreak induced several challenges and difficulties for the society, so stress is another negative emotion that can be resulted from the pandemic. Regarding negative emotional outcomes of COVID-19, Xiang et al. (2020) mentioned that symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, cough, or hypoxia can lead to higher levels of anxiety and distress. If the social and psychological side of the problem cannot be addressed seriously, it can cause higher levels of concerns, and even lead to a crisis (Perrin et al., 2009). Abdi Güngör, Mehmet Akif Karaman, Halil İbrahim Sari, Tuğba Seda Çolak The literature has well documented that pandemic diseases include potential threats for escalated levels of stress, fear, and worry. For example, in a study conducted with 1,000 adults in Korea during the 2015 MERSCoV outbreak (Ro, Lee, Kang, & Jung, 2017) showed that worry levels of the participants constantly increased through the points when the first patient was diagnosed with MERS, the first patient died, and the number of cases continued to increase. However, the levels of worry significantly decreased when the MERS outbreak ended (Ro et al., 2017). In the case of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Taha, Matheson, Cronin, and Anisman (2014) found that greater levels of intolerance of uncertainty were related to lower levels of control, which was associated with higher levels of pandemic-related anxiety. Health anxiety, contamination fears and disgust sensitivity were found to be significant predictors of swine-flu related anxiety during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009-2010 (Wheaton, Abramowitz, Berman, Fabricant, & Olatunji, 2012). The literature has also shown that pandemic-related anxiety is especially high in the early phase of the outbreak and declines over time. For example, in a study investigating the cognitive and affective risk perceptions during the MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea, participants' cognitive and affective risk perceptions decreased as the time passed by (Jang et al., 2020). In another study, Cowling et al. (2010) examined the psychological and behavioral responses of the community to the first wave of the Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic in Hong Kong. Low anxiety throughout the epidemic was reported, but perceived susceptibility to infection and perceived severity were initially high but declined later. In addition, higher levels of anxiety were found to be related to greater social distancing (Cowling et al., 2010). In addition, Bults et al. (2011) found that anxiety decreased after the first phase and remained stable overtime during the early phase of the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in the Netherlands. 1.2. The Present Study Thus far, we have said that COVID-19 can have considerable negative effects on education and students' interests in school ("Q&A on coronaviruses" 2020; Xiang et al., 2020). However, because there is still an absence of the data, the literature has suggested examining the effects of pandemics on students' learning process and psychological situation (e.g. Cauchemez et al., 2009). Especially, being interested in media, social media, and daily conversation has potential threats to undergraduate students' interests in school. However, we hypothesize that such effects on school interests can be delivered through fear, anxiety, and stress. For example, Remmerswaal and Muris (2011) found that children's' fear reactions to the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic in Netharlend were associated with their parents' fear of the pandemic and there was a positive association between parents' transmission of threat information and children's fear. In addition, information from the media and friends were other significant predictors of children's fear (Remmerswaal & Muris, 2011). All in all, news and conversations related to COVID-19 take a considerable place in the media, social media, and daily conversations, which can escalate undergraduate students' fear, anxiety, and stress. In turn, those feelings have potential threats for diminished interests in school and academic activities. 1.3. Research Questions 1. What are size of the direct and direct effects of social media, TV news and conversation with people on interest in coursework? 2. What are size of the direct and direct effects of social media, TV news and conversation with people on anxiety? 3. What are size of the direct and direct effects of social media, TV news and conversation with people on stress? 4. What are size of the direct and direct effects of social media, TV news and conversation with people on fear of contamination? 5. What are the mediating roles of fear of contamination, stress and anxiety in the relations between social media, TV news and conversation with people and interest in coursework? 2. Method 2.1. Participants and Procedure International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 4 The data were collected from undergraduate students currently attending a four-year college program in Turkey. There were 587 (75.9%) female and 186 (24.1%) male students from four universities in the sample, for a total of 773 students. The age of the participants was ranged from 18 to 49, with a mean of 21.63 and a standard deviation of 3.04. There were 113 (14.6%) freshman, 305 (39.5%) sophomore, 200 (25.9%) junior and 155 (20.1%) senior students. The survey was created on Google Forms web-based application, and the electronic link was sent to about 800 students. The convenience sampling method was used in this study meaning that participation in the study was completely voluntary, and 773 of them filled the survey. The data collection process started right after the first case of coronavirus as the illness was announced by the officials on March 10th, 2020, and completed within five days. Since the classes were been canceled by the government, students filled the survey outside of regular class hours. There were seven attitude questions and three demographic items in the survey so; it took less than 60 seconds for each participant to complete the survey. 2.2. Measures There were seven items in the survey, and each participant was asked to rate the items that best apply to them. The first item was related to social media posts on COVID-19. The item was ''How much do the social media (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) posts related to coronavirus affect you?'' The second item was related to TV News on COVID-19. The item was ''How much do the TV News related to coronavirus affect you?'' The third item was related to communication with people (CwP) around them. The item was ''How much do communication on COVID-19 with relatives, friends or significant others around you affect you?'' The response options for these first three items were ranged from ''0= Never affecting'' to ''10= Affecting too much''. The fourth item was perceived stress level. The item was ''How much do COVID-19 illness increase your stress level?''. The fifth item was perceived anxiety level. The item was ''How much do COVID-19 illness increase your anxiety level?'' The response options for these items (e.g., item 4 & 5) were ranged from ''0= Never increasing'' to ''10= Increasing too much''. The sixth item was the fear of contamination. The item was ''How much do you fear that coronavirus would be transmitted to you?''. The response options were ranged from ''0= Not afraid at all'' to ''10= Afraid too much''. The seventh item was Interest in Coursework (ICW). The item was ''How much did your ICW/classes decrease after the coronavirus epidemic disease?'' The response options were ranged from ''0= Never decreased'' to ''10= Decreased too much''. It should be noted that this item was negatively worded. Each student rated his/her perception or attitude about each of the survey items on a 10-point rating scale. 2.3. Data Analysis Based on the literature, we first developed the path analysis model given in Figure 1. In the model, social media posts, TV News, and communication with people are the exogenous variables (e.g., no arrows pointing to them), and the remaining variables are endogenous variables. Based on this model, there are direct and indirect effects from the social media posts, TV News and communication with people to fear of contamination, stress and anxiety and ICW. Also, the indirect effects are mediated through communication with people to fear of contamination, stress, and anxiety. We hypothesized that there should be positive associations between exogenous variables and mediators, and negative associations between ICW and all other variables. However, due to encountering model fit problems in the path model, we had to modify the hypothesized model by removing some of the insignificant paths. We also added a new path from anxiety to stress. We call this new model a selected path model (see Figure 2). The bivariate correlations amongst all variables are given in Table 1. In the analyses, we treated all items as continuous indicators, and the responses to the ICW was reversely coded. This means that as the score on this item decreases, the ICW decreases. We run both hypothesized and selected models in Mplus software version 7 (Muthen & Muthen, 1998-2012), and used the bootstrap with 5000 iterations to obtain 90% confidence intervals for the effects. The sizes and 90% confidence interval of the total, direct and indirect effects of exogenous variables on endogenous variables are given in Table 2. Abdi Güngör, Mehmet Akif Karaman, Halil İbrahim Sari, Tuğba Seda Çolak Table 1. Bivariate correlations, means and standard deviations amongst the observed variables. Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Stress -- 2. Anxiety .88* -- 3. Fear of Contamination .71* .70* -- 4. Social Media .71* .70* .59* -- 5. TV News .75* .75* .64* .77* -- 6. CwP .77* .75* .62* .74* .79* -- 7. Interest in Coursework -.49* -.48* -.38* -.36* -.42* -.45* -Means 6.09 6.20 6.06 5.98 6.68 6.17 5.73 SD 2.63 2.56 2.87 2.48 2.40 2.47 3.09 CwP =Communication with people, *p<.01 3. Results 3.1. Results of Model Fit The fit indices of the hypothesized model were chi-square: χ2 = (1) = 377.48 and p < .01, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .87, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = -1.30, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = .70 and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = .03. All of the model fit indices of the hypothesized model were not acceptable so, we removed all insignificant effects from the hypothesized model, and by looking at the modification indices, we added a path from anxiety to stress in the selected or final path model. The fit International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 6 indices of the selected path model were chi-square: χ2 (4) = 7.21 and p = .12, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .99, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = .99, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = .03 with a 90% CI of [.00, .07] and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = .00. The fit statistics of the final model indicated a very good model fit. 3.2. Effects of Exogenous Variables Social media. Social media posts had significant total effects on stress (.24), anxiety (.21), fear of contamination (.18), and ICW (-.10) ICW. Thus, the sizes of social media's effects on endogenous variables were similar. The .24 effect on stress was partially direct (B=.09, p<.05) and partially indirect (B=.15, p<.05). There were three specific indirect effects on stress as a) social media to anxiety to stress (B=.10, p<.05), b) social media to fear of contamination to stress (B=.02, p<.05), and c) social media to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress (B=.03, p<.05). All specific indirect effects were significant and the highest on stress was mediated through anxiety. The .21 effect on anxiety was partially direct (B=.16, p<.05) and partially indirect (B=.05, p<.05). Both direct and indirect effects were significant. As specified in the model, the indirect effect on anxiety was mediated through fear of contamination. The .18 effect on fear of contamination was entirely direct as shown in Figure 2. Lastly, the -.10 effect on interest in coursework was entirely indirect. There were six different specific indirect effects from social media to ICW but three of them were significant only. The significant specific indirect effects were a) social media to stress to ICW (B=-.02, p<.05), b) social media to anxiety to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), and c) social media to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.02, p<.05). The mediated effects of social media posts on ICW were similar in size and the mediated effect through anxiety was relatively higher than the other mediated effects. TV News. The TV news had significant total effects on stress (.25), anxiety (.32), fear of contamination (.41), and ICW (-.13). The .25 effect on stress was entirely indirect, and there was no direct effect from TV News to stress. There were three specific indirect effects on stress as a) TV news to anxiety to stress (B=.13, p<.05), b) TV News to fear of contamination to stress (B=.05, p<.05), and c) TV News to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress (B=.07, p<.05). All specific indirect effects were significant and the highest on stress was mediated through anxiety. The .32 effect on anxiety was partially direct (B=.21, p<.05), and partially indirect (B=.11, p<.05). The indirect effect was mediated through fear of contamination. The .41 effect on fear of contamination was entirely direct as specified in the model. The -.13 effect on ICW was entirely indirect and there was no direct effect from TV News to ICW. There were five specific indirect effects but four of them were significant. The five specific indirect effects were a) TV News to anxiety to ICW (B=-.05, p<.05), b) TV News to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.03, p>.05), c) TV News to fear of contamination to stress to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05), d) TV News to fear of contamination to anxiety to ICW (B=-.03, p<.05), e) TV News to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05). Communication with people. The CwP had significant total effects stress, anxiety, fear of contamination, and ICW, with total effects of .45, .38, .26 and -.38, respectively. The .45 effect on stress was partially direct (B=.18, p<.05) and partially indirect (B=.27, p<.05). There were three specific indirect effects on stress. They were a) CwPto anxiety to stress (B=.20, p<.05), b) CwPto fear of contamination to stress (B=.03, p<.05), and c) CwPto fear of contamination to anxiety to stress (B=.04, p<.05). All specific indirect effects were significant and the larger effect was mediated through anxiety. The .38 effect on anxiety was partially direct (B=.31, p<.05) and partially indirect (B=.07, p<.05). The indirect effect was mediated through fear of contamination only. The .26 effect on fear of contamination was entirely direct and did not have an indirect component as specified in the model. The -.38 effect on ICW was partially direct (B=-.19, p<.05) and partially indirect (B=-.19, p<.05). There were six specific indirect effects from communication to ICW but four of them were significant. The six specific indirect effects were a) CwPto stress to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), b) CwPto anxiety to ICW (B=-.08, p<.05), c) CwP to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), d) CwP to fear of contamination to stress to ICW (B=-.00, p>.05), e) CwP to fear of contamination to anxiety to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05), f) CwP to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.01, p>.05). The highest effect was mediated through anxiety but all specific indirect components were very small in size. Abdi Güngör, Mehmet Akif Karaman, Halil İbrahim Sari, Tuğba Seda Çolak 3.3. Effects on Endogenous Variables Fear of contamination. The model specifies that fear of contamination was directly affected by all exogenous variables. The total effects were .18, .41 and .26 from social media, TV News and CwP, respectively. All effects were significant direct effects because the fear of contamination did not have indirect effects specified in the model. All effects were similar in size but fear of contamination was most strongly affected by TV News. International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 8 Table 2. The Sizes and 90% Bootstrap coefficients Confidence Intervals for Total, Direct and Indirect Effects of Variables in The Selected Path Model Anxiety. The model specifies that anxiety was directly affected by all exogenous variables and by fear of contamination. The total effects were .21, .32, .38 and .27 from social media, TV News, CwP and fear of contamination, respectively. The effects from the exogenous variables were partially direct and partially indirect, however, the effect from fear of contamination was entirely direct. Anxiety was most strongly affected by CwP (.38). The effect was primarily due to the direct effect of CwP on anxiety, with a direct component of .31. Secondarily, the effect of CwP was mediated by its effects on fear of contamination only. The indirect effects of TV News (B=.11, p<.05) and social media (B=.05, p<.05) were also mediated by fear of contamination. The strongest indirect effect on anxiety was from TV News. Stress. The model specifies that stress was affected by all exogenous variables and by fear of contamination and anxiety. The total effects were .24, .25, .45, .28 and .63 from social media, TV News, CwP, fear of contamination and anxiety, respectively. The proposed effects of TV News was entirely indirect but the other specified effects were both direct and indirect. The larger effects on stress were anxiety and CwP total effects of .63 and .45, respectively. Social media, TV News and fear of contamination have relatively smaller (i.e., .24, .25 and .27, respectively) but significant total effects. The effect of anxiety was entirely direct as proposed in the model. As noted earlier, the effects of TV News was entirely indirect. Its mediated effects were a) from TV news to fear of contamination to stress, with an indirect component of .05 (p<.05), b) from TV news to anxiety to stress, with an indirect component of .13 (p<.05), and c) from TV news to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress, with an indirect component of .07 (p<.05). Thus, the indirect effect of TV News on stress was primarily Endogenous Variables Exogenous Variables Stress Anxiety Fear of Contamination Interest in Coursework Stress -- -- -- -.22*[-.38,-.08] -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -.22*[-.38,-.08] Anxiety .63*[.54, .72] -- -- -.25*[-.40,-.09] -- -- -- -.14*[-.25,-.05] .63*[.54, .72] -- -- -.39*[-.49,-.29] Fear of Contamination .11*[.07, .15] .27*[.22, .32] -- -- .17*[.13, .21] -- -- -.13*[-.17,-.09] .28*[.23, .33] .27*[.22, .32] -- -.13*[-.17,-.09] Social Media .09*[.04,.14] .16*[.05, .22] .18*[.07, .29] -- .15*[.10, .20] .05*[.01, .08] -- -.10*[-.14,-.07] .24*[.17, .31] .21*[.14, .27] .18*[.07, .29] -.10*[-.14,-.07] TV News -- .21*[.13, .28] .41*[.30, .52] -- .25*[.19, .31] .11*[.07, .15] -- -.13*[-.18,-.09] .25*[.19, .31] .32*[.24, .40] .41*[.30, .52] -.13*[-.18,-.09] Communication with People .18*[.11, .24] .31*[.24, .38] .26*[.15, .37] -.19*[-.30,-.08] .27*[.21, .34] .07*[.04, .10] -- -.19*[-.25,-.14] .45*[.37, .52] .38*[.31, .46] .26*[.15, .37] -.38*[-.47,-.30] Note. Direct effects in regular text, total indirect effects in italics, total effects in bold. The symbol -means the effect is not in the model; *p<.05; all effects are unstandardized effects. Abdi Güngör, Mehmet Akif Karaman, Halil İbrahim Sari, Tuğba Seda Çolak mediated by anxiety. According to the model specification, the .24 total effect from social media to stress was both direct (B=.09, p<.05) and indirect (B=.15, p<.05). Thus, the total indirect effect was larger than the direct effect. Likewise, there were three specified indirect paths from social media to stress: a) social media to anxiety to stress (B=.10, p<.05), b) social media to fear of contamination to stress (B=.02, p<.05), and c) social media to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress (B=.03, p<.05). Thus, the indirect effect of social media on stress was primarily mediated by anxiety. The .45 effect from CwP was both direct (B=.18, p<.05) and indirect (B=.27, p<.05). There were three specific indirect effects from CwP. They were a) CwP to anxiety to stress (B=.20, p<.05), b) CwP to fear of contamination to stress (B=.03, p<.05), and c) CwP to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress (B=.04, p<.05). Thus, the indirect effect of CwP on stress was primarily mediated by anxiety. The .28 effect from fear of contamination to stress was both direct (B=.11, p<.05) and indirect (B=.17, p<.05). Thus, the effect was primarily due to the indirect effect of fear of contamination on stress. Secondarily, the effect of fear of contamination was mediated by its effects on anxiety. Thus, anxiety played a very important mediator role between fear of contamination and stress. Interest in coursework. According to the model specification, ICW was directly affected by communication with people, anxiety, and stress, and indirectly affected by all variables. The largest of the significant effects on ICW were CwP and anxiety, with total effects of -.38 and -.39, respectively. The other total effects were smaller in size but all were significant. There were four significant specific indirect effects from communication to ICW. These were a) CwP to stress to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), b) CwP to anxiety to ICW (B=-.08, p<.05), c) CwP to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), d) CwP to fear of contamination to anxiety to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05). Thus, anxiety played a major role in the indirect effect of CwP on ICW. The -.39 effect comes from anxiety was compromised of .25 significant direct component and .14 significant direct component. The indirect path was mediated through stress. Thus, stress played an important mediating role in the indirect path of anxiety on ICW. The -.22 effect of stress on ICW was entirely direct as in the proposed model. According to the model specification, the effects of social media, TV News and fear of contamination were entirely indirect. The significant specific indirect effects from social media to ICW were a) social media to stress to ICW (B=-.02, p<.05), b) social media to anxiety to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05), and c) social media to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.02, p<.05). All effects were smaller in size and similar but anxiety relatively played an important mediating role in the indirect path of social media on ICW. The significant specific indirect effects from TV News to ICW were a) TV News to anxiety to ICW (B=-.05, p<.05), b) TV News to fear of contamination to stress to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05), c) TV News to fear of contamination to anxiety to ICW (B=-.03, p<.05), d) TV News to fear of contamination to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.01, p<.05). All effects were smaller in size and similar but the mediator role of anxiety was relatively higher than the other variables. The significant specific indirect effects from fear of contamination to ICW were a) fear of contamination to stress to ICW (B=-.02, p<.05), b) fear of contamination to anxiety to ICW (B=-.07, p<.05), c) fear of contamination to anxiety to stress to ICW (B=-.04, p<.05). All of the indirect effects were significant but the most powerful was through anxiety. Discussion The pandemic outbreaks that threaten human life, which we have encountered throughout history and will encounter in the future most likely, affect not only economic, social, and educational structures but also human behavior and emotions. Epidemic and pandemic outbreaks, such as MERS, H1N1, and SARS have also shown that people experience stress, fear and anxiety (Almutairi et al., 2015; Bults et al., 2011; Cowling et al., 2010; Maunder et al., 2006). Especially in our era, the global spread is followed as well as local ones. Not only people in China have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred in Wuhan, but also people in India, Italy, Turkey, and many other countries have been affected biologically and psychologically. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the effects of COVID-19 outbreak on people's emotions and related consequtive outcomes such as school interests. The current study investigated the effects of the last pandemic outbreak, COVID-19, on university students' ICW. More specifically, we examined the effects of external factors (TV news, social media, and communication with others) on undergraduate students' interests in coursework through intrinsic factors (stress, anxiety, fear of contamination, and ICW). Understanding such relationships is more important to us, International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2020, 7 (3), 1-13 10 especially at a time when face-to-face lessons have been canceled all over the world and transitioned to online education. The results of this study indicated significant direct and indirect effects of external and intrinsic factors on ICW. All correlations among the variables were significant (see Table 1). Students' ICW had the lowest relationship with social media (r=-.36) and the highest with stress (r=-.49). Contrary to our hypothesized model, there were no direct effects from social media and TV news to ICW. The only direct effect from external factors to ICW was CwP (-.19). Communication with others had the highest total and indirect effect on ICW. This finding indicated that students were affected by the grapevine. In other words, when participants talked with their classmates, parents, roommates, or an ordinary person in their life about COVID-19, they were affected by their ideas, comments, and perspective of the pandemic. As a result, this directly decreased their interest in coursework by 19%. The decrease in ICW was doubled (-.38) as internal factors (stress, anxiety, and fear of contamination) involved and mediated into the model. Especially participants were stressed and anxious because of communication with others. Therefore, this can be concluded that participants' priorities shifted from interests in coursework to the current agenda, COVID-19. Among these priorities, courses were replaced by survival, not getting sick, and the protection of loved ones. As stated by Remmerswaal and Muris (2011), when people's closest ones they trust feel anxious and stressed, people will feel anxious and stressed as well. This finding was also consistent with Pandey and colleagues' finding (2010) indicating that there were misleading information and rumors affected people during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. Although competent bodies invite people to remain calm, sane, and disregard unscientific explanations, people can believe more of what others are saying. Thus, in order to keep school and coursework interest higher, students should be careful and selective when they are encountered with the information related to pandemic. Another important finding was the direct and indirect effects of TV news on internal factors and ICW. TV news did not directly affect students' ICW but affected through increased stress, anxiety and fear of contamination. TV news had a moderate direct effect (.41) on fear of contamination. This finding made sense because after it was discovered that this was a rapidly transmitted epidemic, all national and international channels talked about it almost every day and in the news zone. People can develop irrational beliefs and fears when an issue is repeated too much (Timsit, 2020). For example, as in many countries, the initial reaction in Turkey was to buy and deplete antiseptic products on grocery shelves. Especially, people in Turkey bought cologne in particular because it was believed that the high alcohol content of the colony neutralizes the virus and reduces the risk of catching. Even this event showed how people were affected by the TV and fear of contamination. As students watched TV news, their fear of contamination, stress, and anxiety increased, so their ICW decreased. This finding was consistent with previous studies (de Silva Medeiros & Maasarani, 2010; Klemm, Das, & Hartmann, 2016; Van den Bulck & Custers, 2009). These researchers found that TV exposure and news were related to pandemic diseases. For example, Van den Bulck and Custers (2009) conducted a study after the H5N1 pandemic outbreak in 23 European Union states and found that mass media coverage triggered higher levels of fear. Another finding worth discussion was the direct and indirect effects of social media on internal factors and ICW. Researchers (Balcı & Baloğlu, 2018; Karaman, 2020; Lin et al., 2016) indicated that the use of social media increased dramatically in the past 10 years. These studies showed when social media were used out of purpose and long hours it affected people both physically and psychologically negatively. In the current study, social media had the highest total effect on stress, anxiety, fear of contamination, and ICW respectively. Participants' levels of stress and anxiety increased when they looked at COVID-19 related posts. Consequently, social media affected ICW negatively via stress, fear, and anxiety. When especially considered that the information on the social media cannot be necessarily trustworthy, students should be additionally careful when receiving information from social media. When we look at all these results in general, we realized that external factors were divided under two topics: 1) technological effect (social media and TV news) and 2) human effect (communication with others). Human factor had the largest effects on all variables except the fear of contamination. As Harry Stack Sullivan stated years ago "people make people sick and people make people well again" (1953, p.). Because COVID-19 outbreak threatens university students' school and coursework interest and it can lead to lower levels of school Abdi Güngör, Mehmet Akif Karaman, Halil İbrahim Sari, Tuğba Seda Çolak success, the results of this study can guide practical implications. In this sense, it is important to carefully approach the information on TV news, social media, and daily communications. More importantly, the findings revealed that it is useful for students to handle negative emotions such as stress, fear, and anxiety. Educational programs, psychoeducational programs, and individual and group counseling implications can be delivered to students to help them handle negative emotional outcomes of the outbreak, so it can help them increase school interests. The topic of this study is very important and unique in terms of conducting at pandemic times; however, the study has some limitations. First, because the classes were canceled out, we used a convenience sampling method; hence, the generalizability of the results can be limited. This study can be replicated by using a random sampling method. Second, the sample was predominantly female (3/4 female vs. 1/4 male). A further study should be conducted with a balanced sample. Third, in this study, we examined the relations among the items that intend to measure perceived psychological factors and did not used validated scales. It is recommended future research using scales such as depression or anxiety scales be conducted. References Almutairi, K. 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Retrieved from Wikipedia website: ion#cite_note-18 Xiang, Y. T., Yang, Y., Li, W., Zhang, L., Zhang, Q., Cheung, T., & Ng, C. H. (2020). Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(3), 228-229. View publication stats
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared using the melt-mixing method.. The effect of the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite is investigated in this work by using Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) technique. \n Stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results.\n GPC results indicate that the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite has no effect on the Ps chains as indicated by GPC technique. The signals of the GPC for unfilled and filled PS are similar. That evidences no thermo-mechanical chain degradation is taken place during the addition of the waste tires under the conditions of the melt-mixing process", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDMCO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Molecular Characterization of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 33-36 33 Molecular Characterization of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- In this work, polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared using the melt-mixing method.. The effect of the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite is investigated in this work by using Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) technique. Stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results. GPC results indicate that the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite has no effect on the Ps chains as indicated by GPC technique. The signals of the GPC for unfilled and filled PS are similar. That evidences no thermomechanical chain degradation is taken place during the addition of the waste tires under the conditions of the melt-mixing process Keywords: Polystyrene/waste tires composites, Molecular weight and molecular weight distribution 1. INTRODUCTION The growth rate of the use of particulate filled polymers is very fast in all fields of application Household articles and automotive parts are equally prepared from them. In the early stages, the sole reason for the introduction of fillers was to decrease the price of the polymer. However, as a result of filling all properties of the polymer change, a new polymer is in fact created. Some characteristics improve, while others deteriorate, and properties must be optimized to utilize all potentials of particulate filling. Optimization must include all aspects of the composites from component properties, through structure and especially interactions [1]. Composite materials are created by combining two or more components to achieve desired properties, which could not be obtained with the separate components. The use of reinforcing fillers, which can reduce material costs and improve certain properties, is increasing in thermoplastic polymer composites. The advantages of polymer composites on performance, economy, or ecology have accelerated the research activities in the field of polymer composites in terms of academic and industrial interests [2-18]. Currently, various inorganic materials such as talc, mica, clay, glass fiber, and calcium carbonate are being incorporated into thermoplastic composites [18].Nevertheless, agricultural fillers, for example, wood fiber or wood flour, have drawn attention due to their abundant availability, low cost, and renewable nature. In recent years, interest has grown for composites made from wood flour or wood fiber in thermoplastic matrices, particularly for low-cost/high-volume applications. Disposal of waste rubber material is a global problem, and used tires constitute the largest volume of scrap rubber. Recycling of waste tires is essential due to economic and environmental reasons. Utilization of ground waste rubber has been reviewed recently. Finely ground waste tire rubber has been used as filler in rubbers and in thermoplastics [19]. Physical properties and processability are reported to be adversely affected when large volumes of waste rubber is added to a rubber compound. Understanding the makeup of a polymer is particularly important due to the variety of resins available for the same purpose, the high cost of specialty resins or compounds, and the value added to the polymer during manufacturing. For example, the cost of a resin used in a printed circuit board is very low, but the cost of the finished board is very high. Poor quality resin can result in an unacceptable finished circuit board. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is one of the most powerful and versatile analytical techniques available for understanding and predicting polymer performance. It is the most convenient technique for characterizing the complete molecular weight distribution of a polymer. Waters commercially pioneered GPC in 1963. Since then, Waters has continued to develop and explore new GPC applications and improve the instrumentation that makes GPC so powerful. The purpose of this work was to study the molecular characteristics of polystyrene/waste tire composites compared to the original material of unfilled polystyrene. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 33-36 34 2. EXPERIMENTAL PART 2.1 Samples preparation and characterization PS/waste tires composites were prepared by introducing waste tires into commercial PS with molecular weight about 2107 g/mol. The waste tires were shredded into small particles sizes of about 2 mm. The mixture of PS and 12 wt % shredded tires are dry mixed by hand-mixing for around half an hour and heated at 300°C for 2 hours. The unfilled and filled PS are characterized by Gel permeation Chromotography (GPC) operates at 25°C with tetrahydrofuran as the mobile phase and standard Polystyrene as a calibration standard. GPC samples were prepared by dissolving about 3 mg of the material in 4 ml tetrahydrofuran. The sample was filtered using 0.2 μm filter Teflon to remove un-dissolved material followed by injecting the sample and run the GPC test. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is one of the most powerful and versatile analytical techniques available for understanding and predicting polymer performance. It is the most convenient technique for characterizing the complete molecular weight distribution of a polymer. Where a polymer's end-use application requires precision performance or endurance under harsh conditions, the need for polymer characterization is particularly acute. Because GPC fulfills these needs better than any other single technique, it has become an extremely valuable tool for materials characterization in the polymer industry. GPC separates molecules in solution by their "effective size in solution. Inside the gel permeation chromatograph, the dissolved material is injected into a continually flowing stream of solvent (mobile phase). The mobile phase flows through millions of highly porous, rigid particles (stationary phase) tightly packed together in a column. The pore sizes of these particles are controlled and available in a range of sizes. The width of the individual peaks reflects the distribution of the size of molecules for a given resin and its components. The distribution curve is also known as the molecular weight distribution (MWD) curve. Taken together the peaks reflect the MWD of a sample. The broader the MWD, the broader the peaks become and vice versa. The higher the average molecular weight, the further along the molecular weight axis the curve shifts and vice versa. The effect of the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite is investigated in this work by using Gel permeation chromatography(GPC) technique and indicated in Figures 1 and 2. As shown in these Figures, the signals of the GPC for unfilled and filled PS are similar. That evidences no thermo-mechanical chain degradation is taken place during the addition of the waste tires under the conditions of the melt-mixing process. Since obviously, the thermo-mechanical degradation associated with large molecular weight distribution which appears in the shifting of the GPC signal toward high retention volume. Where the broken molecules (small chains) appears at high retention volume ( long time), because it takes long time to diffuse into the pores of the gel through the GPC column. 4. CONCLUSION In this study the waste tires reused in the production of PS composite. GPC results indicate that the preparation conditions of the PS/waste tires composite has no effect on the Ps chains as indicated by GPC technique. The signals of the GPC for unfilled and filled PS are similar. That evidences no thermo-mechanical chain degradation is taken place during the addition of the waste tires under the conditions of the melt-mixing process 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at research center Juelich, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. B.Pukanszky, E.Fekete, " Adhesion and surface modification", Advances in Polymer Science, V139, P.110153,Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1999. 2. Andries Voet , "Reinforcement of elastomers by fillers: Review of period 1967-1976", J. of Polymer Science: Macromolecular Reviews, V15, P.327-373, 1980. 3. R. P. Kumar, M. L. Amma, S. Thomas, "Short sisal fiber reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V58, P.597-612,1995. 4. V. M. Murty, S. K. De , "Short-fiber-reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P. 1355-1368, 1984 International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 33-36 35 5. J.George, S. S. Bhagawan, N. Prabhakaran, S. Thomas, "Short pineapple-leaf-fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science V57, P.843-854,1995 6. V. M. Murty, S. K. De ,"Effect of particulate fillers on short jute fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites",J. of Applied Polymer Science,V27, P.4611-4622, 1982 7. D. Nabi Saheb, J. P. Jog ,"Natural fiber polymer composites: A review" Advances in Polymer Technology,V18, P.351-363,1999 8. E. Ruckenstein, L.Hong , "Conducting rubberlike copolymer-carbon fiber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V53, P.923-932, 1994. 9. K. L. Fung, R. K.Li, S. C. Tjong , "Interface modification on the properties of sisal fiberreinforced polypropylene composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V85, P.169-176, 2002 10. S.K.Kutty, G. B. Nando , "Short kevlar fiber-thermoplastic polyurethane composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V43, P.1913-1923, 1991 11. Wolfgang G. Glasser, Razaina Taib, Rajesh K. Jain, Ron Kander, "Fiber-reinforced cellulosic thermoplastic composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V73, P.1329-1340, 1999 12. M.Shibata, K.Ozawa, N.Teramoto, R.Yosomiya, H.Takeishi, "Biocomposites Made from Short Abaca Fiber and Biodegradable Polyesters" Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V288, P.35-43, 2003 13. R. S. Rajeev, A. K. Bhowmick, S. K. De, S. Bandyopadhyay , "Short melamine fiber filled nitrile rubber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.544-558, 2003 14. C.Vajrasthira, T.Amornsakchai, S. Bualek-Limcharoen, "Fiber-matrix interactions in aramid-short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V87, P.1059-1067, 2003 15. M.A. Martins, I. Joekes, "Tire rubber-sisal composites: Effect of mercerization and acetylation on reinforcement", J.of Applied Polymer Science V89, P.2507-2515, 2003 16. V. G. Geethamma, R. Joseph, S.Thomas,"Short coir fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites: Effects of fiber length, orientation, and alkali treatment" J. of Applied Polymer Science,V55, P.583-594, 1995 17. D. K. Setua, B. Dutta, "Short silk fiber-reinforced polychloroprene rubber composites",J.of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P.3097-3114, 1984 18. J.Son, D. J. Gardner, S. O'Neill, C. Metaxas, "Understanding the viscoelastic properties of extruded polypropylene wood plastic composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V89, P.1638-1644, 2003 19. J. I. Kim , S. H. Ryu , Y. W. Chang, " Mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of waste rubber powder/HDPE composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V.77, P. 2595-2602, 2000. Figure 1: GPC traces for unfilled PS 10 20 30 40 50 60 Unf illed PS R e te ntio n vo lum e (m V ) International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 33-36 36 Figure 2: GPC traces for PS composite 10 20 30 40 50 60 PS compos ite R e te ntio n vo lum e (m V )
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{ "creator": "Abdullah, Demir", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1528796487000, "description": "Abū Ishāq al-Ṣaffār was one of scholars of the Western Qarakhānids’ period who followed the Kalām thought of al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944). His theological works Talkhīs al-adilla and Risāla fī al-kalām, his method in kalām, and frequent reference to his works by Ottoman and Arab scholars indicate that al-Ṣaffār is a respected and authorative Māturīdī theologian. The article focuses on his defense of the kalām. By adding a long introduction to Talkhīs about the naming, importance, and religious legitimacy of the science of kalām, Saffār asserted that the kalām should be learned. When systematical vindication of the science of kalām is examined, it is understood that al-Ṣaffār is the first theologian who reserved a private and voluminous part for defensing the kalām among Ḥanafī-Māturīdīs. Even though he does not state its systematic, it can be understood that vindication of kalām in al-Ṣaffār divides into three parts as of explanation, demonstration and refutation. Al-Ṣaffār’s defending the science of kalām shows that there were opposite thoughts against kalām in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries throughout in Transoxania. In this period Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth and Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ were the opposite fronts of kalām. In addition, he was trying to go beyond the oppositions of Ḥanafī jurists. His vindication is consistent and has scholarly depth because it is able to be against a strong opposition.\n \n SUMMARY: Abū Ishāq Ibrahīm b. Ismāil Zāhid al-Ṣaffār al-Bukhārī is a scholar belonging to the Ḥanafī theological tradition which was improved by the contribution of Ḥanafī theologians who used thinking system of Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767) as base and adopted Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) and his thoughts in historical process. The contents of his theological works Talkhīs al-adilla li-qawāʿid al-tawḥīd and Risāla fī al-Kalām, the method that he used, and references to his works made by Ottoman and Arab scholars indicate that he is an important Māturīdī theologian. The article focuses on his defense of the science of Kalām.\n \n In Talkhīs al-adilla, there are two sections including the subject of naming, and importance and necessity of Kalām discipline. Here, the necessity of learning Kalām and its value are defended in detail.\n \n Besides, rumors “Abū Ḥanīfa turned away from the science of Kalām in his doomsdays” and that “He prohibited to make occupation with Kalām completely” are evaluated.\n \n When systematical vindication of the science of Kalām is examined, it is understood that al-Ṣaffār is the first theologian who reserved a private and voluminous part for defensing the Kalām among Ḥanafī Māturīdīs. Even if Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, Abū al-Yusr al-Bazdawī (d. 493/1100) and Abū Muʿīn al-Nasafī (d. 508/1115) defend that the science of Kalām is not wrong for religion; yet, the vindication of Kalām does not take a place under a separate title and in a detailed manner in any of Māturīdī theologians works.\n \n The method that al-Ṣaffār used when he is defending the science of Kalām, differs from strategy of Abū Ḥanīfa. While Abū Ḥanīfa has mentioned that there is a need for the science of Kalām under these new circumstances, al-Ṣaffār has defended theologians who were charged with being Ahl al-Bidaʿ, by trying to prove that the prophets especially the Prophet Ibrāhīm, even the Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad (Ṣaḥāba) and the Successors of the Companions (Tābiʿūn) scholars use their minds and make arguments in religious matters. In this respect, he emphasizes that the Qurʾān orders to think and discuss gently, not to be stay in silence: “And dispute with them, using what is best” (16.125-126). Therefore, he states that this discipline which took a mission to explain and defend the creed of Islam (ʿaqīda), cannot be characterized as an innovation (bidʿah) or illicit.\n \n His vindication method can be defined as a more developed type of method that Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Ash’arī’s (d. 324/935) used in Risāla fī istiḥsān al-khawḍ fī ʿilm al-kalām. Even though he does not state its systematic, it can be understood that vindication of Kalām in al-Ṣaffār divides into three parts as of explanation, demonstration and refutation:\n \n a) Explanation: Explaining the necessity and importance of the science of Kalām by giving information about its definition, names, value and place among other principles.\n \n b) Demonstration: Revealing the religious basics of the science of Kalām from the Qurʾān, the Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad, the Companions of the Prophet, and the Successors of the Companions thus specifying that it is legitimate for religion.\n \n c) Refutation: Replying the claims having aim to weaken the value of Kalām principle and its religious legality.\n \n Al-Ṣaffār describes ‘the science of Kalām’ as ‘Knowing the Real with the evidences which help to reach the absolute information’. By allocating the concept of 'Ḥaqq', he repeats the definition of Kalām as “it is to know God with certain evidences” in a part of his work, and “it is to know the principles of religion (uṣūl al-dīn) with certain evidences” in another part. He describes Kalām as “Knowing ḥaqq / God / uṣūl al-dīn by depending on evidence”, and tries to prove that it is wrong to consider a science which performs the stated duty, as illicit and abominable and thus turn away from it. \n \n Al-Ṣaffār thinks that it is right to call this principle as ‘Kalām’ because of the certain evidences leading to the truth that this science has used. This thought was defended by other theologians as well.\n \n For example, according to Saʿd al-Dīn Masʿūd al-Taftazānī (d. 792/1310) it seems like to say “This is the word (kalām), not the other knowings” by the way of the power of evidences used in Kalām.Thus, it is appropriate to give name Kalām for this science which based on certain evidences.\n \n Al-Ṣaffār’s explanations revealed in scope of vindication of the Kalām are adopted by some of following scholars. Ḥusām al-Dīn al-Sighnāqī (d. 714/1314) in his book called al-Tasdīd sharḥ al-Tamhīd fī qawāʿid al-tawḥīd quotes Saffâr’s explanations as the same.\n \n Al-Ṣaffār indicates that the method told in the Qurʾān is to reply questions about religion, beliefs and rejection instead of remaining in silence. The duty taken on by Kalām is this vindication activity performed by the prophets whose examples are described in the Qurʾān and which is legal and demanded. His way of thinking and vindication of the Kalām resembles that of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī. Al-Māturīdī says, “Prophets and we were ordered to invite infidels to Islam. When this invitation happens, the respondents will ask for evidence and explanation, and discussion will be inevitable. Therefore, discussing and talking about subjects of Kalām is not objectionable”.\n \n Thoughts of al-Māturīdī and al-Ṣaffār regarding the vindication of the Kalām were repeated by Nūr al-Dīn al-Ṣābūnī (d. 580/1184), and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) later. According to al-Ṣābūnī, the evidences put against deniers and especially the discussion made by the Prophet Ibrāhīm to defend his own belief, prove the legality of Kalām discipline. Likewise, according to al-Rāzī, the duty of Kalām is just an activity performed already in the Qurʾān and ordered to the prophets. At this point of view, since the prophets were leading to Kalām, banning this activity is nonsense.\n \n According to al-Ṣaffār, the reason for why Abu Hanifa avoids his son Hammād from these discussions is that Abu Hanifa does not like discussions based on obstinate. Otherwise, it cannot be that Abū Ḥanīfa prohibits to learn Kalām and make discussion about Kalām. According to him, this behavior of Abū Ḥanīfa results from that people discussing with him are ignorant about the subject of Kalām, discussion turns to an obstinate, and coming to an end of discussion seems impossible. This comment of al-Ṣaffār is quoted in Miftāḥ al-saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-siyāda by ʿIṣām al-Dīn Aḥmed b. Muṣṭafā Tashköprüzāde (d. 968/1561) and in Minaḥ al-rawḍ al-azhar fī sharḥ al-Fiqh al-akbar by ʿAlī b. Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Qārī (d. 1014/1606) as same as his words.\n \n Al-Ṣaffār’s defending the science of Kalām shows that there were opposite thoughts against Kalām in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries throughout in Transoxania.In this period Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth and Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ were the opposite fronts of Kalām. In addition, he was trying to go beyond the oppositions of Ḥanafī jurists (fuqahāʾ). Because some of the Ḥanafī jurists thought that Abū Ḥanīfa forsook occupation with the science of Kalām and even he prohibited his son to have interest in this discipline. But some of Ḥanafī theologians such as al-Māturīdī, al-Nasafī and al-Ṣaffār protested this thought which describes Abū Ḥanīfa as a banner for Kalām.\n \n His vindication is consistent and has scholarly depth because it is able to be against a strong opposition.\n \n His book Talkhīs al-adilla li-qawāʿid al-tawḥīd is a unique source in terms of containing vindication of the Kalām in detail and also influencing the approaches of the next period scholars.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDMTA", "language": "tr", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Māturīdī Theologian Abū Ishāq al-Zāhid al-Saffār’s Vindication of the Kalām = Māturīdī Theologian Abū Ishāq al-Zāhid al-Saffār’s Vindication of the Kalām", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502 ❀ Hakemli Araştırma Makalesi / Peer-reviewed Research Article ❀ DOI: Geliş T. / Received Date: 17/03/2016 Kabul T. / Accepted Date: 25/05/2016 Yayın T./ Published Date: 15 Haziran /June 2016 Mâtürîdî Âlimi Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası Māturīdī Theologian Abū Ishāq al-Zāhid al-Saffār's Vindication of the Kalām Abdullah Demir * ÖZ Ebû İshâk es-Saffâr, İmam Mâtürîdî'nin (ö. 333/944) kelâm anlayışını benimseyen Batı Karahanlılar dönemi âlimlerinden birisidir. Telḫîṣü'l-edille ve Risâle fi'l-kelâm adlı kitaplarının içeriği, kullandığı yöntem ile Osmanlı ve Arap âlimlerince eserlerince yapılan atıflar, onun önemli bir Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı olduğunu gösterir. Bu çalışmada, onun kelâm müdâfaası konu edilmektedir. Saffâr, Telḫîṣ'e kelâm ilminin adlandırılması, önemi ve dinen meşrûluğu konusunda uzun bir giriş yazarak bu ilmin öğrenilmesi ABSTRACT Abū Ishāq al-Ṣaffār was one of scholars of the Western Qarakhānids' period who followed the Kalām thought of alMāturīdī (d. 333/944). His theological works Talkhīs al-adilla and Risāla fī alkalām, his method in kalām, and frequent reference to his works by Ottoman and Arab scholars indicate that al-Ṣaffār is a respected and authorative Māturīdī theologian. The article focuses on his defense of the kalām. By adding a long introduction to Talkhīs about the naming, importance, and religious legitimacy of the science of kalām, al-Saffār asserted that * Yrd. Doç. Dr., Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, İlahiyat Fakültesi, Kelâm Anabilim Dalı. Assistant Professor, Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology, Department of Kalām. Sivas/Turkey (). Bu makale, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi BAP birimi tarafından İLH-027 numaralı proje kapsamında desteklenen "Ebû İshâk Zâhid esSaffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi (Doktora tezi, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, Sivas 2014) adlı çalışmam temel alınarak hazırlandı. cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi'nde yayımlanan makaleler, en az iki hakem tarafından çift taraflı kör hakemlik değerlendirmesine tabi tutulur. Ayrıca intihal içermediği özel bir yazılım kullanılarak kontrol edilir. This article is extracted from my PhD dissertation entitled "The Kalām Method of Abū Isḥāq Zāhid al-Ṣaffār" (PhD. dissertation, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas/Turkey, 2014) which was supported by Research Fund of the Cumhuriyet University, Project Number: ILH-027. cumhuriyet theology journal uses double-blind review fulfilled by at least two reviewers. In addition, all articles are checked by means of a program in order to confirm they are not published before and avoid plagiarism. 446 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. gerektiğini savunmuştur. Sistematik kelâm müdafaası incelendiğinde, onun Hanefî-Mâtürîdîler içinde Kelâm ilmini müdâfaaya müstakil ve hacimli bir bölüm ayıran ilk mütekellim olduğu anlaşılır. Sistematiğini kendisi belirtmese de Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasının izah, ispat ve reddiye olmak üzere üç temele dayandığı anlaşılır. Onun bu ilmi ısrarla savunması, V. (XI.) ve VI. (XII.) yüzyıllarda Mâverâünnehir'de kelâm karşıtlığının bulunduğunu gösterir. Bu döneminde Ashâbü'l-hadis ve İhvân-ı Safa, kelâma karşı cephe alan kesimlerdir. Bununla birlikte o, asıl olarak Hanefî fukahanın kelâm karşıtlığını aşmaya çalışmaktadır. Müdâfaasını, karşısındaki güçlü bir muhalafete karşı ortaya koyduğu için savunusu tutarlı ve ilmî derinliğe sahiptir. the kalām should be learned. When systematical vindication of the science of kalām is examined, it is understood that al-Ṣaffār is the first theologian who reserved a private and voluminous part for defensing the kalām among ḤanafīMāturīdīs. Even though he does not state its systematic, it can be understood that vindication of kalām in al-Ṣaffār divides into three parts as of explanation, demonstration and refutation. Al-Ṣaffār's defending the science of kalām shows that there were opposite thoughts against kalām in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries throughout in Transoxania. In this period Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth and Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ were the opposite fronts of kalām. In addition, he was trying to go beyond the oppositions of Ḥanafī jurists. His vindication is consistent and has scholarly depth because it is able to be against a strong opposition. ANAHTAR KELİMELER: Matüridilik, Mâtürîdiyye, Ebû İshâk es-Saffâr, Saffâr el-Buhârî, Telḫîṣü'l-edille li-ḳavāʿidi'ttevḥîd, Kelâm İlmi, Kelâm Müdâfaası. KEYWORDS: Māturīdism, Abū Ishāq al-Ṣaffār, al-Ṣaffār al-Bukhārī, Talkhīs al-adilla li-qawāʿid al-tawḥīd, Islamic theology, Vindication of the Kalām. SUMMARY Abū Ishāq Ibrahīm b. Ismāil Zāhid al-Ṣaffār al-Bukhārī is a scholar belonging to the Ḥanafī theological tradition which was improved by the contribution of Ḥanafī theologians who used thinking system of Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767) as base and adopted Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) and his thoughts in historical process. The contents of his theological works Talkhīs al-adilla li-qawāʿid al-tawḥīd and Risāla fī al-Kalām, the method that he used, and references to his works made by Ottoman and Arab scholars indicate that he is an important Māturīdī theologian. The article focuses on his defense of the science of Kalām. In Talkhīs al-adilla, there are two sections including the subject of naming, and importance and necessity of Kalām discipline. Here, the necessity of learning Kalām and its value are defended in detail. Besides, rumors Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 447 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. "Abū Ḥanīfa turned away from the science of Kalām in his doomsdays" and that "He prohibited to make occupation with Kalām completely" are evaluated. When systematical vindication of the science of Kalām is examined, it is understood that al-Ṣaffār is the first theologian who reserved a private and voluminous part for defensing the Kalām among Ḥanafī Māturīdīs. Even if Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, Abu Yusr al-Bazdawi (d. 493/1100) and Abu Muʿīn al-Nasafī (d. 508/1115) defend that the science of Kalām is not wrong for religion; yet, the vindication of Kalām does not take a place under a separate title and in a detailed manner in any of Māturīdī theologians works. The method that al-Ṣaffār used when he is defending the science of Kalām, differs from strategy of Abū Ḥanīfa. While Abū Ḥanīfa has mentioned that there is a need for the science of Kalām under these new circumstances, al-Ṣaffār has defended theologians who were charged with being Ahl al-Bidaʿ, by trying to prove that the prophets especially the Prophet Ibrāhīm, even the Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad (Ṣaḥāba) and the Successors of the Companions (Tābiʿūn) scholars use their minds and make arguments in religious matters. In this respect, he emphasizes that the Qurʾān orders to think and discuss gently, not to be stay in silence: "And dispute with them, using what is best" (16.125-126). Therefore, he states that this discipline which took a mission to explain and defend the creed of Islam (ʿaqīda), cannot be characterized as an innovation (bidʿa) or illicit. His vindication method can be defined as a more developed type of method that Abu'l-Ḥasan al-Ash'arī's (d. 324/935) used in Risa la fi istiḥsa n al-khawḍ fi ʿilm al-kala m. Even though he does not state its systematic, it can be understood that vindication of Kalām in al-Ṣaffār divides into three parts as of explanation, demonstration and refutation: a) Explanation: Explaining the necessity and importance of the science of Kalām by giving information about its definition, names, value and place among other principles. b) Demonstration: Revealing the religious basics of the science of Kalām from the Qurʾān, the Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad, the Companions of the Prophet, and the Successors of the Companions thus specifying that it is legitimate for religion. 448 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. c) Refutation: Replying the claims having aim to weaken the value of Kalām principle and its religious legality. Al-Ṣaffār describes 'the science of Kalām' as "Knowing the Real with the evidences which help to reach the absolute information". By allocating the concept of 'Ḥaqq', he repeats the definition of Kalām as "it is to know God with certain evidences" in a part of his work, and "it is to know the principles of religion (uṣūl al-dīn) with certain evidences" in another part. He describes Kalām as "Knowing ḥaqq / God / uṣūl al-dīn by depending on evidence", and tries to prove that it is wrong to consider a science which performs the stated duty, as illicit and abominable and thus turn away from it. Al-Ṣaffār thinks that it is right to call this principle as 'Kalām' because of the certain evidences leading to the truth that this science has used. This thought was defended by other theologians as well. For example, according to Saʿd al-Dīn Masʿūd al-Taftazānī (d. 792/1310) it seems like to say "This is the word (kalām), not the other knowings" by the way of the power of evidences used in Kalām.Thus, it is appropriate to give name Kalām for this science which based on certain evidences. Al-Ṣaffār's explanations revealed in scope of vindication of the Kalām are adopted by some of following scholars. Ḥusām al-Dīn al-Sighnāqī (d. 714/1314) in his book called al-Tasdīd sharḥ al-Tamhīd fī qawāʿid altawḥīd quotes Saffâr's explanations as the same. Al-Ṣaffār indicates that the method told in the Qurʾān is to reply questions about religion, beliefs and rejection instead of remaining in silence. The duty taken on by Kalām is this vindication activity performed by the prophets whose examples are described in the Qurʾān and which is legal and demanded. His way of thinking and vindication of the Kalām resembles that of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī. Al-Māturīdī says, "Prophets and we were ordered to invite infidels to Islam. When this invitation happens, the respondents will ask for evidence and explanation, and discussion will be inevitable. Therefore, discussing and talking about subjects of Kalām is not objectionable". Thoughts of al-Māturīdī and al-Ṣaffār regarding the vindication of the Kalām were repeated by Nūr al-Dīn al-Ṣābūnī (d. 580/1184), and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) later. According to al-Ṣābūnī, the evidences put against deniers and especially the discussion made by the Prophet Ibrāhīm to defend his own belief, prove the legality of Kalām discipline. Likewise, Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 449 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. according to al-Rāzī, the duty of Kalām is just an activity performed already in the Qurʾān and ordered to the prophets. At this point of view, since the prophets were leading to Kalām, banning this activity is nonsense. According to al-Ṣaffār, the reason for why Abu Hanifa avoids his son Hammād from these discussions is that Abu Hanifa does not like discussions based on obstinate. Otherwise, it cannot be that Abū Ḥanīfa prohibits to learn Kalām and make discussion about Kalām. According to him, this behavior of Abū Ḥanīfa results from that people discussing with him are ignorant about the subject of Kalām, discussion turns to an obstinate, and coming to an end of discussion seems impossible. This comment of alṢaffār is quoted in Miftāḥ al-saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-siyāda by ʿIṣām al-Dīn Aḥmed b. Muṣṭafā Tashköprüzāde (d. 968/1561) and in Minaḥ al-rawḍ alazhar fī sharḥ al-Fiqh al-akbar by ʿAlī b. Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Qārī (d. 1014/1606) as same as his words. Al-Ṣaffār's defending the science of Kalām shows that there were opposite thoughts against Kalām in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries throughout in Transoxania. In this period Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth and Ikhwān alṢafāʾ were the opposite fronts of Kalām. In addition, he was trying to go beyond the oppositions of Ḥanafī jurists (fuqahāʾ). Because some of the Ḥanafī jurists thought that Abū Ḥanīfa forsook occupation with the science of Kalām and even he prohibited his son to have interest in this discipline. But some of Ḥanafī theologians such as al-Māturīdī, al-Nasafī and al-Ṣaffār protested this thought which describes Abū Ḥanīfa as a banner for Kalām. His vindication is consistent and has scholarly depth because it is able to be against a strong opposition. His book Talkhīs al-adilla li-qawāʿid al-tawḥīd is a unique source in terms of containing vindication of the Kalām in detail and also influencing the approaches of the next period scholars. GİRİŞ Ebû İshâk İbrâhim ez-Zâhid es-Saffâr (ö. 534/1139),1 Ebû Hanîfe'nin (ö. 150/767) düşünce sistemini temel alan ve tarihsel süreçte İmam Mâtürîdî (ö. 333/944) ile onun görüşlerini benimseyen Mâverâünnehirli 1 Takriben 450/1058 yılında doğan Saffâr çocukluk, gençlik ve orta yaş dönemini Buhara'da geçirdi. Onun ilim ve fazilet sahibi bir aileye mensup olduğu, babası, dedesi, büyük babası ve oğlunun, yaşadıkları dönemde Hanefî mezhebinin ileri gelen âlimleri arasında yer aldığı bilinir. "Âl-i Saffâr" olarak anılan bu aileye mensup bazı âlimler, "Buhara Hanefîleri'nin reisi" olarak anılarak bir dönem Buhara'da etkin bir konum elde 450 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. mütekellim Hanefîler'in katkılarıyla gelişen kelâm sistemine mensup bir âlimdir. Bu çalışmada, onun kelâm müdâfaası konu edilmektedir. Eseri Telḫîṣü'l-edille li-ḳavâʿidi't-tevḥîd'e kelâm ilminin adlandırılması, önemi ve dinen meşrûluğu konusunda uzun bir giriş ekleyen Saffâr, bu bölüm- de kelâm ilminin önemini ve öğrenilmesi gerektiğini "Kitap", "Sünnet" ve "Selef-i sâlihînden Birçok Kişinin İttifakı" başlıkları altında ayrıntılı şekilde savunmuştur. Ayrıca "Ebû Hanîfe'nin ahir ömründe kelâm ilminden yüz çevirdiği" ve "Kelâmla meşguliyeti tamamen yasakladığı" yönündeki rivayetleri de ele alarak değerlendirmiştir. Kelâm karşıtlığı, Mu'tezile tarafından kelâm yönteminin kullanılmaya başlandığı II. (VIII.) yüzyılın başlarından itibaren her dönemde görüldü. Bazı tâbiîn ileri gelenleri ile Ahmed b. Hanbel'in (ö. 241/855) önderliğinde şekillenen Ashâbü'l-Hadis tarafından Hz. Peygamber başta olmak üzere sahâbe ve tâbiînin inançla ilgili problemlerin çözümünde aklî yorumlara başvurmadıkları ileri sürdü. Selef-i sâlihîn olarak anılan ilk nesiller onlara göre bu konularda aklı kullanmaktan ve daha önce hiç duyulmamış kavramları ve görüşleri beyan etmekten uzak etti. Bu güç, Sâmânîler zamanında Ebû Hafs el-Kebîr'in (ö. 217/832) mensup olduğu Ebû Hafs Ailesi'nin elindeyken bu aileden "Saffâr Ailesi"ne, Saffâr'ın Selçuklular'ın Horasan Emîri Sencer tarafından 495/1102 yılında Merv'e sürgüne gönderilmesinden sonra ise "Âl-i Burhân"a geçti. Yöneticilere riyakârlık yapmaktan aynen babası gibi uzak durduğu aktarılan Saffâr'ın siyasî baskılara boyun eğmediği ve hakikati söylemekten çekinmediği de aktarılır. Böyle bir kişiliğe sahip Saffâr'ın aynı zamanda Buhâra Hanefîleri'nin reisi olması, Batı Karahanlılar'a müdahale eden Melik Sencer tarafından siyasî endişelerle 495/1102'de sürgüne gönderilmesine yol açtı. Yetmiş üç yaşına kadarki yaşamının yetişkinlik ve ileri yaş dönemini kapsayan takriben yirmi sekiz yılını Merv'de sürgünde geçiren Saffâr, 523/1129 yılında Buhara'ya döndü. Merv, onun bulunduğu yıllarda, Büyük Selçuklular'ın idare merkezi ve kültür hayatının en önemli şehridir. Şâfiî nüfusa da sahip şehirde, Eş'arî anlayışa göre eğitim veren bir de Nizamiye Medresesi bulunmaktadır. Uzun süre burada yaşamak zorunda bırakılan Saffâr, Eş'arî kelâmını aslî kaynaklarından öğrenme imkânı buldu. Bu dönemde Batı Karahanlılar üzerinde Selçuklu sultanlığını elde eden Sencer'in; Mâverâünnehir Hanefî âlimlerinin üstünde ise Burhan Âilesi'nin etkisi devam etmektedir. Bu şartlar altında onun, vefatına kadar geçen on bir yılda ilmî faaliyetlere odaklandığı söylenebilir. Saffâr, 534/1139'da Buhara'da vefat etti. Fıkıh, hadis, Arap dili ve kelâm ilimlerindeki birikimi ile öne çıkan Saffâr'ın Telḫîṣü'ledille li-ḳavāʿidi't-tevḥîd ve Risâle fi'l-kelām adlı eserleri bilinir. Bk. Abdülkerîm es-Sem'ânî, el-Ensâb, nşr. Abdullah Ömer el-Bârûdî (Beyrut: Dârü'l-cinân, 1408/1988), 3: 548. Saffâr'ın yetiştiği muhit ile hayatı, ilmî kişiliği ve kelâm yöntemi hakkında bk. Abdullah Demir, "Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi" (Doktora tezi, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, 2014), 74-184. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 451 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. durmuştu. Dolayısıyla ortaya çıkan itikādî problemlerin çözümü, sadece Kur'an ve hadislerde aranmalıydı. Bu düşüncede olanlar, kelâmı bir ilim olarak kabul etmedikleri gibi mütekellimleri de bid'atçılıkla, dalâlete düşmekle, hatta zındıklıkla ve ilhadla suçlayabildi.2 Hanefî fakihi İbn Ebü'l-İz'in (ö. 792/1390) Şerhu'l-Akīdeti't-Tahâviyye'de yer verdiği "Nakil içermeyen 'haddesenâ' denilmeyen hadis ve fıkıh dışındaki uğraşlar ilim değil, Şeytân'ın vesvesedir" görüşü, bu bakış açısının bir ürünüdür.3 İhvân-ı Safâ'nın kelâmcılara "Ağızları iyi laf yapan, kalpleri kör, hakikatler hakkında kuşkuya kapılan ve doğru yoldan sapan deccâller" ithamı da gerekçesi farklı olsa da aynı olumsuz bakışın bir ifadesidir.4 Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî'nin (ö. 508/1115) gayretleriyle İmam Mâtürîdî'nin Ehl-i sünnet'in bir önderi olarak kabul edilmeye başlandığı bir dönemde ve bölgede yaşayan Zâhid es-Saffâr, kelâm ilmini eseri Telḫîṣü'ledille'de ayrıntılı şekilde savunur. Hanefîler'in baskın olduğu bir bölgede yaşayan Saffâr, kelâm ilmini neden savunma ihtiyacı duymuş olabilir? Bu soruya verilecek cevap, onun kelâm müdâfaası ile V. (XI.) ve VI. (XII.) yüzyıllarda bölgede gücü elinde bulunduran Hanefî fakihlerin din anlayışlarının daha iyi anlaşılmasına katkı sağlayacaktır. 2 Kelâma ve mütekellimlere yönelik ithamlar hakkında bk. Ebû Hanîfe, el-ʿÂlim ve'lmüteʿallim, nşr. M. Zâhid Kevserî (İmam-ı Âzam'ın Beş Eseri içinde, İstanbul: MÜ İFAV Yay., 1992), 14; Eş'arî, Risâle fî istiḥsâni'l-ḫavż fî ʿilmi'l-kelâm, nşr. Richard J. McCarthy (Beyrut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1953), 87-90; Ebû Şekûr es-Sâlimî Keşşî, et-Temhîd fî beyâni't-tevhîd, Süleymaniye Ktp., Şehit Ali Paşa, nr. 1153, vr. 192a-192b; İbn Abdülber enNemerî, Câmiʿu beyâni'l-ʿilm, nşr. Ebü'l-Eşbâl ez-Züheyrî (Kahire: Mektebetü İbn Teymiyye, t.y.), 365-367; Gazzâlî, İḥyâʾü ʿ ulûmi'd-dîn, trc. Ali Arslan (İstanbul: Merve Yay., 1992), 1: 365-366; Ebû İshâk İbrâhim es-Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille li-ḳavâʿidi't-tevḥîd, nşr. Angelika Brodersen (Beyrut: el-Ma'hedü'l-Almânî li-ebhâsi'ş-Şarkiyye, 1432/2011), 1: 31; Ebü'l-Kāsim Selmân b. Nâsır en-Nîsâbûrî, el-Ġunye fi'l-kelâm, nşr. Mustafa H. Abdülhâdî (Kahire: Dârü's-Selâm, 1431/2010), 1: 258-262; İbn Ebü'l-İz, Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳīdeti'ṭ-Ṭaḥāviyye, nşr. Abdullah et-Türkî-Şuayb el-Arnavût (Beyrut: Müessesetü'r-Risâle, 1408/1987), 17-19. 3 İbn Ebü'l-İz, Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳīdeti'ṭ-Ṭaḥāviyye, 19. 4 İhvân-ı Safâ, Resāʾilü İḫvāni'ṣ-Ṣafā, 4, 50-51; Çetinkaya, İhvân-ı Safâ'nın Dinî ve İdeolojik Söylemi, 80. 452 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. 1. KELÂM MÜDÂFAASININ GEREKÇESİ Saffâr, kelâm ilminin dinen meşrû olduğunu ve öğrenilmesi gerektiğini ayrıntılı şekilde ele almakta ve savunmaktadır. Bu durum, Batı Karahanlılar'ın hâkimiyetindeki Mâverâünnehir bölgesinde kelâm karşıtlığının bulunduğunu akla getirmektedir. Bu öngörü, o dönemde kaleme alınan eserlerde yer alan bilgilerle doğrulanmaktadır. Örneğin Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı Ebü'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî (ö. 493/1099), Uṣûlü'd-dîn adlı eserinin ilk meselesini, kısa da olsa kelâmın dinen meşrûiyetini açıklamaya ayırmıştır. Konuya, "Bilginler kelâm ilmini öğrenme, öğretme ve bu konuda eser yazma hususunda anlaşmazlığa düştüler" diyerek başlayan Pezdevî, burada "hadisçilerin"; eserinin son kısmında ise "Mâverâünnehir ehlinin çoğunluğunun" bu ilmi câiz görmediğini ve yasakladığını belirtir. Ayrıca bölgede kelâmla uğraşana iyi gözle bakılmadığını, kelâmcıların hafife alındığını ve bu ilim yerine fıkha önem verildiğini de aktarır.5 Usûlü'd-dîn ilmi, anlaşılması zor bir ilimdir. Bu ilim dalında birçok eser tasnif edildi, tahkikatlar yapıldı ve kitaplar yazıldı. Ben (bu kitabımda) çok az şey ifade ettim. Çünkü bölgemiz (Mâverâünnehir) halkı, bu ilimden yüz çevirdi. Onların üstün gördüğü ilim fıkıhtır. Kelâm ilmiyle uğraşanı reddediyor, terkediyor ve küçümsüyorlar. Bu sebeple bu ilim, bizim diyarımızda azaldı. Oysa (kelâm alanında gayret gösteren ve eser telif edenlerin) amacı, Ehl-i sünneti kuvvetlendirerek bu bölgede ehl-i bid'atın ortaya çıkmasını engellemekti.6 Pezdevî'nin kullandığı "bölgemiz ehli" ifadesi, lafzî olarak Mâverâünnehir halkını ifade eder. Ancak muhtemelen Pezdevî, Mâverâünnehir Hanefî fakihlerini olumsuz bir cümlenin öznesi olarak kullanmamak adına bilinçli olarak onların adını gizlemektedir. Zira onun yaşadığı yıllarda bölgesinin sosyo-kültürel durumu dikkate alındığında toplumsal hayata yön verenlerin, hatta bölgeye hükmeden yöneticilerin din anlayışını belirleyenlerin, Hanefî fakihler olduğu anlaşılır. Bu açıdan "bölgemiz halkı" ifadesiyle, "halk" değil, onlara neyin dine uygun neyin olmadığını söyleyen fakihlerin kastedildiği açıktır. Aktarılacak diğer bilgiler de bu yorumu doğrulamaktadır. Pevdevî'nin bu tespiti yaptığı 481/1088 yılında, Mâveraünnehir bölgesinde Hanefî âlimlerin daha güçlü 5 Ebü'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, nşr. Hans Peter Linss (Kahire: Dâru İhyâi'1-kütübi'lArabiyye, 1383/1963), 3-4, 258. 6 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 258-259. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 453 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. olduğu dikkate alındığında, kelâm karşıtlığının Hanefî fakihler arasında yaygınlaştığı anlaşılır. Pezdevî, bu ilmin meşrûiyetiyle ilgili el-ʿÂlim ve'l-müteʿallim'den Ebû Hanîfe'nin şu görüşünü aktarır: 'Hz. Peygamber'in sahâbesi bu gibi konulara dalmadılar' diyenlere karşı 'Sahâbelerin durumu, karşılarında savaşçı bulunmayan dolayısıyla da silah taşımaya gerek duymayan topluluğa benzer. Oysa biz, saldırı altındayız ve silah (kelâm) bize gereklidir' deriz.7 Pezdevî'nin bu konuda Ebû Hanîfe'ye atıf yapması oldukça önemlidir. Zira kelâm karşıtı Fakih Hanefîler, İmam'ın ahir ömründe kelâmdan yüz çevirdiğini düşünmektedir ve bu görüşlerini savunurken Pezdevî'nin el-ʿÂlim ve'l-müteʿallim'den aktardığı görüşü dikkate almamış görünmektedirler. Oysa Pezdevî, Ebû Hanîfe gibi düşünmekte ve itikādı sahih olanlardan öğrenilmesi şartıyla bu ilmi öğrenmenin mübah, hatta farz-ı kifâye olduğunu belirtmektedir.8 Batı Karahanlılar dönemin bir diğer kelâmcısı V. (XI.) yüzyılın ikinci yarısında vefat eden Ebû Şekûr es-Sâlimî el-Keşşî ise eseri et-Temhîd fî beyâni't-tevḥîd'de, bid'atçılarla münâzaranın câiz olmadığını ileri süren Ehl-i zevâhir'in bulunduğunu belirtir ve inancı korumak amacıyla tartışma yapılmasının gerekliliğini savunur.9 Fıkıh usûlünde "zâhir" kelimesi hükmün konuluş gerekçesinin veya söylenen sözle kastedilen mânanın karşıtı anlamında kullanılır. "Ehl-i zevâhir" veya "Ashâbü'z-zevâhir" tabiri ise mânaların hakikatleri ve hükümlerin konuluş gerekçeleri üzerinde düşünmeden, sözün söyleniş amacını dikkate almadan âyet ve hadisleri sadece ilk bakışta anlaşılan lafzî anlamlarına göre anlayan kişileri ifade eder.10 Keşşî, "Ehl-i zevâhir" tabirini kullanarak kelâm karşıtlığının nassların anlam ve gâyelerini dikkate almayan bir bakış açısının ürünü olduğunu belirtir. Bu tespitte haklılık payı olduğu ifade edilmelidir. Zira, kelâm karşıtı bir tavır alan Hanefîler, İmam'ın ahir ömründe kelâmdan yüz çevirdiği rivayetini dikkate alırken el-ʿÂlim ve'l-müteʿallim'den yer alan kelâm müdâfaasını gözden kaçırmaktadırlar. 7 Ebû Hanîfe, el-ʿÂlim, 14. 8 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 4-5. 9 Keşşî, et-Temhîd fî beyâni't-tevḥîd, vr. 192a-192b. 10 Bk. H. Yunus Apaydın, "Zâhiriyye", Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 44: 94. 454 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî de benzer şekilde eseri Baḥrü'l-Kelâm'a "Bid'atçıların ileri sürdüğünün aksine, dinî konularda münâzara yapılmasının bir sakıncası yoktur" diyerek kelâm savunusu ile başlar.11 Öğrencisi Alâeddin es-Semerkandî (ö. 539/1144) ise İmam Mâtürîdî'nin ihmal edildiğini, fakihlerin onun eserlerinde görülen kelâm tartışmalarıyla ilgilenmeyip sadece fıkha meylettiklerini belirtir.12 Diğer taraftan Mâtürîdî'nin ders okuttuğu13 Dârü'l-Cüzcâniye Medresesi'nin onun vefatından sonra kelâm öğretiminin yapıldığı bir merkez olarak devam ettiğine dair bir bilgi de tespit edilemedi. Bu durum, muhtemelen Hanefîler arasında kelâm karşıtlığının güçlenmesiyle bağlantılıdır. Zira Mâtürîdî sonrası dönemde Dârü'l-Cüzcâniye'de ders veren kişilerin biyografileri incelendiğinde, burasının fıkıh ve hadis öğretilen bir merkeze dönüştüğü söylenebilir.14 Mâtürîdîlik konusundaki araştırmaları ile öne çıkan Sönmez Kutlu, Sâmânîler'in son dönemlerinde re'y taraftarlarının Buhara'da nüfuzlarını kaybetmeye başladıklarını belirtir.15 Mâtürîdîlik konusunda çalışmaları bulunan bir diğer uzman Şükrü Özen de Mâverâünnehir fakihleri ile ilgili aynı hususa dikkat çekmektedir: Her ne kadar Mâtürîdî ve çevresi gibi kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmiş olan bir kesimin bulunduğu bilinse de Mâverâünnehir ulemâsının o dönemlerde genelde kelâma karşı soğuk oldukları ve buradaki Hanefîler'in mesâilerini daha çok fıkha ve Ashâbü'l-hadis'in de hadis ilmine teksif ettikleri bilinmektedir.16 Bu bilgiler, kelâm metodunu savunanların bölgede Mâtürîdî sonrasında güç kaybettikleri tezini doğrulamaktadır. Mâtürîdî ve Semerkant Ehl-i sünnet kelâmı hakkında kapsamlı bir eser yazan Alman İslam 11 Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî, Baḥrü'l-kelâm, nşr. Veliyyüddîn M. el-Farfûr (Dımaşk: Mektebetü'l-Farfûr, 1421/2000), 61. 12 Alâüddîn Muhammed b. Ahmed Semerkandî, Mîzânül-uṣûl fî netâʾici'l-uḳūl, nşr. M. Zekî Abdülber (Kahire: Mektebetü Dâri't-türâs, 1418/1997), 3. 13 İbn Yahyâ, Şerḥü Cümeli uṣûli'd-dîn, Süleymaniye Ktp., Şehit Ali Paşa, nr. 1648/2, vr. 161b. 14 Bk. Necmeddin en-Nesefî, el-Ḳand fî ẕikri ʿulemâʾi Semerḳand, nşr. Nazar M. el-Fâryâbî (Murabba: Mektebetü'l-Kevser, 1412/1991), 47 (nr. 52: Hamza es-Sâbâtî); 143 (nr. 233: Sâlih b. Muhammed), 314 (nr. 562: Abdürreşîd b. Ahmed), 345 (nr. 618: Ömer b. Abbâs), 363 (nr. 659: Osman b. Ebî Ahmed); Kureşî, el-Cevâhirü'l-muḍıyye, nşr. Abdülfettâh M. elHulv (Kahire: Hicr, 1413/1993), 1: 185 (nr. 123: Ahmed b. Abdullah). 15 Kutlu Sönmez, Türklerin İslâmlaşma Sürecinde Mürcie ve Tesirleri (Ankara: TDV Yay., 2010), 262. 16 Şükrü Özen, "IV. (X.) Yüzyılda Mâverâünnehir'de Ehl-i Sünnet-Mu'tezile Mücadelesi", İslâm Araştırmaları Dergisi 9 (2003): 62-63. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 455 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. bilimcisi Ulrich Rudolph da bu doğrultuda tespitler yapmaktadır. Rudolph, Mâtürîdî sonrasının en önemli şahıslarından olan Ebü'l-Leys es-Semerkandî'nin (ö. 373/983) eserlerinde Mâtürîdî'yi tek bir yerde dahi zikretmemiş olmasını dikkat çekici bulur. Zira Ebü'l-Leys es-Semerkandî, Hakîm es-Semerkandî'nin Sevâdi'l-a'zam tarzında bir iman anlayışını savunmaktır.17 Belki de bu yüzden Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî'nin Tebṣıratü'ledille'sinde Hanefî mütekellimler listesinde Ebü'l-Leys es-Semerkandî'ye yer verilmemektedir. Mâtürîdî'den sonraki süreçte Mâverâünnehir'de kelâm karşıtlığının güçlenmesi, Hanefî âlimlerin kelâmdan çok fıkıhla ilgilenmeleri ve bu ilme dair eserler telif etmeleri,18 V. (XI.) yüzyılın son yarısında bölgede Eş'arîlerle fikrî tartışmaların yoğunlaştığı döneme kadar kelâm ilminin geri planda kalmasına neden olmuştur. Zaten Nesefi'nin yukarıda zikredilen kelâmcılara dair isim listesini IV. (X.) yüzyıla kadar getirip buradan itibaren kimseyi zikretmemesi, kendi dönemine kadar ki bir yüzyıl içerisinde hatırı sayılır derecede kelâm âliminin bu bölgede yetişmediğine bir delil olarak düşünülebilir.19 Saffâr özelinde yürütülen bu çalışmada, benzer şekilde kelâm ilmini gerekli gören anlayışının bölgede Mâtürîdî sonrasında zayıfladığı, kelâmdan uzak durulmasını tavsiye eden ve Fakihler Hanefîler tarafından temsil edilen bakış açısının ise güçlendiği tespit edildi. Ayrıca Mâtürîdî'den Nesefî'ye kadar geçen yaklaşık iki asırlık bir süreçte kelâm metodunun kullanıldığı hacimli bir eserin yazıldığına dair harhangi bir bilgiye de ulaşılamadı. Mâverâünnehir'e komşu Horasan bölgesinde de kelâm karşıtlığının gündemde olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Örneğin Herat şehrinde yetişen dönemin hadis âlimlerinden Herevî (ö. 481/1089) kelâm ilmini, yöntemini ve kelâmcıları şiddetle eleştiren Ẕemmü'l-kelâm ve ehlih adlı bir eser kaleme aldı. Herevî, bir mukaddime ile on dokuz ana başlıktan meydana gelen eserinde, Mu'tezile'nin yanında Ehl-i sünnet kelâmcılarını da şiddetle 17 Ulrich Rudolph, Mâturidî ve Semerkant'ta Ehl-i Sünnet Kelamı, trc. Özcan Taşcı (İstanbul: Litera Yayıncılık, 2016), 552. 18 Mahmûd b. Süleyman el-Kefevî, Ketâʾibü aʿlâmi'l-aḫyâr min fuḳahâʾi meẕhebi'n-Nuʿmâni'lmuḫtâr, Tahran Kitabhâne-i Meclis-i Şûrâyı Millî, 1385, vr. 109b; Özen, "V. (X.) Yüzyılda Mâverâünnehir'de Ehl-i Sünnet-Mu'tezile Mücadelesi", İslâm Araştırmaları Dergisi, 62-63. 19 Bk. M. Sait Özervalı, "Alâeddin el-Üsmendî'nin Kelâmcılığı ve Bilgi Teorisi: Mâverâünnehir Kelam Düşüncesine Bir Katkı", 41. 456 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. eleştirerek, itikādî konularda münâzara yapılamayacağını iddia etti. Ona göre vahye teslim olup sonrasında ona uymak doğruyu bulabilmek için şarttır. İtikādî konularda tartışmaya girmek ise insanı haktan sapmaya ve neticede helâk olmaya götürür. Onun iddiasına göre bazı sahâbîler ve tabiîn âlimleri ile müçtehitler, kelâm ilmini reddetmişler ve yaptıkları te'villerle ümmeti sapıklığa düşüren kelâmcılardan ilim öğrenmeyi câiz görmemişlerdir. Herevî, eserinin son bölümünde selef âlimlerine nisbet ederek kelâm aleyhtarı sözleri ve kelâmcılardan ilim alınamayacağına dair ifadeleri de aktarır.20 Beş cilt dolusu kelâm aleyhtarı rivayeti içeren bu eserin sıhhati ve Herevî'nin din algısı ayrı bir araştırmanın konusudur. Kendi döneminde Horasan bölgesindeki Hanefîler'in reisi olarak anılan Sâid b. Muhammed el-Üstüvâî (ö. 432/1041) ise Ebû Hanîfe'nin itikādi görüşlerini yansıttığını düşündüğü eseri Kitâbü'l-İʿtiḳād: ʿAḳīdetün merviyyün ʿanhü el-İmâmi'l-Aʿẓam Ebî Ḥanîfe'de, on dört başlık altında yüz otuz rivayete yer verir. Bu rivayetlerden bir kısmı Hz. Peygamber'e, bir kısmı sahâbe ve tâbiîn âlimlerine, diğerleri ise Ebû Hanîfe ve öğrencilerine nisbetle aktarılır. Eserin özellikle son iki faslında; müteşâbih sıfatların te'vil edilmemesi, itikādî konularda husûmetten, nizâdan ve re'ye başvurmaktan uzak durularak selef-i sâlihînin yetindiğine râzı olunması, ilâhî sıfatlar konusunda onların kelâm etmediği, fıkhî konularda men edilmeyen tartışmanın kader, müteşâbihler ve ilâhî sıfatlar gibi inanç alanında yasaklandığı ile bid'atlerden uzak durularak esere tâbî olunması gerektiğine dair rivayetlere yer verilir. Üstüvâî, bu nakilleri kelâm ilmini mahkûm edecek şekilde tasnif ettikten sonra "Meşâyahimiz kelâma dalmaktan uzak durdu. İtikâdî konularda nakille iktifa etmek övülen bir tutumdur. Kelâm ile ilgilenildiğinde ihtilaflı konulara dalınmış olunur. En doğru yol, kelâmdan uzak durmaktır" diyerek açıkça kendi kanaatini belirtir.21 Eserin son cümlesi olarak ise "Kim bu rivayetleri kabul ederse, sözleri ve tercihleri dine uygun olan ve kelâmdan uzak duran anılan âlimlere uysun" nasihatini dillendirir.22 Yaklaşık olarak yüz sayfalık eserde, 20 Hâce Abdullah el-Herevî, Ẕemmü'l-kelâm ve ehlih, nşr. Ebû Câbir Abdullah el-Ensârî (Medine: Mektebetü'l-Gurabâi'l-eseriyye, 1419/1998), 3: 151-199, 4: 210-211, 5: 153-200. 21 Sâid b. Muhammed el-Üstüvâî, Kitâbü'l-İʿtiḳād: ʿ Aḳīdetün merviyyün ʿ anhü el-İmâmi'l-Aʿẓam Ebî Ḥanîfe, nşr. Seyit Bahçıvan (Beyrut: Dârü'l-kütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1426/2005), 212. 22 Üstüvâî, Kitâbü'l-İʿtiḳād, 233. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 457 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. rivayetler dışında ona ait çok az yorum yer alır. Bunlardan son ikisinde ise kelâm ilminden uzak durulması ısrarla tavsiye edilir. Üstüvâî'nin Gazneliler ve Selçuklular döneminde Nîşâbur ve çevresinde kadılık görevini en az bir asır elinde bulunduran Sâidî ailesinin atası olduğu23 ve devlet gücüne sahip oğulları ve torunları tarafından onun kelâmdan uzak durulması tavsiyesine uyulduğu ihtimali düşünüldüğünde, Mâtürîdî kelâmının Eş'arîlik karşısında yeterince güçlenememiş olmasının nedenlerinden biri daha anlaşılmaktadır ki o da Hanefîler arasında yayılan kelâm karşıtlığıdır. Ebû Hanîfe'nin risâleleri açıkça ortada dururken Hanefî fakihlerin kelâm karşıtı bir din anlayışını nasıl savunabildikleri ve bu noktaya nasıl geldikleri, üzerinde düşünülmesi gerekli bir husustur. Dönemin bir diğer âlimi Endülüslü muhaddis İbn Abdülber enNemerî (ö. 463/1071) ilim, ilim tahsili ve eğitim öğretim konularına dair eseri Câmiu beyâni'l-ilm'de kelâm aleyhtarı birçok rivayeti aktardıktan sonra bütün İslâm diyarındaki fakih ve muhaddislerin, kelâmcıların sapık ve bid'atçı oldukları ve âlim sayılmayacaklarında ittifak ettiklerini ileri sürmektedir.24 Dönemin etkin Eş'arî âlimi Gazzâlî ise İḥyâʾü ʿulûmi'd-dîn'de özel bir başlık altında, kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesinin haram olduğunu iddia edenler ile farz olduğunu savunanların görüşlerini ve gerekçelerini aktarır ve sonrasında kendi düşüncesini belirtir. O'nun "Hadisçiler, kelâmcılarla oturulmaması, konuşulmaması ve onlardan herhangi bir şeyin dinlenilmemesi konusunda ittifak etmişlerdir" tespiti, bu dönemde kelâm ilmine karşı var olan olumsuz bakışı kanaatimizce tam olarak yansıtmaktadır.25 Ayrıca o, aynı süreçte ilmî çalışmaların fıkıh ile sınırlandığını da dile getirir.26 Nişâburlu Eş'arî kelâmcısı Ebü'l-Kāsim Selmân b. Nâsır enNîsâbûrî (ö. 512/1118) ise el-Ġunye fi'l-kelâm adlı eserinde kelâm ilminin meşrûiyetini savunmakta ve ileri sürülen iddialara cevap vermektedir.27 23 Sem'ânî, el-Ensâb, 1: 135. 24 İbn Abdülber en-Nemerî, Câmiʿu beyâni'l-ʿilm, 367. 25 Gazzâlî, İḥyâ, 1: 365-380. 26 Gazzâlî, Miʿyârü'l-ʿilm, nşr. Süleyman Dünyâ (Kahire: Dârü'l-maârif, 1961), 60. 27 Ebü'l-Kāsim en-Nîsâbûrî, el-Ġunye fi'l-kelâm, 1: 258-262. 458 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Kelâm ilmi ve kelâmcılar aleyhindeki aşağıda belirtilen fetvâlar bu dönemde yazılan ve değer gören bazı Hanefî fıkıh kitaplarında dahi yer almıştır: "Kelâmcıların şâhitliği kabul edilmez", "Mütekellimin arkasında namaz kılınmaz", "Kelâmcılar âlim sayılmaz", "Kelâm ile ilgilenen kimsenin adı ulemâ sınıfından silinir", "Kelâm kitapları ilim eseri sayılmaz", "Âlim denilince bunun kapsamına sadece fıkıhçı ve hadisçiler dâhildir, kelâmcılar girmez" ve "Gereğinden fazla kelâmla meşguliyet mekruhtur" fetvâsı.28 Benzer bir hüküm, Burhânpûrlu Şeyh Nizâm (ö. 1090/1679) başkanlığındaki âlimler heyetinin ortak çalışmasıyla 1664-1672 yılları arasında Hanefî mezhebine dair birçok muteber kaynaktan derlenen Fetâva'l-Hindiyye adlı meşhur fetvâ külliyâtında görülür: Eğer ehl-i ilme verilmek üzere vasiyette bulunulsa, bunun kapsamına ehl-i fıkıh ve ehl-i hadis girer; ehl-i hikmet ise girmez. 'Mütekellimler, bu vasiyet kapsamında mıdır?' şeklinde sorulsa, 'Hayır' cevabı verilir. Ebü'l-Kāsım [es-Saffâr] şöyle fetvâ verdi: Kelâm kitaplarının ilim eseri sayılmadığında şüphe yoktur. Örfen bu böyledir. Mutlak olarak kitap denildiğinde, bunun kapsamında kelâm eserleri girmez. Buna kıyasla da ilim ehli denilince, kelâmcılar kapsam dışında kalır.29 Saffâr'ın çağdaşı olan Muhammed b. Yûsuf es-Semerkandî (ö. 556/1161) ise el-Mültekat fi'l-fetâvâ adlı eserinde Ebü'l-Leys Ubeydullah elBuhârî'nin (ö. 258/872) "Kelâm ile ilgilenen kimsenin adı ulemâ sınıfından silinir" sözünü ve Ebü'l-Kāsim es-Saffâr'ın "Kelâm kitapları, ilim eseri sayılmaz" şeklindeki fetvâsını nakleder. Hanefî fakihi olan Semerkandî'nin bu görüşlere itiraz etmemesi aynı kanaati benimsediğini gösterir.30 Her iki alıntıda fetvâsına değer atfedilen Ebü'l-Kāsım es-Saffâr (ö. 336/947), araştırmamız kapsamında inceleme imkânı bulduğumuz Fetâvâ 28 Fakih Hanefîler'in benzer fetvâları için bk. Muhammed b. Yûsuf Semerkandî, el-Mülteḳaṭ fi'l-fetâva'l-Ḥanefiyye, nşr. M. Nassâr-Seyyid Ahmed (Beyrut: Dârü'l-kütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1420/2000), 275, 449; Kādîhan, Fetâvâ Ḳāḍīḫân, nşr. Sâlim M. el-Bedrî (Beyrut: Dârü'lkütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1865), 3: 329, 331; İbn Ebü'l-İz, Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳīdeti'ṭ-Ṭaḥāviyye, 18; Kefevî, Ketâʾib, vr. 108a; Şeyh Nizâm v.dğr., el-Fetâva'l-Hindiyye (Beyrut: Darü'l-kütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1421/2000), 6: 146. Benzer görüşler için bk. İbn Abdülber, Câmiʿu beyâni'l-ʿilm, 365-367. 29 Şeyh Nizâm v.dğr., el-Fetâva'l-Hindiyye, 6: 146. 30 Semerkandî, el-Mülteḳaṭ fi'l-fetâva'l-Ḥanefiyye, 275, 449. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 459 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Ḳāḍīḫân gibi Batı Karahanlılar dönemi Hanefî fıkıh literatüründe görüşlerine sıkça müracaat edilen bir Hanefî fakihidir. Onun kelâm aleyhtarı tavrının, bölgede yetişen fakihleri de etkilediği ve onların eserlerine de yansıdığı düşünülmektedir. Anılan kitaplarda kelâmın meşrûiyeti konusunda Ebû Hanîfe'nin değil de Ebü'l-Kāsım'ın düşüncesine uyulması Hanefî din anlayışının Batı Karahanlılar dönemindeki durumu açısından oldukça düşündürücüdür. Bu noktada ulaştığımız sonuçlara göre Mâverâünnehir bölgesinde çoğunluğu oluşturan Hanefî fakihleri, kelâm ilmine bakışlarına göre iki gruba ayırmamız gerekmektedir: Kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenen Mütekellim Hanefîler ve kelâm ilmine mesafeli duranlar Fakih Hanefîler. Bu ayırım, Ebû Hanîfe'nin ahir ömründe kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmediğine, hatta oğlu Hammâd'a inanç konularında tartışma yapmayı yasakladığına dair aktarılan rivayetlerin nasıl anlaşıldığına göre belirginleşmektedir. Klasik eserlerde Buhara ve Semerkant ulemâsının bazı fıkhî konularda farklı kanaatlerde olduklarına ilişkin ifadelere rastlanır. Bu tartışmaların geneline bakıldığında, istisnâları olmakla birlikte, her iki şehir fakihleri arasında aklın ve naklin bilgi değeri konusunda metodolojik bir kutuplaşmanın yaşandığı anlaşılır. Kelâm ilmi özelinde ifade edilecek olunursa Semerkantlı İmâm Mâtürîdî'nin düşünceleri öncülüğünde teşekkül eden kelâm anlayışını benimseyen Mütekellim Hanefîler, akla kendi alanında bilgiye ulaşmada bağımsız bir rol tanırken; Buhara İmamları olarak atıf yapılan Fakih Hanefîler, akla sadece nakil bağlamında anlama ve yorumlama yetkisi tanımaktadır. Bu husus, fetret ehlinin dini yükümlülüğü konusunda yaşanan tartışmalarda görülebilmektedir.31 Mütekellim Hanefîler, Ebû Hanife'nin kelâm ilmini ve yöntemini değil, ehliyetsiz kişilerin bir sonuca ulaşması mümkün görünmeyen tartışmalarını hoş karşılamadığını düşünmektedir. Kaynaklarda görüşlerine "ashâbımızdan muhakkik olanlar" şeklinde atıf yapılan kelâmcı yönü ağır basan Hanefî âlimler, bu grubu oluşturur. Mütekellim Hanefîler, ayrıca yöntemsel olarak aklın kendi bilgi alanında bilgiye ulaşma gücü olduğunu kabul etmektedir. Mâtürîdî, Ebü'l-Hasan er-Rüstüfeğnî (ö. 345/956), Ebü'lHüseyin Muhammed b. Yahyâ el-Beşâğarî (ö. IV./X. yüzyıl), Ebû Bekir el- 31 Fakihlerin Hanefîler ile Mütekellim Hanefîler'in görüş farklılıkları için bk. Demir, "Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi", 298-321. 460 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. İyâzî (ö. IV./X. yüzyılın ikinci yarısı), Ebû Seleme es-Semerkandî (ö. IV./X. yüzyılın ikinci yarısı) ve İbn Yahyâ (ö. IV./X. yüzyılın ikinci yarısı) bu geleneğin öncüleridir. Batı Karahanlılar dönemi (433-608/1041-1212) Mütekellim Hanefîleri ise şunlardır: Saffâr'ın dedesi Ebû Nasr İshâk b. Ahmed es-Saffâr (ö. 405/1014), babası İmamü'ş-Şehîd İsmâil b. Ebî Nasr İshâk es-Saffâr (ö. 461/1069), Ebü'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî (ö. 493/1099), Ebû Şekûr Muhammed es-Sâlimî el-Keşşî (V./XI. yüzyılın ikinci yarısı), Ebû Bekr Muhammed b. İbrâhim el-Hasîrî (500/1107), Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî (ö. 508/1115), Ahmed b. Mûsâ b. İsâ el-Keşşî (ö. 550/1155), Mahmûd b. Zeyd el-Lâmişî (ö. 522/1128), Zâhid es-Saffâr (ö. 534/11399), Ebû Hafs Ömer enNesefî (ö. 537/1141), Alâeddin es-Semerkandî (ö. 539/1144), Tâhir b. Ahmed el-Buhârî (ö. 542/1147), Alâeddin el-Üsmendî (ö. 552/1157), Sirâcuddin Ali b. Osman el-Ûşî (ö. 575/1179) ve Nureddin es-Sâbûnî (ö. 580/1164). Bölgede çoğunluğu oluşturdukları anlaşılan Fakih Hanefîler ise Ebû Hanîfe'nin oğlu Hammâd'a kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmeyi ve bu alanda münâzara yapmayı yasakladığına dair rivayeti aynen benimseyerek, kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmenin tavsiye edilen bir uğraş olmadığı hususunda birleşmişler ve bunu fıkıh kitaplarında açıkça belirtmişlerdir. Fakih Hanefîler, genel olarak imanın mahlûk olmadığını, dil ile ikrarın iman tanımında yer aldığını, haberî sıfatların te'vil edilmemesinin daha doğru olduğunu, peygamberin daveti olmadan sadece akla dayanılarak Allah'a inanma yükümlülüğünün başlamayacağını ve fetret ehlinin sorumlu olmadığını düşünmektedir. Bu kişiler, Ebû Hanîfe'nin el-Fıkhu'l-ekber ve elÂlim ve'l-müteallim adlı risâlesinde yer alan iman tanımına amelin dahil olmadığı ve imanın artıp eksilmeyeceği gibi konularda onun itikādî görüşlerini benimsemekte, ancak akāid risâlesi muhteviyatını aşacak şekilde bu konularda konuşulmasını mekruh saymaktadır. Bunların Ebû Hanîfe'ye bağlılıkları, savundukları iman-amel ayırımı ve diğer itikādî görüşleri sebebiyle Ashâbü'l-hadis olarak isimlendirilmesi ise uygun değildir. Fakih Hanefîler, şahsî yaşantılarında da bu yönde davranarak kelâm eseri telif etmedikleri gibi kelâmî tartışmalara dâhil olmaktan da uzak durmuşlardır. Örneğin dönemin meşhur fakihi Kādîhan, rüyasında Allah'ı gördüğü iddiasında bulunan kişinin, puta tapandan daha kötü olduğuna dair Mâtürîdî'nin görüşünü ve bu konuda Semerkant âlimlerin "Allah'ın rüyada görüldüğü iddiası, bâtıldır" kanaatini kısaca aktardıktan sonra "Bu konuda konuşmamak daha iyidir" şeklindeki kendi kanaatini Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 461 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. açıklar. "Bu konuda konuşmamak daha iyidir" ifadesi, onun kelâmî konularda "gereğinden fazla" söz edilmemesini tercih ettiğini gösterir. Zaten o gereğinden fazla kelâmla meşgul olmanın, mekruh olduğunu açıkça belirtir. Bu konuyla ilgili "Kur'an ve fıkhâ tazîm vâcibtir. Kelâm ilmini öğrenme ve kelâmî konularda tartışma yapmak hususunda ise 'İhtiyaçtan fazlası mekruhtur' denilmiştir" görüşü ona aittir. Ayrıca Ebû Hanîfe'nin oğlu Hammâd'a kelâmla meşguliyeti yasakladığına dair rivayete de aynı bağlamda yer verir. Onun bu tutumu, kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmeyi doğru bulmadığının kanıtıdır.32 Oysa hocası Saffâr, kelâmî tartışmalara Telhîsü'l-edille'de yer veren ve kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmenin önemini ve gerekliliğini savunan bir mütekellimdir. Kādîhan'ın kelâma mesafeli tutumu, Mütekellim Hanefîler'in, yani Mâtürîdî ekolünün görüşleri ile bağdaşmaz. O dönemde fıkıh ilmine yoğunlaşan bazı Hanefî âlimlerin, Ebû Hanîfe'nin ve Ebû Yûsuf'un kelâmla meşguliyeti yasakladığını düşünmeleri nedeniyle bu ilme mesafeli durduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Osmanlı fıkıhçıları arasında benzer tutumu sergileyen Fakih Hanefîler hiç de az değildir. Örneğin döneminin en güçlü ismi Molla Hüsrev (ö. 885/1480) kelâm hakkında şöyle söyler: Bir kimse kelâm ilmi müstesna, diğer ilimleri tahsil için anne-babasından izin almadan memleketinden ayrılabilir. Çünkü İmam Şâfiî, 'Kulun büyük günahla Allah'ın huzuruna çıkması, kelâm günahıyla çıkmasından hayırlıdır' demiştir. Onun döneminde okunan kelâmın hükmü bu olunca felsefecilerin hezeyanlarıyla karışık, bâtıl ve yaldızlı laflarıyla dolu bir kelâm şekli hakkındaki hükmün ne olacağını varın siz tasavvur edin.33 Kelâm veya akāid eseri bulunmayan Batı Karahanlılar Dönemi Fakih Hanefileri ise şunlardır: S emsüleimme Abdülazîz b. Ahmed el-Halvânî (ö. 448/1056), Abdullah b. Hüseyin en-Nisâbûrî Nâsıhî (ö. 447/1055), Ebü'lHasan Ali b. Hüseyin es-Suğdî (ö. 461/1069), Ebü'l-Usr el-Pezdevî (ö. 482/1089), Şemsüleimme Muhammed es-Serahsî (ö. 483/1090), Hâherzâde Muhammed b. Hüseyin el-Buhârî (483/1090), Ebû Nasr Ahmed b. Abdurrahman b. İshak er-Rîgadmûnî (ö. 493/1100), Sadr Abdülazîz b. Ömer b. el-Mâze (ö. 518/1124), Sadrus şehîd Ömer b. Abdülazîz el-Mâze (ö. 536/1141), Sadr Ahmed b. Abdülaziz el-Mâze (ö. 551/1156), Muhammed b. 32 Kādîhan, Fetâvâ Ḳāḍīḫân, 3: 329, 331. 33 Molla Hüsrev, Dürerü'l-ḥükkâm (Âsitâne: Şirket-i Sahafiye-i Osmâniye, 1317), 1: 323; İmâm Şâfiî'ye nisbet edilen söz için bk. İbn Abdülber, Câmiʿu beyâni'l-ʿilm, 365-366. 462 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Yûsuf es-Semerkandî (ö. 556/1161), Sadr Muhammed b. Ömer el-Mâze (ö. 559/1164), Sadr Mahmud b. Ahmed el-Mâze (yk. ö. 570/1174), I mamzâde Muhammed b. Ebî eş-Şergî (ö. 573/1177), Ebû Hafs Ömer b. Muhammed el-Akīlî (ö. 576/1180), Ahmed b. Muhammed el-Attâbî (ö. 586/1190), Fahreddîn Kādîhan (ö. 592/1196), Burhaneddîn el-Mergīnânî (ö. 593/1197), Sadr Abdülaziz b. Muhammed el-Mâze (ö. 593/1197), Ömer b. Ali elMergīnânî (ö. 600/1203) ve Sadr Ömer b. Mes'ûd b. Ahmed el-Mâze (ö. 603/1207).34 Aktarılan isimler arasında Saffâr'ın Merv şehrine sürgüne gönderilmesi sonrası Buhara Hanefîleri'nin reisliğine bir anlamda zorla sahip olan Âl-i Burhan sülâlesine mensup fakihlerin çoğunluğu teşkil ettiği görülür. Sencer'in kelâm müdâfii olan Saffâr'ı sürgüne göndermesi ve kelâma mesafeli duran aileye yetki vermesi, kelâm karşıtlığını artıran bir netice de doğurmuştur. Ulaşılan tüm bu sonuçlar, kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesi, öğretilmesi ve kelâmcıların toplumdaki rolü konusundaki tartışmaların, V. (XI.) ve VI. (XII.) yüzyıllarda Mâverâünnehir ve Horasan bölgelerinde canlılığını koruduğunu ve özellikle kelâm karşıtlığının tedbir almayı gerektirecek kadar Hanefîler arasında arttığını gösterir. Dolayısıyla bu döneminde hadis taraftarları, sûfîler, İhvân-ı safa mensupları ile Mâverâünnehir'deki Fakih Hanefîler, kelâma karşı cephe alan kesimi oluşturmaktadır. Dolayısıyla Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasındaki asıl muhataplar Ashâbü'l-hadis değil, Fakih Hanefîler'dir. 2. MÜDÂFAA YÖNTEMİ Kelâm ilmini savunurken Saffâr'ın kullandığı yöntem, Ebû Hanîfe'nin stratejisinden farklıdır. Ebû Hanîfe ortaya çıkan yeni durum karşısında kelâm ilmine ihtiyaç duyulduğunu dile getirmiştir.35 Oysa Saffâr, bid'atçılıkla suçlanan kelâmcıları, başta Hz. İbrâhim olmak üzere peygamberlerin, hatta sahâbe ve tabiîn âlimlerinin inançla ilgili konularda akıllarını kullandıklarını ve tartışma yaptıklarını ispatlamaya gayret ederek müdâfaa etmektedir. Bu kapsamda o, Kur'an-ı Kerîm'in susmayı 34 Anılan Mâverâünnehirli Hanefî fakihlerin hayatları ve eserleri hakkında bk. Murteza Bedir, "Osmanlı Öncesi Türk Hukuk Tarihi Yazıcılığı", Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 3, sy. 4 (2005): 61-67. 35 Ebû Hanîfe, el-ʿÂlim, 14. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 463 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. değil; düşünmeyi ve en güzel şekilde tartışmayı emrettiğine vurgu yaparak inanç esaslarını açıklama ve savunma görevini üstlenen bu ilmin, bid'at veya haram olarak nitelendirilemeyeceğini savunur.36 Onun müdâfaa yöntemi, İmam Eş'arî'nin (ö. 324/935-36) kullandığı metodun daha gelişmiş şekli olarak ifade edilebilir. Bilindiği gibi Eş'arî eseri İstiḥsânü'l-ḫavż fî ʿilmi'l-kelâm'da bilgisizliği sermaye edinen, düşünme ve araştırma yapmaktan hoşlanmayan, kolaycılığa ve taklide yönelen, usûlü'd-din meselelerini ele alanları kötüleyip dalâletle suçlayan, ayrıca hareket, sükûn, cisim, araz gibi meseleler hakkında konuşmanın bid'at olduğunu söyleyenlerin bulunduğunu ve eserini onlara karşı yazdığını belirtir. O, bu iddialara; "Eleştirilen hususların her biri genel ilkeleri itibariyle Kitap ve Sünnet'te yer almaktadır. Fıkhî konularda geçerli olan aklı kullanma yönteminin usûlde de bulunması ve aklî meselelerin Kitap ve Sünnet'in yanında duyu verilerine ve bedîhî bilgilere dayanılarak da çözülmesi gereklidir. Eğer sonraki dönemlerde tartışılan meseleler Asr-ı saâdet'te ortaya çıksaydı elbette Hz. Peygamber diğer hususlarda olduğu gibi bunlar hakkında da beyanda bulunurdu" diyerek cevap vermektedir.37 Sistematiğini kendisi belirtmese de Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasının izah, ispat ve reddiye olmak üzere üç temele dayandığı anlaşılır: a) İzah: Kelâm ilminin tanımı, isimleri, değeri ve dinî ilimler içindeki yeri konusunda bilgi verilerek, buradan kelâm ilmin gerekli ve önemli olduğunun açıklanması. b) İspat: Kelâm ilminin dinî temellerinin Kitap, Sünnet ve Selef-i Sâlihîn uygulamasından ortaya konulması ve bu sayede dinen meşrû olduğunun belirtilmesi. c) Reddiye: Kelâm ilminin değerini ve dinî meşrûiyetini zayıflatma amacı taşıyan iddiaların cevaplanması. 3. KELÂM MÜDÂFAASI: İZAH Saffâr, kelâm ilmini müdâfaaya, bu ilmin tanımı, isimlendirilmesi ve değeri konusunda açıklama yaparak başlar. Kelâm ilmi, konusu ve amacı dikkate alınarak farklı şekillerde tanımlanır. Konusuna göre yapılan tanımların bir kısmında Allah'a imanla birlikte yalnızca nübüvvet veya 36 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 44-45. 37 Eş'arî, İstiḥsâni'l-ḫavż, 87-90, 94. 464 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. âhiret, bir kısmında imanın üç temel esası, diğerlerinde ise dinin temel ilkeleri usûlü'd-dîn veya akâid-i diniyye gibi kapsayıcı tabirlerle ifade edilir. Kelâmın amacına göre yapılan tanımlarda ise bu ilmin diğer din ve inançlar ile bid'atçı akımlara karşı üstlendiği savunma fonksiyonu vurgulanır. Kelâmın ilk dönemlerden günümüze tarihsel süreçte nasıl tanımlandığı görmek faydalı olacaktır: Fârâbî (ö. 339/950): Kelâm, dinin kurucusunun açıkça belirttiği inanç ve davranışları teyit edip bunlara aykırı olan her şeyin yanlışlığını sözle gösterme gücü kazandıran bir yetenektir.38 Pezdevî (ö. 493/1100): Kelâm ilmi, öğrenilmesi farz-ı ayn olan usûlü'd-dîn meselelerinin açıklanmasıdır.39 Gazzâlî (ö. 505/1111): Kelâm, Ehl-i sünnet inancını koruyan ve Ehl-i bid'atın eleştirileri karşısında onu savunan bir ilimdir.40 Saffâr (ö. 534/1139): Kelâm, yakine ulaştıran delil ile hakkı bilmektir.41 Kelâm, yakine ulaştıran delil ile mârifetullahı bilmektir.42 Kelâm, yakine ulaştıran delil ile usûlü'd-dîni bilmektir.43 Îcî (ö. 756/1355): Kelâm, kesin deliller kullanmak ve ileri sürülecek şüpheleri ortadan kaldırmak suretiyle dinî inançları kanıtlama gücü kazandıran bir ilimdir.44 Teftâzânî (ö. 792/1390): Kelâm, dinî akideleri yakinî delillerle bilmektir.45 İbn Haldun (ö. 808/1406): Kelâm, inanç esaslarını aklî delillere dayanarak savunmayı ve itikādî konularda Selefin ve Ehl-i sünnet'in gittiği yoldan sapan bid'atçıları reddetmeyi tazammun eden bir ilimdir.46 Cürcânî (ö. 816/1413): Kelâm, Allah'ın zâtından ve sıfatlarından mebde' ve meâd itibariyle yaratılmışların hallerinden İslâm kanunu üzere bahseden bir ilimdir.47 Ö. Nasuhi Bilmen (ö. 1971): Kelâm, Allah'ın zâtından ve sıfatlarından, nübüvvet konularından, mebde' ve meâd itibariyle yaratılmışların hallerinden İslâm kanunu üzere bahseden bir ilimdir.48 38 Ebû Nasr el-Fârâbî, İḥṣâʾü'l-ʿUlûm, nşr. Osman M. Emîn (Kahire, 1350), 71-72. 39 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 4. Bu eserin tercümesinde ilgili tanım şu şekildedir: "Kelâm ilmi, Usuli'd-Din (Dinin asılları), Akaid (İman Esasları) meselelerini açıklamadır ki bunun öğrenilmesi farzı ayn'dır". Bk. a.mlf., Ehli Sünnet Akâidi, trc. Şerafeddin Gölcük (İstanbul: Kayıhan Yayınları, 1988), 5. 40 Gazzâlî, el-Münḳıẕ mine'ḍ-ḍalâl (Beyrut: Dâru'l-Endülüs, 1967), 71. 41 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 33. 42 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 31. 43 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 29. 44 Adudüddîn el-Îcî, el-Mevâḳıf fî ʿilmi'l-kelâm (Beyrut: Âlemü'l-kütüb, ts.), 7. 45 Sa'deddîn et-Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd, nşr. Abdurrahman Umeyre (Beyrut: Âlemü'lkütüb, 1419/1998), 1: 163. 46 İbn Haldun, Mukaddime, trc. Süleyman Uludağ (İstanbul: Dergâh Yay., 1982), 2: 1073. 47 Seyyid Şerîf el-Cürcânî, Kitâbü't-Taʿrîfât (Beyrut, 1985), "kelâm" md., 194. 48 Ömer N. Bilmen, Muvazzah İlm-i Kelâm Dersleri (İstanbul: Evkāf-ı İslâmiyye, 1339), 3. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 465 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Aktarılan tanımların bir kısmında kelâmın konusunun, diğerlerinde ise kelâmın savunma fonksiyonunun dikkate alındığı görülür. Tarihsel süreçte ortaya çıkan bu tarifler, tanımlamayı yapan âlimlerin kelâm tasavvurlarını yansıtmaktadır. Saffâr, kelâm ilmini hak kavramına ve delille bilmeye vurgu yaparak tanımlar. Ona göre kelâm, "yakine ulaştıran delil ile hakkı bilmektir".49 Bu tanımda, kelâmın konusu olarak belli inanç esaslarının sıralanması yerine İslâm'ı bir bütün olarak ifade eden bâtılın zıttı olan hak kavramının öne çıkartıldığı görülür. Bu kavramı tahlil eden Saffâr, hakkın varlığı gerçek, hikmet ve hüsün ile nitelendirilmesi doğru olan herşey için kullanıldığını belirtir. Dolayısıyla o, kelâmı hakikatı arayan bir ilim olarak düşünmektedir. Saffâr bu konudaki görüşünü desteklemek için bir hadis de aktarır. Buna göre Hz. Peygamber Hârise'ye "Nasıl sabahladın?" diye sormuş o da "Allah'a hak olarak inanan mümin" diye cevap vermiştir. Hz. Peygamber ona, "Söylediğini düşün. Zira her sözün bir hakikatı vardır. Senin imanının hakikatı nedir?" şeklinde ikinci bir soru yöneltmiştir. Bu soruya Hârise, "Nefsimi dünyadan uzaklaştırdım, geceleri ibadetle gündüzleri oruçla geçirdim. Sanki ben Rabbimin arşını açıkça görür gibiyim, sanki cennette birbirini ziyaret eden müminleri ve cehennemde azab gören kişileri görür gibiyim" cevabını vermiştir. Bunun üzerine Hz. Peygamber, "Sen gördün, bu sebeple yapmakta olduklarına devam et", hadisin başka bir rivayetinde ise "Doğruya ulaştın, bu sebeple yapmakta olduklarına devam et" diyerek onu doğrulamıştır.50 Saffâr, bu rivayetin kendi tanımını desteklediğini düşünmektedir. Delil olarak kullanılan bu hadiste söylenenlerin gerçeğe uygun olması, hak olarak nitelenmektedir.51 Dolayısıyla ona göre delile dayalı olarak bilinen hususlar haktır. İslâm dini hak olduğuna göre dini bilgilerin de delile dayalı olarak bilinmesi gerekir. Saffâr, kelâm tanımında yer verdiği "yakine ulaştıran delil ile hakkı bilmek" ifadesini, "Hakkı hak olarak tanıtsın ve bâtılı iptal etsin, varsın mücrimler istemesin" (el-Enfâl 8/8) âyetiyle temellendirir. Ona göre âyette geçen "iḥḳāḳu'l-ḥaḳ" tabiriyle hakkın açık delillerle hak olduğunun gösterilmesi, "ibṭâlü'l-bâṭıl" ile de bâtılın açık delillerle hatalı olduğunun 49 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 33. 50 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 34. Hadisin rivayetleri için bk. Ebû Hanîfe, el-Fıḳhü'l-ebsaṭ, 52; Beyâzîzâde, el-Uṣûlü'l-münîfe, 93-94; Heysemî, Mecmaʿu'z-zevâʾid, 1: 220-221. 51 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 34. 466 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. ortaya konulması kastedilir. Bu kavramları, hakkın ve bâtılın açık delillerle belirlenmesi şeklinde anlamlandırması, bahsi geçen âyetin tarihi arka planıyla uyumludur. Bilindiği gibi âyetin tarihi bağlamını oluşturan Bedir Savaşı açık bir delil olmuş ve bu savaşla, hak ve bâtılın hangi tarafta olduğu görülmüştür. Saffâr, bu âyeti delil göstererek kelâmı, "kesin deliller ile hakkı bilmek" şeklinde tarif eder ve hakkın kanıta dayanılarak bilinmesi gerektiğini vurgular. Kelâm ilmini tanımlarken bilme eyleminin kesin delillere dayandırılmasını şart koşması önemlidir. Çünkü ona göre bir şeyi delili ile bilmeyen kişi, yanlış sonuçlara ulaşabilir. Doğru yoldan uzaklaşan ve hataya düşenler, kesin delillere dayanmadıkları için böyle bir sonuçla yüz yüze gelmektedirler.52 Dönemin saygın âlimlerinden Abdülkerîm el-Kuşeyrî (ö. 465/1072) er-Risâletü'l-Ḳuşeyriyye'de "Bir kimse tevhid ilmine şâhitlerden bir şâhit, delillerden bir delil ile vâkıf olmazsa, aldanmak ve şaşırmak suretiyle ayağı ölüm uçurumuna kayar"53 diyerek benzer bir görüşü dile getirir. Saffâr, "hak" kavramını tahsis ederek kelâm tanımını eserinin bir yerinde "kelâm, kesin delillerle Allah'ı bilmekten (marifetullâh) ibarettir", başka bir yerinde ise "kelâm, kesin delillerle dinin temel ilkelerini (uṣûlü'd-dîn) bilmektir" şeklinde tekrarlar.54 O, kelâmı, "hakkı/Allah'ı/dinin temel ilkelerini delile dayanarak bilmek" şeklinde tanımlayarak, belirtilen görevi ifa eden bir ilmin haram veya mekruh görülmesinin ve bu ilimden yüz çevrilmesinin doğru olmadığını ispatlamaya gayret eder. Belirtmek gerekir ki, Eş'arî kelâmcısı Teftâzânî'nin (ö. 792/1390) 784/1383'te Semerkant'ta tamamlandığı Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd adlı eserinde yer alan "kelâm, dinî akîdeleri yakinî delillerle bilmektir"55 şeklindeki tarif, Saffâr'ın kelâm tanımını akla getirmektedir. Telḫîṣü'l-edille'nin ikinci faslı, kelâm ilminin adlandırılmasına ilişkin açıklamalara ayrılmıştır. Burada konuya bir tespit ile giriş yapılır: Tarihsel süreçte önceki âlimlerinin çoğunluğu tarafından bu ilme "kelâm", bu ilimde uzmanlaşanlara da "mütekellim" veya "Ehl-i kelâm" adı verildi. Bu 52 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 31, 35. 53 Abdülkerîm Kuşeyrî, Tasavvufa Dair Kuşeyri Risalesi (İstanbul: Dergâh Yay., 2012), 83. 54 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 29, 31. 55 Bk. Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd, nşr. A. Umeyre (Beyrut: Âlemü'l-kütüb, 1419/1998), 1: 163. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 467 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. ilme "kelâm" denilmesinin doğru olduğunu düşünen Saffâr, bunu izah etmeye gayret eder. Bu kapsamda ilk olarak, "kelâm" sözcüğünün etimolojik tahlilini yapar: Kelâm" kelimesi sözlükte kesmek ve yaralamak (c-r-ḥ) anlamına gelen "kelm" (k-l-m) kökünden türemiştir. Cildin kesilmesi ve ikiye ayrılması sonucunda, normalde görünmeyen kan, et ve kemik gibi unsurlar açığa çıkar. Kelâm ilmi de gizli olanı, hak ile bâtılı, iyi ile kötüyü ortaya çıkarmakta benzer bir etkiye sahiptir. Dolayısıyla kelâm isimlendirmesi bu ilmin işlevine mutabıktır.56 Saffâr, kelâm sözcüğünün Arap dilinde nasıl kullanıldığını da tespit etmeye çalışır. Bu amaçla ilgili âyetlere müracaat eder ve Arapça şiirlerden örnekler aktarır. Ona göre "Keskin dilleriyle sizi yaralarlar" (el-Ahzâb 33/19) âyeti, dilin kılıç gibi keskin olduğunu ima etmesi sebebiyle kelâmın (sözün) etkili kullanılabileceği konusunda önemli bir delildir. Buradaki tek fark, sözün etkisi kılıç gibi maddî değil, manevîdir. Söz yerinde ve etkili kullanıldığında, kılıcın keserek etki etmesi gibi zihinlere ve gönüllere tesir eder. Nitekim "Ok yarasının tedavi imkânı olsa da dil yarası tedavi edilemez" mısralarında bu husus dile getirilir. Ona göre bu örnek, kelâmın manevî anlamda yaralama anlamını içerdiğini teyit etmektedir. Saffâr'ın konuya yaklaşımı kabul görmüş ve Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı Hüsâmeddin esSiğnâkî (ö. 714/1314) kelâm adlandırması konusunda onun izahlarını, etTesdîd fî şerḥi't-Temhîd adlı eserinde aynen aktarmıştır.57 Saffâr, Arap dili konusunda otorite kabul edilen Halîl b. Ahmed (ö. 175/791) ve Sîbeveyhi (ö. 180/796) gibi dilcilerin kelâmı, "anlamı olan söz" şeklinde tanımladıklarına ve bu nedenle de dilde kullanımı olmayan kalıplara kelâm adını vermediklerine dikkat çeker. Nitekim harflerin bir araya gelmesiyle oluşan, görünüşte isim veya fiili andıran fakat anlam içermeyen ifadeler (mühmel), kelâm olarak kabul edilmemektedir. Bu tespitiyle o, kelâm ilmi ile üretilen bilginin "anlamlı" olduğunu ve bir değer taşıdığını vurgular. İzahlarıyla sadece mâna içeren sözlerin "kelâm" olarak anıldığını vurgulayan Saffâr, sözün etkisinin, açıklığı ve anlaşılırlığı ölçüsünde artacağını da belirtir. Ona göre kelâm ilminin konusunu oluşturan Allah'ın birliğini anlatan deliller, çok açıktır ve sağlamdır. Dolayısıyla tevhid delillerini konu edinen bu ilim, kelâm ismiyle anılabilir. 56 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 61-70. 57 Hüsâmeddîn es-Siğnâkî, et-Tesdîd şerḥu't-Temhîd liḳāvâʿidi't-tevḥîd, Süleymaniye Ktp., Esad Efendi, 3893, vr. 7b-8a. 468 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Bu görüşünü, Allah'ın varlığını ortaya koyan delillerin Hz. İbrâhim'i yakin seviyesine ulaştırdığını anlatan Kur'an kıssasıyla destekler. "Yakinen bilenlerden olması için İbrâhim'e göklerin ve yerin hükümranlığını şöylece gösteriyorduk" (el-En'âm 6/75) âyetinde, Hz. İbrâhim'in Allah'ın gösterdiği deliller sayesinde yakine ulaşarak mûkin olduğundan bahsedilir. Saffâr'a göre yakin, "ilim sıfatında mübalağayı, yani delile dayanarak hiç şüphe duymadan kesin olarak bilmeyi" ifade eder.58 Mûkin ise ilim sıfatı sayesinde gözüyle görür gibi bilgi sahibi olan kişi için kullanılır. Bu görüşünü, kelimenin etimolojik tahliline ve dildeki kullanımına dayandırır. "Yaḳine", "teyeḳḳane" ve "isteyḳane" filleri Arap dilinde, "bir yerde yerleşip sabit olma" gerçekleştiği zaman kullanılır. Örneğin bu fiil, "yaḳine'l-mâü fi'l-ḥavż" cümlesinde, suyun havuzda birikmesini ve durgunlaşmasını ifade eder. Aynen bunun gibi ilim de yakine ulaştıran delil sayesinde kalpte yerleşirse işte o zaman bilgi, göz ile görülerek elde edilmiş gibi olur.59 Şu halde Saffâr'ın tanımının İmam Mâtürîdî'nin yakin tanımı ile aynı olduğu görülmektedir. Zira Mâtürîdî, En'âm sûresinin 75. âyetinin tefsirinde yakini, "bir şeyi delil ile düşünerek çıkarım yaparak bilmek" şeklinde tarif etmektedir.60 Dolayısyla Saffâr, bu ilmin, kullandığı yakine ulaştıran kesin deliller itibariyle "kelâm" ismiyle anılmasının yerinde ve doğru olduğunu düşünmektedir. Bu görüş, daha sonra başka kelâmcılar tarafından da savunulmuştur. Örneğin Teftâzânî'ye göre kelâmda kullanılan delillerin kuvveti sayesinde sanki "Söz budur, diğer bilinenler değil" denilmiş olur. Dolayısıyla kelâmın, kesin delillere dayanan bu ilme isim olarak verilmesi yerindedir.61 Kelâm ilminin bu adı almasıyla ilgili ileri sürülen diğer ihtimallere ise Saffâr, hiç değinmez. Bu tavrı ile kelâm adlandırmasının isabetli olduğu konusundaki kararlılığını gösterir. Kelâm adlandırmasının doğru ve yerinde olduğunu düşünen Saffâr, kelâm yerine başka isimlerin kullanılmasına ise karşı çıkmaz. Bu kapsamda kelâm ilminin "el-Fıkhü'l-ekber", "Usûlü'd-dîn", "İlmü't- 58 Ebû Hanîfe, el-ʿÂlim, 20. 59 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 62-63, 143. 60 Ebû Mansûr el-Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlâtü'l-Ḳurʾân, nşr. Ahmet Vanlıoğlu v.dğr. (İstanbul: Mizan Yay., 2005-2010), 5: 109. Ebû Hanîfe ise yakini, "bir şeyi kesin olarak şek ve şüphe etmeden bilmek" şeklinde tanımlar. Bk. Ebû Hanîfe, el-ʿÂlim, 120. 61 Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd, 1: 164-165. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 469 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. tevhid" ve "Usûlü't-tevhid" gibi isimlerle anılabileceğini belirtir.62 Dolayısıyla adlandırma konusunda belli bir isimde ısrarcı olmak yerine, isteyenin dilediği ismi kullanmasını doğru bulur. Onun için önemli olan bu ilmin fonksiyonudur. Bu fonksiyon da din alanındaki bilginin "yakinî" bir karakter arz edecek şekilde sağlam temeller üzerine bina edilmesini sağlamaktır. Saffâr, bu ilmin "Usûlü'd-dîn" olarak adlandırılmasını ise "asıl" kelimesinin etimojik tahlili ile Kur'an'da ve Arapça deyimlerdeki kullanımına dayandırır. Asıl (aṣl, çoğulu uṣûl) bir şeye ulaştıran kök ve temel anlamına gelir. "Güzel bir söz, kökü sabit, dalları gökte olan güzel bir ağaç gibidir" (İbrâhim 14/24) âyetinde bu sözcük, kök anlamındadır. Çünkü ağacın kökleri sayesinde önce dallar sonra da meyveler varlık kazanır. Bu kelimeler benzer anlamda eleştiri amacıyla da "Onların aslı ve faslı yoktur" şeklinde kullanılır. Bu ifadede asıl ile soy ve nesep kastedilir. Asıldan çıkan, kaynaklanan anlamına gelen fer' (çoğulu fürû') ise âyette ağacın dalları anlamına gelir. Dalların ve meyvenin oluşumu köklere bağlı olması sebebiyle asıl ve fer' arasındaki bağlılık dikkate değerdir. Aslın ne olduğunu bu şekilde açıklayan Saffâr, dinin temeli olan Allah'a inanmayı konu edinen ilmin Usûlü'd-dîn adını almasını semantik açıdan doğru bulur. Ona göre usûlü'd-dîn, mârifetullahı tahkik üzere bilmeyi sağlayan bir ilimdir. İman esaslarının dışında kalan hususlar, dinin temel esaslarına nisbetle ikinci derecede yer alır.63 Ancak bu ayırım fer'in önemsiz olduğunu değil, amelin kabulü için imanın şart olduğunu ifade eder. Saffâr, Ebû Mutî' el-Belhî (ö. 199/814) rivayetine dayanarak Ebû Hanîfe'nin bu ilme el-Fıkhü'l-ekber adını verdiğini de aktarır ve kelâm ilmi yerine bu isimlendirmenin de kullanılabileceğini belirtir. Bu adlandırmayı, kullandığı semantik metoda bağlı kalarak "fıkıh" kelimesinin etimolojik tahlili ile kelimenin geçtiği bir hadis ve Arap dilindeki kullanımına dayandırır. Buna göre fıkıh fiili, 4. bâbda (feḳihe-yefḳahu) kullanıldığında anlamak, kavramak (fehm), 5. bâbda (feḳuhe-yefḳuhu) kullanıldığında ise fakih, yani kıvrak zekâlı olmak (feṭın) anlamına gelir. "Arabın fakihi" tamlamasında ise kıvrak zekâlı (feṭın) anlamında kullanılır. Ebû Yûsuf ise "Fıkıh, kıvrak zekâlılıktır; ezberlemek değildir" sözüyle bu anlama dikkat 62 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 28, 33, 52-53. 63 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 65-66. 470 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. çekmiştir. "Allah, benim sözümü işitip aynen duyduğu gibi aktaranın yüzünü ak eylesin. Fıkıh yüklenen nice kimseler vardır ki, fakih değildir. Nice fıkıh taşıyıcıları, fıkhı kendilerinden daha fakih olana ulaştırırlar"64 hadisinde de fıkhın anlayış kabiliyeti anlamında kullanıldığı görülür. Dolayısıyla ona göre fıkıh, birinin açıklaması olmaksızın mânayı delil ile anlamaktır. Bu şekildeki bilgi, delillerden hüküm çıkartma gayreti sonucunda elde edilir. Bu izahın ardından Saffâr fıkha, lafzın arka planına nüfuz ederek içerdiği mânayı öğrenme anlamını vermekte ve kelâm ilmi için fıkıh adlandırmasının kullanılabileceğini ispatlamaya çalışmaktadır.65 Bu amaçla o, fıkhın kapsamlı olduğunu düşünen İmam Muhammed'in görüşünü delil olarak aktarır. Hişâm b. Abdullah er-Râzî'nin (ö. 221/836) en-Nevâdir adlı kitabında hocası Muhammed eş-Şeybânî'den (ö. 189/805) aktardığına göre fıkıh dört kısımdır: a) Kur'an'da olanlar ve Kur'an'dakilere benzeyenler. b) Sünnet'te açıklananlar ve bunlara benzeyenler. c) Rasûlullah'ın sahâbesinin ittifak ve ihtilaf ettikleri. d) Müslümanların güzel gördükleri ve ona benzeyenler". Saffâr, Şeybânî'nin "Kur'an'da olanlar" ifadesi ile itikādî konular dâhil Kur'an'da olan tüm konuları fıkhın kapsamında gördüğüne dikkat çeker. Çünkü Kur'an'da helal ve haramla ilgili âyetler yer aldığı gibi tevhid delilleri ile inkârcıların iddialarını çürüten âyetler de bulunur. Dolayısıyla kelâm için fıkıh ismi de kullanılabilir. Ayrıca, ona göre Şeybânî "Kur'an'da olanlara benzeyenler" sözüyle de nazar ve istidlâl ilmini kastetmektedir. Zira Kur'an'da ayrıntılı açıklamaların yer aldığı âyetler bulunduğu gibi şüpheleri çürütücü delillerin özlerini içeren âyetler de vardır. Onun anlayışına göre bu âyetlerde asılları bulunan deliller, nazar ve istidlâl ilmi sayesinde açıklanır ve kullanılır.66 Saffâr, Ebû Hanîfe'nin "Fıkıh, kişinin leh ve aleyhine olanları bilmesidir" şeklindeki meşhur tanımını da aktarır. Tanımda yer alan "maʿri- 64 İbn Mâce, Mukaddime, 18; Ebû Dâvud, "İlim", 10; Tirmizî, "İlim", 7. 65 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 65-68. Aktarılan hadis için bk. Ebû Dâvûd, "İlim", 10; Tirmizî, "İlim", 67; İbn Mâce, "Mukaddime", 18. 66 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 68-69. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 471 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. fetü'n-nefs" (kişinin bilmesi) ifadesi ile tevhid ilminin kastedildiğini düşünmektedir.67 Ebû Hanîfe'nin "Dinde fıkıh, ahkâmda fıkıhtan daha faziletlidir."68 sözünü de aktaran Saffâr'a göre "dinde fıkıh" sözünden Allah'ı tahkik üzere bilmek ve ihlâsla ona ibadet etmek anlaşılır. Çünkü "din" hesap, ceza, hüküm, taat ve ibadet gibi birçok mânaya gelecek şekilde kullanılmaktadır. Genel anlamda ise din, Allah'a kulluk edilmesini ifade etmektedir.69 Sonuç itibariyle onun bakış açısına göre bu ilme "Kelâm" adının verilmesi daha uygundur. Ayrıca isim olarak Usûlü'd-dîn, el-Fıkhü'l-ekber, İlmü't-tevhid, Usûlü't-tevhid veya başka bir ad da kullanılabilir. Onun açısından önemli olan isimlendirme değil, bu ilmin üstlendiği görevdir. Aktarılan açıklamalardan sonra Saffâr kelâm değeri konusundaki görüşlerini belirtir. Bu konuda lehte ve aleyhte birçok görüş ileri sürülmüştür. Çoğunluğunu hadisçilerin teşkil ettiği bir kısım âlimler, bazı sûfîler ile İslâm felsefecileri tarafından kelâm ilmine karşı olumsuz bir tavır takınıldı.70 Buna karşın kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesini farz-ı kifâye türünden bir yükümlülük olarak kabul edenler de bulunmaktadır.71 Saffâr, bu tartışmada kelâm ilmine değer veren ve onu savunanların tarafında yer alır. Ona göre gayret ve titizlik gösterilmesi gereken en önemli konu, Allah'ın razı olacağı hak dinin öğrenilmesidir.72 Kelâm ilmi ise delile dayalı ve tafsilî olarak bunu öğrenmeye olanak sağlar. Görüşünü, semantik tahlilini yaptığı din sözcüğünün kullanıldığı âyetlere73 dayandırır. Yaptığı açıklamalarda, Müslüman birey için en önemli ve öncelikli konunun hak din olan İslâm'ın öğrenilmesi olduğunu savunur. Burada, İslâm dini hakkında bireylerin ne ölçüde bilgi sahibi olması gerektiği sorusu akla 67 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 69-70. 68 Ebû Hanîfe, el-Fıḳhü'l-ebsaṭ, 44. Bk. Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 70. 69 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 70. 70 Kelâma karşı olumsuz tavır alanlar ve gerekçeleri hakkında bk. Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'lMaḳāṣıd, 1: 175; Hasan b. Ebî Bekir el-Makdisî, Gāyetü'l-merâm fî şerhi Bahri'l-kelâm (Kahire: el-Mektebetü'l-Ezheriyye li't-türâs, 1432/2012), 248. 71 Bk. Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd, 1, 166, 175; Seyyid Şerîf Cürcânî, Şerḥu'l-Mevâḳıf (Beyrut: Dârü'l-kütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1419/1998), 1: 31, 55-60; Beyâzîzâde, el-Uṣûlü'l-münîfe, 30-32. 72 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 25, 28. 73 Bk. "Sizin için din olarak İslâm'ı beğendim" (el-Mâide 5/3); "Allah katında din, şüphesiz İslam'dır." (Âl-i İmrân 3/85); "Kim İslam'dan başka bir dine yönelirse, onunki kabul edilmeyecektir. O ahirette de kaybedenlerdendir" (Âl-i İmrân 3/19). 472 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. gelebilir. Saffâr, İslâm dinini, icmalî ve tafsilî şekilde öğrenmenin mümkün olduğunu, ancak tafsilî olarak öğrenmenin inananların dine bağlılığını artıracağını düşünmektedir. Ayrıca o, kişinin hakkı ve onun zıddı olan bâtılı, delile dayanması durumunda kavrayabileceğine dikkat çeker. Zira kanıta dayalı olarak bilmek ve inanmak kişiyi dünya ve âhiret mutluluğuna ulaştıracaktır.74 Dolayısıyla ona göre İslâm'ı tafsili olarak öğrenme imkânı sağlayan kelâm ilmi değerlidir ve gereklidir. İlmin övgü, cahilliğin ise yergi niteliği olduğunu hatırlatan Saffâr, akıllı kişilerin öğrenmeye ilgi duyarak cahillikten kurtulmaya çalışacaklarını da belirtir. Bu gayret içinde olan bir kişinin önünde ise öğrenilmesi mümkün birçok ilim seçenekleri yer alacaktır ve tercihte bulunması gerekecektir. Saffar'a göre ilimlerin en üstünü, Hz. İbrâhim'e öğretildiği şekliyle yakine ulaştıran delillere dayanarak Allah'ı bilmektir. Çünkü bu şekilde Allah'ı bilmenin bir üstünlüğü olmasaydı, "Yakinen bilen(mûḳın)lerden olması için İbrâhim'e göklerin ve yerin hükümranlığını gösteriyorduk" (el-En'âm 6/75) buyrulmazdı. Daha önce de belirtildiği gibi ona göre mûkin, bir şeyi delil getirmek suretiyle müşahede etmişcesine kesin olarak bilen kişidir. Bu görüşü ile o, sağlıklı bir gözün görmesi sonucunda kişide oluşan algının şüpheden uzak olması gibi kesin bilgiye de delil sayesinde ulaşılacağını savunur. Bu bu niteliğe erişmek, âyette "mûkin olmak" şeklinde ifade edilmektedir. Zira ona göre Hz. İbrâhim, hiçbir zaman Allah'ın dini konusunda şüphe içinde olmadı. Daha anne karnında iken Allah tarafından ilham yolu ile tevhid bilgisi ona ulaştırıldı. Fakat Allah, ilhamen verdiği bilgiye ek olarak delil ile de varlığını ona göstererek bu iki fazileti onda birleştirdi. Çünkü hak konusunda bilgisi artan kişinin, bilgiye dayalı yakini de artar. "Ne zaman bir sûre indirilse, içlerinden 'Bu hanginizin imanını artırdır ki?' diye soranlar çıkar. Ama bu, iman etmiş olanların imanını artırır ..." (et-Tevbe 10/ 124) âyetine de dikkat çeken Saffâr, delile dayalı bilginin yakine ulaştıracağını ifade eder. Zira indirilen her yeni sûre, inananlar için kesin bilgi içermesi nedeniyle onların yakinlerini artırmıştır. Dolayısıyla delile dayalı olarak kesin bilgiye ulaştıran bu ilim, dinî ilimlerin temeli, aslı ve 74 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 25-27, 34. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 473 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. dayanağıdır. Ona göre bu ilmin üstünlüğünü anlayabilmek için âyette vurgulanan yakin kelimesinin anlamını bilmek bile yeterlidir.75 Saffâr, kelâm ilminin gerekli ve önemli olduğu konusundaki görüşünü, Abdullah b. Ömer'e (ö. 73/693) atfettiği "Biz, Kur'an-ı Kerîm'i öğrenmeden önce tevhidi öğreniyorduk. Oysa sizler önce Kur'an'ı sonra tevhidi öğreniyorsunuz" sözüyle de destekler. Ona göre İbn Ömer "biz" diyerek kendisi ile birlikte diğer sahâbîleri, "tevhid" ile de kesin delillere dayanarak tevhidin esaslarını öğrenmeyi kastetmiştir. Çünkü sahâbîler, Allah'ın bir olduğunu biliyorlardı ve tevhidin ne olduğunu öğrenmeye ihtiyaçları yoktu. Saffâr, İbn Ömer'in bu sözüne dayanarak sahâbîlerin bu konudaki uygulamalarının doğru olduğuna dikkat çekmekte ve deliliyle tevhid esaslarını öğrenmenin onların örnekliğine dayandığını ima etmektedir.76 Saffâr, kelâm ilminin önemi konusundaki görüşlerini âyetlerin konu dağılımına dayanarak da temellendirir. Onun anlatımıyla, Kur'an-ı Kerîm'de 6236 âyet bulunur. Yaklaşık olarak 500 âyette amelî hükümler konu edilir. Geriye kalan çoğunluğu oluşturan âyetlerde ise tevhid inancının delilleri, düşündürücü ve ikna edici örnekler, ibret alınması ve düşünülmesi gereken nesne ve olgular, tarihî olaylara dayalı kıssalar, ahlâkî öğütler, peygamberin kâfirlerle münâzaraları ve onları nasıl ilzam ettikleri anlatılır. Âyetlerin amelî hükümler konusunda değil de belirtilen konularda yoğunlaşması, dinin temel ilkelerinin öğrenilmesi ve öğretilmesinin daha önemli ve üstün olduğuna delildir.77 Dönemin bir diğer Hanefî-Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı Alâeddin el-Üsmendî (ö. 552/1157) benzer şekilde konusu Allah'ın zâtı ve sıfatları olan kelâm ilminden daha üstün bir ilim olamayacağı kanaatindedir.78 Saffâr'ın Kur'an'ın konu dağılımına dair tespiti önemli bir noktaya işaret etmektedir. Kur'an'da fıkhî hükümler çoğunluğu oluşturmadığı halde zamanla İslâm toplumunun fıkıh temelli bir topluma dönüşmesi ve toplumsal hayat üzerinde fakihlerin diğer ilimlerin gelişimini engelleyecek kadar etkin olması kanaatimizce çok sağlıklı olmamıştır. Zira 75 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 31. 76 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 28-31. 77 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 30. 78 Alâeddin el-Üsmendî, Lübâbü'l-kelâm, nşr. M. Sait Özervarlı (İstanbul, 2005), 37-38. 474 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. fıkhın ibadetler bölümü, Müslüman bireylere belli vakitlerde farzdır; fıkhın hukuk ve muamelâta dair hükümleri ise ihtiyaç durumunda müracaat edilmesi gerekli normlardır. Oysa iman, ahlâk ve Cibrîl hadisinde belirtilen ihsân nitelikleri, belli vakitlerde veya ihtiyaç anında değil, Müslüman bireyin sürekli sahip olması gerekli vasıflarıdır. Dolayısıyla Kur'an âyetlerinin konu dağılımına uygun şekilde iman, ahlâk ve ihsan niteliklerini ön planda tutan bir Müslüman kimliği teşvik edilmelidir. Toplumsal hayat üzerinde etkin olan fıkıhçıların, bireysel olması gerekli ferdî fetvâları gündeme getirdikleri veya gündemde tuttukları sürece iman ve ahlâk ağırlıklı bir dindâr kimliğinin inşâ edilmesi mümkün gözükmemektedir. Bu noktada kelâmcıların da iman ve ahlâk temelli bir söylem geliştirmeleri zarureti görülmektedir. Saffâr'ın kelâm ilmini hakkın ispatını sağlayan bir ilim olarak tarif etmesi ve kelâmı hakikatin ilmi olarak tasavvur etmesi, bu ilmi Kur'an'ın kapsayıcılığını dikkate alarak tanımladığını göstermektedir. Dolayısıyla Allah'a imanın ve ona şükretmenin (ibadet-ahlâk) gerekliliği aklî ve naklî delillerle kelâm ilmi marifetiyle temellendirilmelidir. Saffâr'a göre dinî ilimlerin temeli, aslı ve dayanağı Usûlü'd-dîn'dir. Fürû, başkasına dayanarak var olan; asıl ise kendisine dayanılan temeldir. Dinin temel ilkeleri ispat edilmeden diğer dinî konular, izah edilemez. Bu açıdan iman konuları, dinî ilimlerin ve dinî hükümlerin dayanak noktasıdır. İtikādî esasları konu edinen kelâm ilminden yoksun olan kişi, fürû alanıyla ilgilenen diğer İslâmî ilimleri de tam olarak kavrayamaz.79 Onun konudaki görüşleri, çağdaşı Gazzâlî'nin düşüncesiyle uyumludur. Gazzâli'ye göre kelâm ilmi dinî ilimlerin ilkelerini ispat görevini yüklenmiştir. Diğer dinî ilimler kelâm ilmine nisbetle cüz'îdir. Kelâm ilmi ise rütbece en yüksek ilimdir. Dinî ilimlerle donanmış "mutlak bir âlim" olabilmek için kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesini zorunludur.80 Benzer anlayışta olan Cürcânî ise kelâm öğrenmeden diğer dinî ilimlere başlayan kişiyi, temelsiz bina yapan işçiye benzetir.81 79 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 29, 65-66. 80 Gazzâlî, el-Mustasfa: İslâm Hukukunda Deliller ve Yorum Metodolojisi, trc. Yunus Apaydın (Kayseri: Rey Yay., 1994), 1: 5. 81 Cürcânî, Şerḥu'l-Mevâḳıf, 1: 31, 55-60. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 475 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Saffâr'a göre gerçeği delil ile açıklayabilecek ilmî yeterliliğe sahip olabilmek, din konusunda yanıltan şüphelerden korunabilmek ve ileri sürülen itirazlara karşı cevap verebilmek için kelâm ilmi öğrenilmelidir. Ayrıca marifetullâh konusunda araştırma yaparken, tartışırken veya konuyu ifade ederken hataya düşmekten sakınabilmek ve özellikle delile dayanmayan sözleri bilgi olarak kabul etmeyen saldırgan kişilerin itirazları karşısında din ve inancı savunulabilmek adına bu ilim gereklidir.82 Saffâr'ın çağdaşı ve Mâverâünnehir'den hemşehrisi Alâeddin el-Üsmendî de Allah'ın varlığı ve sıfatları hakkında bilgi sahibi olunabilmesi ve ebedî saadete ulaştıran doğru itikādın öğrenilebilmesi için kelâm ilmine ihtiyaç olduğunu düşünür.83 Oysa dönemin bir diğer âlimi Gazzâlî ise kelâmı, "Ehl-i sünnet inancını savunma" görevi ile sınırlayarak Saffâr'a nisbetle bu ilmin kapsamını daraltmış görünmektedir.84 Buna karşın halkın itikādının korunabilmesinin bu ilmin öğrenilmesine bağlı olduğunu düşün her iki âlim, belirli bir kesim için kelâm öğrenimini gerekli görmektedir.85 4. KELÂM MÜDÂFAASI: İSPAT DELİLLERİ Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille'nin girişinde ve ilk iki faslında86 kelâm ilmininin gerekliliğini "Kitap", "Sünnet" ve "Selef-i sâlihînden Birçok Kişinin İttifakı" başlıkları altında delillendirir. Kelâm ilminin dinen yasak ve sakıncalı olmadığını İmam Mâtürîdî Teʾvîlâtü'lḲurʾân'da, Ebü'l-Yüsr elPezdevî Uṣûlü'd-dîn'de ve Ebü'l-Muîn en-Nesefî ise Baḥrü'l-kelâm'da savunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte kelâm müdâfaası, Hanefî-Mâtürîdî müelliflerce telif edilen eserlerin hiçbirinde müstakil bir başlık altında ve bu kadar ayrıntılı şekilde yer almaz.87 Telḫîṣü'l-edille, kelâm müdâfaasını ayrıntılı şekilde içermesi ve Mâtürîdîler'in konuya bakışını yansıtması açısından önemli bir kaynaktır. 82 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 32-33. 83 Üsmendî, Lübâbü'l-kelâm, 33. 84 Gazzâlî, el-Münḳıẕ mine'ḍ-ḍalâl, 71. 85 Gazzâlî, İḥyâ, 1: 375-379; el-İḳtiṣâd fi'l-iʿtiḳād, nşr. İ.Agâh Çubukçu-Hüseyin Atay (Ankara: A.Ü. İlahiyat Fakültesi Yay., 1962), 14; a.mlf., el-Münḳıẕ mine'ḍ-ḍalâl, 71. 86 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 28-58. 87 Mâtürîdîler'in kelâm savunuları için bk. Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlât, 2: 165; Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 45; Nesefî, Baḥrü'l-kelâm, 61. 476 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Saffâr, "Kur'an'dan Deliller" başlığı altında ilk olarak şu âyetleri delil olarak sunar: "Göklerin ve yerin hükümranlığını, Allah'ın yarattığı her şeyi ve ecellerinin yaklaşmış olması ihtimalini düşünmüyorlar mı?" (el-A'râf 7/185). "Üstlerindeki göğe bakmazlar mı onu nasıl bina etmiş ve nasıl donatmışız! Onda hiçbir çatlak da yok" (el-Kâf 50/6). "Devenin nasıl yaratıldığına, göğün nasıl yükseltildiğine, dağların nasıl dikildiğine, yerin nasıl yayıldığına bir bakmazlar mı?" (el-Gâşiye 88/17-20). Bu âyetlerde, yer yüzündeki ve gökteki düzenli işleyiş ile Allah'ın yarattığı her şeye, özelde devenin nasıl yaratıldığına, göğün nasıl yükseltildiğine, dağların nasıl dikildiğine ve yerin nasıl yayıldığına bakılması ( ىلَ إِ اَلْم یَْنُظُروَأفَ ) ve düşünülmesi ( يفِ اَوَلْم یَْنُظُروأَ ) istenir. Saffâr, bu âyetleri özellikle seçmiştir. Çünkü bu âyetlerde "naẓara" fiili, "ilâ" edatıyla bakmak ve "fî" edatıyla düşünmek anlamlarında kullanılır. Ona göre nazar, "âyetlerde dikkat çekilen kâinattaki düzen ve intizama göz ile bakarak (gözlemleyerek) ya da âlemin yaratıcısının idaresi konusunda fikir yürüterek (bi'l-fikr) delillere yönelmek ve incelemektir". O, biri gözle görüp ibret almaya diğeri de düşünmeye vurgu yapan iki âyeti daha aktarır: "Yeryüzünde gezip dolaşmadılar mı ki, düşünecek kalpleri, işitecek kulakları olsun? (Dolaştılar, ama ibret almadılar). Çünkü gerçekte gözler değil, göğüslerdeki kalpler (kalp gözleri) kör olur." (el-Hac 22/46). "Varlığımızın delillerini, (kainattaki uçsuz bucaksız) ufuklarda ve kendi nefislerinde onlara göstereceğiz ki, o Kur'an'ın gerçek olduğu onlara iyice belli olsun. Rabbinin, her şeye şâhit olması yetmez mi?" (Fussilet 41/53). Bu âyetlerde hem gözle görüp ibret almaya, hem de gözün gördükleri üzerinde düşünmeye ve fikir yürütmeye teşvik edildiğini belirten Saffâr, Allah'ın varlığını ve evrendeki idaresini gösteren deliller üzerinde düşünmenin istenilen bir fiil olduğunu belirtir. Dolayısıyla ona göre bu görevi yerine getiren kelâm ilmi gerekli ve dinen meşrûdur. 88 Ayrıca görüşünü desteklemek için "(Resûlüm!) Sen, Rabbinin yoluna hikmet ve güzel öğütle da'vet et; onlarla en güzel şekilde tartış" (en-Nahl 16/125) âyetini de delil olarak zikreder. Bu âyette; "hikmet", "mev'iza-i hasene" ve "en güzel şekilde mücadele" yöntemleri 88 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 38. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 477 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. kullanılarak doğru yola davet emredilir. Saffâr, "Ona hikmet ve merâmını güzelce ifade etme kabiliyeti verdik" (Sâd 38/2) âyetine atıf yaparak hikmeti, tartışmayı adaletle sonuçlandırmak, mev'iza-i haseneyi teşvik ve uyarı metodu ile kötülüklerden uzaklaştırmak ve alçak gönüllü davranarak kalpleri yumuşatmak olarak yorumlar. En güzel mücadele ise tartışmada karşı tarafa kendi görüşünü kabul ettirmeye çalışırken övgüyü hak edecek derecede nazik davranmaktır. Bu görüşünü, kelimelerin etimolojik ve semantik tahlilleri ile de destekler. Âyette emredilen en güzel tartışma yönteminin kullanılabilmesi ve bu yöntemi kullanma kabiliyetinin yerleşebilmesi ona göre kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesine bağlıdır. Dolayısıyla bu âyet, ona göre dinî konularda tartışma yapılmasının yasak olmadığını ve kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesinin gerekliliğini ispatlamaktadır.89 Saffâr, İslâm inançlarına aykırı görüşlerin reddedilmesine dair Kur'an'dan örnekler de aktarır. Ona göre Mecûsîler, Senevîler, yıldızlara değer atfedenler, yeniden dirilişi inkâr edenler, tabiatçılar, yaratma gücünü kendilerinde görenler, Allah'ı yok sayarcasına her şeye hâkim olduklarını iddia edenler, gizli bilgileri elde ettiklerini öne sürenler ile meleklerin dişi ve Allah'ın kızları olduğunu iddia edenlerin görüşlerinin reddedilmesine dair âyetler, bâtıl inançların nasıl çürütüleceğini öğretmektedir. Dolayısıyla bâtıl görüşlerin Kur'an'da öğretildiği şekliyle çürütülebilmesi ve İslâm inançlarının savunulabilmesi için kelâm ilmi gereklidir.90 Onun bu konudaki görüşünün, İmam Mâtürîdî'nin konuya yaklaşımı ile aynı olduğu tespit edilmektedir. Mâtürîdî de peygamberlerin inkârcılarla inanç konularında tartıştığını belirterek dinî konularda tartışmanın ve kelâmın yasaklanamayacağını savur.91 Mâtürîdî, Hz. İbrâhim ile Nemrûd arasında yaşanan uzun tartışmayı hatırlatan âyetin92 89 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 39-40. 90 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 40-44. 91 Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlât, 8: 218-219. 92 "Allah kendisine hükümdarlık ve zenginlik verdiği için şımararak Rabbinin dini hakkında İbrâhim ile tartışmaya gireni (Nemrûd'u) görmedin mi! İşte o zaman İbrâhim: 'Rabbim hayat veren ve öldürendir' demişti. O da: 'Hayat veren ve öldüren benim' demişti. İbrâhim: 'Allah güneşi doğudan getirmektedir; haydi sen de onu batıdan getir' dedi. Bunun üzerine kâfir apışıp kaldı. Allah zalim kimseleri hidayete erdirmez" (el-Bakara 2/258). 478 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. "Dini hakkında İbrâhim ile tartışmaya gireni (Nemrut'u) görmedin mi!" ifadesine dayanarak, tartışmayı bir yöntem olarak kullanan kelâm ilmini dinen meşrû görmeyenleri reddetmektedir.93 Saffâr, bu ve benzeri âyetlere istinaden kelâmî konularda tekellüm etmenin ve tartışmanın (münâẓaraḥicâc) peygamberler tarafından yapıldığını ve mübah olduğunu düşünmektedir. Saffâr, Hz. Peygamber'e müşrikler tarafından yöneltilen soruların vahyedilen âyetler ile cevaplandırıldığına dair örnekler de aktarır. "Onlar (müşrikler), ne zaman karşına saçma bir itirazla çıkarlarsa biz sana gerçeği ve en susturucu açıklamayı sunarız." (el-Furkân 25/33) âyetine de atıf yaparak Allah'ın, peygamberine ona sorulan her soruya cevap vahyedeceğini vaat ettiğine dikkat çeker. "(Ey Resulüm!) Biz, sana bu kitabı (Kur'an'ı) sırf hakkında ihtilafa düştükleri şeyi insanlara açıklaman için ve iman edecek topluma bir hidayet ve bir rahmet olsun diye indirdik." (en-Nahl 16/64) âyetine dayanarak ise Hz. Peygamber'in ihtilaflı konularda beyân görevi olduğunu vurgular. Ona göre ihtilaflı durumlarda ilzâm veya irşâd amacına uygun düşecek şekilde açıklama yapmak, delile dayanılarak yapılabilir. Susarak bu görevin yerine getirilmesi ise asla mümkün değildir. Üstelik cevap vermekten kaçınmak, insanların irşattan uzaklaşmasına kapı aralar.94 Kelâm karşıtlığı ile bilinen ve sistematik anlamda selefîliğin kurucusu olarak kabul edilen Takıyyüddin İbn Teymiyye (ö. 728/1328) bile dinî kaygı taşımayan, dinî kaynakları tanımayan ve yalnızca aklî delillere dayanarak tartışma yapanlara karşı kendi yöntemleri ve kendi dilleriyle mücadele etmenin onların karşısında susmaktan daha hayırlı olduğunu kabul etmektedir. Ona göre bu durum, tıpkı şerrinden korunabilmek için düşman ordusunun kıyafetini giymekten başka çare bulunmamasına benzer. Böyle bir durumda düşman elbisesi giyerek savaşmak, onlara benzememek düşüncesiyle oturup ülkenin işgal edilmesine razı olmaktan daha iyidir.95 93 Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlât, 2: 165. 94 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 44-45. 95 İbn Teymiyye, Derʾü teʿârużi'l-ʿaḳl ve'n-naḳl, 1: 231. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 479 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Aktardığı âyetlere dayanarak Saffâr, din ve inanç konularında, yöneltilen sorular ve itirazlar karşısında susmanın değil, cevap vermenin Kur'an'da öğretilen yöntem olduğunu belirtir. Kelâm ilminin üstlendiği görev ise peygamberlerin yerine getirdiği, Kur'an'da örnekleri aktarılan ve dinen meşrû ve yapılması istenilen, bu savunma faaliyetidir. Zira âyetlerde örnekleri aktarılan peygamberlerin kâfirlerle yaptıkları münâzaralar ve susturuncaya kadar onlarla tartışmaları, kelâmın dinen meşrûiyeti ispatlar. Mâtürîdî ise "Peygamberler ve bizler, kâfirleri İslâm'a ve tevhid inancına davet etmekle emrolunduk. Bu davet yapıldığında muhataplar delil ve açıklama isteyecekler ve tartışma kaçınılmaz olacaktır. Bu nedenle kelâmî konularda konuşma ve tartışmalar mahzurlu değildir, mübahtır" demektedir.96 Kelâmın gerekliliği ve dinî temelleri konusunda Mütekellim Hanefîler arasında görüş birliği olduğu açıktır. Mâtürîdî ve Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasında ortaya koyduğu bu düşünce tarzı, ilerleyen süreçte Sâbûnî ve Fahreddin er-Râzî (ö. 606/1210) tarafından tekrarlanmıştır. Sâbûnî'ye göre Kur'an'da inkârcılara karşı ortaya konulan deliller ve özellikle Hz. İbrâhim'in inancını savunmak amacıyla yaptığı münâzara, kelâm ilminin meşrûiyetini ve gerekliliğini gösterir.97 Benzer şekilde Râzî'ye göre de kelâmın üstlendiği görev, Kur'an'da yapılan ve peygamberlere emredilen bir faaliyetten ibarettir. Bu açıdan düşünüldüğü takdirde kelâmın öncülüğünü peygamberler yapmıştır. Böyle bir uğraşın bid'at kabul edilmesi anlamsızdır.98 Kanaatimize göre yukarıda görüşleri zikredilen kelâmcı düşünürlerin bu bağlamdaki bakış açıları isabetli görünmektedir. Zira itikādî bir konuda akla bir şüphe veya soru geldiğinde, kişi bunun cevabını öğrenmediği sürece o konu sürekli olarak aklını kurcalayacaktır. Dolayısıyla onu sorgulaması, araştırması ve doğruyu öğrenmesi gerekir. Zaten kelâm ilmi tarihsel süreçte tartışma konusu olan itikādî hususların cevabını araştırma çabası olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Ayrıca Saffâr, âyetlerin anlaşılmamak için değil, kavranmak ve düşünülmek için vahyedildiğine özellikle dikkat çeker. Mânalarının anlaşılması için âyetler üzerinde 96 Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlât, 2: 165; 8: 217-218. 97 Sâbûnî, el-Kifâye, 39-40. 98 Fahreddin er-Râzî, et-Tefsîrü'l-kebîr: Mefâtîḥu'l-ġayb (Beyrut: Dârü'l-fikr, 1401), 2: 95-99. 480 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. düşünülmesi emredilmişken, inanç konularını ele alan Usûlü'd-dîn ilminden uzak durulması doğru değildir.99 Saffâr, kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesinin gerekli olduğu konusunda Sünnet'ten de delil getirmekte,100 bu başlık altında merfû, mevkûf ve maktû olmak üzere üç rivayete yer vermektedir. İlk olarak, haber-i meşhûr olarak nitendirdiği Deccâl hakkında bilgi içeren "O, yalancıdır ve bir gözü kördür. Rabbiniz ise tek gözlü değildir" hadisini101 aktarır. Ona göre bu hadis ve benzeri rivayetler, Hz. Peygamber'in bâtıl iddiaları reddettiğini gösterir. Kelâm ilmi de aynı müdâfaa görevini yerine getirmekte ve İslâm itikādına aykırı benzer inançlara cevap üretmektedir. İkinci olarak, Hz. Ali ve İbn Mes'ûd'a atfederek "Biz âyetleri onar onar öğreniyorduk. Bu âyetlerde bahsedilenleri öğrenmeden ise diğerlerine geçmiyorduk" sözünü aktarır ve bu ifadeyle ne kastedildiğini tahlil eder. "Âyetlerde bahsedilenler" ifadesi, ona göre helal ve haramlarla birlikte tevhidin öğrenilmesini de kapsar. Bu durumda sahâbeler, belli bir zaman ayırarak itikādla ilgili âyetleri de öğrenmekteydiler. Saffâr son olarak, Hasan-ı Basrî'den âyetler üzerinde düşünmenin gerekli olduğuna dair "Allah, indirdiği âyetlerde ne kastettiğini kullarının bilmesini sever" sözüne yer verir. Ardından daha önce aktardığı âyetler ile Hz. Peygamber'in ve sahâbî uygulamalarının, bir hususu ispatladığını düşünmektedir. O da Allah'ın Kur'an'ı âtıl kalması için değil, tam olarak anlaşılması ve âyetler üzerinde tefekkür edilmesi amacıyla gönderdiği gerçeğidir. Dolayısıyla, özellikle itikādî konularla ilgili âyetleri tüm yönleriyle anlamayı konu edinen kelâm ilminden din adına yüz çevrilmesi doğru ve câiz değildir.102 Saffâr, "Selef-i sâlihînden Birçok Kişinin İttifakı" başlığı103 altında ise öncelikle düşünmeyi ve aklı kullanmayı terk etmenin yanlış inançlara kapılmaya yol açtığını gösteren yaşanmış olaylara dikkat çeker. Bu kapsamda sunduğu ilk örnekte yalancı peygamber Müseylimetü'lKezzâb'ın (ö. 12/633) kabilesi Benî Hanîfe'nin durumu anlatılır. 99 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 30, 45-46. 100 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 38. 101 Bk. Buhârî, "Fiten", 26; Müslim, "Fiten", 101; Tirmizî, "Fiten", 56. 102 Bk. Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 45-46. 103 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 52-58. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 481 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Müseylime'nin öldürülmesinden sonra Hz. Ebû Bekir (ö. 13/634) kabilenin temsilcilerine, "Sizi ona inanmaya yönelten neydi?" diye sorduğunda, "Müseylime'ye vahiy geldiğine inandıkları" yanıtını almıştır. Hz. Ebû Bekir, Müseylime'nin vahiy diye yaydığı sözleri dinledikten sonra "Bunlar Allah'tan değildir" diyerek karşı çıkar. Saffâr, Müseylime'ye inananların onun söyledikleri üzerinde biraz düşünmüş olmaları durumunda, dinlediklerinin Allah'ın vahyi olamayacağını anlayabileceklerini düşünmektedir. Bu yüzden de inançla ilgili konularda sadece aktarılanı kabul etmekle yetinmenin, kişileri bâtıla inanma hatasına düşürebileceğini dile getirir. Hz. Ebû Bekir'in bu konu ile ilgili daha birçok sözünün olduğunu da belirten Saffâr, aktarılan örneğin, inanç konularında aklı kullanmaya ve araştırmaya teşvik eden kelâm ilminin önemini ve meşrûiyetini göstermeye yeterli olduğunu düşünmektedir.104 Onun delil olarak aktardığı bir diğer olay, Hz. Ömer (ö. 23/644) ile huzuruna getirilen bir hırsız arasında yaşanmıştır. Hz. Ömer, hırsıza niçin çaldığını sormuş, "Allah'ın kaderi" yanıtını almıştır. Bunun üzerine onun hem kırbaçlanmasına hem de elinin kesilmesine hükmetmiştir. İki farklı cezanın gerekçesini ise "Hırsızlık yaptığı için elinin kesilmesine, suçu Allah'a yükleyerek iftira attığı için de dövülmesine karar verdim" diyerek açıklamıştır.105 Bu olayı aktaran Saffâr, kaza ve kaderin zorlaması sonucunda kişilerin kaçınılmaz olarak günah işlediği inancının yanlış olduğunu belirtir. Ona göre her ne kadar kişilerin eylemleri Allah'ın kaza ve takdirinin kapsamı dışına çıkamaz ise de kaza ve kaderin kişileri iradesiz bir konuma düşürdüğü de iddia edilemez. Bu örnek ile Hz. Ömer'in inançla ilgisi bulunan bu iddiayı reddettiğine, hatta cezalandırdığına dikkat çeker. Saffâr, aktardığı örnekler ve yaptığı yorumlarla Müslümanların bâtıl ve hatalı inançlarla mücadele etme görevi bulunduğunu kabul etmekte ve bu görevi kelâm ilmine yüklemektedir. Dinî argümanlara dayanarak bu ilmin haram veya mekruh sayılmasına ise açık ve net olarak karşı çıkmaktadır. Saffâr, Hz. Ebû Bekir ile Hz. Ömer arasında yaşandığı aktarılan kader konusundaki tartışmaya da değinir. Rivayete göre Hz. Ebû Bekir iyiliklerin Allah'tan, kötülüklerin ise nefsimizden olduğunu; Hz. Ömer ise 104 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 46-47. 105 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 47. 482 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. iyi-kötü her şeyin Allah'tan geldiğini savunuyordu. Aralarındaki bu anlaşmazlığı Hz. Peygamber'e aktardılar. O ise "Kader konusunda tartışanların ilki, Cebrâil ve Mîkâil'dir. Ya Ömer! Cebrail senin gibi; Yâ Ebû Bekir! Mîkâil de senin gibi söyledi. Aralarındaki hakem olan İsrâfil ise 'Hayrıyla şerriyle kader Allah'tandır' diye hüküm verdi. Ben de aranızda aynı hükmü veriyorum. Ey Ebû Bekir! Allah kendisine isyan edilmemesini isteseydi İblis'i yaratmazdı" buyurdu.106 Bu örnekten sonra Saffâr, aktardığı delillerin sahâbîlerin inançla ilgili konularda ihtiyaç duyduklarında Kur'an'ı anlamak amacıyla kelâm ettiklerini ispatladığını düşünmektedir. Ayrıca o delillerin, sahâbîlerin taklit etmeyi emretme- diklerini ve aklî delilleri öğrenmeyi yasaklamadıklarını gösterdiğini de belirtir.107 V. (XI.) yüzyılın ikinci yarısına dâhil Hanefî-Mâtürîdî âlimlerinden108 Ebû Şekûr el-Keşşî de muhtemelen bundan dolayı benzer şekilde Hz. Ebû Bekir ile Hz. Ömer arasındaki münâzaraya atıf yaparak, inancı korumak amacıyla tartışma yapılmasının gerekliliğini savunmuştur. Keşşî'ye göre bu amaçla münâzara yapmak câizdir ve mübahtır. Eğer böyle yapılmamış olmasaydı, delillerle gerçekler ortaya konulmadığı için kâfirler inananlara galip gelirdi.109 Saffâr, kader ve meşiet gibi inançla ilgili konularda Hz. Ali, Abdullah b. Mesûd (ö. 32/652), Abdullah b. Abbâs (ö. 68/687), Hasan-ı Basrî (ö. 110/728) ve Ca'fer es-Sâdık (ö. 148/765) gibi sahâbe ve tâbiîn âlimlerinin beşerî görüş ve arzularına uyanlara karşı, aklî delillere dayanarak cevap verdiklerini de belirtir. Özellikle Hz. Ali'nin kendi döneminde Hâricîler, Kaderiyye, Müşebbihe ve Râfizîler ile birçok kez tartıştığını aktarır. Ona göre Hz. Ali bu tür iddialar karşısında bazen siyaset, bazen de delil kılıcı ile mücadele etmiştir.110 Dolayısıyla ona göre kelâmcıların yaptığı görevin bid'at olarak nitelendirilmesi gerçeği yansıtmamaktadır. İnanç konularında tartışmaya girilmesine ve bu konularda aklın kullanılmasına karşı çıkanlara Saffâr, "Hz. Peygamber'e ve sahâbîlere bakın! Onlar aklî delillerle hakkı nasıl açıkladılar! Hz. Ali'ye bakın! O kader konusunda doğruyu nasıl gösterdi!" diye seslenerek tepki gösterir. 106 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 47. Bu rivayet hakkında bk. Beyâzîzâde, İşârâtü'l-merâm, 34. 107 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 47-48. 108 Rudolph, Mâturidî ve Semerkant'ta Ehl-i Sünnet Kelamı, 425. 109 Keşşî, et-Temhîd, vr. 192b, 193b. 110 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 45-52. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 483 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. O, sahâbe ve tâbiînden bu konuda naklettiği rivayetlerin aktarmadıkları yanında az olmasına karşın, amaç ve gâyelerin en üstününü belirlemede yeterli olduğu kanısındadır. Benzer ifadeler Sâbûnî'nin el-Kifâye fi'l-hidâye'sinde de yer alır. O, kelâm ilminin sonradan ortaya çıktığını ve Hz. Peygamber ile sahâbesinin bu ilimle ilgilenmediğini ileri sürenlere, "Hz. Peygamber ve ashâbının Allah'ın zâtını, sıfatlarını ve onun bir olduğunu, ayrıca Resûlünün peygamberliğinin ve mûcizelerinin hak olduğunu akıllarını kullanarak (bidelâleti'l-akl) bilmediklerini ve sadece taklid ettiklerini mi kastediyorsunuz! Bu oldukça hatalıdır" diyerek seslenir.111 Saffâr ayrıca düşüncesini aktarırken ve savunurken bilinçli olarak seçtiği "münâzara", "kelâm" ve "delâilü'l-ukûl" gibi sözcükleri sahâbilerle ilişki kurarak aynı cümlede kullanır ve onların inançla ilgili konularda tartışmadıkları ve bu konularda akıllarını kullanmadıkları iddialarının yanlışlığını göstermeye çalışır. Saffâr, Ehl-i sünnet ve'l-cemâat âlimlerinin ve fakihlerinin öncüleri olarak belirttiği kişilerin inanç konularıyla ilgilenen bu ilme değer vermeyi, öğrenmeyi ve öğretmeyi sürdürdüklerini özellikle belirtmekte ve onların isimlerini saymaktadır. Bunlar tâbiînden Alkame b. Kays (ö. 62/682), Esved b. Yezîd (ö. 75/694), Kādî Şüreyh (ö. 78/697), Saîd b. Cübeyr (ö. 94/713), Saîd b. Müseyyeb (ö. 94/713), Şa'bî (ö. 103/721), Muhammed b. Kâ'b el-Kurazî (ö. 108/726), İbn Sîrîn (ö. 110/729) ve Hasan-ı Basrî (ö. 111 Sâbûnî, el-Kifâye, 40-41. Sâbûnî, Hz. Peygamber ve ashâbının cevher, araz, câiz, muhal, muhdes ve kadîm gibi ıstılahları kullanmadıklarını ileri sürerek kelâm ilmine karşı çıkılmasını doğru bulmaz. Zira aynı itiraz, nâsih-mensûh, mücmel-müfesser, muhkemmüteşâbih gibi lafızları kullanan tefsircilere yapılabilir. Benzer şekilde kıyas, istihsan, şart, sebeb, illet, hakikat, mecâz benzeri ıstıhları fıkıhçılar kullanmaktadır. Cerh, ta'dil, âhâd, meşhur, mütevâtir, hasen, sahih, zayıf gibi kavramlar ise hadisçilerin dilindedir. Dolayısıyla "Hz. Peygamber ve sahâbesi kelâmî kavramları kullanmamıştır, bu ilmi öğrenmemiş ve öğretmemiştir" itirazı haklı ve isabetli değildir. Bu kavramlar aynen hadis, fıkıh ve tefsir ilminde olduğu gibi bir ihtiyaçtan dolayı sonraki nesiller tarafından kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. Ayrıca Hz. Peygamber'e nisbetle aktarılan "Aleyküm bidîni'l-acâiz (Koca karıların dini üzere olun)" rivayetini delil olarak kullanarak kelâm ilmine gerek olmadığının iddia edilmesine ise "Bu sözün Resûl-i Ekrem'e nisbeti sahih değildir. Ayrıca taklid etmek doğruyu tespitin ölçüsü değildir. Hangi yaşlı, Yahûdî'nin mi, Mecûsî'nin acâizi? Yaşlılar nahiv de hadiste öğrenmiyor" diyerek karşı çıkar. Bk. a.mlf., el-Kifâye, 41-43. İbn Ebü'l-İz, Şerhu'l-Akīdeti't-Tahâviyye'de selefin cevher ve araz gibi yeni kavramların kullanılmasını değil, hakka aykırı boş işlerle uğraşılmasını mekruh kabul ettiğini belirtir. Bk. a.mlf., Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳīdeti'ṭ-Ṭaḥāviyye, 20. 484 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. 110/728); etbâu't-tâbiînden Ebû Hanîfe (ö. 150/767), Evzâî (ö. 157/774), Süfyân es-Sevrî (ö. 161/778) ve Mâlik b. Enes'tir (ö. 179/795).112 Saffâr'ın isimlerini sıraladığı kişilerin, kendi dönemlerinde ortaya çıkan fıkhî veya itikādî problemlerin çözümünde nassın yanında aklı da kullandıkları bilinmektedir.113 O, belirttiği bu liste ile tâbiîn ve tebeu't-tâbiînin itikādî konulardan uzak durmadıklarını vurgulamaya çalışır. Listede ismi dikkat çeken İmam Mâlik'in kelâm karşıtı olduğu kanaati yaygındır. Ancak onun amelî bir yönü bulunmayan konularda konuşmayı sevmediği ve gerek fıkhî, gerekse itikādî konularda kişisel olarak münâzarayı hoş karşılamadığı bilinmektedir.114 Ayrıca onun bâtıl mezhep mensuplarıyla tartışmaya girmemesinde, kişiliği yanında yaşadığı çevrenin yabancı unsurlara ve fikir cereyanlarına diğer İslâm memleketlerine nisbetle daha kapalı olmasının etkisi de dikkate alınmalıdır.115 Kādî İyâz, Mâlikî fukahaya dair tabakāt kitabı Tertîbü'l-medârik'te İmam Mâlik'in imanın tanımı, imanın artması ve eksilmesi, iman-günah ilişkisi ve rü'yetullah gibi itikādî konularda görüş belirttiği ifade eder. Onun günah işlemenin imana zarar vermeyeceği yönündeki kanaati ise oldukça dikkat çekicidir.116 Ayrıca İmam Mâlik, Saffâr'ın kaynakları arasında yer alan İbn Kuteybe'nin elMaârif adlı eserinde, Ebû Hanîfe ile birlikte Ehl-i re'y arasında sayılır.117 Saffâr, onun itikādî konularla ilgilendiği hakkındaki görüşü muhtemelen elMaârif'e dayandırmaktadır. Saffâr, inanç konularıyla ilgilenen bu ilmin dinî meşrûiyetini savunurken Ebû Hanîfe'ye özel bir önem atfeder. Ona göre Ebû Hanîfe, itikād ve fıkıh alanındaki üstün anlayışı ile çağdaşları arasında öne çıktı. Fıkıh ve kelâm alanında ona açılan kapının, başka kimseye açılmadığına dair Vekîʿ b. Cerrâh'ın (ö. 197/812) sözü, bu kanaati destekler. Saffâr, Ebû Hanîfe'nin saygın bir yöntem ortaya koyduğunu ve mezhebinin Müslümanları şüphelerden kurtaran önemli bir çıkış yolu olduğunu dile 112 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 51-52. 113 İsmi anılan kişilerin kelâma karşı tutumları hakkında bk. Coşkun, "Kelâm Karşıtı Ehl-i Sünnet'in Usûlü'd-dîn Yorumu ve Bu Yorumun Açmazları", 155; Galip Türcan, "Kelâm'ın Meşrûiyeti Sorunu: Ehl-i Sünnet Kelâmı ve Olgusal Gerçeklik Arasındaki İlişki", Marife Dergisi 5, sy. 3 (2005): 178. 114 İbn Abdülber en-Nemerî, Câmiʿu beyâni'l-ʿilm, 365. 115 Bk. Ahmet Özel, "Mâlik b. Enes", Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 27: 509. 116 Kādî İyâz, Tertîbü'l-medârik, nşr. Ahmed Bekîr Mahmûd (Beyrut,1387/1967), 1: 173-177. 117 İbn Kuteybe, el-Maʿârif, nşr. Servet Ukkâşe (Kahire: Dârü'l-Maârif, 1388/1969), 498. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 485 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. getirir. Yine o, fakihlerin efendisi ve ilmin öncüsü olarak adlandırdığı Ebû Hanîfe'nin ehl-i dalâl fırkalarından birçoğu ile tartıştığını da belirtir ve kelâmî içerikli bu tartışmalara örnekler aktarır.118 Ebû Hanîfe'nin üstünlüğünü belirtme sadedinde ayrıca Abdülazîz b. Ebî Revvâd'dan (ö. 159/776), Ebû Hanîfe'nin mihenk taşı gibi ölçü olduğu, onu sevenlerin Ehl-i sünnet ve'l-cemâat'ten; sevmeyenlerin ise ehl-i bid'atten sayıldığı görüşüne yer verir.119 Ebü'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî de yukarıda daha önce zikredildiği üzere kelâm ilminin dinen meşrûiyetini savunurken benzer şekilde Ebû Hanife'ye dayanır. Bununla birlikte o, eseri Uṣûlü'd-dîn'de Saffâr'ın Telḫîṣü'l-edille'de yaptığı tarzda ayrıntılı açıklama yer vermez.120 5. KELÂM MÜDÂFAASI: REDDİYE Tarihsel süreçte kelâm ilmiyle meşguliyetin dinen hoş karşılanmadığı yönünde birçok görüş ileri sürüldü. Saffâr, bu iddialardan muhtemelen kendi zamanında gündemde olanlara cevap vermektedir. Bu başlık altında onun değerlendirmeleri, daha önce aktarılan bilgilerinin tekrarından kaçınılarak ayrı başlıklar altında ele alınacaktır. a. İtikâdî Konularda Tartışma ve Soru Sorma Saffâr'a göre inanç esaslarını açıklama ve savunma görevini üstlenen kelâm, bid'at veya haram olarak nitelenemez. Bu kapsamda Ebû Hanîfe'nin Basralı âlim Osman el-Bettî'ye yazdığı Risāle'den "Senin aklına takılan veya bid'atçıların sana yönelttikleri konular olursa, bana sor. İnşallah sana cevap veririm" cümlesini aktarır.121 Ebû Hanîfe'nin inançla ilgili konularda açıklama yaptığını, kendisine sorulan sorulara cevap verdiğini, hatta açıkladığı konulara itiraz gelmesi halinde tekrar cevap verebileceğini ifade ettiğini vurgulayan Saffâr, bu konularda konuşmayı ve tartışmayı yasaklayan muhtemelen Fakih Hanefîler'e cevap verir. Oysa onunla aynı dönemde yaşayan Herevî, Ẕemmü'l-Kelâm adlı eserinde selefin önemli davranışlarından birinin, bilmelerine rağmen yöneltilen sorulara cevap vermemek olduğunu ileri sürmektedir. 122 118 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 52-56. 119 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 53. 120 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 4. 121 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 54. Ayrıca bk. Ebû Hanîfe, Risâle Ebî Ḥanîfe ilâ ʿOsmân el-Bettî, 84. 122 Herevî, Ẕemmü'l-kelâm, 3: 151-199, 315-349; 4: 210-224; 5: 153-200. 486 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. Bununla birlikte Saffâr, dinî konularda yapılacak tartışmanın sadece ehil kişiler tarafından yapılmasının gerekli olduğunu savunur. Onun itikādî konularla ilgili tartışmaları uzmanlara tahsis etmesi önemli ve dikkat çekicidir. Zira bu düşüncesinden kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesini farz-ı kifâye kabul ettiği anlaşılır. İlcâmü'l-ʿavâm ʿan ʿilmi'l-kelâm adlı eserinde bu konuyu ele alan dönemin en etkin âlimi Gazzâlî de halkın kelâmî tartışmalara katılmasını doğru bulmaz. Buna karşın o, inananları şüphelerden arındırma ve bâtıl fikirlerden koruma görevini üstlenen mütekellimlerin her beldede bulunmasını gerekli görür.123 Her iki âlimi bu kanaate götüren önemli bir etkenin, içinde yaşadıkları dönemin sosyokültürel durumu olduğu söylenebilir. Zira V. (XI.) ve VI. (XII.) yüzyıllarda gerek fıkıh gerekse kelâm mezhepleri arasında görülen mezhep taassubu ve kanlı çatışmalar zirve seviyesindedir.124 Kelâm ilmini öğrenmenin farz-ı kifâye olduğunu belirten Ebü'lYüsr el-Pezdevî de herkesin bu ilmi öğrenmesine gerek olmadığını düşünmektedir.125 Bir diğer Hanefî-Mâtürîdî fakihi Alâeddin es-Semerkandî (ö. 539/1146) ise ehil olmayan kişilerin şüpheye düşmelerinden endişe ederek onların kelâm ilmini ve kelâmî delilleri öğrenmeye teşvik edilmemeleri gerektiğini belirtir. Semerkândî'ye göre kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesi, sadece zor konuları anlama kabiliyeti olan akıllı ve zeki kişilere farz-ı kifâyedir. Bu sebeple herkesin bu ilme yönlendirilmesi isabetli değildir.126 Benzer şekilde Mâtürîdî mütekellimi Siğnâkî de kelâm ilmi ile uğraşma yasağının avam için geçerli olduğunu düşünmektedir.127 Bu görüşler, Hanefî-Mâtürîdî âlimlerin kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesini farz-ı kifâye olarak kabul ettiklerini gösterir. b. Aklın İtikād Alanında Kullanımı Saffâr, "Allah sizi hiçbir şey bilmezken annelerinizin karnından çıkarttı. Şükredesiniz diye işitme (duyusu), gözler ve kalpler verdi." (enNahl 16/78) âyetine dayanarak işitme duyusunun naklî, gözün gözlemsel 123 Gazzâlî, el-İḳtiṣâd fi'l-iʿtiḳād, 13; a.mlf., İḥyâ, 1: 375-379. 124 Anılan dönemde itikādî ve fıkhî mezheplerin durumu hakkında bk. Demir, "Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi", 34-66. 125 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 4-5. 126 Semerkandî, Mîzânül-uṣûl, 677. 127 Siğnâkî, Tesdîd, vr. 8a. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 487 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. bilgiyi ve kalbin de aklî bilgiyi temsil ettiğini belirtir. Bu üç bilgi kaynağından her biri, Allah'ın kullarına sunduğu birer hüccettir ve her biri işlevsel olarak kullanılmalıdır. Akıl dâhil tüm bu bilgi kaynakları, âtıl kalmak ve kullanılmamak için var edilmiş olamazlar. Dolayısıyla Allah bu yetileri, kendisi hakkında bilgi edinilmesi için yaratmıştır.128 Mâtürîdî de belirtilen organların bilgi kaynakları olduklarını ifade etmekte ve aklın işlevsiz bırakılmasının doğru olmadığına dikkat çekmektedir.129 Aklın işlevsiz bırakılmamasına dair görüşünü ise peygamberlerin uygulamaları ile delillendirmektedir. Saffâr'a göre resuller ve nebîler kendi ümmetlerine mûcize gösterdikleri gibi aklî deliller de sunmuştur. Özellikle Hz. İbrâhim, aklî delilleri kullanmıştır. Aklî delil üretme bilgisini ilham yoluyla Allah'tan almıştır. "İşte bu, kavmine karşı İbrâhim'e verdiğimiz hüccetlerimizdir" (el-En'âm 6/83) âyeti, aklın ve aklî delillerin hüccet olduğunu ifade eder.130 Ayrıca bu âyeti takip eden "İşte o peygamberler Allah'ın hidayet ettiği kimselerdir. Sen de onların yoluna uy" (el-En'âm 6/90) âyeti, peygamberin örnek alınmasını ve onlara uyulmasını emreder. Saffâr'a göre bu ayette "sen de uy" emri verilen kişi, Hz. Muhammed'dir. Allah ona, diğer peygamberlerin yoluna uymasını emretmektedir. Âyette örnek alınması emredilen "peygamberlerin davet yöntemine", Hz. İbrâhim'in uyguladığı şekilde aklî delil kullanmak da dâhildir. Saffâr'a göre aklın kullanılması gerektiğiyle ilgili bir diğer delil, Kur'an'da aktarılan inanmayanların şu sözüdür: "Şayet kulak vermiş veya aklımızı kullanmış olsaydık, şu alevli cehennemin içindekiler arasında olmazdık! derler" (el-Mülk 67/10-11). Ona göre bu âyette bilgi kaynaklarından akla ve nakle özel olarak dikkat çekilmekte ve bu kaynakları kullanmayanların hata ettiklerine dair itirafları Allah tarafından doğrulanmaktadır. Zira cehenneme düşen bir kişinin itirafı olarak aktarılan "Şayet kulak vermiş veya aklımızı kullanmış olsaydık" ifadesindeki "veya" bağlacı Saffâr'a göre aklın ve naklin bağımsız olarak kendi bilgi alanlarında yeterli birer kaynak olduklarını gösterir. Cehennemde bulunan bu sözün sahibi, 128 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 142-144. 129 Ebû Mansûr el-Mâtürîdî, Kitâbü't-Tevḥîd, nşr. Bekir Topaloğlu-Muhammed Aruçi (Ankara: İSAM Yay., 2003), 158; a.mlf., Teʾvîlât, 8: 160-161. 130 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 28-29. 488 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. "Nakle veya akla uysaydık bu duruma düşmezdik" demektedir. O, Allah'ın bu ifadeyi diğer insanlar ibret alsınlar diye Kur'an'da naklettiğini düşünmektedir. Eğer akla veya nakle uyulduğunda kurtulma imkânı olmasaydı, bu ifadenin Kur'an'da aktarılması anlamsız olurdu. Bu yüzden, akıl veya nakilden birinin ihmal edilmesi doğru değildir. Her bir bilgi kaynağı, kendi alanında işlevsel olacak şekilde kullanılmalıdır. Saffâr, akla değer vermenin, aklın dinî hüküm vazeden konumuna yükseltilmesi anlamına gelmediğini de özellikle belirtir. Ona göre akıllı kişilerin, Allah'ın da emrettiği şekilde aklın rehberliğine başvurması gereklidir.131 c. Ebû Hanîfe'nin Kelâma Karşı Tutumu Saffâr'ın aktardığına göre Ebû Hanîfe hayatının ilk dönemlerinde bu ilmi öğretme konusunda istekli ve hırslı oldu ve oğlu Hammâd'ı (ö. 176/792) da bu ilmi öğrenmeye teşvik etti. Babasının tavsiyesine uyan Hammâd b. Ebî Hanîfe de bu ilmi öğrendi. Daha sonra ise Ebû Hanîfe oğlunun bu ilim alanında tartışma yapmasını yasakladı. Saffâr, Ebû Hanîfe'nin oğlunu bu alanda tartışmaya girmekten men ettiğine ilişkin rivayetlerin doğru olabileceğini kabul eder. Ancak o, aktarılan rivayetleri zâhirî ve sathî bir şekilde anlamak yerine, hadis rivayetlerinde olduğu gibi kelâm yöntemine uygun olarak üzerinde düşünmeyi ve yorumlamayı tercih eder. Bu kapsamda Ebû Hanîfe'nin tavrının gerekçesini içeren başka bir rivayete dikkat çeker: Biz bu konularda sanki başımızın üzerinde bir kuş var ve onu ürkütmeme özeni ve dikkati ile kelâm ederdik. Sonraki dönemde ise amaç tartıştığı kişinin ayağını kaydırmak olarak algılandı. Karşısındakinin küfre düşmesini hedefleyen kişi ondan önce bu duruma düşer.132 Saffâr; onun oğlunu münâzaradan sakındırmasını, inatlaşmaya dayanan tartışmaları doğru bulmamasına bağlamaktadır. Yoksa Ebû Hanîfe kelâm ilmini öğrenmeyi ve kelâmî tartışmalar yapmayı tamamen yasaklamış olamaz. Bu yorumunu temellendirmek amacıyla Kur'an'ın mahlûk olup-olmadığı konusunda tartışan iki kişi hakkında Ebû Hanîfe'nin verdiği" arkalarında namaz kılınmaması" fetvâsını hatırlatır. 131 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 133-134. Aklın ve naklin kendi bilgi alanlarında önder olduğuna dair Saffâr'ın yorumları için bk. Demir, "Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi", 271-320. 132 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 56. Benzer bir rivayet için bk. Muvaffak el-Mekkî, Menâḳıbü Ebî Ḥanîfe (Beyrut: Dârü'l-kitâbi'l-Arabî, 1401/1981), 1: 183 -184. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 489 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Biz Ebû Hanîfe'nin yanında otururken bir grup iki kişiyi huzura getirdikten sonra 'Şu iki kişiden biri Kur'an mahlûktur; diğeri de münâzara ederek gayr-i mahlûktur diyor' dediler. Ebû Hanîfe, 'ikisinin de arkasında namaz kılmayın' dedi. Ben de 'İlki hakkında evet, zira kıdem-i Kur'an'ı kabul etmiyor. Ancak ikinci şahsın durumu nedir ki onun arkasında namaz kılınamaz?' diye sordum. Bunun üzerine 'İkisi de dinde [ed-dîn: Değişmeyen sâbit inanç ilkeleri] münâzaa etmişlerdir. Dinde nizaʿ ise bid'attir' buyurdular. Saffâr'a göre Ebû Hanîfe'nin bu tavrı, tartışan kişilerin bu konuda bilgisiz olmaları, münâzaranın inatlaşmaya dönüşmesi ve tartışmanın bir sonuca varmasının mümkün görünmemesinden kaynaklanır.133 Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi (ö. 968/1591) Miftâḥü's-saʿâde'de134 ve Ali elKārî (ö. 1014/1605) ise Mineḥü'r-ravżi'l-ezher fî şerḥi'l-Fıḳhi'l-ekber'de Saffâr'ın bu yorumunu olduğu gibi aktarmaktadır.135 Saffâr, inatlaşmaya dayanan ve gerçeği ortaya çıkarma hedefi bulunmayan tartışmalar konusunda Muhammed eş-Şeybânî'nin (ö. 189/805) hocası ile aynı kanaatte olduğunu belirtir.136 Aktarılanlardan, tartışan kişilerin işin uzmanı olmaları ve doğruya ulaşma niyetini taşımaları durumunda dinî konularda tartışma yapılmasının Ebû Hanîfe ve onun yolunu takip eden Saffâr tarafından desteklendiği anlaşılır. Ayrıca Mâtürîdî kelâmcıları Nesefî ve Siğnâkî de dinî konularda tartışmanın makam ve mevki elde etmek gibi basit çıkarlar uğruna yapılması durumunda mekruh olacağını belirtmektedirler.137 Ebû Şekûr el-Keşşî de hakkın ortaya çıkmasından sonra tartışmanın uzatılmasını doğru bulmaz.138 Saffâr'ın çağdaşı Gazzâlî ise fitne ve fesadın baş âmili olarak gösterdiği inatlaşmaya dayanan ve ehil olmayan kişiler tarafından yapılan kelâmî tartışmalara karşı çıkar. Ona göre bir tartışma yöntemi olan cedel, ehil kişilerce, gerektiği zaman ve Kur'an'da belirtildiği gibi "en güzel şekilde" yapılmalıdır.139 Hanefî fakihi Ebü'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî ise Ebû Hanîfe'nin öğrencilerine 133 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 56-57. 134 Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi, Miftâḥu's-saʿâde, nşr. Abdülvehhâb Ebü'n-Nûr-Kâmil Kâmil Bekrî (Kahire: Dârü'l-kütübi'l-hadis, 1968), 2: 156. Alıntılanan asıl metin için bk. Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 56. 135 Ali el-Kārî, Mineḥü'r-ravżi'l-ezher fî şerḥi'l-Fıḳhi'l-ekber (Beyrut: Dârü'l-beşâiri'l-İslâmiyye, 1419/1997), 32-33. Alıntı yapılan kısım için bk. Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 56. 136 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 57. 137 Nesefî, Baḥrü'l-kelâm, 61. Siğnâkî, Saffâr'ın izahlarını aynen aktarır. Bk. Tesdîd, vr. 7b-8a. 138 Keşşî, et-Temhîd, vr. 192b. 139 Gazzâlî, el-Ḳısṭâsü'l-müstaḳīm, nşr. V. Chelhot (Beyrut, 1983), 86, 90; a.mlf., İḥyâ, 1: 374-376. 490 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. kelâm ilmini öğrettiğini, hayatının son dönemlerinde ise bu alanda tartışmalara katılmadığını, arkadaşlarına münâzarayı yasakladığını ve açıkça bu ilmi öğretmediğini belirtir. Ancak o, Saffâr'ın aksine Ebû Hanîfe'nin neden bu ilme karşı tutumunu değiştirdiğini açıklığa kavuşturmaz.140 Saffâr, bilgi kaynakları arasında yer alan "âhâd rivayetleri" sıhhatini ve bağlamını dikkate alarak yorumlamaktadır. Aynı yöntemini Ebû Hanîfe ve Ebû Yûsuf'tan nakledilen kelâm aleyhtarı rivayetlerde de uygulmakta ve bu nakilleri sözün sahibinin maksadını ve diğer rivayetleri dikkate alarak yorumlamaktadır. Oysa aynı rivayetleri zahirî bir okumaya tâbi tutan Batı Karahanlılar dönemi Fakih Hanefîleri, Ebû Hanîfe'nin risâleleri ortada dururken kanaatimizce kelâma mesafeli bir noktaya savrulmuşlardır. d. Zındıklık İthamı Kelâm'ın zındıklığa sebep olduğu şeklindeki kanaat, Ebû Yusuf'a nisbetle aktarılır. Saffâr, Ebû Yûsuf'un "Kim dini düşmanca bir tavırla elde ederse, zındık olur; kim malı kimya ile elde ederse, iflas eder; kim de garîbu'l-hadis'i talep ederse yalancı olur." dediğini kabul eder ve aktarır. Ayrıca bu sözün bazı rivayetlerde "Dini kelâm ile talep eden zındık olur" şeklinde aktarıldığını da belirtir. Ona göre zındıklığa sebep olmakla nitelenen "kelâm"; felsefecilerin, düşmanca bir tavırla tartışanların ve ehil olmayan kişilerin durumunu ifade etmektedir. Yoksa gerek Ebû Hanîfe'den gerekse Ebû Yûsuf'tan inançla ilgili konularda tartışmanın yasaklanmasına dair aktarılan sözler, doğrudan kelâm ilmini hedef almış olamaz. Bu görüşünü, "Onlarla en güzel şekilde tartış (câdilhüm)" (enNahl 16/125) âyetine dayandırır. Saffâr, bu âyette, hak ve gerçeğin ortaya çıkması amacıyla tartışma yapılmasının yasaklanmadığını, aksine emredildiğini düşünür. Dolayısıyla eleştirilen, bir sonuca ulaşması mümkün görünmeyen inatlaşma ve taassuba dayalı tartışmalar ile ilmî yeterliliği olmayan kişilerin boş çekişmeleridir.141 Eş'arî kelâmcısı Teftâzânî de kelâmın kötülenmesi ve yasaklanmasıyla ilgili Selef âlimlerinden aktarılanların, dinde taassup gösteren, ilmî yeterliliğe sahip olmayan ve Müslümanların inançlarına 140 Pezdevî, Uṣûlü'd-dîn, 4. 141 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 57. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 491 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. zarar vermeyi amaçlayan kişileri hedef aldığını düşünmektedir.142 Onun bu anlayışı, Saffâr'ın yorumları ile oldukça mutabıktır. Saffâr'ın Ebû Yûsuf'a atfedilen "kelâm karşıtı tavrı" yorumlaması ve kelâm müdâfaası Mâtürîdî'nin konuya yaklaşımıyla uyumludur. Mâtürîdî, İsrâ sûresinin "Sana ruh hakkında soru sorarlar. De ki: Ruh, Rabbimin emrindendir. Size ancak az bir bilgi verilmiştir" (el-İsrâ 17/85) âyetini tefsir ederken aynı şekilde Ebû Yûsuf'a bu sözün nisbetini nakletmekte, ancak bununla doğrudan kelâmın değil, sonuca ulaşması mümkün görünmeyen ve sapkınlığa yol açan tartışmaların kastedildiğini belirtmektedir. Ayrıca Mâtürîdî, "Onlarla en güzel şekilde tartış" âyetini delil göstererek, dinî konularda konuşmanın ve kelâm ilmiyle uğraşmanın (ḫavż) mübah olduğunu savunmaktadır.143 Bu konuda Mâtürîdî ile Saffâr arasındaki tek fark, kelimelerin asıl anlamlarını tespite önem veren, hatta kelâm anlayışını semantik yoruma dayandıran Saffâr'ın Mâtürîdî'nin aksine yalan ve bâtıl konuşma anlamı da içeren "ḫavż" sözcüğünü144 kelâm ile birlikte kullanmamaya özen göstermesidir.145 Zira Saffâr'ın dil kaynağı olan Halîl b. Ahmed'in Kitâbü'lAyn lugatine göre bu kelime, içinde yalan ve yanlış olan konuşma anlamını da içermektedir.146 Semantik anlama önem veren Saffâr, bu kelimeyi kelâmla meşguliyeti ifade ederken kullanmaz. Buna karşın kelâmı suçlayıcı üslup içeren eserlerde kelâm sözcüğü ile ḫavż kelimesi belki de bilinçli olarak sıkça aynı cümlede birlikte kullanılır. Hatta sadece bu kelimenin geçmiş olmasını bile ilgili metni mütekellimleri hedef alacak şekilde tahsise yeterli görenler bulunur. Örneğin İbn Ebü'l-İz, Akīdetü't-Tahâviyye'de yer alan "Ve lâ 142 Teftâzânî, Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd, 1: 167; Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳāʾidi'n-Nesefiyye, nşr. Ahmed Hicâzî es-Sekkā (Kahire: Mektebetü'l-Külliyyâtü'l-Ezheriyye, 1408/1988), 12. 143 Mâtürîdî, Teʾvîlât, 8: 349350. 144 "Ḫavż" sözcüğü, içinde yalan ve yanlış olan konuşma anlamında kullanılır. Bk. Halîl b. Ahmed, Kitâbü'l-ʿAyn müretteben ʿalâ ḥurûfi'l-muʿcem, nşr. Abdülhamîd Hendâvî (Beyrut: Dârü'l-kütübi'l-ilmiyye, 1424/2003), "ḫavż" md., 1: 452; İbn Manzûr, Lisânü'l-ʿArab, nşr. (Kahire: Dârü'l-Maârif, ts.), "ḫavż" md., 2: 1289. 145 Yeri gelmişken burada Risâle fî istiḥsâni'l-ḫavż fî ʿ ilmi'l-kelâm adıyla neşredilen Eş'arî'ye ait risâlenin asıl isminin el-Ḥas ʿale'l-baḥs olduğunu belirtelim. Bk. Ebü'l-Kāsim en-Nîsâbûrî, el-Ġunye fi'l-kelâm, 1: 258-262. 146 Halîl b. Ahmed, Kitâbü'l-ʿAyn, "ḫavż" md., 1: 452; İbn Manzûr, Lisânü'l-ʿArab, "ḫavż" md., II, 1289. 492 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. neḫûżu fi'l-Allâh" ifadesini "kelâmcılarının bâtıl sözlerinden uzak durmak" olarak açıklar.147 Râgıb el-İsfahânî (ö. V./XI. yüzyılın ilk yarısı), Kur'an'da yer alan garîb kelimelere dair sözlüğü el-Müfredât fî ġarîbi'l-Ḳurʾân'da kelimenin bu olumsuz mânasına dikkat çeker: "Ḫavż" suya dalmak ve sudan geçmek demektir. Bu ifade, istiâre yoluyla işlerle ilgili olarak da kullanılır. Kur'ân'da genellikle dalınması yerilen hususlar bağlamında kullanılır."148 "Ḫavż" kelimesinin bu anlamına Fahreddin er-Râzî de değinir. Ona göre "Âyetlerimiz hakkında yalan yanlış şekilde konuşmaya dalanları (yeḫûżu fi âyâtina) gördüğün vakit başka bir söze geçilinceye kadar onlardan yüz çevir, uzaklaş. Şayet şeytan sana unutturursa hatırladıktan sonra (kalk), o zalimler grubu ile beraber oturma" (el-En'âm 6/68) âyetinde yer alan "ḫavż" sözlüğü, asıl olarak eğlence tarzında ve aşırı derecede dalmayı ifade eder. Dolayısıyla ona göre bazı Haşviyye'nin zannettiğinin aksine bundan, ilâhiyyât meselelerini derinlemesine inceleyip araştırmanın, istidlâl ve münâzara yapmanın "Allah'ın âyetlerine dalmaktır" şeklinde yorumlanması ve bunların haram olduğu sonucuna varılması isabetli değildir.149 Saffâr, dinî konularda yapılan tartışmaların âyette emredilen "en güzel tartışma" kapsamında değerlendirilebilmesi için tartışan kişilerle ilgili bazı şartlar öngörmektedir: Gerçeği öğrenmek isteyen kişi, sakin, sabırlı ve ağırbaşlı olmalı; kibirli ve düşüncesizce davranmamalıdır. İnat sebebiyle gerçeği kabul etmemek ve bilgisizce tartışmak doğru değildir. Onun anlatımına göre Allah, yukarıda aktarılan âyetin devamında, düşüncesizce hareket eden ve inatla gerçeği görmek istemeyen kişilerle oturulması bile, "hemen kalk, o zâlimler gürûhu ile beraber oturma" (elEn'âm 6/68) diyerek yasaklamaktadır.150 Saffâr, kelâm ilmini yasaklama çabalarına karşı, dedesi Ebû Nasr Saffâr'ın (ö. 405/1014) hayret dolu ifadelerini de aktarır: Hz. Peygamber nasıl olur da tartışmayı terketmek ve meydan okuma karşısında susmakla emredilmiş olabilir? Bu mümkün müdür? O her taraftan kuşatılmıştı. Peygamberliği ve peygamberlik delilleri konusunda itirazlarla karşılaşıyordu. 147 İbn Ebü'l-İz, Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳīdeti'ṭ-Ṭaḥāviyye, 427. 148 Râgıb İsfahânî, el-Müfredât fî ġarîbi'l-Ḳurʾân, nşr. Muhammed S. Kelyânî (Kahire Matbaatü Mustafa el-Bâbî el-Halebî, 1381/1961), "ḫavż" md., 161. 149 Râzî, Mefâtîḥu'l-ġayb, 13: 26-27. 150 Saffâr, Telḫîṣü'l-edille, 1: 57-58. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 493 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Böyle bir durumda Hz. Peygamber'in sessiz ve tepkisiz kaldığı iddiasını, din de akıl da kabul etmez. Çünkü mücadeleden çekinmek, inananlar arasında bölünmelere ve savunulan değerlerin zayıflamasına sebep olur. Allah ise kulların durumunu en iyi bilen olduğundan dini konularda tartışma yapmayı yasaklamamıştır. Ayrıca dedesinden konuyla ilgili şu alıntıyı da aktarır: Doğruyu kabul etme eğiliminde olmayan inatçı kişi, ileri sürülen delil karşısında köşeye sıkıştırıldığında çirkefleşir, hakka davet edildiğinde kabul etmeyerek uzaklaşır, hakkı öğrendiğinde yalanlar. Bilmediği durumlarda ise huzursuzluk çıkarır. Bu kişi, gurur duyduğu egosunu ve arzusunu takip eder. Onun durumu âyette şöyle açıklanır: "Böylesine 'Allah'tan kork!' denildiğinde benlik ve gurur kendisini günaha sevkeder" (el-Bakara 2/206). Bu tavrı sergileyen kişiler hakkında "Âyetlerimiz hakkında yalan ve yanlış şekilde konuşmaya dalanları (yeḫûżû) gördüğünde, onlar başka bir söze geçinceye kadar onlardan uzak dur." (el-En'âm 6/68) denilir. Saffâr, bu sözleri benimseyerek aktarır. Bu rivayette dikkat çeken bir diğer husus, Saffâr'ın ve dedesi Ebû Nasr Saffâr'ın kelâm ilminin gerekliliğini savunmalarıdır. Bilindiği üzere onun mensup olduğu Saffâr ailesi, bir dönem Buhara'da etkin bir konum elde ederek Buhara Hanefî âlimlerinin reisliği görevini elinde bulundurmuştur. Oysa Sencer tarafından Saffâr'ın 495/1102 yılında sürgüne gönderilmesinden sonra Buhara Hanefî âlimlerinin reisliği Âl-i Saffâr'dan Abdülazîz b. Ömer b. Mâze'nin mensup olduğu Âl-i Burhan'a geçmiştir. Saffâr sülâlesi kelâm müdâfii iken 141 yıl Mâverâünnehir'de dinî kurumların gücünü elinde bulunduran Âli Burhan'dan mütekellim bir âile ferdi bilinmemektedir. Muhtemel bu aile, kelâma soğuk duran Fakih Hanefîler tarafında yer almaktadır. Bu âilenin egemen olduğu dönemde bölgede kelâm ilminin gelişimin durumu incelenirken bu husus da dikkate alınmalıdır.151 Saffâr, itikādî konuların savunulması ve bâtıl inançların reddedilmesi amacıyla tartışma yapılmasını gerekli görmekte ve "belli kurallara" uyulması şartıyla bunun dinen yasak olmadığını savunmaktadır. O, tartışma metodunu "münâzara" kavramıyla ifade etmekte, "cedel" adlandırmasını ise özellikle kullanmamaktadır. Birini sert bir yere düşürmek, düşmanlık veya tartışmada çetin olmak gibi anlamlara gelen cedel kelimesi, dialektik kelimesinin Arapça karşılığıdır. Mantıkta cedel, 151 Âl-i Saffâr ve Âl-i Burhan hakkında bk. Demir, "Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi", 87-93. 494 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. "meşhur olan ve doğru kabul edilen öncüllerden oluşmuş kıyas" demektir. Felsefe ve kelâmda genellikle "bir düşüncedeki çelişkileri tartışarak gösterme sanatı" olarak tanımlanır. Bazı İslâm âlimleri, âyetlerde ve hadislerde yasaklanan tartışma ile dinen emredilen tartışmayı farklı kelimelerle ifade etmeyi tercih etmişler ve olumsuz anlam yükledikleri felsefî arkaplana sahip "cedel" adlandırmasını kullanmamışlardır.152 Saffâr da cedel adlandırması yerine "münâzara" kavramını tercih eder. Buna karşın Gazzâlî'nin etkisi ile mantık ilminin kullanımının yaygınlaşmasıyla birlikte bu metot ve isimlendirme, kelâmcılar arasında kabul görmüştür. SONUÇ Saffâr, kelâm ilminin dinen meşrû olduğunu ve öğrenilmesi gerektiğini ayrıntılı şekilde ele almakta ve savunmaktadır. Ortaya koyduğu sistematik kelâm müdâfaası incelendiğinde, onun Mâtüridî âlimleri içinde kelâm ilminin savunulmasına müstakil ve hacimli bir bölüm ayıran ve bu konudaki görüş ve izahlarıyla öncü rolü üstlenen bir kelâmcı olduğu anlaşılır. Zira her ne kadar İmam Mâtürîdî, Ebû'l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî ve Ebû'lMuîn en-Nesefî gibi Mâtürîdî âlimleri kelâm ilminin dinen sakıncalı olmadığını savunmuş olsalar da kelâm müdâfaası, onların eserlerinde müstakil bir başlık altında ve ayrıntılı şekilde yer almaz. Telḫîṣü'l-edille, bu açıdan eşsiz bir Mâtürîdî kaynağıdır. Saffâr'in aktardıkları; kelâm ilminin öğrenilmesi, öğretilmesi ve kelâmcıların toplumdaki rolü konusundaki tartışmaların, V. (XI.) ve VI. (XII.) yüzyıllarda Mâverâünnehir'de canlılığını koruduğunu gösterir. Dolayısıyla onun bu konudaki çabası, toplumsal tabanı güçlü olan kelâm karşıtlığını aşmaya dönük bir uğraştır. Müdâfaasını karşısındaki güçlü bir muhalafete karşı ortaya koyduğu için savunusu tutarlı ve ilmî derinliğe sahiptir. Saffâr kelâm müdafâasını Ashâbü'l-hadis mensuplarına karşı değil, Fakih Hanefîler'e karşı kaleme aldığını düşünmekteyiz. Bu tespit, o dönemde kaleme alınan Hanefî fıkıh eserlerinde yer alan bilgilerle de doğrulanmaktadır. Bu noktada ulaştığımız sonuçlara göre Mâverâünnehir 152 Cedel ile münâzara arasındaki farklar için bk. Yusuf Şevki Yavuz, Kur'ân-ı Kerîm'de Tefekkür ve Tartışma Metodu (Bursa: İlim ve Kültür Yayınları, 1983), 12-16. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 495 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. bölgesinde çoğunluğu oluşturan Hanefî fakihleri, kelâm ilmine bakışlarına göre iki gruba ayırmamız gerekmektedir: Kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenen Mütekellim Hanefîler ve kelâm ilmine mesafeli duranlar Fakih Hanefîler. Mütekellim Hanefîler akla kendi alanında bilgiye ulaşmada bağımsız bir rol tanırken; Buhara İmamları olarak atıf yapılan Fakih Hanefîler, akla sadece nakil bağlamında anlama ve yorumlama yetkisi tanımaktadır. Mütekellim Hanefîler, Ebû Hanife'nin kelâm ilmini ve yöntemini değil, ehliyetsiz kişilerin bir sonuca ulaşması mümkün olmayan tartışmaları hoş karşılamadığını düşünmektedir. Kaynaklarda görüşlerine "ashâbımızdan muhakkik olanlar" şeklinde atıf yapılan kelâmcı yönü ağır basan Hanefî âlimler, bu grubu oluşturur. Mütekellim Hanefîler, ayrıca yöntemsel olarak aklın kendi bilgi alanında bilgiye ulaşma gücü olduğunu kabul de etmektedir. Mâtürîdî, Rüstüfeğnî, Beşâğarî, Ebû Bekir el-İyâzî, Ebû Seleme es-Semerkandî ve İbn Yahyâ, bu geleneğin öncüleridir. Bölgede çoğunluğu oluşturdukları anlaşılan Fakih Hanefîler ise Ebû Hanîfe'nin oğlu Hammâd'a kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmeyi ve bu alanda münâzara yapmayı yasakladığına dair rivayeti aynen benimseyerek, kelâm ilmiyle ilgilenmenin tavsiye edilen bir uğraş olmadığı hususunda birleşmişler ve bunu fıkıh kitaplarında açıkça belirtmişlerdir. Fakih Hanefîler, genel olarak imanın mahlûk olmadığını, dil ile ikrarın iman tanımında yer aldığını, haberî sıfatların te'vil edilmemesinin daha doğru olduğunu, peygamberin daveti olmadan sadece akla dayanılarak Allah'a inanma yükümlülüğünün başlamayacağını ve fetret ehlinin sorumlu olmadığını düşünmektedir. Fakih Hanefîler, şahsî yaşantılarında da bu yönde davranarak kelâm eseri telif etmedikleri gibi kelâmî tartışmalara dâhil olmaktan da uzak durmuşlardır. Batı Katahanlılar döneminde Fakih Hanefîler'in kelâmı bile mekruh görmeye başlaması, diğer ilimlerin özellikle felsefî ilimlerin dışlanmasına kanaatimizce zemin oluşturmuştur. Zira kelâm mekruh ve yasak ise felsefî ilimlerin hiçbir şekilde meşrûiyeti zaten söz konusu olamaz. Dolayısıyla Sâmânîler döneminden sonra ilmî ve fennî alanda yaşanan gerilemenin altında Hanefîler'in din anlayışındaki bu değişimin etkisi de araştırılmaya değer bir konudur. Zira bazı Hanefîler, akla değer veren bir Ebû Hanîfe tasavvurundan kelâmı yasaklayan Ebû Hanîfe düşüncesine doğru 496 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. savrulmuşlardır. Günümüze uzanan tarihsel süreçte, Mütekellim Hanefîler'in değil, Fakih Hanefîler'in etkin olduğu söylenebilir. Mütekellim Hanefîler içinde yer alan Saffâr'ın Ebû Hanîfe, Muhammed eş-Şeybânî, Ebû Yûsuf ve Hanefî mezhebinin diğer ilk nesil âlimlerinin görüşlerini sathi bir bakış açısı ile değil, aktarılan rivayetlerin içeriği ile gâye ve maksatlarını dikkate alarak yorumlamaktadır. Bu bakış açısı onu, Ebû Hanîfe ve öğrencilerinin mutlak anlamda kelâm ilmini yasaklamadıkları sonucuna götürmüştür. Oysa Batı Karahanlılar döneminin diğer Fakih Hanefîleri örneğin kelâm ilminin meşrûiyeti konusunda Ebû Hanîfe'nin risâlelerine aykırı bir noktada konumlanmışlardır. Âyet ve hadisleri gâye ve hikmetlerine göre değerlendirmeyi savunan Fakih Hanefîler'in Ebû Hanîfe ve talebelerine nisbetle aktarılan kelâm aleyhtarı ifadeleri neden eleştirel okumaya tabi tutmadıkları oldukça düşündürücüdür. Kanaatimizce dinî bir hükme ulaşırken kullanılan yöntem, tutarlı şekilde delil olarak kullanılan tüm rivayetler için kullanılmalıdır. Kelâm ilmini savunurken Saffâr'ın kullandığı yöntem, Ebû Hanîfe'nin stratejisinden farklıdır. Ebû Hanîfe ortaya çıkan yeni durum karşısında kelâm ilmine ihtiyaç duyulduğunu dile getirmektedir. Oysa Saffâr, bid'atçılıkla suçlanan kelâmcıları, başta Hz. İbrâhim olmak üzere peygamberlerin, hatta sahâbe ve tabiîn âlimlerinin inançla ilgili konularda akıllarını kullandıklarını ve tartışma yaptıklarını ispatlamaya gayret ederek müdâfaa etmektedir. Bu kapsamda o, Kur'an-ı Kerîm'in susmayı değil; düşünmeyi ve en güzel şekilde tartışmayı emrettiğine vurgu yaparak inanç esaslarını açıklama ve savunma görevini üstlenen bu ilmin, bid'at veya haram olarak nitelenemeyeceğini belirtir. Onun müdâfaa yöntemi, İmam Eş'arî'nin kullandığı metodun daha gelişmiş şekli olarak ifade edilebilir. Sistematiğini kendisi belirtmese de Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasının izah, ispat ve reddiye olmak üzere üç temele dayandığı anlaşılmaktadır: İzah: Kelâm ilminin tanımı, isimleri, değeri ve dinî ilimler içindeki yeri konusunda bilgi verilerek, buradan kelâm ilmin gerekli ve önemli olduğunun açıklanması. İspat: Kelâm ilminin dinî temellerinin Kitap, Sünnet ve Selef-i Sâlihîn uygulamasından ortaya konulması ve bu sayede dinen meşrû olduğunun belirtilmesi. Reddiye: Kelâm ilminin değerini ve dinî meşrûiyetini zayıflatma amacı taşıyan iddiaların cevaplanması. Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası| 497 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502. Saffâr, kelâm ilmini "hakkı/Allah'ı/dinin temel ilkelerini delile dayanarak bilmek" şeklinde tanımlayarak, belirtilen görevi ifa eden bir ilmin haram veya mekruh görülmesinin ve bu ilimden yüz çevrilmesinin doğru olmadığını ispatlamaya gayret eder. Eş'arî kelâmcısı Teftâzânî'nin Semerkant'ta tamamlandığı Şerḥu'l-Maḳāṣıd adlı eserinde yer verdiği "kelâm, dinî akîdeleri yakinî delillerle bilmektir" şeklindeki tarif, Saffâr'ın kelâm tanımını akla getirmektedir. Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaası kapsamında ortaya koyduğu açıklamalar sonraki bazı âlimler tarafından benimsenmiştir. Örneğin Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı Siğnâkî onun kelâm adlandırması konusundaki izahlarını, etTesdîd fî şerḥi't-Temhîd adlı eserinde aynen aktarmaktadır. Saffâr, bu ilmin kullandığı yakine ulaştıran kesin deliller itibariyle "kelâm" ismiyle anılmasının yerinde ve doğru olduğunu düşünmektedir. Bu görüş, daha sonra başka kelâmcılar tarafından da savunulmuştur. Örneğin Teftâzânî'ye göre kelâmda kullanılan delillerin kuvveti sayesinde sanki "Söz budur, diğer bilinenler değil" denilmiş olmaktadır. Dolayısıyla kelâmın, kesin delillere dayanan bu ilme isim olarak verilmesi yerindedir. Saffâr, din ve inanç konularında, yöneltilen sorular ve itirazlar karşısında susmanın değil, cevap vermenin Kur'an'da öğretilen yöntem olduğunu belirtir. Kelâm ilminin üstlendiği görev ise peygamberlerin yerine getirdiği, Kur'an'da örnekleri aktarılan ve dinen meşrû ve yapılması istenilen, bu savunma faaliyetidir. Onun düşünce tarzı ve kelâm savunusu, İmam Mâtürîdî'ninkine benzemektedir. Mâtürîdî, "Peygamberler ve bizler, kâfirleri İslâm'a ve tevhid inancına davet etmekle emrolunduk. Bu davet yapıldığında muhataplar delil ve açıklama isteyecekler ve tartışma kaçınılmaz olacaktır. Bu nedenle kelâmî konularda konuşma ve tartışmalar mahzurlu değildir, mübahtır" demektedir. Mâtürîdî ve Saffâr'ın kelâm müdâfaasında ortaya koyduğu bu düşünce tarzı, ilerleyen süreçte Sâbûnî ve Fahreddin er-Râzî tarafından da tekrarlanmıştır. Sâbûnî'ye göre Kur'an'da inkârcılara karşı ortaya konulan deliller ve özellikle Hz. İbrâhim'in inancını savunmak amacıyla yaptığı münâzara, kelâm ilminin meşrûiyetini ve gerekliliğini göstermektedir. Benzer şekilde Râzî'ye göre de kelâmın üstlendiği görev, Kur'an'da yapılan ve peygamberlere emredilen bir faaliyetten ibarettir. Bu açıdan düşünüldüğü takdirde kelâmın 498 | Abdullah DEMİR cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502. öncülüğünü peygamberler yapmıştır. Böyle bir uğraşın bid'at kabul edilmesi anlamsızdır. Saffâr; Ebû Hanîfe'nin, oğlu Hammâd'ı kelâmî tartışmalardan sakındırmasını, inatlaşmaya dayanan tartışmaları doğru bulmamasına bağlamaktadır. Yoksa Ebû Hanîfe kelâm ilmini öğrenmeyi ve kelâmî tartışmalar yapmayı tamamen yasaklamış olamaz. Ona göre Ebû Hanîfe'nin bu tavrı, tartışan kişilerin bu konuda bilgisiz olmaları, münâzaranın inatlaşmaya dönüşmesi ve tartışmanın bir sonuca varmasının mümkün görünmemesinden kaynaklanır. Saffâr'ın bu yorumu, Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi tarafından Miftâḥü's-saʿâde'de, Ali el-Kārî tarafından ise Mineḥü'r-ravżi'l-ezher fî şerḥi'l-Fıḳhi'l-ekber 'de olduğu gibi aktarılır. Araştırma süresince istifade edilen Hanefî-Mâtürîdî geleneğine ait kaynakların çoğunun, hatta Ebû Hanîfe'nin risâlelerinin tahkikli neşirlerinin yapılmamış olmasının büyük bir eksiklik olduğu bir kez daha müşahede edilmiştir. Bu alanda kapsamlı bir tahkik projesinin yürütülmesinin gerekliliği değerlendirilmektedir. Ayrıca Hanefî-Mâtürîdîler'in din anlayışının doğru olarak anlaşılabilmek için tarihsel süreç içinde ortaya çıkan farklı "Ebû Hanîfe tasavvurları" tespit edilmelidir. Hanefî fıkıh literatürü ve menâkıb eserleri bu açıdan önemli veriler içermektedir. KAYNAKÇA Ali el-Kārî, Nûreddîn. Mineḥü'r-ravżi'l-ezher fî şerḥi'l-Fıḳhi'l-ekber. Beyrut: Dârü'lbeşâiri'l-İslâmiyye, 1419/1997. Apaydın, H. Yunus. "Zâhiriyye." Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 44: 93100. Ankara: TDV Yayınları. Bedir, Murteza. "Osmanlı Öncesi Türk Hukuk Tarihi Yazıcılığı." Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 3, sy. 4 (2005): 27-84. Beyâzîzâde Ahmed Efendi. el-Uṣûlü'l-münîfe li'l-İmâm Ebî Ḥanîfe. nşr. İlyas Çelebi. İstanbul: MÜ İFAV Yayınları, 2000. Beyâzîzâde Ahmed Efendi. İşârâtü'l-merâm min ʿibârâti'l-İmâm. nşr. Yûsuf Abdürrezzak. Kahire: Matbaatü Mustafa el-Bâbî el-Halebî, 1368/1949. Çetinkaya, Bayram Ali. İhvân-ı Safâ'nın Dinî ve İdeolojik Söylemi. Ankara: Elis Yayınları, 2003. Coşkun, İbrahim. "Kelâm Karşıtı Ehl-i Sünnet'in Usûlü'd-dîn Yorumu ve Bu Yorumun Açmazları." Marife Dergisi 5, sy. 3 (2005): 149-74. cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi 20, sy. 1 (Haziran 2016): 445-502 cumhuriyet theology journal 20, no. 1 (June 2016): 445-502 ❀ Hakemli Araştırma Makalesi / Peer-reviewed Research Article ❀ DOI: Geliş T. / Received Date: 17/03/2016 Kabul T. / Accepted Date: 25/05/2016 Yayın T./ Published Date: 15 Haziran /June 2016 Mâtürîdî Âlimi Ebû İshâk Zâhid es-Saffâr'ın Kelâm Müdâfaası Māturīdī Theologian Abū Ishāq al-Zāhid al-Saffār's Vindication of the Kalām Abdullah Demir * ÖZ Ebû İshâk es-Saffâr, İmam Mâtürîdî'nin (ö. 333/944) kelâm anlayışını benimseyen Batı Karahanlılar dönemi âlimlerinden birisidir. Telḫîṣü'l-edille ve Risâle fi'l-kelâm adlı kitaplarının içeriği, kullandığı yöntem ile Osmanlı ve Arap âlimlerince eserlerince yapılan atıflar, onun önemli bir Mâtürîdî kelâmcısı olduğunu gösterir. Bu çalışmada, onun kelâm müdâfaası konu edilmektedir. Saffâr, Telḫîṣ'e kelâm ilminin adlandırılması, önemi ve dinen meşrûluğu konusunda uzun bir giriş yazarak bu ilmin öğrenilmesi ABSTRACT Abū Ishāq al-Ṣaffār was one of scholars of the Western Qarakhānids' period who followed the Kalām thought of alMāturīdī (d. 333/944). His theological works Talkhīs al-adilla and Risāla fī alkalām, his method in kalām, and frequent reference to his works by Ottoman and Arab scholars indicate that al-Ṣaffār is a respected and authorative Māturīdī theologian. The article focuses on his defense of the kalām. By adding a long introduction to Talkhīs about the naming, importance, and religious legitimacy of the science of kalām, al-Saffār asserted that * Yrd. Doç. Dr., Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, İlahiyat Fakültesi, Kelâm Anabilim Dalı. Assistant Professor, Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology, Department of Kalām. Sivas/Turkey (). Bu makale, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi BAP birimi tarafından İLH-027 numaralı proje kapsamında desteklenen "Ebû İshâk Zâhid esSaffâr'ın Kelâm Yöntemi (Doktora tezi, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, Sivas 2014) adlı çalışmam temel alınarak hazırlandı. cumhuriyet ilahiyat dergisi'nde yayımlanan makaleler, en az iki hakem tarafından çift taraflı kör hakemlik değerlendirmesine tabi tutulur. Ayrıca intihal içermediği özel bir yazılım kullanılarak kontrol edilir. This article is extracted from my PhD dissertation entitled "The Kalām Method of Abū Isḥāq Zāhid al-Ṣaffār" (PhD. dissertation, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas/Turkey, 2014) which was supported by Research Fund of the Cumhuriyet University, Project Number: ILH-027. cumhuriyet theology journal uses double-blind review fulfilled by at least two reviewers. In addition, all articles are checked by means of a program in order to confirm they are not published before and avoid plagiarism. 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{ "creator": "Abdelkader, Dr Huda Abdel Rahim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: The ostrich industry in Egypt is an emerging economic activity, which has spread especially since 1998 on the scale of small and medium farms, some farms and large companies.\n The study deals with the study of ostriches through an analytical study in economic geography. It deals with several axes including: Ostrich industry in Egypt and ostrich species through the geographical study of ostrich production: in view of the geographical distribution of ostrich farms in ancient Egypt and recent times, Ostrich and hatchery (Incubation), nests and egg laying, and production systems used in farms designated for ostrich.\n The subject of ostrich farms deals with the types of farms, nutrition, products of ostriches, and the production of meat, leather and feathers of ostriches, along with other products such as fat, eggs, eyes and ostrich oil.\n The research also deals with diseases affecting the ostriches and treatment and veterinary fortifications. Economic feasibility and the most important problems of ostrich farming in Egypt.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDOAA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Ostrich, an Analytical Study in Economic Geography", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 69 Ostrich, an Analytical Study in Economic Geography Dr. Huda Abdel Rahim Abdelkader Ph.D. Researcher in Economic Geography Directorate of Education in Minia - Egypt Abstract: The ostrich industry in Egypt is an emerging economic activity, which has spread especially since 1998 on the scale of small and medium farms, some farms and large companies. The study deals with the study of ostriches through an analytical study in economic geography. It deals with several axes including: Ostrich industry in Egypt and ostrich species through the geographical study of ostrich production: in view of the geographical distribution of ostrich farms in ancient Egypt and recent times, Ostrich and hatchery (Incubation), nests and egg laying, and production systems used in farms designated for ostrich. The subject of ostrich farms deals with the types of farms, nutrition, products of ostriches, and the production of meat, leather and feathers of ostriches, along with other products such as fat, eggs, eyes and ostrich oil. The research also deals with diseases affecting the ostriches and treatment and veterinary fortifications. Economic feasibility and the most important problems of ostrich farming in Egypt. Keywords: ostrich, ostrich production, hatching, ostrich eggs, ostrich feathers, ostrich farms. 1. INTRODUCTION: OSTRICH The ostrich is one of the largest birds but cannot fly to its large body and atrophy its wings, native to Africa and the Middle East. However, during the ages it has been subjected to poaching that was found in the deserts of the Middle East. Another similar type of ostrich exists in Southwest Asia Where the ostrich was found in the Arabian Peninsula, and recorded its last existence in its natural environment in 1930. The ostriches weigh about 100-150 kg and their height is about 2.4 meters. The ostrich is characterized by its astounding legs, where the enemy can fly at speeds of about 60 kilometers per hour, one step up to 5 meters, and maintain that speed for half an hour. The ostrich is the only bird with two fingers in each foot. The range of birds has no claws. The ostrich lives in the family from 50:40 years, and the length of the male is about two and a half, and weighs up to 150 kg. The ostrich is the heaviest and largest bird in the whole world, and the female is smaller than that [1]. Ostriches live in the company of predators depending on what God has given to the ability of the speed of the enemy, which enables them to protect themselves from attackers [2]. The ostriches feed on plants and sometimes eat reptiles. They also eat plenty of sand to help them digest food. The breeding season starts in March to October about 8 months per year and the average egg production for females is about 60-100 eggs per season, up to 120 eggs. The ostrich egg weighs between 1 kg and 1.5 kg. The ostrich's egg alternates with the male on the incubation of the eggs, where the female embraces it during the day and the male embraces it at night. The ostrich egg is circular in shape, large in size, dark yellow and large, and ostrich eggs hatch after five or six weeks. There are currently 3 strains of ostrich birds [3], [4], [5]: 1. Red-necked ostriches: the largest, most ferocious and most resistant to disease but less in egg production produce about 8 to 12 eggs per year. 2. Blue-necked Ostriches: Medium in size and wild in color, producing about 15 to 20 eggs. 3. African black ostriches: the smallest of them is a female in the production of eggs, the female puts about 40 to 60 eggs annually and some of them put more than 100 eggs. African Ostrich (Struthio camelus) Like other ostriches have a huge body, supported by the legs large and strong used in the enemy, and topped by a long neck that ends with a small head, the legs naked. The color of the skin is different from the rest of the species, the eyes of the African ostrich are large compared to the head and decorated with long eyelashes. The male feathers are black with the end of the wings and the tail is white, while the female is very pale gray with a little white in the wings. The African ostrich is present in most African lands but extended its presence to Syria and is found in desert or semi-desert desert areas with evergreen vegetation and less dense forests. The African ostrich consists of four breeds: 1. Struthio camelus, living in the highlands of the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, on desert and semidesert lands in Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria, and reaching Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. 2. Struthio camelus massaicus, living in Eastern Africa (Kenya and Tanzania). 3. Struthio camelus australis, located in the Middle East, has been extinct since 1960, located in southern Syria and Sinai. 4. Struthio camelus syriacus, located in South Africa as well as Zambia and Quinn. The Syrian dynasty disappeared after its overfishing in the Negev Desert, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in 1960. Some samples found about 13 of this strain in Ethiopia and may be returned to the Negev desert. These four strains are threatened in Algeria, Burkina Faso, International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 70 Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Central Africa, Senegal, Sudan and Chad. As such, they are listed in the endangered red list and are prohibited from trade. [5], [6], [7]. The ostrich industry in Egypt is an emerging economic activity, with some beginning to import enriched eggs. While others began importing adult birds with the establishment of an incubation plant for ostrich eggs, nursery nurseries and playgrounds for adults. Ostrich farms began to spread since 1998 on the scale of small and medium farms, some farms and large companies, and ostrich birds of prolific birds. In addition, because of the increase in fat and high cholesterol in the human body, the thinking of sources of non-traditional protein has been mentioned, which led to the use of ostriches because of their nutritional value and its usefulness in the treatment of many Diseases [8], and evaluation of the Egyptian experience so far can be seen as follows: The ostrich industry in Egypt is a promising industry for the following reasons: 1. Provides the right environment for education throughout Egypt, including the south. Where atmospheric temperature is a determinant of many aspects of animal production. While the ostrich bears the high temperature of the atmosphere, and has already been the establishment of successful farms for small and large cattle in Beni Suef and Aswan, and the production of eggs and hatchery, but so far hatchery in the central hatcheries major, and encouraged these weather conditions on the trend of many breeders in Europe to establish farms For cattle in Egypt in partnership with Egyptian investors. The ostrich industry in Europe faces problems of low temperature, high land value, high labor costs, and problems of animal rights associations opposing animal slaughter, including ostriches. 2. The sandy, poor and desert lands are suitable for the establishment of ostrich farms, and farms have been successfully established in the areas of Egypt-Alexandria Desert Road, Ismailia Desert Road, Wadi Al Malak and Salihiya, Ahmed Orabi, Eastern 'Awainat, Nubaria Amriya and other desert and reclaimed areas. 3. Egypt also has a geographical location and is a center for consumption in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Encouraging local and foreign investors to invest in the ostrich industry in Egypt. 4. The availability of cheap labor reduces production costs compared to other production areas in Europe, America and Canada [9]. Geographical distribution of ostrich farms in Egypt, both ancient and modern: The first map shows the locations of ostrich farms spread in southern Egypt and Western Sahara. The geographical factors that are necessary for raising ostriches are the high temperature, the desert land, the presence of sand and gravel, where ostriches are adapted and cultivated in this environment, this map represents the period from 1900 to 2011 (fig. 1), [10]. The second figure shows the geographical distribution of the ostrich farms in 2018 in addition to the farms mentioned in Figure 1, and distributed as follows: Alexandria, Giza, Cairo, Al-Qalubia, Beni Suef, Al-Dakahlia, Al-Gharbia, Aswan and Sinai (fig. 2). fig. 1. Distribution of the ostrich in Egypt from 1900 to today. Source: Manlius, Nicolas. The ostrich in Egypt: past and present, Journal of Biogeography, France, 28, pp.945953, fig.4. fig. 1. Distribution of the ostrich in Egypt today 2. GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS AFFECTING OSTRICHES 2.1 Temperature and relative humidity The sun rises throughout the year in Egypt with relatively low humidity, as the rise of relative humidity in the atmosphere increases the mortality rates in the early ages of the ostrich, and provides the opportunity to develop various diseases. Egypt also has desert land, which is suitable for raising ostriches where it can withstand relatively high temperatures because it is originally a desert bird [11]. 2.2 Water Sources: Limited freshwater resources make an ostriches bird the ideal bird in breeding. Where he International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 71 can drink salt water, eye water and well water, because there is a gland to regulate salt in the body of ostriches. 2.3 Fodder: Desert areas can be cultivated with feed materials that are included in ostrich diets, which are headed by alfalfa clover. 2.4. Cost: The cost of producing ostriches in Egypt is lower than productivity in other parts of the world, such as America, Canada and Europe. 2.5 Market: Egypt has an important geographical position. The ostrich market of meat, hides, hatching eggs, ostrich chicks and adult ostriches is spread around the Middle East, Europe and Asia [12]. 2.6 Select the location of the farm: Some ostrich farms are located inside the villages, but it is recommended to choose the location in the desert lands are cheap and suitable for the nature of ostriches and its behavior and requirements, in addition to the availability of land at a low price is a fundamental part of the economics of the ostrich industry, the need for ostrich farms for large areas of land, The site is characterized by the availability of water that is not polluted and suitable for education and subsistence, as well as that the water is suitable for irrigation, so as to grow clover, especially the type of Hijazi farm itself, because of its importance in the diets and nutrition of ostriches. It makes up about 75% of food at all stages of life. Therefore, the following points should be taken into account in the site of establishing an ostrich breeding farm: The site should be away from sources of pollution, noise and banks, away from poultry farms, and should provide bumpers for wind and natural umbrellas (trees) and industrial and implementation of construction materials as simple as possible and easy to clean and disinfect. Consider that the engineering design of the farm serves the movement of the workers, in a one-way line from the sound bird pens to the sheds of diseased birds, and from the smaller bird pens to the larger bird pens, and not the other way around. The need for a housing for birds suitable height of the ostrich, and have a sloping roof to protect from rain, the room door must be at least a meter and a half to facilitate the exit and entry of ostriches, and can be room 4 birds and away from the currents of air, and to have farms stores for feed coarse and concentrated Technical conditions and specifications that allow storage and maintenance of feeds from corruption and pollution. Generally when planning to set up a farm ostrich must finish construction work before the arrival of birds to the farm. As the completion of the construction in the presence of birds stress on them, and negatively affect the production, and the printing of these birds, and vary the space needed by birds according to several considerations, including: the age of the bird, the productive purpose, and the area planted with green fodder, and also the potential of the available breeders, Shelters should be provided from the buildings and directed towards the sewers so that they can be easily cleaned and disinfected. An outdoor shaded skylight covering 20% of the area should be provided to protect the chicks from direct sunlight. It is recommended that the walls of the brothels for chicks be less than 3 months mobile so that the barns can be expanded with the increase of age, the bird needs from one day to one month to an area of 1-5 square meters, and from one month to three months to 5-8 square meters allocated Of which 20% are shelters, and the rest are as umbrellas, and from 3-6 months to 20-30 square meters, of which 10% are shelters. Ostrich birds that raise to produce meat from the age of 6-12 months to 60 square meters of bird, and the floor of barns sandy level, with umbrellas make up 10% of the floor area. Or ostrich birds until the age of 6 months need walls 1.5 meters high, and be Adjacent to the surface of the earth, and need ostrich birds for more than 6 months to the wall about 2 meters high [13], preferably the walls of the network wire flex plastic covered so as not to hit the birds when the collision. The establishment of monsters to isolate the birds newly received and the last of the sick animals preferably in a location far from the rearing of education, taking into account that the height of the shelters is not less than 3 meters, and the ceiling is oblique, with the need to grow shade trees, and windbreaks between barns. The availability of feeders in the external fishes in the absence of green lentils, and vice versa in the sheds, preferably 120 x 15 x 35 cm, and the measures should be available 60 x 15 x 75 cm inside the pens and in the sides of the fishes, A ceramic basin lined with ceramic tiles, and the floor of the pens for the adult birds shall be spread with sawdust or hay, while avoiding the use of the chicks until 3 months in order to prevent any digestive disturbances. The least area of habitats that can be used in the breeding of mature ostriches is male + 2 females to get the appropriate chicks about 1000 square meters with the availability of umbrella 6 × 9 meters, and consider the provision of 2-3 meters between the barns to serve and prevent contact and quarrels of males, but This doubles the cost of investment in the walls, and that the doors in terms of the sides of the barns at an angle of opening 90 degrees, noting the ease of opening and closing. What we know today about spawning ostrich eggs is still very little, and there is still many and many that we do not know about the hatching of ostrich eggs. Therefore, it is necessary to intensify the research necessary to study all factors affecting the success of hatching ostrich eggs to ensure a high hatch rate, and thus increase the spread of such a lucrative industry with the provision of all the help of farmers to researchers to help them to achieve the best results. 2.7 Transportation: The ostrich can be transported by specially designed cages, and the ostrich can be moved International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 72 by a horse carriage, a two-wheeled or four-wheeled trailer. The adult ostrich can be moved in a large truck, the barrier should be covered with a suitable material, and the ostrich should be placed in a small storage shed before being loaded in a few hours until it is easily grasped and not weakened by fatigue or fatigue. And we have to route it through the barrier with flying light after another, bearing in mind that the shipment the unloading must be patient and long-lasting. In the case of long distance shipping: it is better to book in the evening and then travel at night, in order to ensure that in a state of stillness and quiet also must be taken to take food and abundant water before being transferred because after being booked completely abstain from eating. Egg transport needs special attention if the roads between the barns are not paved, which may lead to breaking the eggs, thus losing part of the capital during transportation. The egg should be kept in a shaded place that is not exposed to sunlight or air temperature. Used to collect eggs in a special basket after reaching the point of receipt of eggs, because they are the main source of egg contamination when lifted from the ground and transferred to the point of receipt in the hatchery building. 2.8 Storage: The humidity in the storage room should not be less than 70% and the temperature in the storage room is 4 m. This results in negative results where the plastoderm is frozen. Also, the temperature rise to above 20 m leads to the beginning of the division slowly, which has bad results on the rate of hatchery. If the conservation period is more than 7 days, this is done at a temperature of 12-515, the humidity of 75-80%, and the humidity in the storage rooms is important for the evaporation of water from the eggs, which leads to increased loss of egg weight. The hatching rate is affected by the hatching rate. In general, the hatching rate decreases gradually if the conservation period is more than 5 days to reach 0% at the twenty-fifth day even though the temperature and humidity in the previous limits. The loss of fluids in the eggs of ostriches, which leads to a defect in the composition of the body organs, and for the size of the chick ostriches and weaken, the embryos and chicks adhere to the crust and die [15]. And increase the humidity in the garden works on the slow passage of water vapor and the waste of respiration Ostrich embryo out through the pores of the crust is affected by growth and the fetus is distorted and the resulting ostrich clot is bulging lazy abdomen loose body, leading to slow decompression of chickpeas chicks, and the temperature of the atmosphere to 46 degrees Celsius During the house-laying season, egg production is low and the pollination rate is low. Birds do not have an ethnic glands to get rid of excess heat in the body. Ostrich birds have the potential to raise body temperature by 7 and 4 degrees Celsius above normal. [16] 3. OSTRICH PRODUCTION 3.1 Incubation Is to obtain new offspring as a result of mating parents to produce fertilized eggs (With embryos) and then maintain the vitality of this embryo after laying the egg and allow him to complete the growth during the incubation period and hatch to give a healthy chick. Hatching can also be defined as the provision of all appropriate natural conditions (temperature, humidity, ventilation, flipping, etc.) necessary for the growth of embryos in fertilized eggs resulting from successful mating during the incubation period. Females from the black-necked African ostrich develop the first egg at the age of 18 months, while males are able to fertilize at the age of 24 months (two years). The duration of hatching varies depending on the domestic species, and in the ostriches is an average of 42 days, twice the incubation period in the chickens where the incubation period reaches 21 days. The egg laying period then stops and this cycle can be repeated again depending on the production status of the herd. The most important productive traits recorded for a flock of black-necked ostriches in South Africa [17]. Average production Productivity 120 The length of the egg production season (today) 50 Number of eggs / mother (egg) 20 Length of egg chain (egg) 80 Fertility rate (%) 80 Hatching rate of fertilized eggs (%) Source: The General Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs, State of Kuwait Hatching is either done naturally (by ostriches as happens in the wild and natural environment), or artificially using automatic machines of different capacities and sizes. Although all the farms are currently producing ostrich eggs industrially, one must give an idea of what is happening in life Wild of ostrich birds towards eggs during incubation period. The rate of hatchability of ostrich eggs in three wild nests in Kenya was between 86.80-100%, although the hatching rate was about average 50% in the case of artificial spawning. There is a significant variation in the weight of ostrich eggs, ranging from 350-2200 g, but most of the production of eggs is between 1300-1700 g (average 1500 g). The weight of one egg of ostrich eggs weighs 25 eggs (average weight 60 Grams) that is, one egg for ostriches sufficient for food 10-12 individuals. In general, egg size is small at the beginning of the egg-laying season, as are modern mothers of small size and weight. The egg specifications are not suitable for hatching, where the thickness of the crust is low less than 1 mm (while the average thickness of the shell suitable for spawning ranges from 1.7-2 mm). The ratio between yolk and white within the egg is at the expense International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 73 of low yolk, Food needed for the growth and development of the fetus. In the mating period, one male can take care of more than one female, but to ensure the highest rate of fertilization, it is preferable to have only one female or two female females. In general, 30% of the herd is counted in the form of vaccinated males. The incubation time for ostrich eggs varies according to species, and averages 42-43 days. It is preferable not to leave eggs for long periods without fry to avoid the early growth of embryos in eggs. It is recommended to collect eggs at least twice daily and clean and store at low temperature Physiological zero (21 m), and the relative humidity in the range of 75-80% for a period of not more than 10 days, and then transferred eggs to industrial hatcheries. Currently, there are hatcheries and specialized hatcheries in the market for the ostrich eggs. The basic needs of hatchery (heat, humidity, ventilation, flipping) are different in ostriches compared to other types of poultry. Physiological needs of hatching in ostriches [17] Disagreements Hatching machines Physiological needs 3 Days 39 Days Duration General note: There are many differences in scientific references in terms of reducing temperature with increasing relative humidity in the hatching machines as happens in chickens, on the other side there are some recommendations using the same rates used in hatchery machines. 37.5 m (1st + 2nd + 3rd week) 36.5 m (4th + 5th Week) temperature Ranging from 25-40% to record the percentage of loss in the weight of the egg and be within 13% Relative humidity The air in the hatchery machines must be continuously replenished 90 -120 feet 3 / hour of air is calculated for each 200 ostrich eggs this corresponds to the aerobic needs of 1000 chicken eggs room Ventilation temperature at 23 m and concentration of oxygen and second gas Carbon dioxide in the range of 20.95%, 0.03% respectively. But there is a consensus that the flipping will not stop completely in the hatches so that the newly hatched chick can exit without any difficulties. As in the chicken, after hatching, leave the chicks for a few hours until they dry completely and not exposed to any air currents In the hatchery machines, eggs are allowed to be stirred once or twice / hour (depending on the type of machine). Some designs allow eggs to be stirred 4 times a day. This means that the eggs are stirred once every 6 hours with notes that the eggs are placed in the trays at 45 degrees. Flipping Source: The General Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs, State of Kuwait International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 74 As for nests and laying eggs, ostrich usually does the nesting of nest eggs in multiple places and environments. The nest is either in forests, grasslands, plains, grasslands or dry river paths, as well as open or open areas. The nest is usually simple and superficial with a simple hole devoid of any lining or brushes. It is often done by male (sometimes assisted by the female) and is almost in the middle of the barn or track where the male lives. The nest may be used for several consecutive years there are no environmental disasters or any other problems, and the time of laying and laying eggs varies according to geographical area. The main female begins to lay the eggs in the nest made by the male. In addition, most of the eggs in the nest are usually produced and the minor females also lay their eggs in this nest. Eggs are usually laid after the age or before the evening. Although the light color of the eggs and the brightness of its crust, which makes it clear to some enemies such as the Egyptian vulture, the white egg shell can reflect about 98% of the ultraviolet and ultraviolet rays that reduce the penetration of heat into the eggs [18], the presence of any embryos developing at the beginning of spawning in eggs exposed to the sun for 15 days or more and left in the nest without the care of parents. During egg laying and even incubation, the egg loses about 2.88 grams a day of its weight. That is, for the egg weighing 1500 grams, placed in the first egg laying series, it loses about 4% of its weight until the beginning of the hatchery and control of eggs. Many researchers have studied the temperature of the nest air and egg temperature during the period of natural hatching. The nest temperature was found to be 31.5 31.8 ° C, while the average length of spawning in another study was 36.1 ° C. It was also found that males maintain a nest temperature much higher than females [19]. 3.2 Production systems used in farms allocated for cattle The production systems followed by the ostrich breeders vary according to the purpose of the production activity, and the selection of each system will be determined by the capital invested and management to achieve the maximum success of the project, and one of the most important operations known to the ostrich breeder is the production of eggs and raising young people up to 3 4 months [20]. The following is a description of the production systems: Productive Families System: Under this system, one male is allocated for each female or female, and each family is raised in a separate barn. The aim of this system is to obtain fertilized eggs for the production of suitable chicks for the purpose of breeding, replacement or sale to others. This system requires large areas and high construction costs. The breeder has expertise in different fields of production, and disadvantages of this system when exposed or the presence of some reproductive problems in males, the loss is significant because of the lack of access to fertile eggs, so you should choose males high fertility efficiency and review the proportion of fertility and the replacement of ostriches if necessary. Productive Productivity System: Under this production system, a number of males and females are raised in a separate barn where three males are assigned to every 8 or 10 females in a productive group. The presence of more than one male in the group increases the fertilization rate of the resulting eggs and improves the production of broiler chicks. Sometimes a fight between males, leading to the rule of the strongest male in the group and holds the largest number of females, and thus reduced the proportion of eggs fertilized. 3.3 Ostrich farms Types of ostrich farms: Ostrich farms: It specializes in the production of ostriches and the raising of ostrich chicks from the age of one or three months to the age of 9-10 months (cycle of ostriches in ostriches within 10 months), where the weight of ostriches at the end of the cycle to 90 or 100 kg, the characteristics of this type of farms that With limited capital, do not require high experience, and do not need a large cost in private buildings and facilities. Ostrich eggs production farms: In this type of farms, breeding male and female producers to obtain eggs fertilized, may be hatched in the farm or move to other places, and these farms need large capital, a large area of land, and high technical expertise, and a large number Relative employment, high-efficiency, high-cost operation equipment and multiple facilities [21]. Ostrich farming: In this type of farm, ostriches are raised from (1 day 3 months) until reaching the productive stage (sexual maturity), whether male or female. This type of farms is characterized by the need for high investment for employment, large playgrounds for ostrich, a large area of land for the cultivation of alfalfa, and a relatively large number of workers, given the length of time that ostriches are found on the farm. When starting ostrich breeding, the breeder will provide both buildings and the internal or external playground system suitable for the purpose of production and then study the costs necessary to complete the facilities and provide the required inputs and methods of obtaining the good and the appropriate price. Next, determine the numbers of the ostrich birds collected and how to obtain them from their reliable sources. Success factors of ostrich farms: Obtain the ostrich's chick from a reliable source [22]. Do not purchase ostriches from hatching eggs first or last season. Verify the strain type where good genetic characteristics. Ensure the age of birds purchased where their needs differ for the heating and the appropriate area and their needs for nutrition. The buildings of the barns, in terms of the location of the farm should be away from the poultry International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 75 farms and noise, and the quality of the land on which the pens and playgrounds should be level, and take into account the areas of doors and windows (the area of the windows not less than 20% of the floor area). Do not expose ostriches to stress where stress is poorly reflected on the rates of growth of ostriches and the efficiency of conversion of fodder to meat, and the factors that lead to stress: Ostrich exposure to poor transport conditions and long distance, and the transfer of ostriches from a barn to another fold, and ostriches to noise and severe disturbance, an increase in the number of ostriches in a limited area of amber, sudden change in the quality and shape of feed, drinking ostriches for poor quality of water or thirst, as well as the exposure of ostriches to external insects and flies. The farms located in Egypt to raise ostriches and specialized in different age stages: Specialized farms: include 6 to 8 capacity of 200 1000 chick per year, and the number of small farms capacity of 10 50 chick per year. hatcheries: from 5 to 6 large hatcheries with more than 500 eggs (500 eggs every two months), from 10 to 15 small or medium broiler capacity of 100 eggs every two months or less. 3.4 Feeding ostriches Proper and balanced nutrition is a determining factor for the success of ostrich production projects, especially during the critical production periods of the bird's life. Food should contain the various components of protein, carbohydrates, fats, mineral salts and vitamins. Green and coarse. In addition to concentrates to avoid overheating due to excessive intake of concentrated dry feeds only. The ability and efficiency of ostriches to digest fibers is similar to that of ruminants with the difference in gastrointestinal composition. Nutrition is the largest proportion in any animal production project, which amounts to 60 to 70%. This applies to the production of ostriches, for the largest requirements with the continuity of that length of the year, as any defect in this factor will cause health and economic problems for the project is difficult to overcome easily. It is necessary to pay attention to the installation of the bush well and be integrated so as not to change the bird from the production of eggs to the production of fat in the body is the undesirable situation in the ostrich projects. The bush should also be appropriate in shape and size. Adult ostrich birds feed on green leafy leaflets. One bird can eat from 1.5 kg to 3 kg. It should be free of fungus, mold or weeds and be provided to birds after cutting them so that they can be easily eaten with good mixing of fodder. The importance of the green bush: Green diet plays an important role in the nutrition of ostriches, as it provides some of its needs of vitamins and minerals, as provided by an important element of the food is the fiber that works to alert the movement of the digestive system of the ostrich, and also help to get rid of the remnants of the body [23] [24]. Directorate of Agriculture Feed Section The best source of green clover is clover, and the best types of clover is Hijazzi (which is cultivated in desert places and reclamation lands), and the best varieties that are cultivated in Egypt are African varieties such as: Mwaba Sonora Mizasirsa Sersa No.9 Maxidor Manador, And when water is available for irrigation, a number of cuts can be taken up to 8-9 years per year. The importance of Hijazzi Clover is attributed to the fact that most of the cultivated fodder is of global importance and is of high nutritional importance, and the characteristics of alfalfa are the same types of perennial plants [25]. [26] [27] among its benefits: 1. Stabilization of atmospheric gases this adds approximately 80-100 kg of atmospheric nitrogen to the soil per feddan per year. 2. Improve soil properties by adding organic matter. Intensive Care: There are five types of feeds used to feed ostriches in proportion to age and production status as follows: Feed Badi: Contains crude energy of 2500-2600 kcal / kg, crude protein 20-22%, raw fiber 5-6%, this feed is used to feed chicks from one day to one month alone, and from 2-3 months coarse feed is used by 10% % With feed starting. Nami Feed: Contains energy representing 2400-2500 kcal / kg, crude protein 19-20% crude fiber 78%, and is used in feeding birds from 4-6 months with the use of alfalfa by 10% with growing fodder. Feeding fattening: Contains an energy representing 2300-2400 Kcal / kg, crude protein 17-18%, crude fiber 910%, and is used in feeding birds from the age of 7-14 months with the use of clover alfalfa by 17% with fattening feed. Preserving fodder for off-season production: Contains an energy representing 2000-2100 Kcal / kg, crude protein 16-17%, raw fiber 11-12% and is used in feeding birds outside the production season, with the use of alfalfa alfalfa by 16% with preserved feed. Produce during the mating season: It contains 2300-2350 kcal / kg of raw energy, 2122% crude protein, 910% crude fiber, and is used for bird feeding during the mating season and egg production, and 23% for alfalfa. In addition, some things related to food and drink should be taken into account when raising ostriches: 1. Care not to overcrowded on the scales and feed. 2. Ensure the dryness of the diet not to grow fungi on it and not exposed to direct sunlight for a long time because this leads to the loss of vitamins. 3. Mix well and not use any moldy ingredient. 4. Always use fresh veggies in front of birds, by eliminating the remaining diet without consumption when developing new diets. 5. Laying the feeds after dawn and before sunset in abundance in hot climates because the birds consume the largest amount of the bush at these two times. International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 76 6. Do not increase the temperature of the water provided about 30m. 7. Gradually change the diet and slowly if necessary change. 8. Put the chopped green juice with the other diet to encourage ostriches to consume, as well as to facilitate the passage of food in the digestive tract. 9. Put birds of equal weight at the age of 7 days together. 10. Place the gravel and small stones in front of the birds to eat them to help complete the digestion process. 4. OSTRICH PRODUCTS 4.1 Meat production of ostriches Ostrich meat is the top of the product because of its quality and its advantage of low fat compared to red meat and white, it is almost free of cholesterol, the enemy of the heart, since the proportion of meat to fat is 99%, and the concentration of meat in the thighs that contain the best pieces of meat in birds, The ostrich is completely free of meat and is completely discarded after slaughter, and ostrich meat is similar to beef in terms of texture, taste and appearance. Red meat is 60-63% of carcass weight, and ostrich meat is high in protein and iron and low in cholesterol, fat and energy, and is an alternative to red meat, especially for patients. The ideal age for slaughtering ostriches is from 12 to 16 months, with a weight of 100 kg. The slaughter of birds weighing less than 75 kg is not acceptable. The factors that helped to attract ostrich meat: Halal meat slaughtered according to Islamic law. Type of red meat and resemble beef Meat fiber is soft, easy, quick cooking and easy to digest. Contains the lowest percentage of visible fat and the lowest cholesterol and highest iron ratio [28]. 4.2 Ostrich skins The skin of ostriches is considered to be one of the finest, highest and most expensive skins on the market. The method of skinning and separation of the skin affects the skin's rank, which is a major factor in the sale and purchase. The person performing this work must have the experience and skill in skinning the skin so that the owner of the farm has a high skin rank and may lose the validity of the skin for sale. As for the storage of leather, salts can be used at a rate of 5 kg of salt per piece of skin (ostrich) and then stored at 4 ° C. The skin of the ostriches is the main product of the ostrich, the feathers and the meat, which is considered a byproduct of ostrich in many countries of the world. Leather accounts for about 80% of the monetary value of the carcass and the rest is the value of feathers and meat. Ostrich birds at the age of about one year and weighing about 100 kg produces 103104 square meters of leather. It should be noted that there are no specialized tanneries but attempts have been made to tan ostrich skin locally, and positive results have been reached [29]. 4.3 Production of feathers of ostriches Feathers are produced from 102-105 kg. Feathers are collected once every 12 months. The male is about 50 feathers weighing one kg at a time. Feather distribution is concentrated in the back, thighs, wings and tail. The areas below the thighs, chest, under the wings and stems are not feathers at all, and it is common to collect live birds once a year, and the removal of feathers of birds slaughtered manually and without water or auxiliary tools. 4. 4 Other products for ostrich Ostrich oil: The production of ostrich oil of about 15 kg, and uses the fat in the manufacture of some ointments used in the treatment of some skin infections and pain and inflammation of joints and muscles, as well as cosmetics, which used thousands of years ago to help increase the freshness of the skin and beauty of its ability to alleviate Dark marks, and wrinkles that appear on the skin [20]. Ostrich eggs are about 24 eggs in weight, and ostrich eggs are used in feeding either grilled, fried or boiled (2 hours boiling for maturity). Ostrich eggs have a great taste and are large enough to accommodate four people with good appetite. They weigh about 1.5 kilograms and weigh up to 120 kg. The ancient Egyptians used eggs that were not enriched after they were opened as food utensils. Today, its use in decoration and decoration is used as a work of art and drawings with patterns engraved with exquisite designs and attractive artifacts. [30] Ophthalmic eyes: Some of the medical studies conducted on the eyes of ostriches can be used in the grafting of the cornea of the human eye, for similarity in the structure, and is currently in the world to establish specialized banks to save the eyes of ostriches so that it can be used in some surgeries, which are still in the experimental stages. [31] What are the advantages and disadvantages of ostrich oil? What is its source? The pure ostrich oil is taken from ostrich oil and is non-viscous with vitamin E. It contains omega-6 and omega-3, and cells can not replenish it to compensate for body deficiencies. It is effective in the treatment of rheumatism, muscle relaxant and skin softener. It helps to clean skin cells and increases hair growth. It helps to clean the skin from the signs of acne and eliminates wrinkles. It has been proven effective in the treatment of burns and eczema, and treatment of rheumatism, arthritis, cartilage, osteoporosis and painful pain in the joint [15]. 5. OSTRICH DISEASES 1. 5. Diseases that are affected by ostriches and treatment [30]: Viral diseases Bacterial diseases Parasitic diseases Other diseases such as lack of vitamins and calcium and loss of appetite and lumbar types and poisoning of all kinds. International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 77 The sources of infection, which transmitted through the disease to the ostriches, including [30], [31], [32]. Transmission of diseases from adult ostriches to young children. Import ostriches from infected farms. Other poultry farms nearby (eggs fattening water birds rabbits ... etc) as well as cattle farms. Wild birds (called vertical infections), which leave their offspring carrying disease with ostrich pastures. Rodents, reptiles and insects. External parasites (ticks lice Fash ... etc). Unhealthy, sick and mobile labor between different farms. Polluted vaccines and poor care. Prevention is better than treatment: the need for workers to clean the barn every day or day and day and collect the waste and transport off the playground to maintain the cleanliness of the bird and also the possibility of use as organic fertilizer and not leave any metals or nails or pieces of glass can reach the bird may easily swallow it without discrimination Which may cause the death of the bird, taking care not to mingle nearby workers who work in poultry farms nearby and not to enter the ostriches [33], [34], [35]. Therefore, the process of immunizations veterinary is a means of protection of ostriches, which follows the bird species in that it acquires all poultry diseases that may infect poultry, and therefore vaccinated young children of the second week of hatching Newcastle vaccine [30]. Ostrich slaughterhouse The slaughter, processing and packing of ostriches in poultry slaughterhouses issued by ministerial decision to actively slaughter, prepare and mobilize poultry can be done manually after applying to the General Authority for Veterinary Services under the following conditions: Detection before and after slaughter under the supervision of veterinary doctors. Period of validity of frozen ostrich meat for six months until the issuance of standard specifications for this type of meat by the livestock production sector. Obtain a veterinary certificate approved by the veterinary medicine within the scope of the farm. The weight of the ostrich to be slaughtered shall not be less than 75 kg and shall not exceed one year of age. Slaughter is done according to Islamic law. Implementation of the book of animal production no. 3121 of 14/12/1998 that since ostriches can be classified under the specifications of poultry. Therefore, the process of seals and data on ostrich meat are indicated on bags of packing. 6. ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF RAISING OSTRICHES: Ostrich is characterized by excellent economic feasibility for the multiplicity of products that can be sold does not depend on a single product, where the sources of income: * The process of breeding and propagation and production of eggs mothers chicks. * Meat Production Skin Feathers. * Industries based on bird extracts, such as: skin industry feathers oil bones waste. By comparing the production of ostriches and cattle production, the cow needs about 5 kilos of food, which turns it into only one kilo of meat. The ostrich needs 2 kilos of hegazi to convert it to 1 kg of meat. A table showing a comparison of a pair of ostriches and a pair of cattle Livestock Ostrich Face comparison 1 One year 25 A break in the year Production of chicks or calves 2 5 kg feed = 1 kg meat 2 kg feed = 1 kg meat Amount of feed 3 250 kg meat 800 kg of meat Quantity of meat produced during the year 4 EGP 130 EGP 250 Price of kilo meat 5 30 feet normal leather 300 feet luxury leather Skin production 6 Fertilizer Dairy Bone Feathers Oil Eyes Bones Other products 7 A table showing a comparison of a pair of ostriches and a pair of cattle 6.1 Study of the feasibility of the egg mothers project in ostriches: The cost of establishing a herd of ostriches is 6 birds of 2 males and 4 females = 32,000 pounds. Calculation of feeding costs for 6 birds x 2 feeding x 30 days x 12 months = 4320 pounds. Calculate the resulting feathers harvested 3 times a year (6 birds x 3 = 18 kg x 100 = 1800 pounds) Calculation of eggs produced by mothers per year (10 eggs x 4 mothers = 40 eggs or 40 Chicks). Calculation of the preparation and nutrition until the age of two months (40 chick 500 pounds [the price of incubation and nutrition for two months] = 20000 pounds). Or (40 chick x 2 (daily food value] x 30 days x 6 months fattening = 14400 pounds = total cost = 20000+ 14400 = 34400 pounds]. When the ostriches arrive at the time of marketing, the number of 40 can be calculated as follows: (40 chick x 1500 pounds per price = 60,000 pounds) 60000 the price of chicks produced 34400 Total cost = 25600 pounds Profit return during the first year and can increase during the second production year. The economic return increases by increasing the production of eggs and increasing the total number of chicks. For fattening birds, they are marketed at the age of 8 months and are sold to breeders at the age of two months and keep fattening for 6 months after purchase. In order to calculate the cost of food and purchase it has a yield of 18% at the end of the period of fattening. International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 78 The economic feasibility of fattening birds can be calculated as follows: 25 fattening bird x 1500 pounds = 37500 pounds purchase value. Calculation of nutrition costs in 6 months 25 x 2 x 30 days x 6 months = 9000 pounds. Total purchase and food costs 37,500 + 9000 = 46500 pounds. The yield can be calculated at a profit rate of 18% after sales at the age of 8 months. 25 x 18% = 8370 pounds [36]. [38], [37] 6.2 The most important problems of raising ostriches in Egypt 6.2.1 Professional manpower: Lack of technical manpower, expertise, doctors and nutrition experts specialized in the breeding and propagation of ostriches. 6.2.2 The capital required for investment in ostriches. The establishment of an ostrich farm for the production of ostriches consisting of 6 females and 3 males, about 100 thousand Egyptian pounds, requires fixed costs, as opposed to the variable costs of feeding, breeding and breeding of young people. About 150 thousand pounds until the production begins, and the birds reach the age of slaughter. 6.2.3 The low rate of fertility and hatching rate: increase the mortality rate of chickpeas from hatching until the age of 2-3 months, and the low rate of growth and problems of foot-wrap in young age, and finally difficult to market the final products of ostriches, and the most important reasons for the decline in the proportion of eggs enriched Male fertility, nutrition and egg contamination before and after the hatchery, and to overcome these problems must be made sure that the males mature sexually, where it is difficult to estimate the age of male after the change of feather color to the distinctive black color of the male (at the age of a year under the conditions of Egypt). Therefore, the source of purchase must be made of the age of males. The male is about two years old (redness of the beak and the front skin of the legs and dancing characteristic of sexual desire), but the male is not fertilized until the age of 4 years. The most important factors affecting the law hatching rate and the rate of early and late death is the temperature of the hatchery (36.4 ° C) and the percentage of moisture (20-25%) and depends mainly on the percentage of weight loss during the incubation period or 39 days and then transferred to the hatchery For about 4 days), flipping (about 6 times daily at 90 ° angle), ventilation rate and pollution, and the most important problems that have been shown to affect early and late death of the fetus. Coli. A number of infected eggs were analyzed during the incubation period and newly hatched chickpeas, which did not absorb the sack. Which is found to be sensitive to the treatment of amoxicillin and gentamicin, so it is recommended to ensure that the eggs are cleaned well after the collection immediately and before entering the hatchery and should be cleaned of the hatchery after each session, and give a preventive dose of Amoxicillin for three days after starting to feed Young children (about 4 days or more after hatching). 6.2.4 Death occurs due to lack of adequate heating, where the temperature should not be less than 25 ° C at night. Otherwise, the resistance of the bird will be reduced to various diseases, [6] and death due to cholestyridium. The problems of torsion of legs are often due to problems in the incubation, so be sure to adjust the temperature and humidity in the hatchery or problems in nutrition, where it must cover the nutritional needs of protein and mineral element and vitamins and balance between them, and after many scientific research access to the relationship, the requirements of ostriches are not covered, nor do they cause problems of sliding ligaments, and lead to the best growth rates, taking into account that the fish powder may lead to the destruction of the lining of the quince. It is also recommended not to use animal protein in the feeding of ostriches at any stage of growth. As for the death of the embryo in its initial stages of development, at high temperatures, the cells inside the egg may begin to divide without incubation of the eggs by the mother, which destroys the embryo inside the egg, thus no hatching occurs. 6.2.5 Suitable playgrounds for raising ostriches: There should be suitable breeding grounds for ostriches at different age levels. The preferred education is on cement floor with half covered and half covered playgrounds, with well-ventilated and heated sleeping areas and suitable bedding. Place rice straw or hay in small ages so as not to lead to death due to intestinal infection) until the age of 3-4 months depending on the temperature of the atmosphere during the cold weather, but the area of the stadium is less than 5 m 2 / bird and prefer rectangular playgrounds and increase the area to 20 m 2 For each bird up to the age of 10 months or marketing, which does not require in this case places covered or Places to stay, but umbrellas must be provided with an area of about 10%. The most important thing to keep in mind during the breeding period is to free the playgrounds from any foreign bodies, especially the broken glass, wires or shiny objects, and provide clean fresh water (salinity does not exceed 1,000 ppm), with water changing as the temperature rises, feeding on fodder Green, such as clover and lettuce, to be cut into small, age-appropriate parts with partial drying of the alfalfa, in addition to dry feeds. Ostrich's prefer green pots for water and food, and do not favor blue or red. A quantity of gravel should be available to fit in size with the size of the big finger nail, depending on the age of the bird, which helps to grind the food in the quince. Afternoon to sunset). And provide a similar area for breeding for the purpose of fattening within the area of acres of land for 30-40 birds, and the existence of a parachute area of 3050 square meters / fed under the tires placed by feed and old buildings to watering birds, so as to heat the feed and International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 79 water by the temperature of the sun, Affects the health of the bird. The establishment of the farm will also consider the possibility of future expansion in terms of land area or building designs, considering that the farm accepts continuous growth as a result of the success of the project, especially when producing products that are famous for the farm in the market at the start of production. National income, the provision of hard currency, the promotion of tourism and the utilization of desert lands. 6. 2. 6. Marketing Problems: So far there is no Egyptian market for ostrich products so that the producer can sell its products according to supply and demand. The breeders depend on the companies supplying the marketing of the final products. The local market should be encouraged and standard specifications of meat, skin and ostrich feathers produced in Egypt should be established. Export of these products, with the need to create a market for ostrich products through information campaigns and work to provide high quality products and disseminate information about these products in various ways and means for both the consumer and the producer at the same time, owing to the high capital costs of the infrastructure of the ostrich industry from the costs of production and processing of feed, slaughterhouses, tanning and manufacturing of finished products, an economically viable regulatory framework such as cooperatives or producer associations must be established, based on the adoption of specialized production and marketing units and the production and marketing integration processes between the producers themselves [21]. 6.2.7 Ostrich massacres: One of the most important problems of the spread of ostriches is the absence of massacres licensed to slaughter, which has already started more than an investor in the extraction of licenses required, and was the establishment of a licensed abattoir meets the health conditions, and also attention to dandruff is the second most important producer of ostriches and its manufacture in Image of luxury leather products, many attempts are now underway to get to that rather than exporting raw skin. 6.2.8 Lack of scientific research: To encourage scientific research in the nutrition, breeding and reproduction of ostriches by establishing scientific centers specialized in scientific research, in training breeders and producers, and to cooperate with them in solving the problems facing them. It is worth mentioning that an oasis farm And a scientific training center for ostriches and methods of breeding and production in the Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, as well as provide scientific and guidance publications for educators, producers and investors in the ostrich industry. 6.2.9 The role of workers in ostrich farms: The interest of workers in providing feed and water per day for birds, while calculating the rate of consumption of birds for feed, which ranges from 1.5: 2 kg per day, if less than the limit can be a pointer to the health disorder of the bird. The workers should keep the neck from the bottom of the head directly, leading to the suffocation of the bird or breaking his neck, and also to the eyes of the bird with a special sock where the bird can be controlled when blocking vision, and should not try to catch the bird by force if the bird is raised and difficult to control, it must be left to calm down. 6.2.10 Problems of low fat in slaughter ostrich: One of the most common problems that meet ostrich breeder to obtain meat is the complaint of the belly fat layer, where the thickness is not more than 0.5 inches (12.7 mm), noting that the normal fish must be From 1 to 1.5 inches (38 mm). The reason for this may be in the exposure of birds to exertion or stress during the day, which accelerates the lack of fat, as the breeder works to reduce the rate of nutrition is not enough food for the birds need for energy and maintenance of life, or the breeder is working to reduce the rate of nutrition and the food provided to the birds is not enough for energy and maintenance of life, or that the breeder provides birds with an imbalance and does not contain the necessary nutrients, when feeding the birds, be sure to provide the diet quantity and quality required within 24 hours the least. 6.2.11 Problems of meat production and specifications of good bird: The problems facing the product are how to reach the specifications of the production of meat to get a high price. 6.2.12 Nutrition problems low nutritional value: birds require continuous follow-up, even after the introduction of the recommended courses and follow-up continuously, if it is still weak, the daily amount should be adjusted upward, and if the results are clear must be changed to a different slide Of the diet (nutrition) with a higher percentage of protein, as the protein enters the formation of cells and immune bodies and hormones, and lead to a decline in antibodies to diseases, and reduced the ability of the bird in general to the effects of feathers and color protein deficiency. 6.2.13 Problems related to the damage of wild birds (in fattening farms): harmful wild birds, the most important of which are the Nile birds and migratory birds of the country from central and southern Europe to escape the cold of winter and in pursuit of food. These birds are avid to eat food such as starlings, And the problems caused by these wild birds to eat very large quantities of grain from the fodder found in the outside, so the remainder of the feed does not represent the balanced diet needed by the chicks. 6.2.14 Nuisance and stress: In young ostriches appear stress as a result: The intensity of overcrowding and overcrowding. Changing the ocean around her suddenly move her to a new place. Sudden change in the quality of the diet. Education system. Excitement or pain due to a condition in the abdomen. The presence of external parasites [32] [39] [38]. International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 80 7. CONCLUSION  The agricultural development in Egypt and the serious attempts to develop agriculture in all fields, including the field of agricultural investment in general and investment in the field of animal production in particular, which led to the spread of ostrich farms in Egypt, for example, production farms and ostrich breeding in the areas of reclamation West of Nubaria, on both sides of the Egypt-Alexandria Desert Road, Ismailia Desert Egypt, the Belbeis Desert and the Upper Egypt, and Toshki and East 'Awainat.  The ostrich is the largest modern bird on the face of the earth and belongs to the group of birds that can not fly, but it is famous for its speed in running and called the Arabs with camel birds because of the size of his body and the length of his neck and ability to live in the desert and semi-desert, and ostrich is primarily a pastoral bird falls under the platoon Grasses are not birds of prey.  The breeding and production of ostriches has gone through stages. The interest in feathers and then in skins and then increased attention to meat, which is considered to be one of the best red and white meat, because of its low cholesterol, calorie and sodium content. The Arabs considered it a supernatural meat and it cured many diseases such as rheumatism On the healing of the wounds of the bodies that cared about the raising of ostriches in Egypt, the Ministry of Agriculture and scientists at Suez Canal University and the Faculty of Agriculture Kafr El-Sheikh and the National Center for Agricultural Research.  Egypt has been interested in studies on nutrition and sent veterinarians for training in the farms of South Africa to supervise the new ostrich farms in Egypt, and the number of ostriches in Egypt more than a thousand ostrich and its age does not exceed 8 years of the price of one of them between 2-16 thousand pounds depending on production and age.  Egypt is considered one of the best places to establish the industry economically for the availability of the sun, as well as low humidity, which is dangerous to the young in addition to the production of Alfalfa Hijazi most of the season, which starts from March to November.  Egypt has started to raise ostriches in Egypt as a recent economic project a few years ago and on scientific bases in the field of propagation and production of ostriches by establishing the first ostrich production company as a joint venture between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in Ismailia.  The company works to produce improved breeds and supply them to the market and buy the product from other farms to market it and have a role in transferring the experience to new investors in order to help to expand the advancement of this industry, followed by one of the companies specialized in raising mothers such as the Egyptian Company for breeding and propagating ostriches.  Currently, there are 4 companies in Egypt working in the field of propagation of ostriches and was licensed by the Ministry of Agriculture, where it is not necessary to establish the farm is the availability of sandy areas and distance from agricultural land not suitable for education.  And all the advantages enjoyed by Egypt calls for the expansion of this industry so that Egypt can compete in the global market, where some countries in the Middle East to reach high rates in the production of ostriches and developed their production became an ostrich chick gives at the age of 6 months about 100 kg of weight and not after a year of breeding. It also managed to increase the amount of meat and shorten its legs.  The South African country has monopolized the production of ostriches for about 150 years. It used to raise natural feathers for feathers. Then the production systems developed to include other ostrich products. Finally, global attention has begun to establish farms for cattle in some countries, including Egypt. This is due to the high rate of return to invest in its field compared to other projects.  The consumption of ostrich meat is new in Egypt because consumers do not return to it, which requires some time to get used to consumption, in addition to the higher selling prices locally compared to the prices of the sale of red meat, such as cattle and sheep, and demand for ostriches meat is limited to visitors to hotels and restaurants.  As evidenced by the many types of ostriches, depending on the color of the neck, and the variety of systems used to raise ostriches in Egypt.  Ostrich farming has more than one system, and can work more than one breeding system within a single farm. Several important things must be taken into account when starting a project, including farm size, location, climate, and funding.  The management is one of the most important factors that work on the success of any farm, along with the calculation of all the necessary components, and study the structure of the functions and tasks assigned to each worker with the knowledge that ostrich farms do not require many labor.  It should also be noted in the end for anyone who wants to raise ostriches that the best systems of ostrich farming is a single male trio system with two females.  In addition to all the above, attention should be paid to some important points when carrying out an ostrich breeding project:  Leather tanning must be kept in accordance with international export standards.  Slaughter and prepare Ostrich meat and sell it at different outlets and pay attention to its production according to international quality standards.  Establish industries to make the most of ostrich feathers and grease.  The interest in studying the most suitable and lowest priced nutritional structures to provide appropriate International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR) ISSN: 2000-006X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 69-82 81 rations for the Egyptian and the different Arab regions on the basis of scientific basis.  Solve the problems of low fertility, by providing high-quality strains guaranteed production, and treatment of diseases affecting fertility and provide appropriate rations.  Pay attention to the training of technicians in the establishment of farms and breeding and care of ostriches.  To solve egg incubation problems by working to provide local or imported hatcheries at suitable prices and training on how to use them.  Solving marketing problems by developing ostrich products and establishing a consumer market for these products.  Construction of the infrastructure of the ostrich industry.  Establish an association of ostrich producers in each region to regulate the production market for cattle. 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{ "creator": "Al Shobaki, Mazen J.", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1565257958000, "description": "The study aims to identify the efficiency of the university education performance from the perspective of postgraduate and undergraduate students in international and Palestinian universities. The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose and the questionnaire was used as a main tool for data collection. The study community consists of: post graduate students, (23850) graduate students and (146355) undergraduate students. The sample of the study was 378 graduate students and 383 undergraduate students. The random stratified sample was used. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was also used for data analysis.\n The study reached a number of results, the most important of which are: The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of postgraduate and undergraduate students was high. And that there are significant differences between the average views of the sample of the study on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University and to the benefit of international universities.\n The study concluded many recommendations, the most important of which is the necessity of continuing to develop e-learning strategies that affect the efficiency of educational performance and research commensurate with the university's position in the local and international community, which puts it on the best classification between local and international universities through e-learning.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDPEO-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Performance Efficiency of University Education from Students Perspective", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 10 Performance Efficiency of University Education from Students Perspective Samia A. M. Abdalmenem 1 , Rasha O. Owda 2 , Amal A. Al hila 3 , Samy S. Abu-Naser 4 , Mazen J. Al Shobaki 5 1 Department of Management and Financial Business, Al-Quds Open University 2 Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine 3 Department of Management and Financial Business, Palestine Technical College, Dair Al Balah, Palestine 4 Department of Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine 1 Samia.monen@gmail, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Abstract : The study aims to identify the efficiency of the university education performance from the perspective of postgraduate and undergraduate students in international and Palestinian universities. The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose and the questionnaire was used as a main tool for data collection. The study community consists of: post graduate students, (23850) graduate students and (146355) undergraduate students. The sample of the study was 378 graduate students and 383 undergraduate students. The random stratified sample was used. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was also used for data analysis. The study reached a number of results, the most important of which are: The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of postgraduate and undergraduate students was high. And that there are significant differences between the average views of the sample of the study on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University and to the benefit of international universities. The study concluded many recommendations, the most important of which is the necessity of continuing to develop e-learning strategies that affect the efficiency of educational performance and research commensurate with the university's position in the local and international community, which puts it on the best classification between local and international universities through elearning. Keywords: Efficiency, university performance, students, universities. 1. INTRODUCTION Universities are one of the most important institutions of comprehensive development. They are responsible for preparing and qualifying human resources in the light of scientific and technological progress. Faculty members in the universities are the most important elements of the educational process, and the most important reasons for the success of universities in achieving their social goals. Therefore, evaluating the performance of university faculty members and uncovering the factors that prevent them from performing their role properly is a good indicator of the interest of a generation of students who contribute to the advancement of society. Therefore, it is important to improve the quality of higher education in its reflection on the efficiency of educational performance in its components from the content of educational programs, activities, curricula, modern technology, its ability to suit the abilities of learners and the diversity of objectives and decisions and its contribution to the sustainable development of institutions of higher education (Al Shobaki et al., 2018), (Abu-Naser et al., 2018). (Al Shobaki et al., 2017), (Abu-Naser et al., 2017). Student assessment of teachers in the United States and other countries is used as a key factor in decisions about teacher retention or promotion. Therefore, the performance of faculty members in universities is the cornerstone of scientific and academic activity, and is the most vital and important elements and occupies a prominent position in higher education institutions in different countries of the world (Al Shobaki et al., 2018), (El Talla et al., 2018), (Abu-Naser et al., 2018). (Al Shobaki et al., 2017), (El Talla et al., 2017), (Abu-Naser et al., 2017). The experience of Palestinian universities in the efficiency of performance is weak when compared to international universities. The study attempted to identify the level of educational performance from the perspective of students in universities. 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT Palestinian universities face challenges in the level of efficiency of educational performance, which are highlighted by the lack of reliance on modern technologies in the educational process, as well as the refusal of some academics in the universities under study culture of change, in addition to the weakness of the infrastructure and educational content, which limits the ability of universities International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 11 to develop educational performance compared to international universities and also may reflect on the efficiency of educational performance in universities, whether positive or negative. In light of the above, the problem of the study can be determined by the following questions: Q1-: What is the level of efficiency of educational performance in international and Palestinian universities from the point of view of (undergraduate students and postgraduate students)? Q2-: Are there significant differences between the average views of the study sample on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University? 3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 1. To reveal the level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities. 2. Comparison between Palestinian and international universities in terms of the level of efficiency of educational performance. 3. To come up with some recommendations that could contribute to highlighting weaknesses in educational performance and how to strengthen them. 4. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS 1. The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of graduate students is high. 2. The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of undergraduate students is high. 3. There were significant differences between the average views of the study sample on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University. 5. RESEARCH IMPORTANCE 1. The current study is an extension of the previous studies on the efficiency of educational performance. It is also in response to the previous studies which called for the need for further studies that address the factors that increase the efficiency of university performance. 2. This research adopts the method of comparative measurement, which is the most effective way to develop new ideas and practices, and to achieve development and improvement by discovering deficiencies in relation to the best, and then to prepare universities to avoid shortcomings, and to determine the degree of difference between some of the international universities under study, And benefit from the international environment in increasing efficiency of performance. 6. RESEARCH LIMITS AND SCOPE 1. The objective limit (academic): The study was limited in its objective to study the efficiency of university education Performance from the Perspective of Students 2. Human Limit: The study was conducted on postgraduate students, and undergraduate students at the universities. 3. Institutional Limit: The study was conducted on the Islamic University, Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, University of Munster, University of Ottawa and Suez Canal University. 4. Time Limit: The study was conducted in 2018. 7. LITERATURE REVIEW  Study of (Abdalmenem et al., 2018) aimed to identify the efficiency of the university education performance from the point of view of the faculty members and their assistants in international and Palestinian universities. The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose and relying on the questionnaire as a key tool for data collection, and the study community consists of the faculty members and their assistants (375). The random stratified sample was used, and the Statistical Program of Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. The study found that the relative weight of the areas of efficiency of educational performance was high at 82.33, and the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of faculty members and their assistants in international universities was average (4.20), for Palestinian universities, the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of faculty members (3.30). The study concluded many recommendations, the most important of which is the importance of the senior management to develop standards that help to increase the efficiency of performance, while for international universities work with the Palestinian universities and provide them with expertise in this field.  Study of (Andi Jaman, 2016) aimed at identifying the impact of the work environment and the culture of the organization and the performance of lectures interactively on the program of Master of Management at the University. The most important findings of the study that there is a relationship and a positive impact on job satisfaction and the performance of lectures in universities. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 12  A study (Limam et al., 2014) aims to identify how to improve the quality of students' composition, increase their ability and ability to participate in the construction of their formative path, and to address the improvement of educational performance according to the views of the faculty of the University of Ouargla. The main findings of the study were that there is a close relationship between the quality of supervision and the quality of outputs of higher education and that a member of the faculty contributes to improving the supervision process.  Study of (Abdul Aziz, 2013) aims to identify the strategies and teaching methods used by faculty members with their students, identify the obstacles that prevent the use of modern teaching strategies and methods by faculty members in the faculty, and determine the personal and professional requirements available in faculty members to manage teaching. The most important findings of the study are that some of the personal characteristics have some degree of negativity that should be abandoned by the faculty member and that a percentage of faculty members are afraid to show a smile in the face of students, and that they do not have creativity.  The study of (Beni Mostafa, 2012) aims to provide specifications for the evaluation of students in various academic programs, the dissemination of the culture of the original calendar, and to identify the training needs of the faculty member associated with the evaluation. The main findings of the study were that there is a great awareness among faculty members about the need for development methods and training of faculty members to prepare measurement tools. The results showed full agreement on the need to use technological innovations and mechanization.  The study of (Al-Dijani, 2011), aims to identify the quality of institutional performance in universities, identify the role of strategic planning in achieving the quality of institutional performance in universities, and provide clear and specific performance indicators. The most important findings of the study were the availability of the dimensions of the quality of the institutional performance in universities significantly. And the availability of dimensions of quality of institutional performance (after philosophy, mission, and goals), by a large percentage.  The study of (Kaki, 2011) aims to identify the procedural steps to improve the quality of university performance, and to identify the requirements to improve the quality of university performance, and access to mechanisms to improve the requirements to improve the quality of performance in universities. The most important findings of the study is that there is a vision and a message for each faculty and management emanating from the vision and mission of the university to which it belongs. An appropriate working environment is available to provide all the technical needs and equipment that contribute to improving the quality of university performance.  The study of (Al-Nakeb, 2011), aims to analyze the elements of the educational process in both academic and support, and focus on the elements of the educational process and academic elements, and to develop the efficiency and quality and good selection of faculty members, as well as improve and modify plans and curricula in line with the Omani environment, and to try to develop a clear and defined road map for the development of curricula for these colleges. The most important findings of the study were that there was a defect in the distribution of materials at the level of school years on the one hand and the classrooms. There is a large failure in the issue of scientific supervision and coordination of central and sub-courses of some of the courses without taking into account the level of academic certificate, and there are problems in the availability of books in terms of time, quantity, and type as well. The scientific material is limited to courses on the PowerPoint classes, which is insufficient and the absence of active contributions by the faculty.  The study of (Abdel Hamid, 2010) aims at developing students' cognitive, practical and technological proficiency in order to improve their performance, increase their scientific expertise, and train the technical support body, and the introduction of computer in the educational process to develop the spirit of innovation among students. The most important findings of the study were that the quality of the graduation projects affects the development of the educational institution's performance and its responsibilities towards the community. The lack of planning and objectives leads to poor performance of the student. And that reliance on active participation and increased opportunities for creativity will achieve interests and objectives.  The study of (Hamouda, 2009) aims at characterizing the University's performance, evaluating the performance of the Suez Canal University according to the Baldrige standards of educational excellence, and showing the deficiencies in the performance of the university by comparing the principles and the scientific foundations of the study. The performance. The most important findings of the study were that the relative importance of the standards of excellence management among the research community according to sectors and jobs is different. The lack of necessary information on the university's websites on the Internet, the failure to adopt e-mail as a document of administrative work at the university, and the use of computers as typewriters. Comment on previous studies: The previous studies dealt with the requirements for the success of educational performance and the efficiency of educational performance in universities. Some studies also examined the relationship between e-learning and improving educational performance, including Abdalmenem et al. (2018) and Nasser et al (2014) there is a scarcity in the studies that dealt with this subject, especially in the Arab region, which gives special importance to the current research. All the previous studies have used the analytical descriptive method, and the method used is different. Some used the comprehensive survey method, others used the sample method, and others used the case study method. The current study is International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 13 consistent with the methodology used, the descriptive analytical approach and agreed in the tool used, while differed in terms of the dimensions covered by the study, and the time period. 8. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK It can be said that universities, scientific research centers, specialized scientific and academic institutes have a special nature in their activities, and fields of work. Universities are research centers first, where they seek to enrich scientific, intellectual, and cognitive, as well as scientific centers for the graduation of competencies, and human cadres fully qualified to meet the needs of local and external labor institutions. In addition, universities are advisory centers that provide excellent services to businessmen, civil society, local and regional communities that serve them. First: Performance efficiency: 1. Performance efficiency concept: The concept of competence: There are several concepts related to the concept of the performance of educational institutions, which relate to the quality of performance, where the performance of the institution is measured by three indicators: (efficiency, effectiveness, productivity), and the study will address the concept of efficiency; because it has to do with the variables of the study (14). Al-Tarawneh (2012) defines efficiency as the ability to perform an assignment and refers to outputs related to the acquisition of minimum capacities and skills. Al-Jaadi (2014) defines it as a rational use of the trade-off between alternatives, choosing the best ones in a way that reduces costs or maximizes profit. Some authors have shown that efficiency is the proper functioning of the business, and the definition shows the correlation between efficiency and performance. Some authors have defined performance as an attempt to obtain specific facts or data that would help analyze and evaluate an employee's performance, behavior, and behavior over a specified period of time, and assess the extent of technical competence, scientific, practical and scientific process of present and future(16). The researchers consider that the institution puts efficiency in the priorities of its objectives, in terms of the good use of available resources, and the possibility of investing time well investment to serve the educational process, and working hard to sustain and sustain efficiency, and the optimal and safe use of natural resources, including the preservation of the environment. Concept of educational performance The researchers tackled the concept of educational performance from different perspectives of some writers such as Abu Glawa (2014), which he defined as all the teacher's teaching practices in order to achieve the desired goals and includes all the activities and educational procedures that are carried out to raise the educational performance of the teacher to empowerment, Students' achievement is one of the most important indicators of educational performance. The researchers note that the educational performance is the result of all the skills and knowledge gained by everyone who participated in the educational process, where the performance contributes to raising the efficiency of both students and institutions. During the previous definitions, the researcher was able to reach a plan for the concept of educational performance as shown in the figure Figure 1: The concept of educational performance International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 14 Source: Prepared by the researchers. The researchers note that the educational performance is the result of all the skills and knowledge gained by everyone who participated in the educational process, where the performance contributes to raising the efficiency of both students and institutions. Through the researchers' presentation of the previous definitions, the concept of competence is closely linked to educational performance, which is outputs and inputs, and contributes to the accelerated technological scientific development process in the world, where there is an integrative relationship and a correlation between the concept of efficiency and performance. It has highquality inputs, and efficiency is linked to the ability to perform at a certain level of performance, as well as the ability of the education system to achieve goals. In summary, performance is the work to be done in a measurable manner, and efficiency is directly linked to performance and affects the learning process (Al Shobaki et al., 2018), (El Talla et al., 2018), (Abu-Naser et al., 2018). (Al Shobaki et al., 2017), (El Talla et al., 2017), (Abu-Naser et al., 2017). The importance of efficient educational performance The performance of educational institutions is of increasing interest in all developed and developing societies. Everyone is working to improve the performance of their educational institutions because of its impact on the rates of economic and social development. (Al-Dasouki, 2014), and educational performance is important for its benefits that contribute to the development of the educational institution, as follows (Al-Shammari, 2013): A. Educational performance and its role in the coordination and development of knowledge: The teacher interacted positively with the latest developments and changes in the world in accordance with the philosophy of education and its objectives, and adopting scientific knowledge and modern methods. Helps the teacher to train students on self-education and lifelong learning. Helps the teacher to discover his students' knowledge, information, creativity, and material integration. B. Educational performance and its role in the development of thinking skills: Supports classification which includes the mental processes of analysis, synthesis, etc., trying to interpret the event, providing what supports this explanation of justifications, and providing evidence that supports performance. Instructs students to set standards for their opinions and foundations, and learn how to evaluate arguments. C. Educational performance and its role in the development of higher education and university: The focus is on the development of basic sciences, the use of modern educational systems, the trend towards multiple studies and disciplines that keep abreast of global developments, and the expansion of the format of technological institutes. Evaluating the experience of the private universities that have been established as tributaries of the official university education, follow-up of the educational process, evaluating the students, completing the teaching staff, the apparatus and the private establishments. The importance of educational performance is seen in the Merrill (1983) model from two angles: the main teaching method, and the type of educational content. The method of education is to explain the general information, the level of educational performance is the level of information recall, the level of application, and the level of discovery, and these methods are combined to improve the performance of learners, providing the opportunity to examine, discovery, and the ability to call information in a timely manner without waste And refers to the set of strategies used by the teacher during the learning process in order to stimulate the thinking of his students, and increase their motivation to learn by implementing their skills in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation, which help in the development of skills T. 9. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY Study Method: The researchers used the analytical descriptive approach, which is based on the study of the phenomenon as it exists in reality. It is concerned with a precise description, expressed in qualitative and quantitative terms, and thus draws conclusions on which the proposed approach is based. The researchers used two main sources of information: 1. Secondary sources: where the researchers went to books, references and related Arab and international, periodicals, articles and reports, research, previous studies, research and reading in various Internet sites. 2. Preliminary Sources: To address the analytical aspects of the study, the researchers sought to collect the initial data through the questionnaire as a main tool for the study, designed specifically for this purpose. The researchers prepared two questionnaires to investigate the sample of the study as follows: 1. A questionnaire for postgraduate students. 2. A questionnaire for the undergraduate students. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 15 ThirdStudy Society: The research community included: (graduate students and undergraduate students) in the Palestinian and international universities, namely: Islamic University, Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, University of Munster, University of Ottawa and Suez Canal University. The number of graduate students was (23850), and (146355) undergraduate students as illustrated in the following table: Table 1: Distribution of the Community of the Study (Postgraduate Students and BA) The University Postgraduate Students Undergraduate Students Palestinian Universities Islamic University 987: 9877: Al Azhar university 776 990:7 Al-Aqsa University 927 9:997 Foreign Universities University of Munster 6700 726:6 University of Ottawa 7929 36042 Suez Canal University 9277 17297 Total 29960 977966 Source: Based on university statistics by 2018. FourthlyThe study sample: The researchers adopted the stratified random sample by the University the Study Groups, faculty members and their assistants. A sample of 30 samples was chosen to test the internal consistency, structural honesty, and stability of the questionnaire. The sample was calculated so that the sample size is as shown in the following table: Table 2: Distribution of the sample of the study according to the name of the university The University Postgraduate Students Undergraduate Students Palestinian Universities Islamic University 29 77 Al Azhar university 99 97 Al-Aqsa University 2 62 Foreign Universities University of Munster 907 992 University of Ottawa 900 :7 Suez Canal University 999 76 Total 989 999 Source: Researchers based on university statistics. Characteristics of the study sample: The following is a breakdown of the sample of the study according to the personal data of the postgraduate students and the undergraduate students. Table 3: Distribution of the sample of the study for the identification of postgraduate students and undergraduate students Age group Postgraduate Students Undergraduate Students Repetition The Ratio Repetition The Ratio 20 less than 24 38 13.4 100 35.7 24 less than 28 years old 21 7.4 130 46.4 From 28 under 32 years old 91 32.0 37 13.2 Of 32 less than 36 years 46 16.2 7 2.5 36 years and over 88 31.0 6 2.1 Source: Researchers prepared statistical analysis. It is clear from the previous table (3) that the highest percentage in the trend toward postgraduate studies was the age group that is limited to (28-32 years). This indicates the students' awareness of the importance of education and acceptance of the culture of scientific research. SixthStudy tool: The researchers prepared the study tool to measure the "efficiency of educational performance in universities" SeventhThe questionnaire is valid: The questionnaire is meant to measure the validity of the questionnaire in two ways: 1. The researchers presented the study tool in its preliminary form to a group of arbitrators consisting of (24) academic, administrative, professional, statistical and educational technology specialists. The researchers responded to the opinions of International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 16 the arbitrators and the necessary measures were taken. From deletion and modification in the light of the proposals submitted, and thus the questionnaire was finalized. 2. Authenticity of internal consistency: Honestly, the internal consistency means the consistency of each paragraph of the questionnaire with the area to which this paragraph belongs, and the researchers calculated the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The internal consistency of the resolution paragraphs is confirmed: Table 4: shows the sincerity of the internal consistency of the paragraphs of the questionnaire No. The Axis Postgraduate Students Undergraduate Students 1. View educational content 0.889** 0.000 0.883* 0.000 2. Educational environment 0.997** 0.000 0.907* 0.000 3. Educational goals 0.762** 0.000 0.855* 0.000 ** The correlation was statistically significant at α≤0.01. * The correlation is statistically significant at α≤0.05. It is clear from the above table that the paragraphs of the questionnaire have statistically significant correlation coefficients, indicating that all the paragraphs have high reliability coefficients, and thus all fields are considered to be true for the measurement. Answer to the study question: The question states: What is the level of efficiency of educational performance in international and Palestinian universities from the point of view of undergraduate students and graduate students? The questionnaires were analyzed using the cognitive tests (one sample T test) to determine the average response scores. Class (3) is considered neutral, and it represents (60%) on the scale of the study. Table 5: The arithmetic average, the relative weight, the value of the T test, the moral significance of the axis of the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of graduate students and the undergraduate's degree No. Efficient Educational Performance Degree SMA Standard Deviation Relative weight% Test value Morality pvalue Ranking View educational content Postgraduate 4.14 0.63 82.80 34.76 0.000 Undergraduate 9.97 0.67 87.90 26.76 0.000 1. Stimulates electronic content to attract attention Postgraduate 4.26 0.78 85.14 27.00 0.000 3 Undergraduate 3.70 0.84 73.98 13.95 0.000 97 2. The identification of e-content facilitates the learning process Postgraduate 4.27 0.74 85.37 28.73 0.000 2 Undergraduate 3.95 0.51 78.99 30.78 0.000 9 3. The electronic content assesses the needs for activities Postgraduate 4.13 0.82 82.54 23.26 0.000 7 Undergraduate 3.73 0.80 74.68 15.25 0.000 96 4. Scientific electronic content is comprehensive and accurate Postgraduate 4.01 0.90 80.14 18.71 0.000 15 Undergraduate 3.61 0.96 72.13 10.56 0.000 98 5. The electronic topics in the course are adapted to modern technology Postgraduate 4.12 0.65 82.41 28.81 0.000 8 Undergraduate 4.00 0.74 80.00 22.43 0.000 6 6. Electronic learning content is characterized by multimedia Postgraduate 4.27 0.67 85.37 31.73 0.000 1 Undergraduate 4.04 0.71 80.86 24.34 0.000 9 7. The intended electronic content matches the terms and conditions Postgraduate 4.18 0.85 83.56 23.08 0.000 4 Undergraduate 4.04 0.58 80.79 30.09 0.000 7 Educational environment Postgraduate 4.05 0.72 80.96 34.49 0.000 Undergraduate 9.:2 0.77 89.79 29.:7 0.000 8. The University offers security and privacy protection programs Postgraduate 3.90 1.05 77.95 14.40 0.000 18 Undergraduate 3.99 0.88 79.71 18.70 0.000 7 9. The lecture is characterized by many multimedia Postgraduate 4.17 0.81 83.45 24.47 0.000 5 Undergraduate 3.93 0.79 78.56 19.49 0.000 : 10. The e-learning system provides an appropriate learning environment Postgraduate 4.13 0.80 82.69 23.96 0.000 6 Undergraduate 3.62 1.15 72.33 8.97 0.000 97 International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 17 11. The electronic lecture through LCD devices helps in my understanding of the material Postgraduate 4.12 0.76 82.32 24.62 0.000 9 Undergraduate 4.10 0.73 82.01 25.09 0.000 9 12. There is a global network that supports elearning Postgraduate 4.04 0.88 80.85 19.97 0.000 13 Undergraduate 3.97 0.77 79.50 21.15 0.000 8 13. The e-learning environment achieves the goals and mission of the university Postgraduate 4.09 0.80 81.83 22.96 0.000 11 Undergraduate 4.06 0.69 81.15 25.63 0.000 2 14. The e-learning environment contributes to the integration of students and teachers Postgraduate 4.05 0.89 81.02 19.48 0.000 12 Undergraduate 3.85 0.91 76.92 15.52 0.000 90 Educational goals Postgraduate 3.99 0.84 79.72 19.77 0.000 Undergraduate 9.82 0.88 87.76 96.26 0.000 15. E-learning contributes to change in one's behavior Postgraduate 3.92 1.06 78.38 14.58 0.000 16 Undergraduate 3.85 0.91 76.92 15.52 0.000 90 16. E-learning works better Postgraduate 4.10 0.87 81.91 21.13 0.000 10 Undergraduate 3.82 0.84 76.49 16.47 0.000 99 17. E-learning achieves the desired results Postgraduate 4.04 0.80 80.77 21.91 0.000 14 Undergraduate 3.80 0.80 75.97 16.67 0.000 92 18. E-learning contributes to the mission of the university Postgraduate 3.92 1.03 78.37 14.96 0.000 17 Undergraduate 3.75 0.95 75.05 13.26 0.000 9 Efficient educational performance Postgraduate 4.07 0.66 81.40 32.95 0.000 Undergraduate 3.84 0.59 76.82 29.8 0.000 The value of (t) of the table at the level of significance of 0.05 is about 1.98 From the above table we draw the following conclusions: The results of the postgraduate students agreed on the eighth paragraph (the university provides security and privacy protection programs). It ranked last with a relative weight of 77.95%, an average of 3.99, a test value of 14.40 and a probability of Sig = 00.00. Which is below the level of significance (0.05). Therefore, this paragraph is a statistical significant at the level of significance (α≤0.0), indicating that the average response to this paragraph exceeded the degree of neutrality to a high degree. The researchers believe that universities use protected programs to keep information confidential, and maintain a huge database that provides researchers with knowledge. The results of the postgraduate study were based on the sixth paragraph (e-learning content is characterized by multiple media), ranking first with a relative weight (85.37%), mean (4.27), test value (31.73), and probability value (Sig=0.000) which is below the level of significance (0.05). Therefore, this paragraph is a statistical significant at the level of significance (α≤0.05), indicating that the average response to this paragraph exceeded the degree of neutrality to a high degree. The researchers believe that e-learning depends primarily on the use of multimedia as it increases the element of excitement and excitement of students and motivate them to follow up and attention to the educational material. The students of the undergraduate's degree agreed on the eleventh paragraph (the electronic lecture through the LCD devices contributes to the understanding of the material). It is ranked first with a relative weight of 82.01%, an average of 4.10, a test value of 25.09 and a probability of Sig = 0.000, which is below the level of significance (0.05). Therefore, this is a statistical significant at the level of significance (α≤0.0) , indicating that the average response to this paragraph has increased the degree of neutrality very high, The researchers attribute this to the fact that Palestinian universities provide about 70% of the screens in the classrooms, Li smart board (interactive). Undergraduate students see that paragraph 15 (E-learning contributes to change in one's behavior) ranked last with relative weight 89.79,)% ) and an average arithmetic (3.85), the value of T test (15.52), and the probability value Sig = (0.000) which is below the significance level (0.05). Therefore, this paragraph is a statistically significant at the level of significance (α≤0.05), indicating that the average response to this paragraph has been considerably more neutral. This means that there is an agreement by the respondents on this paragraph. The researchers believe that e-learning contributes to the refinement of the skill of students, and organizing the study plan because it requires contact and communication with the teacher even after the end of the school day. In general, students (postgraduate and undergraduate) agreed that there is an efficiency in educational performance with an average of (3.84, 4.07) respectively, which means that there is great approval by the sample on this axis, Improve the use of inputs to obtain efficient and effective outputs that contribute to increasing quality in universities. The results of the study agree with a study (Bernard, et al., 2012) that emphasizes that the performance improvement mechanism can help policy makers to develop educational policies. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 18 10. RESPONSE TO THE HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY: 1. The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of graduate students is high. Table 6: The arithmetic average, the standard deviation, the value of (T) and the relative weight of the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of graduate students The Field The University SMA Standard Deviation Relative weight% Test Value T Morality pvalue Efficient educational performance Foreign Universities 4.09 0.68 81.72 17.16 0.000 Palestinian Universities 3.95 0.48 79.05 17.16 0.000 Table (6) shows that the relative weight (81.72%) and the arithmetic mean of the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of graduate students in international universities (4.09) is significantly higher than the default average (3) to a large extent, the test value (T) was equal (17.16), which is statistically significant at (0.00). Researchers attribute this to international universities' provision of quality educational services that help graduate students to access knowledge in an easy and an inexpensive way. As for the Palestinian universities, the relative weight (79.05%) and the arithmetic average of the efficiency of the educational performance from the point of view of graduate students (3.95) and the value of (T) is equal to (17.16) and is statistically significant value (0.000). The researchers attribute these to Palestinian universities are trying hard to reach the competitive advantage in graduate studies and provide the best scientific curricula and the latest. Therefore, we accept the alternative hypothesis where it became clear that the level of performance efficiency was high in the local and international universities from the point of view of postgraduate students. 2. The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of undergraduate students is high. Table 7: The arithmetic average, the relative weight, and the value of (T) for the efficiency of educational performance from the point of view of undergraduate students The Field The University SMA Standard Deviation Relative weight% Test Value T Morality pvalue Efficient educational performance Foreign Universities 3.94 0.56 78.79 17.16 0.000 Palestinian Universities 3.82 0.62 76.34 17.16 0.000 Table (7) shows that the relative weight (78.79%) and the arithmetic average of the efficiency of the educational performance from the perspective of the undergraduate students in international universities (3.94) which is significantly higher than the default average (3). This is a statistically significance at value of (0.00). The researchers attribute this to the fact that international universities are continuously seeking development, access to the overall quality of scientific education, and provide educational and recreational services that help to attract high quality education. For Palestinian universities, the relative weight was 76.34% and the mean of the educational performance efficiency was 3.82. The value of T was 3.33 and the statistical value was 0.000. The researchers attributed this to the universities' attempts to reach the efficiency of the performance required by the Palestinian Quality Authority to obtain international rankings in the classification of universities, in addition to the competition that urges universities to excel. Therefore, we accept the alternative hypothesis as the level of efficiency of performance in local and foreign universities was high from the perspective of undergraduate students. 3. There were significant differences between the average views of the study sample on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University. Table 8: Results of the "ANOVA" test for the efficiency of educational performance from the students' point of view The Field Averages Test Value F Probability (Sig.) Al Azhar University Islamic University Al-Aqsa University Suez Canal University University of Ottawa University of Munster Postgraduate and BA students 3.55 3.81 3.60 3.99 3.97 4.24 96.:0 0.000 From the above table, the researchers conclude that the view of postgraduate and undergraduate students was as follows: It was found that the probability value (Sig) corresponding to the "mono-variance" test was less than the significance level (α≤0.0) for the total field (increasing the efficiency of the educational performance) (0.000), indicating that there were significant differences between respondents' on the increase in the efficiency of educational performance attributed to the university variable, and the differences in favor of the University of Munster, followed by the University of Ottawa, and then the University of Suez Canal. This shows the interest of international universities in education and scientific research. The researchers attribute this to the International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 10-24 19 universities' roots and classifications Where the University of Ottawa was classified as the fifth university on the universities of Canada, Suez Canal University was ranked as one of the top ten universities in the Arab world by scientific research. In view of its website, which it is distinguished in providing services to customers from within and outside the country. Palestinian universities were followed by international universities and Suez Canal University. The researchers attributed this to the financial deficit in these universities, because of the siege on Gaza Strip, in addition to expert migration, and also Israeli occupation prevent importing some materials that are used in scientific research. This finding is consistent with the study by (Auranen, Otto & Nieminen, 2010), which showed that the UK, Australia and Finland are more efficient in providing an appropriate funding environment for scientific research than other countries. Abdul Hamid, 2008, has differed in the fact that the low effort makes the researcher use the easiest methods, which are produced by simulating the research performance of the past. This is known as the research methodology, the low motivation for scientific research and the absence of creativity in the selection of topics for study. We accept the assumption that there are statistically significant differences between the Palestinian and international universities towards increasing the efficiency of educational performance attributed to the University. 11. RESULTS The results showed that the level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of graduate students is high. The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities was also high. There are significant differences between the average views of the sample of the study on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the university and to the benefit of international universities. 12. RECOMMENDATIONS The development of e-learning strategies that affect the efficiency of educational and research performance should be continued in line with the university's position in the local and international community, which places it on the best classification among local and international universities through e-learning. Using the appropriate technological environment and e-learning content, with the development of the Internet, and linking it with the site of international universities, where it works to support Palestinian universities. Make an educational day for faculty members who use e-learning. 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"Value added, an introduction to the development of the performance of educational institutions, the National Center for Educational Research and Development, the Anglo-Egyptian Library. [97]Al-Dijani, Iyad Ali (2011). The role of strategic planning in the quality of institutional performance, University of Damascus, PhD thesis published. [98]Al-Jaadi, Sharifa. (2014). Measuring operational efficiency in banking institutions, unpublished PhD thesis. [99]Al-Nakeb, Kamal. (2011). Development of the educational process and its impact on improving the service of the university performance (applied study on the international business management program in the faculties of applied sciences in the Sultanate of Oman). [100]Al-Shammari, Yousef Bin Saeed. (2013). Organizational culture and its relationship to improving educational performance from the perspective of students of King Khalid Military College, unpublished Master Thesis, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Saudi Arabia.
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{ "creator": "Ijeais, Ijarw", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596025927000, "description": "Abstract— Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites were prepared in the molten state by addition waste PVC pipes to commercial bitumen in different concentrations. The original material of the pure bitumen and bitumen composites are rheologically characterized. The viscoelastic properties such as shear compliance, torque and viscosity were measured and compared. These properties were studied using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from –10 to 60°C and angular frequency, varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. The results are compared at reference temperatures10 and 60°C over a wide range of . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the dynamic mechanical moduli and the viscosity. The moduli were found to rise with increasing the waste PVC content. The stability of the bitumen blends is more noticeable at 60°C as confirmed by the results.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRCO-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Characteristics of Waste Polyvinyl Chloride-Bitumen Composites: Part II", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 14-17 14 Rheological Characteristics of Waste Polyvinyl ChlorideBitumen Composites: Part II Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites were prepared in the molten state by addition waste PVC pipes to commercial bitumen in different concentrations. The original material of the pure bitumen and bitumen composites are rheologically characterized. The viscoelastic properties such as shear compliance, torque and viscosity were measured and compared. These properties were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. The results are compared at reference temperatures10 and 60°C over a wide range of  . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the dynamic mechanical moduli and the viscosity. The moduli were found to rise with increasing the waste PVC content. The stability of the bitumen blends is more noticeable at 60°C as confirmed by the results. Keywords: Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites, dynamic sheer compliances, dynamic viscosity. 1. INTRODUCTION The chemical composition of bitumen is very complex. Bitumen is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. Such compounds may be separated into asphaltenes and maltenes [1-9 ].The asphaltenes are the most polar fraction and have the highest molecular weight, giving its dark color to the bitumen. The maltene fraction consists of polar aromatics, naphthene aromatics, and saturates. The ratio of the asphaltenes to the maltenes has a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumen and, consequently, on its performance as road paving binders.Thus, road pavements may show different distresses depending on temperature-for example, rutting (or permanent deformation at high temperatures) related to the viscosity of the bitumen matrix, and low-temperature cracking, as a result of brittle fracture of the glassy bitumen matrix [10]. The concept of using mineral fillers in the modification of bitumen has been recognized for a long time because of their cost and stiffness advantages. However, concerns have been raised that mineral fillers may cause mastics to exhibit excessively brittle behavior and result in cracking at low temperatures.Recently, considerable attempts have been made on the modification of bitumen by soft fillers, such as polymers for road, roofing, and waterproofing applications[11-18 ]. The performance of these blends can be further achieved by controlling their rheology at a critical level with polymer addition. For this reason the study of the rheology for bitumen blends has considerable efforts from many researchers [19-24 ]. Nowadays, an increasing number of people are coming to the realization that plastic wastes are a potential worldwide source of raw materials. As we know, plastic wastes are usually commingled thermoplastics, that is, a mixture of polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and other common plastics. To recycle the commingled plastic waste in the form of blends is very attractive because it avoids the difficult task of separation [25]. The aim of this work is to recycle the waste PVC by using it as a modifier for the bitumen and study the rheological properties of the modified bitumen compared to the original material of the neat bitumen. 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Bitumen blends were prepared from commercial bitumen and waste PVC pipes. Waste PVC were obtained from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The bitumen was melted in an oven followed by melting waste plastics and mixed homogeneously. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing . Method The rheological behavior was studied for pure bitumen and bitumen blends by using dynamic an ARES-Rheometer ( Rheometric scientific) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. With gap setting 2 mm and the actual gap size is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The strain amplitude was1% to ensure the linear viscoelastic regime. 6 points per decade in frequency were obtained. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 14-17 15 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Figures 1-2 present the master curves of the dynamic shear compliances moduli (J' and J'') at 10°C,and 60°C as a function of frequency for bitumen blends compared to neat bitumen. J'() is the storage compliance and it is a measure of the energy stored and recovered per deformation cycle, therefore is called the storage compliance. And J''() is a measure of the energy dissipated as heat per cycle of the sinusoidal deformation, for that it is called the loss compliance. Figures 5 and 6 show also two zones of behaviour as melt and rubbery zones from the left to right side of  as explained above in G' and G'' curves. Since J' and J'' represent the image of a mirror reflects in the -axis for G' and G''. The enhancement of the dynamic shear compliances moduli by the introduction of the waste PVC is clear in Figures 1-2. As shown in Figure 1 at 10°C and 0.01 rad/s ( at the end of the flow zone) the values of J' are 101 , 101 , 102 , 103 and 105 Pa for pure bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen11%PVC, respectively. In Figure 2 J'' modulus of bitumen-11%PVC at 0.01 rad/s and 10°C is higher than neat bitumen by a factor about 5 and this factor rises to around 9 at 0.0001rad/s. The enhancement in the J' and J'' moduli by the addition of PVC to bitumen because the interaction between PVC chains and bitumen compounds results in bitumen-PVC network formation and the cross-linked increases with the polymer content, as a result the stiffness increases. The difference between the dynamic moduli of bitumen blends and neat bitumen is higher at 60°C than at 10°C as shown in Figures 1-2. .Figure 3 shows the comparison between the dynamic viscosity ή of neat bitumen and those of bitumen blends as a function of frequency at low and high temperature (at T0 10 and 60°C). ή increases with decreasing frequency and decreases with the temperature as shown in Figure 9. In this Figure ή reaches the Newtonian zone at low deformation rate of each T0 at which it becomes independent on . In this zone ή is called melt viscosity 0 (zero-shear viscosity) As shown in this Figure ή increases by the addition of waste PVC and it is observed to rise with increasing the waste PVC contents particularly in the Newtonian zone. 4. CONCLUSION Bitumen blends are prepared by the introduction of waste PVC up to a level of 11wt% in the molten state. The viscoelastic properties such as shear compliance,, and viscosity of bitumen blends and neat bitumen are determined. These properties were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. The experiments data which measured at different temperatures as a function of  are shifted into a master curve at low temperature (10°C) and high temperature 60°C. The results are compared at T0 10 and 60°C over a wide range of  . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the dynamic mechanical moduli and the viscosity. The moduli were found to rise with increasing the waste PVC content. The stability of the bitumen blends is more noticeable at 60°C as confirmed by the results. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. A. . Zekri, S.Shedid, H.Alkashef, PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, V21, P.1409-1426, 2003 2. V.Munoz, K.Kasperski, O.Omotoso, et al., PETROL SCI TECHNOL, V21, P.1509-1529,2003 3. H.Alboudwarej, J.Beck, W.Y. Svrcek, H.W.Yarranton, K.Akbarzadeh, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.462-469, 2002. 4. S.Peramanu, C.Singh, M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Energy & Fuels, V15, P.910-917, 2001. 5. M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V40, P.4664-4672, 2001. 6. T.Abraham, D.Christendat, K.Karan, Z.Xu, J.Masliyah, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V41, P. 2170-2177, 2002. 7. S.Peramanu, C.Singh, M.Agrawala, H.W. Yarranton, Energy & Fuels, V15, P.910-917, 2001. 8. M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V40, P.4664-4672,2001. 9. M.R.Gray, W.C. McCaffrey, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.756-766, 2002. 10. F.Martinez-Boza, P.Partal, B.Conde, C.Gallegos,Energy & Fuels, V14, P.131-137, 2000. 11. B. Singh, H. Tarannum, M. Gupta , Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.1365-1377, 2003. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 14-17 16 12. B.Boutevin, Y. Pietrasanta and J.-J. Robin, Progress in Organic Coatings, V 17, P. 221-249, 1989. 13. A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 5315-5326, 2000. 14. G.D.Airey, FUEL ,V82, P.1709-1719, 2003 15. J-F. Masson, L. Pelletier, P. Collins, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V79, P.1034-1041, 2001. 16. G. Wen, Y.Zhang, K. Sun, Z.Chen, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V82, P. 989-996, 2001. 17. X. Lu, U. Isacsson, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V76, P.1811-1824, 2000. 18. M.Y Becker, A. J. Müller, Y. Rodriguez, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.1772-1782, 2003. 19. L. Loeber, G. Muller, J. Morel and O. Sut, Fuel, V 77, P. 1443-1450, 1998. 20. D. Lesueur, J.-F. Gérard, D. Martin and J.-P.Planche, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Series IIB Mechanics -Physics-Chemistry-Astronomy, V 325, P. 615-620, 1997. 21. X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Construction and Building Materials, V11, P.23-32, 1997. 22. J. Don Scott, Maurice B. Dusseault and W. David Carrier, Applied Clay Science, V1, P. 207-218, 1985. 23. L. Zanzotto, J. Stastna, Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, V35, P. 1225-1232, 1997. 24. R. Blanco, R. Rodríguez, M. García-Garduño, V. M. Castaño, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V61, P.1493-1501, 1996. 25. R. Blanco, R. Rodríguez, M. García-Garduño, V. M. Castaño, Journal of Applied PolymerScience,V56,P.57-64,1995. 26. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 27. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000 28. M. García-Morales, P. Partal, F. J. Navarro, F. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, N. González, O. González and M. E. Muñoz, Fuel, V83, P31-38, 2004. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 14-17 17 Figure 1: Master curves of J' for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=10 and 60°C Figure 2: Master curves of J'' for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=10 and 60°C Figure 3: Comparison between ή for bitumen and bitumen composites at different temperatures 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 R e f.T e m p .= 6 0 °C R e f.T e m p .= 1 0 °C neat b itum en b it.-5% PVC bit.-11% PVC J P a    ra d /s 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -9 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 R e f.T e m p .= 6 0 °C R e f.T e m p .= 1 0 °C neat b itum en b it.-5% PVC bit.-11% PVC J " P a -1  ra d /s 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 R e f .T e m p.= 6 0 °C R e f .T e m p.= 1 0 °C ne a t b i tum e n b i t.-5 % P V C b i t.-7 % P V C b i t.-1 1 % P V C  P a .s  ra d /s
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{ "creator": "Ijeais, Ijarw", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596025927000, "description": "Abstract— Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites were prepared in the molten state by addition waste PVC pipes to commercial bitumen in different concentrations. The original material of the pure bitumen and bitumen composites are rheologically characterized. The viscoelastic properties such as shear compliance, torque and viscosity were measured and compared. These properties were studied using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from –10 to 60°C and angular frequency, varied from 102 to10-1 radian/s. The results are compared at reference temperatures10 and 60°C over a wide range of . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the dynamic viscosity. The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the torque and the viscosity. So, the stability of the bitumen composites is more noticeable at 60°C.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRCO-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Characteristics of Waste Polyvinyl Chloride-Bitumen Composites: Part III", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 18-21 18 Rheological Characteristics of Waste Polyvinyl ChlorideBitumen Composites: Part III Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites were prepared in the molten state by addition waste PVC pipes to commercial bitumen in different concentrations. The original material of the pure bitumen and bitumen composites are rheologically characterized. The viscoelastic properties such as shear compliance, torque and viscosity were measured and compared. These properties were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. The results are compared at reference temperatures10 and 60°C over a wide range of  . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the dynamic viscosity. The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the torque and the viscosity. So, the stability of the bitumen composites is more noticeable at 60°C. Keywords: Waste Polyvinyl chloride-bitumen composites, dynamic viscosity. 1. INTRODUCTION The chemical composition of bitumen is very complex. Bitumen is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. Such compounds may be separated into asphaltenes and maltenes [1-9 ].The asphaltenes are the most polar fraction and have the highest molecular weight, giving its dark color to the bitumen. The maltene fraction consists of polar aromatics, naphthene aromatics, and saturates. The ratio of the asphaltenes to the maltenes has a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumen and, consequently, on its performance as road paving binders.Thus, road pavements may show different distresses depending on temperature-for example, rutting (or permanent deformation at high temperatures) related to the viscosity of the bitumen matrix, and low-temperature cracking, as a result of brittle fracture of the glassy bitumen matrix [10] The concept of using mineral fillers in the modification of bitumen has been recognized for a long time because of their cost and stiffness advantages. However, concerns have been raised that mineral fillers may cause mastics to exhibit excessively brittle behavior and result in cracking at low temperatures.Recently, considerable attempts have been made on the modification of bitumen by soft fillers, such as polymers for road, roofing, and waterproofing applications[11-18 ]. The performance of these blends can be further achieved by controlling their rheology at a critical level with polymer addition. For this reason the study of the rheology for bitumen blends has considerable efforts from many researchers [19-24 ]. Nowadays, an increasing number of people are coming to the realization that plastic wastes are a potential worldwide source of raw materials. As we know, plastic wastes are usually commingled thermoplastics, that is, a mixture of polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and other common plastics. To recycle the commingled plastic waste in the form of blends is very attractive because it avoids the difficult task of separation [25]. The aim of this work is to recycle the waste PVC by using it as a modifier for the bitumen and study the rheological properties of the modified bitumen compared to the original material of the neat bitumen. 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Bitumen blends were prepared from commercial bitumen and waste PVC pipes. Waste PVC were obtained from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The bitumen was melted in an oven followed by melting waste plastics and mixed homogeneously. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing . Method The rheological behavior was studied for pure bitumen and bitumen blends by using dynamic an ARES-Rheometer ( Rheometric scientific) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. With gap setting 2 mm and the actual gap size is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The strain amplitude was1% to ensure the linear viscoelastic regime. 6 points per decade in frequency were obtained. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 18-21 19 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Figure 1 represents the master curves of the torque at T0 10 and 60°C as a function of frequency for the bitumen blends compared to pure bitumen. Figure 7 evidences that the incorporation of waste PVC into bitumen enhances the stiffness and strength of the bitumen. Because the torque is found to increase for bitumen blends compared to pure bitumen over all  range in particular in the flow zone and it rises with the waste PVC content. Since the addition of 5% , 7% and 11% PVC leads to an increase in the torque by a factor about 3, 7, 8,9 and 12, respectively at 10°C and 0.6 rad/s. But at 0.006 rad/s, (the same T0) the factor increases to 5, 10, 15, respectively. The difference between the torque of bitumen blends and neat bitumen is higher at T0 60°C than at 10°C and that is significant particularly at the low frequencies of each mater curve. As shown in Figure 3 at T0 10°C and = 0.001 rad/s the ratio of torque of bitumen-11%PVC to pure bitumen is 4 but at 60°C this ratio is 10. This because the stability due to the high stiffness of bitumen blends at high temperatures unlike pure bitumen. Figure 2 shows the comparison between the dynamic viscosity ή of neat bitumen and those of bitumen blends as a function of frequency at low and high temperature (at T0 10 and 60°C). ή increases with decreasing frequency and decreases with the temperature as shown in Figure 9. In this Figure ή reaches the Newtonian zone at low deformation rate of each T0 at which it becomes independent on . In this zone ή is called melt viscosity 0 (zero-shear viscosity) As shown in this Figure ή increases by the addition of waste PVC and it is observed to rise with increasing the waste PVC contents particularly in the Newtonian zone. As shown in Figure 9 at ~0.01 rad/s (T0 10°C) the values of 0 are 10 1 , , 10 2 , 10 3 and 10 5 Pa.s for pure bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively. But the differences increases at the master curves of 60°C as shown in Figure 2. at ~0.01 rad/s (T0 60°C) the values of 0 are 10 1 , 10 1 , 10 2 , 10 3 and 10 5 Pa.s for pure bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively. Because the bitumen softens and flow at high temperatures and its properties change considerably with temperature unlike the bitumen blends. That is more clear in Figure 3 for the complex viscosity, * of neat bitumen and bitumen-5%PVC at T0 10 and 60°C . at ~0.01 rad/s (T0 10°C) the values of *are 10 1 , and 10 5 Pa.s for pure bitumen and bitumen-5%PVC, respectively. 4. CONCLUSION Bitumen blends are prepared by the introduction of waste PVC up to a level of 11wt% in the molten state. The viscoelastic properties such as torque and viscosity of bitumen blends and neat bitumen are determined. These properties were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. The results are compared at T0 10 and 60°C over a wide range of  . The results evidence that the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen enhances the torque and the viscosity. So, the stability of the bitumen composites is more noticeable at 60°C. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. . Zekri, S.Shedid, H.Alkashef, PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, V21, P.1409-1426, 2003 2. V.Munoz, K.Kasperski, O.Omotoso, et al., PETROL SCI TECHNOL, V21, P.1509-1529,2003 3. H.Alboudwarej, J.Beck, W.Y. Svrcek, H.W.Yarranton, K.Akbarzadeh, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.462-469, 2002. 4. S.Peramanu, C.Singh, M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Energy & Fuels, V15, P.910-917, 2001. 5. M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V40, P.4664-4672, 2001. 6. T.Abraham, D.Christendat, K.Karan, Z.Xu, J.Masliyah, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V41, P. 2170-2177, 2002. 7. S.Peramanu, C.Singh, M.Agrawala, H.W. Yarranton, Energy & Fuels, V15, P.910-917, 2001. 8. M.Agrawala, H.W.Yarranton, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V40, P.4664-4672,2001. 9. M.R.Gray, W.C. McCaffrey, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.756-766, 2002. 10. F.Martinez-Boza, P.Partal, B.Conde, C.Gallegos,Energy & Fuels, V14, P.131-137, 2000. 11. Singh, H. Tarannum, M. Gupta , Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.1365-1377, 2003. 12. B.Boutevin, Y. Pietrasanta and J.-J. Robin, Progress in Organic Coatings, V 17, P. 221-249, 1989. 13. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 5315-5326, 2000. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 18-21 20 14. G.D.Airey, FUEL ,V82, P.1709-1719, 2003 15. J-F. Masson, L. Pelletier, P. Collins, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V79, P.1034-1041, 2001. 16. G. Wen, Y.Zhang, K. Sun, Z.Chen, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V82, P. 989-996, 2001. 17. X. Lu, U. Isacsson, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V76, P.1811-1824, 2000. 18. M.Y Becker, A. J. Müller, Y. Rodriguez, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.1772-1782, 2003. 19. L. Loeber, G. Muller, J. Morel and O. Sut, Fuel, V 77, P. 1443-1450, 1998. 20. Lesueur, J.-F. Gérard, D. Martin and J.-P.Planche, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Series IIB Mechanics-Physics-Chemistry-Astronomy, V 325, P. 615-620, 1997. 21. X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Construction and Building Materials, V11, P.23-32, 1997. 22. J. Don Scott, Maurice B. Dusseault and W. David Carrier, Applied Clay Science, V1, P. 207-218, 1985. 23. L. Zanzotto, J. Stastna, Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, V35, P. 1225-1232, 1997. 24. R. Blanco, R. Rodríguez, M. García-Garduño, V. M. Castaño, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, V61, P.1493-1501, 1996. 25. R. Blanco, R. Rodríguez, M. García-Garduño, V. M. Castaño, Journal of Applied PolymerScience,V56,P.57-64,1995. 26. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 27. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000 28. M. García-Morales, P. Partal, F. J. Navarro, F. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, N. González, O. González and M. E. Muñoz, Fuel, V83, P31-38, 2004. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 18-21 21 Figure 1: Master curves of torque for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=10 and 60 Figure 2: Master curves of ή for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=10 and 60°C Figure 5: Master curves of * for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=10 and 60°C 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 R e f.T e m p .= 6 0 °C R e f.T e m p .= 1 0 °C ne a t b i tum e n b i t.-5 % P V C T o rq u e , N M  ra d /s 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 R e f .T e m p.= 6 0 °C R e f .T e m p.= 1 0 °C ne a t b i tum e n b i t.-5 % P V C b i t.-7 % P V C b i t.-1 1 % P V C  P a .s  ra d /s 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 R e f.T e m p .= 6 0 °C R e f.T e m p .= 1 0 °C n e a t b itu m e n b it.-5 % P VC  * P a .s  ra d /s
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5,309,746,828,226,977,000
{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596717157000, "description": "Waste polyethylene (PE) bags were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. The bitumen/PE blend was prepared by mixing homogenously commercial bitumen with waste PE in the molten state. The samples of bitumen blend and bitumen base were rheologically analyzied. The rheological properties such as complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity of bitumen and bitumen blend were studied using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from-10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results evidence that the complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and viscosity are improved by the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen-9%PE are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRCO-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Characterization of Bitumen/Waste Polyethylene Composites: Part III", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 1 Rheological Characterization of Bitumen/Waste Polyethylene Composites: Part III Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- Waste polyethylene (PE) bags were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. The bitumen/PE blend was prepared by mixing homogenously commercial bitumen with waste PE in the molten state. The samples of bitumen blend and bitumen base were rheologically analyzied. The rheological properties such as complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity of bitumen and bitumen blend were studied using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from-10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The results evidence that the complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and viscosity are improved by the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen-9%PE are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software. Keywords: bitumen; rheology; polymer modification, waste plastics. 1. INTRODUCTION Bitumen is the black adhesive that binds flexible pavements on roads and airfields together. Bitumen is also used in other areas of application, such as waterproofing, flooring and joint materials. Almost all bitumen originates from crude oil and is the residue of a refining process. It is well-known that bitumen is a very complex and temperature dependent material consisting of hydrocarbon molecules. Naphtenic-base crude oils often give a large yield of bitumen that may be of good quality, while paraffinic crude oils may give bitumen of good quality or yield bitumen not suitable for road construction [1]. Nowadays a very large majority of the roads are constructed using a mixture of bitumen (5 wt %) and mineral aggregates. Notwithstanding this low bitumen content, the performance of the road pavement depends to a large extent on the properties of bitumen itself, since it constitutes the only deformable component. The correlation between the complex colloidal structure of bitumen and its viscoelastic response is therefore a subject of scientific and technical interest [2 -7]. Polymer additives are well-known to improve the rheological properties of bitumen The polymer addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation at high temperature.Besides, the fracture properties including critical stress intensity factor (K1C) at low temperature of polymer modified bitumens (PmB's) were shown to be higher than those of the bitumen base.To determine the crack propagation mechanism controlling fracture properties, previous studies have focused on establishing the relationship between the fracture properties and the morphology of polymer modified bitumen [8] The addition of synthetic polymers to enhance service properties over a wide range of temperatures in road paving applications was considered a long time ago and nowadays has become a real alternative. As has been pointed out in relevant papers about bitumen and polymer/ bitumen blends[9 -18 ] understanding the interactions of asphaltene and maltene (main components of bitumen) with the polymer, is a crucial point to gain insight into the routes to improve the capacities of these systems. In recent years, the volume of municipal plastic waste (MPW) has increased greatly, and this has resulted in a critical problem for modern society and future generations. Polyolefins, poly(ethylene terephthalate), Polyvinylchloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) are among the most common components of plastic waste because they are among the most frequently used commercial plastics in our daily lives and in industry.Recycling mixed plastic residues in the form of blends is attractive from academic and industrial points of view because of the improvements in the impact strength , dimensional stability, stress cracking, and processability with respect to virgin blends[19 ]. In the present study, waste plastics are used as a filler for making bituminous roof mastic up to a level of 20 wt %. The viscoelasticity of a bitumen modified with waste 9wt% PE is analysed and compared to bitumen base. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 2 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Waste plastics were collected from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The waste plastics and commercial bitumen were weighted and heated individually in an oven until melt. Molten waste plastic was poured into the molten bitumen and stirred vigorously to give a homogenous sample. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing . Measurements Solid-state dynamic viscoelastic measurements of all the pure bitumen and bitumen blends samples were accomplished in a Solid state institute, Research center Juelich, Germany. In this study we used an ARESrheometer (Advanced Rheology Expanded System, Rheometric Scientific Co.,) in the dynamic mode, under nitrogen atmosphere, plate-plate geometry with 25 mm in diameter to determine the rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 25°C to 160°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. A sample ( about 1.0 g) was placed in the lower plate then the upper parallel plate was lowered for a tight contact with the sample. All the samples were held at a constant temperature of 50°C for 10 min, cooled to 25°C and measured at temperatures (25, 40, 60, 80, 100, 110, 120, 130°C, 145°C and 160°C). The applied strain were 2%. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In this section the results are presented in a master curves. The master curve is a single curve at which the experiments data which measured over a wide range of the temperature, T are shifted into this curve at a reference temperature T0 . By using of the timetemperature superposition principle which described by Williams-Landel-Ferry [20] as, log aT = -C1 (T-T0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. T0 is chosen in this study to be 25°C. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures along the log frequency,  axis as shown in Figure 1. Since aT shifts the high temperatures data toward the right -wing at low  and the low temperatures data toward the left -wing at high . In vertical direction the experiments data are shifted by bT (bT = 00 / TT  [21] ). Where  is the material density. bT shifts the data up-and-down by a factor related to the temperature. Where high temperatures data are multiplied by a factor and low temperatures data divided by a factor. Because the modulus decreases with increasing the temperatures. This master curve enable us to enlarge the range of the frequencies which it looks like data measured at a single temperature as a function of an extremely wide range of frequencies. As an example  can be enlarged from 102 -10-1 radians/s to 106 -10-6 radians/s and this range is difficult to measure by a machine until now. The master curves of the shear complex modulus, G* for bitumen and bitumen blends at 25°C are logarithmically plotted in Figure 2 against the angular frequency. This quantity of G* is a combination of the storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G'') as, G*= G' + i G'' [38] .Where, G' is the ability of the material to store energy in the cycle of the deformation and G'' is the energy dissipated as heat in this cycle. Master curves of G* display two regions of behavior. These region are : the melt and rubber-like zones from the left side to the right side. The third regime of the dynamic glass transition is observed at very high frequency ( ~ 1109 ) in the case of pure bitumen as shown in Figure 2 because it could measured at low temperature (-10°C). At the flow regime, G* decreases further as shown in Figure 2. As the deformation shear rate increases, G* increases until the intermediate regime of a rubber-like plateau is observed. This rubber-like region is somewhat flat and it is nearly independent on the frequency as shown in Figure 2. Because this rubber like behavior reflects the elasticity at which the loss energy is minimum. But in the melt regime G* falls by many order of magnitude because of the high loss energy per the cycle of deformation due to the effect of the viscosity in this regime. The beginning of the melt regime is shifted toward low frequencies by the addition of waste PE to bitumen as shown in Figure 2. Since the melt regime begins at  ~ 2.4104and 30 radian/s in the cases of neat bitumen, bitumen9%PE , respectively. This because of the high elasticity due to the bitumen-PE network formation. The adding of waste plastics to bitumen showed a high effect as seen in Figure 2 the value of G* modulus for bitumen blend is higher than this of bitumen base.The difference in the values of G* between bitumen-PE and pure bitumen increases with decreasing the frequency. Where at  ~ 2.3105 radian/s the values of G* are 6.3106 and 1.4107 Pa for pure bitumen and bitumen-9% PE, respectively. At  ~ 2.3102 radian/s The values of G* in the case of bitumen-9%PE is higher than this of pure bitumen by 2 times. This factor reaches to 8 at  ~ 0.02 rad/s. This increase in G* modulus by the addition of waste PE reflects the interaction between polymer and bitumen which increases the stiffness. that leads to high stability for a long time of defromation (low frequencies) than neat bitumen. This interaction is mostly happened between polymer with saturate resins, owing to their closer solubility. Besides, Some authors have attributed this improvement to the existence of a third mixed phase modifying the asphaltene network. [22 ]. Since bitumen consists of matlenes and asphaltenes and the ratio of the asphaltenes to the maltenes has a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumen and, consequently, on its performance as road paving binders [23]. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 3 The master curves at 25°C of the storage (J') and loss compliance (J'') versus  are presented in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. J'() is a measure of the energy stored and recovered per deformation cycle, therefore is called the storage compliance. And J''() is a measure of the energy dissipated as heat per cycle of the sinusoidal deformation, for that is called the loss compliance. Figures 3-4 show the dynamic shear compliances moduli for bitumen blends compared to pure bitumen. These Figures show clearly two regions reflect the behavior of the material under the measured temperatures as a function of frequency as explained earlier in the case of G* () curves. As shown in Figures 3-4 the incorporation of the waste PE into bitumen affect on the J'() and J''() moduli. Since these moduli are enhanced for the bitumen blends. This is clear at  ~ 5.2103 radians/s (Fig.2) where the value of J' changed from 1.510 -7 for neat bitumen to 1.010 -7 Pa -1 in the case of bitumen/PE blend. But at low frequencies the effect is more noticeable. since at  ~ 5.910-2 radians/s, the values of J' become 4.010-5and 1.310-6 Pa-1 for pure bitumen, and bitumen blend, respectively. The same effect is observed also for J'' moduli in Figure 4. In this Figure at  ~ 91 radians/s the values of J'' are 4.310 -7 and 1.910 -8 Pa -1 for neat bitumen, bitumen-PE, respectively. This because of the matrix formation between the PE chains and bitumen which leads to increase the strength and stiffness. This increase in the stiffness and strength by the introduction of the waste PE to bitumen is confirmed also in the shear creep stress, J(t) in Figure 5. This Figure show J(t) as a function of time for pure bitumen and bitumen blends. As shown in Figure 5 J(t) increases with time and the difference between the values of J(t) in the case of neat bitumen and bitumen blends is higher at long times than at short times. Since at t ~ 200 seconds, the values of J(t) are, 1.110 -3 and 1.410 -5 Pa -1 for neat bitumen and bitumen-PE, respectively. This indicates the improvement of the stability of the bitumen for a long time by the addition of the waste PE due to network of bitumen-PE. Figure 6 presents log-log plot of the complex viscosity (*) as a function of  for neat bitumen and bitumen blends at 100°C. In this Figure * increases rapidly with decreasing  up to  = 0.001 radian/s after that it becomes independent on  . At this very low shear rates * is called the melt viscosity, 0 ( zero-shear viscosity). As shown in this Figure the incorporation of the waste plastics into the bitumen increases the viscosity over all the frequencies range. The difference between the viscosity of bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base is more noticeable at very low frequency (at 0). Since the values of 0 increase from 5.010 4 to 1.310 5 , 2.710 5 , 3.210 5 , 4.310 5 and 5.710 5 Pa.s by the addition of 3, 7, 9,13 and 20 % PET , respectively. This because the viscosity of the melt plastic is higher than this of bitumen and that is related to the length of the chains. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blends (bitumen-10%PET) are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.063 10 5 and 1.46 10 5 J/mol.K, respectively. The torque in NM as a function of frequency for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are logarithmically plotted at 100°C in Figure 7. The torque decreases with decreasing the shear rates as shown in Figure 7.This Figure evidences also that the addition of waste plastics to bitumen enhances the torque. Since the torque increases from 5.010 -4 to 1.310 -3 , 2.710 -2 , 3.210 -1 , 4.310 0 and 5.710 1 NM by the addition of 3, 7, 9,13 and 20 % PET , respectively. This because the formation of the bitumen-plastic matrix which leads to increase stiffness of the bitumen blends. 4. CONCLUSION Waste PE bags were used as a modifier in making improved bitumen. The blend compared to bitumen base was subjected to evaluate their response against temperature and frequency sweeps. By using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) in the dynamic mode and parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10 to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blend are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.063 10 5 and 1.46 10 5 J/mol.K, respectively. It was found that, the complex modulus, shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity are enhanced by the incorporation of waste 9wt%PE. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout and Dr.S. Khale at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Y.Edwards, P.Redelius,Energy & Fuels, V17, P.511-520, 2003. 2. O. Gonzalez, J. J. Pena, M. E. Munoz, A. Santamaria, A. Perez-Lepe, F. Martinez-Boza, and C. Gallegos, V16, P. 1256 -1263, Energy Fuels, 2002. 3. Y.Khakimullin, A.Murafa, Z. Sungatova, E.Nagumanova, V.Khozin, V.36, P. 423-428, 2000. 4. A. Pérez-Lepe, F. J. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, O. González, M. E. Muñoz and A. Santamaría, Fuel, V 82, P. 13391348, 2003. 5. P. R. Herrington, Y.Wu and M. C. Forbes, Fuel, V 78, P. 101-110 , 1999. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 4 6. A. Chaala, C.Roy and A. Ait-Kadi, Fuel, V 75, P. 1575-1583, 1996. 7. L.Champion-Lapalu, A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, D. Martin, J.-P. Planche, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.143-147, 2002. 8. A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V286, P.126-137, 2001. 9. X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Fuel, V76, P. 1353-1359, 1997. 10. A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, G. M. McNally, F. Andrews and J. Clarke, Polymer, V 40, P. 6337-6349, 1999. 11. Y. Ryabikin, V.Zashkvara , PETROLEUM CHEMISTRY,V43 P.286-288, 2003 12. A.Kishita, S. Takahashi, H.Kamimura, M.Miki, T.Moriya, H.Enomoto, JOURNAL OF THE JAPAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE V46, P.215-221, 2003. 13. J.Jehlicka, O.Urban, J.Pokorny, SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY ,V59, P.2341-2352, 2003. 14. S.Rahmani, W.McCaffrey, J.Elliott, et al., IND ENG CHEM RES V42, P.4101-4108, 2003. 15. M.Rodriguez-Valverde, M.Cabrerizo-Vilchez, A. Paez-Duenas , et al., COLLOID SURFACE A, V222, P. 233-251, 2003 . 16. J.Brocks, R.Summons, R.Buick, et al., ORG GEOCHEM V34, P.1161-1175, 2003 17. 7. J.Bryan, K.Mirotchnik, A.Kantzas, J CAN PETROL TECHNOL V42, P. 29-34, 2003 18. A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 5315-5326, 2000. 19. R.M. C. Santana, S. Manrich, Journal of Applied Polymer Science V88, P.2861-2867, 2003. 20. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 21. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000. 22. A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, C.Scramoncin, D. Martin, J.P.Planche, Energy & Fuels, P.575-584, 2000. 23. F.Martinez-Boza, P. Partal, B.Conde, C.Gallegos, Energy & Fuels, V14, P. 131-137, 2000. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 5 Figure 1: Shifting the experiments data of G* for bitumen/PE measured at different temperatures into master curve at T0 =25°C by using aT and bT. Figure 2: Master curves of G* for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 b T a T Non-s h ifted exp.data Mas ter curve a t T 0 =25°C G * P a  ra d /s 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 p ure b itum e n b it . -9 % P E G * P a  ra d /s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 6 Figure 3: Master curves of J' for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C Figure 4: Master curves of J'' for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 ne a t b itum e n b it.-9 % P E J ' P a -1  ra d /s 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 9 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 p ure b itum e n b it . -9 % P E J " P a -1  ra d /s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 7 Figure 5: The shear creep for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C Figure 6: Master curves of * for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 ne a t b itum e n b it . -9 % P E J t P a -1 t im e , s 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 ne a t b itum e n b it.-9 % P E  * P a .s  ra d /s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 6-13 8 Figure 7: Master curves of the torque for bitumen/PE blend and bitumen base at T0 =25°C 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 9 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 ne a t b itum e n b it.-9 % P E to rq u e N M  ra d /s
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{ "creator": "Ijeais, Ijarw", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1594972846000, "description": "Abstract: Chickpea is one of the main food crops in East Asia. As it contains high nutritional value, it has high demand in the world food market. Even though chickpea is mainly cultivated in India and China, Sri Lankan farmers did not trend to cultivate this crop. Therefore considerable amount of foreign exchange spent on import. This study will contribute to the country development in future. \n A study was conducted to study the feasibility of Chickpea cultivation in Ampara area. The research was done at Hardy ATI Farm, Ampara from 2nd December, 2015 to May, 2016. The land initially prepared and uniformly sized as 120 cm X 300 cm by having three replicates with the total of twelve beds which were used for testing plots. Three beds were used for establishing plants with (30 X 45) cm spacing recommended by the Department of Agriculture, India. Other 9 beds were planted with (25 x 40) cm, (35 X 50) cm, (35 X 40) cm. All the beds were provided with the same management practices such as seed planting, irrigation, weeding, pest & disease control and fertilizer applications. Germination time period (days), Germination percentage (%), plant heights (cm), Number of flowers were obtained for analysis. Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) was used with the Minitab database software. \n From the study it was identified that Chickpea plants performed significantly (p-0.05) well under Ampara climatic condition up to flowering stage when a spacing of (50 X 35) cm was used where germination percentage of 48.00±6.85 %, maximum plant height of 51.8 cm, highest no of flowers at 20th week with flower count of 29. Further this study could be repeated in alternative climatic regions for the best performances and profitability of Chickpea cultivation and to check yield analysis.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRCO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Study on the Feasibility of Chickpea Cultivation in Ampara Area in Sri Lanka", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 1-4 1 Study on the Feasibility of Chickpea Cultivation in Ampara Area in Sri Lanka A.B.M. Jesfar 1 , A.L.M Rifky 2 , M.H.M Rinos 3 1 Department of Agriculture, Hardy Advanced Technological Institute, SLIATE, Ampara, Sri Lanka 2 Department of Bio System Technology, Eastern University, Sri Lanka, Chenkalady Sri Lanka 3 Department of Geography, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Oluvil. Sri Lanka Abstract: Chickpea is one of the main food crops in East Asia. As it contains high nutritional value, it has high demand in the world food market. Even though chickpea is mainly cultivated in India and China, Sri Lankan farmers did not trend to cultivate this crop. Therefore considerable amount of foreign exchange spent on import. This study will contribute to the country development in future. A study was conducted to study the feasibility of Chickpea cultivation in Ampara area. The research was done at Hardy ATI Farm, Ampara from 2 nd December, 2015 to May, 2016. The land initially prepared and uniformly sized as 120 cm X 300 cm by having three replicates with the total of twelve beds which were used for testing plots. Three beds were used for establishing plants with (30 X 45) cm spacing recommended by the Department of Agriculture, India. Other 9 beds were planted with (25 x 40) cm, (35 X 50) cm, (35 X 40) cm. All the beds were provided with the same management practices such as seed planting, irrigation, weeding, pest & disease control and fertilizer applications. Germination time period (days), Germination percentage (%), plant heights (cm), Number of flowers were obtained for analysis. Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) was used with the Minitab database software. From the study it was identified that Chickpea plants performed significantly (p-0.05) well under Ampara climatic condition up to flowering stage when a spacing of (50 X 35) cm was used where germination percentage of 48.00±6.85 %, maximum plant height of 51.8 cm, highest no of flowers at 20 th week with flower count of 29. Further this study could be repeated in alternative climatic regions for the best performances and profitability of Chickpea cultivation and to check yield analysis. Keywords: Chick Pea, Feasibility, Germination, Plant Height Corresponding authors , 1. INTRODUCTION Background and Justification Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important grain legume in Asia, and being a rich and cheap source of protein which can help people to improve the nutritional quality of their diet. It is mainly imported from India and other countries for usage. But Sri Lankan farmers do not trend to cultivate chick pea. Chickpea does best on fertile sandy, loamy soils with good internal drainage. Good drainage is necessary because even short periods of flooded or waterlogged fields reduce growth and increases susceptibility to root and stem rots. That shows the best soil conditions are available in Sri Lanka that mean it can grow successfully. Objectives 1. To find out the feasibility of Chickpea Cultivation in Ampara area. 2. To identify the suitable planting spaces and climatic conditions for Chickpea Cultivation in Sri Lanka 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Domesticated Chickpeas have been found in the aceramic levels of Jericho (PPNB) along with Cayony in Turkey and in Neolithic pottery at Hacilar, Turkey. They were found in the late Neolithic (about 3500 BCE) at Thessaly, Kastanas, Lerna and Dimini, Greece. In southern France Mesolithic layers in a cave at L'Abeurador, Aude have yielded wild Chickpeas carbon dated to 6790±90 BCE. By the Bronze Age, chickpeas were known in Italy and Greece. In classical Greece, they were called erebinthos and eaten as a staple, a dessert, or consumed raw when young. The Romans knew several varieties such as venus, ram, and Punic chickpeas. (Aguilera Y, 2009). Ancient people also associated chickpeas with Venus because they were said to offer medical uses such as increasing sperm and milk, provoking menstruation and urine and helping to treat kidney stones."White cicers" were thought to be especially strong and helpful. Chickpea is grown in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions. Kabuli type is grown in temperate regions while the desi type chickpea is grown in the semi-arid tropics. Chickpea is valued for its nutritive seeds with high protein content, 25.328.9 %, after dehulling. A small proportion of canned chickpea is also used in Turkey and Latin America, and to produce fermented food. Carter J (1999) Greater and more stable yields are the major goals of plant breeding programs. Chickpea yields usually average 400-600 kg/ha, but can surpass 2,000 kg/ha, and in experiments have International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 1-4 2 attained 5,200 kg/ha. Yields from irrigated crops are 20-28% higher than yields from rain fed crops. Hemalatha S, Platel K and Srinivasan K. (2007) In United States and Europe, chickpeas are marketed dried, canned, or in various vegetable mixtures. In Europe, mashed chickpeas from the Mediterranean are sold canned. The major chickpea growing countries are India, Pakistan, and Turkey in Asia, Ethiopia in Africa, California and Washington State in the U.S., Mexico and Australia. Yang Y, Zhou L, Gu Y, (2007). Further increases in yield could be attained from the use of germplasm wild relatives, for identification of new genes, and from new combinations of favorable genes already existing. Chickpeas mature in 3-7 months and the leaves turn brown/yellow during maturity. For dry seeds, the plants are harvested at maturity or slightly earlier by cutting them close to the ground or uprooting. The plants are stacked in the field for a few days to dry and later the crop is threshed by trampling or beating with wooden flails. Zia-Ul-Haq M, Iqbal S, Ahmad S (2008), Pittaway JK, Robertson IK and Ball MJ (2008). 3. MATERIAL AND METHODS Hardy Advanced Technological Institute (ATI) farm was selected to cultivate the chick pea because the soil condition and climatic condition are suitable for other cultivation practices therefore it was selected as our testing place. One deep plough and a harrowing were done by land preparation. Twelve beds were prepared for testing plots where 3 replicated were used to eliminate the error. Large soil particles, stone, sticks and unwanted material were removed from the beds and prepared with smooth surface for seedling. Locally available chickpea in the market, Chemical fertilizers such as Urea, TSP and MOP, Straw, Sprinkler irrigation system and hand tools were used for land preparation. Chemical and organic fertilizers were used as basal dressing. Three beds were used for establishing plants with (30 X 45) cm spacing recommended by the Department of Agriculture, India. Other 9 beds were planted with (25 x 40) cm, (35 X 50) cm, (35 X 40cm) respectively with 3 replicates. All the beds were provided with the same management practices such as seed planting, irrigation, weeding, pest & disease control and fertilizer applications. Germination time period (days), Germination percentage (%), plant heights (cm), Number of flowers were obtained for analysis. Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) was used with the Minitab database software. Large soil particles, stone, sticks and unwanted material were removed in the beds and prepared a smooth surface for seedling. Chickpea seed were soaked with adequate amount of water for 6 hours to stimulate the seed germination. Those seeds were planted in one 2.5 cm depth on Captan-treated bed. Three Chickpea seeds were planted in one hole. After seed planting, all the beds were covered by using straw to prevent external distortion. Germination of seeds was observed 5 to 6 days after seeding. Sprinkler irrigation system was used to irrigate Chickpea cultivation. The all beds were irrigated with two days interval. Straw mulch was not removed as it will help in soil moisture conservation. Weeding was done 14, 30 and 45 days after germination. No control measures were adopted since pest and disease problems were not observed in the Chickpea cultivation. There were no fertilizer recommendations in Sri Lanka as growing Chickpea is not common here. Therefore fertilizer recommendation used in groundnuts was used for this research. Fertilizer Urea (kg/ha) TSP (kg/ha) MOP (kg/ha) Basel Dressing 35 100 75 Top Dressing (at flowering) 30 4 . RESULT AND DISCUSSION Germination Percentage International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 1-4 3 Graph 01: Germination Percentage of each replicates in the plot. Germination percentage of the seeds were found to be 48.00±6.85 % in the replicates of the plot 3 (50 X 35) with the strong positive correlation (R3 = 0,949, P-Value = 0,000) while having the minimum percentage of 47.00 ± 6.67 % at plot 2 (40 X 25) with the strong positive correlation (R2 = 0,951, P-Value = 0,000). Plot 3 (50 X 35) showed a highest germination percentage which is acceptable because each holes in the prepared beds were added with 3 seeds each. Therefore, due to poor quality of seeds which was purchased at local retail shop, competition for the nutrients and other factors relevant to germinations were the limiting factor that controlled the germination process. Plant Height Plot 2 and 3 were having the plant height of 48.80 cm and 49.90 cm respectively. it revealed that the HATI farm is having the possibility to grow chick pea and can obtain a maximum plant height of 51.8 cm if suitable soil and climatic conditions are given. Graph 02: Plant height of each replicates in the plot. 1086420 50 40 30 20 10 0 days Y -D a ta R1 R2 R3 Total % Variable Germinated plants % Vs Days 000 010 020 030 040 050 060 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Plant Height Vs No of weeks PLOT 45 X 30 PLOT 40 X 25 PLOT 50 X 35 PLOT 40 X 35 No of week Plant Height (cm) International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 1-4 4 Number of Flowers Table 01: Weekly flower count of each replicates in the plot. Plots Spacing WEEKLY FLOWERING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 45cm×30cm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 9 19 23 24 40cm×25cm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 8 12 20 23 23 50cm×35cm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 14 26 28 29 40cm×35cm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 11 22 27 28 Based on the result it revealed that Plot 3 (50 X 35) was having highest no of flowers at 20 th week with flower count of 29 and plot 1 showed the lowest no of flowers (24). It revealed that the HATI farm is having the possibility to grow chick pea and can obtain a maximum flower count of 29 if suitable soil and climatic conditions are given. 5. CONSTRAINTS The following problems were faced during the study period such as lack of good quality seeds were used as planting material, lack of books and cultivation manuals or guide lines to gain the basic knowledge on Chickpea cultivation, and the farm was not having permanent proper irrigation system. Even though the yield data could not be collected due to flower dropping due to prolonged drought condition and lack of irrigation water, the vegetative parameters such as germination time period, germination percentage, plant height and no of flowers showed better performances. According to the above results the Chickpea cultivation has a potential to be cultivated under the dry zone of Sri Lanka. No major pest and disease problems were observed during this cultivation period. 6. CONCLUSION The soil in Ampara area seems to be suitable for the growth of chick pea and comparatively plant growth and diseases were less in treatment 1, 2, 3 and 4. When comparing growth height of plant, it was observed that treatment 3 performed well compared to other treatments. Also under the flowering data, Spacing 3 is good than other treatments. REFERENCES [1] Aguilera Y, Esteban RM, Benítez V et al. Starch, functional properties, and microstructural characteristics in chickpea and lentil as affected by thermal processing. J Agric Food Chem. 2009 Nov 25;57(22):10682-8. 2009. [2] Carter J (1999) Chickpea Growers Guide: A Guide to the Production of Chickpeas (Agriculture Victoria Horsham), (ISBN 0 7311 4479 1). [3] Hemalatha S, Platel K and Srinivasan K. (2007) Influence of germination and fermentation on bioaccessibility of zinc and iron from food grains. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. London: Mar 2007. Vol. 61, Iss. 3; p. 342-348. 2007. [4] Pittaway JK, Robertson IK and Ball MJ (2008), Chickpeas may influence fatty acid and fiber intake in an ad libitum diet, leading to small improvements in serum lipid profile and glycemic control. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Jun; 108(6):1009-13. 2008. [5] Yang Y, Zhou L, Gu Y, (2007) Dietary chickpeas reverse visceral adiposity, dyslipidaemia and insulin resistance in rats induced by a chronic high-fat diet. Br J Nutr. 2007 Oct;98(4):720-6. Epub 2007 Aug 1. 2007. [6] Zia-Ul-Haq M, Iqbal S, Ahmad S (2008) Antioxidant potential of desi chickpea varieties commonly consumed in Pakistan. Journal of Food Lipids, Volume 15, Issue 3, pages 326-342, August 2008. figures 3.
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{ "creator": "El-Shrief, Hisham", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: Waste polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. Waste PVC/ bitumen blends were prepared by melt-mixing method. Rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends samples were investigated. The rheological properties were determined using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. Improvement in rheological properties.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDROW-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Reuse of Waste Plastic in the Modification of Rheological Characteristics of Bitumen", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 1 Reuse of Waste Plastic in the Modification of Rheological Characteristics of Bitumen Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad and Hisham El-Shrief Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (Correspondence to: Mahmoud Abdel-Goad: ) Abstract: Waste polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. Waste PVC/ bitumen blends were prepared by melt-mixing method. Rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends samples were investigated. The rheological properties were determined using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. Improvement in rheological properties. Keywords: bitumen; rheology; polymer modification, waste polyvinylchloride pipes. 1. INTRODUCTION Electricity the driving force of modern civilization, is indispensable in our day to day life. There are two basic types of electricity generation. One of which is through conventional energy resources which will get extinct in near future, hence demanding an alternative arrangement. Therefore, it is of great urgency to go for non-conventional energy resources. The non-conventional Bitumen is the black adhesive that binds flexible pavements on roads and airfields together. Bitumen is also used in other areas of application, such as waterproofing, flooring and joint materials. Almost all Bitumen originates from crude oil and is the residue of a refining process. It is well-known that bitumen is a very complex and temperature dependent material consisting of hydrocarbon molecules. Naphtenic-base crude oils often give a large yield of bitumen that may be of good quality, while paraffinic crude oils may give bitumen of good quality or yield bitumen not suitable for road construction [1]. Nowadays a very large majority of the roads are constructed using a mixture of bitumen (5 wt %) and mineral aggregates. Notwithstanding this low bitumen content, the performance of the road pavement depends to a large extent on the properties of bitumen itself, since it constitutes the only deformable component. The correlation between the complex colloidal structure of bitumen and its viscoelastic response is therefore a subject of scientific and technical interest [2 -7]. The addition of synthetic polymers to enhance service properties over a wide range of temperatures in road paving applications was considered a long time ago and nowadays has become a real alternative. As has been pointed out in the literature about bitumen and polymer/ bitumen blends[8 -17 ]. Polymer additives are well-known to improve the rheological properties of bitumen The polymer addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation at high temperature.Besides, the fracture properties including critical stress intensity factor at low temperature of polymer modified bitumen were shown to be higher than those of the bitumen base.To determine the crack propagation mechanism controlling fracture properties, previous studies have focused on establishing the relationship between the fracture properties and the morphology of polymer modified bitumen. [18] In recent years, the volume of municipal plastic waste has increased greatly, and this has resulted in a critical problem for modern society and future generations. Polyolefins, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), Polyvinylchloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) are among the most common components of plastic waste because they are among the most frequently used commercial plastics in our daily lives and in industry.Recycling mixed plastic residues in the form of blends is attractive from academic and industrial points of view because of the improvements in the impact strength , dimensional stability, stress cracking, and processability with respect to virgin blends[19]. In the present study, waste PVC pipes are used as a filler for making bituminous products for paving applications. The viscoelasticity of a bitumen modified with PVC wastes with level up to 11% is analysed and compared to neat bitumen. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 2 2. EXPERIMENTS PART 2.1 Materials and preparation Waste PVC pipes were collected from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The waste plastics and commercial bitumen were weighted and heated individually in an oven until melt. Molten waste plastic was poured into the molten bitumen and stirred vigorously to give a homogenous sample. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing . 2.2 Measurements Solid-state dynamic viscoelastic measurements of all the pure bitumen and bitumen blends samples were accomplished in a Solid state institute, Research center Juelich, Germany. In this study we used an ARESrheometer (Advanced Rheology Expanded System, Rheometric Scientific Co.,) in the dynamic mode, under nitrogen atmosphere, plate-plate geometry with 25 mm in diameter to determine the rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 25°C to 160°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. A sample to be tested was placed in the lower plate then the upper parallel plate was lowered for a tight contact with the sample. All the samples were held at a constant temperature of 50°C for 10 min, cooled to 25°C and measured at temperatures in the range from -10 to 60°C. The applied strain was in the linear viscoelastic regime (2%). 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In this section the results are presented in a master curves. The master curve is a single curve at which the experiments data which measured over a wide range of the temperature, T are shifted into this curve at a reference temperature T0 . By using of the timetemperature superposition principle which described by Williams-Landel-Ferry [20] as, log aT = -C1 (T-T0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. T0 is chosen in this study to be 25°C. aT is plotted as a function of temperatures in Figure 1. This Figure aT decreases with increasing the temperature by a slop about -0.18 up to about 25°C then decreases slowly until nearly becomes independent on the temperature. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures along the log frequency,  axis as shown in Figure 2. Since aT shifts the high temperatures data toward the left wing at low  and the low temperatures data toward the right -wing at high . In vertical direction the experiments data are shifted by bT (bT = 00/ TT  [21] ). Where  is the material density. bT shifts the data up-and-down by a factor related to the temperature as seen in Figure 2. Where high temperatures data are multiplied by a factor and low temperatures data divided by a factor. Because the modulus decreases with increasing the temperatures as shown in Figure 3, bT decreases with increasing the temperature. The master curve enable us to enlarge the range of the frequencies which it looks like data measured at a single temperature as a function of an extremely wide range of frequencies. As an example  can be enlarged from 102 -10-1 radians/s to 108 -10-4 radians/s and this range is difficult to measure by a machine until now. The master curves of the shear complex modulus, G* for bitumen and bitumen blends at 25°C are logarithmically plotted in Figure 4 against the angular frequency. This quantity of G* is a combination of the storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G'') as, G*= G' + i G'' [22] .Where, G' is the ability of the material to store energy in the cycle of the deformation and G'' is the energy dissipated as heat in this cycle. Master curves of G* display two regions of behavior. These region are : the melt and rubber-like zones from the left side to the right side. The third regime of the dynamic glass transition is observed at very high frequency ( ~ 1109 ) in the case of pure bitumen as shown in Figure 4 because it could measured at low temperature (-10°C). At the flow regime, G* decreases further as shown in Figure 4. At very low frequencies ( ~ 0.0005) G* rises and that is more observable in the cases of neat bitumen and bitumen-11%PVC as shown in Figure 4. May be because of the traces of cross-linked reasons at the testing temperatures for a long time (very low frequencies). As the deformation shear rate increases, G* increases until the intermediate regime of a rubber-like plateau is observed. This rubber-like region is somewhat flat and it is nearly independent on the frequency as shown in Figure 4. Because this rubber like behavior reflects the elasticity at which the loss energy is minimum. But in the melt regime G* falls by many order of magnitude because of the high loss energy per the cycle of deformation due to the effect of the viscosity in this regime. The beginning of the melt regime is shifted toward low frequencies by the addition of waste PVC to bitumen as shown in Figure 4. Since the melt regime begins at  ~ 2.4104, 400, 100 and 30 radian/s in the cases of neat bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively. This because of the high elasticity due to the bitumenPVC network formation. The adding of waste plastics to bitumen showed a high effect as seen in Figure 4 the values of G* mouli for bitumen blends are higher than those of neat bitumen and G* is found to rise with increasing the waste PVC content as shown in Figure 5. The increase of G* at low frequency is higher than at high frequency . At  =100 radian/s (Fig.5a) G*~ (PVC)0.08 but at  =0.001 radian/s (Fig.5b) G*~ (PVC)0.15 as shown in Figure 5 . This increase in G* moduli by the addition of waste plastics reflects the interaction between polymer and bitumen which increases the stiffness. that leads to high stability for a long time of deformation (low frequencies) than neat bitumen. This interaction is mostly happened between polymer with saturate resins, owing International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 3 to their closer solubility. Besides, Some authors have attributed this improvement to the existence of a third mixed phase modifying the asphaltene network. [23 ]. Since bitumen consists of matlenes and asphaltenes and the ratio of the asphaltenes to the maltenes has a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumen and, consequently, on its performance as road paving binders [24]. 4. CONCLUSION Waste PVC pipes were used as a modifier in making improved bitumen for paving application. Various bitumen blends were prepared in the molten state by adding waste PVC up to 11%. The blends were subjected to evaluate their response against temperature and frequency sweeps. By using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second It was observed that improvement of rheological behavior of conventional bitumen compositions with the addition of PVC wastes. The PVC addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout and Dr.S. Khale at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Y.Edwards, P.Redelius,Energy & Fuels, V17, P.511-520, 2003. 2. O. Gonzalez, J. J. Pena, M. E. Munoz, A. Santamaria, A. Perez-Lepe, F. 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J.Jehlicka, O.Urban, J.Pokorny, SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY ,V59, P.2341-2352, 2003. 13. A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 5315-5326, 2000. 14. S.Rahmani, W.McCaffrey, J.Elliott, et al., IND ENG CHEM RES V42, P.4101-4108, 2003. 15. M.Rodriguez-Valverde, M.Cabrerizo-Vilchez, A. Paez-Duenas , et al., COLLOID SURFACE A, V222, P. 233-251, 2003 . 16. J.Brocks, R.Summons, R.Buick, et al., ORG GEOCHEM V34, P.1161-1175, 2003 17. 7. J.Bryan, K.Mirotchnik, A.Kantzas, J CAN PETROL TECHNOL V42, P. 29-34, 2003 18. A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V286, P.126-137, 2001. 19. R.M. C. Santana, S. Manrich, Journal of Applied Polymer Science V88, P.2861-2867, 2003. 20. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 21. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000. 22. G.Heinrich, M.Klueppel, " Recent advances in the theory of filler networking in elastomers", Advances in Polymer Sciences, V160, P.1-44, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2002. 23. A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, C.Scramoncin, D. Martin, J.P.Planche, Energy & Fuels, P.575-584, 2000. 24. F.Martinez-Boza, P. Partal, B.Conde, C.Gallegos, Energy & Fuels, V14, P. 131-137, 2000. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 4 Figure 1: aT of neat bitumen as a function of temperature Figure 2: shifting the experiments data of G* for neat bitumen at different temperatures to the reference temperature by using aT and bT . -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 a T Temp., °C 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 102 103 104 105 106 107 Master curve at 25°C 60°C 50°C 25°C 10°C -10°C bT aT aT non-shifted experiments data shifted data at T0=25°C G * P a  rad/s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 5 Figure 3: bT of neat bitumen as a function of temperature Figure 4: Master curves of G* for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=25°C 10-410-310-210-1100101102103104105106107108 102 103 104 105 106 107 neat bitumen bit.-5% PVC bit.-7% PVC bit.-11% PVC G * P a  rad/s -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0.1 1 b T Temp., °C International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 31-35 6 (a) Figure 5: The effect of the PVC content on G* of bitumen blends at a)  = 100 rad/s and b) =10-3 rad/s 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 106 107 =100 rad/s G * P a PVC wt% 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 103 104 =10 -3 rad/s G * P a PVC wt%
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "Waste polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. Waste PVC/ bitumen blends were prepared by melt-mixing method. Rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends samples were investigated. The rheological properties were determined using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. Improvement in rheological properties such as shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity were observed by the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are calculated from the melt viscosity by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.42 105, 1.5 105, 1.58 105 and 1.7 105 J/mol.K for neat bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDROW", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Reuse of Waste Plastic in the modification of Rheological Characteristics of Bitumen: Part II", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 12 Reuse of Waste Plastic in the modification of Rheological Characteristics of Bitumen: Part II Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt E-mail: Abstract: Waste polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes were reused in the modification of commercially available bitumen. Waste PVC/ bitumen blends were prepared by melt-mixing method. Rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends samples were investigated. The rheological properties were determined using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. Improvement in rheological properties such as shear compliance, torque and complex viscosity were observed by the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen. The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are calculated from the melt viscosity by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.42 105, 1.5 105, 1.58 105 and 1.7 105 J/mol.K for neat bitumen, bitumen5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively. Keywords: bitumen; rheology; polymer modification, waste polyvinylchloride pipes. 1. INTRODUCTION Bitumen is the black adhesive that binds flexible pavements on roads and airfields together. Bitumen is also used in other areas of application, such as waterproofing, flooring and joint materials. Almost all Bitumen originates from crude oil and is the residue of a refining process. It is well-known that bitumen is a very complex and temperature dependent material consisting of hydrocarbon molecules. Naphtenic-base crude oils often give a large yield of bitumen that may be of good quality, while paraffinic crude oils may give bitumen of good quality or yield bitumen not suitable for road construction [1]. Nowadays a very large majority of the roads are constructed using a mixture of bitumen (5 wt %) and mineral aggregates. Notwithstanding this low bitumen content, the performance of the road pavement depends to a large extent on the properties of bitumen itself, since it constitutes the only deformable component. The correlation between the complex colloidal structure of bitumen and its viscoelastic response is therefore a subject of scientific and technical interest [2 -7]. The addition of synthetic polymers to enhance service properties over a wide range of temperatures in road paving applications was considered a long time ago and nowadays has become a real alternative. As has been pointed out in the literature about bitumen and polymer/ bitumen blends[8 -17 ]. Polymer additives are well-known to improve the rheological properties of bitumen. The polymer addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation at high temperature. Besides, the fracture properties including critical stress intensity factor at low temperature of polymer modified bitumen were shown to be higher than those of the bitumen base. To determine the crack propagation mechanism controlling fracture properties, previous studies have focused on establishing the relationship between the fracture properties and the morphology of polymer modified bitumen[18]. In recent years, the volume of municipal plastic waste has increased greatly, and this has resulted in a critical problem for modern society and future generations. Polyolefins, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), Polyvinylchloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) are among the most common components of plastic waste because they are among the most frequently used commercial plastics in our daily lives and in industry. Recycling mixed plastic residues in the form of blends is attractive from academic and industrial points of view because of the improvements in the impact strength, dimensional stability, stress cracking, and processability with respect to virgin blends [19]. In the present study, waste PVC pipes are used as a filler for making bituminous products for paving applications. The viscoelasticity of a bitumen modified with PVC wastes with level up to 11% is analysed and compared to neat bitumen. 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Waste PVC pipes were collected from the garbage, sorted and shredded into coarse particles. The waste plastics and commercial bitumen were weighted and heated individually in an oven until melt. Molten waste plastic was poured into the molten bitumen and stirred vigorously to give a homogenous sample. The hot mixtures were then cast into a ring stamp with 25 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness for rheology testing. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 13 Measurements Solid-state dynamic viscoelastic measurements of all the pure bitumen and bitumen blends samples were accomplished in a Solid state institute, Research center Juelich, Germany. In this study we used an ARESrheometer (Advanced Rheology Expanded System, Rheometric Scientific Co.,) in the dynamic mode, under nitrogen atmosphere, plate-plate geometry with 25 mm in diameter to determine the rheological characteristics of the neat bitumen and bitumen blends. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 25°C to 160°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. A sample to be tested was placed in the lower plate then the upper parallel plate was lowered for a tight contact with the sample. All the samples were held at a constant temperature of 50°C for 10 min, cooled to 25°C and measured at temperatures in the range from -10 to 60°C. The applied strain was in the linear viscoelastic regime (2%). 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In this section the dynamic shear compliances moduli for bitumen blends compared to pure bitumen are plotted in Figures 1-2. Figure 1 presents the master curves at 25°C of the storage (J') as a function of frequency and loss compliance (J'') versus  are presented in Figure 2. J'() is a measure of the energy stored and recovered per deformation cycle, therefore is called the storage compliance. And J''() is a measure of the energy dissipated as heat per cycle of the sinusoidal deformation, for that is called the loss compliance. These Figures show clearly two regions reflect the behavior of the material under the measured temperatures as a function of frequency as explained earlier in the case of G* () curves. As shown in Figures 1-2 the incorporation of the waste PVC into bitumen affects on the J'() and J''() moduli. Since the shear compliance moduli are enhanced for the bitumen blends. This is clear at  ~ 5.2103 radians/s (Fig.6) where the values of J' changed from 1.510 -7 for neat bitumen to 1.010 -7 Pa -1 in the case of bitumen-11wt% PVC. But at low frequencies the effect is more noticeable and the difference in J' and J'' moduli among bitumen blends increases with PVC content. since at  ~ 5.910-2 radians/s, the values of J' become 4.010 -5 , 6.010 -6 , 2.310 -6 and 1.310 -6 Pa -1 for pure bitumen, bitumen-5wt%PVC bitumen7wt% PVC and bitumen-11wt% PVC, respectively. The same effect is observed also for J'' moduli in Figure 2. In this Figure at  ~ 91radians/s the values of J'' are 4.310-7, 1.110 -7 , 4.210 -8 and 1.910 -8 Pa -1 for neat bitumen, bitumen-5wt%PVC, bitumen-7wt% PVC and bitumen11wt% PVC, respectively. This because of the interaction between the PVC chains and bitumen, results in PVCbitumen network formation which leads to increase the strength and stiffness. This increase in the stiffness and strength by the introduction of the waste PVC to bitumen is confirmed also in the shear creep stress, J(t) in Figure 3. This Figure shows J(t) as a function of time for pure bitumen and bitumen blends. As shown in Figure 3 J(t) increases with time and the difference between the values of J(t) in the case of neat bitumen and bitumen blends is higher at long times than at short times and this difference increases with increasing the PVC content. Since at t ~ 200 seconds, the values of J(t) are, 1.110 -3 , 1.310 -4 , 4.110 -5 and 1.410 -5 Pa -1 for neat bitumen, bitumen-5wt%PVC, bitumen-7wt% PVC and bitumen-11wt% PVC, respectively. This indicates the improvement of the stability of the bitumen for a long time by the addition of the waste PVC due to network of bitumen-PVC. Figure 4 presents log-log plot of the complex viscosity (*) as a function of  for neat bitumen and bitumen blends at 25°C. In this Figure * increases rapidly with decreasing  up to  = 0.001 radian/s after that it becomes independent on  . At this very low shear rates * is called the melt viscosity, 0 (zero-shear viscosity). As shown in this Figure the incorporation of the waste PVC into the bitumen increases the viscosity over all the frequencies range. This increase in the viscosity is found to be rises with the increasing in the PVC content and it is more noticeable at very low frequency (at 0). The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.42 10 5 , 1.5 10 5 , 1.58 10 5 and 1.7 10 5 J/mol.K for neat bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen11%PVC, respectively. Since the values of 0 increase from 1.510 5 to 8.910 5 , 2.910 6 and 8.510 6 Pa.s by the addition of 5, 7 and 11% PVC, respectively. This because the viscosity of the PVC-bitumen network is higher than this of bitumen. Besides, bitumen softens rapidly at low deformation rates. The torque in NM as a function of frequency for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are logarithmically plotted at 25°C in Figure 10. The torque decreases with decreasing the shear rates as shown in Figure 5. At very low frequencies ( ~ 0.0005) torque rises in particular in the cases of neat bitumen and bitumen-11%PVC as shown in Figure due to the traces of cross-linked reasons as explained above. This Figure evidences also that the addition of waste PVC to bitumen enhances the torque. Since the torque increases at  = 0.07 rad/s from 210 -4 to 110 -3 , 2.910 -3 , and 4.710 -3 NM by the addition of 5, 7 and 11%PVC to bitumen , respectively. This because the formation of the bitumenplastic matrix which leads to increase stiffness of the bitumen blends and the stiffness increases with increasing the waste PVC content. 4. CONCLUSION Waste PVC pipes were used as a modifier in bitumen for paving application. Various bitumen blends were prepared in the molten state by adding waste PVC up to 11%. The blends were subjected to evaluate their response against temperature and frequency sweeps. By using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) under nitrogen atmosphere in International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 14 parallel plate geometry with diameter 25 mm. The measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures ranged from -10°C to 60°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second The flow activation energy for neat bitumen and bitumen blends are calculated from 0 by using the rheometric software and it is found to be 1.42 10 5 , 1.5 10 5 , 1.58 10 5 and 1.7 10 5 J/mol.K for neat bitumen, bitumen-5%PVC, bitumen-7%PVC and bitumen-11%PVC, respectively. It was observed that improvement of rheological behavior of conventional bitumen compositions with the addition of PVC wastes. The PVC addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout and Dr.S. Khale at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Y.Edwards, P.Redelius,Energy & Fuels, V17, P.511520, 2003. 2. O. Gonzalez, J. J. Pena, M. E. Munoz, A. Santamaria, A. Perez-Lepe, F. Martinez-Boza, and C. Gallegos, V16, P. 1256 -1263, Energy Fuels, 2002. 3. Y.Khakimullin, A.Murafa, Z. Sungatova, E.Nagumanova, V.Khozin, V.36, P. 423-428, 2000. 4. A. Pérez-Lepe, F. J. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, O. González, M. E. Muñoz and A. Santamaría, Fuel, V 82, P. 1339-1348, 2003. 5. P. R. Herrington, Y.Wu and M. C. Forbes, Fuel, V 78, P. 101-110 , 1999. 6. A. Chaala, C.Roy and A. Ait-Kadi, Fuel, V 75, P. 15751583, 1996. 7. L.Champion-Lapalu, A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, D. Martin, J.P. Planche, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.143-147, 2002. 8. X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Fuel, V76, P. 1353-1359, 1997. 9. A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, G. M. McNally, F. Andrews and J. Clarke, Polymer, V 40, P. 6337-6349, 1999. 10. Y. Ryabikin, V.Zashkvara , PETROLEUM CHEMISTRY,V43 P.286-288, 2003 11. A.Kishita, S. Takahashi, H.Kamimura, M.Miki, T.Moriya, H.Enomoto, JOURNAL OF THE JAPAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE V46, P.215-221, 2003. 12. J.Jehlicka, O.Urban, J.Pokorny, SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY ,V59, P.23412352, 2003. 13. A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 53155326, 2000. 14. S.Rahmani, W.McCaffrey, J.Elliott, et al., IND ENG CHEM RES V42, P.4101-4108, 2003. 15. M.Rodriguez-Valverde, M.Cabrerizo-Vilchez, A. PaezDuenas , et al., COLLOID SURFACE A, V222, P. 233251, 2003 . 16. J.Brocks, R.Summons, R.Buick, et al., ORG GEOCHEM V34, P.1161-1175, 2003 17. 7. J.Bryan, K.Mirotchnik, A.Kantzas, J CAN PETROL TECHNOL V42, P. 29-34, 2003 18. A. H. Fawcett, T. McNally, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V286, P.126-137, 2001. 19. R.M. C. Santana, S. Manrich, Journal of Applied Polymer Science V88, P.2861-2867, 2003. 20. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1980). 21. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000. Figure 1: Master curves of J' for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=25°C Figure 2: Master curves of J' for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=25° 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 neat bitumen bit.-5% PV C bit.-7% PV C bit.-11% PV C J ' P a -1  rad/s 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 neat bitumen bit.-5% PV C bit.-7% PV C bit.-11% PV C J " P a -1  rad/s International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 15 Figure 3: Jt for bitumen and bitumen blends versus time at T0=25°C Figure 4: Master curves of * for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=25°C Figure 5: Master curves of torque for bitumen and bitumen blends as a function of  at T0=25°C 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 -9 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 ne a t b i tum e n b i t.-5 % P V C b i t.-7 % P V C b i t.-1 1 % P V C J t P a -1 tim e , s 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 n e a t b itu m e n b it.-5 % P VC b it.-7 % P VC b it.-1 1 % P VC  * P a .s  ra d /s 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 1 0 8 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 n e a t b itu m e n b it.-5 % P VC b it.-7 % P VC b it.-1 1 % P VC to rq u e N M  ra d /s
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The creep compliance and viscosity are measured and evaluated. The melt viscosity, is determined in this study for PVA 83K sample to be about 3.7* 107 Pa.s.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRPO-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Creep Compliance and Viscosity", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 9-11 9 Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Creep Compliance and Viscosity Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt E-mail: Abstract: The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The creep compliance and viscosity are measured and evaluated. The melt viscosity, 0  is determined in this study for PVA 83K sample to be about 3.7* 10 7 Pa.s. Keywords: Melt viscosity of Polyvinyacetate, biodegradable plastic 1. INTRODUCTION Rheology is concerned with the description of the mechanical properties of the various materials under the various deformation conditions. Polymer rheology is in its various aspects intimately entwined with molecular physics, continuum mechanics, and the processing of polymeric materials. At present, rheological investigations of polymers are processing at an enormously rapid rate, embracing a wide range of materials: biological objects, paste-like substances such as lubricants. The applied aspects of rheology are tied up with the development of new technological processes for the processing of plastics, elastomers and fibers [1]. The understanding of the relationship between the rheological properties of polymers and their molecular structure has considerably improved in the past few years with the interest of physicists in the matter and particularly with the development of molecular dynamics theories [2]. Besides, rheological measurements are used now as an analytical tool of polymer characterization [3]. In this work the rheological properties are investigated in details for a commercial PVA 83K. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Polydisperse PVA 83K sample was prepared for the Rheological measurements. In the disc form with 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness by using a press mould without vacuum at 50 C under 10 bar for 20 min. The preparation steps and conditions are summarized as follows: Approximately 0.1 g of the polymer is placed in a Teflon frame of dimensions 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. This Teflon frame is introduced between two Teflon plates and positioned between two metallic plates in the mould. The sample is positioned on the lower plate followed by lowering the upper plate until just contact the upper Teflon plate. The sample is heated with heat rate 10 C/min. and pressed under 8-10 bar by lowering the upper piston for 20 min. The mould is cooled to 30 C , followed by taking the sample out. After preparation the sample for the measurement, the sample is placed on the lower plate of the ARES-Rheometer followed by lowering the stage until the sample just contacts the upper fixture completely. The ARES-Rheometer, consists of a test station, a furnace and liquid nitrogen controller. The test station contains the motor and transducer between which the sample to be tested is placed. The furnace is a forced convection enviromental chamber that encloses the sample. The gas temperature is controlled by two resistive heaters and the nitrogen gaseous is used during testing at or above room temperature. If test temperatures are below room temperature, liquid nitrogen is used. The temperature of the oven is maintained by a control loop that is closed around a platinum resistive thermometer. The normal force of the instrument should be kept around zero and the actual gap size is read electronically to be around 1 mm. The measuring program is adjusted to measure the sample over a wide range of temperature from 25 C up to 150 C as a function of frequencies in parallel plate geometry and dry nitrogen atmosphere .The strain was kept inside the linear regime in the whole frequency range. The strain is applied to the sample and the resulting stress is measured by the transducer. The stress signal generated by the sample separated into two components; an elastic part which is in the phase with strain and a viscouse contribution which is 90 out of phase with the strain. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The PVA83K sample was measured over a temperature range 25-150°C as a function of frequency. Different temperatures curves were shifted into single curve ( Master curve) to a reference temperature T0 (25 C)by means of the time-temperature superposition principle as proposed by Williams, Landel and Ferry (WLF) [8]. Figure 1 shows creep compliance (J(t). (J(t) is approximately equal to the stress relaxation modulus, G(t). G(t) is defined as the stress divided by strain at constant deformation and is plotted versus time. The boundaries of the plateau are temperature-dependent At short time the International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 9-11 10 corresponding region of the time scale is sometimes called glassy zone corresponds to the absence of any configurational rearrangements of the chain backbones It is clear from Figure 1 that at long time (J(t) falls rapidly. In terms of mechanical models, this corresponds to the complete relaxation of all springs in an array. The region of time scale in which (J(t) falls rapidly is often called the flow or terminal zone. If the viscoelastic (viscous and elastic at same time) behavior of the polymer is represented by a finite mechanical model, the decay of G(t) must at the end become exponential, proportional to e -t/τi where i  is the terminal relaxation time. Figure 2 shows the dynamic viscosity as function of the frequency . The dynamic viscosity is related to the loss modulus as, 0  =      G   0 lim [4]. At low frequency approaches the steady-flow viscosity, 0  . As shown in Figure 2 at very low frequency the viscosity begins to be independent ( 0  ) on the frequency. 0  is determined in this study for PVA 83K sample to be about 3.7* 10 7 Pa.s. This value depends on the temperature and molecular weight of the polymer. 4. CONCLUSION The rheological properties of PVA 83K are evaluated using an ARES Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode. The measurements were performed successively in 8 mm a parallel plate instead of 25 mm. The creep compliance and viscosity are measured and evaluated. The melt viscosity, 0  is determined in this study for PVA 83K sample to be about 3.7* 10 7 Pa.s. REFERENCES [1] Vinogradov, G.V.and Malkin, A.Ya, Rheology of Polymers (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1980) [2] H. Nakatani, K.-H Nitta, and K. Soga, Polymer 40, 1547, 1999 [3] Billmeyer, Jr., F. W., Textbook of Polymer Science 3rd ed. ( Wiley, Singapore, 1984). [4] A.-Goad, A.-Halim, M., PhD thesis, Münster University, 2000. [5] Kuleznev, V.M.and Shershnev, V.A., The Chemistry and Physics of Polymers, (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1990) [6] Ferry, J.D., Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, 3rd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1980). [7] Eisele, U., Introduction to Polymer Physics, (Springer, Berlin, 1990). [8] Utracki, L.A., Polymer Alloys and Blends, Thermodynamics and Rheology (Hanser Publishers, Munich, 1990). [9] A.-Goad A.-Halim, M., Pyckhout,W., Allgiar, J., Fetters, L.J. and Richter, The Egyptian Society of Chemical Engineers, Vol.27, No. 2, P.245, Oct.2001. [10] Dara S.S., A text book of Engineering Chemistry, (S. Chand & Company LTD, Ram Nagar, New Delhi, 1999). [11] Fetters L. J., Lohse D.J., and Milner S.T., Macromolecules 32, No.20, 6847 (1999). [12] Baumgaertel M., Rosa M. E. De, Machado J., Masse M. and Winter H. H., Rheol. Acta. 31, 75 (1992). [13] J.K. Jackson, M.E. De Rosa, and H.H. Winter, Macromolecules 27, No. 9, 2426 (1994). International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 9-11 11 Figure 1: Master curve of the creep compliance for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. Figure 2: Plot of dynamic viscosity as a function of frequency for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 J (t ) P a-1 time, sec. 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109  P a .s  rad/sec
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The storage and loss modulus and the relaxation stress are performed.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRPO-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Storage-Loss Modulus and Relaxation Stress", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 12 Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Storage-Loss Modulus and Relaxation Stress Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt E-mail: Abstract: The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The storage and loss modulus and the relaxation stress are performed. Keywords: The storage and loss modulus of Polyvinyacetate, Relaxation stress. 1. INTRODUCTION Rheology is concerned with the description of the mechanical properties of the various materials under the various deformation conditions. Polymer rheology is in its various aspects intimately entwined with molecular physics, continuum mechanics, and the processing of polymeric materials. At present, rheological investigations of polymers are processing at an enormously rapid rate, embracing a wide range of materials: biological objects, paste-like substances such as lubricants. The applied aspects of rheology are tied up with the development of new technological processes for the processing of plastics, elastomers and fibers [1]. The understanding of the relationship between the rheological properties of polymers and their molecular structure has considerably improved in the past few years with the interest of physicists in the matter and particularly with the development of molecular dynamics theories [2]. Besides, rheological measurements are used now as an analytical tool of polymer characterization [3]. In this work the rheological properties are investigated in details for a commercial PVA 83K. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Polydisperse PVA 83K sample was prepared for the Rheological measurements. In the disc form with 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness by using a press mould without vacuum at 50 C under 10 bar for 20 min. The preparation steps and conditions are summarized as follows: Approximately 0.1 g of the polymer is placed in a Teflon frame of dimensions 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. This Teflon frame is introduced between two Teflon plates and positioned between two metallic plates in the mould. The sample is positioned on the lower plate followed by lowering the upper plate until just contact the upper Teflon plate. The sample is heated with heat rate 10 C/min. and pressed under 8-10 bar by lowering the upper piston for 20 min. The mould is cooled to 30 C , followed by taking the sample out. After preparation the sample for the measurement, the sample is placed on the lower plate of the ARES-Rheometer followed by lowering the stage until the sample just contacts the upper fixture completely. The ARES-Rheometer, consists of a test station, a furnace and liquid nitrogen controller. The test station contains the motor and transducer between which the sample to be tested is placed. The furnace is a forced convection environmental chamber that encloses the sample. The gas temperature is controlled by two resistive heaters and the nitrogen gaseous is used during testing at or above room temperature. If test temperatures are below room temperature, liquid nitrogen is used. The temperature of the oven is maintained by a control loop that is closed around a platinum resistive thermometer. The normal force of the instrument should be kept around zero and the actual gap size is read electronically to be around 1 mm. The measuring program is adjusted to measure the sample over a wide range of temperature from 25 C up to 150 C as a function of frequencies in parallel plate geometry and dry nitrogen atmosphere .The strain was kept inside the linear regime in the whole frequency range. The strain is applied to the sample and the resulting stress is measured by the transducer. The stress signal generated by the sample separated into two components; an elastic part which is in the phase with strain and a viscouse contribution which is 90 out of phase with the strain. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The PVA83K sample was measured over a temperature range 25-150°C as a function of frequency. Different temperatures curves were shifted into single curve (Master curve) to a reference temperature T0 (25 C) by means of the time-temperature superposition principle as proposed by Williams, Landel and Ferry (WLF) [8]. International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 13 Figure 1 shows the master curves of storage, G    and loss modulus, G'' () for PVA 83K . In Figure 1 G'' () and G    are plotted against the radian frequency with logarithmic scales . The storage modulus, G    is the ability of the material to store energy and the loss modulus represents the losses in the energy per cycle of the deformation. On the dependencies of G', G'' (Fig. 1) on frequency we deal with the following characteristic points and regions. The most important for the loss modulus are the points of intersection of its frequency curve with the curve of frequency versus the storage modulus. In the region of relatively low frequencies the point of their intersection corresponds to the maximum of the loss modulus. On the frequency scale this point is conveniently taken as the beginning of the rubbery plateau. In this way the extent of the plateau is determined on the frequency scale. The point of the minimum of the loss modulus is important. In the region of the terminal zone ( which corresponds to the region of fluidity) the loss modulus is directly proportional to frequency. Figure 1 shows the glass plateau regime for PVA 83K at high frequency followed by the glass transition. The appearance of the glass regime because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass transition temperature with ARES rheometer. Since the glass transition temperature of PVA is 28 C [10] and the sample is measured at 25 C . The glass transition relates to the movement of the segments. The flatness of the rubber-like (plateau) regime is not clear due to the insufficient high molecular weight sample. As the result we cannot determine accurately the plateau modulus,  N G . Since the rubber-like regime is the indication of the entanglements where the chains are entangled each other above a certain molecular weight that called critical molecular weight, Mc. The attainment of the critical molecular weight is usually tied up to the appearance in the polymer of a spatial network of junctions of the type of molecular entanglements, which are characterized by weak intermolecular interaction and accordingly, by a low potential energy barrier. This accounts for the very slightly dependence of Mc on temperature. Mc equals to nearly two times [10] the entanglement molecular weight, Me which is the distance between the entanglement points can be determined as, Me = ρRT/  N G [11]. ρ is the density of the material, R is the universal gas constant and T is the reference temperature which is taken to be the room temperature in this study. And  N G is the plateau modulus that can be determined by different methods. From peak maximum in the loss modulus at the intersection point with the storage modulus as, max )06.060.4( GG N   [3].  N G could obtained also from the height of the plateau in Figure 1 at the point against to the minimum of loss modulus on the frequency scale. But these values of the plateau modulus are inaccurate because these points are not clear due to the insufficient high molecular weight (83000 g/mol) in addition to the large molecular weight distribution. The plateau regime is not clear also in the stress relaxation modulus (Fig.2) for the same reasons. The stress relaxation modulus, G(t) is defined as the stress divided by strain at constant deformation and is plotted versus time. The boundaries of the plateau are temperature-dependent At short time the corresponding region of the time scale is sometimes called glassy zone corresponds to the absence of any configurational rearrangements of the chain backbones It is clear from Figure 3 that at long time G(t) falls rapidly. In terms of mechanical models, this corresponds to the complete relaxation of all springs in an array. The region of time scale in which G(t) falls rapidly is often called the flow or terminal zone. 4. CONCLUSION The rheological properties of PVA 83K are evaluated using an ARES Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode. The measurements were performed successively in 8 mm a parallel plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass transition temperature. The storage and loss modulus and the relaxation stress are performed. The accurate value of the plateau modulus  N G was difficult to obtain. Because of the insufficient high molecular weight and large molecular weight distribution. REFERENCES [1] Vinogradov, G.V.and Malkin, A.Ya, Rheology of Polymers (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1980) [2] H. Nakatani, K.-H Nitta, and K. Soga, Polymer 40, 1547, 1999 [3] Billmeyer, Jr., F. W., Textbook of Polymer Science 3rd ed. ( Wiley, Singapore, 1984). [4] A.-Goad, A.-Halim, M., PhD thesis, Münster University, 2000. [5] Kuleznev, V.M.and Shershnev, V.A., The Chemistry and Physics of Polymers, (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1990) [6] Ferry, J.D., Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). [7] Eisele, U., Introduction to Polymer Physics, (Springer, Berlin, 1990). [8] Utracki, L.A., Polymer Alloys and Blends, Thermodynamics and Rheology (Hanser Publishers, Munich, 1990). [9] A.-Goad A.-Halim, M., Pyckhout,W., Allgiar, J., Fetters, L.J. and Richter, The Egyptian Society of Chemical Engineers, Vol.27, No. 2, P.245, Oct.2001. International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 14 [10] Dara S.S., A text book of Engineering Chemistry, (S. Chand & Company LTD, Ram Nagar, New Delhi, 1999). [11] Fetters L. J., Lohse D.J., and Milner S.T., Macromolecules 32, No.20, 6847 (1999). [12] Baumgaertel M., Rosa M. E. De, Machado J., Masse M. and Winter H. H., Rheol. Acta. 31, 75 (1992). [13] J.K. Jackson, M.E. De Rosa, and H.H. Winter, Macromolecules 27, No. 9, 2426 (1994). The Abbreviations and notation: PVA 83K: Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol.  : the angular frequency G' : the storage modulus G'' : the loss modulus i G : the relaxation strength G(t) : The relaxation stress T0 : The reference temperature  N G : the plateau modulus Figure 1: Master curve of storage and loss modulus as function of frequency for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 12-15 15 Figure 2: Master curve of the stress relaxation modulus for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 102 103 104 105 106 G (t ), P a time, sec.
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1597132843000, "description": "Abstract: The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The rheological properties of polydisperse PVA 83K were completely studied. The storage and loss compliance and the relaxation spectrum are evaluated.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRPO-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Compliance and Relaxation Spectrum", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2643-640X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 8-10 8 Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Compliance and Relaxation Spectrum Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Petrochemicals Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract: The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K ) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The rheological properties of polydisperse PVA 83K were completely studied. The storage and loss compliance and the relaxation spectrum are evaluated. Keywords: Viscoelastic properties of Polyvinyacetate, Relaxation spectrum, Compliance. 1. INTRODUCTION Rheology is concerned with the description of the mechanical properties of the various materials under the various deformation conditions. Polymer rheology is in its various aspects intimately entwined with molecular physics, continuum mechanics, and the processing of polymeric materials. At present, rheological investigations of polymers are processing at an enormously rapid rate, embracing a wide range of materials: biological objects, paste-like substances such as lubricants. The applied aspects of rheology are tied up with the development of new technological processes for the processing of plastics, elastomers and fibers [1]. The understanding of the relationship between the rheological properties of polymers and their molecular structure has considerably improved in the past few years with the interest of physicists in the matter and particularly with the development of molecular dynamics theories [2]. Besides, rheological measurements are used now as an analytical tool of polymer characterization [3-13]. In this work the rheological properties are investigated in details for a commercial PVA 83K. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Polydisperse PVA 83K sample was prepared for the Rheological measurements. In the disc form with 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness by using a press mould without vacuum at 50 C under 10 bar for 20 min. The preparation steps and conditions are summarized as follows: Approximately 0.1 g of the polymer is placed in a Teflon frame of dimensions 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. This Teflon frame is introduced between two Teflon plates and positioned between two metallic plates in the mould. The sample is positioned on the lower plate followed by lowering the upper plate until just contact the upper Teflon plate. The sample is heated with heat rate 10 C/min. and pressed under 8-10 bar by lowering the upper piston for 20 min. The mould is cooled to 30 C , followed by taking the sample out. After preparation the sample for the measurement, the sample is placed on the lower plate of the ARES-Rheometer followed by lowering the stage until the sample just contacts the upper fixture completely. The ARES-Rheometer, consists of a test station, a furnace and liquid nitrogen controller. The test station contains the motor and transducer between which the sample to be tested is placed. The furnace is a forced convection enviromental chamber that encloses the sample. The gas temperature is controlled by two resistive heaters and the nitrogen gaseous is used during testing at or above room temperature. If test temperatures are below room temperature, liquid nitrogen is used. The temperature of the oven is maintained by a control loop that is closed around a platinum resistive thermometer. The normal force of the instrument should be kept around zero and the actual gap size is read electronically to be around 1 mm. The measuring program is adjusted to measure the sample over a wide range of temperature from 25 C up to 150 C as a function of frequencies in parallel plate geometry and dry nitrogen atmosphere .The strain was kept inside the linear regime in the whole frequency range. The strain is applied to the sample and the resulting stress is measured by the transducer. The stress signal generated by the sample separated into two components; an elastic part which is in the phase with strain and a viscouse contribution which is 90 out of phase with the strain. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2643-640X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 8-10 9 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The PVA83K sample was measured over a temperature range 25-150°C as a function of frequency. Different temperatures curves were shifted into single curve (Master curve) to a reference temperature T0 (25 C)by means of the time-temperature superposition principle as proposed by Williams, Landel and Ferry (WLF) [8]. Three regimes are found in Figure 1 where the storage, J'(w) and loss, J'' (w) compliance have roughly the appearance of mirror image of those of G' (w) and G'' (w). Since the rubber-like regime is the indication of the entanglements where the chains are entangled each other above a certain molecular weight that called critical molecular weight, Mc. A discrete relaxation spectrum using a small number of modes is derived to describe the relaxation behaviour of monodisperse polystyrene melts. Attention is focused on keeping the physical meaning of the relaxation times. Therefore, molecular dynamics theories are used in the terminal, plateau and transition zones and in the case of entangled melts. The spectrum is divided into three parts corresponding to three assumed different relaxation mechanisms: Rouse mechanism at short times, modified Rouse for tube equilibration and reptation with tube fluctuation in the long time range. This description only requires the knowledge of a limited number of parameters, namely the molecular weight of the polymer under investigation, the scaling law for Newtonian viscosity, the plateau modulus and the molecular weight between entanglements. The method is sucessfully applied to entangled monodisperse polystyrene melts and enables the recovery of final spectra containing only a few relaxation modes. If the viscoelastic (viscous and elastic at same time) behavior of the polymer is represented by a finite mechanical model, the decay of G(t) must at the end become exponential, proportional to e-t/τi where i  is the terminal relaxation time. The results of the extension in the number of elements in the Maxwell model without limit is a continuos spectrum that is called relaxation spectrum, H(T) (Fig. 2). The characteristic zones of the viscoelastic time scale are clearly apparent in H: the glassy zone to the left of the principle maximum, the transition zone where H drops steeply, the terminal zone where it approaches zero. 4. CONCLUSION The rheological properties of PVA 83K are evaluated using an ARES Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode. The measurements were performed successively in 8 mm a parallel plate instead of 25 mm. From the results obtaine, the viscoelastic properties of PVA could be studied with high accuracy. The storage and loss compliance and the relaxation spectrum are evaluated. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Support for this research was provided by International bureau in Germany. Rheological measurements were performed at research center Juelich, Germany.The helpful discussions of Dr.W.Pyckhout are grateful acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Vinogradov, G.V.and Malkin, A.Ya, Rheology of Polymers (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1980) 2. H. Nakatani, K.-H Nitta, and K. Soga, Polymer 40, 1547, 1999 3. Billmeyer, Jr., F. W., Textbook of Polymer Science 3rd ed. ( Wiley, Singapore, 1984). 4. A.-Goad, A.-Halim, M., PhD thesis, Münster University, 2000. Kuleznev, V.M.and Shershnev, V.A., The Chemistry and Physics of Polymers, (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1990) 5. Ferry, J.D., Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 6. Eisele, U., Introduction to Polymer Physics, (Springer, Berlin, 1990). 7. Utracki, L.A., Polymer Alloys and Blends, Thermodynamics and Rheology (Hanser Publishers, Munich, 1990). 8. A.-Goad A.-Halim, M., Pyckhout,W., Allgiar, J., Fetters, L.J. and Richter, The Egyptian Society of Chemical Engineers, Vol.27, No. 2, P.245, Oct.2001. 9. Dara S.S., A text book of Engineering Chemistry, (S. Chand & Company LTD, Ram Nagar, New Delhi, 1999). 10. Fetters L. J., Lohse D.J., and Milner S.T., Macromolecules 32, No.20, 6847 (1999). 11. Baumgaertel M., Rosa M. E. De, Machado J., Masse M. and Winter H. H., Rheol. Acta. 31, 75 (1992). 12. J.K. Jackson, M.E. De Rosa, and H.H. Winter, Macromolecules 27, No. 9, 2426 (1994). International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2643-640X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 8-10 10 6. THE ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATION: PVA 83K: Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol.  : the angular frequency J' : the storage compliance J'' : the loss compliance J* : the complex compliance iG : the relaxation strength i : the relaxation time Figure 1: Master curve of the compliance for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. Figure 2: Plot of the relaxation spectrum for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 101 102 103 104 105 106 H (  ) P a1 time, sec.
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596027083000, "description": "The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The rheological properties of polydisperse PVA 83K were completely studied and the experimental data were analyzed using the Winter model.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRPO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Part II", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 22-25 22 Rheological Properties of Polyvinylacetate: Part II Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- The dynamic viscoelastic properties of Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol (PVA 83K) were determined by using a Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode and 8 mm parallel plate over a wide range of temperature as a function of frequency. The measurements were performed successively in the parallel plate geometry using 8 mm plate instead of 25 mm. The glass plateau regime is clearly observed because we could measure PVA 83K sample successively under its glass temperature. The rheological properties of polydisperse PVA 83K were completely studied and the experimental data were analyzed using the Winter model. Keywords: Viscoelastic properties of Polyvinyacetate, Relaxation spectrum, Compliance. 1. INTRODUCTION Rheology is concerned with the description of the mechanical properties of the various materials under the various deformation conditions. Polymer rheology is in its various aspects intimately entwined with molecular physics, continuum mechanics, and the processing of polymeric materials. At present, rheological investigations of polymers are processing at an enormously rapid rate, embracing a wide range of materials: biological objects, paste-like substances such as lubricants. The applied aspects of rheology are tied up with the development of new technological processes for the processing of plastics, elastomers and fibers [1]. The understanding of the relationship between the rheological properties of polymers and their molecular structure has considerably improved in the past few years with the interest of physicists in the matter and particularly with the development of molecular dynamics theories [2]. Besides, rheological measurements are used now as an analytical tool of polymer characterization [3-13]. In this work the rheological properties are investigated in details for a commercial PVA 83K. 2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Polydisperse PVA 83K sample was prepared for the Rheological measurements. In the disc form with 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness by using a press mould without vacuum at 50 C under 10 bar for 20 min. The preparation steps and conditions are summarized as follows: Approximately 0.1 g of the polymer is placed in a Teflon frame of dimensions 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. This Teflon frame is introduced between two Teflon plates and positioned between two metallic plates in the mould. The sample is positioned on the lower plate followed by lowering the upper plate until just contact the upper Teflon plate. The sample is heated with heat rate 10 C/min. and pressed under 8-10 bar by lowering the upper piston for 20 min. The mould is cooled to 30 C , followed by taking the sample out. After preparation the sample for the measurement, the sample is placed on the lower plate of the ARES-Rheometer followed by lowering the stage until the sample just contacts the upper fixture completely. The ARES-Rheometer, consists of a test station, a furnace and liquid nitrogen controller. The test station contains the motor and transducer between which the sample to be tested is placed. The furnace is a forced convection environmental chamber that encloses the sample. The gas temperature is controlled by two resistive heaters and the nitrogen gaseous is used during testing at or above room temperature. If test temperatures are below room temperature, liquid nitrogen is used. The temperature of the oven is maintained by a control loop that is closed around a platinum resistive thermometer. The normal force of the instrument should be kept around zero and the actual gap size is read electronically to be around 1 mm. The measuring program is adjusted to measure the sample over a wide range of temperature from 25 C up to 150 C as a function of frequencies in parallel plate geometry and dry nitrogen atmosphere .The strain was kept inside the linear regime in the whole frequency range. The strain is applied to the sample and the resulting stress is measured by the transducer. The stress signal generated by the sample separated into two components; an elastic part which is in the phase with strain and a viscouse contribution which is 90 out of phase with the strain. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 22-25 23 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The PVA83K sample was measured over a temperature range 25-150°C as a function of frequency. Different temperatures curves were shifted into single curve ( Master curve) to a reference temperature T0 (25 C)by means of the time-temperature superposition principle as proposed by Williams, Landel and Ferry (WLF) [8]. Three regimes are found in Figure 1 where the storage, J'(w) and loss, J'' (w) compliance have roughly the appearance of mirror image of those of G' (w) and G'' (w). Since the rubber-like regime is the indication of the entanglements where the chains are entangled each other above a certain molecular weight that called critical molecular weight, Mc. If the viscoelastic (viscous and elastic at same time) behavior of the polymer is represented by a finite mechanical model, the decay of G(t) must at the end become exponential, proportional to e-t/τi where i  is the terminal relaxation time. The results of the extension in the number of elements in the Maxwell model without limit is a continuous spectrum that is called relaxation spectrum, H(T) (Fig. 2). The characteristic zones of the viscoelastic time scale are clearly apparent in H: the glassy zone to the left of the principle maximum, the transition zone where H drops steeply, the terminal zone where it approaches zero. Figure 3 shows the dynamic viscosity as function of the frequency . At low frequency approaches the steady-flow viscosity, 0  . As shown in Figure 3 at very low frequency the viscosity begins to be independent ( 0  ) on the frequency. This value depends on the temperature and molecular weight of the polymer. 4. CONCLUSION The rheological properties of PVA 83K are evaluated using an ARES Rheometer operated in the dynamic mode. The measurements were performed successively in 8 mm a parallel plate instead of 25 mm. From the results obtaine, the viscoelastic properties of PVA could be evaluated with high accuracy. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Support for this research was provided by International bureau in Germany. The helpful discussions of Dr.S. Khale and Dr.W.Pyckhout (FZ, Juelich, Germany) are grateful acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Vinogradov, G.V.and Malkin, A.Ya, Rheology of Polymers (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1980) 2. H. Nakatani, K.-H Nitta, and K. Soga, Polymer 40, 1547, 1999 3. Billmeyer, Jr., F. W., Textbook of Polymer Science 3rd ed. ( Wiley, Singapore, 1984). 4. A.-Goad, A.-Halim, M., PhD thesis, Münster University, 2000. 5. Kuleznev, V.M.and Shershnev, V.A., The Chemistry and Physics of Polymers, (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1990) 6. Ferry, J.D., Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 7. Eisele, U., Introduction to Polymer Physics, (Springer, Berlin, 1990). 8. Utracki, L.A., Polymer Alloys and Blends, Thermodynamics and Rheology (Hanser Publishers, Munich, 1990). 9. A.-Goad A.-Halim, M., Pyckhout,W., Allgiar, J., Fetters, L.J. and Richter, The Egyptian Society of Chemical Engineers, Vol.27, No. 2, P.245, Oct.2001. 10. Dara S.S., A text book of Engineering Chemistry, (S. Chand & Company LTD, Ram Nagar, New Delhi, 1999). 11. Fetters L. J., Lohse D.J., and Milner S.T., Macromolecules 32, No.20, 6847 (1999). 12. Baumgaertel M., Rosa M. E. De, Machado J., Masse M. and Winter H. H., Rheol. Acta. 31, 75 (1992). 13. J.K. Jackson, M.E. De Rosa, and H.H. Winter, Macromolecules 27, No. 9, 2426 (1994). International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 22-25 24 The Abbreviations and notation: PVA 83K: Polyvinylacetate with molecular weight 83000g/mol.  : the angular frequency J' : the storage compliance J'' : the loss compliance J* : the complex compliance i G : the relaxation strength i  : the relaxation time Figure 1: Master curve of the compliance for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 j' j" j' & J " 1 /P a  rad/sec. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 2, February - 2018, Pages: 22-25 25 Figure 2: Plot of the relaxation spectrum for PVA 83K at T0 =25C. Figure 3: Plot of dynamic viscosity at T0 =30C. 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 101 102 103 104 105 106 H (  ) P a1 time, sec. 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109  P a .s  rad/sec
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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "Bitumen blends were prepared for road applications by the introduction of 9wt% waste Polyethylene, PE bags in the molten state. The relaxation stress, relaxation and retardation spectrum and viscosity of bitumen blends were studied. At different temperatures and compared to those of the original pure bitumen. These properties were tested using an ARES- Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 8 mm diameter over the temperature range from –10 to 60°C and angular frequency, varied from 10-1 to 102 radian/s. The relaxation stress and viscosity were modified by the addition of waste PE. The results also evidence that the incorporation of the waste PE enhances stability of the bitumen blends As a consequence, the use of waste PE bags can be considered a suitable alternative from both environmental and economical points of view. Bitumens containing several polymer concentrations have been studied.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDRRC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rheological Rheological Characterization of Bitumen/Waste Polyethylene Composites: Part II", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 7-11 7 Rheological Rheological Characterization of Bitumen/Waste Polyethylene Composites: Part II Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt E-mail: Abstract: Bitumen blends were prepared for road applications by the introduction of 9wt% waste Polyethylene, PE bags in the molten state. The relaxation stress, relaxation and retardation spectrum and viscosity of bitumen blends were studied. At different temperatures and compared to those of the original pure bitumen. These properties were tested using an ARESRheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 8 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 -1 to 10 2 radian/s. The relaxation stress and viscosity were modified by the addition of waste PE. The results also evidence that the incorporation of the waste PE enhances stability of the bitumen blends As a consequence, the use of waste PE bags can be considered a suitable alternative from both environmental and economical points of view. Bitumens containing several polymer concentrations have been studied. Keywords: bitumen, waste plastics, relaxation stress, relaxation spectrum, viscosity. 1. INTRODUCTION Bitumen, which remains after vacuum distillation of crude oil, is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. The physical, mechanical, and rheological behavior of bitumen in road and building construction is governed by its chemical composition. For this reason, considerable effort goes toward widening the knowledge of this composition and relating it to performance [1-8].The chemical composition of bitumen is very complex, although its components can be broadly categorized as maltenes and asphaltenes.[914]. Asphaltenes are defined as the blackcoloured fraction of bitumen that is insoluble in n-heptane. Maltenes, composed of saturated compounds, aromatic compounds and resins are soluble in n-heptane . The ratio of asphaltenes to the other constituents, and the maltenic fraction composition have a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumens, and hence on their performance as road paving binders [15]. The high temperature sensitivity makes bitument difficult or impossible to optimise both highand low-temperature properties. The binders are too brittle at low temperatures and lack cohesion at high temperatures. The temperature sensitivity of straight-run bitumens can be reduced by adding polymer [16]. The polymer addition allows an increase in the resistance of the binder to permanent deformation at high temperature. Besides, the fracture properties including critical stress intensity factor (K1C) at low temperature of polymer modified bitumen were shown to be higher than those of the bitumen base [17]. Therefore, polymerbitumen blends find considerable interest from different authors[ 1821]. The application of polymeric materials in agriculture and horticulture has increased considerably in recent years, not only as replacement for traditional materials but also as a mean of effecting improvement. Thus, the application of plastics has led to a significant improvement in technological processes in the growing and storing of agricultural crops . As a result, a large amount of waste plastic films, containing LDPE, EVA and a minor proportion of stabilizers, are generated every year all over the world [22]. Therefore, the possibility of disposing of troublesome waste plastics within road bitumens is an environmental and economical point of view, The rheological analysis of the bituminous materials is an important test to better understanding its microstructure. Therefore, the rheological study has a considerable interest by different authors [23-27]. It is well established that the linear behavior of bitumens is described by the general linear visco-elastic model.The rheological analysis is a sensitive and versatile thermal analysis technique, which measures the modulus (stiffness) and damping properties (energy dissipation) of materials as the material are deformed under periodic stress [28]. Since the modulus of bitumen can vary by 3-4 orders of magnitude over the in-service temperature range. It was the objective of this work to modify the bitumen at inservice temperatures by adding waste PE. we analyze the rheology of the bitumen modified with waste PE content up to 11% and neat bitumen. 2. EXPERIMENTS PART Materials and preparation Bitumen blends were prepared by adding waste plastics to commercial bitumen. The waste PE bags were sorted from the garbage and shredded into coarse particles. The waste PE bags and the bitumen were weighted and heated individually in an oven until melt. Waste PE in molten state was poured into the molten bitumen up to a level of 11 wt%, mechanically stirred to give a homogenous sample and then stored at room temperature. The bitumen blends and the International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 7-11 8 original neat bitumen samples were compression-molded at 70°C and 5 bars for 1 hour and shaped for the rheology measurements in a disc form with 8 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. 3. METHOD The rheological behavior was studied for pure bitumen and bitumen blends by using dynamic an ARES-Rheometer ( Rheometric scientific) equipment in plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter. The sample to be measured was placed on the down plate and the upper plate was lowered until just contact the sample. The measurements were performed in the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. In the dynamic mode and the strain amplitude was kept (1%) in the linear viscoelastic regime. 6 points per decade in frequency were obtained. The gap was 2 mm and the actual gap size is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The master curve is obtained by shifting the measured data at different temperatures, T into a single curve at a reference temperature T0 as shown in Figure 1. By using of the time-temperature superposition principle which described by Williams-Landel-Ferry [29] as, log aT = -C1 (TT0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. C1 and C2 are roughly determined as listed in Table1. aT of bitumen blends is plotted as a function of temperature in Figure 2. In this Figure aT decreases with increasing the temperature up to 25°C (aT ~ T -0.14 ) then becomes nearly independent on the temperatures. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures in the horizontal direction. In vertical direction the experiments data are shifted by bT (bT = 00/ TT  [30] ). Where  is the material density. The effect of the temperature on bT is shown in Figure 3 for bitumen blends. bT is nearly constant at low temperatures but after 25°C it falls rapidly (bT ~ T -0.17 ) with increasing the temperature as shown in Figure 3. Material C1 C2 Bitumen base 24.9 196 Bitumen/9%PE 1.8 30 The shear relaxation stresses G(t) is plotted against time with logarithmic scales at T0 = 10, 25 and 60°C in Figures 4-5 for neat bitumen and bitumen/PE blend. G(t) is the relaxation stress at constant deformation. At long times of each T0, the master curve of each G(t) shows flow regime which is related to the complete relaxation of the macromolecules and released from the restrictions of the entanglements. The time taken in the relaxation processes is called the longest relaxation time. In this regime the viscous component is higher than the elastic component because of the release of the entanglements which are the responsible for the elasticity. Therefore, G(t) decreases sharply and falls by many order of magnitude in this regime as shown in Figures 4-5. At intermediate time of each master curve is located the rubbery zone that is the signature of the elasticity. As a result, G(t) is independent on the time in this regime since the loss in the energy in every cycle of the deformation is minimum. At short times the third regime of the viscoelastic behaviour is found only in the case of pure bitumen which is called dynamic glass transition because it was no difficulties to measure the neat bitumen samples at very low temperatures (-10°C). The master curves at reference temperature 10°C are shifted toward the long time, those at 25°C appear to be in the intermediate and the master curves at reference temperatures 60°C are shifted toward the short time-wing as shown in Figure 4. This because the time of relaxation of the entanglement chains is inversely proportional to the temperature, since at low temperatures the chains take a long time in the relaxation processes, unlike at high temperatures. G(t) modulus at 60°C is lower than at 25°C and G(t) at 25°C is lower than at 10°C as seen in Figures 4-5. Figures 4-5 evidence that the incorporation of the waste plastics into the bitumen increases the relaxation stress over all the temperatures and times ranges. This increase in G(t) moduli is more noticeable at long times and high temperatures as shown in these Figures. Where the values of G(t) modulus at 5 seconds and 10°C is 2 times higher than this of neat bitumen by by the addition of 9wt%PE as shown in Figure 4. This factor reaches up to 7 at 50 seconds (the same temperature) as shown in Figure 4. The ratio G(t)bit.9%PE/ G(t)bitumen at the end of flow regime in the cases of T0 = 10, 25 and 60°C are 3, 6 and 10. That means the bitumen/PE blend is more stable than neat bitumen at high temperatures for a long times. This due to the formation of the bitumenpolymer network which increases the stiffness and strength of the bitumen blends. That is confirmed too in Figures 6-7. In these Figures the shear equilibrium creep, Je is logarithamically plotted versus time for bitumen and bitumen/PE blend. The addition of PE to bitumen enhances Je in particular at long times and the differences among Je values of bitumen/PE blend is more observable at long times due to the stability of the bitumen-PE network. The relaxation (H(t)) and retardation (L(t)) spectrum of neat bitumen and bitumen/PE blend are plotted as a function of time at 25°C in Figures 8-9. H(t) and L(t) indicate the distribution of relaxation and retardation mechanisms, respectively in different regions of the time scale. they show a broad spectrum of relaxation and retardation times. A broad mechanical relaxation, observed at 25°C, is associated with the collapse of a compact structure, constituted by asphaltene particles surrounded by solid resin. The addition of PE to bitumen modifies this relaxation. The values of H(t) increase by the addition of waste PE to bitumen. The increase in H(t) is significant at long times as shown in Figure 8. That is clear at 40 seconds where H(t) of International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 7-11 9 bitumen blend is higher than this of pure bitumen by a factor 2 by the addition of 9% PE as shown in Figure 8. This factor becomes 6 at 100 seconds as shown in Figure 8. The same scenario is observed in L(t) (Fig.6). Since at 40 Seconds the addition of 9% PE to bitumen alters the values of L(t) for pure bitumen from 5.010 -5 to 4.310 -1 Pa -1 as shown in Figure 9. But at 1000 seconds the values of L(t) are 5.010 -3 and 5.710 -4 Pa -1 for pure bitumen and 9%PE , respectively as shown in Figure 9. This as explained earlier due to the increase in the stiffness and strength of the bitumen by the incorporation of the PE. The complex viscosity (*) as a function of temperature for neat bitumen and bitumen blends at  = 0.1 radian/s is plotted in Figure 10. As shown in this Figure the incorporation of the waste PE into the bitumen increases the viscosity over all the temperatures range. This because the viscosity of the bitumen matrix is higher than pure bitumen. * of the blends at high temperatures are higher than at low temperatures. Since the values of * at 15°C increase from 5.010 4 (pure bitumen) to 5.710 5 Pa.s by the addition 9wt% PE , respectively. But at 60°C the differences among the values of * are high. These values are 2.710 5 and 5.710 5 Pa.s for pure bitumen and bitumen-9%PE, respectively as shown in Figure 10. This difference because bitumen components change considerably at ~ 40°C, particularly the ratio of the asphaltenes to the maltenes (the main components of bitumen) which has a significant effect on the viscoelastic properties of bitumen. 5. CONCLUSION Bitumen blends were prepared as a road paving binders by the introduction of 9wt% waste PE bags in the melt state followed by mechanical stirring. The relaxation stress, relaxation and retardation spectrum and viscosity of bitumen blends were studied. At different temperatures and compared to those of the original pure bitumen. These properties were tested using an ARES-Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific, Co.) equipment. The measurements were performed in the dynamic mode, plate-plate geometry of 25 mm diameter over the temperature range from -10 to 60°C and angular frequency,  varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. The relaxation stress and viscosity were developed by the addition of waste plastics and increase with the waste plastics content. The results also evidence that the incorporation of the waste plastics enhances stability of the bitumen blends. The results showed an increase in these properties by the incorporation of the bitumen at high temperatures for a long time. 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout and Dr.S. Khale at FZJ, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. J. L. Anhorn and A. Badakhshan, Fuel, V 73, P. 14991503, 1994. 2. S. Yui, Fuel and Energy Abstracts, V 38, P.78, 1997 3. F. Bonemazzi and C. Giavarini, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, V 22, P.17-24, 1999. 4. M. Garcìa-Pèrez, A. Chaala, J. Yang and C. Roy, Fuel, V 80, P. 1245-1258, 2001. 5. S. Zhao, L. S. Kotlyar, J. R. Woods, B. D. Sparks, K. Hardacre and K. H. Chung, Fuel, V 80, P. 1155-1163, 2001. 6. K. H. Michaelian, S. L. Zhang, R. H. Hall and J. T. Bulmer, Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, V 57, P.73-81, 2001. 7. H.A.El Akrami, M.F.Yardim, E. Ekinci, Energy & Fuels, V13, P.1030-1036,1999 8. R.J.Parker, R.A.McFarlane, Energy & Fuels, V14, P.1113,2000. 9. L.Raki, J.-F.Masson, P.Collins, Energy & Fuels, V14, P.160-163,2000. 10. H.W.Yarranton, H.Alboudwarej, R.Jakher, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., V39, P. 2916-2924, 2000 11. K.Oh, M.D.Deo, Energy & Fuels, V16, P. 694-699, 2002. 12. Y.Zhao, M.R.Gray, K.H.Chung, Energy & Fuels, V15, P.751-755, 2001. 13. L.M.Proctor, E.Toy, L.Lapham, J.Cherrier,J.P. Chanton, Environ. Sci. Technol., V35, P.1420-1424, 2001. 14. S.Japanwala, K.H.Chung, H.D.Dettman, M.R. Gray, Energy & Fuels, V16, P.477-484,2002. 15. M. García-Morales, P. Partal, F. J. Navarro, F. MartínezBoza, C. Gallegos, N. González, O. González and M. E. Muñoz, Fuel, V83, P31-38, 2004.. 16. P. R. Herrington, Y.Wu and M. C. Forbes, Fuel, V78, P.101-110, 1999. 17. L.Champion-Lapalu, A.Wilson, G.Fuchs, C.Scramoncin, D. Martin, J.P.Planche, Energy & Fuels, P.143-147, 2002. 18. A.H. Fawcett and S.-K. Lor, Polymer, V33, P. 20032006, 1992. 19. A. H. Fawcett and T. McNally, Polymer, V 41, P. 53155326, 2000. 20. X. Lu and U. Isacsson, Polymer Testing, V 20, P. 77-86, 2000. 21. G.D.Airey, FUEL ,V82, P.1709-1719, 2003 22. M. García-Morales, P. Partal, F. J. Navarro, F. MartínezBoza, C. Gallegos, N. González, O. González and M. E. Muñoz, Fuel, V83, P31-38, 2004. 23. A. K. Mehrotra, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, V5, P. 261-272, 1991. 24. R. R. Eastick and A. K. Mehrotra, Fuel Processing Technology, V 26, P.25-37, 1990. 25. G. D. Airey, Fuel, V 82, P. 1709-1719, 2003. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 7-11 10 26. D. Mastrofini and M. Scarsella, Fuel, V 42, P. 24, 2001. 27. A. Pérez-Lepe, F. J. Martínez-Boza, C. Gallegos, O. González, M. E. Muñoz and A. Santamaría, Fuel, V82, P. 1339-1348, 2003. 28. A.K.Saha, S.Das, D.Bhatta, and B.C.Mitra, J. of Applied Polymer Science, V.71, P.1505-1513, 1999. 29. J.D. Ferry, "Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers", 3rd ed. ( Wiley, New York, 1980). 30. Mahmoud A.-Halim Abdel-Goad, PhD thesis, Muenster University, Germany, 2000 Figure 1: non shifted experiments data of G(t) at different temperatures are shifted into master curves at T0 =25°C by using aT and bT. Figure 2: aT of bitumen/PE blend as a function of temperature at T0 =25°C Figure 3: bT of bitumen/PE blend as a function of temperature at T0 =25°C Figure 4: G(t) of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 25°C Figure 5: G(t) of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 10 and 60°C 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 b T a T n o n -sh i fte d e xp .d a ta M a ste r cu rve a t T 0 =1 0 °C M a ste r cu rve a t T 0 =6 0 °C G t P a t im e , s -20 0 20 40 60 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 a T Te m p ., °C -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1 b T Te m p ., °C 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 ne a t b itum e n b it . -9 % P E G t P a t im e , s 1 0 -12 1 0 -11 1 0 -10 1 0 -9 1 0 -8 1 0 -7 1 0 -6 1 0 -5 1 0 -4 1 0 -3 1 0 -2 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 6 1 0 7 T 0 = 6 0 °C T 0 = 1 0 °C ne a t b i tum e n b i t.-9 % P E G t P a t im e , s International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 7-11 11 Figure 6: Je of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 25°C Figure 7: Je of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 10 and 60°C Figure 8: H(t) of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 25°C Figure 9: L(t) of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen at T0 = 25°C Figure 10: * of bitumen/PE and neat bitumen as a function of temperature at  = 0.1 rad/s 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 p ure b i tum e n b i t.-9 % P E J e P a -1 t im e , s 10 -11 10 -10 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 T 0 = 6 0 °C T 0 = 1 0 °C neat bitumen bit.-9 % PE J e (t ) P a -1 tim e , s 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 neat bitumen bit.-9% PE H (t ) P a tim e , s 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 neat bitumen bit.-9E L (t ) P a -1 tim e , s -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 10 8 neat bitumen bit.-9% PE  * P a .s T e m p ., °C
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{ "creator": "Qizi, Kayumova Dildora Zafar", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1596960044000, "description": "Abstract: This article explores the stages of Uzbek artistic creation. Museum and written sources were considered traditional Uzbek embroidery types from antiquity to XIX century. Uzbek traditional embroidery patterns, symbolic meaning and usage have been systematized. New patterns and their use have been developed on the basis of traditional embroidery elements. The AutoCAD program has developed a new collection of modern costumes.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDSOA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Systematization Of Art Embroidery Patterns In Design Of Modern Dresses", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2019, Pages: 1-1 1 Systematization Of Art Embroidery Patterns In Design Of Modern Dresses Vakhidova Umida Abduhashimovna 1 , Kayumova Dildora Zafar qizi 2 1Lecturer, Department of Fashion Design Texnology and design of light industry, Tashkent institute of textile and light industry, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 2Student, Texnology and design of light industry, Tashkent institute of textile and light industry, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. E-mail address: d.zafarovna @mail.ru Abstract: This article explores the stages of Uzbek artistic creation. Museum and written sources were considered traditional Uzbek embroidery types from antiquity to XIX century. Uzbek traditional embroidery patterns, symbolic meaning and usage have been systematized. New patterns and their use have been developed on the basis of traditional embroidery elements. The AutoCAD program has developed a new collection of modern costumes. Keywords: embroidery, rhythm, style, pattern, Islamic pattern, composition, symmetry, asymmetry. 1. INTRODUCTION The cultural heritage created by ancient Turon nations is rich and diverse. The main part of this spiritual treasure, which has been formed over the centuries and is rich in content, is a folk craft. Uzbek art of embroidery plays a special place among the types of folk art. Our artistic insight is tradition and eternal dignity for every uzbek woman. This type of craftsmanship was practiced in every household in the last century. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Well-known scientist O.Sukhareva, who studies Uzbek national costumes, states that "almost all woman until the Revolution were able to sew" [1]. History does not have a home that Uzbeks did not decorate with an embroidery. The palace images created in the early 20th century are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Picture1.Samarqand palak embroidery Picture 2. Nurata palak embroidery The appearance of embroidery is associated with the appearance of the bark and suture in the garment made of the skin. This kind of art is associated with diving and painting during periods. The rope, wool, silk, dice and silver thread were used in the embroidery. The ancient hymns of embroidery in Central Asia have almost not been preserved. Artifacts and embroidery in museums such as palak, sozana, bed sheets, giraffe, shrubs were only dated to the XIX century. Miniatures in XIV-XV centuries were evidence that embroidery has developed in these regions. Artistic craftsmanship developed in the time of Timur and Timurid; elegant fabrics, floral embroidery, ornamental items. Examples of such applied art are decorated with small sketching and drawing patterns. The bright colors are used in embroidery. Written sources were decorated with embroidery on the walls of Amir Temur's palaces. The Spanish ambassador, Rui Gonzales, who lived in the palace of Amir Temur, also wrote that Claudius, in his memoirs, has seen the embroidery in the palace. Kamoliddin Behzod also reflected a festoon tent in the miniature of the Temurian Tiger who worked at the Zafar writing. Uzbek felt artists International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2019, Pages: 1-1 2 have decorated ornaments of other tupes of applied art in ornamental designs. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The history of Uzbek national embroidery can be divided into development stages. 1. Central Asian antiquity. (BC VI-IV) 2. The Middle Ages in the Middle Ages. (VII-VIII milliseconds) 3. Central Asia in the late Middle Ages. (IX-XVIII BC) 4. Central Asia XIX-XX centuries. From the earliest historical period, embroidery was made on the basis of patterns, and in craftsmanship a combination of style was created. The enlargement and change of the theme of the applied art was caused by the ethnic composition of the people and tribes, the daily and vital changes. Originally, the pattern was created from simple typical rhythms that make up a frame or carcass. The basic principles of drawing patterns by the method of the ancient people of Central Asia are defined; patterns or figures; the scheme will be divided into topics; themes are subdividedi into elements On this basis, there are other complexs and different patterns that are different from the oldest pattern. Ancient ornament culture was created in the process of interethnic communication between tribes and people. In the late Middle Ages. The patterns on the subjects of evolution changed to evolution. Formsold shapes to form new forms. During this period, the paintings of the Ottomans were described as conditionally and stylistically. In many ways, the theme of the men's and women's clothing reflects the external environment and is often manicured. The history of our embroidery, as well as the flower, pomegranate, horn, and bouquets, have been preserved. 4. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Today, the high demand for changes, as well as the traditions, creates new design elements in our national embroidery. In the fashion world, designers and craftsmen look for patterns that are used in the dresses created, and on this basis new patterns are offered. At the some time, each pattern is developed on the basis of the organization and the styling of the locals in nature. In the process of creation of patterns, first of all, the function and character of the composition are determined. The patterns are based on the principles of summetry and asymmetry. That is, the elements represent the opposite of one another, which is at the same distance as the white or the particle. Large circle patterns refer to the central axial symmetry law. At the same time, the summetry elements are located in the center of the central white circle covered in the same circumference. In the process of making patterns geometric and archetypal patterns combined with the composition. Art embroidery cabn be used to decorate craftsmanship. The new patterns are shown in Table 1: No Shape Explanation Usage 1 The given pepper patter is of asymmetrical shape and it is created in the XIX century on the basis of papper patterns of Shahrisabz embroidery. The illustrated pattern is auxiliary patterns and can be used in women's undewear. 2 The given pattern is of asymmetrical shape, and its pomegranate image is based on symmetry. The pattern can be used to decorate large ornamental patterns. 3 The given pattern has a symmetrical shape. Created on the basis of styling of leaf types used in composition The applied pattern can be used to decorate large flower decorations. International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2019, Pages: 1-1 3 4 The given pattern has a summetrical shape. Created on the basis of styling of leaf types used in composition Created patterns can be used as ornamental pattern in the melody composition. Our artistic creation is one of the types of applied arts that is being shot from the dynasties by younger generation. The cheerfulness of the cheerful creature, its inexhaustible fantasy and delicate taste, was reflected in Doppler dance of Uzbekistan, and decorative arts. People's artistic craftsmanship is endlessly demanded not only in our country, but also abroad. The art masterpieces created by the Uzbek masters are preserved in France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Belgium, America, India and many other countries, as well as exhibitions in the Republic's applied art museums, which have become a permanent exposition of the Uzbek people's traditions. Nowadays, this kind of art has become a permanent exposition. Nowadays, these works of art are striking with the diversity of their grace and elegance. In the current period of development, the artistic embroidery is adapted to fashion, fashion and modern dresses, and fashion designers and fashion designers of Uzbekistan. 5. CONCLUSION In short, the formation of the embroidery and the needle of the thread, the art of embroidery created in the human hands and the art of creation were formed. The most ancient patterns have been seen and systematized. The new designs were created on the basis of the collection of patterns, which are available in the designer's designs. REFERENCES: 1. Kadurov A. Design of decorative applied art in the direction of artistic embroidery. Toshkent, SHARQ, 2007. 6-7 pages. 2. Uzbek national headdresses XIX-XX centuries. 228238 pages. 3. Hakimov А. "Unique suzane in collections of the State Museum of Art of Uzbekistan" Art 2/2014. 14-15 pages. 4. Hasanboyeva.G. History of Tile Design . Toshkent, ECONOMIC FINANCE, 2006 pp. 127-142 5. . com. National embroidery history.
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{ "creator": "Tawwab, Ali M. Abdel", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: The aim of this research is to investigate the ability of manufacturing and testing a new mechanism for wedge disc brake. The new mechanism consists mainly of the wedge itself, which is controlled by a gear set to change its inclination angle. The wedge is sliding on a surface controlling its inclination angle. The control of the inclination angle can change the factor between the applied force from the brake pressure source and the normal force to the brake pads. Changing the normal force to the brake pads can change the brake force on the rotor disc. The brake force from the pads on the rotor disc is the main goal in this research. The goal is to increase this force by increasing the normal force on the brake pads. The new mechanism was manufactured and tested experimentally in the laboratory by the use of a lathe machine carrying the mechanism for investigation. The results showed the ability of the new mechanism to increase the brake force by about seven times than conventional disc brake. The tested inclination angles were 45o, 35o, 25o, 15o, 12o, and 10o with different rotational speeds of 76, 150, 230, 305 rpm at different applied hydraulic pressure of 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 bar. In all mentioned cases, the inclination angle of 12o was found to be the best angle in increasing the brake force.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDSTP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Studying the Performance of New Wedge Disc Brake Mechanism", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 6-9 6 Studying the Performance of New Wedge Disc Brake Mechanism Hamada M. Abdel-Rahman 1 , Ahmad O. Moaaz 2 , Nouby M. Ghazaly 3 , Ali. M. Abdel Tawwab 4 1,2Mechanical Engineering Department, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt 3Mechanical Engineering Department, South Valley University, South Valley, Egypt 4Mechanical Engineering Department, Minia University, Minia, Egypt Abstract: The aim of this research is to investigate the ability of manufacturing and testing a new mechanism for wedge disc brake. The new mechanism consists mainly of the wedge itself, which is controlled by a gear set to change its inclination angle. The wedge is sliding on a surface controlling its inclination angle. The control of the inclination angle can change the factor between the applied force from the brake pressure source and the normal force to the brake pads. Changing the normal force to the brake pads can change the brake force on the rotor disc. The brake force from the pads on the rotor disc is the main goal in this research. The goal is to increase this force by increasing the normal force on the brake pads. The new mechanism was manufactured and tested experimentally in the laboratory by the use of a lathe machine carrying the mechanism for investigation. The results showed the ability of the new mechanism to increase the brake force by about seven times than conventional disc brake. The tested inclination angles were 45o, 35o, 25o, 15o, 12o, and 10o with different rotational speeds of 76, 150, 230, 305 rpm at different applied hydraulic pressure of 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 bar. In all mentioned cases, the inclination angle of 12o was found to be the best angle in increasing the brake force. Keywords- Wedge disc brake; applied force; wedge inclination angle; brake force 1. INTRODUCTION Brakes can be described as a tool to slow or stop the turning motion of the vehicle wheels through transforming kinetic energy to heat [1]. The drum brake and disc brake are the main two types of friction brake. Disc brake have many advantages than drum brake of that: fade resistance, selfadjustment, and freedom of pull. Therefore, drum brake systems for vehicles are being replaced with disc brake systems. It should be noted that the main disadvantage of disc brake system is non-occurrence of the self-energizing phenomenon [2]. Hence, so there were many efforts to modify the disc brake system that could be self-amplified. In wedge disc brake system, a great brake force can be achieved with small-applied force. There were many models of wedge disc brake systems according to applied force direction whether, is normal or tangential. It has different advantages such as improved ABS performance especially on slippery roads, continuous brake power distribution, shorter stopping distance, and environmentally friendly brake system [2]. Therefor new wedge disc brake will be investigated in this study. Coefficient of friction μ, which is between pads and rotor disc that presented by Coulomb's law, is defined as the ratio of brake force to the applied force. Many efforts were done to determine it accurately, for example, Blau [3], and Serverin and Dörsch [4], presented a friction law depending based on many parameters such as normal force, sliding speed, contact temperature and number of brakes. However, it has no exact trend with these working parameters. The ratio of the total brake force to the applied force is called as the characteristic brake factor C* which is considered as the main performance of the vehicle braking system [5]. It depends basically on the value of friction coefficient. Serverin and Dörsch [4] have presented the variation in the characteristic brake factor C* with different friction coefficients. They found that the characteristic brake factor is affected by friction coefficient μ variations with uneven impact, where the degree of influence of the friction coefficient μ on the characteristic brake factor C* is higher with the self-amplified brakes (drum and wedge) than with the conventional disc brakes. Wedge disc brake, which its mechanical model shown in Fig. 1, is an application of mechatronics in a new disc brake system. The concept of Roberts [6] was based upon the application of self-amplification action in the disc brake system by using a wedge mechanism. This mechanism is similar to the patent presented by Dietrich [7]. In this work, the researcher tries to find the optimal operating point. The characteristic brake factor C* is: ( ) Where, α is wedge inclination angle. They even considered using the operating point when the characteristic brake factor C* is infinity, i.e., the term tan(α) - μ becomes zero. Fig. 1. Mechanical model of wedge disc brake [8] International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 6-9 7 2. DESCRIPTION OF TEST-RIG The test rig was built in order to generate the kinetic energy required for the system and then brake this energy by the brake wedge mechanism and measure the brake force at different speeds, applied forces, and different wedge inclination angles. The test rig consists of driving mechanism, flexible coupling, brake rotor disc, brake wedge mechanism, hydraulic connections for the brake fluid, and a measuring system for the brake force. The test rig is shown in Fig. 2. The driving mechanism is mainly the gear box of the lathe machine to give the system the ability of working with different speeds. The driving mechanism is also having a flywheel to give the required inertia force for the braking system. The lathe itself is driven by an AC electric motor characterized by a constant rotational speed with maximum power of 10 hp (7.46 kW) at 1450 rpm. (1) Rotor disc (5) Inclination angle Control (2) New wedge disc brake (6) Coupling (3), Hydraulic press (a) (7) Measuring system (4) Hydraulic press (b) (8) Computer Fig. 2. Experimental test rig The brake rotor disc is the element for testing the brake force on it and it has a brake pads installed on it and connected with the brake wedge mechanism by the hydraulic connections. The new wedge mechanism is shown in Fig. 3. The wedge mechanism is the most important part in the system, which consists of: two metallic parts have an inclined sliding surface between them has an inclination of 45o, the lower part is connected to a gear driving mechanism to control the inclination of this part, the upper part is the wedge which is connected to the hydraulic connections from the applied force source and to the normal force on the brake pads which installed on the rotor disc. The lower gear controlling the inclination angle of the wedge mechanism is driven by an electric motor with brake to adjust the inclination of the lower part of the mechanism as shown in Fig. 3. The sliding surface between the two parts of the wedge has a ladder bearing to prevent the friction between these two parts. The hydraulic connection is the main part transferring the pressure from the hydraulic pedal to the brake pads. These connections take the pressure from the hydraulic pedal by means of a hydraulic press, this pressure is transferred to the wedge by another hydraulic press numbered 3 in Fig.2. After the wedge there are other hydraulic connections transferring the pressure from the wedge to the brake pads as shown in Fig.3. After conducting the test and applying the brake force on the rotor disc, a measuring system for the disc braking force is installed to measure and record the brake force. The applied force from the hydraulic pedal to the hydraulic press (a) at fig. (2) can be adjusted by using a pressure gauge with a control valve. The applied force acting from the hydraulic press (a) to the wedge moving it to force the hydraulic press (b) which generates the normal force at the hydraulic connection from press (b) to the brake pads. The normal force from the wedge is measured by a hydraulic gauge and recorded during the test Fig. 3. New wedge mechanism MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION The designed test rig with the measurement instrumentation is shown schematically in Fig. 4. Fig. 4. Schematic sketch of brake force, temperature and speed measurement instrumentations The instrumentation includes:  Applied force measurement.  Rotational speed measurement.  Brake force measurement. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 6-9 8  Friction temperature measurement. The applied force can be measured by a pressure gauge installed in the hydraulic line after the pedal. The hydraulic pressure of the brake fluid in the line can be multiplied by the area of the press (a) to obtain the applied force. The hydraulic press (a) and (b) pistons have a diameter of 40 mm. The applied force is adjusted to the required value by using a control valve. The rotational speed of the lathe machine is adjusted to the required rpm and was checked also by the use of a digital photo tachometer. The brake force is measured by a load cell (tensioncompression load cell with 400 kg maximum load) which was installed beside the rotor disc and the force transmitted to it by means of a metallic connection was tightened to the rotor disc. The temperature due to the friction was measured by a thermocouple mounted on the rotor disc above the brake pads. The brake force and the temperature of the friction were recorded using a data logger transferring these readings to the computer to record it as shown in figure 4. 3. EXPERIMENTAL WORK The experiments were conducted to check the new wedge mechanism effect and to decide the optimum inclination angle for the wedge. The selected parameters for the experiments were as follows: The rotational speed (N) of 76, 150, 230, and 305 rpm. The applied pressure (Papp) of 5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 bar these values of pressure equals applied forces (Fapp) of 628.572, 942.857, 1257.143, and 1571.43N respectively. Inclination angle (α) of 45, 35, 25, 15, 12, and 10 degrees. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Influence of Wedge Inclination Angle The effect of the wedge inclination angle on the brake force is shown in Fig. 5. The decrease of the inclination angle from 45° to 12° increases the value of the brake force from 4788 N to 8400. N at Papp of 12.5 bar nearly 1.8 times. The results explain that increasing of the self-energizing action of the wedge brake with the decreasing of the wedge angle. Increasing the self-energizing action increases the normal force causing increasing the brake force. This is in agreement with Roberts [6] and Hartman [8]. But less than 12° nearly of wedge inclination causes a reduction of brake behavior due to the resistance of hydraulic press links (number 3 and 4 in Fig.2) to motion of the wedge. Fig. 5. Effect of wedge inclination angle on the brake force at various applied pressures and constant rotational speed of 76 rpm Fig.6 shows that, the brake force fluctuates with no identical trend with the braking time. The variations of the brake force trend are a result of the friction coefficient trend fluctuations. Fig. 6. Variation of brake force with time at various rotational speeds and constant applied pressure of 12.5 bar with inclination angle of 12° Influence of Applied Force The effect of applied force on the brake force, Coefficient of friction μ, and characteristic brake factor C* are shown in Fig. 7, 8, and 9 respectively. From the results shown, it can be seen that, the increase of the applied force cause a great increase of the brake force at all rotational speeds. The effect of the applied force obtain from the relation Fb = Normal * μ. When accruing an increase in the applied force, there is a decrease in the friction coefficient and hence the characteristic brake factor C* also decreases, this due to the increasing in friction temperature between brake pads and rotor disc. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 12, December - 2018, Pages: 6-9 9 Fig. 7. Effect of applied force on the brake force at various rotational speeds and constant wedge inclination angle of 12° Influence of Rotational Speed From the results, it can be seen that the increase of the rotational speed causes a decrease of the brake force. Increasing the braking time leads to decrease the brake force especially at high speed. This is because of the increase of the friction temperature, which decreases the friction coefficient; therefore, the brake force tends to decrease. Fig. 8. Effect of applied force on Coefficient of friction at various rotational speeds and constant wedge inclination angle of 12° Fig. 9. Effect of applied force on characteristic brake factor at various rotational speeds and constant wedge inclination angle of 12° 5. CONCLUSION The conclusions from the present study can be written as following: (1) The increase of the applied force increases the brake force of the new wedge disc brake. The wedge inclination angle has a significant effect on the new wedge disc brake performances. The self-energizing action of wedge disc brake increases with the wedge inclination angle decrease. (2) The higher the applied force the lesser the coefficient of friction and characteristic brake factor for wedge disc brakes. (3) The brake force decreases with the increase of rotational speed due to the increasing of friction temperature. 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Beni-Suef University, Faculty of Industrial Education for helping and supporting. REFERENCES [1] Giri, N.K.: Automobile Mechanics: Romesh Chandra Khanna for Khanna Publishers, 2007. [2] Halderman, J. D.: Automotive Technology: principles, diagnoses, and service: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. [3] Blau, P.J. (1995) Friction Science and Technology, Dekker Mechanical Engineering, CRC Press, ISBN 0824795768, 9780824795764. [4] Dietrich, J., Gombert, B. and Grebenstein, M. (2001) Elektromechanische Bremse mit Selbstverstärkung: Patent, DE 198 19 564 C2. [5] Leber, M., Karheinz, B., Dusil, V.: Selbstversträkende Reibungbremse: Patent, DE 195 39 012 A1, 1998. [6] Roberts, R., Schautt, M., Hartmann, H. and Gombert, B. (2003) Modelling and Validation of the Mechatronic Wedge Brake, SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-3331, Doi: 10.4271/2003-01-3331. [7] Serverin, D. and Dörsch, S. (2001) 'Friction mechanism in industrial brakes', Wear, Vol. 249, pp.771-779. [8] Hartmann, H., Schautt, M., Pascucci, A. and Gombert, B. (2001) eBrake® - The Mechatronic Wedge Brake, Society of Automotive Engineers, 2002-01-2582.
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{ "creator": "Radwan, Omyma K.", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1597310513000, "description": "Abstract: Background: Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency prevalent in all age groups across the world is common in obesity and may play an important role in the risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MS). Objectives: This cross-sectional study is to evaluate the relationship between levels of adiponectin and circulating 25(OH)D, and its effect on metabolic biomarker among overweight/obese female students. Methods: Three hundred female students; with mean age 20.9 ± 3.2 years were attending the Aljouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia. They were randomly selected from university during the studying year 2015 – 2016. Anthropometric and biochemical indices were determined. Results: The study showed 19% of the female’s student were either overweight or obese (15% and 4%, respectively). The frequency of MS diagnosis among the students was 17%, with 13% and 4% had either three or four risk factors, respectively. Overweight/obese subjects had significantly worse anthropometric and biochemical characteristics, including waist/hip ratio, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose (BG), insulin, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), triglyceride levels (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (LDL-C), leptin, adiponectin, leptin/adiponectin ratio and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (HDL-C) compared to normal weight. Of the subjects diagnosed with MS, 59% had mild and 8.6% had severe 25(OH)D deficiency. There was negative association between 25(OH)D and both FBG and HOMA-IR among young women obese/overweight. Conclusion: In our study, it suggested that low level of adiponectin was strongly correlated with low 25(OH)D levels. Also, the prevalence of MS tends to increase with high occurrence rate of low circulating 25(OH)D levels that is, known cause poor glycemic control and prediction of cardiovascular outcomes.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDTRO-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The Role of Vitamin D in the Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome in Undergraduate Female Students in Saudi Arabia", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 7-12 7 The Role of Vitamin D in the Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome in Undergraduate Female Students in Saudi Arabia a Hala M. Abdelkarem, a Aishah H Alamri, b Fadia Y Abdel Megeid, c Mervat M Al-Sayed and d Omyma K Radwan a Chemistry DepartmentScience CollageImam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal UniversityP.O. Box 76971 DammamSaudi Arabia; b Chemistry DepartmentScience collageb Special Need Department- Kindergarten collageHelwan UniversityHelwanEgypt and c Nutrition Department- Food Science & Agriculture -King Saud UniversityRiyadhSaudi Arabia and d Physiology Department- National Organization for Drug Control and Research (NODCAR)Giza 12553- (Egypt) Running title: Vitamin D Deficiency and Metabolic syndrome among Saudi Obese young females The Corresponding author: *Prof. Dr Hala Abdelkarem Research Centre, Nutrition & Food Science Department, Al Buhouth, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt, Postal Code: 12622, Email: , , Mobil No: 00201023430311 Abstract: Background: Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency prevalent in all age groups across the world is common in obesity and may play an important role in the risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MS). Objectives: This cross-sectional study is to evaluate the relationship between levels of adiponectin and circulating 25(OH)D, and its effect on metabolic biomarker among overweight/obese female students. Methods: Three hundred female students; with mean age 20.9 ± 3.2 years were attending the Aljouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia. They were randomly selected from university during the studying year 2015 - 2016. Anthropometric and biochemical indices were determined. Results: The study showed 19% of the female's student were either overweight or obese (15% and 4%, respectively). The frequency of MS diagnosis among the students was 17%, with 13% and 4% had either three or four risk factors, respectively. Overweight/obese subjects had significantly worse anthropometric and biochemical characteristics, including waist/hip ratio, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose (BG), insulin, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), triglyceride levels (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (LDL-C), leptin, adiponectin, leptin/adiponectin ratio and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (HDL-C) compared to normal weight. Of the subjects diagnosed with MS, 59% had mild and 8.6% had severe 25(OH)D deficiency. There was negative association between 25(OH)D and both FBG and HOMA-IR among young women obese/overweight. Conclusion: In our study, it suggested that low level of adiponectin was strongly correlated with low 25(OH)D levels. Also, the prevalence of MS tends to increase with high occurrence rate of low circulating 25(OH)D levels that is, known cause poor glycemic control and prediction of cardiovascular outcomes. Keywords: Vitamin D deficiency, adiponectin, leptin, blood glucose, insulin resistance and lipid profile 1. INTRODUCTION Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency is prevalent in all age groups across the world. Vitamin D deficiency, which is deemed to occur at a low level of 25(OH)D in blood less than 50 mmol/l, is common in obese people[1]. Several studies have found serum 25(OH)D levels greater than 50 nmol/l to be prevalent (in up to 90% of the population) with partial of < 25 nmol/l in South Asia, Middle East and North Africa[1]. Low vitamin D status which indicated by circulating 25(OH)D is linked to metabolic risk factors such as inflammation, adipokines, insulin resistance, abnormalities of lipid profile, and high (BP) in adults[2]. However, many studies have evaluated the relationship between 25(OH)D concentrations and metabolic components in children and adolescents. Some workers suggested that vitamin D is isolated in excess fatty tissue, resulting in lack of biological availability[3]. In a study of Pittas et al., found that individuals who suffered from CVD were more vitamin D deficient than those without CVD[4]. In a different study that followed young adults for more than 20 years, vitamin D level, in combination with vitamin D supplementation, was inversely related to the incidence of MS in the study population [5]. It also, suggested that lifestyle factors and having high levels of body fat mass might contribute to this development. Kayaniyil et al., reported 25(OH)D levels to be negatively correlated with the first and second phases of insulin secretion, and to be positively correlated with insulin sensitivity in type-2 diabetes[6]. Adipokines secretes by adipose tissue, has a vital role on body weight, blood glucose, and lipid metabolism. Adiponectin, a collagen-like protein has anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic and antidiabetic properties. Increased circulating of adiponectin is linked with reduced risk of impaired glucose tolerance, decreased myocardial infarction risk, and was suggest as indicator of atherosclerosis early [7]. In obesity, Adiponectin was declined and may be involved in type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease pathology [7]. Adipose tissues secrete leptin, a cytokine-like molecule that regulates the fatty mass and body weight by inhibiting eating and stimulating energy consumption [8]. Leptin was increases in obesity, type-2 diabetes, MS and International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 7-12 8 hypertension. Several studies have found that leptin is a biomarker of obesity, IR, MS and cardiovascular disease in adult[8]. Hyperlipidaemia, which considered to be an independent CVD risk factor, forms a potential link between low vitamin D levels and CVD. Dyslipidaemia, known to be a disorder of lipoprotein metabolism, is the result of excess TG, TC, LDL-C, and is due to the suppression of HDL-C. A favourable serum lipid profile is correlated with high levels of 25(OH)D which regulates the appropriate use of apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA1), since it is a component of HDL Salehpou et al.,[9] conducted a study on obese individuals who received vitamin D supplement (25μg/d); the results of this study suggested that significantly elevated levels of HDL-C and Apo A-1 lowered body fat in obese individuals. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between levels of adiponectin and circulating 25(OH)D levels, and its effect on metabolic biomarker among overweight/obese female students who attending in Aljouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia. 2. METHODS Subjects This cross-sectional study, which took place between November 2015 and June 2016, was performed on group of 300 overweight/obese female students; with mean age 20.9±3.2 years. Subjects were selected randomly from female students attended in Al Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia. They were excluded from the following criteria: liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, use of any medication that could affect bone health or vitamin D status within the previous three years, history of pregnancy, lactation convulsions, thyroid-parathyroid diseases, adrenal disease, or gonadal disease. All participates gave their informed consent before inclusion in this study. The study was approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University. Data collection. Each subject completed a self-reporting questionnaire that revealed their socio-economic status, age, smoking habits, meal and snack frequencies, and level of physical activity, as well as the educational and occupational status of each of their parents . Dietary data. For each subject, the following data were recorded: the frequency of meals and snacks, and daily intake of vegetables, fruits, fatty foods, sugars, milk, mushrooms, fish, and crustaceans. Lifestyle practices, such as physical activity (exercise) and history of vitamin D supplements, were also recorded. Nutrient analysis. Daily dietary intake was recorded over three consecutive days to insure energy and nutrient intake. A software program, purchased from ESHA[10], was used to analyse the nutritional content of each subject's diet. The dietary reference intakes (DRI), which are the recommended dietary intakes for a healthy diet, were calculated for each subject, adjusting for local practices, gender, age, weight, height, and physical activity levels[11] Anthropometric measurements. Anthropometric data, including weight and height, were recorded (to the nearest0.1kg and0.5cm, respectively) using a beam balance scale (Adam Equipment Inc.,USA) after removal of outer garments and shoes; body mass index (BMI) was calculated (body weight/kg/(body height/ m)2)[12]. Body weight was categorised according to BMI values using the National Institutes of Health guidelines: (i) normal with BMI range 18.5-24.9, (ii) overweight with BMI range 25.0-29.9, and (iii) obese with BMI > 30[13]. Waist and hip circumferences(cm) were measured and the weight-to-hip ratio(WHR) was calculated[14]. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were recorded, using the average of two measurements that were taken within 15-minuts interval using standardised mercury sphygmomanometer. Subjects whose BP measurements were ≥130/85mmHg were classified as being hypertensive[15]. Diagnostic criteria. MS was diagnosed when three or more of the following criteria: abdominal obesity (WC≥88 cm), elevated FBG (≥ 100 mg/dl or diagnosed with diabetes, or taking an oral hypoglycaemic or insulin medication), reduced HDL-C level (≤40 mg/dl), elevated TG level (≥150mg/dl) and elevated BP (SBP≥130 mmHg, DBP≥85 mmHg or taking antihypertensive medication)[16]. Biochemical analyses. Blood samples were drawn after fasting for more than 12-hrs and the serum was separated and frozen at -20°C. Glucose concentration was estimated using a commercially available glucose kit (Randox Laboratories Ltd., UK.) based on the glucose oxidase method. Serum TC, LDLC, HDL-C and TG, creatinine, uric acid, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities were estimated colorimetrically using the available kits (cited in Randox Laboratories Ltd., UK). Serum 25(OH)D and insulin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (IDS, Tyne and Wear, UK). The interand intra-assay variabilities for 25(OH)D were 5.2% and 4.3%, respectively, and the interand intra-assay variabilities for insulin were 5.7%, and 3.1%, respectively. Insulin resistance was calculated using HOMA-IR (insulin[mU/L] ×glucose[mg/dl]/405[17]. Serum adiponectin and leptin were measured by ELISA. the intra-assay and interassay coefficients of variation for adiponectin was 5.4% and 8.5% respectively and intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation for leptin was 7.4% and 9.3% respectively (Ani Biotech Oy, Orgenium Laboratories Division, Vantaa, Finland). The reading was taken using an ELISA microplate reader (VERSA Max, Molecular Devices Corporation, MN, USA). Vitamin D status was classified as follows: (i) deficient (vitamin D levels < 20 ng/ml), (ii) insufficient (vitamin D levels in the range 20 - 29 ng/ml), and (iii) sufficient (vitamin D levels >30 ng/ml)[18]. Statistical Analysis. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation(SD) and data were analysed using SPSS version 12.0 software (SPSS, Chicago, III), using the appropriate statistical tests (chi-square International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 7-12 9 test, Student's t-test, correlation coefficient, odds ratio). The P values were considered significant for P < 0.05. 3. RESULTS Socio-demographic characteristics of the study group are described in Table 1. The mean age of the subjects was 20.9 ± 3.2 years. The parents of the subjects had been educated to at least University standard in 66% (fathers) and 36% (mothers) of the cases. Most fathers (65%) were employed whereas few mothers (29%) were employed. Family history of MS was 64%. The study showed 19% of the subjects were either overweight/obese (15% and 4%, respectively). The frequency of MS diagnosis of the subjects was 17%, with 13% and 4% of the subjects having three or four risk factors, respectively (Table 2). Anthropometric and biochemical characteristics of the subjects are detailed in Table 3. When compared to normal weight subjects, overweight\obese subjects had statistically significant of anthropometric and biochemical parameters. A higher levels of fasting blood glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, leptin, leptin/adiponectin ratio, TG, LDL-C, W/H ratio, SBP and DBP in overweight/obese female students; but lower adiponectin and HDL-C levels. Also, overweight/obese subjects had significantly lower levels of 25(OH)D (p<0.01) relative to the normal weight. Fifty-nine percent of the students that were diagnosed as having MS had mild 25(OH)D deficiency and 8.56% had severe 25(OH)D deficiency (Table 5). Serum 25(OH)D levels were negatively associated with BMI, FBG, leptin, leptin/adiponectin ratio, LDL-C, TG and BP, and positively associated with adiponectin and HDL-C (P<0.01) (Table 6). In addition, MS had pronounced impact on elevating leptin and inhibition adiponectin levels that was additive to overweight/obesity. Otherwise, leptin/adiponectin ratio, that had postulated as a biomarker, was increased in subjects with MS than without. Table 7 details the association between MS and different risk factors. It can be observed that the primary predisposing risk factor for MS was abdominal obesity (OR 5.92). The second predisposing risk factor for MS was abdominal obesity, as indicated by WC (OR 5.26), followed by leptin (OR 4.84), Leptin/adiponectin ratio (OR 4.73), adiponectin (4.26), hypertension (OR 4.11), low HDL-C (OR 3.42), FBG (OR 3.11) and vitamin 25(OH)D (OR 2.87). The levels of carbohydrates and sugar consumption were significantly higher in subjects with MS compared to those without (Table 8). Consumption of dietary saturated fats were significantly more by subjects with MS than those without, but dietary fibre was consumed significantly less among subjects with MS than those without. In overweight/obese, the daily dietary intake of vitamin D was 198±136.6 IU/day and in normal weight was 190±129.6 IU/day. The intake of vitamin D as a percental of DRI was 101.0±69.2% in overweight/obese subjects and 89.9±49.8% in normal subjects. Among the groups study, no statistically significant in vitamin D intake was showed either based on daily intake or on the percent of DRI. 4. DISCUSSION Vitamin D has a vital role of public health and human wellbeings and its deficiency has been linked to several metabolic disorders including Cancer, autoimmune diseases, obesity, type-2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease and there is a relationship between low serum 25(OH)D, HOMA-IR, type-2 diabetes and low adiponectin in adults[19]. In the finding Leptin was increased and adiponectin decreased in overweight/obese female students relative to normal weight. There was a strong correlation between leptin with abdominal obesity and inverse to adiponectin. Furthermore, leptin, leptin-to-adiponectin ratio and adiponectin were strongly correlated with MS. These results had additive effects to overweight/obesity among female students. The most important outcomes are the combination of risk factors with increased leptin or lack of adiponectin that was found in overweight/obesity among female students. A cross-sectional study by lee et al., conducted on adolescents aged 12-19 years showed that abdominal obesity was the predominate risk factor for IR and there is an inverse correlation between adiponectin and obesity and IR which is linked to risk factors of cardiac disease[20]. The results of our study showed that low serum 25(OH)D associated with abdominal obesity, adiponectin, HOMA-IR as well as leptin/adiponectin ratio. Leptin and adiponectin have adverse effects on inflammation and insulin resistance, the high level of leptin increases the expression of proinflammatory and vasoconstrictive factors[21]; while adiponectin stimulates anti-inflammatory cytokines production and enhanced the sensitivity of peripheral insulin[22]. Al-Daghri et al., observed that a positive correlation between BMI and; 25(OH)D and adiponectin in type-2 diabetes. The fact is that these adipokines has a potential role as a link between 25(OH)D and IR[23]. The current study showed 25(OH)D levels to be significantly lower in subjects who had been diagnosed with MS compared to those without MS. The finding also, observed that subjects who had been diagnosed with MS were mildly 25(OH)D deficient more frequently than those without. Additionally, vitamin D deficiency was more prevalent in obese subjects who had been diagnosed with MS(60.9%) compared to obese subjects without (33.3%). Previous studies have elucidated an inverse association between serum 25(OH)D levels and MS[24]. A cross-sectional study of 101 healthy subjects living in urban areas found a risk of MS increases three-fold in subjects with low levels of vitamin D (23.37% vs. 8.3% P<0.001)[24]. Interestingly, after ameliorating lifestyle intervention in children obese /adults, adiponectin is the most predictive indicator for improving metabolic disorder, while changes in leptin were not related to positive metabolic outcomes[25]. However, the clustering of many unfavorable biomarkers International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 7-12 10 strongly requires early intervention not only in childhood obesity, but also in normal weight of subjects whose feature appear the risk. The underlying mechanisms of the association between 25(OH)D status and dyslipidaemia are poorly understood. Previous studies have demonstrated that being either overweight/ obese was strongly associated with dyslipidaemia (elevated TG and lower HDL-C) in AsianIndian adolescents living in urban area[26]. In the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey[26], adults whose 25(OH)D level was in the lowest quartile had the highest risk of elevated serum TG levels (≥150 mg/dl); this demonstrates that the health dangers of low vitamin D levels. Similarly, in obese subjects, 25(OH)D levels below 50 nmol/l were associated with lower HDL-C and high TG levels[27]. In the present study, it was observed that the level of 25(OH)D was positively correlated with HDL‐C (P< 0.01) and negatively correlated with TG levels and LDL-C (P<0.05). The female students in our study who had been diagnosed with MS had significantly elevated levels of TC, LDL‐C, TG and BP, and significantly reduced levels of HDL‐C compared to those without MS. Several epidemiological studies found that serum 25(OH)D levels to be negatively associated with BMI[28,29]; excessive weight is a major component of MS, which may be attributed to lower 25(OH)D levels. However, in a cross-sectional study conducted on children, it was found that there is a negative correlation between 25(OH)D and BMI, FBG, LDL-C and TG, and positive correlation with HDL-C (P<0.01)[29]. Insulin resistance is strongly associated with obesity and type-2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and CVD[30]. There is evidence from both clinical and nonclinical studies that glucose homeostasis might affect the level of vitamin D[30]. In pervious study that focussed on pancreatic β-cells and the effect of vitamin D receptors, it was found that glucose intolerance, impaired synthesis and secretion of insulin, as well as an increased risk of type-2 diabetes, may be affected by insufficient 25(OH)D levels[31]. Peterson et al., found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with different metabolic disorders, and the authors concluded that low levels of vitamin D is a risk factor for MS[31]. Our findings illustrated that significant increased odds ratio between high levels of TC, TG and LDL-C in subjects that had serum 25(OH)D levels below 20 ng/ml when compared to subjects that had normal serum 25(OH)D levels. The lower levels of 25(OH)D may be attributed to poor dietary intake of vitamin D as well as insufficient exposure to sunlight, despite the strong natural light of Saudi Arabia. Considering the associations between MS and different predisposing factors, the finding found that obesity was the strongest predisposing risk factor for MS (). The second strongest predisposing risk factor for MS was abdominal obesity (). Unsurprisingly, WC, which is typically used as a surrogate measure of abdominal obesity, is the main criteria when determining MS risk. We also, found that the hypertension to be a strong risk factor for MS (); this similar with a study by Co et al who reported that hypertension (SBP & DBP) was the strongest predisposing risk factor with MS [32] . Previous studies of children living in urban areas have demonstrated that obesity is a major risk factor in the development of childhood hypertension[33]. In addition, we found that lifestyle is a risk factor for MS, with OR of 2.87. previous scientists indicated that regular physical activity and eating healthy diet have positive influence on health status, reducing the risk of obesity and thus reducing the risk of cardiac disease[29]. While elevated blood lipid levels increase the risk of hypertension, increasing physical activity lowers that risk; this is because exercise increases energy requirements and decreases fat deposition[34]. Bombak [35] found the prevalence of obesity to be increased by eating calorie dense food and failing to take adequate exercise While MS can be treated, in part, pharmacologically, the most important strategy for reducing the risk of MS and heart disease is to make lifestyle changes that promote physical activity and reduce excess weight. An analyses of macronutrients showed that the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar were significantly higher in subjects with MS compared to those without MS, Whereas subjects with MS consumed less dietary fibre than without MS. Rapid changes in contemporary lifestyle habits can be seen in Saudi Arabia that are contributing to (i) increased consumption of foods that are high in carbohydrates and sugars, and (ii) lack of adequate physical activity; the combined result of these lifestyle changes is an increase the prevalence of MS in the Saudi Arabian population[36]. These results are consistent with studies that found sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary habits to be important predictors for development of MS[36]. 5. CONCLUSION In our study, it suggested that low level of adiponectin was strongly correlated with low 25(OH)D levels. Also, the prevalence of MS tends to increase with the high occurrence rate of low circulating 25(OH)D levels that is, known cause poor glycemic control. This relationship is unclear and may be a sign of future prediction of cardiovascular outcomes. Further studies are needed in the young population who are overweight/obese to assess the relationship between circulating adiponectin levels, low 25(OH)D and IR for adverse cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes. We suggest requiring strategies efforts to prevent the tendency of deficiency and should be improved in early and middle age by increasing outdoor physical activity and by strengthening dietary vitamin D in the diet part of the Saudi diet. 6. DISCLOSURE STATEMENT The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 7-12 11 REFERENCES 1. Bassil D, Rahme M, Hoteit M, Fuleihan GE-H. Hypovitaminosis D in the Middle East and North Africa: Prevalence, risk factors and impact on outcomes. Dermato-endocrin. 2013; 5(2):274-298. 2. 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Association of Vitamin D With Insulin Resistance and β-Cell Dysfunction in Subjects at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2010; 33:137981. 7. Wolfson N, Goldberg Y, Shargorodsky M. Adiponectin and vascular properties in obese patients: Is it a novel biomarker of early atherosclerosis? Int J Obesity. 2009; 3: 553-558. 8. Jéquier E. Leptin signaling, adiposity, and energy balance. Lipids and Insulin Resistance: The Role of Fatty Acid Metabolism and Fuel Partitioning," Ann New York Academy Sci. 2002; 967: 379-388. 9. Salehpour A, Shidfar F, Hosseinpanah F, Vafa M, Razaghi M, Hoshiarrad A, et al, Vitamin D3 and the risk of CVD in overweight and obese women: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2012; 108(10):1866-1873 10. Trumbo P, Schlicker S, Yates AA, Poos M. Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein and amino acids. J Amer Diet Assoc. 2002; 102(11):1621-1630. 11. Hambidge KM. Micronutrient bioavailability: Dietary Reference Intakes and a future perspective. Amerj Clin Nutr.2010; 91(5):1430S-1432S. 12. Woo JG. Using body mass index z‐score among severely obese adolescents: a cautionary note. Pediat Obes 2009; 4(4):405-410. 13. Pi-Sunyer, X. Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults-the evidence report. Obes Res. 1998; 6:51S-210S. 14. Nagy E, Vicente-Rodriguez G, Manios Y, Béghin L, Iliescu C, Censi L, et al, Harmonization process and reliability assessment of anthropometric measurements in a multicenter study in adolescents. Intl J Obes. 2008; 32(S5): S58. 15. National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. The fourth report on the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. Pediat. 2004; 4 (2 Suppl), 555576. 16. Zimmet P1, Alberti KG, Kaufman F, Tajima N, Silink M, Arslanian S. et al.. 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Peterson CA, Tosh AK, Belenchia AM. Vitamin D insufficiency and insulin resistance in obese adolescents. Therapadv Endocrin Metab. 2014; 5(6): 166-189. DOI: 10.1177/2042018814547205 31. Co J, Jeffrey J, Emmett M, Modak A, Sondike SB. Obesity, Hypertension and Metabolic Syndrome in Children in West Virginia. W V med J 2015;111(4):2024. 32. Gutierrez J, Alloubani A, Mari M, Alzaatreh M. Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity among Tabuk Citizens in Saudi Arabia. The Open Cardiovas Med J. 2018; 12:4149. . 33. Sahoo K, Sahoo B, Choudhury AK, Sofi NY, Kumar R, Bhadoria AS. Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. J Fam Med Prim care. 2015; 4(2):187. Doi: 10.4103/2249-4863.154628. 34. Bombak A. Obesity, health at every size, and public health policy. Am J public health, 2014; 104: e60-e67. 35. Skilton MR1, Laville M, Cust AE, Moulin P, Bonnet F, The association between dietary macronutrient intake and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome. 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{ "creator": "Abdel-Goad, Mahmoud Abdel-Halim", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596096043000, "description": "Abstract— Polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared in this study by incorporating shredded waste tires into polydisperse polystyrene in a melt-mixing method. The dynamic mechanical properties of PS and PS/composite have been evaluated and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The shear creep stress J(t) and loss factor were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. The dynamic mechanical properties and stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results.\n From the results, the value of J(t) modulus for PS/waste tire is higher than this for the original material of PS. The incorporation of the rubber to the PS changes the value of J(t) at 0.001 second from 5.610-6 to 3.710-6 Pa-1 for PS and PS/waste tire, respectively and this difference increases with time. This confirmed that PS/waste tire composite exhibits higher stability at 180°C for a long time than the original unfilled PS. At frequency  = 6.7102 radians/s , the value of tan increases about 20% by the incorporation of the rubber filler, due to the increase in the G'' modulus particularly at low frequencies in the flow regime.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDTSC-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The Shear Creep Stress and Loss Factor of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 29-32 29 The Shear Creep Stress and Loss Factor of Polystyrene/ Waste Tires Composites Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abdel-Goad Chemical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt (E-mail:) Abstract- Polystyrene/waste tires composites were prepared in this study by incorporating shredded waste tires into polydisperse polystyrene in a melt-mixing method. The dynamic mechanical properties of PS and PS/composite have been evaluated and compared. These properties were studied using ARES-Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. The shear creep stress J(t) and loss factor were studied and compared with those of unfilled PS. The dynamic mechanical properties and stability at elevated temperatures were found to increase with the addition of waste tires to PS as confirmed by the results. From the results, the value of J(t) modulus for PS/waste tire is higher than this for the original material of PS. The incorporation of the rubber to the PS changes the value of J(t) at 0.001 second from 5.610-6 to 3.710-6 Pa-1 for PS and PS/waste tire, respectively and this difference increases with time. This confirmed that PS/waste tire composite exhibits higher stability at 180°C for a long time than the original unfilled PS. At frequency  = 6.7102 radians/s , the value of tan increases about 20% by the incorporation of the rubber filler, due to the increase in the G'' modulus particularly at low frequencies in the flow regime. Keywords: Polystyrene/waste tires composites, Shear creep stress, Loss factor. 1. INTRODUCTION Disposal of waste rubber material is a global problem, and used tires constitute the largest volume of scrap rubber. Recycling of waste tires is essential due to economic and environmental reasons. Utilization of ground waste rubber has been reviewed recently. Finely ground waste tire rubber has been used as filler in rubbers and in thermoplastics [1]. Physical properties and processability are reported to be adversely affected when large volumes of waste rubber is added to a rubber compound. Dynamic mechanical analysis over a wide range of temperature and frequencies permits the determination of the viscoelastic behavior of molten polymers and, in particular, the study the glass transition of reinforced composites. Therefore, the investigations of the polymer composites using the mechanical and the dynamic mechanical analysis are becoming of great interesting [2-17]. The main objective of this work was to study in details the shear creep stress and loss factor of polystyrene/waste tire composites compared to the original material of unfilled polystyrene. 2. EXPERIMENTAL PART 2.1 Samples preparation and characterization PS/waste tires composite was prepared by introducing waste tires into commercial PS with molecular weight about 2107 g/mol. The waste tires were shredded into small particles sizes of about 2 mm. The mixture of PS and 12 wt % shredded tires are dry mixed by hand-mixing for around half an hour and heated at 300°C for 2 hours. Followed by preparation the samples of filled and unfilled PS for the rheological measurements under compression-mold at 190°C for 3 hours and 15 bars in a disc form with diameter 8 mm and thickness 2.2 mm. 2.2 Measurements The dynamic mechanical measurements were performed for PS and PS composite by using an ARES-Rheometer (Rheometric Scientific). The rheometer was operated in the dynamic mode on the plate-plate geometry of 8mm diameter and about 2 mm gap. The gap size changes with the temperatures and is read electronically and allows absolute moduli to be determined. The measurements were performed in this study for the samples under nitrogen atmosphere, strain amplitude 1%, over temperature ranged from 120 to 220°C and angular frequency ( ) varied from 10 2 to10 -1 radian/s. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 29-32 30 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this study the experiments data which measured over a wide range of the temperature are shifted into a single log -log curve at a reference temperature T0 by using of the time-temperature superposition principle which described by Williams-LandelFerry [19] as, log aT = -C1 (T-T0) /(C2+(T-T0)).Where aT is the horizontal shift factor and constants C1 and C2 are material specific. aT shifts the data obtained at different temperatures along the log frequency,  axis and in vertical direction is given purely by bT (bT = 00/ TT  [20] ). Where  is the material density. The shear creep stress J(t) is plotted as a function of time in Figure 1. As shown in this Figure J(t) increases with time by a slop about 0.4 up to 0.01 second followed by a deviation in the slop to be about 0.6 in the case of filled PS and about 0.9 in the case of unfilled PS. This due to the relaxation of the polymer molecules with time at 180°C. This difference in the slop between filled and unfilled PS at long time means PS composite is more stable at high temperature for a long time than unfilled PS. At long time zone, the value of J(t) modulus for PS/waste tire is higher than this for the original material of PS as shown in Figure 1. In this Figure, the incorporation of the rubber to the PS changes the value of J(t) at 0.001 second from 5.610 -6 to 3.710 -6 Pa -1 for PS and PS/waste tire, respectively and this difference increases with time as shown in Figure 1. This confirmed that PS/waste tire composite exhibits higher stability at 180°C for a long time than the original unfilled PS. The relative degree of viscous to elastic dissipation of the material is indicated by tan  (Fig.2). Tan is plotted in Figure 2 versus frequency for PS and PS/rubber. tan  is related to the loss modulus by , tan  = G''/G' , therefore, tan  is called the loss factor. Figure 8 shows decreases of tan at the intermediate frequencies-branch and reach the minimum value at about  = 8.6102 radians/s, then increases again. This minimum in tan  is against to the entanglements zone in G'' and G' and it is associated to the high elasticity of the material at this regime which leads to a minimum in the loss energy per a cycle of the deformations. Again Figure 8 shows an increase in tan for filled PS compared to unfilled PS at low frequency. At  = 6.7102 radians/s , the value of tan increases about 20% by the incorporation of the rubber filler, due to the increase in the G'' modulus particularly at low frequencies in the flow regime. 4. CONCLUSION In this study the PS/waste tires composite were prepared. The dynamic mechanical properties for PS composite are evaluated and compared to those of the original material of unfilled PS. These properties are determined by ARES Rheometer under nitrogen atmosphere in parallel plate geometry with diameter 8 mm. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures, ranged from 120°C to 220°C and frequencies from 100 to 0.1 radians per second. From the results, the value of J(t) modulus for PS/waste tire is higher than this for the original material of PS. The incorporation of the rubber to the PS changes the value of J(t) at 0.001 second from 5.610 -6 to 3.710 -6 Pa -1 for PS and PS/waste tire, respectively and this difference increases with time. This confirmed that PS/waste tire composite exhibits higher stability at 180°C for a long time than the original unfilled PS. At frequency  = 6.7102 radians/s , the value of tan increases about 20% by the incorporation of the rubber filler, due to the increase in the G'' modulus particularly at low frequencies in the flow regime. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The financial support by the International Bureau in Germany, helpful discussions of Dr. W.Pyckhout -Hintzen at research center Juelich, Germany are greatly acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. B.Pukanszky, E.Fekete, " Adhesion and surface modification", Advances in Polymer Science, V139, P.110153,Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1999. 2. Andries Voet , "Reinforcement of elastomers by fillers: Review of period 1967-1976", J. of Polymer Science: Macromolecular Reviews, V15, P.327-373, 1980. 3. R. P. Kumar, M. L. Amma, S. Thomas, "Short sisal fiber reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V58, P.597-612,1995. 4. V. M. Murty, S. K. De , "Short-fiber-reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P. 1355-1368, 1984 5. J.George, S. S. Bhagawan, N. Prabhakaran, S. Thomas, "Short pineapple-leaf-fiber-reinforced low-density polyethylene composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science V57, P.843-854,1995 6. V. M. Murty, S. K. De ,"Effect of particulate fillers on short jute fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites",J. of Applied Polymer Science,V27, P.4611-4622, 1982 International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 29-32 31 7. D. Nabi Saheb, J. P. Jog ,"Natural fiber polymer composites: A review" Advances in Polymer Technology,V18, P.351-363,1999 8. E. Ruckenstein, L.Hong , "Conducting rubberlike copolymer-carbon fiber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V53, P.923-932, 1994. 9. K. L. Fung, R. K.Li, S. C. Tjong , "Interface modification on the properties of sisal fiberreinforced polypropylene composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science,V85, P.169-176, 2002 10. S.K.Kutty, G. B. Nando , "Short kevlar fiber-thermoplastic polyurethane composite", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V43, P.1913-1923, 1991 11. Wolfgang G. Glasser, Razaina Taib, Rajesh K. Jain, Ron Kander, "Fiber-reinforced cellulosic thermoplastic composites", J. of Applied Polymer Science, V73, P.1329-1340, 1999 12. M.Shibata, K.Ozawa, N.Teramoto, R.Yosomiya, H.Takeishi, "Biocomposites Made from Short Abaca Fiber and Biodegradable Polyesters" Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, V288, P.35-43, 2003 13. R. S. Rajeev, A. K. Bhowmick, S. K. De, S. Bandyopadhyay , "Short melamine fiber filled nitrile rubber composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V90, P.544-558, 2003 14. C.Vajrasthira, T.Amornsakchai, S. Bualek-Limcharoen, "Fiber-matrix interactions in aramid-short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites", J.of Applied Polymer Science, V87, P.1059-1067, 2003 15. M.A. Martins, I. Joekes, "Tire rubber-sisal composites: Effect of mercerization and acetylation on reinforcement", J.of Applied Polymer Science V89, P.2507-2515, 2003 16. V. G. Geethamma, R. Joseph, S.Thomas,"Short coir fiber-reinforced natural rubber composites: Effects of fiber length, orientation, and alkali treatment" J. of Applied Polymer Science,V55, P.583-594, 1995 17. D. K. Setua, B. Dutta, "Short silk fiber-reinforced polychloroprene rubber composites",J.of Applied Polymer Science,V29, P.3097-3114, 1984 Figure 1: Master curve of J(t) versus time for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C. 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 10 -3 10 -2 10 -1 Pure PS PS/rubber J (t ) P a -1 tim e , s International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2018, Pages: 29-32 32 Figure 2: Master curve of tan  as a function of  for PS and PS composite at T0 = 180°C. 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 1 PS/rubber Pure PS ta n   ra d /s
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{ "creator": "Abdalla, Khamis Juma", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700846000, "description": "Abstract: Institutional mechanism is the fundamental for prolific information flow to flourish across the community. This goes aboard commencing the government initiatives, especially through inducing the communication divisions crosswise the public institutions, whereby mainstream media might embed the government – public communication channels in keeping with the constitutional quest for comprehensive citizens’ access to public information. Likewise, the provision of Press Organizations role as a dynamic arbitrator amongst media and served society, it’s so far suits a self-determination classic for the news institutions and overall journalists not only to detect the professional and national guidelines on the ground, but also rationalize the journalistic working atmosphere aimed at smoothly partaking the social accountability in the democratic society. Whilst, the structure of ownership and control entails the institutional manners and nascent settings towards the media functioning vi's-à-visa expediting the news industry scenario. In this respect, Tanzania media policy and legislations necessitate to restructure the ownership patters in which the autocracy among the owners tends to nurture transformation into their manners, contrary to the sociopolitical needs of industry. Whereas, advertisers get the most out of the overall social aspirations keen on the national divide through the power of media. They routine into promotional tool to achieve extraordinary characters, ultimately media have a burden to abide the established values so as to secure the advertising boom over economy deteriorations. Hitherto the institutional mechanisms such as self-regulatory instruments are potential to curtail such divisive inclinations.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABDTSO-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The State of Institutional Media and Professionalism in Tanzania", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 23 The State of Institutional Media and Professionalism in Tanzania Khamis Juma Abdalla, PhD Researcher Department of Journalism, Marmara University, Istanbul-Turkey Email; , July 14, 2018 Abstract: Institutional mechanism is the fundamental for prolific information flow to flourish across the community. This goes aboard commencing the government initiatives, especially through inducing the communication divisions crosswise the public institutions, whereby mainstream media might embed the government - public communication channels in keeping with the constitutional quest for comprehensive citizens" access to public information. Likewise, the provision of Press Organizations role as a dynamic arbitrator amongst media and served society, it"s so far suits a self-determination classic for the news institutions and overall journalists not only to detect the professional and national guidelines on the ground, but also rationalize the journalistic working atmosphere aimed at smoothly partaking the social accountability in the democratic society. Whilst, the structure of ownership and control entails the institutional manners and nascent settings towards the media functioning vi's-à-visa expediting the news industry scenario. In this respect, Tanzania media policy and legislations necessitate to restructure the ownership patters in which the autocracy among the owners tends to nurture transformation into their manners, contrary to the sociopolitical needs of industry. Whereas, advertisers get the most out of the overall social aspirations keen on the national divide through the power of media. They routine into promotional tool to achieve extraordinary characters, ultimately media have a burden to abide the established values so as to secure the advertising boom over economy deteriorations. Hitherto the institutional mechanisms such as self-regulatory instruments are potential to curtail such divisive inclinations. Keywords; Media Institutions, Ownership. Professionalism, Self-regulations, Tanzania 1. INTRODUCTION Although, the concept of institution of the press ends in editorial lineup as an absolute decision maker on what to publish and in which way, meant for top-down style unlike participatory framework among other media personnel particularly reporters (Gnonzio, 2011). It signifies the limited journalists influence on the news stories outlooks. It has extra implication to Tanzanian media scenery, when journalists are sanctioned to attend some events organized by particular institutions, and if they do so institution of media likely to ignore what they write, while for those who may be assigned to be there, their reportages have to conform the media houses polices and styles in which editor are pioneers. Nevertheless, there are incredible consequences in recent times; institutional support is glowing for mutual support brought about by various organizations in which editors and ordinary reporters are acquainted with their professional contacts. For instance, the formation of media human right class is ultimate for objecting the ideal importunity of institution of media, whereby journalists might cooperatively work with their editors concerning the human rights issues (Jones & Mhando, 2006; 80). This also fostered through the upward universal perspective on the scope of cooperation between Tanzanian media houses with other countries to form regional players operating amid Tanzania and other member states (ibid.). Actually, the institutional provision of the Tanzanian media house is still idealistic, for lack of specialized training like analytical reporting on gender issues, grows into cynical around the ground, as a result of the poor institutional livelihood for media persons when covering the public affairs. Unless by means of professional media organizations, such as the Tanzania Media Foundation inclines to organize such dedicated training, including investigative journalism on extractive industries in 2016. While the application of such training in the arena has been uncertain yet, due to the lack of managerial support, to the extent that the graduates are still assigned on pressing issues in due course (Powell, 2017; 9). This attributable to the policies and interest of media houses, including editors in which some have ideal political agenda contrary to the betterment of the general public. Whilst, self-regulation is too about the institutional mechanism to enable the professionals independently achieve the social accountability unlike legislative machinery. According to Mfumbusa (2003) the self-regulation as institutional means are still futile to enforce journalistic codes of ethics in Tanzanian newsrooms which so far spur unethical journalism (p. 11). However, the Media Council of Tanzania goes forward on regulating the various journalism activities and contemplation to maintain public journalism in view of professional standards. 2. THE IDYLLIC INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT ALONG PRIVATE AND PUBLIC MEDIA DICHOTOMY Notwithstanding there are conspicuous undertakings among media houses in Tanzania in supporting their reporters, catering the overall community, such as IPP group of companies through its broadcasting stations, the Independent Television (ITV) and Radio One (ibid. 42). They have institutional initiatives to provide funds about 20% of their annual budget, supporting the social based programs to sensitize viewers and other companies vis-à-vis International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 24 critical subjects such as HIV/AIDS (ibid.). These media institutions had also ever encouraged football fans and general Tanzanians to donate to a football team of under 17 ages, a Serengeti Boys, as motivation for better performance in their champions. Likewise, the Mwananchi Communications Ltd MCL which is acquired by Kenya's Nation Media Group since 2001, by which the Nation Media Group turned into the largest independent media house in East and Central Africa (MCT, 2014;16). Through its Kiswahili daily newspaper, Mwananchi, and one of the major English-language newspapers in the country, The Citizen, collectively have strategic measures in editorial policies on mobilizing the public concerning gender-balance per daily reportages. To the extent that, the company has been honored a Tanzanian gender equality network GEMSAT award for its deliberations on curtailing gender discriminations across the national clusters. According to the audience survey and content analysis conducted by committee formed by MCT, the Mwananchi newspaper remains identical objective adhering to the prevailing laws and ethics in the country, despite the government's intimidation during general elections in 2010 (Rioba. 2012; 145). On top of that, a MCL is progressive so far in term of capital in which by 2013 grew 29% in effective incomes (Mwaijega 2013). Besides, the newly TV broadcasting operator a Azam media established in 2013, under ownership of a business mogul Said Bakhresa, has comprehensive institutional endeavors, the line of management is equipped with high profile commissioners, counting high-ranking journalists from global media like BBC's Swahili service (Powell, 2017; 11). Azam Media evolves to change the Tanzanian and overall East African media scenario, from episodic approaches to thematic with rich public life coverage of local and international current affairs like general election, political rallies, distinguished functions of celebrities, football tournament, boxing and other local taste programs. Whereby the emphasis is put to promote local productions through movies, reality shows, family entertainment serials, educational programs, sports among others. It has acquired the exclusive rights for telecasting of Tanzania Vodacom Premier League, the Azam Uganda Premier League, the FKF League in Kenya, and the Primus League in Burundi (Football) and has effectively transmitted the matches from the beginning of its launch (Azam, 2013). The editorial policies are the dynamic phenomenon for Tanzania Media Institutions to progress in accounting for the benefit of general public, whereby the boundary between entertainment and educational programmes is supposed to be clear. Other efforts rest on the mechanism by individual Media Houses for putting forwards various policies and professional strategies to ensure the media persons abide to ethical principles and values of journalism. This involves the provision of media ombudsman initiative liable to sustain the quality of contents produced within professional framework, in an attempt to detect ethical and technical errors as well as to advocate for the audiences' utilities; hitherto certainly constructing the portrayed messages into relevant to niche spectators. Also the press ombudsman system stands for preventing and clearing the complains from audiences over media contents as well as its useful contrivance to cement mutual benefits and trust between media houses and users. However, it is only a New Habari Corporation until 2012 among media house in Tanzania which has initiated office of the ombudsman (MCT, 2013a; 70). It typically implies to the institutional foundation of media operating in the country in term of ownership configuration and control in view of professionalism, owing the background of New Habari Corporation (2006) as originally established under professionals' control in 2006 by veteran journalists notably Jenerali Ulimwengu, Johnson Mbwambo, Salva Rweyemamu and Dr Gideon Shoo, and later was transformed its ownership to a Tanzania business personcum politician Rostam Aziz. The assertive peculiarities concerning the institutional acquiescence to professionalism also depict the approaches' dichotomy in public and private media institutions. The publicly-owned media organizations consist of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporations TBC: Zanzibar Broadcasting CorporationZBC, Tanzania Newspapers Standard and Zanzibar Newspapers Corporations; which they operate semi-autonomous. They are yet still at the mercy of ruling class, since their Managing Directors are of President Appointees and their expenditures of generated revenues keep on strictly underneath government accounting procedures (Jones & Mhando, 2006; 9). In this context, the prototype of public media is still becoming government operatives attributable to the critical synopsis by government bureaucrats and political cadres' influences into the institutional subjectivity. Moehler & Singh (2011) postulate the conflicting scrutiny concerning the state owned whether are more gifted over private media in Africa; since government has entire regulations and control of all form of mass communications across the borderlines (p. 276). Taking into account that public media abundantly receive the government subsidies and advertising from public and private institutions along with provision of with professional and trained staff, infrastructures, and other workwise resources (ibid.). According to their studies across African media ecosystems Moehler & Singh (2011) indicate that government presses uphold an interesting number of circulations over private counterparty newspapers (p. 277). Ultimately, private media are vulnerable of lesser quality and unable to challenge the prevailing system of state run media, whereby the political economy ostensibly reveals on unethical and inconsistent broadcasts (ibid). It similarly implicates to Tanzania media panorama, the state‐owned TBC which encompasses TBC Taifa, TBC FM and TBC 1 are among the few broadcast stations in the country which are able to expand completely national geographical coverage. On the private counterpart, only the giant private commercial stations have significant International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 25 nationwide reach like Radio Free Africa, Radio One, Clouds FM, Independent Television (ITV) and Star TV (InterMedia. 2011; 36). Whereas several other privately owned are incapable down to the technological resources to expand their coverage, so far they are less to develop behind the public media owing to the scarce competing power over advertising deal on account of their marginal resources provisions. Nevertheless, Moehler & Singh (2011) contend that the mushrooming of privately owned radio with a variety of news sources indicates the typical dichotomy that private media played considerably concerning the democracy objectivity and overall economic development in Africa over monopoly of government in media market (p. 276). Then again, there are identical bearings among private and public media houses over proprietorship on treating the editorial conducts. According to the Survey of Journalists and Media Managers conducted by MCT ((2013b) on the Impact of Ownership on Editorial Independence in Tanzanian Media discloses the alike institutional mechanism which influence the editorial behaviors in both private and publicly owned media. It found that government figures frequently speak their mind to the editors about the entire public media programmings and even pointing out some ostensive blunders that would be corrected or removed, the juncture clues to the confiscation of some programs which were deemed would intimidate public to those in powers (MCT, 2013b; 21). Meanwhile, in private counterpart proprietors go far even to sack or side-line their media personnel who attempted to focus on objective journalism for writing up the news stories contrary to their concentration (ibid). This study stipulates the harsh conducts experienced in private media by owners, through corporal intervention of the editorial works, imposing indefinite proofreaders who may change some articles on spot over all sets approved by editor in charge for publication yet, it just to humor the owners interest (ibid). Sub-editors are not freely completing their journalistic works per professional and ethical guidelines in which managing editor are potential of censoring everything in the newsrooms so as to please the proprietor, this is due to the number of pressures executed by media patrons (ibid; 22). The further synthesis around private and state run media, the institutional appraisal rests on the inconclusive abstract vis-à-vis the public trust dichotomy. Once again Moehler & Singh (2011) matches the Private versus Public Media in Africa, stressing the historical despotic and corrupt regimes assertion of media mistreatment, meant for publicly owned media dependence to the state and apparently were twisted as a régime mouthpiece (p. 276). It suggests the public trust substantial in private media which is approachable to the community with utilization of alternative sources of news, and that's ideally exercising watchdog role in democratic wise, by means of investigative reporting over government abuses of power (ibid). In consort with capitalist notion of market competition on advertising, unlike government media which are simply empowered with public resources and consequently widespread bureaucratic information which commonly would deteriorate the public trust. However, by using the survey method Moehler & Singh (2011) reveal unexpected results that state run broadcasters secure higher levels of public trust than private broadcast media outlets (p. 279). By using the sample of the sixteen countries, they found that only five states the private media secure citizens trust; Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia, while the rest nine countries including Tanzania, and others; Cape Verde, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia the government broadcasters trust is considerably greater than their private rivals (p. 283). This notion implies that Africans would facilitates democracies on public media, given to government powers of controlling all social institution and Economic methodologies where private would not survive efficiently on utilizing the official sources. In addition to the study on the audiencescape by InterMedia (2011), the government source of information is more reliable than radio, television for Tanzanians, while friends and family information trust is marginal (p. 33). Nonetheless, the enigmatic results by Moehler & Singh (2011) on public trust contention has based merely on individual personas, comprising low political sophistication in views of civic knowledge about liberal democracy abstract, autocratic and credulous arrogances concerning political power, and pro-government institutions in view of partisan coordination are commonly occupied in widespread distrust for private media in excess of public media (p. 280). While national-level inspirations in regards with political culture and political Partisanship entails trust on public media, and not by reason of the undeveloped and low quality of private media outlets (p. 283). Therefore, the trust assentation is not a supportive signal to the flourish of media industry particularly private sector. Instead, other factors should be taken into consideration upon enhancing the quality of broadcast or cultivating press freedoms, with the emphasis of the precise political culture for miscellaneous media system to prosper, triggering on to promulgating egalitarian and desired professional reputation. The private media in Tanzania has historical implications of public trust, commenced on the outset of media liberalization in 1990s whereby a load of privately owned press and broadcasting outlets were forefront on sensational and entertaining genres. Recently they have secured significant trust after exposing multi-billion corruption scandals steered to the dismissal and resignations of senior government bureaucrats in 2000s. As the general concerns on the institutional mechanism dichotomy amid public and private, differing in the manner of contents productions and ways of propagation, due to the contrasting ideologies in the basis of political and economic affiliations as mostly anchored on ownership structure. Consequently, the two media styles are absolutely engendering unlike agenda with diverse ultimate goal of shaping public opinions in the same nation. Magolanga (2016) affirms on the International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 26 provision of editorial policies dichotomy in Tanzania media system; for the government owned media always remains pro-government (p. 23). Such a Habari Leo carries content which is responsive to the government and the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and unlikely to criticize over whatever government bearings (ibid). While private media are rather impartial, such as Mwananchi editorial policy remains critical of the government (ibid. 29). on account of capitalism modes of economy, still the private paper is determined by market forces, it's used for commercial curiosity, in which the press inclines to base more on political stories in order to sell the paper over a good number of audiences as well as to attract advertisers in maximization of profits, rather than focusing on development journalism based topics (ibid. 76). 3. THE PRESS ORGANIZATIONS AND QUEST FOR JOURNALIST WAGE BOARD Tanzanian journalism encompasses a number of organizations under journalists' supervision for the professional accomplishments. This includes professional associations, trade unions, ethics and freedom fortification based organizations, femininity interest centered associations along with press clubs athwart several regions in the country (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, 2003; 5). Press club have become dominant centers for gathering journalists across the country, enhancing professionalism and economic development to the general public (ibid; 6). The information services department is the major government institution for generating the public information, subsequent to the SHIHATA dissolution Act no. 7 of 2000. This public institution has various offices in mainland regions, while the Zanzibar information services department operates merely on the isles. The provision of communication/information managers in various public and private agencies is the step ahead for the media industry in engendering public information, whereby officers are liable to utilize mass media for social contract point of view, with the intention of maintaining mutual empathy between government and overall citizens. The chronological framework for Tanzania Journalist Association can be traced in 1963, when the founder of Umma Party and editor of Sauti ya Umma on Zanzibar, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, formed the historical Journalist Organization in Tanzania bases on isles namely the Association of Zanzibar Journalists (AZJO). It which was chaired by Jamal Ramadhan Nasibu and Salim Ahmed Salim a secretary with was aims at protecting their rights from predominant encroachments. The association advocated not only for welfare of national journalists but also treasured a vote of confidence from East African journalists and wide African journalists' societies over government depression against the fundamental rights to enlighten the public, in which the British regime reacted accordingly, insomuch as confiscated the passports of some association's members, then still the AZJO got globally backing (ibid; 31). As happened to the gradual death of press industry during the Tanzania's Ujamaa epoch, AZJO scheme came to an end in 1964 just after the United Republic of Tanzania was formed, whereby most of its members were co-founders of union government and hence others were designated to serve public posts. When the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) formed in1995, there had been already several national and regional media professional organizations in which to large extent paved the way for MCT initiative, following the common denunciation of the government's proposal to enact a legislative media council. The media institutions under umbrella of civil society organizations notably Media Institute of Southern Africa MISA Tanzania branch, MISATan, Association of Journalists and Media workers AJM which was formed in 1994 and Association of Tanzania Journalist TAJA have been forefront on shielding free media and augmenting ethical foundations of journalism practice in the media houses and individual journalists. Example, TAJA remains significant in safeguarding the interest of Tanzanian media workers. While MISA-Tanzania is a regional panel which conveys journalism practices and familiarities among the member states (Jones & Mhando, 2006; 25). It concentrates on: freedom of expression advocacy and lobbying; media monitoring as a tool to gauge the degree of media freedom; campaigning for broadcasting pluralism and diversity; general media support; and, a legal support and defense fund for journalists and media houses (cf. ibid). Additionally, MISA-Tan endeavored to comprehend the set objective by using deliberate implements, like conducting training workshops, exchange programs within the region and arranges awards for journalists, for example, the annual Edward Moringe Sokoine Award for journalists who have succeeded in highlighting development issues (ibid). The Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) was founded in 1987 and got registered as an NGO in 1988, the gender based organization which focuses on femininity liberation, meant for media advocacy on promoting the visibility of women in development; reviewing the Law of Marriage Act 1971; eradicating child labour; and, campaigning against HIV/AIDS and female genital mutilation (FGM) (Ibid.). Henceforth, TAMWA is influential not only on endorsing female media workers' constructive appearance over male dominance but also tends to feature the media role on women emancipation from social stereotypes. These includes promoting the news coverage of women and children, especially for remote areas alongside their basic right through legal backing, by using its own media strategy such as the journal Sauti ya Siti (Madam's Voice) which imparts sufficient knowledge on gender issues (Kiondo, 2007; 8). Besides, there are also international media monitoring agencies in Tanzania, including Africa Media Portal and the Steadman Group in which among others they deal with the proposition of media programs like advertising and monitoring of journalistic activities like news coverage and public access (Jones & Mhando, 2006; 25). The Tanzanian press clubs are International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 27 significant machinery for regulating media issues by means of top-down and bottom-up approach of administering and installing satisfactory network amid freelancers and permanent media persons. There are about 23 regional press clubs around the country with managements which role to represent districts, regional and national level, through which private and public media houses are involved to cultivate a communal progression and converse the journalists' aspirations in the direction of supplementing professionalism (MCT, 2013a; 14). Since, journalism is an inclusive line of work anchored in various specialties, the provision of dedicated media organizations is dynamic on safeguarding the professional performance towards the social obligation. For instance, the Tanzania Sports Writers Association TASWA is a core expediter for crucial characteristics of sports journalism in Tanzania. The Association has more than 90 members and branches in some regions, endures to bring together the main actors of sport commentary through decisive occasions like sports media bonanza, whereas over 1,500 participants played, ate and drank together (ibid, 16). TASWA has good link with other global based sport pioneers like the Tanzania Olympic and the International Sports Press Association which TASWA regularly attends annual general convocation, it also has been working closely with Tanzania Football Federation. It organizes training for its member and presenting annually awards of the Sportsman/Sportswoman in which various champions in sports categories are contested (ibid. 17). However, due to the financial constraints, TASWA persists ineffective throughout its deliberations, hence merely depends on sponsors which might depicts reproach on the objective journalisms. As Sports journalism is still deemed a populist element of profession in the country, the association inclines to craft the independence among its member by initiating savings and credit cooperative society (SACCOS), along with placing other various projects headed for financially supporting themselves with respect to welfare and professional sustainability. Knowing the financial limitations as a cynical burden for the professional accomplishment in Tanzania, the Tanzania Media Fund TMF was established in 2008 pointing toward at financing journalism activities in the best interests of setting up independent media milieu, necessary for an accountable, transparent government and a democratic society (TMF, 2011: 1). It's meant for precautionary legitimate over ownership comforts and overcoming other ethical challenges around the structural conditions such as brown envelope journalism. Thus, TFM which is managed by skillful local administrators is disposed to trace accountable and free journalism scenario, focusing on individual journalists and organizations to restructure into analytical and public interest reporting systems. Commencing the grassroots individuals to the mainstream media house, TMF covers endowments to over 347 individual grantees and 58 institutions from the first phase (2008 -2012) (ibid: 9). By which about 2388 of media productions were featured in newspapers, radio and TV which exceeded the original targets of (2008 -2012) plot (ibid.). Thanks to the high number of award applicants, the press sector is the major beneficiary during the first scheme 2012 - 2016 for 74% with over 2000 articles were published of which more than 50% related to transparency and accountability, likewise18% broadcasted on radio, and 8% secured on television (ibid. 10). The TMF inclines on popularizing the local programming with relevant quality, for example there are a number of popular local programs which are aired in major TV stations of Tanzania, like the documentary of 'Chief Mkwawa" produced by Alkemist Media, and the satirical puppet show "Pikabom" as well as 2011's "Nchi Yetu" series produced by Maa Media (ibid, 11). Such programs and other localized projects foster the diversity and plurality of contents, as a matter of course tracing the marginal populations in particular like gender issues and rural remote populaces. As stated by MCT (2013a) through mentorship programs TMF managed to cover 306 individual journalists and 14 institutional grantees accompanied by Investigative Journalism and mobile reporting trainings, intended at improving their journalistic capacity, understandings and ultimate quality (significance, sourcing, viewpoints and indepth reporting) (p.22). However, the analytical journalism is not yet recognized well by journalists and media institutions comparing to public interest reporting scheme (ibid). While the second phases 2012-2015 was redefined per the miscellaneous grant categories and set more realistic targets, which mostly focuses on institutional alterations of media industry vis-à-vis serious journalism counter to exemplary yellow. Thus far, TMF equipped journalists with structural environment emerged around the industry using audiences' mentorship methodology. The TMF porotype is the convenient institutional support in boosting the circulation of press, viewership and listenership for broadcasting channels. Such media development organizations are very influential on adopting the institutional mechanisms over upgrading the operational transformation with regard to accountability schemes of media, including the watchdog role that might reinforce transparency and independence. To this point, the Networking among media institutions like TAMWA, MISA, JET and TAJA, ascents to confluence and deliberate about the essential agencies to consent professional excellence and neutralizing inimical legislations into conducive settings of responsibility and transparent to prevail (TMF, 2011: 12). The media organizations are hitherto very persuasive of protecting media not only professional legality but also are potential of fortifying the labor right over structural severance. Such professional societies and trade unions have incredible character to organize journalists to protect and defend their rights in eliminating the high labor disputes including turnover amongst media houses. The study by MCT (2013a) discovered that about 98% of International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 28 respondents are member of media professional organization in which Regional Press Clubs secure 88.3% of participants (p, 70). While there is exoticism among journalists towards trade unions utilization, despite the common provision of The ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Part III of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977. In this provision workers of any sector have the right to join and set up trade unions to gratify for their welfares and aspirations. Nonetheless, it normally turns out to fallacy on the subject of media occupation as far as many media houses don't have even schemes of service and contracts for employees (ibid). Hence, the press clubs are the just basic for merely professional progression and harmony, rather than championing their members' right, accordingly, journalist become disappointed of defending their privileges over disputes through trade unions (ibid; 70). The studies further consent the absence of journalism related trade union and Minimum Wage Board for Media Industry, through the Labor Institutions Act, 2004 here-in after referred to as LIA, 2004 (Part V of the Act, especially S.34(b) ) provided for wage boards, which would set up minimum income/wages. It's ideally for journalists to make use of shielding their rights a potential convergent sphere, holding the depiction of mutual interests of the employer and employees, by which permanent employed, part-timers and freelancers would be beneficiaries in accordance with Contract of Service. Due to the lack of knowledge on labor laws, whereas journalists cannot even differentiate the trade unions liable for protecting workers' rights in respect of remunerations and working conditions and media associations which primarily concentrate on professional disputes and accomplishments (ibid. 72). Despite the fact that they are proponent to generate Public awareness on labor laws, they are so far not aware of their own rights and services (ibid.). The persistency of normative discrepancy by professionals on Wage Board in the media industry is in the cards to impair the common prosperity in which a loop hole has been created for employers to maximize profit at the expense of poorly motivated journalists (cf. ibid 73) 73. Therefore utilization of labor laws through trade unions are essential accouter for labor disputes in favor of journalists as well as for promoting efficiency and professional excellence athwart media organizations. 4. MCT AS SELF-REGULATORY DEVICE FOR INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION Subsequent to the breakdown of Statutory Media Council Bill which was projected by the government to regulate the journalism and its affiliations in the country. Accordıng to the late minister of information and broadcasting Dr. William Shija the Media Profession Regulation Act of 1993 was destined as state machinery to professionalize the media sector from intervention of immature journalists who used the loophole of free market to destabilize the profession. It would have safeguarded the fundamental public right to information as well as holding media free and publicly accountable. Among other utilities the bill was premeditated to entrust the board on regulation and controlling the entire media operation, counting registration and even to deregister news people as per prerequisites. Contrary to the eyes of many media professionals who contemplated that, the proposal was another deterring legislative device and aimed to hamper the functioning of independent media which was basic for initial democratization struggle. However, the historical concerted action by various stakeholders to oppose the bill was fruitful. Since then professionals from media institutions managed to found the Independent Media Council of Tanzania IMCT in June 1995 in the course of an inclusive resolution, it was officially launched in February 1996 while started operation effectively on May 22nd 1997 after official registration (Stumer, 2008; 186). IMCT, which was constituted as a voluntary, autonomous, and nonstatutory body, aims at enforcing professional ethics and protecting individuals against invasion of privacy. Although the council"s power is based on moral authority, it can be given legal weight if IMCT testifies against an offender in court. The council has 13 members, seven from media institutions and five public representatives, and its chairman is the vice-chancellor of the Open University, Professor Geoffrey R. V. Mmari (cf. ibid). Afterwards, MCT grew into the professionally administered organization, which is pointed at undergoing self-regulation principles athwart institutional incentive afore legislative enforcement, in an attempt to enhance ethical behaviors in the media houses and inspiring the provision of free press. Meanwhile, MCT has endeavored to maintain public trust and freedom of media institutions rather than governmental contraption which normally seems to destabilize the media significant role to the society on behalf of servicing ruling elites. The independent, non-statutory and voluntary media council is ideal to set up promising milieu over legal and market constrains, to the point that responsible media are designed under concrete ethical groundwork attributable to the democratic society rations. Through the paradigm of voluntarism, all media institutions are potential members and owe a courtesy to operate the body by financial backing via annual membership fee. The MCT objectives were set to hearten the broad professional undertakings includes; ...to assist, safeguard and maintain freedom of the media in Tanzania; to oversee that journalists, editors, broadcasters, producers, directors, proprietors and all those involved in the International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 29 media industry in Tanzania adhere to highest professional and ethical standards; to consider and adjudicate upon complaints from the public and amongst the media against infringements of the code of ethics.; encouraging development of the media profession in Tanzania by undertaking activities including, but not limited to, training of journalists, overseeing press clubs development, to conduct various media freedom campaigns, seminar, workshop and/or symposia; to maintain a register of developments likely to restrict the supply of information of public interest and importance, keep a review of the same, and investigate the conduct and attitude of persons, corporations and governmental bodies at all levels, towards the media, and make public reports on such investigations; to promote and defend the interests of readers, viewers and listeners and to promote gender sensitivity, equality, equity and balance (Cf. Rioba 2009: 186). Subsequently, MCT has evolved as a substantial self-regulatory mechanism for effective and responsible media operation, it has been undertaking various arbitration of complaint by which its estimated to receive about 25 cases annually, comprising politicians, professionals, business persons, ordinary citizens, public institutions such as SUMATRA, Zanzibar Electricity Corporation, Democratic Republic of Congo Embassy, Tanzania Ports Authority and Fair Competition Commission and the government officials like former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa (MCT, 2013a; 68). It's also a vital contrivance for exceling the bearings of media personnel, so far has trained journalists in ethics and investigative journalism; organized workshops and symposia to discuss ethics; prepared codes of ethics for journalists and produced a number of publications addressing issues of quality journalism and Accountability (Cf. Rioba 2009: 186). Further to this, the council recently has succeeded to develop the common curricular for all journalism training institutions, which might standardize the profession among journalist students upon completion of their studies for healthier performing their tasks in media organizations. Bertrand (2007) affirms that media industry can archetypally survive in the emerging settings of capitalist market by merely means of self-determination through own professional conventions, due to the inclination of ownership concentration and hostile legislations (p. 28). He justifies on the changing current model of news into "iceberg journalism", which consists in covering only the small visible part of reality; in ignoring the much larger part that is under the surface... "Infotainment", the common confusion of information and entertainment, of what is interesting and what is important and a regrettable attitude and "Negativism", which consists in judging most positive news as uninteresting, and in always, showing the half-empty glass, focusing on decline, conflict, violence, suffering, disaster (ibid. 29). The critical dissertation persists on the political, economic and other social powers that might deter the aptitude and archetypal functioning of self-regulatory machinery. In Tanzania the delusion sticks around media houses which are systematic MCT members, the anomalous predisposition by editors in some newsrooms and managers reiterate unscrupulous performances, especially by sensational presses after arbitration cases went through them, in due course they withdraw from MCT supervisions as their disappointment over arbitrary decisions upon them (Kilimwiko, 2009; 91). Table 2.3.7 Strengths and Weaknesses of the MCT in Force International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 30 Source; Rioba (2009; 159) Accordingly, MCT perseveres in defiance with such media organizations, the typical examples are of Global Publications Company which publishes a number of tabloids; Uwazi, Risasi, Amani, Ijumaa and Champion, issued a common statement over the then MCT executive secretary Antony Ngaiza, accusing of had having a secrete agenda over publications, so they would keep on nonmembers (ibid.). As of 2009 two media institutions refused to comply by MCT"s ethics committee and one of them withdrew its membership with MCT (cf. ibid; 92). Another dubious instance was for a critical Zanzibar Newspaper Dira which suspected the MCT executive to devise with government on proscription of the paper (cf. ibid; 93). Such myths by MCT members clues the dismissal of some cases, since the editors had declined to join forces with Ethics Committee whereby complainant are asked to look for another legal alternatives (Cf. Rioba 2009: 190). The fallacy of self-regulatory model is mostly owing to conflict of interest in the contemporary media industry in the basis of ownership and organization policies. Owners tend to institute their orthodox journalism persona de facto in prioritizing the commercial and political interest. The owners' control of entire media functioning implicates to the truncated public trust whereby MCT rests reactive organ - event oriented potency on the ethical violation cases, waiting for complaints to fill up the intercession form (Kilimwiko, 2009; 91). Due to the meagre running of MCT to reinforce the free and effective press alike, in place of it some stakeholders think of legal enforcement to entrench punitive powers (MCT, (2014; 58). Since the framework of democracy would needs the legal compulsion with certain exceptions on the pillars conspicuously freedom of expression, that's to fashion accountable and transparent International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 31 environment where media has humble obligation to work for a legitimate concentration of the social needs and aspirations. The statutory machinery may validates the provisional power of administering and regulating in particular conditions, such as deregistering any journalist who may violate the set ethical codes and standards (ibid.). Hitherto entails for the socially responsible journalism, meant for self-disciplined among media houses and their journalists per professional principles. Nevertheless, the arbitration spectrum by dint of Ethics Committee is liable for griping and facilitating complaints with reference to abuses of media codes of ethics along media houses and its publics. MCT achieves high public trust, by which several individuals and institutions continue to make of use the Committee for handling their objections, ultimately it serves a court of honor thanks to the punctuality and affordability of arbitration procedures, unlike law court protocols which may take some years for the cases to terminate (ibid, 2013a; 68). MCT (2015) accords with the Rioba (2009) concerning the conjoint individual journalists' gratitude of MCT position in excelling their daily ethical undertakings. It"s Board of Directors, Ethics Committee and other internal mechanisms have continued to function optimally and now MCT claims to enjoy 100% compliance of its arbitration decisions (cf. MCT, 2015; p.41). This is due to the certainty that the individual professionals are always eager on the ethical tendency over external muggers. In his PhD dissertation about Media Accountability in Tanzania's Multiparty Democracy as the case of self-regulation, Rioba (2009) finds that the Media Council of Tanzania has been endeavoring to set journalism convenient in the country for the better performance, it so far has been honored regionally and globally attributable to its institutional structure of selfregulatory mechanism as well as its acknowledged with high respect from journalists (p. 190). In his analysis about the arbitration, Rioba discovered that most of the incidents are about ethical faults in the scope of defamation, libel and innuendo which are mostly filled by individuals and institutions (p. 191). Through qualitative analysis about MCT's arbitration cases in the ten year period (1997-2006), he further found out the supreme defendants of 92 percent used to complain over newspapers, while radio obtains only six percent of arbitration cases and the rest are about plagiarism and others (p. 192). While About 87 percent of protests were about false, untrue or malicious information as reasoned by complainants. Surprisingly, in this study Rioba catches that serious newspapers are the foremost potential of complaints rather than tabloids (p.193). This is due to the reality that broadsheet newspapers are always politically analytic and tend to cover the real life of human stories including the social and economic arenas. MCT undergoes with a quantity of encounters plus strengths as illustrated on table No. 1 above. All the same, this organ is the only prominent institutions in the country even out of media industry, which has efficaciously managed to reach and serve the niche publics, where by about 2000 workshops and seminars in 10 years were conducted to media owners, administrators, editors, journalists and other stakeholders, together with over 1000 beneficiaries were reached throughout the county on the scope of basic journalism, ethics and investigative reporting trainings (ibid; 211). Moreover, it sets up about 23 press clubs across the regions and developing code of ethics especially during the general elections, while its publications The Watch and Barazani have become significant tools in the media practice and academia in Tanzania (ibid). However, according to the study (MCT, 2015) there is a common longing among media professionals about (71.9%), would like to see more efficiency per deliberate mechanism to be applied so that to magnify self-regulation system. A good number of research participants think that media self-regulation would be rather effective for embedding socially accountable based journalism in Tanzania than government legislations (p.33). Therefore, there is a need of deliberate mechanisms keen on institutionalized approach with the purpose to enforce the ethical journalism to prevail the trendy profession. The MCT professional legitimacy compels further imperative institutional adherence in term of ownership, and instant structural reform in the newsrooms in an attempt to streamline independent and responsible journalism. 5. CONCLUSION The paradigm shift from a centralized economic system by the Ujamaa government towards market economic adjustment in proportion to the IMF/WB schemes in 1980s and the provision of the new constitution in 1992 into multipartism have commonly expanded the Tanzanian mediascape with diversity of content compassions and informative model, together with limited censorship and control from the state (Ekström et al. 2012; 165). When examining the antecedents around the transformation of media structures in Tanzania as militarized by economic and political liberalization, the technological determinism is so far another dynamic factor behind the crusade, in which technology diffusion had great influences to the modelling up the presence configurations. The initial landmark which elicited towards current Tanzania media ecosystem was noticed through the satellite evolution, when broadcasting etiquettes were much factored in the way of digitalisation keen on communication technologies. The implication of technological influences can be also traced after the official Migration from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting in 2012 is the historical milestone of Tanzania mediascape, coped with the free media market scheme. The individual journalists and existing mainstream media channels in the country have extended to the online version through blogs, websites, and social media platforms, by which traditional contents interrelated with and hence audiences pass their views on connected news bulletins. Besides, the mobile phone has risen amongst the most influential tool and supportive to the economic, political and social needs of communication. Kivikuru, (2016) cites on the Africa service typology of International Journal of Academic and Applied Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2000-005X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 23-32 32 mobile phone like Ushaidi, the crowd-mapping platform, mobile money projects like MPesa, and the so-called MHealth projects are among the most widespread ventures of mobile utilization in Africa (p. 87). Since the institutional media transformation is typically steered with the media economics viewpoints by means of ownership and control, inevitable to shape the media market in the country. The media associations have the potential to transform the institutional power under the self-regulatory framework upon professionals' control of daily media undertakings over emerged market challenges, draconian media legislations and technological influences. REFERENCES [1] Abdalla, K.J. (2015). The media, intellectuals and civil society in Democratization in Tanzania. Point J. Hum.. Soc. Sci. 2( 1): 022-026. [2] Bertrand CJ. (2007) , M*A*S in the Present World An Overview of Media Accountability Systems; in NORDICOM; Media Accountability Today and Tomorrow; Updating the Concept in Theory and Practice; An International Seminar at School of Communication and Design, Kalmar University, 13-14 March 2007 p29-40 [3] Ekström Y., Hansen A. H. & Boothby H. (2012), The Globalization of the Pavement; A Tanzanian Case Stud, Nordicom Review 33 (2012) Special Issue, pp. 163-176. [4] InterMedia (2011), The AudienceScapes Project; Tanzanian Media Environment, Current Access, Potential for Growth and Strategies for Information Dissemination. InterMedia [5] Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania (2003), Sera ya Habari na Utangazaji ya 2003; Idara ya Habari (Maelezo). [6] Jones, J. M. and Mhando, N. (2006) Tanzania, Research findings and conclusions- Africa Media Development Initiative Report, The BBC World Service Trust.Kilimwiko, L.I.M (2009). Media Power and Politics in Tanzania; Critical Analysis of Media Trends and Practices, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. [7] Kivikuru, U. (2016), Media Freedoms in Changing Frames. Tanzania under a magnifying glass, in Freedom of Expression and Media in Transition; Studies and reflections in the digital age p. 85 89, UNESCO, Ale Tryckteam AB, Bohus, Sweden. [8] Kiondo, A. (2007Lorgen C. C. (1999), The Experience of Villagisation: Lessons from Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania, Oxfam-GB [9] Magolanga, E. M. (2016), Development Journalism Practice in Government-Owned And Privately Owned Newspapers; A Comparative Case Study of Mwananchi and Habari Leo Newspapers, A Masters Dissertation in Journalism and Media Management (MAJOMM) of the University of Iringa. [10] Media Council of Tanzania (2013 a), State of the Media Report - 2012, MCT, Tanzania. [11] Media Council of Tanzania (2013b). Media Research Papers 2012; The Impact of Ownership on Editorial Independence in Tanzanian, Media: A Survey of Journalists and Media Managers, Research Findings and Recommendations: An Assessment of Labour Turnover (LT) in Tanzania Media Industry: Challenges and Remedies. Tanzania. [12] Media Council of Tanzania (2014a). Press Freedom Violation Report, 2013. Tanzania. [13] Media Council of Tanzania (2014b). Media Research Paper - 2013, Enhancing Visibility and Portrayal of Women in Tanzanian Media; Contrasting Case Study of Mwananchi Communications Limited against the Yellow Press, MCT, Tanzania. [14] Media Council of Tanzania (2015). Media Research Papers 2014; Effectiveness of Escalating Media Pluralism and Diversity in Promoting Social Accountability in Tanzania. MCT, Tanzania. [15] Moehler, D. C & Singh, N. (2011) Whose News Do You Trust? Explaining Trust in Private versus Public Media in Africa, Political Research Quarterly 64(2) 276-292 University of Utah [16] Powell, R. (2017), Unfinished business: Tanzania's media capture challenge, retrieved on June 7, 2018 at [17] Rioba, A, (2008). Media in Tanzania's Transition to Multiparty Democracy; An Assessment of Issues and Ethical Issues, University of Tampere Press. [18] Rioba, A. (2012), Media Accountability in Tanzania's Multiparty Democracy, Does self-regulation work?, PhD ACADEMIC DISSERTATION, University of Tampere. [19] Stumer, (2008ed.), Media history of Tanzania, Ndanda Mission Press. [20] Tanzania Media Fund TMF (2011), Tanzania Media Fund Strategic Plan JUNE 2012 - MAY 2015 MAY, retrieved on June 7, 2018 at
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{ "creator": "Abell, Catharine", "date": "2012", "datestamp": 1562766289000, "description": "An adequate account of the nature of genre and of the criteria for genre membership is essential to understanding the nature of the various categories into which comics can be classified. Because they fail adequately to distinguish genre categories from other ways of categorizing works, including categorizations according to medium or according to style, previous accounts of genre fail to illuminate the nature of comics categories. I argue that genres are sets of conventions that have developed as means of addressing particular interpretative and/or evaluative concerns, and have a history of co‐instantiation within a community, such that a work’s belonging to some genre generates interpretative and evaluative expectations among the members of that community. Genres are distinct from styles in consisting of conventions, and are distinct from media both in consisting of conventions and in generating interpretative and evaluative expectations.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABE-2", "language": "zz", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Comics and Genre", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach, First Edition. Edited by Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Comics and Genre Catharine Abell Introduction As comics develop as a medium and as an art form, more and more comics genres emerge. My aim in this paper is to explain what comics genres are and what it is for a comic to belong to a particular genre. An adequate account of comics genres should illuminate the nature of genres more generally. Nevertheless, it will be fruitful to focus on the particular case of comics genres. Both film and literary practice and the philosophy and criticism of film and literature have advanced to a point at which it is reasonably clear what the main genres of movies and literary works are, and what features distinguish them. By contrast, comics are a relatively young art form, and the philosophy and criticism of comics are in their infancy. Past discussion of comics has even confused the art form of comics with particularly popular and influential genres, with the result that comics have been dismissed as artistically unimportant, because they have been equated with superhero escapism for adolescents (McCloud 1993 ). Comics fall into a broad array of categories, including funny animal comics, romance comics, superhero comics, Tijuana bibles, alternative comics, autobiographical comics, mini‐comics, graphic novels, comix, adult comics and fumetti (also known as photo‐comics). While some of these categories seem clearly to be genres, it is not obvious that all are. Funny animal comics, romance comics, and superhero comics are comics genres, but it is not obvious whether or not graphic novels or fumetti comprise genres. Comics categories therefore provide a good test case for an account of genre. 4 0001349037.INDD 68 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 69 An adequate account of genre should provide a plausible way of distinguishing between comics categories that are genres and those that are not, and should provide principled reasons for this distinction. In doing so, it will help inform our understanding of comics, by elucidating the significance of the various categories of comics. I begin, in the next section, by outlining some desiderata for an adequate account of genre. In the following section, I assess existing accounts of genre, and argue that none can adequately distinguish those comics categories that are genres from those that are not. In the final section, I provide an alternative account of genre and of the conditions for genre membership. I then use this account to distinguish those categories of comics that are genres from those that are not, by identifying features in virtue of which they either fall within the scope of the account, or fail to do so. Desiderata for an Account of Genre An adequate philosophical account of genre should provide solutions to the various philosophical problems that genres pose. To clarify what this requires, I will now outline some of these problems. First, it is not clear what makes a certain feature of a work relevant to determining its genre. There is no single type of feature that determines the genre to which a work belongs. Rather, a variety of different types of features of comics may be relevant to determining their genre. Their genre may be determined, not just by their content - their setting, characters, themes and subjects - but also by their structure, and the effects they have on an audience. Whether or not a comic is a science‐fiction comic depends, amongst other things, on its setting; whether or not it is a romance comic depends both on its subject and on its structure (a comic about a boy's love for a girl, in which the boy has already got the girl, and does not lose her, may not qualify as a romance comic despite its subject); and whether or not it is a horror comic is determined partly by its capacity to induce fear in an audience. If fumetti comprise a comics genre, a comic's genre membership may also depend on its format (if a comic does not include photographs, it is unlikely to be a fumetti). Some types of features seem to be relevant to determining a work's genre in some cases, but not in others. While a comic's emotional effects on an audience are clearly relevant to determining whether or not it is a horror comic, they are not obviously relevant to determining whether or not it is a science‐fiction comic. An adequate account of genre should explain both which features of a work are potentially relevant to determining its genre membership, and under what conditions they do so. 0001349037.INDD 69 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM 70 Comics and Genre A second problem concerns, not what features determine a work's genre membership, but the manner in which they do so. It does not seem possible to specify individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for membership of a specific genre. Rather, certain features are standard for works in a specific genre, such that a work's possessing one of those features counts towards its belonging to the genre at issue, and other features are contra‐standard for works in a specific genre, such that a work's possessing one of those features counts against its belonging to the genre at issue (see Walton 1970 ). A work may belong to some genre despite its lacking features standard for that genre (for example, a comic about a boy's love for a girl that fails to meet the boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl structural format may nonetheless qualify as a romance). It may also belong to some genre despite possessing features contra‐standard for that genre (for example, a comic may qualify as a horror comic despite not being capable of frightening an audience). A work's possessing a feature standard for some genre is a pro tanto reason for classifying it as belonging to that genre, and its possessing a feature contra‐standard for that genre is a pro tanto reason for not classifying it as belonging to that genre. An adequate account of genre should provide an account of the manner in which those of a work's features that are relevant to determining its genre help to determine the genre to which a work belongs, and this account should accommodate the fact that such features provide only pro tanto reasons for genre classifications. An adequate explanation of what determines genre membership and how it does so should also accommodate the fact that a single work may belong to more than one genre. For example, one can imagine a comic that is a funny animal romance comic, belonging both to the genre of funny animal comics and to that of romance comics. Such an explanation should also accommodate the fact that some genres incorporate works in a variety of different media. For example, superhero comics and romance comics comprise sub‐genres of the broader superhero and romance genres, which include not only comics, but also works in other narrative media, such as novels and films. Furthermore, as I suggested in the Introduction, an adequate account of genre needs to distinguish genre categories from the various other categories into which works can be classified. These other categories include categories based solely on history of production, such as Canadian comics produced between 1950 and 1965, or comics produced by Charles Schulz, as well as arbitrarily specified categories, such as comics produced using more than five colors of ink. More importantly, an adequate account of genre should distinguish genre categories from style categories. The notion of genre is closely related to that of style: so closely related that it is often unclear whether a category is a genre or a style category. For example, is realism a genre or a style? What about pop art? This lack of clarity is due not just to 0001349037.INDD 70 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 71 philosophical uncertainty about the nature of genre, but also about the nature of style. In the absence of an adequate philosophical account of style, one should not expect an account of genre to provide a definitive explanation of the distinction between a genre and a style. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to expect an account of genre to identify some features of genres that, prima facie , distinguish them from styles, and also to identify features that, prima facie , genres share with styles, and that account for the close relationship between genres and styles. A final philosophical problem posed by genres - and one of the most interesting - concerns the relationship between a work's genre and its content. A work's genre membership appears to affect its content. We can see this by focusing on narrative content : the content that works of fiction have, considered as such. The narrative content of a work of fiction incorporates everything that is true according to the story that the work recounts . A work's narrative content generally incorporates a lot more than the work explicitly represents. For example, it is part of the narrative content of the Peanuts comics that Charlie Brown is insecure, although they do not explicitly represent him as insecure. A work's narrative content must therefore have additional determinants, besides its explicit representational content. It seems pretty clear that a work's genre is one such determinant. For example, it would not be true according to a funny animal comic that explicitly represented an animal as talking that anything unusual had taken place. By contrast, it would be true according to a war comic that explicitly represented an animal as talking that something extremely unusual had taken place. In war comics it is unusual for animals to talk, but in funny animal comics it is not. An adequate account of genre should help us to understand the relation between a work's genre and its narrative content. The nature of this relation depends, not just on the nature of genre, but also on that of narrative content. One influential thought is that a work's narrative content incorporates what would be the case, were things as the work explicitly represents them as being (Lewis 1978 ). On this understanding, what makes it part of the Peanuts comics that Charlie Brown is insecure is the fact that any child who did and said the things that Peanuts explicitly represents Charlie Brown as doing and saying would be insecure. However, such considerations will not always yield a satisfactory explanation of a work's narrative content. Consider, for example, a superhero comic that represents a masked and caped man but does not explicitly represent him as employing any special powers or abilities. 1 It seems plausible that it is nonetheless part of the comic's narrative content that the man has special powers or abilities, but this cannot be because anyone who was attired as that man is represented as being attired would have 0001349037.INDD 71 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM 72 Comics and Genre special powers or abilities. This seems patently false. David Lewis considers the analogous case of a story that represents a dragon, Scrulch, a princess and a knight, but does not explicitly represent Scrulch either as breathing fire or as not breathing fire. It nevertheless seems plausible that it is part of the story's narrative content that Scrulch breathes fire. However, this cannot be because any creature with the features Scrulch is explicitly represented as possessing would breathe fire. He argues that it is part of the story's narrative content that the dragon breathes fire "because dragons in that sort of story do breathe fire" (Lewis 1978 : 45). He writes, "If Schrulch does breathe fire in my story, it is by inter‐fictional carry‐over from what is true of dragons in other stories" (45). Lewis can thus be interpreted as claiming that it is in virtue of the story's genre membership that the dragon breathes fire in the story he considers. Similarly, one might think that it is part of the narrative content of the superhero comic that the masked and caped man possesses special powers or abilities because in superhero comics masked and caped men possess such powers or abilities. On Lewis's view, therefore, a work's genre can affect its narrative content by making it include things in addition to those that would be the case were things really as the work explicitly represents them as being. Let us call such effects positive effects of genre on narrative content. Andrea Bonomi and Sandro Zucchi claim that a work's genre membership can also have negative effects on its narrative content. That is, it can affect its narrative content by preventing it from incorporating certain of those things that would be the case were things as it explicitly represents them as being. They consider Othello , in which Shakespeare represents the character Othello as uttering lines that would ordinarily indicate eloquence of an order of which only a great poet is capable. Nonetheless, as Kendall Walton points out, Othello is supposed to be a rough military man whose first language is not English. It is not part of the narrative content of the play that Othello is especially eloquent (Walton 1990 : 175). Bonomi and Zucchi claim that Othello is not to be credited with astonishing eloquence since Othello belongs to the genre of Elizabethan plays and "by the conventions of Elizabethan plays a man who expresses himself like Othello need not be a first rank poet" (Bonomi and Zucchi 2003 : 114). 2 If this explanation is correct, it is not true in funny animal cartoons that talking animals are unusual because, although it would be extremely unusual were an animal to talk, it is a convention of the funny animal genre that talking animals are not unusual. Neither Lewis nor Bonomi and Zucchi offer any explanation of how genres affect narrative content in the ways they describe. An adequate account of genre should explain why genre membership can have these effects. With this, and the other desiderata just outlined in mind, let us now examine how existing philosophical accounts of genre fare in relation to them. 0001349037.INDD 72 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 73 Existing Accounts of Genre There is little discussion of the nature of genre in the philosophical literature. Two discussions, by Gregory Currie and by Brian Laetz and Dominic Lopes, are the only recent exceptions. To begin with, let us consider the account of movie genres proposed by Laetz and Lopes. On their view: Category K is a movie genre if and only if K [is a type of movie which] has multiple members, which are made by more than one artist (for any given artist role), from any background, and K has features in virtue of which K figures into the appreciations or interpretations of K's audience. (2008: 156) 3 This account suffers from several problems. First, it is unable to distinguish genre categories from the various other types of categories into which works can be classified. The stipulation that, for a type of movie to comprise a genre, it must be made by more than one artist, from any background is supposed to distinguish genre categories from categories based solely on works' histories of production. Laetz and Lopes claim that genres are distinct from traditions, such that a work's genre does not depend on social facts about its maker (Laetz and Lopes 2008 : 156). They may also have insisted on the irrelevancy of history of production to genre membership because they want to distinguish genres from styles. Because the work of an individual artist may be distinguished from the work of others by its distinctive style, as with the case of Seaurat's pointillism, for example, it is not always the case that more than one artist can produce works in any given style. However, a work's genre does seem sometimes to depend on its history of production. Like the genres of Dutch realist painting, Texas country music, and Asian extreme, the comics genre Manga seems to be partly geographic in nature. 4 Arguably, a comic must have been produced in Japan in order to belong to the Manga genre, just as a painting must have been produced in the Netherlands in order to belong to the genre of Dutch realist painting, and a musical work must have been produced in Texas to be an instance of the genre of Texas country music. Thus, one might think that Amerimanga or, more generally, original English‐language manga (like Chinese manhua and Korean manhwa) are distinct genres from Manga proper. Certainly, someone who produces something that looks like an instance of Manga, but is unaware of and unconnected to the Manga tradition has not made an instance of Manga. Bonomi and Zucchi clearly think that Elizabethan plays comprise a genre, but Elizabethan plays can only be produced by playwrights living in England in the Elizabethan era. Laetz's and Lopes's overt denial that history of production has any role to play in determining genre membership seems too strong. 0001349037.INDD 73 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM 74 Comics and Genre Genres are therefore not distinguished from styles by the irrelevance of works' histories of production to genre membership. Furthermore, the requirement that a genre have features that figure in appreciation or interpretation also fails to distinguish genre categories from styles. Laetz's and Lopes's comments suggest that, by the requirement that genres have features that enter into appreciations or evaluations they intend to impose a fairly narrow condition. In particular, they seem to mean that genres must have features that generate interpretative and evaluative expectations (Laetz and Lopes 2008 : 156). The fact that a comic belongs to the superhero genre will generate in someone who likes that genre the expectation that they will enjoy the comic at issue. Similarly, the fact that a comic belongs to the funny animal genre will generate the expectation that it will represent talking animals. However, like genres, styles have features which generate interpretative and evaluative expectations. The fact that a comic is in Dan Clowes's distinctive style may generate such expectations in an audience, but his style is not a genre. The fact that their account fails to distinguish genres from the various other categories into which works may fall prevents Laetz and Lopes from resolving the issue of whether or not fumetti and graphic novels are genres. Their account is also unable to explain how genre membership affects narrative content. Laetz and Lopes are aware of the role of genre in determining narrative content, and propose to accommodate it by the following genre principle : A story belonging to genre K represents that q [i.e. incorporates q in its narrative content] if it explicitly represents that p 1 ... p n and it is a feature of K that it would be the case that q, were it the case that p 1 ...p n. (2008: 153) 5 However, this principle seems inadequate as a description of how genre affects narrative content. While it accommodates the positive effects that Lewis notes, it does not accommodate the negative effects noted by Bonomi and Zucchi. Moreover, it raises the question of which features of a genre determine that, if it were the case that p 1 ...p n , it would be the case that q. What sorts of things are genres that they have these features? Perhaps Laetz and Lopes would claim that genres have these features because of the interpretative expectations to which they give rise. To see how such an explanation might proceed, let us now turn to Currie's account, which purports to explain the role that expectations play in producing the effects that genre has on narrative content. Currie claims that genres are simply sets of features or properties that works can have (2004: 47). He holds that any set of features a work can have constitutes a genre. Consequently, on his view, there is an infinite number of genres. However, on his account, genre membership is not simply a matter of possessing the features constitutive of a given genre. If this were the case, 0001349037.INDD 74 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 75 every work would belong to some genre because every work has some set of features. Rather, Currie argues, a work belongs to a genre to the extent that it possesses the relevant features and this creates an expectation among the members of the community in which it was produced that it will possess the others (2004: 49). Thus, while there is an indefinite number of genres, the number of genres to which works actually belong is much more limited, because not every genre is such that a work's possessing some of its constitutive features will create the expectation among community members that it will possess the others. Currie claims that these expectations are created by prior experience of certain features being co‐instantiated, and perhaps also by such other factors as innate expectations about narrative form (2004: 54). On Currie's account, a work's causal and temporal relations to other works can help to determine its genre (2004: 43). This is so because these causal and temporal relations help to create the expectations that determine genre membership. It is because a work is causally and/or temporally related to other works with which it shares some features that we expect it to share further features with them. Unlike Laetz's and Lopes's account, therefore, Currie's can accommodate genres, membership of which depends partly on a work's history of production. Nevertheless, there are problems with Currie's account. First, it fails to distinguish genre categories from other types of categories. Like Laetz's and Lopes's account, it fails to distinguish genres from styles. Like genres, styles are associated with sets of features works can have and, like genres, the fact that a work possesses some of the features constitutive of a style leads interpreters to expect that it will possess the others. For example, when we watch a film with features of Robert Altman's distinctive style, such as that of representing a series of apparently unrelated episodes, we expect that it will exhibit other features of his style, such as revealing unexpected relations between those episodes. It also fails to distinguish genres from media, such as photography or watercolor. Different media are associated with different sets of features. Moreover, the fact that a work possesses some of the features associated with a given medium leads interpreters to expect that it will possess the others. For example, the fact that a work possesses some of the features of photography, such as a high degree of realism and a glossy surface will lead interpreters to expect that it will possess the other features we associate with photographs, such as representing actual objects and states of affairs. Currie's account therefore cannot help to solve the problem of which comics categories are genres and which are not. Graphic novels and fumetti are conceivably media rather than genres. It is the task of an adequate account of genre to determine whether or not this is the case. However, because Currie's account fails to distinguish genres from media, it cannot illuminate the nature of these comics categories. 0001349037.INDD 75 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM 76 Comics and Genre Second, Currie's account does not provide a satisfactory explanation of the effects of genre membership on narrative content. He claims that these effects are a consequence of the expectations that help to determine a work's genre membership. These expectations, he claims, affect narrative content by enabling genre‐based implicatures (2004: 45-46). Implicatures are pragmatically - as opposed to semantically - determined aspects of content. The paradigmatic form of implicature is a conversational implicature . According to Grice's influential theory, what a speaker conversationally implicates by producing an utterance is determined by her intentions (Grice 1975 ). Conversational implicatures arise when what speakers intend to communicate by an utterance differs from the semantic content of that utterance. Although interpreters do not generally have any access to a speaker's intentions independently of the utterances she produces, Grice argues that they are nonetheless able to identify her intentions because, in communicating with interpreters, speakers conform to the cooperative principle : "Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged" (Grice: 45-46). When the semantic content of a speaker's utterance does not conform to the cooperative principle, interpreters work out what the speaker intended to communicate by ascribing an alternative content to the utterance that does conform to the principle. Interpreters' expectations play an important role in their ability to identify conversational implicatures, because those expectations determine what they take to be required in order for an utterance to conform to the cooperative principle. However, Currie denies that genre‐based implicatures are conversational implicatures, on the basis that they do not exploit apparent violations of the cooperative principle (Currie 2004 : 46). On his account, therefore, expectations cannot play the same role in enabling genre‐based implicatures as they do in enabling interpreters to identify conversational implicatures. Conventional implicatures depend, not on speakers' intentions, but on conventions associating certain types of utterances with certain implicatures. For example, utterances of "but" between coordinate clauses conventionally implicate a contrast between the relevant clauses. When I say "Tom is rich but unattractive," I cannot help but indicate a contrast between being rich and being unattractive, whether or not I intend to indicate such a contrast. Conventional implicatures cannot be canceled. By contrast, Currie argues, genre‐based implicatures are cancellable and thus cannot be Gricean conventional implicatures (Currie 2004 : 46). Currie is right to claim that the effects of genre on narrative content are cancellable. For example, when we read a comic strip in the funny animal genre, we will assume that there is nothing abnormal about an animal talking in the context of the cartoon. However, this expectation can be undermined - for example, 0001349037.INDD 76 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 77 because the comic explicitly represents a human character as reacting with incredulity to a talking animal. Kaz undermines this very expectation to humorous effect in his cartoon Lumberger (Brunetti 2006 : 18). If the expectation is canceled in such a way, we will take it to be part of the narrative content of that work that the talking animal it represents has unusual capacities. However, Currie's account of genre does not explain how genre affects narrative content in ways that are cancelable. First, because he characterizes genre‐based implicatures predominantly negatively (they are neither conventional implicatures nor conversational implicatures), it remains unclear exactly what genre‐based implicatures are. Second, his account fails to explain exactly how audience expectations generate genre‐based implicatures and what distinguishes those expectations that do so from those that do not. Not all the expectations that accompany genre membership affect our ascriptions of narrative content. For example, when we read romance comics, we expect the romances they represent to end happily. This expectation may be met, or may be explicitly violated. Alternatively, it may be neither met nor violated, as when a comic ends before it is evident whether or not the romance it represents will end happily. In the latter case, although our expectation has not been violated or canceled, we do not take it to be part of the comic's narrative content that the romance ends happily. Rather, we take it to be unclear whether or not it does so. Similarly, our expectation, on encountering a funny animal cartoon, that it will contain animals that can talk need not be either met or undermined. For example, a funny animal cartoon may represent a group of animals going silently about their lives, without making it clear whether they are simply refraining from speaking, or whether they are not speaking because they cannot do so. In this case, although our expectation is not undermined, it does not lead us to ascribe the ability to talk to the animals it represents. Expectations such as these do not generate genre‐based implicatures. Despite these problems, I think there's something right about Currie's claim that genre membership affects narrative content by enabling implicatures. In the next section, I propose an account of genre that explains the sense in which the effects of genre on narrative content are implicatures, and explains the role that interpreters' expectations play in enabling them to identify these implicatures. An Account of Genre I propose that genres are sets of conventions that have developed as means of addressing particular interpretative and/or evaluative problems, and have a history of co‐instantiation within a community, such that a work's belonging to some genre generates interpretative and evaluative expectations among the 0001349037.INDD 77 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM 78 Comics and Genre members of that community. To belong to some genre, a work must be produced in a community in which its constitutive conventions have a history of co‐instantiation and must be produced in accordance with some subset of those conventions that is sufficient to distinguish the set of conventions at issue from all other sets of conventions that have developed as means of addressing interpretative and/or evaluative concerns and have a history of co‐instantiation within the community in which the work was produced. A work is produced in accordance with a convention if and only if it both has features of the type picked out by the convention at issue and its maker gave the work those features so that the convention would apply to it. On this account, a work's history of production is relevant to determining its genre membership. One cannot produce a work in a given genre unless one belongs to a community in which its constitutive conventions have a history of co‐instantiation. Nevertheless, the notion of a community at issue is not narrowly geographic. A community is a group of people who interact through the production, interpretation, and evaluation of works. On this account, therefore, manga comics are not necessarily Japanese, but one must be familiar with comics conventions that originated in Japan in order to produce a manga comic. Someone who produced a comic perceptually indistinguishable from a manga comic in total ignorance of those conventions would not thereby produce a manga comic. Genres that are partly geographically identified, such as Dutch realist painting, arise when the community in which their constitutive conventions have a history of co‐ instantiation happens to be relatively geographically isolated. New interpretative and/or evaluative concerns, not addressed by the conventions of existing genres, may lead to the emergence of new genres, comprising new conventions that have arisen in response to those concerns. Alternatively, they may lead to the emergence of hybrid genres, which are created when the conventions of different existing genres are combined to address new combinations of interpretative and/or evaluative concerns. Finally, new concerns may lead to the emergence of subgenres, which are created when a set of conventions distinctive of an existing genre is supplemented with new conventions, which modify the existing genre to enable it to meet those concerns. Artists can help to create new genres, hybrid genres or subgenres that do not have a history within a given community by producing works that solve new interpretative and/or evaluative problems or address old problems in novel ways. If the works they create lead others to adopt those solutions, such that new sets of conventions emerge and develop a history of co‐ instantiation within a community, those works may be responsible for initiating new genres. Nevertheless, the works themselves do not belong to the genres they may help to create, because the conventions constitutive of those genres, hybrid genres or subgenres do not exist at the time of their creation. 0001349037.INDD 78 9/19/2011 5:39:34 PM Comics and Genre 79 This account explains why a variety of different types of features is relevant to determining a work's genre. Different types of conventions may develop as means of addressing interpretative and evaluative concerns, including conventions of content, structure, format, narrative content and effects, since a work's content, structure, format, narrative content and effects are all of potential interpretative and/or evaluative significance. Moreover, it explains why these features are not generally individually necessary for genre membership, but instead provide pro tanto reasons for classifying a work as belonging to a certain genre. To belong to some genre, a work need only be produced in accordance with a distinctive subset of the conventions of that genre. It is possible that a specific member of the set of conventions comprising a certain genre will be essential to distinguishing that genre from all other genres with a history of co‐instantiation in the community in which it was produced, and thus that there is some feature, or set of features possession of which is necessary for membership of some genres. Nevertheless, this will not generally be the case. Often, there will be no single convention in accordance with which a work must have been produced in order to belong to a given genre. Moreover, most of the constitutive conventions comprising any given genre will not be individually necessary to genre membership. Consequently, the features that determine genre membership are generally only pro tanto determinants of genre membership. A work may have features with conventional significance according to a set of conventions that are jointly distinctive of one genre, and also have features with conventional significance according to a set of conventions that are jointly distinctive of another genre. This account of genre membership is therefore consistent with a work belonging to more than one genre. It is also consistent with the existence of genres that incorporate works in a variety of different media, such as the fantasy genre, which incorporates not just fantasy comics, but also fantasy novels and films. The fantasy genre incorporates works in a variety of different media because works in different media may each be produced in accordance with a distinctive subset of its constitutive conventions. The fact that genres are sets of conventions distinguishes them from categories based solely on works' histories of production, such as the category of comics produced by Charles Schulz. It also distinguishes genres from styles. Genre categories are distinct from style categories because style categories are not comprised of conventions. As I noted earlier, a style can be unique to the work of an individual artist. However, it is a necessary condition for something's being conventional that it be widely adopted among the members of a community (Lewis 1969 ). Nevertheless, style categories are like genre categories in being responses to evaluative and/or interpretative concerns. My account of genre thus explains how genres differ from styles, and also why the notions of genre and of style are nonetheless closely related. 0001349037.INDD 79 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM 80 Comics and Genre Genres are distinct from media such as watercolor and photography because, although media are often developed as means of addressing interpretative and/or evaluative concerns, a medium consists in a set of tools and techniques, rather than of conventions. Although certain of the techniques constitutive of a medium may become conventionalized, such conventions are not constitutive of media themselves. For this reason, a work's being a watercolor or a photograph does not generate interpretative and/or evaluative expectations among the members of the community in which it was produced. People do not generally like photographs or watercolors in general, or have general expectations about the sorts of things they will represent. The account's appeal to conventions and to interpretative and evaluative expectations therefore distinguishes genres from media. We are now in a position to understand why it is so difficult to decide whether graphic novels and fumetti comprise genres or media. On the one hand, the category of graphic novels has a claim to be considered a medium, since graphic novels may be used to address a very wide range of interpretative and/or evaluative problems and consequently the fact that a work is a graphic novel need not generate interpretative and/or evaluative expectations in an audience. On the other hand, graphic novels also have some claim to being considered a genre. As a matter of historical fact, graphic novels have been used to address a fairly restricted range of interpretative and evaluative problems, such that the fact that a comic is a graphic novel may in fact generate interpretative and/or evaluative expectations in an audience. Nevertheless, the interpretative and/or evaluative expectations that a comic's being a graphic novel generates are an accident of the way in which graphic novels have evolved, and are not essential to the category. Consequently, graphic novels comprise a medium, rather than a genre. Likewise, the comics category of fumetti identifies a medium, not a genre. Although fumetti happen to have been used to address a limited range of interpretative and evaluative concerns, such that fumetti are associated with a set of conventions that generate interpretative and evaluative expectations, it is not essential to a comic's being a fumetti that it instantiate a distinctive subset of those conventions. Genre membership can affect narrative content because the conventions constitutive of a genre may include generalized conversational implicatures (Grice 1975 : 56). Such implicatures are the result of conventions associating specific features of sentences (or of works, in the present case) with specific kinds of conversational implicatures. Consequently, unlike ordinary conversational implicatures, they depend on conventions rather than on makers' intentions, and hence are carried by sentences (works), rather than by speakers (work makers) (Davis 2008 ). Nevertheless, unlike conventional implicatures, they are cancelable. For example, "some frogs are green" carries the generalized conversational implicature that not all frogs are green. 0001349037.INDD 80 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM Comics and Genre 81 However, it is intelligible to say "some frogs are green, indeed all are" in which case the sentence one utters does not implicate that not all frogs are green. If one produces a work that carries a generalized conversational implicature, one's work will have that implicature, so long as it is not canceled, irrespective of whether or not one intends the implicature in question. My utterance of "some frogs are green" carries the generalized conversational implicature that not all frogs are green, even if I do not mean by my utterance that not all frogs are green. Currie is wrong to claim that genre implicatures cannot be conversational implicatures because they do not depend on our perceiving an apparent violation of the cooperative principle (Currie 2004 : 46). First, Grice is clear that not all conversational implicatures need involve the violation of maxims (Grice 1975 : 51). More importantly, however, because generalized conversational implicatures are determined by conventions rather than by intentions, our ability to identify what generalized conversational implicatures a work carries depends on knowledge of conventions, rather than on an appeal to the cooperative principle. Both the positive and negative effects of genre membership on narrative content can be construed as generalized conversational implicatures. It may be part of the narrative content of a superhero comic that represents a masked and caped character but does not explicitly represent her as employing special powers or abilities that she possesses extraordinary powers or abilities because the constitutive conventions of superhero comics include the generalized conversational implicature that masked and caped characters possess extraordinary powers or abilities. This implicature may be canceled, for example by explicitly representing the character as lacking any such powers or abilities, but unless it is canceled, it will be part of the comic's narrative content that the character has special powers or abilities. Likewise, it may be part of the narrative content of a funny animal comic that represents an animal as talking that there is nothing unusual about the animal's talking because the constitutive conventions of funny animal comics include the generalized conversational implicature that talking animals are not unusual. This implicature may be canceled, as Kaz cancels it in the Lumberger strip referred to earlier, but unless it is canceled, it will be part of the comic's narrative content that the animal's talking is not unusual. A work's genre membership depends on its maker's intentions because, in order for a work to have been produced in accordance with a distinctive subset of a genre's constitutive conventions and thus to belong to that genre, its maker must have deliberately given the work features picked out by a distinctive subset of those conventions so that they would apply to it. By contrast, the effects of a work's genre on its narrative content are independent of its maker's intentions. Given that a work belongs to a certain genre, if it 0001349037.INDD 81 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM 82 Comics and Genre has features that carry generalized conversational implicatures according to the conventions comprising that genre, it will carry those implicatures irrespective of its maker's intentions, unless they are canceled. Makers may sometimes inadvertently produce works with a certain narrative content, by producing works that belong to a genre according to which certain of their features carry generalized conversational implicatures. We are now in a position to explain the role that interpreters' expectations play both in generating the generalized conversational implicatures by which genre affects narrative content, and in enabling them to identify those implicatures. Interpreters' expectations help to generate these generalized conversational implicatures because conventions associating certain features of works with certain conversational implicatures arise partly as a consequence of interpreters' expectations that works with certain features will carry certain conversational implicatures. To understand the role of interpreters' expectations in enabling them to identify the generalized conversational implicatures a work carries, we need to distinguish between two kinds of expectations that genre membership brings with it. First, interpreters expect a work that employs a distinctive subset of the conventions of some genre to employ the rest of the conventions of that genre. We therefore expect works that have certain features, in virtue of which they belong to certain genres, to have certain further features characteristic of works in that genre. For example, we expect the romance in a romance comic to end happily. However, the expectation that a work which employs conventions distinctive of a genre will possess all the conventions of that genre plays no role in interpreters' ability to identify genre‐based implicatures. It is an inductively‐based expectation that works' makers may deliberately exploit for purposes such as humor and suspense, but it does not affect the identification of narrative content. Such expectations contrast with the expectation that a work which belongs to some genre and has features to which the generalized conversational implicatures partly constitutive of that genre assign a certain narrative significance will have the narrative significance they assign to it. Interpreters rely on the latter expectation in order to identify a work's narrative content. Conclusion An adequate account of the nature of genre and of the criteria for genre membership is essential to understanding the nature of the various categories into which comics can be classified. Because they fail adequately to distinguish genre categories from other ways of categorizing works, including categorizations according to medium or according to style, previous accounts of genre fail to illuminate the nature of comics categories. I have argued that 0001349037.INDD 82 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM Comics and Genre 83 genres are sets of conventions that have developed as means of addressing particular interpretative and/or evaluative concerns, and have a history of co‐instantiation within a community, such that a work's belonging to some genre generates interpretative and evaluative expectations among the members of that community. Genres are distinct from styles in consisting of conventions, and are distinct from media both in consisting of conventions and in generating interpretative and evaluative expectations. This account helps us to understand the interpretative and evaluative significance of the various comics categories. Comics genres, such as manga and funny animal comics are associated with specific interpretative and evaluative expectations. These expectations result from the conventions constitutive of the manga and funny animal genres, which address particular interpretative and evaluative concerns in specific ways. By producing comics according to these conventions, makers can help to ensure that interpreters' expectations are met. New interpretative and/or evaluative concerns, not addressed by the conventions of existing genres, require new solutions, which may in turn lead to the emergence of new genres, comprising new sets of conventions that address those concerns. Existing genres do not themselves incorporate the means of responding to new interpretative or evaluative concerns. By contrast, media such as graphic novels and fumetti consist in tools and techniques that can be applied to a range of different interpretative and evaluative problems. A medium's constitutive tools and techniques impose limitations on which solutions to such problems the resources of the medium can provide. Nevertheless, unlike genres, media incorporate the flexibility to respond to interpretative and evaluative concerns in a variety of different ways. Certain ways of responding to certain such concerns within the confines of a medium may lead to the development of different genres within that medium. As the artistic exploration of the interpretative and evaluative scope of the graphic novel continues, we can expect an array of graphic novel genres to emerge. 6 Notes 1 Not all superheros have extraordinary powers. Batman, for example, is merely extremely skilled and well‐equipped. 2 Gregory Currie proposes something similar (2004: 45, note 5). 3 The text in square brackets is mine. 4 Thanks to Aaron Meskin for the example of Texas country music. 5 The text in square brackets is mine. 6 Thanks to both Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook for helpful comments on this paper. 0001349037.INDD 83 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM 84 Comics and Genre References Bonomi , A. and S. Zucchi . " A Pragmatic Framework for Truth in Fiction ," Dialectica , 57 ( 2 ), 2003 : 103 - 120 . Brunetti , I. (ed.), An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories , New Haven, CT : Yale University Press , 2006 . Currie , G. Arts and Minds , Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2004 . Davis , W . Implicature [online text], 2008 . Available online at . edu/archives/win2008/entries/implicature/ (accessed August 6, 2011). Grice , H.P. " Logic and Conversation ," Syntax and Semantics 3 , 1975 : 41 - 58 . Laetz , B. and D. Lopes . " Genre ," in Paisley Livingston and Carl Plantinga (eds), Routledge Companion to Film and Philosophy , London : Routledge , 2008 : 151 - 161 . Lewis , D. Convention , Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press : 1969 . Lewis , D . " Truth in Fiction " American Philosophical Quarterly 15 , 1978 : 37 - 46 . McCloud , S. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art , New York : Harper Collins , 1993 . Walton , K . " Categories of Art ," The Philosophical Review 79 , 1970 : 334 - 367 . Walton , K. Mimesis as Make‐Believe , Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press , 1990 . 0001349037.INDD 84 9/19/2011 5:39:35 PM
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{ "creator": "Tson, M. E.", "date": "manuscript", "datestamp": 1286850895000, "description": "This short paper (4 pages) demonstrates how subjective experience, language, and consciousness can be explained in terms of abilities we share with the simplest of creatures, specifically the ability to detect, react to, and associate various aspects of the world.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABE", "language": "zz", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "A Brief Explanation of Consciousness", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
A Brief Theory of Consciousness 1 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . A Brief Explanation of Consciousness M. E. Tson This short paper demonstrates how subjective experience, language, and consciousness can be explained in terms of abilities we share with the simplest of creatures, specifically the ability to detect, react to, and associate various aspects of the world. Instinct. With the innate ability to detect (an event or reaction that, like rust, only takes place in the presence of certain conditions), react to (accept, reject, destroy, reproduce, explore, flee, etc.)1,2,3 and associate (to form/strengthen via experience new connections among detections and reactions so that the activation of one makes the activation of the other more likely)4 certain internal and external stimuli, an organism can begin to form de facto categories (some things are food or a mate; some aren't),5 develop expectations, and, to some extent, have its instinctual reactions modified by experience. Although the organism's actions and decisions can still be completely explained in terms of instinct it can learn and problem solve. We can see such capabilities in numerous other animals, but there is no need to assume that they have any selfawareness or are anything more than a contiguous collection of chemical reactions, which happen, by evolutionary 'selection', to all work in a coordinated way to further "their" collective survival. Communication. Many young animals learn various survival strategies (hunting, fishing, social habits, means of communication, etc.) from their community. Macaques, vervet monkeys, cockerels, prairie dogs, lemurs, Californian ground squirrels, and chickens have all been found to learn and use differentiated alarm calls or "vocabulary" to indicate different threats.6,7,8 Just as a young vervet learns to climb down when it spies an eagle and to climb up when it spots a leopard, it also learns that one shriek is emitted in the one instance and a different sound in the other.9 Communication learning involves associations about when to say as much as what to say. Rather than thinking of communication as sounds associated with objects, it is better to think of them as being associated with experiences (which can include objects).10 As with the senses, the communication processing areas of the brain seem specially wired to find patterns and form associations between contextual (particularly social) circumstances, vocal sounds, and their order. One difference, in degree if not in kind, in the human case is our ability to articulate thousands of different sounds11 and to form unique associations with each of them. Like the young macaque, a child learning the word "flower" or big sister "Angela" is not learning their definitions, but when (in what situations) the words "flower" or "Angela" are used. There is no single place in the brain where a word is defined.12 Words like "Angela" and "flower" are simply associated with the numerous other associations and expectations about their properties and tendencies which experience has formed: with "flower" what happens when you look at it, smell it, pull it, etc., and a comparable but much more complex set of expectations for "Angela." If we add the word look, as in "Angela looks at the flower," certain of these associations, and those regarding one of Angela's properties, in particular (expectations regarding eye gaze and another's attention and intentions), are triggered. "Angela picked the flower" triggers slightly different associations. A given sound's several possible meanings are usually easily distinguishable, because the associations triggered by hearing, "I'm going to the bank" will differ depending upon whether the speaker is holding a checkbook or a fishing rod.13 Learned words are sounds that are associated with--and thus serve as additional mental cues for--other associations experience has formed. When I meet another English speaker and use a word like "chair", "mother," or "honor", I'm assuming that she has had experiences that are similar enough to mine so that she has formed similar associations with that word. A language A Brief Theory of Consciousness 2 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . isn't shared words and syntax, it is shared or, rather, convergent, experiences which are associated with those words/syntax and which give them their meaning.14 As previous linguistic associations are applied to unprecedented experiences, individuals are capable of uttering intelligible phrases which they themselves may have never heard before.15 Our capacity to form associations is wider and deeper in some areas than other animals but not substantially different. Rudimentary displaced reference and abstract thought can be seen in the fact that it is not necessary for the other macaques to actually see the approaching threat themselves before they respond to the warning by scampering in the appropriate direction for safety.16 The greater the number of successive associations which separate a word from detections and innate reactions, the more 'abstract' it is, but this is no less mechanical than anything we have discussed up to now. None of this requires that either party in a communication be aware of the fact that it is communicating. One instinctual or learned reaction simply follows another. Self-awareness. Detection, reaction, categorization and associations, problem-solving, community, ... everything up to and including communication could have existed long before there was any creature who could observe, label, and comment on itself or the world around it. Language provides the external frame of reference necessary for labeling and reflection. A phrase like, "Angela picked the flower" leads to a certain set of mental associations and expectations about Angela and the flower, and these associations are themselves made up of other, more basic ones. Leaving aside the different subjective reaction produced in the speaker, there is no cognitive difference between saying, "She picked the flower." or "I picked the flower." The self is subject to observation, description, evaluation, and labeling just like any other object and reflection thus becomes possible. We observe and label ourselves using the same linguistic associations that we use to describe other objects and experiences. As can be seen in experiments with split-brain patients, beyond our capacities of detection, reaction, and association, estimations as to our own inner, unseen motivations are just as speculative as those of any other observer.17 'Just as the young monkey can learn when to emit the "flying predator" warning,18 a child learns in which circumstances to utter "I" or "me"; just as a young cub can learn what to do when it is hungry, a human infant can learn what to say when it is hungry. But once the infant has learned in which situations to say "I am ...", it enters a whole new world of possibilities in self-awareness and subjective experience. Although we often equate inner speech with thought, the mind and consciousness, it is only the "tip of the iceberg" of the reflexes, reactions, and associations that we have been talking about up until now. Nor is it necessarily or automatically the executive center of decisionmaking. Through inner speech, we can reflect upon our condition and--by bringing additional associations to bear--influence the focus of our energies and efforts.19 Nevertheless, while the conclusions we reach--like 'I should stop smoking' or 'I am a coward'--introduce additional associations and reactions into the decision-making process, they are not the final word. Learned associations do not erase innate patterns of detection and reaction and may even conflict with them. The result is a Man vs. Himself struggle. Personal identity has a continuity through time because of social conventions, roles, and the fact that our past associations or memories determine our present outlook on how best to approach our future.20,21 Metacognition. In short, we are not aware of what we are thinking. We are aware of what we have just thought.22 Only when we stop to reflect and remember do these past thoughts and actions then become the objects of present cognition. When someone unexpectedly asks, "What color are you looking at?" we cannot answer them instantly, but we must stop and search our immediate short-term memory, which we have learned to use as a proxy for the present. A Brief Theory of Consciousness 3 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . Metacognition, which uses short-term memory and inner speech, is always at least one step behind cognition. We think we are aware of our present selves, but we are really only self-aware of our immediate past selves. The Hard Problem: Qualia. An organism's subjective experience has several components. First, detection. Because unique nerve combinations fire, different sensations are immediately distinguishable. When we see the color 'orange' what we are as importantly seeing is something that is not red, yellow, blue, purple... (Recalled images involve reactivating the same "early sensory" neurons triggered by external stimuli.)23 This component alone is no more impressive than a camera. Second, reaction or changes in relative attention and energy allocation.24 Although culture will help to further define and extend upon what is seen as good or desirable, and self-awareness may eventually cause us to question the propriety of our innate drives, all urges and actions have their origin in one or more of the innate primary reactions. All meaning and purpose that we see in the world arise from these instinctual reactions. We cannot conceive of or experience the world outside of them. They are our world. Usually, that world is some complex, interacting mixture of several reactions to stimuli, but at the highest levels of intensity (rage, terror, ecstasy), it becomes one instinctive reaction or inclination in particular which becomes the focus of all our energies and attention.25 We exist only to satisfy that drive; nothing has importance outside of the satisfaction of that drive. Thus, we can understand and explain what it feels like to experience 100% intensity of a particular basic emotion. (At the highest levels of intensity--rage, terror, ecstasy--, our world becomes one instinctive reaction or inclination in particular which becomes the focus of all our energies and attention.26 We exist only to satisfy that drive; nothing has importance outside of the satisfaction of that drive.) Every other emotional state (and these are innumerable27) is a mixture of less intense instances of these primary reactions.28,29,30 But the feeling of 75.6% of one drive plus 20.4% of another plus 4% of a third is a bit more difficult to express. The situation is analogous to that of a painter who has production formulae and names for the three primary paints but who does not have any labels or precise formulae for the 10 million31 other shades she can also produce by mixing these three. Although the painter lacks and may never have specific names, or precise formulae to produce, each of the millions of other possible shades, it would be a mistake to conclude that this 'explanatory gap' (or better put 'descriptive gap') meant that the as yet undefined shades were therefore mysterious, unexplainable or irreproducible from the primary three for which she does have precise words and formulae. Similarly, although we do not have descriptions for the innumerable, immensely complicated emotional states that arise from lower intensity combinations of the basic reactions whose highintensity feelings we can describe, this should not be taken to mean that our un-described feelings must result from, or contain, some heretofore-unexplained phenomenon. So the second aspect of understanding subjective experience is what portion of an organism's attention or energies is directed towards and invested in particular drives.32 Third, innate and learned associations. Green and blue (the colors of vegetation, lakes, and sky) are considered more 'cold' and 'distant' (short-wave light and distant objects require similar optic adjustments) than, say, red (the color of fire), which in different contexts may be associated with danger, stopping, or sex.33 We may associate orange as being 'between' or a mixture of red and yellow as an intermediate combination of photoreceptors fires.34 Blue may be associated with "darkness" more than, say, yellow because the eye is less sensitive to the lower wavelengths.35 Subjective experience is also always in some context. A "colored" object may be edible, climbable, a predator, wood, shiny, or rough. These additional associations and their consequent reactions are combined with whatever associations and reactions the color itself gives rise to. Distinct associations (and detection) account for the difference between being frightened A Brief Theory of Consciousness 4 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . (same reaction) by a 'snake or a bank manager.'36 Fourth, accompanying physiological and cognitive changes. The neurotransmitters that help to give rise to reactions also affect the speed of image formation and change.37 During the reactions of acceptance and reproduction (happiness), associations are formed more rapidly and are not held for as long. Association is freer and may even become over-inclusive. Motor efficiency and exploratory behavior are increased while inhibition is decreased.38 Additionally, our experience of a reaction like fleeing or protection isn't merely the preparation to fight or flee. It is also to detect our heart quicken and our muscles tighten.39 We detect many of these and other internal changes just as we detect external stimuli, and we have reactions to and associations with them, as well.40 The above four components of subjective experience are shared with other animals41 although, without language, there is no interpretation of experience in this way. Thoughts are not yet 'about,' or 'directed toward,' anything. Intentionality is an interpretation in the eye of an observer42 and without language (to explicitly separate the train of reactions into subjects and objects) there isn't one.43 At this stage, there is still no need to assume that there is any reflection or self-awareness, just an ever more complex collective of chemical reactions. The fifth, and most distinctive, aspect of human subjective experience is self-awareness itself: our ability to say, "I am ... / I feel... / I see ...". It's one thing to see a color or taste a fruit and have a certain reaction to it. It's another to reflect, "Plants, mountains, and some people are unable to see, but I am conscious and am seeing 'red'. Or "This landscape is gorgeous. I have never seen anything like it before, and I will never see it again." Because language enables us to compare our current situation with other possible ones, self-evaluative statements carry additional associations of fortune, regret, pity, self-worth, embarrassment... and their consequent reactions and associations. 44 A Brief Theory of Consciousness 5 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . Mary, The Color Scientist - Color & Self-awareness45 Frank Jackson poses an interesting dilemma46 that any proposed explanation of subjective experience must address. Let's imagine a scientist, Mary, who has lived all her life in a black and white room with a black-and white television. Although Mary has never experienced color, she is an expert on the mechanical perception of color and has read the explanations of color and subjective experience presented here. Supposedly, she now understands "everything there is to know" about color, but if she were to walk outside and see colors for the first time wouldn't she learn "something" new? "Something" which hasn't been explained Well, no. According to the thought experiment, Mary can examine her own mental connections and associations so that she knows before leaving the room what her reaction will be. She knows that with "light blue", for instance, she will have a reproduction/incorporation response of a certain intensity, certain physiological and cognitive changes to which she will also have emotional reactions, visual associations47 of "immensity", "softness"... Let's also suppose that she has already experienced this reaction before with a certain shade of gray or that she can somehow trigger this exact ensemble of emotions, associations, and physiological changes even if she has never seen blue. (This is actually an assumption that Jackson's dilemma demands. Language isn't just shared words; it is shared or, rather, convergent experiences or associations that are linked to those words. Our scientist has supposedly learned "everything there is to know" about color although she has never experienced it. Yet, it is impossible to learn anything about X, much less know everything about X, without some personal experience to relate to X. If Mary cannot somehow relate what she has studied to her own subjective experience, then our scholar hasn't learned anything.) Now she walks outside. Isn't something still different or unexpected? Not as far as the ensemble of feelings or emotional reactions are concerned. These she has already experienced before. On the physical level, however, this will be the first time Mary has experienced these reactions being caused by "blue" photoreceptors firing. It would be like being tapped on one shoulder and then another: although otherwise indistinguishable, it will be a unique sensation. She already knew what it "felt like" to see blue, although she had never had the experience of seeing blue. Additionally, on the level of self-awareness, the experience would be unique because for the first time she could say, "I am seeing blue" a statement which will itself contain additional associations and emotions of good fortune or regret at not having seen it before, etc....48 And this is just a simplified scenario. Of course, Mary wouldn't see blue alone, but would, in fact, be bombarded by a kaleidoscope of new colors and emotion/association ensembles, quite probably (unless she had knowledge of the exact scene awaiting her outside) causing additional emotions of surprise and curiosity. Free Will. We have no direct knowledge of other minds, so the only philosophical argument for Free Will is one from introspection. Yet our capacity for introspection is constrained by the very things that make it possible: our capabilities of detection, reaction, and linguistic association. This is not to say that introspection is inaccurate or an illusion just that there is only so much that introspection can tell us. The very act of introspection in order to respond affirmatively to the question "Do I have Free Will?" is already dependent upon the assumption that "I" have the necessary knowledge, perspective, and "free will" to correctly answer the question. So, the argument from introspection, the only argument for Free Will actually on the table, is hopelessly circular. We are forced to ignore the constituent parts of countries, corporations, and other organizations when the paradigm of discussion makes no provision for them: "The United States or Company X decided to..." While such statements may be true as far as they go, in these instances, we also have other paradigms readily available to describe the same events in terms of branches of government and business units, or even at lower levels in terms of citizens and employees. Yet, our capacity for alternative levels of introspection is A Brief Theory of Consciousness 6 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . limited. That said, the self is not an illusion any more than any other category like 'France' or 'tree'. No frame or category exists in the world independent of the mind; all classifications are dependent on our unique sensations, emotions, and associations.49 The shadows on the wall are no less real than the objects outside Plato's cave; there is just another way of understanding them. This paper presents an alternative paradigm for the self where our decisions and feelings, like those of other animals, are limited and determined by the prison of our individual instincts and experiences.50 Nevertheless, through self-awareness and reflection, we can seek new experiences, perspectives, and possibilities and "consciously" force back the prison walls.51 Conclusion. Self-awareness isn't an all-or-nothing quality that humans are born with and animals are not, but consciousness--the information that an entity can process about itself and the world--is a continuum with bacteria (or chemical reactions like rust) at one end and human selfawareness at the other. Nor is our continuum the only one imaginable. Self-awareness is possible whenever basic information processing systems are organized in such a way as to collectively detect, react to, and associate stimuli as a monad or single unit within an environment of interaction and communication with other comparatively structured individuals. Furthermore, each of the innate abilities we outlined (detection, reaction, and association) is conceivably artificially reproducible. There is no theoretical reason why we couldn't construct an android which, like a baby, was capable of developing self-awareness through experience. Our organs and autonomic responses are unique to species that share our evolutionary history, so our android wouldn't feel its heart quicken and muscles tighten when it was startled (although it might, in a similar way, detect changes in its internal energy level and readiness.) It might not express its emotions through laughter or crying. Nonetheless, it could come to be aware of itself and of its place in the universe in a sense that would be different than--yet still comparable to--our own. 1 Robert Plutchik, The Emotions (1991) (Lanham, Mass.: University Press of America) 2 Antonio R. Damasio (1994), Descartes' Error. Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (New York: Avon Books,) 149. 3 Ortony, A., & Turner, T. J. (1990). "What's basic about basic emotions?" Psychological Review, 97, pg. 316. 4 Damasio 102. 5 Alan Watts (1989), The Way of Zen (New York: Vintage Books) 73-4. 6 Boris Cyrulnik (1995), La Naissance Du Sens (Paris: Hachette Littératures) 96-7. 7 Lesley J. Rogers & Gisela Kaplan (2000), Songs, Roars, and Rituals: Communication in Birds, Mammals, and Other Animals (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press) 44. 8 Rogers & Kaplan 56-7. 9 Rogers & Kaplan 144. 10 M. E. Tson (2000), From Dust to Descartes 70 11 Mario Pei (1965), The Story of Language (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company), 105-8. 12 Damasio 92. The different sensory systems of the brain cannot talk to each other directly but are connected by the higher order association cortices. 13 Bernard J. Baars & Katherine McGovern (1994), "Consciousness," Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (San Diego: Academic Press, Inc.) Volume 1, 691Baars & McGovern 696. 14 Tson, From Dust to Descartes 82. But compare Ludwig Wittgenstein's ideas of meaning as use. 15 Paul M. Churchland (1988), Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) 51. 16 Cyrulnik (1995) 96-7. 17 Steven Pinker (1997), How the Mind Works. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company) 422. 18 Rogers & Kaplan 144. 19 Baars & McGovern 694-8. 20 Watts 47, 122. 21 Mary Warnok (1970), Existentialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 55. 22 Damasio 240. 23 Damasio 102-4, 105. 24 Baars & McGovern 698. 25 Plutchik 71, 112-115. A Brief Theory of Consciousness 7 of 7 © 2000-2010 M.E. Tson. Excerpted and Abridged from From Dust to Descartes © 2000 M. E. Tson For references and a more in-depth treatment of these and related issues, see From Dust to Descartes or send any comments or questions to . 26 Plutchik 71, 112-115. 27 Plutchik 124-5. There is some disagreement as to the best method of categorizing the basic emotions (See Ortony, supra), but eight primary emotions, each with just four distinguishable levels of intensity and combined in groups of two and three, could produce more than 224 different emotional states. If we assume more levels of intensity this number increases into the thousands all reducible to eight primary states. No to mention, as we shall see next, the innumerable associations which, in any particular experience, also give rise to emotional reactions) 28 Damasio 149. 29 Plutchik124-5. 30 Ortony, A., & Turner, T. J. (1990). "What's basic about basic emotions?" Psychological Review, 97, pg. 316. 31 Judd, Deane B.; Wyszecki, Günter (1975). Color in Business, Science and Industry. Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics (third edition ed.). New York: Wiley-Interscience. p. 388. 32 Baars & McGovern 698. 33 C.L. Hardin (1988), Color for Philosophers (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company) 129; "Colour." The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (1995) Volume 16: 603. 34 Hardin, 31-5 35 Hardin 164. 36 "Science Does it with Feeling," Economist 20 July 1996: 72. 37 Damasio 147, 162-4. 38 Damasio 147, 162-4. 39 Plutchik 15, 48-9, 82, 88-89. 40 Plutchik 15, 48-9, 82, 88-89. 41 Charles Darwin (1872), The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965) Chapter III, pg. 77 Chapter XII, pg. 289-291 cited in Plutchik 72-73. 42 Compare Daniel C. Dennet (1996), Kinds of Minds. (Basic Books, New York) pp. 27-35. 43 Tson, From Dust to Descartes 87-88. Compare ideas from Ludwig Wittgenstein: "One thinks that one is tracing the outline of the thing's nature ... one is merely tracing round the frame through which we look at it." (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 4.5); Immanuel Kant: Our minds and senses do not discover order in the world, they impose order on the world. (See generally Critique of Pure Reason, #27 of Transcendental Analytic); See also Nagarjuna and Zen Buddhist critique of language and subject-object dualism: "objects are also events ...our world is a collection of processes rather than entities" "logic and meaning, with its inherent duality, is a property of thought and language but not of the actual world. The nonverbal, concrete world contains no classes and no symbols which signify or mean anything other than themselves..." Duality arises only when we divide and place aspects of our experiences into separate mental boxes. (Watts 5, 73) 44 See Note 1 for Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions. 45 Response to Jackson's thought experiment excerpted and abridged from Tson (2000) pg. 97. 46 Frank Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know", Journal of Philosophy, LXXXII, 5 (May 1986): 291-295. 47 Without a cultural experience of color, any associations would be limited. 48 Assuming these weren't included in her pre-color analysis/experience of blue. 49 See note 43 supra. 50 Cyrulnik (1995). 51 Tson, From Dust to Descartes 116.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1592863221000, "description": "I intend to bring recent work applying virtue theory to the study of argument to bear on a much older problem, that of disagreements that resist rational resolution, sometimes termed \"deep disagreements\". Just as some virtue epistemologists have lately shifted focus onto epistemic vices, I shall argue that a renewed focus on the vices of argument can help to illuminate deep disagreements. In particular, I address the role of arrogance, both as a factor in the diagnosis of deep disagreements and as an obstacle to their mutually acceptable resolution. Arrogant arguers are likely to make any disagreements to which they are party seem deeper than they really are and arrogance impedes the strategies that we might adopt to resolve deep disagreements. As a case in point, since arrogant or otherwise vicious arguers cannot be trusted not to exploit such strategies for untoward ends, any policy for deep disagreement amelioration must require particularly close attention to the vices of argument, lest they be exploited by the unscrupulous.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEAAD", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Arrogance and deep disagreement", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
ARROGANCE AND DEEP DISAGREEMENT ANDREW ABERDEIN∗ I intend to bring recent work applying virtue theory to the study of argument to bear on a much older problem, that of disagreements that resist rational resolution, sometimes termed "deep disagreements". Just as some virtue epistemologists have lately shifted focus onto epistemic vices, I shall argue that a renewed focus on the vices of argument can help to illuminate deep disagreements. In particular, I address the role of arrogance, both as a factor in the diagnosis of deep disagreements and as an obstacle to their mutually acceptable resolution. Arrogant arguers are likely to make any disagreements to which they are party seem deeper than they really are and arrogance impedes the strategies that we might adopt to resolve deep disagreements. As a case in point, since arrogant or otherwise vicious arguers cannot be trusted not to exploit such strategies for untoward ends, any policy for deep disagreement amelioration must require particularly close attention to the vices of argument, lest they be exploited by the unscrupulous. 1. The Second Highest Mountain Alice: Everyone knows Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, but what's the second highest? Bob: Isn't it Kanchenjunga? That rings a bell. Alice: I'm not sure-that doesn't sound right. Alice and Bob are in disagreement. Bob thinks Kanchenjunga is the world's second highest mountain; Alice is not sure. Of course, there are easy remedies for disagreements of that sort: Bob: O.K., let's look it up. World's highest mountains. . . here we go, "Everest 29,029 ft, 8,848 m; K2 28,251 ft, 8,611 m; Kanchenjunga 28,169 ft, 8,586 m". So I was wrong-it's not Kanchenjunga, it's K2. Funny name. Disagreement solved! Thank you Google and Wikipedia. But wait... Alice: Hang on, doesn't Everest have two peaks? I'm sure I read that somewhere. Where's the other peak on the list? Bob: I don't see it. Maybe it's much shorter than the main peak? Alice: Let's check. South Summit of Everest. . . "28,704 ft, 8,749 m". That's weird-it's higher than Kanchenjunga or K2! Why's it not on the list? Bob: One peak per mountain maybe? Alice: No, that can't be right! Look at Gasherbrum! It's got four summits in the top twenty. It must be a mistake. More fool me to trust Wikipedia. Bob: No, Wikipedia isn't perfect, but this is the sort of stuff it gets right. We must be overlooking something. Now we have a disagreement that is not so easily remedied, at least with the resources available to Alice and Bob. Perhaps they consult Charley, a mountaineer: Charley: I see the confusion. Everest does have two peaks and they're both higher than K2. But the South Peak doesn't count in lists of highest peaks because ∗School of Arts & Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL. Date: January 29, 2020. 1 2 ANDREW ABERDEIN it's not prominent enough. Prominence measures how much a mountain sticks up-how far down you would have to climb before you could start climbing anything taller. For K2 that's thousands of feet; but for the South Peak it's only thirty feet or so. It's little more than a pimple off the side of Everest. Indeed the standard route up Everest runs over the top of the South Peak. Lists of highest peaks have prominence thresholds. Even the most inclusive, with millions of included peaks, require a hundred feet or so of prominence, more than three times the prominence of the South Peak. Bob: I get it. The Wikipedia list is right after all! Alice: Not so fast! The South Peak is a peak, however small, and it's higher than everything on Earth except the main peak. It should be in second place, whatever the geographers say! Alice and Bob are now disagreeing more profoundly. They are not just disagreeing over their different beliefs or the sources of those beliefs, they are disagreeing over the process by which those beliefs can be confirmed or falsified. It's not clear what the best way forward at this point may be. This could be an example of what has come to be known as a deep disagreement. 2. Deep Disagreement Deep disagreements have attracted substantial attention recently within both epistemology and informal logic. Michael Lynch proposes the following helpful definition of a deep disagreement, as requiring four conditions: (1) Commonality: The parties to the disagreement share common epistemic goal(s). (2) Competition: If the parties affirm distinct principles with regard to a given domain, those principles (a) pronounce different methods to be the most reliable in a given domain; and (b) these methods are capable of producing incompatible beliefs about that domain. (3) Non-arbitration: There is no further epistemic principle, accepted by both parties, which would settle the disagreement. (4) Mutual Circularity: The epistemic principle(s) in question can be justified only by means of an epistemically circular argument (Lynch, 2010, 265). Returning to Alice and Bob's disagreement, we may see that they satisfy Commonality, at least assuming they are both sincere in their desire to identify the world's second highest mountain. Alice's insistence on absolute height in contrast with Bob's deference to the geographers' prominence threshold criterion may be seen as a difference of principle consistent with Competition. If Alice is not prepared to accept Charley's account (or that of any other such expert), the disagreement would also meet the Non-arbitration criterion. We have not yet seen enough of Alice and Bob's epistemic principles to determine whether they exhibit Mutual Circularity, but things do seem to be headed that way. The literature on deep disagreement begins with Robert Fogelin. Fogelin does not maintain that deep disagreements are common, nor that all tough disagreements must be deep. For Fogelin, a deep disagreement necessarily involves "a clash in underlying principles", "framework propositions", or worldviews (Fogelin, 1985, 5). So epistemic principles satisfying Lynch's Non-arbitration and Mutual Circularity criteria would be grounded in rival worldviews. Fogelin does explicitly invoke what we may identify as argumentational virtues-being "unbiased, free of prejudice, consistent, coherent, precise and rigorous" (Fogelin, 1985, ARROGANCE AND DEEP DISAGREEMENT 3 5). However, he does so to reject the prospect that they may prevent deep disagreements: parties exhibiting such qualities may "still disagree . . . profoundly, not just marginally" (ibid.). Strictly speaking, Fogelin is not committed to there being no relationship between the disputants' characters and deep disagreement, since he leaves open the possibility that argumentational vice could still make deep disagreements worse, even if argumentational virtue would not make them better. But Fogelin is careful to distinguish the depth of a disagreement from its emotional intensity, the strength of feeling with which the disputants maintain their positions. Indeed, deep disagreements can be debated dispassionately, even if they are more often rancourous. John Stuart Mill helps to explain why some such disagreements, at least, are so often linked to strong feelings: So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it. For if it were accepted as a result of argument, the refutation of the argument might shake the solidity of the conviction; but when it rests solely on feeling, the worse it fares in argumentative contest, the more persuaded its adherents are that their feeling must have some deeper ground, which the arguments do not reach: and while the feeling remains, it is always throwing up fresh intrenchments of argument to repair any breach made in the old (Mill, 1977 [1869], 261). Although Fogelin is concerned with cases where disagreement really does proceed from "deeper ground", for Mill the appeal to conflicting worldviews may be illusory or insincere. Nonetheless, intensity of emotion is to be expected in either case. Much more recently, Michael Hannon has argued that many apparent disagreements are illusory, perhaps especially those disagreements most associated with political polarization (Hannon, 2019, 2020). Hannon draws on empirical studies which suggest that polling data usually taken to indicate sharp disagreement may be better understood as "expressive responding", intended primarily to signal the respondents' allegiance (Schaffner and Luks, 2018). As Hannon notes, not only does this suggest that there are fewer disagreements than meet the eye, deep or otherwise, but also that there are fewer agreements: apparent agreements can also be illusory.1 What can we do about deep disagreements? Or, as Fogelin asks, "what rational procedures can be used for their resolution?" (Fogelin, 1985, 5). His answer is pessimistic: "The drift of this discussion leads to the answer: NONE" (ibid.). That does not mean that deep disagreements cannot be resolved but it does suggest that the resolution procedure may not be entirely rational. Fogelin quotes Wittgenstein's On Certainty: "I said I would 'combat' the other man-but wouldn't I give him reasons? Certainly; but how far do they go? At the end of reasons comes persuasion. (Think what happens when missionaries convert natives.)" (Wittgenstein, 1972, ¶612). This is a somewhat sinister analogy for persuasion without reasons. Maybe a resolution could be found if one side succeeded in persuading the other, but such "persuasion" might be a higher price than we wish to pay. More recent authors have not all been so pessimistic. Scott Aikin has compiled this invaluable survey (Aikin, 2019, 421): PESSIMISM: In deep disagreement, argument is impossible. Non-engagement: In deep disagreements, one should not try to engage (Campolo, 2005, 2019). 1This echoes the "Abilene paradox" of deceptive agreement: in the eponymous example, a family of four talk themselves into a long, unpleasant drive in a Texas summer because each believes the others are in agreement that it is a good idea (Harvey, 1974). 4 ANDREW ABERDEIN Polemical: In deep disagreements, one should use nonargumentative or alternative argumentative techniques (Kraus, 2012; Barris, 2015; Duran, 2016). OPTIMISM: In deep disagreements, argument is possible and can be effective. Prudential: One can discern deep disagreements only if one continues to argue; so one's defaults should be set on arguing (Adams, 2005). Practical: Argument in deep disagreements prevents worse options (Lynch, 2010, 2012; Kappel, 2012; Jønch-Clausen and Kappel, 2015). Arbitrational: Some deep disagreement cases can be resolved by an impartial third party (Memedi, 2007). Supplemental: Argument in deep disagreement can produce or uncover shared reasons (Davson-Galle, 1992; Goodwin, 2005; Godden and Brenner, 2010). Internal: Internal argument is still possible in deep disagreements (Finocchiaro, 2011; Zarefsky, 2012).2 Theoretical: Absolutely deep disagreements are impossible, since insofar as one can identify an other as one with whom one disagrees, one must see that other as one with whom one can argue (Feldman, 2005; Phillips, 2008; Siegel, 2014). As we have seen, Fogelin is inclined to pessimism. I shall also pay most attention to the pessimistic response, although I note an ambiguity in what Aikin terms the polemical position: "alternative argumentative techniques" covers both alternatives to argumentation and alternative forms of argumentation. 3. Prominence and Depth I shall suggest that some of the puzzles presented by deep disagreement can be at least clarified by a diversion into physical geography-specifically, the concept of "prominence", which Charley introduced in §1.3 Here are two more technical (but equivalent) definitions of prominence: (1) The minimum vertical distance one must descend from a point in order to reach a higher point. (2) The difference between the elevation of a point, and the elevation of the lowest contour line that contains it and no higher point (Kirmse and de Ferranti, 2017, 788). As we saw in §1, prominence explains why the world's second highest mountain is K2, not the South Peak of Everest, even though the latter is further above sea level than the former: lists of highest peaks have prominence thresholds.4 Prominence provides a measure of depth: how far down you have to climb before you can start climbing back up. Consider three peaks on an island, as in Fig. 1. The prominence of the highest peak is its height above sea level, since you would have to leave the island to find anything higher. The prominence of the second highest peak is its height above the highest col it shares with the highest peak and 2Finocchiaro defines an internal argument as one "in which one derives a conclusion not acceptable to an opponent from claims acceptable to him" (Finocchiaro, 2011, 32). In other words, it is Lockean ad hominem, or argument ex concessis, to which I will return in §5. 3The following account is based on that presented in (Aberdein, 2020). 4Traditionally, 100, 300, or 2000 ft: worldwide more than seven million peaks meet the first threshold, over 250 times as many as meet the last (Kirmse and de Ferranti, 2017, 800). ARROGANCE AND DEEP DISAGREEMENT 5 the prominence of the lowest peak is its height above the highest col it shares with the second highest peak. Hence the prominence of the lowest peak represents a lower bound on how far down individuals on the two lower peaks would need to climb in order to be on the same level. It is only a lower bound because the peaks may differ significantly in height. More generally, we might define the relative prominence of one peak with respect to some higher peak as its prominence ignoring all peaks of intermediate height. Thus, for any pair of peaks, the relative prominence of the lower peak is a lower bound on how far down individuals on each peak would need to climb to attain the same level. 17/2/2018 21:36Prominence definition Page 1 of 1file:///Users/aberdein/Documents/Prominence+.svg Figure 1. An island with three peaks: the vertical lines indicate the prominence of each peak; the horizontal lines the lowest contour line encircling it but no higher summit. (Adapted from .) In order to draw an analogy with deep disagreement, we need an analogue for disagreement depth in terms of physical height. Some superficially plausible analogues for height ay be ruled out. For example, it can't just be a measure of emotional intensity: as we have seen, deep disagreements are often heated, but not necessarily so. Nor can it be a measure on revision of belief sets: the proportion of each disputant's beliefs that would need to be suspended or revised in order for common ground to be reached. Although deeply disagreeing parties may disagree about many things, the scope of their disagreement need not be all that great. (Notoriously so, in some cases: the "narcissism of minor differences" (Freud, 1961, 68).) A more plausible candidate would be a measure on how deeply entrenched are the points of contention (or the principles upon which they depend) within each disputant's belief set (see Gärdenfors, 1988, 86 ff.). Only disagreements that reach the worldview of at least one of the disputants will count as deep. So, just as lists of peaks have prominence thresholds, we may now reserve "deep" for disagreements that exceed this threshold. To summarize this topographic analogy, two disputants who at least suspend (dis)belief on the matters at issue for the duration of their argument are on shared level ground. Insofar as they sincerely disagree, either or both disputants stand on a summit from which they would need to climb down to reach level ground. For most disagreements, that is easy to do; but for deep disagreements, the descent will be an arduous endeavour, requiring substantial (and risky) restructuring of worldviews to accommodate revised epistemic principles. The contours of the terrain represent objective features of the disagreement. However, the disputants (or any other observer) may be mistaken as to where they stand: some 6 ANDREW ABERDEIN cols are not as deep as they seem; others much deeper. Many disputants arrive at their summits by chance, others by choice. Notably, Mill's emotive arguers, whose disagreement "rests solely on feeling", purposefully avoid the level ground on which honest debate may take place by racing up (what they take to be) the highest available peak and refusing to descend. 4. Arguing Virtuously or Viciously For the last decade or so, I have been one of several people making the case for a virtue theory of argumentation. Virtue theories and argumentation are as old as philosophy itself, perhaps older, but the explicit application of the former to the latter is a much more recent development. Most philosophical studies of argument emphasize technical aspects of argument success or failure, but they pay much less attention to the broader context of arguing, and generally ignore how the character of the people who take part in arguments bears on that success or failure. Virtue theories of argument seek to redress the balance, shifting the perspective away from arguments as products and onto arguers as people. One way to explore the character of arguers is to look at their virtues and vices. Many instances of the traditional fallacies that logicians and argumentation theorists have been discussing since Aristotle can be analysed in terms of the vices of the arguer who employs them or the audience that falls for them (Aberdein, 2016). But arguers can exhibit other vices that lead arguments to malfunction in other ways. Some of these vices may correspond pretty closely to those familiar from ethical contexts: we may be cowardly in not defending a position we believe to be right, contemptuous of our opponent, or unfair in how we present an opposing position. Other vices may be unique to argumentation, such as unwillingness to revise our own position or unwillingness to engage in argument in the first place. A fuller inventory of the vices of argument promises to help explain how even the arguments that succeed by traditional lights can seem so unsatisfactory. Conversely, cultivation of the corresponding virtues of argument should improve the conduct and outcome of our arguments. In virtue epistemology, a standard distinction is drawn between reliabilist (broadly externalist) and responsibilist (broadly internalist) conceptions of virtue (Axtell, 1997, 3). Heather Battaly helpfully reframes this as a distinction between virtues as requiring good ends and virtues as requiring good motives respectively (Battaly, 2015, 9). Of course, ideally, we would want virtuous activity both to be well-motivated and to bring about a good end. But we don't always get what we want: so Battaly argues that we should accept as virtues dispositions which only regularly meet one of these criteria. As an apposite example, consider the virtue of being willing to listen to others. An arguer might act in this way for ulterior motives, perhaps to receive a good grade in a speech class, or because their interlocutor told some good jokes. Nonetheless, their attentive listening might inadvertently lead them to contribute to a virtuous argument. Conversely, a wellmotivated arguer could be unselfishly willing to listen to others, but consistently unlucky in their choice of interlocutors, none of whom ever put forward an argument worth listening to, such that no good end ever came from the arguer's good motives. Obviously we hope to get both good ends and good motives, but we need to consider the cases where only one of these is to be had. Daniel Cohen has been making the case for a virtue theory of argumentation as long as anyone. He proposes a set of negative exemplars: the deaf dogmatist, who won't listen to the arguments of others; the concessionaire, who loses arguments by being too ready to modify their own position, conceding things ARROGANCE AND DEEP DISAGREEMENT 7 that weren't actually at issue; the eager believer, a forthright advocate for whatever position they heard last; the unassuring assurer, who seeks to reassure other parties who would not otherwise need reassurance-the "Not involved in human trafficking" T-shirt wearer of argumentation (Ginn, 2013); and the argument provocateur, who launches into arguments at the slightest opportunity, with or without regard to circumstances (Cohen, 2005, 61 ff.). Cohen characterizes some of these figures as tragic heroes rather than exemplars of vice: they are heroic, since there are important things they get right, but tragic, since their arguments seldom work out for the best. For example, the argument provocateur is at least willing to argue, even on sensitive matters where many others are unhelpfully reticent; the problem is that he is always willing to argue. What I will term Cohen's cardinal virtues of argument may be seen as means, each situated between a pair of negative exemplars that represent the corresponding vices of excess and deficiency. He distinguishes four such virtues: willingness to listen to others, willingness to modify your own position, willingness to question the obvious, and willingness to engage in serious argument. It is possible, but unnecessary for present purposes, to subdivide each of his cardinal virtues and their corresponding vices to include many other intellectual virtues and vices relevant to argumentation (for details, see Aberdein, 2016, 415 f.). 5. Arrogance I now wish to turn to the vice of arrogance, that I will maintain is particularly relevant to a discussion of deep disagreement. Alessandra Tanesini draws a useful distinction "between haughtiness and arrogance. The first is manifested as disrespect toward other speakers; the second is an unwillingness to submit oneself to the norms governing ordinary conversation and rational debate" (Tanesini, 2016, 85). While these two attitudes are often found together, they are conceptually distinct, and it is arrogance that is the more revealing object of study. Tanesini proposes the following account of arrogance: "The speaker does not wish to imply that his mere saying so makes the content of the assertion true, but he is convinced that the mere fact that the assertion is his somehow secures its correctness" (Tanesini, 2016, 84). The idea is that the arrogant person treats his views as requiring a special sort of deference. There may be circumstances in which this makes sense-Tanesini suggests the umpire whose decisions are binding in a game (ibid.). Such an attitude is fine in that context, but few arguers are in that context. In general, anyone adopting this attitude will be disposed to insulate many (all?) of his beliefs from revision-a comprehensive failure of willingness to modify. Elsewhere Tanesini draws explicit implications for argumentation, or at least debate, from her account of intellectual arrogance (Tanesini, 2018, 222 ff.). The arrogant participant disregards the expected norms for the conduct of debate. Specifically, the arrogant arguer makes claims that lack the expected level of justification and ignores or dismisses calls to back up such claims; conversely an arrogant respondent may treat the arguer's claims as requiring an exceptional level of justification or dismiss them out of hand. I wish to connect Tanesini's account of the arrogant arguer to two related approaches to arrogance. Firstly, Maura Priest has proposed an anti-asshole account of humility; she's defined humility as not being an asshole, which has an attractively blunt simplicity to it. She builds on Aaron James's definition: "a person counts as an asshole when, and only when, he systematically allows himself to enjoy special advantages in interpersonal relations out of an entrenched sense of entitlement that immunizes him against the complaints of other people" (James, 8 ANDREW ABERDEIN 2012, 4 f.). This has clear affinities with Tanesini's account of arrogance. Priest's intellectually humble person is thus someone who doesn't do that; someone who • Respects the intellect of others as his own, and so rarely feels immune to their complaints and criticisms. • Systematically declines intellectual advantages in interpersonal relations because he feels no sense of entitlement (Priest, 2017, 469). She goes on to link arrogance to disregard for intellectual autonomy. This makes the arrogant person someone who cannot be trusted to use persuasion wisely: "Behaviors commonly associated with this disregard include deception and manipulation" (Priest, 2017, 474). Such actions undermine intellectual autonomy by manipulating persons into holding beliefs regardless of evidence or their own intellectual process. Secondly, Nancy Potter, in defending a virtue account of trustworthiness, stresses the virtue of uptake: To give uptake rightly, then, it is not enough simply to receive another's speech act with the conventional understanding. One must appreciate and respond to the spirit in which something is expressed, and one must take seriously what the speaker is trying to say and the speaker's reasons for saying it. One must have the appropriate emotional and intellectual responses, engaging one's whole heart. Furthermore, one must recognize the responsibility attending social and political privilege. Indeed, giving uptake properly is partly constitutive of the kind of person one is-it requires cultivation of a certain kind of character (Potter, 2002, 152). Ultimately this idea is drawn from J. L. Austin, although it has mutated a fair bit en route (Austin, 1962, 116): unlike Austin, Potter characterizes uptake itself as a virtue. As such, uptake coincides closely with what Cohen and I call willingness to listen to others. It requires a suitable level of appreciative listening (cf. Rice, 2011). This seems like an antithesis of arrogance and, I suggest, the sort of virtue that is required in order to safely deploy tactics of persuasion that may resolve deep disagreements. How does all this connect to deep disagreement? Firstly, any disagreement with an arrogant individual is more than likely to feel like deep disagreement, even in cases where there is an easily accessible resolution. The phenomenology of disagreeing with an arrogant person and of being in deep disagreement may be similarly frustrating, even though their ultimate cause is quite different. The origin of the arrogant arguer's unwillingness to back down and indifference to the assertions of others lies in his character, not in the subject matter of the dispute. Chris Campolo has expressed the worry that attempting to reason one's way out of a deep disagreement may do more harm than good (Campolo, 2019, 721). It can give rise to a misleading sense of common ground. In terms of my topographical analogy, such disagreements are concealed crevasses: the disputants believe that they are addressing their differences when they are really ignoring them. Any apparent resolution that may follow is likely to give way unexpectedly. Disagreements with arrogant arguers can present a converse problem: what may initially present as depth may be no more than intransigence. In topographical terms, this may be thought of as an invisible bridge: despite outward appearances, there is a safe path to common ground (even if some parties will be strongly resistant to using it). ARROGANCE AND DEEP DISAGREEMENT 9 Secondly, but perhaps more seriously, the arrogant individual is a risk factor for some of the most promising strategies for resolution of deep disagreements. Specifically, it is precisely the behaviour of the arrogant arguer that gives rise to Wittgenstein's worries about the missionaries and the natives. Strategies that might find some way forward out of deep disagreement will, at the very least, go up to the edge of what counts as rational argument. Such strategies require particular care and attention. They are analogous to operating dangerous equipment with all the safety protocols turned off: the operator needs to be constantly vigilant about the associated risks. The arrogant person is entirely indifferent to those risks, at least so far as they impact others. Hence he will be the sort of person who gives persuasion a bad name, because, in so far as he has these techniques at his disposal, he will use them to twist others to his view. Conversely, the operation of the same techniques in conjunction with virtues that mitigate against these risks, such as willingness to listen to others, potentially represents a moral and practical way forward from deep disagreement. As an example of a risky persuasion strategy consider "moral reframing". Recent social psychological research finds that "moral messages framed in a manner consistent with the moral values of those already supporting the political stance were less persuasive than moral arguments reframed to appeal to the values of the intended audience-those who typically oppose the political position that the messenger is arguing in favor of" (Feinberg and Willer, 2015, 1676). The empirical research suggests that if you present an argument from your own moral frame of reference then people who don't share that frame of reference may be unpersuaded, whereas if you reframe it in terms of your interlocutor's frame of reference then there is a greater chance of success. Of course, the empirical research is only concerned with determining if moral reframing is a successful technique, not whether it is a virtuous technique. One concern about moral reframing is that it is ad hominem, albeit in the least malign sense: Lockean ad hominem, or arguing from the concessions of the other party; "internal argument" as it was termed in §2. Even so, as Gary Jason observes of such arguments, "If I try to convince you of C by citing P where you believe P, but I don't, I am being illogical. I am persuading you, not by sound argument, but by what I believe to be unsound argument" (Jason, 1984, 185). I would not be arguing unsoundly if, instead of arguing for C on the basis of P, I were to argue for "If P then C", which I believe to be true, and leave you to infer C from your (mistaken, by my lights) belief that P. Nonetheless, I would still be reconciling myself to your coming to believe C on the basis of what I take to be an unsound argument. This may seem a somewhat recondite concern, but if you judge your opponents' values to be intrinsically reprehensible, then employing them in argument, however hypothetically, would be inconsistent with your own values. For example, Sherman Clark considers a critic of a new subway line, whose own opposition is grounded in economic arguments, but who is tempted to persuade others with "a subtle appeal to race-based fear-perhaps by hinting at or subtly evoking visions of 'thugs' from the other side of town having easier access to good neighborhoods" (Clark, 2011, 852). As Clark observes "you might also quite sensibly realize that by making that sort of argument, even and perhaps especially if you did so indirectly and subtly, you would not just be appealing to but also helping to construct and reinforce fear and prejudice" (ibid.). So that sort of moral reframing would be not only vicious, but a cause of vice in others. Nonetheless, Clark is not denouncing moral reframing; on the contrary, he elsewhere states that "if we hope to be persuasive, we have no choice but to navigate the worldviews of those we hope to persuade", but he also proposes that if we "truly engage with those we hope to reach, we might 10 ANDREW ABERDEIN find that many people would respond as well or better to nobler appeals" (Clark, 2003, 73 f.). Used judiciously, moral reframing has the potential to be a constructive strategy for dealing with deep disagreement. But its associated risks show the importance of close attention to argumentative virtues in its deployment. 6. Conclusion The dialogue in §1 may end in more than one way. Alice and Bob could continue to sketch out competing worldviews without getting any closer together: a classic deep disagreement. Alternatively, it might become clear that one of them is refusing to back down from arrogance, not epistemic principle. In that case, the disagreement need not be deep, although it may prove just as hard to resolve. Or, in either of these cases, Alice or Bob may succeed in persuading the other. Such persuasion may involve techniques that go beyond argumentation, at least as narrowly defined. If either of them succumbs to arrogance, such persuasion may be no more than browbeating. Winning the argument on these terms provides no reason to think the winner is in the right epistemically (and good reason to think they're in the wrong ethically). But, if such persuasion is conducted with humility, and the other attendant virtues of argument, it may lead the other party to a sincere shift of worldview. 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{ "creator": "Abell, Catharine", "date": "2005", "datestamp": 1587399301000, "description": "In this paper, I discuss the influential view that depiction, like language, depends on arbitrary conventions. I argue that this view, however it is elaborated, is false. Any adequate account of depiction must be consistent with the distinctive features of depiction. One such feature is depictive generativity. I argue that, to be consistent with depictive generativity, conventionalism must hold that depiction depends on conventions for the depiction of basic properties of a picture’s object. I then argue that two considerations jointly preclude depiction from being governed by such conventions. Firstly, conventions must be salient to those who employ them. Secondly, those parts of pictures that depict basic properties of objects are not salient to the makers and interpreters of pictures.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEADC", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Against Depictive Conventionalism", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Against Depictive Conventionalism Catharine Abell (Published in The American Philosophical Quarterly, 42(3), pp.185-197) Abstract In this paper, I discuss the influential view that depiction, like language, depends on arbitrary conventions. I argue that this view, however it is elaborated, is false. Any adequate account of depiction must be consistent with the distinctive features of depiction. One such feature is depictive generativity. I argue that, to be consistent with depictive generativity, conventionalism must hold that depiction depends on conventions for the depiction of basic properties of a picture's object. I then argue that two considerations jointly preclude depiction from being governed by such conventions. Firstly, conventions must be salient to those who employ them. Secondly, those parts of pictures that depict basic properties of objects are not salient to the makers and interpreters of pictures. I Introduction Language and depiction are the two paradigmatic forms of non-mental representation. Descriptions represent linguistically, and pictures depictively. Depiction distinguishes figurative from abstract paintings. Both abstract and figurative paintings can represent: a slash of red paint may represent sin and a painting of a lamb may represent Christ. However, all and only figurative representations depict. I will use the term "picture" to refer exclusively to representations that depict. A picture represents Christ in virtue of depicting a 2 lamb. The scope of this paper is limited to depiction and to pictures. The main task of an adequate philosophical account of depiction is to offer an explanation of what it is for a picture to depict a certain object. This explanation must be consistent with pictures having those features which are taken, pretheoretically, to be distinctive of depiction.1 Attempts to identify the relation a picture must bear to an object in order to depict that object appeal to such diverse notions as resemblance, perceptual resources, make-believe, information, experience, and convention. According to conventionalism, the only representationally relevant relations between pictures and their objects are conventional. In this respect, then, they are like words. Nelson Goodman, the most influential proponent of conventionalism, is explicit about the similarity between language and depiction. He writes: Descriptions are distinguished from depictions not through being more arbitrary but through belonging to articulate rather than to dense schemes; and words are more conventional than pictures only if conventionality is construed in terms of differentiation rather than of artificiality. Nothing here depends upon the internal structure of a symbol; for what describes in some systems may depict in others.2 Conventionalism has been enormously influential in both philosophy and art history. Convinced by Goodman's arguments, many art historians have maintained that depiction is conventional.3 3 Criticisms of conventionalism abound. The vast majority of these, however, attack particular conceptions of the conventional relations between pictures and their objects, rather than the general claim that depiction is conventional.4 Moreover, none of those arguments that attacks conventionalism in general is conclusive.5 Philosophers usually take depictive conventionalism to be a live, if unpalatable, option. My aim in this paper is to demonstrate that it is not. I argue that, because conventionalism must be consistent with the distinguishing features of depiction, it must construe depictive conventions as conventions for the depiction of basic colour, shape and textural properties. I then argue that two considerations jointly preclude such conventions from governing depiction. Firstly, I argue that, to be conventional, relations between pictures and their objects must be salient to the makers and interpreters of pictures. Secondly, I argue that those parts of pictures that depict basic properties are not salient to them. I conclude that conventionalism is false because it cannot accommodate one of depiction's distinguishing features. I proceed as follows. In Section II, I examine what a convention is. To this end, I outline David Lewis's account of convention. In Section III, I examine the claim that depiction involves language-like conventions, and distinguish it from two other forms of depictive conventionalism. In Section IV, I describe a distinguishing feature of depiction, depictive generativity. To show that it is not easily accommodated by the view that depiction involves language-like conventions, I distinguish it from the generativity of language. In Section V, I 4 examine how this view could accommodate depictive generativity. I identify some constraints which it must meet in order to do so. In Section VI, I argue that the view cannot meet these constraints. I elucidate the reasons for which it cannot do so and refute some counterarguments. II What Conventions Are Conventionalism holds that depiction depends on language-like conventions. To understand this claim, we need an account of convention. Such an account must make sense of our conviction that language is conventional. Not all philosophical accounts of convention are adequate to this task. For example, some accounts construe convention as involving explicit agreement.6 Because putative linguistic conventions can arise through either tacit or explicit agreement, these accounts preclude us from understanding language as conventional. However, David Lewis's theory of convention is intended specifically to explain the sense in which language is conventional. Since his is the most influential and widely-accepted such theory, I will use it to provide a better understanding of conventionalism. According to Lewis, a convention is a widely adopted solution to a recurrent coordination problem.7 This account comprises six requirements for conventionality. Lewis identifies three requirements that must be met for something to be a coordination problem. These are: 1. interdependence: two or more agents must be involved in a situation of interdependent decision making. That is, the decision each agent makes 5 must depend on what decision he or she believes the other agent(s) will make. 2. shared interest: the interests of all agents must coincide in that situation. That is, the decision each agent makes must be such as to serve the other agents' interests as well as his or her own. 3. choice: the situation must admit of two or more proper coordination equilibria. That is, there must be at least two combinations of all agents' actions such that, given the other agents' actions, each agent prefers that combination of actions to any other combination he or she could have achieved alone. Lewis then identifies two further requirements that must be met for a coordination problem to have a conventional solution: 4. recurrence: the coordination problem must recur. 5. wide adoption: a particular solution to the coordination problem must be widely adopted. That is, a single solution to the coordination problem must be adopted on many of the occasions on which that problem arises. For this requirement to be met, there must be some classification of the solutions that are adopted under which many of them are the same. 6 However, one can classify any set of solutions so as to construe those solutions, and no others, as the same.8 This threatens to trivialise the requirement that a single solution be widely adopted. For a solution to be widely adopted, in a nontrivial sense, the sameness of a set of solutions must depend on the conceptions of them as solutions that are salient to those who adopt them. A certain conception of something as a solution to a coordination problem is salient if it stands out as being unique "in a preeminently conspicuous respect".9 If the same such conception is salient to many who adopt solutions to a given coordination problem, then the solutions they adopt will be the same in the required sense. This yields a further requirement for conventionality: 5.1 salience: for many solutions to a coordination problem, a single conception of them as solutions must be salient to those who adopt them.10 This requirement reflects the fact that one can only employ a convention if one knows (explicitly or tacitly) what it is. Imagine that I only ever drive my car to work in the morning and back home at night. I always drive on one side of the road in the morning because, at a certain spot, one gets a beautiful view out to sea. Coming home, I drive on the other side, because I cannot see the view from this direction and don't want to impede the view of those driving in the opposite direction. I happen to act in the same way as those who adopt the convention of driving on the left-hand side of the road. However, I do not adopt that convention myself, since the conception of my solution that is salient to me is not one 7 according to which I always drive on the left-hand side of the road. III What Conventionalism Is If depiction is conventional, pictures must comprise widely-adopted solutions to recurrent coordination problems. The problem of depicting particular objects or object types is the best candidate for the relevant coordination problem. It involves interdependent decision making with a coincidence of agents' interests. The makers and interpreters of pictures seek to exchange information about the (actual or counterfactual) appearances of objects. They succeed only when the information the interpreter derives from the picture matches that which its maker intended to convey. Consequently, they act so as to fulfill one other's interests in effective communication. In addition, there are a number of different ways in which any object can be depicted. This suggests that there are many different combinations of agents' actions in which each agent will prefer to have interpreted a mark as she has, given the way in which the other agents interpret that mark. Moreover, the problem of depicting particular objects or object types recurs. Depiction therefore meets Lewis's first four requirements for conventionality. Whether or not it is conventional, therefore, depends on whether it also meets his fifth requirement, and the salience requirement that this entails. Whether or not these requirements are met depends on how pictures solve the coordination problem just described. There are three ways in which they could do so, each of which supports a different form of conventionalism. Before proceeding, therefore, I will distinguish the three forms of conventionalism and 8 identify which is at issue in the question of whether depiction exhibits languagelike conventionality. Pictures may bear some non-conventional relation to their objects. For example, they may either resemble the objects they depict, be experienced as doing so, or engage the same recognitional capacities as those objects. So long as it constrains depiction independently of any recurrent coordination problem, this relation will not itself be conventional. Nevertheless, if at least two different arrangements of marks could exhibit the relevant relation to some object and thus comprise solutions to the problem of depicting it, Lewis's third requirement for conventionality would be met and the wide adoption of one such arrangement would be conventional. Since more than one arrangement of marks can resemble an object, or be experienced as doing so, etc., particular ways of depicting an object may be conventional even if depiction involves nonconventional relations. If depiction is partly distinguished by non-conventional relations, there will be two ways in which an arrangement of marks could solve the problem of depicting some object. It could do so solely in virtue of bearing the relevant nonconventional relation to the object, or it could do so both by doing so and by comprising a widely-adopted solution to that problem. In the former case, whether or not an arrangement of marks comprises a picture will depend entirely on whether it bears the non-conventional relation to the object. It may happen that it both does so and is widely-adopted as a means of depicting some object. 9 However, its being widely-adopted would be irrelevant to the fact that it depicts that object. In this case, then, the conventionality of a solution to the problem of depicting some object is representationally irrelevant. Let us call the view that pictures exhibit this form of conventionality non-representational conventionalism. Non-representational conventionalism is not at issue in the debate concerning whether depiction exhibits language-like conventionality. For depiction to do so, depictive conventions would have to be representationally relevant, and nonrepresentational conventionalism denies that they are. If an arrangement of marks depicts by both bearing some non-conventional relation to an object and being widely-adopted as a solution to the problem of depicting that object, its conventionality will be representationally relevant. Which of several marks that bear the relevant non-conventional relation depicts the object will depend on which of them instantiates the relevant object-depiction convention. This view holds that depiction involves both non-conventional and conventional relations. Because it maintains that the possible conventional solutions to the problem of depicting some object are constrained by the requirement that they bear some non-conventional relation to that object, it holds that depictive conventions are non-arbitrary. Consequently, let us call it nonarbitrary representational conventionalism. Non-arbitrary representational conventionalism is not at issue in the debate over whether depiction depends on language-like conventions. Linguistic 10 representations are widely held to lack any representationally relevant nonconventional relation to their objects. The plausibility of non-arbitrary representational conventionalism thus lies beyond the scope of this paper. A final form of conventionalism holds that the only representationally relevant relations between pictures and their objects are conventional. This is the form of conventionalism at issue in this paper. It claims that there are no representationally relevant non-conventional relations between pictures and their objects. This does not mean that there are no non-conventional constraints on depiction. If we are to use them, all systems of signs must meet those non-conventional constraints that are imposed by the limitations to human interpretative capabilities, and by our representational requirements. These constraints preclude us from forming a word from thousands of letters or pictures of different objects from marks indistinguishable to the human eye. They also require us to choose systems of signs that are sufficiently complex for the representational tasks we set for them. These constraints are not representationally relevant because they do not affect what any particular sign in a system represents. This view holds that, like language, depiction is an arbitrary form of representation. There are two senses in which language is arbitrary. Firstly, among those systems of signs that meet the non-conventional constraints described above, any could be used for linguistic representation. Secondly, there 11 are no constraints on which of the signs in a linguistic system can be used to represent what object.11 Let us call the view that holds that depiction is arbitrary in these two ways arbitrary representational conventionalism. In what follows, I will assess arbitrary representational conventionalism (from now on, simply conventionalism). IV Depictive Generativity An account of depiction must accommodate its various distinguishing features. One such feature is depictive generativity.12 Roughly characterised, it consists in the fact that the ability to interpret some pictures gives one the ability to go on to interpret other pictures without any instruction about what they depict, so long as one can recognise their objects visually.13 Furthermore, even if one has acquired this latter ability, one will be unable to interpret a picture unless one is able visually to recognise its object.14 Let us call the ability to interpret novel pictures without any instruction as to their content general pictorial competence. Depictive generativity involves both a necessary and a sufficient condition: 1. General pictorial competence and the ability visually to recognise an object suffice for the ability to interpret a picture of that object. 2. General pictorial competence and the ability visually to recognise an object are necessary for the ability to interpret a picture of that object. 12 However, some qualifications are needed. Firstly, the ability to interpret some line drawings may not give one the ability to interpret any cubist paintings, even if it gives one the ability to interpret other line drawings. General pictorial competence may not operate across pictorial systems, but may instead be relativised to particular such systems. Secondly, the inability visually to recognise an object under a particular conception need not result in the inability to interpret a picture of that object. Even if I am not able visually to recognise a medieval Greek coin when I see one, I may still be able to recognise coins, and thus partially to interpret a picture depicting such a coin. Depictive generativity holds across all consistent conceptions of a picture's object, whether these conceptions are of the object as a particular, or as type of object. Language exhibits a feature that is apparently analogous to depictive generativity. Like that of pictures, the interpretation of sentences is generative. This is a consequence of the fact that they have a combinatorial semantics: their content is determined, systematically, by the contents of their parts. As Jerry Fodor argues, this means that the the ability to produce and understand some of the sentences in a language is intrinsically connected to the ability to produce and understand others, such that one wouldn't attribute true understanding of English to someone who understands what the sentence "Bob hates Bill" means, but not what "Bill hates Bob" means.15 Understanding an English sentence in a way that exhibits a true understanding of English entails understanding the semantic rules governing the meanings of its constituent words and understanding the syntactic rules of English, such that one can understand novel 13 grammatical sentences formed using those words. If we construe general linguistic competence as involving knowledge of the syntactic rules of a language, we get the following characterisation of linguistic generativity: 1. General competence in a language and knowledge of the semantic rules governing the words of a sentence in that language suffice for the ability to interpret that sentence. 2. General competence in a language and knowledge of the semantic rules governing the words of a sentence in that language are necessary for the ability to interpret that sentence. Language provides the model for the form of conventionality that concerns us here. Consequently, the fact that it exhibits something like depictive generativity might seem to show that conventionalism could readily accommodate depictive generativity. However, there are two important differences between depictive and linguistic generativity. To accommodate depictive generativity, conventionalism must accommodate both differences. Firstly, the ability visually to recognise an object plays no role in linguistic generativity. Even if I am a competent user of English, I will not be able to interpret the English words for every object I can recognise visually. While I can visually recognise hedgehogs, I may not be able to interpret the word "ilspile". This case is very different to that of the picture of the medieval Greek coin. 14 Whereas I am able to interpret that picture under some conception, I cannot get any purchase on what the word "ilspile" represents. Visual recognitional ability plays no role in linguistic generativity because the arrangement of letters that is used to represent one object is not related systematically to those used to represent others. The autonomy of the various conventions governing language means that grasping what some arrangements of letters represent will not confer the ability to grasp what others do, irrespective of whether one can recognise visually the objects they represent. Contrarily, so long as we have pictorial competence, we only need the ability visually to recognise an object under some conception in order to interpret a picture of that object. This distinction seems difficult to accommodate on the assumption that depiction, like language, is governed by a set of unrelated representational conventions. Secondly, pictorial competence is much more readily acquired than linguistic competence. In order to learn the syntactic rules governing a language, and thus to acquire linguistic competence, we require extensive exposure to the relevant language. Contrarily, while it is unclear exactly how much exposure to pictures we need in order to acquire pictorial competence, it is clearly comparatively little.16 Again, it is not clear how one might accommodate this difference while holding that depiction, like language, is governed by unrelated representational conventions. I will now consider how conventionalism might accommodate these two distinctive features of depictive generativity. V Property Conventionalism 15 A conventionalist account might succeed in accommodating depictive generativity if it holds that depiction is governed by conventions for the depiction of properties, rather than conventions for the depiction of objects. On such a view, a picture depicts a certain object in virtue of employing conventions for the depiction of various of that object's properties, rather than employing conventions for the depiction of that object, or of that object as instantiating those properties. Because a wide range of objects may share some properties, pictures of quite different objects could employ some of the same conventions. Consequently, the ability to interpret a picture of one object could confer the ability to interpret a picture of some other object, so long as the two pictures employed the same conventions. While individual depictive conventions would operate independently, the conventions governing a particular picture would not be independent of those governing others. To accommodate depictive generativity, such an account would need to accommodate the fact that the ability visually to recognise something is required to interpret a picture of that thing. It could explain this fact as it applies to properties by holding that the ability to recognise instantiations of the properties a picture depicts is a prerequisite for understanding the representational conventions that govern depiction of those properties. As Robert Hopkins points out, if the conventions governing depiction are limited to conventions for the depiction of colour, shape and textural properties, the ability to recognise instantiations of those properties will indeed be necessary for the ability to understand the relevant conventions.17 As he argues, in order to understand 16 representations of colour, shape and textural properties, we need to deploy observation concepts, which are so called because the ability to recognise instances of the properties in question is necessary for possession of those concepts. Such a view can explain why the ability visually to recognise an object is required to interpret a picture of that object because it holds that the depiction of any object involves the depiction of various of its basic properties. To interpret a picture depicting some combination of basic properties as a picture of a certain object, it is thus necessary to be able visually to recognise the object in question from those of its basic properties that are depicted in order to interpret the picture as depicting that object rather than any other. This view can accommodate the fact that pictorial competence is acquired on the basis of comparatively little exposure to pictures. To do so, it need not maintain that any picture employs every depictive convention, or that all such conventions can be learnt from exposure to a single picture. It need only claim that the conventions governing depiction can be learnt through exposure to a limited number of pictures. So long as the conventions governing depiction are restricted to conventions for the depiction of basic, widely-shared properties of objects, this seems plausible. Basic colour, shape and textural properties can be shared by quite disparate objects. Consequently, pictures of very different objects may employ some of the same conventions. It should thus be possible to learn the conventions necessary to interpret a picture of one object from exposure to 17 pictures of quite different objects. Moreover, so long as depiction is governed only by conventions for the depiction of basic colour, shape and textural properties, it is plausible that the total number of such conventions should be sufficiently limited to be learned, and pictorial competence acquired, after exposure to relatively few pictures. The form of conventionalism just outlined holds that the depiction of objects depends on conventions governing the depiction of their basic colour, shape and textural properties, rather than that of the objects themselves. Let us call this view property conventionalism. It is the only form of conventionalism that might accommodate depictive generativity. If property conventionalism fails, so too will conventionalism as a whole. I will now argue that it does fail. VI Why Property Conventionalism Is False According to property conventionalism, depiction is conventional because certain parts of pictures comprise widely-adopted solutions to the problem of depicting colour, shape and textural properties. For the reasons outlined at the beginning of Section III, this problem is a recurrent coordination problem. However, as I will now argue, it is not a problem that admits of a widely-adopted solution. Property conventionalism fails because it cannot meet the requirement that depictive conventions be widely adopted. It cannot do so because it cannot meet Lewis's salience requirement for wide adoption. Property conventionalism claims that particular parts of a picture are related by 18 convention to the basic colour, shape and textural properties they depict. For this to be the case, for every relation between a part of a picture and its depictive content, the same conception of that relation must be salient to the makers and interpreters of pictures. That is, there must be unique conceptions both of the part of the picture that is related to depictive content, and of the depictive content to which it is related, under which that part stands out to them as bearing the depiction relation to that content. I will now argue that it is impossible if the relevant depictive content comprises basic colour, shape or textural properties. Many pictures have parts that are interpretable as depicting things when considered in isolation from the rest of the picture. For example, those parts of a picture of a crowd that depict individual faces may be interpretable in isolation as depicting faces. Let us call such parts pictorial parts. Because they are independently interpretable, pictorial parts of a picture are themselves pictures. The property conventionalist cannot claim that depictive conventions attach to pictorial parts. Because they are themselves pictures, they must exhibit the features common to all pictures. One such feature is that pictures cannot depict properties without depicting some object (be it a particular or merely an object type) as instantiating those properties. For example, a picture cannot depict the property of being a chair without depicting either a particular chair or a type of chair as instantiating that property. Likewise, a picture cannot depict the property of being red without depicting some surface or volume as instantiating that property. The bare depiction of properties is impossible. Consequently, pictorial 19 parts could only be governed by conventions for the depiction of objects as instantiating properties. However, as I argued above, the property conventionalist must hold that depiction is governed by conventions just for the depiction of basic colour, shape and textural properties if she is to explain depictive generativity. Only then could pictures of quite different objects employ the same conventions. Not all picture parts are pictorial parts, however. Some are not interpretable as depicting anything when considered in isolation, but are interpretable as depicting something when considered in the context of a picture as a whole. For example, in a rudimentary picture of a face, the eye may be represented by a dot. The dot alone, however, is not interpretable as depicting an eye. It is only interpretable in the context of the picture as a whole. Just as the dot contributes to what the picture can be interpreted as depicting, namely a face with eyes, so too the picture contributes to what the dot depicts. Let us call those parts of pictures that are not interpretable in isolation, but are interpretable as depicting something in the context of other picture parts sub-pictorial parts.18 In addition to pictorial and sub-pictorial parts, pictures have non-pictorial parts. These are parts that are not interpretable as depicting anything either in isolation or in the context of other picture parts. For example, the individual brushmarks I see when I look very closely at the surface of a painting may not depict anything, considered either in isolation or in the context of the rest of the picture. They provide information only about the picture surface, and not about what the picture depicts. Consequently, depictive conventions cannot attach to non-pictorial parts. 20 They must therefore attach to sub-pictorial parts.19 However, a picture's sub-pictorial parts cannot in fact be governed by meaning conventions. As I argued above, the requirement that any convention be salient to its users means that there must be unique conceptions both of the part of the picture that is related to depictive content, and of the depictive content to which it is related, under which that part stands out in some "pre-eminently conspicuous respect" to pictures' makers and interpreters as bearing the depiction relation to that content. However, sub-pictorial parts do not stand out as depicting their contents, because they are not interpretable in isolation. One might object to this that some words are not interpretable in isolation, even though their meanings are clearly convention-governed. Two types of words exhibit such interpretative context-dependence: indexicals and ambiguous words. However, they do not show that convention-governed representations can be independently uninterpretable. Moreover, the context-dependence of the meanings of a picture's sub-pictorial parts is not analogous to that of either indexicals or ambiguous words. In his account of the meaning of indexicals, David Kaplan distinguishes between their character: their linguistic meaning, and their content: what they contribute to the propositions that sentences containing them can be used to express in a given context.20 While indexicals' characters are independently interpretable, their contents are not. Their contents depend both on their characters and on the 21 contexts in which they are used. The character of 'you' is something like 'the person to whom this utterance is addressed'. Its content in a given context is whoever it refers to in that context. Linguistic conventions govern the independently interpretable character of indexicals, rather than their contextdependent content. The context-dependence of the content of indexicals is therefore not a counter-example to the claim that the conventionality of a representation requires its independent interpretability. Moreover, the property conventionalist cannot construe the context-dependence of sub-pictorial parts as analogous to that of indexicals, and therefore cannot explain it in the same way. An indexical has an indefinite number of possible contents. While its character tells us what features of context are relevant to determining its content, it does not tell us what its possible contents are. For example, the character of 'you' tells us to look at the person to whom it is addressed in a given context to determine its content in that context, but it does not constrain to whom it could be addressed. If property conventionalism is to accommodate depictive generativity, it cannot allow sub-pictorial parts to have an indefinite number of possible contents. It requires constraints on what each subpictorial part can depict to apply across all possible contexts of interpretation. Otherwise, the ability to interpret such parts in the context of some pictures could not yield the ability to interpret them in the context of novel pictures. Ambiguous words have at least two different characters. In any disambiguating context, the content of such a word will be identical to one of its characters. 22 Knowledge of the different conventions governing these characters therefore enables us to tell what the possible contents of an ambiguous word are in any given context. For example, knowledge of the conventions governing 'bank' tells us that its characters are 'financial institution' and 'the ground alongside a river'. The word is independently interpretable as having both characters, and therefore as having two possible contents. Unlike indexicals, therefore, the characters of ambiguous words constrain their possible contents. One might think the property conventionalist could accommodate depictive generativity by construing the context-dependence of sub-pictorial parts as analogous to that of ambiguous words. If a sub-pictorial part had a limited number of possible contents, one could learn each of those contents after exposure to a limited number of pictures, and thereby acquire the ability to interpret that part in the context of other picture parts. However, this suggestion ignores the independent interpretability requirement. As with indexicals, the fact that linguistic conventions govern characters rather than contents means that the context-dependence of the contents of ambiguous words is no threat to this requirement. Consequently, if sub-pictorial parts were analogous to ambiguous words, their different characters, and consequently their possible contents, should be independently interpretable. Some picture parts, such as those depicting Necker cubes, are independently interpretable as having different possible contents. However, because they are independently interpretable, they are pictorial parts and therefore cannot depict basic properties as required by property conventionalism. 23 One might also object that since, as a matter of fact, we can interpret colourreversed pictures, my claim that conventions cannot govern the depiction of properties must be false. It is true that, so long as we know which colours stand for what other colours, we can interpret a picture of a red object as representing an object that is, say, green. However, we can only do this because we can apply representational conventions to pictures on the basis of their depictive content. That is, we can stipulate that pictorial parts that depict objects of one colour represent objects of some other colour. To interpret pictures using such conventions, we must have prior knowledge of what they depict. Colourreversed systems of representation are not depictive and therefore do not show that the depiction of properties can be convention-governed. Finally, one might argue that my argument contradicts psychologists' claims that the interpretation of line drawings involves the application of interpretative rules. John Willats argues that, just as the marks on a page of writing represent letters, so too depictive marks represent "picture primitives".21 As letters form words that represent aspects of an object, picture primitives represent specific aspects of visible scenes called "scene primitives". As words combine to form descriptions of objects, these primitives then combine to represent whole objects. This account may seem to vindicate conventionalism. However, two considerations show that it does not. Firstly, according to Willats, the interpretation of any picture primitive is context-dependent, since it depends on the other picture primitives with which it is combined.22 Secondly, Willats denies that the representational 24 content of pictures is arbitrary. Instead, he claims that pictures bear a nonconventional relation to their objects: they depict them by exploiting the human visual system's mechanisms for detecting features of those objects from the light they reflect.23 Property conventionalism is false. To be true, the depictive conventions it posits would have to attach to either pictorial or sub-pictorial parts. They cannot attach to pictorial parts since such parts cannot depict basic colour, shape or textural properties alone, but instead must depict some object as instantiating those properties. Moreover, although sub-pictorial parts can depict basic colour, shape and textural properties, depictive conventions cannot govern such parts since they are not independently interpretable. They are therefore not salient to pictures' makers and interpreters as bearing the depiction relation to such properties. VII Conclusion An adequate account of depiction must be consistent with pictures having those features that are distinctive of depiction. One such feature is depictive generativity. Conventionalism could accommodate depictive generativity only by holding that pictures are governed by conventions for the depiction of basic colour, shape and textural properties. However, pictures cannot be governed by such conventions. For depictive conventions to meet Lewis's salience requirement, the picture parts to which they attach must be independently interpretable. Any independently interpretable part of a picture is itself a picture. 25 Therefore, it cannot simply depict colour, shape or textural properties, but must always depict some object as instantiating those properties.24 1 See Hopkins, R. (1995). "Explaining Depiction." Philosophical Review 104: 425-455.He argues that an account of depiction must explain why pictures have these features. I agree, but will retain the weaker consistency requirement for current purposes. 2 Goodman, N. (1976). Languages of Art. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company. pp230-31. 3 See, for example, Bryson, N. (1983). Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze. New Haven, Yale University Press. Although some philosophers deny that Goodman is in fact a conventionalist (see, for example, Lopes, D. (1996). Understanding Pictures. Oxford, Clarendon Press. p65), his commitment to the arbitrariness of depiction makes it clear that he is. Goodman himself denies conventionalism regarding both depiction and language because he believes it entails the claim that they are rule-governed. He argues that "(t)he way pictures and descriptions are thus classified into kinds [according to what they represent], like most habitual ways of classifying, is far from sharp or stable, and resists codification" (Goodman, op. cit. p23. The text in square brackets is mine). He also writes that understanding a picture "is not a matter of bringing to bear universal rules that determine the identification and manipulation of its component symbols" (Goodman, N. and C. Z. Elgin (1988). Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences. London, Routledge. p110). However, the claim that depiction is conventional does not entail the claim that it is rule governed. I am interested to determine whether depiction is conventional in the way that language is. Goodman's claims about the arbitrariness of depiction suffice to show that he thinks it is. 4 For example, the following criticise Goodman's characterisation of depictive conventions, rather than his claim that depiction is conventional: Wollheim, R. (1970). "Nelson Goodman's Languages of Art." Journal of Philosophy LXVII(16): 531-539, Savile, A. (1971). "Nelson Goodman's 'Languages of Art': A Study." British Journal of Aesthetics 11: 3-27, Walton, K. (1974). "Are Representations Symbols?" Monist 58: 236254, Robinson, J. (1979). "Some Remarks on Goodman's Language Theory of Pictures." British Journal of Aesthetics 19: 63-75. 5 See, for example, Hopkins, R. (2003). "Perspective, Convention and Compromise." Looking Into Pictures. H. Hecht, M. Atherton and R. Schwartz. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press: 145-164. 26 Hopkins argues against the conventionality of depiction. However, he assumes that depiction depends on non-conventional relations between picture and object (on the preservation of "visible figure"). He therefore fails to address the claim that depiction, like language, depends on arbitrary conventions. Crispin Sartwell construes the fact that pictures are generative (see Section III) as an argument against conventionalism (Sartwell, C. (1991). "Natural Generativity and Imitation." British Journal of Aesthetics 31: 58-67. p63). However, as I will argue, the generativity of depiction does not automatically preclude its conventionality. Gregory Currie rejects the conventionalism of film (See Chapter 4 of Currie, G. (1995). Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press). However, as I argue in Note 19, his argument fails for both film and depiction. 6 See, for example, Quine, W.V.O. (1936). "Truth by Convention" in Philosophical Essays for A.N. Whitehead, edited by O.H. Lee. New York, Longmans. pp90-124. 7 Lewis, D. (1969). Convention. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. 8 For example, each may be classified as a solution that has been adopted to the relevant coordination problem. 9 Lewis, D. (1969). Convention. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. p38 10 Neither the salience requirement, nor any of Lewis's other requirements entails that conventions are rule governed in the sense to which Goodman objects. He accepts that depiction and language involve habitual plans of correlation according to which referents are ascribed to descriptions and depictions. There need be no rule, independent of the plans of correlation to which individual agents adhere, that determines what solution is adopted. For a solution to a recurrent coordination problem to be conventional, it is sufficient for there to be habitual practices according to which the different agents involved in a decision-making situation always knowingly adopt the same solution to the problem. Since Goodman maintains that depiction is governed by such practices, or "plans of correlation", he is a conventionalist in Lewis's sense (Goodman, N. op. cit. p39-40). 11 We may find it expedient to use certain words within a language to refer to certain objects. For example, it might be useful to choose shorter words for common objects. However, there is no reason why a language could not, in principle, use long words for common objects. 12 The definitive discussion of this feature is in Schier, F. (1986). Deeper Into Pictures. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp 43-55. 27 13 I use the term 'interpret' to refer solely to the process of determining what a picture depicts. 14 It follows from the centrality of the ability visually to recognise objects to picture interpretation that only visible objects can be depicted. This feature is noted in Hopkins, R. (1995) op. cit. 15 Fodor, J. A. (1987). Psychosemantics. Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press. p149. 16 See Hochberg, J. and V. Brooks (1962). "Pictorial Recognition as an Unlearned Ability: A Study of One Child's Performance." American Journal of Psychology 75: 624-628. This study found that a nineteen month old child whose access to pictures had been severely restricted, and who had never received any instruction in interpreting pictures was nonetheless able spontaneously to interpret pictures of a wide range of objects. 17 Hopkins, R. (1997). "El Greco's Eyesight: Interpreting Pictures and the Psychology of Vision." Philosophical Quarterly 47: 441-458. p450. 18 The distinction between pictorial and non-pictorial parts is based on Schier's distinction between iconic and sub-iconic parts. See Schier, F. op. cit. p70. 19 Failure to recognise the distinction between pictorial, sub-pictorial and non-pictorial picture parts undermines one argument against conventionality. Gregory Currie denies that film is conventional on the basis that, unlike language, it is not comprised of independent, meaningful parts (see Chapter 4 of Currie, G. (1995). Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press). Because it has no such parts, he argues, there can be no rules of composition enabling the representationally relevant parts of a film to be combined to form further meaningful parts in the way that words are combined to form sentences. He argues that film has no independent, meaningful parts because every temporal and spatial part of a film image is meaningful "to the limits of visual discriminability" (Ibid. p 130). He holds that this is true even of parts of an image that lack a discriminable internal structure, since they represent their objects as uniform. Currie's argument is applicable to both film and depiction. However, it fails in both cases. All pictures are ultimately comprised of parts that have no meaning at all: their non-pictorial parts. Consequently, they are not meaningful in the way he claims. The smallest meaningful parts of any picture are its sub-pictorial parts. While such parts do not have meaning when instantiated in isolation, they nonetheless have a meaning that is independent of that of the picture's other parts. Currie provides no reason why sub-pictorial parts could not be governed by meaning conventions, and be combined using rules of composition to form 28 independently meaningful pictorial parts. 20 Kaplan, D. (1989) "Demonstratives", in J. Almog et. al. (eds) Themes from Kaplan. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 21 Willats, J. (1997). Art and Representation: New Principles in the Analysis of Pictures. Princeton, Princeton University Press. 22 Ibid. p112-119. 23 Ibid. p146. 24 I am extremely grateful to Tim Bayne for discussion of these issues and for his comments on earlier versions of this material. I am also grateful to Jordi Fernandez and to the anonymous referees of this journal for their comments and criticisms.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1599721034000, "description": "nan", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEAWL", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Arguments with losers", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 1 Arguments with Losers Presidential Address of the 61st Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association, 2015 Andrew Aberdein, Florida Institute of Technology An old friend from graduate school, who may have had unrealistic expectations about legal practice, used to claim that law was an ever-present vocational temptation for philosophers. As he put it, "Why argue with smart people for peanuts when you could make a fortune arguing with losers?" (He's now a dean, so you can see where this sort of thinking leads.) I should clarify my title. I don't intend a megalomaniacal memoir of my disputational triumphs-although that would at least have the merit of brevity. On the contrary, I want to say something about the sort of arguments that it is possible to lose, and whether losing arguments can be done well. I shall focus on losing philosophical arguments, and I will be talking about arguments in the sense of acts of arguing. This is the sort of act that one can perform on one's own or with one other person in private. But in either of these cases it is difficult to win-or to lose.1 So I shall concentrate on arguments with audiences. We may think of winning or losing such arguments in terms of whether the audience is convinced. Of course, this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with who is in the right. (I am going to assume that there is a right to be in, that is that philosophical debates are factive.) That means that there are two sorts of loser: real losers, who lose the argument deservedly, because they are in the wrong, and mere losers, who lose the argument undeservedly, because they are in the right.2 Hence there must also be two sorts of winner: real winners, who win the argument deservedly, because they are in the right, and mere winners, who win the argument undeservedly, because they are in the wrong.3 An optimal outcome for arguments with losers would be if all the losers are real losers. In other words, our goal is to minimise the number of mere losers. Before I go any further I should address the possibility that there are no losers at all in philosophical arguments. If that's true, it follows that you can't lose any of your philosophical arguments, which is reassuring. Sadly, it also follows that no one you argue with can lose either. This seems less satisfactory. But why might we deny the existence of losers in philosophical arguments? Especially when there seems to be such abundant evidence for their existence. There are three broad classes of objection to the existence of losers in philosophical arguments. We shall see that we can learn something from each of these objections, even if we are unconvinced by any of them. That this is possible also tells us something about the positive contribution losers make to philosophical argument. Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 2 The Pessimistic Objection I shall call the first objection The Pessimistic Objection. This states that There are no losers in philosophical arguments because there are no winners. That is, all philosophical arguments are interminable and irresoluble. Because they never end, their outcome is never decided. The principal problem with this objection is that it is empirically false. Of course there are many philosophical disputes of interminable duration, but that is not true of all of them. We do an injustice to intellectual history in forgetting the disputes that have been settled, or underestimating how hard fought they were. It's not that the losers never were, it's that they've been airbrushed out of the story. They deserve better than that. Nor should a lone holdout be sufficient to deny that a dispute is settled.4 Tim Williamson rightly observes that "As in natural science, something can be collectively known in a community even if it is occasionally denied by eccentric members of that community."5 Such (near) consensus is strong evidence that the holdouts are real losers. Losers may readily be found in both the purest and the most applied areas of philosophy. I heartily endorse Williamson's maxim that "we can often produce mathematical models of fragments of philosophy and, when we can, we should."6 A faithful mathematical model can show us that some positions are non-starters.7 Hence this process has decisively defeated many hitherto plausible positions and made losers out of their advocates. Philosophers may also be found on the wrong side of many past social disputes. There were philosophers who argued for prohibition or against female suffrage, for example. Surely those guys were real losers. A weaker, but perhaps more interesting version of this objection is suggested by Daniel Dennett: "I have learned that arguments, no matter how watertight, often fall on deaf ears. I am myself the author of arguments that I consider rigorous and unanswerable but that are often not so much rebutted or even dismissed as simply ignored."8 Dennett's complaint seems to be that he has been robbed of his victory by the simple expedient of ignoring him. If only it were that easy! But if his arguments really are unanswerable, then his dialectical opponents are real losers, whether they acknowledge it or not.9 And if they're not unanswerable, then someone should hurry up and answer him (perhaps proving Dennett to be the real loser). Either way, this seems like a failure of dialectical obligation rather than a lack of losers. This leads us to an important insight: unwillingness to engage in argument can itself be a losing proposition. The Optimistic Objection I call the second objection to the existence of losers in philosophical arguments The Optimistic Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 3 Objection. This states that There are no losers in philosophical arguments because everyone's a winner! This sort of claim is most frequently made in praise of the virtues of specific philosophers, rather than of philosophy as a whole. For example, consider these lines from an obituary: "To lose an argument to Peter Lipton nearly always gave pleasure, never a sense of loss or wounding: seemingly effortlessly, he made all philosophical discussion become a collaboration in which the only winners were reason and truth. There were no losers" (emphasis added).10 This is high praise for a justly celebrated philosopher. But, as an argument for the non-existence of losers, even in this narrow context, it is unsuccessful: even if the cost of losing a philosophical argument were always outweighed by other cognitive gains, the losers would still be losers argumentatively, despite being net winners over all. Perhaps there could be win-win, non-zero sum philosophical arguments in which all parties were in some sense argumentative winners. I am not sure I quite understand what such an argument would be like, but I am sure that it is not typical of philosophical arguments. Hence this version of the Optimistic Objection also seems to fail.11 The Optimistic Objection resembles the aphorism attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, that true victory is such that the defeated does not hate the victor. It is a valuable insight, despite its paradoxical expression. There is something important in the observation that the cost of losing an argument can be outweighed by other cognitive gains. Crucially, acrimony and disrespect seem certain to diminish the likelihood of realising such gains. The Misrepresentation Objection The last and perhaps the most interesting objection I call The Misrepresentation Objection. This states that There are no losers in philosophical arguments because 'winning' and 'losing' misrepresent philosophical argumentation. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson long ago observed how conceptual metaphors can work to structure our thought.12 They also noted that argument-is-war is one such metaphor. Empirical research has shown that war metaphors can be counterproductive in other fields. For example, "enemy metaphors in cancer information reduce some prevention intentions without increasing others, making their use potentially harmful for public health."13 Perhaps such metaphors are equally pernicious in philosophy. Indeed, several authors have criticized the argument-is-war metaphor at length. Daniel Cohen offers a whole range of alternative metaphors for argument: "reciprocal reading," "diplomatic negotiation," "growth or adaptation," "metamorphosis," "cross-pollination," "leading to hybridization," "brainstorming," and "barnraising."14 Many of these alternative metaphors are thought-provoking, and offer tempting vistas of philosophical inquiry, but their Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 4 existence does not really further the Misrepresentation Objection. At best, they show that "winning" and "losing" are not (always) the only way to conceptualise philosophy, not that it can't be so conceptualised. There is an ongoing argument whether philosophical argumentation is intrinsically adversarial. Robert Nozick asks "Why are philosophers intent on forcing others to believe things? Is that a nice way to behave toward someone?"15 He continues by advocating an explanatory model: "the original motivation for studying or entering philosophy ... is puzzlement, curiosity, a desire to understand, not a desire to produce uniformity of belief. Most people do not want to become thought-police. The philosophical goal of explanation rather than proof not only is morally better, it is more in accord with one's philosophical motivation."16 Likewise Dennett proposes a narrative alternative to argument "I have to use more artful methods. I have to tell a story. You don't want to be swayed by a story? Well, I know you won't be swayed by a formal argument; you won't even listen to a formal argument for my conclusion, so I start where I have to start."17 Other philosophers have advocated other alternatives to argument, such as close reading.18 Ironically enough, the critics of adversariality have made a strong case. (This is ironic, but not inconsistent: they are arguing that philosophy should not be conducted through arguments, not that it cannot be. This is, as it were, the argument to end all arguments: if they win, there will be no more arguing.) But no one disputes that philosophy has been conducted adversarially, whether or not it might (sometimes or always) be better conducted some other way. And with adversariality come losers. Vicious Adversariality So it seems that we are stuck with the losers. What can we do to make the best of them? That is, how do we avoid creating mere losers and how do we make life no more uncomfortable than necessary for real losers? These two questions are closely related-if the cost of being a real loser is too great, we incentivise people to try to win at all costs, even when they are in the wrong. And if they somehow succeed in winning when they should have lost, theirs is the hollow victory of the mere winner, which makes the other party mere losers. To see how adversariality can be done well, it may help to look at an example of it being done badly. Perhaps the best known example of vicious adversariality in philosophy comes from Norman Swartz's celebrated essay "Philosophy as a Blood Sport." He recounts an audience member at a paper at a 1965 APA meeting responding to the speaker as follows: "You have got it all wrong. I am going to tell you what you should have said. Then, when I have said that, I will leave this room because I do not care how you will reply."19 There's no excuse for this sort of bad behaviour, but it is notable that Swartz's blowhard is at his most obnoxious not when he is at his most adversarial, Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 5 but when he is at his least adversarial: when he refuses to listen to a reply and leaves the room. This is an extreme refusal to discharge his dialectical responsibility: what one may call the Eric Cartman move-"Screw you guys, I'm going home." (Of course, the audience were presumably glad to see the back of him-but only because his ghastly personality outweighed his ghastly arguing.) It is also what we earlier saw, in a more benign mode, from Dennett. Indeed, a reviewer of the book in which the quoted passage occurs refers to it as "an uncharacteristic paroxysm of Nixonian churlishness."20 "From time to time," the reviewer continues, "Dennett seems to give up on the possibility of rational discourse with his readership. Sometimes, he preaches to the converted. ... Elsewhere, he shouts at the unconvertible."21 This suggests that non-adversariality is itself vicious, as a refusal to meet dialectical obligations. Adversariality is not always appropriate, but at least there seem to be cases of vicious non-adversariality just as there are cases of vicious adversariality. I wish to focus on a specific argument against adversariality, from which I believe we can draw a useful message (although perhaps not that intended by its author). Daniel Cohen proposes the following analogy to suggest that the best approach to argument is non-adversarial: The Noble Chess Player: It is the final match of a chess tournament between two intensely competitive grandmasters. One is an older, distinguished player who has devoted his whole life to the game of chess and the pursuit of the championship. He has risen to the highest ranks in the world, but he has fallen just shy of the top on several previous occasions. This may be his last chance. His opponent is much younger, but the defending champion. She is brilliant, even audacious, but sometimes erratic ... Now, at a crucial juncture in play, the young champion is about to make a daring but in fact very flawed move. The older player sees, leans forward, and whispers, "Don't do it." He pauses, then whispers again, this time through tears in his eyes because he realizes what he is doing "Don't do it. You have a much stronger move over there. It will be a better game, a more interesting game, a worthy game."22 The Noble Chess Player may be a fine human being, but he's a terrible chess player: he's just thrown the game! However, his philosophical counterpart, who makes a similar suggestion to a dialectical opponent, is not a terrible arguer. This disanalogy suggests for Cohen that competitive sport is a poor model for argument. But there are important differences between the two contexts, not least that there is no truth of the matter in a chess game. Hence all losers at chess are real losers and all winners real winners. The Noble Chess Player risks forfeiting the game by suggesting the better move; his philosophical counterpart would only risk forfeiting the chance of becoming a mere winner, a hollow sort of victory.23 Worse, in the philosophical case, mere winning rules out the Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 6 possibility of real winning. So if the philosopher wants to compete for the true prize, pointing out the opponent's error is tactically astute. Dual to the Noble Chess Player, we may consider the equally implausible Ignoble Engineer who seeks to win engineering arguments at any cost, regardless of the truth of the case. Swartz reports on the conspicuous absence of Ignoble Engineers from the visiting speaker series at the General Electric Research Laboratory he witnessed as a student intern: "the discussions were invariably, and wholly, given over to trying to enhance, and make use of, one another's work, to a cooperativeness, and selflessness that was natural, easy, and uninhibited. No one tried to "score any points" off anybody else; no one tried to attack any other person's work."24 That's not to say that the contrast Swartz observes between the APA and General Electric is attributable solely to the superior virtue of engineers as compared to philosophers. Perhaps engineers, at least at their own seminars, are seldom sufficiently provoked. Imagine that by some farcical mischance an invitation to the seminar went astray and the engineers were treated to a discussion of how electrical charge is socially constructed or a presentation on the perpetual motion machine the speaker had constructed in his garage. Indeed, what makes the Ignoble Engineer implausible is the high likelihood of being found out: such a character would be exposed as a real loser pretty quickly. So how do we accelerate the nonsense-exposing process in philosophy? Certainly not by reducing adversariality-but not by needless acrimony either. Virtuous Adversariality The positive part of this programme is where there is most to say, but also where I shall say least. In part this is because I think I have gone on long enough. More relevantly, this has been a talk about losers, so it would be out of place to say too much about the winners. Nonetheless, although there is a great deal of work that remains to be done, some substantial progress has already been made, and I wish to close by pointing towards it. Ian James Kidd, who has written extensively on virtuous adversariality, summarises the problem as that of how to avoid what we may call the Three Bs: "bullying, bias, and bastards."25 But how is that to be done? It might be tempting to lay down a set of detailed rules for the conduct of philosophical discourse. Some people have attempted as much. But I think that Nozick is at least right in saying that "Most people do not [go into philosophy] to become thought-police."26 Any project of this sort risks blocking innovation in philosophical argument and imposing a heavy burden on the well-intentioned, while being essentially unenforceable against the ill-intentioned. Instead of such onerous and impractical schemes, I contend that we need to inculcate dispositions towards good thinking, that is intellectual virtues. A full catalogue of such virtues would be a Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 7 substantial undertaking, but we have already seen some of them at work: such as willingness to engage in argument and respect for other arguers.27 Conclusion Without losers there wouldn't be any winning. Without determined losers, losers who make as strong a case as they can for their losing positions, there wouldn't be any winning worthy of the name. It is seldom the case that losers are wrong about everything. Nonetheless, arguments for losing propositions often receive scant attention once it is clear that they have lost. It can be worth revisiting the losing side of arguments to retrieve these insights, as I hope to have demonstrated in a small way this evening. Lastly, unless we lead exceedingly unadventurous or improbably successful philosophical careers, we are bound to be losers ourselves often enough. Sheer self-interest should lead us to require that they be treated well! So, in closing, let's hear it for the losers!28 Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 8 Endnotes 1 Why? Because it can be hard to say whether or not an arguer has met a criterion for winning an argument if there are only one or two people present. (And, of course, if I were to lose an argument to myself, I would also be the winner!) 2 I am using desert in a narrow sense, in which an arguer only deserves to lose if objectively wrong. By contrast, one might say that an arguer deserves to lose if the current evidence does not favour their position, even if in fact they're right. Perhaps in this sense Aristarchus deserved to lose to Ptolemy, since the former had little evidence for heliocentrism. But in the relevant sense, Aristarchus was still a (mere) loser, albeit an uncommonly prescient one. 3 We may also identify Gettier losers, who are in the wrong but lose only because they argue badly (or because the audience is incompetent), and Gettier winners, who are in the right but win only because their opponents argue badly (or because the audience is incompetent). Gettier winning is real winning, since the winner is in the right, but it does not represent evidence that the winner is in the right, as real winning otherwise would. 4 My point here is only that holdouts have no veto on consensus, not that they have no other virtues. As John Stuart Mill remarked, "the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service." J. S. Mill, On Liberty, in Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume 18, ed. J. M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 269. 5 Timothy Williamson, The Philosophy of Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), 280. 6 Williamson, The Philosophy of Philosophy, 291. 7 Williamson cites the philosophy of possibility and necessity and the philosophy of truth as areas where technical developments in recent decades have rendered some otherwise attractive positions untenable (Williamson, The Philosophy of Philosophy, 280). 8 Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 12. 9 That is, the opponents would be real losers if the audience scores the argument for Dennett, as it would seem that they should if the situation is as Dennett describes. If the opponents refuse to accept the audience's verdict, perhaps we might best describe them as sore losers. (However, Dennett's opponents would be mere winners if their silence unaccountably convinced the audience.) 10 John Forrester, "Professor Peter Lipton: Razor-sharp Cambridge University Philosopher of Science," The Independent (January 8, 2008). Available online at: professor-peter-lipton-razor-sharp-cambridgeuniversity-philosopher-of-science-769140.html. Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 9 11 One way of developing this objection might be to distinguish two senses of winning (and losing). Winning a contest and winning a trophy are different sorts of winning (even if the trophy goes to the winner of the contest). Thus Erik Krabbe maintains that, although "only one of the parties can win in the victory sense of 'winning' . . . both parties may win in the benefit sense" (Erik C. W. Krabbe, "Winning and Losing for Arguers," Argument Cultures: Proceedings of OSSA 09 [2009]: 11). My focus has been exclusively confined to the victory sense of winning (or of losing). I agree with Geoff Goddu that this is the sense relevant to adversarial argumentation (Geoff C. Goddu, Commentary on Erik C. W. Krabbe's "Winning and Losing for Arguers," Argument Cultures: Proceedings of OSSA 09 [2009]: 3), which I address directly in the next two sections. 12 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980). 13 David J. Hauser and Norbert Schwarz, "The War on Prevention: Bellicose Cancer Metaphors Hurt (Some) Prevention Intentions," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41.1 (2015): 66. 14 Daniel H. Cohen, "Argument Is War ... and War Is Hell: Philosophy, Education, and Metaphors for Argumentation," Informal Logic 17.2 (1995): 182 ff. 15 Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 5. 16 Nozick, Philosophical Explanations, 13. 17 Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, 12. 18 See Andrea Nye, Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic (London: Routledge, 1990). For discussion, see Trudy Govier, The Philosophy of Argument (Newport News, VA: Vale Press, 1999), 59. See also Phyllis Rooney, "When Philosophical Argumentation Impedes Social and Political Progress," Journal of Social Philosophy 43.3 (2012): 317-333; Catherine Hundleby, "Aggression, Politeness, and Abstract Adversaries," Informal Logic, 33.3 (2013): 238-262. 19 Norman Swartz, "Philosophy as a Blood Sport," Simon Fraser University (April 9, 1994). Available online at: . 20 Nicholas S. Thompson, "Has Dennett Given Up on Argument? A Review of Daniel C. Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea," Behavior and Philosophy 24.2 (1996): 171. 21 Thompson, "Has Dennet Given Up on Argument?" 171. 22 Daniel H. Cohen, "Missed Opportunities in Argument Evaluation." Proceedings of ISSA 2014: Eighth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (2015): 258. 23 Or, if the philosopher was in the right, a Gettier winner. But, although a Gettier win is a real win, it does not provide the prima facie evidence that one is in the right that (non-Gettier) real winning does. So it would still be a hollow victory. 24 Swartz, "Philosophy as a Blood Sport." Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 10 25 Ian James Kidd, "Epistemic Humility: Virtue, Argumentation, Status, and Bias," presented to EIDOS, Durham University, 2015; see also Ian James Kidd, "Intellectual Humility, Confidence, and Argumentation," Topoi 35.2 (2016): 395-402. 26 Nozick, Philosophical Explanations, 13. 27 I have discussed some virtues of argument at greater length elsewhere (Andrew Aberdein, "Virtue in Argument," Argumentation 24.2 (2010): 165-179). 28 I am grateful to many people-none of them losers!-for their comments on an earlier version of this paper, including Lilian Bermejo-Luque, Iovan Drehe, José Gascón, James Franklin, Nicholas Joll, Ian James Kidd, Moti Mizrahi, Steven Patterson, Alan Rosiene, and Rafał Urbaniak. References Aberdein, Andrew. "Virtue in Argument." Argumentation 24.2 (2010): 165-179. Cohen, Daniel H. "Argument Is War ... and War Is Hell: Philosophy, Education, and Metaphors for Argumentation." Informal Logic 17.2 (1995): 177-188. Cohen, Daniel H. "Missed Opportunities in Argument Evaluation." Proceedings of ISSA 2014: Eighth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (2015): 257-265. Dennett, Daniel C. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Touchstone, 1995. Forrester, John. "Professor Peter Lipton: Razor-sharp Cambridge University Philosopher of Science." The Independent (2008). Available online at . Goddu, Geoff C. Commentary on Erik C. W. Krabbe's "Winning and Losing for Arguers." Argument Cultures: Proceedings of OSSA 09 (2009): 1-4. Govier, Trudy. The Philosophy of Argument. Newport News, VA: Vale Press, 1999. Hauser, David J. and Norbert Schwarz. "The War on Prevention: Bellicose Cancer Metaphors Hurt Florida Philosophical Review Volume XVI, Issue 1, Winter 2016 11 (Some) Prevention Intentions." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 41.1 (2015): 66-77. Hundleby, Catherine. "Aggression, Politeness, and Abstract Adversaries." Informal Logic 33.3 (2013): 238-262. Kidd, Ian James. "Epistemic Humility: Virtue, Argumentation, Status, and Bias." Presentation to EIDOS, Durham University, 2015. Kidd, Ian James. "Intellectual Humility, Confidence, and Argumentation." Topoi 35.2 (2016): 395402. Krabbe, Erik C. W. "Winning and Losing for Arguers." Argument Cultures: Proceedings of OSSA 09 (2009): 1-12. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Vol. 18, J. M. Robson, ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977. Nozick, Robert. Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Nye, Andrea. Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic. London: Routledge, 1990. Rooney, Phyllis. "When Philosophical Argumentation Impedes Social and Political Progress." Journal of Social Philosophy 43.3 (2012): 317-333. Swartz, Norman. "Philosophy as a Blood Sport." Simon Fraser University (1994). Available at: . Thompson, Nicholas S. "Has Dennett Given Up on Argument? A Review of Daniel C. Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea." Behavior and Philosophy 24.2 (1996): 169-173. Williamson, Timothy. The Philosophy of Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "2020", "datestamp": 1581086018000, "description": "Virtue theories have lately enjoyed a modest vogue in the study of argumentation, echoing the success of more far-reaching programmes in ethics and epistemology. Virtue theories of argumentation (VTA) comprise several conceptually distinct projects, including the provision of normative foundations for argument evaluation and a renewed focus on the character of good arguers. Perhaps the boldest of these is the pursuit of the fully satisfying argument, the argument that contributes to human flourishing. This project has an independently developed epistemic analogue: eudaimonistic virtue epistemology. Both projects stress the importance of widening the range of cognitive goals beyond, respectively, cogency and knowledge; both projects emphasize social factors, the right sort of community being indispensable for the cultivation of the intellectual virtues necessary to each project. This paper proposes a unification of the two projects by arguing that the intellectual good life sought by eudaimonistic virtue epistemologists is best realized through the articulation of an account of argumentation that contributes to human flourishing.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEEA-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Eudaimonistic Argumentation", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION ANDREW ABERDEIN∗ Abstract. Virtue theories of argumentation comprise several conceptually distinct projects. Perhaps the boldest of these is the pursuit of the fully satisfying argument, the argument that contributes to human flourishing. This project has an independently developed epistemic analogue: eudaimonistic virtue epistemology. Both projects stress the importance of widening the range of cognitive goals beyond, respectively, cogency and knowledge; both projects emphasize social factors, the right sort of community being indispensable for the cultivation of the intellectual virtues necessary to each project. This paper proposes a unification of the two projects by arguing that the intellectual good life sought by eudaimonistic virtue epistemologists is best realized through the articulation of an account of argumentation that contributes to human flourishing. Virtue theories have lately enjoyed a modest vogue in the study of argumentation, echoing the success of more far-reaching programmes in ethics and epistemology. Virtue theories of argumentation (VTA) comprise several conceptually distinct projects, including the provision of normative foundations for argument evaluation and a renewed focus on the character of good arguers. One of the boldest of such projects is the pursuit of the fully satisfying argument, the argument that contributes to human flourishing. An analogous epistemic project has been pursued independently as eudaimonistic virtue epistemology. The two projects have much in common: both projects stress the importance of widening the range of cognitive goals beyond, respectively, cogency and knowledge; both projects emphasize social factors, the right sort of community being indispensable for the cultivation of intellectual virtues necessary to each project. This paper seeks to unite the two projects, by arguing that the intellectual good life sought by eudaimonistic virtue epistemologists is best realized through the articulation of an account of argumentation that contributes to human flourishing. In the first section I survey VTA, with particular attention to the treatment of the fully satisfying argument. In the second section, I turn to eudaimonistic virtue epistemology, and discuss how it may be extended to encompass VTA. In the ∗School of Arts & Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL. Date: April 15, 2019. 1 2 ANDREW ABERDEIN third section, I address the specific issue of adversariality, arguing that the picture proposed in the previous section promises a resolution of a long-contested debate. Lastly, I conclude with a section briefly exploring the prospects for a combined eudaimonistic project. 1. Dan Cohen has said that the "core ideas" of VTA "can fit on a couple of bumper stickers" (Cohen, 2013, 482): For a Good Argument, Argue Well Arguing Well Requires Good Arguers In other words, VTA involves two successive steps away from much orthodox argumentation theory: firstly, a shift from the investigation and analysis of arguments as texts, broadly construed, to an appraisal of arguments as processes with participants; secondly, a concentration on the character of the participants-an expectation "that the admirable conduct of arguers ought to stem from virtues, inculcated habits of mind, rather than be accidental or occasional manifestations" (ibid.). In many respects, the first of these steps is the more consequential: the emphasis on virtue is arguably a more modest move than the shift of focus onto arguers from arguments. For that matter, just as not all virtue ethicists follow Aristotle in linking virtues to eudaimonia, neither do proponents of VTA necessarily see any analogous connection. Nonetheless, this connection does suggest a possible third step for VTA: from the character of arguers to the pursuit of human flourishing through the optimal conduct of argument. Here are some of the virtues that Cohen focuses on: willingness to listen to others; willingness to modify one's own position; willingness to question the obvious; willingness to engage in serious argumentation (Cohen, 2005, 64). He situates them as Aristotelian means: extremes of excess or deficiency on their various axes comprise the corresponding vices. In my own attempt at a list of argumentational virtues, I complicate Cohen's picture with subheadings, including EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 3 some much more familiar virtues, many of them drawn from what is known as responsibilist virtue epistemology:1 (1) willingness to engage in argumentation (a) being communicative (b) faith in reason (c) intellectual courage (i) sense of duty (2) willingness to listen to others (a) intellectual empathy (i) insight into persons (ii) insight into problems (iii) insight into theories (b) fairmindedness (i) justice (ii) fairness in evaluating the arguments of others (iii) open-mindedness in collecting and appraising evidence (c) recognition of reliable authority (d) recognition of salient facts (i) sensitivity to detail (3) willingness to modify one's own position (a) common sense (b) intellectual candour (c) intellectual humility (d) intellectual integrity (i) honour (ii) responsibility (iii) sincerity (4) willingness to question the obvious (a) appropriate respect for public opinion (b) autonomy (c) intellectual perseverance (i) diligence (ii) care (iii) thoroughness (Aberdein, 2010, 175). One way in which Cohen has framed his approach to VTA that differs from mine is that he asks what a maximally good argument would look like: "What would make an argument satisfying to the point that the participants could say at the end, 'Now that was a good argument'?" (Cohen, 2013, 477). He stresses that "The notion of an argument that is fully satisfying to its participants includes more than epistemic gains. It has to at least extend to cognitive gains more broadly, 1Virtue epistemologists are often distinguished between responsibilists, whose virtues mostly look like Aristotelian character virtues, and reliabilists, whose virtues are less obviously virtue-like: they are reliable cognitive processes (see, for example, Battaly, 2008, 644). 4 ANDREW ABERDEIN including emotional, ethical, and possibly aesthetic aspects as well" (Cohen, 2013, 478). He also notes that, while the virtues of argument may be necessary for the fully satisfying argument, they are not sufficient: "There are necessary conditions beyond the scope of the behavior and characters of the arguers, including the subject matter, the context, and the personal chemistry of the arguers" (Cohen and Miller, 2016, 459). Other argumentation theorists, less directly associated with VTA, have also said some similar things. For example, Kathryn Norlock has proposed Nel Noddings' "receptivity" as a virtue of argument somewhat analogous to Cohen's willingness to listen, a mean between the uncritical acceptance of others' views and listening only in a defensive and uncharitable manner (Norlock, 2014, 2). Saliently, Norlock observes that for Noddings receptivity "seems to be essential to living fully as a person" (Noddings, 1984, 35). As Norlock notes, this suggests "the necessity of receptivity to eudaimonia" (ibid.). Moira Howes also asks "does happiness increase the objectivity of arguers", happiness here being thought of as not just subjective, but also eudaimonic: Argumentative communities that support subjective and eudaimonic happiness will have an easier time strengthening these factors. In such contexts, arguers and audiences are likely to find it easier to change their minds in the face of evidence and imagine diverse, multifaceted audiences. They are more likely to be resilient and assertive in the face of negative commentary and find it easier to disagree respectfully. Overall, we can expect such communities to support a deeper commitment to acquiring an empirically adequate understanding of reality (Howes, 2014, 8). So there are reasons to expect eudaimonia to have positive dividends in argumentational practice. Sharon Bailin, responding to Howes, introduces an important clarification: Eudaimonia, in the Aristotelian sense, comes in fulfilling our human purposes, i.e., living in accordance with reason. Thus, on this account, critical thinking (and hence objectivity) is constitutive of eudaimonic happiness. So it's not so much that eudaimonia is EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 5 a means to the end of objectivity in argumentation. It is rather that part of what it means to live well is to engage in rational pursuits and rational exchanges (Bailin, 2014, 3). Arguing well is not just a ladder you climb up to get to a state of eudaimonia and may then throw away; it is actually an indispensable part of the goal you are seeking: critical thinking as a constitutive component of the good life. The version of VTA that Cohen and I have defended may be seen as a "virtues in" account: in other words, possession of various virtues might be necessary to being a good arguer. The converse of this account is implicit in Bailin's idea that being a good arguer might be constitutive of what it is to lead the good life, and therefore that arguing badly could potentially corrupt and corrode your capacity to lead the good life. This idea has also been defended by Sherman Clark, a professor of law who has been writing about virtues in the context of legal persuasion for some years (Clark, 2003, 2011, 2013): the links between VTA and such closely related work in virtue jurisprudence are seldom addressed but hold great promise. Clark uses an example of an arguer with a perfectly legitimate goal of which they want to persuade some audience-his example concerns transport policy. Their view is perfectly respectable in itself, they're not secret racists who are trying to convince people of racist things for racist reasons; they just have a point of view on transport policy. But they might cynically appreciate that, if they add a touch of racist dog whistle to their transport policy arguments, they could win over some other people who were less admirable than themselves.2 But that would still be a bad thing to do. It might be, in the short term at least, successful; they might actually win some people over. But even if it is a good argument in that very reductive sense, it is certainly not a virtuous argument. As Clark says, You might well choose to eschew that argument. Why? In part because you might consider it simply wrong to appeal to racism. But you might also quite sensibly realize that by making that sort of argument, even and perhaps especially if you did so indirectly and subtly, you would not just be appealing to but also helping to construct and reinforce fear and prejudice (Clark, 2011, 852). 2For a discussion of dog whistling in the context of VTA, see (Aberdein, 2018, 20.). 6 ANDREW ABERDEIN What makes that kind of argument bad is not just a pious sense that one shouldn't be doing these kind of things, it's that you're actually making the world worse by indulging in such arguments and by encouraging other people to do likewise. That's the point that Clark is making, drawing on the idea that argument plays a role in constructing character: The basic claim, however, is this: persuasion succeeds, if it succeeds, not by force of abstract logic, but by finding or making space in the constitutive world views-the beliefs, understanding, and priorities-of those we persuade. Unless we believe that the beliefs and understandings and priorities of those we persuade are always fully developed and permanently fixed, we should recognize that when we persuade we do not simply find, but, crucially, sometimes also may make space in their world views. When we persuade, we also teach; when we teach, we may construct. If so, we should think about what we may be doing to people when we persuade them (Clark, 2013, 1376). This reverses the causal relationship between argument and character usually proposed in VTA. Clark is not just saying that you have to have the right sort of character in order to produce the right sort of arguments; he is saying you have to produce the right sort of arguments in order to have the right sort of character. When you succeed in persuading people of things, you succeed in some small way in shaping their character. If their character gets shaped by a lot of bad arguments then that will not lead anywhere good. 2. A very specific project within virtue epistemology is what Britt Brogaard has called "eudaimonistic epistemology" (Brogaard, 2014a,b,c). Her proposal is that we can do epistemology successfully with a fundamental norm that emphasizes intellectual flourishing, rather than the sorts of things that fundamental epistemic norms usually emphasize, such as truth: EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 7 Truth Norm: You ought to maximize your true beliefs and minimize your false beliefs (Brogaard, 2014c, 139).3 Brogaard's point is not that we should throw away the truth norm; on the contrary, we shouldn't say things that aren't true, and we should expect our norms to require that. But the truth norm need not be the fundamental norm. For Brogaard, "the fundamental epistemic norm is not to hinder intellectual flourishing" (Brogaard, 2014a, 15). We should still endorse the truth norm, but because the truth norm is in general conducive to intellectual flourishing, not because it is a fundamental norm. This general principle can be cashed out in specific instances. Brogaard suggests the following: Intellectual Flourishing (belief): You should believe p only if believing p does not hinder intellectual flourishing. Intellectual Flourishing (assertion): You should assert p only if asserting p does not hinder intellectual flourishing. Intellectual Flourishing (action): You should treat p as a reason for action only if treating p as a reason for action does not hinder intellectual flourishing (Brogaard, 2014a, 15). There is a much bigger story to be explored here as to whether or not this actually works. Brogaard has offered a full defence, as I shall not. She suggests some issues in epistemology, such as the value of knowledge, where treating the intellectual flourishing norm as more fundamental than the truth norm has clear advantages. Indeed, there are some very good reasons why we should not want to build our intellectual lives merely upon the acquisition of true beliefs. Were I to begin obsessively counting leaves I would acquire any number of true beliefs in short order, but that does not sound like any sort of good life (Brogaard, 2014a, 16). Since such behaviour would give me true beliefs at the cost of inhibiting any prospect of intellectual flourishing, it would be ruled in by the truth norm but ruled out by the intellectual flourishing norm. Just as Cohen observes that argumentational virtues are necessary but not sufficient for a fully satisfying argument, Brogaard also notes that virtues alone do not suffice for intellectual flourishing: "While virtuous character traits and 3Brogaard credits versions of this view to numerous epistemologists, including Ralph Wedgwood, Tyler Burge, and Christopher Peacocke. 8 ANDREW ABERDEIN well-functioning cognitive faculties and abilities can lead to a good intellectual life, there are many cases in which true belief flows from virtuous character traits or well-functioning cognitive faculties and abilities but in which the agent is not on the right track intellectually speaking" (Brogaard, 2014b, 97). In this respect, of course, both authors echo Aristotle (and differ from Plato or the Stoics) in treating eudaimonia as also dependent on other external goods, whose presence or absence may be a matter of luck (Hursthouse and Pettigrove, 2018, §2.1). Thus Brogaard observes that "Just as we cannot flourish, in Aristotle's sense, in solitude, so we cannot flourish intellectually outside an intellectual community" (Brogaard, 2014c, 140). Likewise Cohen avers that "The wrong time or place can be as detrimental to the success of an argument as bad arguers. But so can the wrong arguers, no matter how good they are" (Cohen, 2013, 484). With only minor modifications, Brogaard's norm of intellectual flourishing can produce norms for argumentation. Her specific instances of the norm for belief and assertion apply without modification to fundamental actions within argumentation: the acceptance of conclusions and advancing of premisses. Indeed, assuming practical reasoning is included within the scope of argumentation, then her action instance might also find an unmodified application. But Brogaard does not contend that the instances that she specifies exhaust the possible applications of her fundamental norm. It is entirely within the spirit of her programme to propose further instances. For example: Intellectual Flourishing (reasons): You should treat p as a reason for accepting q only if treating p as a reason for accepting q does not hinder intellectual flourishing Connoisseurs of recent debates on the normativity of logic may recognise this instance of the norm as at least an echo of what has come to be known as a "bridge principle" (MacFarlane, 2004). That is, it bridges the two independent realms of logic and of normativity. Specifically, it may be seen as a possible way of spelling out the consequent in a generic bridge principle of the form "If p ⇒ q, then (normative claim about believing p and q)" (cf. Dutilh Novaes, 2015, 591; MacFarlane, 2004, 6).4 However, since argumentation, at least according to VTA, 4At least if "⇒" is understood as encompassing defeasible as well as deductive inference. I follow Dutilh Novaes in broadening MacFarlane's definition in this manner (Dutilh Novaes, 2015, 590). EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 9 is an essentially dialogical activity, it seems appropriate that the instances of the norm of intellectual flourishing should be expressed in terms of a relationship between agents. For example, where a (perhaps defeasible) inference of the form p⇒ q obtains: Intellectual Flourishing (proponent): If Opponent has granted p, then Proponent should put forward q (and require Opponent to grant it) only if doing so does not hinder intellectual flourishing. Intellectual Flourishing (opponent): If Opponent has granted p, and Proponent puts forward q, then Opponent should either grant q or retract his endorsement of p, depending on which hinders intellectual flourishing the least. These two instances are adapted from Catarina Dutilh Novaes's work extending John MacFarlane's account of bridge principles to dialogical contexts (Dutilh Novaes, 2015, 604 ff.). They may perhaps be seen as special cases of the reasons instance of the intellectual flourishing norm. Although this is the barest sketch of how one might apply a eudaimonistic epistemology to thinking about how arguments work, it should at least demonstrate that such an application appears worthy of further enquiry. 3. As a test of this approach, I want to explore whether such an account can be made to work as a way of tackling the issue of adversariality. This is an important issue in argumentation, and perhaps an especially sharply focused issue in virtue argumentation, because there are a number of people who say that the adversariality of arguments is a problem. This stance is perhaps most familiar as a feminist critique but is not exclusively so (Rooney, 2010; Hundleby, 2013; Steenhagen, 2016). Such critics maintain that the way in which arguments tend to be couched, perhaps especially in philosophy, but in argumentation more generally, is needlessly damaging, because it is framed in adversarial terms. Trudy Govier has a response in terms of "minimum adversariality" (Govier, 1999, 55). Scott Aiken has refined his own version of this position over several iterations; here is a recent version: 10 ANDREW ABERDEIN an arguer taking a critical line with one's own commitments is, for the purposes of the argument, both an opponent and an ally. The thought is that without the role-related duties of critical dialogue, there are moves of critical probing that must be performed that are, in their dialectical function, oppositional. However, this is yet in the service of a broader cooperative goal of dialectical testing of reasons and acceptability (Aikin, 2017, 16). In other words, if you are concerned that we keep framing people as opponents, remember that they are also allies. Here is a similar approach to the same idea from Dutilh Novaes, that she frames hopefully as "virtuous adversariality", a strong cooperative, virtuous component which regulates and constrains the adversarial component. . . . The picture that emerges is of philosophy as ongoing conversation between interlocutors who respectfully disagree with each other. Disagreement forces them to provide the best possible arguments to support their respective positions, and it is from the comparison between the best possible arguments for competing positions that more robust philosophical theories emerge. Interestingly, Grice's famous conversational maxims offer sensible principles on how to conduct such philosophical conversations, offering the right balance between adversariality and cooperation (Dutilh Novaes, 2014). And, as a reminder, here are Grice's famous conversational maxims: Quantity: (1) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). (2) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true. (1) Do not say what you believe to be false. (2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. Relation: Be relevant. Manner: Be perspicuous. (1) Avoid obscurity of expression. (2) Avoid ambiguity. EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 11 (3) Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). (4) Be orderly (Grice, 1975, 45 f.). Most of these are covered by the assertion instance of Brogaard's intellectual flourishing norm: You should assert p only if asserting p does not hinder intellectual flourishing. Indeed, Grice himself subordinates all of these maxims to a single norm: Cooperative Principle: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (Grice, 1975, 45). It takes no great leap to see this as consistent with intellectual flourishing, at least as regards conversational exchanges. Certainly persistent and unmotivated disregard for this principle would seem likely to hinder intellectual flourishing. 4. Most discussion of VTA has emphasized the "virtues in" side, the contention that we need virtues of a certain type in order to argue the right way. However, the case I have made here is that we should also hope for "virtues out". Arguing well requires good, that is, virtuous arguers; but also arguing well, that is virtuously, is required for good arguers. If there are to be good arguers, there will need to be arguing well. More broadly, if intellectual flourishing cannot be attained in solitude, then there must be a community of interacting agents, whose potential for intellectual flourishing will only be realized individually if it is realized collectively. In any practical scenario, the interactions between these agents will exhibit disagreements and differences of opinion; that is, the basis for arguments. But these arguments ought to be fully satisfying ones, if the community is to continue to flourish. So, an indispensable component of any intellectually flourishing community will be fully satisfying arguments, which, if the treatment above is correct, will comply with instances of the intellectual flourishing norm. More broadly still, the satisfactory resolution of ethical debates will require such a community. Hence, if there are to be good people in general then there must be good argument. 12 ANDREW ABERDEIN References Aberdein, Andrew. 2010. Virtue in argument. Argumentation 24(2): 165-179. Aberdein, Andrew. 2018. Virtuous norms for visual arguers. Argumentation 32(1): 1-23. Aikin, Scott F. 2017. Fallacy theory, the negativity problem, and minimal dialectical adversariality. Cogency 9(1): 7-19. Bailin, Sharon. 2014. Commentary on: Moira Howes's "Does happiness increase the objectivity of arguers?". In Virtues of Argumentation: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), May 22-25, 2013, eds. Dima Mohammed and Marcin Lewiński. Windsor, ON: OSSA. Battaly, Heather. 2008. Virtue epistemology. Philosophy Compass 3(4): 639-663. Brogaard, Berit. 2014a. Intellectual flourishing as the fundamental epistemic norm. In Epistemic Norms: New Essays on Action, Belief, and Assertion, eds. John Turri and Clayton Littlejohn, 11-31. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brogaard, Berit. 2014b. Towards a eudaimonistic virtue epistemology. In Virtue Epistemology Naturalized: Bridges Between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, ed. Abrol Fairweather, 83-102. Cham: Springer. Brogaard, Berit. 2014c. Wide-scope requirements and the ethics of belief. In The Ethics of Belief: Individual and Social, eds. Jonathan Matheson and Rico Vitz, 130-145. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Broome, John. 1999. Normative requirements. Ratio 12(4): 398-419. Clark, Sherman J. 2003. The character of persuasion. Ave Maria Law Review 1(1): 61-79. Clark, Sherman J. 2011. What we make matter. Michigan Law Review 109(6): 849-862. Clark, Sherman J. 2013. To teach and persuade. Pepperdine Law Review 39(5): 1371-1399. Cohen, Daniel H. 2005. Arguments that backfire. In The Uses of Argument, eds. David Hitchcock and Daniel Farr, 58-65. Hamilton, ON: OSSA. Cohen, Daniel H. 2013. Virtue, in context. Informal Logic 33(4): 471-485. Cohen, Daniel H. and George Miller. 2016. What virtue argumentation theory misses: The case of compathetic argumentation. Topoi 35(2): 451-460. Dutilh Novaes, Catarina. 2014. Virtuous adversariality as a model for philosophical inquiry. Presented at Edinburgh Women in Philosophy Group Spring Workshop on Philosophical Methodologies. Dutilh Novaes, Catarina. 2015. A dialogical, multi-agent account of the normativity of logic. Dialectica 69(4): 587-609. Govier, Trudy. 1999. The Philosophy of Argument. Newport News, VA: Vale Press. Grice, Paul. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Syntax and Semantics, eds. Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan, vol. 3, 41-58. New York, NY: Academic Press. Howes, Moira. 2014. Does happiness increase the objectivity of arguers? In Virtues of Argumentation: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), May 22-25, 2013, eds. Dima Mohammed and Marcin Lewiński. Windsor, ON: OSSA. Hundleby, Catherine. 2013. Aggression, politeness, and abstract adversaries. Informal Logic 33(2): 238-262. EUDAIMONISTIC ARGUMENTATION 13 Hursthouse, Rosalind and Glen Pettigrove. 2018. Virtue ethics. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: C.S.L.I. MacFarlane, John. 2004. In what sense (if any) is logic normative for thought. Online at . Noddings, Nel. 1984. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Norlock, Kathryn J. 2014. Receptivity as a virtue of (practitioners of) argumentation. In Virtues of Argumentation: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), May 22-25, 2013, eds. Dima Mohammed and Marcin Lewiński. Windsor, ON: OSSA. Rooney, Phyllis. 2010. Philosophy, adversarial argumentation, and embattled reason. Informal Logic 30(3): 203-234. Steenhagen, Maarten. 2016. Against adversarial discussion. Collingwood and British Idealism Studies 22(1): 87-112.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1588123640000, "description": "The traditional view of evidence in mathematics is that evidence is just proof and proof is just derivation. There are good reasons for thinking that this view should be rejected: it misrepresents both historical and current mathematical practice. Nonetheless, evidence, proof, and derivation are closely intertwined. This paper seeks to tease these concepts apart. It emphasizes the role of argumentation as a context shared by evidence, proofs, and derivations. The utility of argumentation theory, in general, and argumentation schemes, in particular, as a methodology for the study of mathematical practice is thereby demonstrated. Argumentation schemes represent an almost untapped resource for mathematics education. Notably, they provide a consistent treatment of rigorous and non-rigorous argumentation, thereby working to exhibit the continuity of reasoning in mathematics with reasoning in other areas. Moreover, since argumentation schemes are a comparatively mature methodology, there is a substantial body of existing work to draw upon, including some increasingly sophisticated software tools. Such tools have significant potential for the analysis and evaluation of mathematical argumentation. The first four sections of the paper address the relationships of evidence to proof, proof to derivation, argument to proof, and argument to evidence, respectively. The final section directly addresses some of the educational implications of an argumentation scheme account of mathematical reasoning.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEEPA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Evidence, Proofs, and Derivations", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS ANDREW ABERDEIN∗ Abstract. The traditional view of evidence in mathematics is that evidence is just proof and proof is just derivation. There are good reasons for thinking that this view should be rejected: it misrepresents both historical and current mathematical practice. Nonetheless, evidence, proof, and derivation are closely intertwined. This paper seeks to tease these concepts apart. It emphasizes the role of argumentation as a context shared by evidence, proofs, and derivations. The utility of argumentation theory, in general, and argumentation schemes, in particular, as a methodology for the study of mathematical practice is thereby demonstrated. Argumentation schemes represent an almost untapped resource for mathematics education. Notably, they provide a consistent treatment of rigorous and nonrigorous argumentation, thereby working to exhibit the continuity of reasoning in mathematics with reasoning in other areas. Moreover, since argumentation schemes are a comparatively mature methodology, there is a substantial body of existing work to draw upon, including some increasingly sophisticated software tools. Such tools have significant potential for the analysis and evaluation of mathematical argumentation. The first four sections of the paper address the relationships of evidence to proof, proof to derivation, argument to proof, and argument to evidence, respectively. The final section directly addresses some of the educational implications of an argumentation scheme account of mathematical reasoning. 1. Evidence versus Proof The traditional view of evidence in mathematics is that evidence is just proof. Donald Martin poses the question, 'What then does count as mathematical evidence? There is, of course, an obvious answer to the question of how one can come to know the truth of a mathematical proposition: namely, proof. Indeed, this may seem the only way to establish mathematical truth' (Martin, 1998, 216). However, as Martin acknowledges, there are good reasons for not accepting this view. Crucially, it does not comport with actual mathematical practice. Here, for example, is a short, melancholy narrative of an unsuccessful proof attempt, unusual only in being so self-contained. The mathematician Vašek Chvátal proposed as a conjecture a generalization of the well-known Sylvester-Gallai theorem. Unable to supply a proof, he comments that 'we present meagre evidence in support of this rash conjecture' (Chvátal, 2004, 175). However, the last lines of his published paper read: 'Received July 14, 2002, and in revised form April 14, 2003. Online publication December 31, 2003. Note added in proof. In September 2003 Xiaomin Chen proved Conjecture 3.2' (Chvátal, 2004, 195). Conjecture 3.2 is Chvátal's 'rash conjecture'; where Chvátal had evidence, Chen had proof. If proof were the only evidence ∗School of Arts & Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL. Date: April 4, 2019. Key words and phrases. argument; argumentation schemes; derivation; evidence; proof. Forthcoming in ZDM mathematics education 51(4), 2019. 1 2 ANDREW ABERDEIN there is in mathematics, then either Chvátal would have had nothing to say, or Chen nothing to add. Here is a more protracted exhibition of the use of evidence beyond proof in mathematical practice. One of the last publications of the celebrated mathematician (and Nobel laureate) John Nash was a collection of essays on open problems, edited in collaboration with Michael Rassias. The editors remark of their choice of problems that 'Some were chosen for their undoubtable importance and applicability, others because they constitute intriguing curiosities which remain unexplained mysteries on the basis of current knowledge and techniques, and some for more emotional reasons' (Nash and Rassias, 2016, vi). Their selection includes many of the best known open problems in mathematics, each discussed by a leading expert. Not every essay explicitly references the evidence for these conjectures, but many do. Here is a sample (boldface emphasis mine throughout; internal citations omitted): P versus NP: 'Of course, this gives even more dramatic evidence that GraphIso is not NP-complete: if it was, then all NP problems would be solvable in npolylog n time as well' (Aaronson, 2016, 20). Montgomery's Pair Correlation Conjecture: 'The agreement with the first million zeros is poor, but the agreement near zero number 1012 is close, near perfect near zero number 1016, and even better near zero number 1020. These results provide massive evidence for Montgomery's conjecture' (Barrett et al., 2016, 155). The Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture: 'Today, the numerical evidence in support of both the weak and full Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture is overwhelming, and probably more extensive than for any other conjecture in the history of mathematics' (Coates, 2016, 213). The Erdős-Szekeres Problem: 'The special cases A = I and A = {i1, in} correspond to minimal evidence for existence of an n-cup and an n-cap' (Morris and Soltan, 2016, 363). The Hadwiger-Nelson Problem: 'Ronald L. Graham . . . cites a theorem of Paul O'Donnell (see [34, 49]) showing the existence of 4-chromatic unitdistance graphs of arbitrarily large girth (Theorem 28 below) as "perhaps, the evidence that χ is at least 5."' (Soifer, 2016, 441). Erdős's Unit Distance Conjecture: 'There is no strong evidence supporting the assumption that such an example cannot exist' (Szemerédi, 2016, 468). Goldbach's Conjecture: This is the strongest evidence we have that for even n, r2(n) ∼ nS2(n)' (Vaughan, 2016, 486). The Hodge Conjecture: 'The following theorem proved in [7] is the best known evidence for the Hodge conjecture' (Voisin, 2016, 538). None of these examples of evidence refers to proof; indeed, in many of them the evidence is for a conjecture notable for being unproven. Nonetheless, we may see that mathematical evidence can be dramatic, massive, overwhelming, strong-or, conversely, minimal. But even overwhelming evidence falls short of proof. Notice also that evidence can diverge from proof on more than one dimension. Some of these cases fall short of proof since they are proofs of some weaker conjecture that provides bounds on the headline conjecture, or is otherwise suggestive of its truth (e.g. Hadwiger-Nelson, Hodge); others differ in kind, rather than degree, by offering numerical, that is empirical, evidence EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 3 (e.g. Montgomery, Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer). Nor are considerations of evidence short of proof confined to the contemplation of stubbornly unsolved problems. On the contrary, mathematicians must often consider such evidence when making decisions about their own careers and those of their students. Crucially, as James Franklin notes, every Ph.D. supervisor must ensure that the problems their students tackle are open, but likely to yield to a few years work (Franklin, 1987, 2). Similar considerations of evidence bear on grant awards, tenure decisions, and many other administrative aspects of mathematical practice. 2. Proof versus Derivation The 'standard view' of the relationship between informal, or everyday proof and derivation, its formal counterpart, is that 'informal proofs are just sloppy, incomplete versions of formal proofs' (Pawlowski and Urbaniak, 2018). On this account, the only proofs worthy of the name would either already be derivations or be rewritable as derivations in a more or less trivial manner. Nonetheless, it has lately become 'a common observation that the proofs that mathematicians write on blackboards and publish in journals are not like the derivations that appear as objects in proof theory' (Larvor, 2016, 401). However, it can be a challenge to pin down exactly where the divergence arises. Before going any further, I should clarify what I am not saying. Nothing in this paper is intended to contradict what is sometimes termed the Formalizability Thesis: that every proof can (in principle, at least) be formalized as a derivation.1 Crucially, the Formalizability Thesis is an existence claim: it states that for every proof there is a derivation. It makes no claim as to whether the derivation is known, or accessible, or surveyable. It does not require that the internal structure of a proof bear any resemblance to that of the corresponding derivation.2 It also makes no claim as to the metaphysical status of the relationship between the proof and the derivation. For present purposes it suffices to observe that accepting that there is a derivation for every proof is consistent with proofs and derivations being profoundly different entities and specifically does not entail that knowing a proof has any connection to knowing a derivation. The proof/derivation distinction has been drawn in multiple, conceptually distinct ways. I shall survey some of the most important-semantic/syntactic; normative/theoretical; act/object-before addressing how they are related. One influential account of the proof/derivation distinction situates it in the different manner of expression of proofs and derivations. Thus Yehuda Rav, in a highly influential paper, declares that he will 'understand by proof a conceptual proof of customary mathematical discourse, having an irreducible semantic content, and distinguish it from derivation, which is a syntactic object of some formal system' (Rav, 1999, 11). Likewise, Jody Azzouni draws the distinction between 'formal derivations, which occur in artificial languages, and mathematical proof, which occurs in natural languages' (Azzouni, 2013, 247). Analogously, Keith Weber and Lara Alcock 'define a syntactic proof production to occur when the prover draws inferences by manipulating symbolic formulae in a logically permissible way' and 1This is sometimes referred to as Hilbert's Thesis, although that name is more properly reserved for the narrower claim that every proof can be formalized as a derivation in first-order logic (Kahle, 2019). 2This reflects what has been called Tait's Maxim: 'The notion of formal proof was invented to study the existence of proofs, not methods of proof' (Baldwin, 2013, 114). 4 ANDREW ABERDEIN 'define a semantic proof production to occur when the prover uses instantiations of mathematical concepts to guide the formal inferences that he or she draws' (Weber and Alcock, 2004, 209). While all of these points are correct, we may feel that they do not strike to the heart of the distinction. By contrast, Gila Hanna draws the distinction in a manner that brings out the social aspects of the contrast: (1) Formal proof: proof as a theoretical concept in formal logic (or metalogic), which may be thought of as the ideal which actual mathematical practice only approximates. (2) Acceptable proof: proof as a normative concept that defines what is acceptable to qualified mathematicians (Hanna, 1990, 6). The mathematician John Baldwin, asserts that he takes Hanna's 'formal/acceptable to be the same distinction' (Baldwin, 2016, 71) as that he draws between 'two degrees of formalization', respectively into a formal syntax and rules of inference or within (sufficiently mathematical) natural language (Baldwin, 2013, 89). So, for Baldwin at least, Hanna's distinction is coextensive with that between proofs and derivations. However, Hanna stresses the essentially social role of acceptability in proof which has no counterpart in derivation. Authors who emphasize the argumentational nature of proof, to which we will return below, specifically draw attention to this factor. Thus Todd CadwalladerOlsker states that the 'formal view of proof is contrasted with the view of proofs as arguments intended to convince a reader' (CadwalladerOlsker, 2011, 33) and Trevor Bench-Capon stresses that 'argumentation is . . . an activity which has to be actively engaged with, whereas a proof is an object to be understood and admired' (Bench-Capon, 2012). The latter observation points towards an aspect of the proof/derivation contrast that Hanna's distinction overlooks: derivations are objects; proofs are acts. In support of an account of proofs as acts, Joseph Goguen argues that the only sort of proofs 'that can actually happen in the real world are proof events, or provings, which are actual experiences, each occurring at a particular time and place, and involving particular people, who have particular skills as members of an appropriate mathematical community' (Goguen, 2001; see also Stefaneas and Vandoulakis, 2012, 489 ff.). Goguen is not alone in drawing the distinction this way. Oswaldo Chateaubriand also distinguishes between 'provings and idealized proofs' (Chateaubriand, 2003, 41), while tracing the temporal conception back to Brouwer. Goguen also observes that provings often have internal temporal structure-their components must be executed in the right order-and are thus ultimately proof processes: The efficacy of some proof events depends on the components of a proof object being seen to be given in a certain temporal order, e.g., Euclidean geometric proofs, and commutative diagrams in algebra; in some cases, the order may not be easily infered from just the diagram. Therefore we must generalize from static proof objects to proof processes, such as diagrams being drawn, movies being shown, and Java applets being executed (Goguen, 2001). Lest this conception of proof seem to have drifted too far from what is conventionally labelled as proof, it is important to reflect on what is meant by an act. Göran Sundholm draws a useful distinction between an act, the subjective process EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 5 that comprises the act, and the trace that the act leaves behind (Sundholm, 2012, 948). In the case of proof, we may further distinguish the concrete traces (marks on the blackboard, empty coffee cups, and so on) from the informational trace, a written proof (see Fig. 1). The latter signifies the act and serves as a blueprint or recipe whereby the act may be repeated. Just as recipes aren't very nourishing unless you carry them out, likewise the written proof only works as a proof if it is actually carried out. Although the contrast is more stark in the case of proofs, we may draw a similar contrast between derivations and derivation traces: the derivation is a mathematical object; its trace is a written counterpart to that object (a formal proof, or a sequence of code, or the like). Act of Proof Theorem Process of getting to know (exercised act) (trace) set of coffee cups, chalk marks, scrap paper (concrete trace) written proof in mathematical text (signified act) Figure 1. Göran Sundholm's act/process/trace distinction (after Sundholm, 2012, 948) In summary, we shall say that proofs make irreducible use of the semantics of natural language; involve a normative appeal to acceptance by a mathematical audience; and are events that involve participants and extend over time. Conversely, derivations are mathematical objects that represent formal relationships between propositions in an artificial language. Of course, this definition of proof is stipulative. If we treat the three contrasts discussed above-semantic/syntactic; normative/theoretical; act/object-as separate axes, then my definitions of proof and derivation occupy diagonally opposite vertices: {0, 0, 0} and {1, 1, 1}, as it were. That leaves six other, unlabelled vertices. I shall not attempt a complete taxonomy here, but some conceptions of proof rival to that defended here may be seen to correspond to some of these other vertices. 3. Argument versus Proof We saw in §1 that mathematicians make use of a concept of evidence distinct from proof and we saw in §2 that the practice of mathematical proof cannot be reduced to derivation. But nor can we discard derivations: they are mathematical objects in good standing (whatever that means-I make no ontological claim), and acknowledged as such by the mathematicians who study them. Furthermore, at least in the eyes of many mathematicians, it is the existence of a derivation that is the ultimate guarantor of the truth of a theorem.3 So, if we are to respect actual mathematical practice, we must accommodate all three concepts: evidence, proof, 3For example, for Saunders Mac Lane, 'the test for the correctness of a proposed proof is by formal criteria and not by reference to the subject matter at issue' (Mac Lane, 1986, 378) and Thomas Hales characterizes formal proof as providing 'a thorough verification of my own research that goes beyond what the traditional peer review process has been able to provide' (Hales, 2008, 1378). 6 ANDREW ABERDEIN and derivation. Is there a common framework into which they may be subsumed? One candidate is argument. I have already alluded to an argumentation-based account of mathematical reasoning. In its barest form, this states that a mathematical argument is 'a more liberalized version of the notion of mathematical proof' (Van Bendegem, 2005, 157). That is, proofs are a special case of mathematical argument. If these arguments are understood as similar in kind to the arguments of non-mathematical discourse, it follows that an account of mathematical reasoning may be given using the tools of argumentation theory. Elsewhere I have referred to proofs∗, where the asterisk indicates that the proof does not command universal assent (Aberdein, 2009, 2). These include unsurveyably long proofs∗, diagrammatic proofs∗, proofs∗ that depend on contested axioms, computer-assisted proof∗, experimental proof∗, proof∗ by probabilistic methods, and so on. While it is controversial in each case whether proofs∗ should lose the asterisk (for relevant discussion, see Fallis, 1997; Van Bendegem, 2005; Paseau, 2015), each of these is uncontroversially a mathematical argument. Some proofs∗ also uncontroversially correspond to derivations. For others this is less obvious; their admission as proofs would pose a challenge to the Formalizability Thesis discussed in §2. The Formalizability Thesis, that 'every proof can be formalized as a derivation', is one clause of what has been called Leibniz's Thesis; the other clause states that 'every acceptable argument of (informal) mathematics is a proof' (Berk, 1982, 17). This implies that mathematical arguments that are not proofs are unacceptable. But what does it mean for a mathematical argument to be acceptable? Interpreted widely, as 'acceptable in some mathematical practice', then the thesis is demonstrably false; interpreted narrowly, as 'acceptable as proof', then the thesis seems almost tautological. Nonetheless, as we have acknowledged above, being acceptable to a mathematical audience is a necessary requirement for a proof. Below I shall sketch what that might mean. Arguments resemble proofs, at least as defined above, much more closely than they do derivations. Both arguments and proofs are acts (or processes comprised of acts) whereas derivations are objects. Yet, as we saw in the last section, proofs and derivations both leave traces: written blueprints or recipes. Likewise, we can consider argument traces. The passing resemblance between a proof trace and a derivation trace explains how two such dissimilar things as proofs and derivations ever came to be conflated. A derivation is a directed graph. Its nodes are (formal counterparts of) truths of mathematics and its edges represent logical deductions. A determination of whether a derivation is sound requires a choice of axioms and of logical system. Relative to that choice, the derivation is sound if all its source nodes (those which do not depend on other nodes) are axioms and all its edges are valid. Proof traces (and argument traces in general) are also directed graphs. The nodes of a proof trace are mathematical truths, expressed in a suitably augmented natural language, and the edges are arguments of some kind. So, the same theorem will be linked to (at least) two structures: a proof trace and a derivation, each of which is comprised of directed graphs. How do these two structures relate to each other? In principle, any node in either structure could be a node in the other, at least assuming the Formalizability Thesis holds. In practice, there is rather less overlap. Derivations are substantially more verbose than proofs: they contain many more intermediate statements and they take everything back to axioms, as proofs characteristically do not. What's more, they may follow an EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 7 entirely different path from any recognisable proof. (Recall Tait's Maxim, cited above.) And, for that reason, proof traces may contain nodes that do not figure in any corresponding derivation. But at least the nodes of the two structures are held to the same standard: in each case, they must be true. The edges, on the other hand, must be judged differently. As deductions in a system of formal logic, the edges of a derivation can be assessed by the canons of that system: do they instantiate an admissible rule of inference? Of course, the edges of the proof structure may also be logical deductions, in which case they can be held to that standard too. But, with some rarefied exceptions, mathematical proofs are seldom purely logical proofs. So the edges of the proof structure must be judged instead by standards appropriate to arguments of the relevant kind; that is, by the standards of (some suitably localized form of) argumentation theory. Multiple methodologies for the analysis and evaluation of informal arguments have been proposed, but here I shall focus on the method of argumentation schemes. This is an ancient idea in origin, deriving from the topoi or loci of classical rhetoric, but it has been reinvigorated in recent years. An argumentation scheme is a template that captures a stereotypical pattern of reasoning. Different schemes are fine-tuned to capture the idiosyncrasies of different types of argument-and can be brought to bear to determine when they have been used cogently. This evaluative function is largely the role of the critical questions, which most schemes contain. If in some instantiation of a scheme these questions cannot be adequately addressed, then the argument fails. Deductive inference rules can be understood as argumentation schemes, but the method comes into its own when applied to non-deductive reasoning. Douglas Walton and colleagues characterize many such schemes as special cases of the very general scheme that they call Defeasible Modus Ponens (Walton et al., 2008, 366). In Scheme 1, I have adapted their presentation of this scheme to bring out the resemblance between argumentation schemes and Toulmin layouts (Toulmin, 1958, 101):4 Argumentation Scheme 1. Defeasible Modus Ponens Data: P. Warrant: As a rule, if P, then Q. Therefore, . . . Qualifier: presumably, . . . Conclusion: . . . Q. Critical Questions (1) Backing: What reason is there to accept that, as a rule, if P, then Q? (2) Rebuttal: Is the present case an exception to the rule that if P, then Q? In principle, any argument that can be represented using Toulmin layouts could be represented using Scheme 1. However, the great strength of the argumentation scheme methodology lies in its diversity: there are many more schemes to choose from. One of the most extensive surveys of general purpose schemes distinguishes more than 90 different types (Walton et al., 2008, 308 ff.). Some of these off-the-shelf schemes are directly applicable to mathematics, but yet more can be produced to order. 4For a more protracted discussion of how these two models of reasoning are related, see (Pease and Aberdein, 2011, 28 ff.). For an alternative account, see (Konstantinidou and Macagno, 2013, 1070). 8 ANDREW ABERDEIN Elsewhere I draw a distinction between three classes of scheme that are of immediate relevance to proof (Aberdein, 2013b, 366 f.): • A-schemes correspond directly to derivation rules. (Equivalently, we could think in terms of a single A-scheme, the 'pointing scheme' which picks out a derivation whose premisses and conclusion are formal counterparts of its data and claim.) • B-schemes are exclusively mathematical arguments: high-level algorithms or macros. Their instantiations correspond to substructures of derivations rather than individual derivations (and they may appeal to additional formally verified propositions). • C-schemes are even looser in their relationship to derivations, since the link between their data and claim need not be deductive. Specific instantiations may still correspond to derivations, but there will be no guarantee that this is so and no procedure that will always yield the required structure even when it exists. Thus, where the qualifier of Aand B-schemes will always indicate deductive certainty, the qualifiers of C-schemes may exhibit more diversity. Indeed, different instantiations of the same scheme may have different qualifiers. We are now in a position to analyze what it means for a proof to be acceptable. For a given mathematical audience, that is a community of mathematicians who share the same standards, a proof will count as acceptable if the schemes it instantiates are ones which that audience judges consistent with mathematical rigour. In other words, the audience must be convinced that each step of the proof instantiates a scheme in such a way that it earns the qualifier 'rigorously' (or stronger). Exactly which schemes are deemed consistent with rigour will vary by audience. Different areas of mathematics can have somewhat different standards and even within the same area there are different audiences: the audience for a research article is not identical to that for an undergraduate lecture. Nonetheless, we may generalize. For most audiences, A-schemes are invariably admissible. Likewise, most audiences will admit many B-schemes. However, some B-schemes can be highly complex. As such they may only be admissible to a narrow audience: professionals in a particular subspecialty, say. Such schemes may need to be broken into simpler steps (probably also instantiating simpler B-schemes) for consumption by a wider audience of research mathematicians, let alone for a student audience. Indeed, in some pedagogic contexts, it may be expedient to substitute a less (than) rigorous C-scheme for an intricate Bscheme, thereby 'handwaving' through an aspect of the proof unsuitable for a given audience. C-schemes themselves pose a further challenge. Since not all their instantiations are deductive, it may be tempting to assume that they have no place in rigorous argument, at least as most mathematical audiences understand it. Even were this so, they would still be welcomed by some mathematical audiences, notably those that see no need for the asterisks on some of the more outré species of proof∗. However, in practice, even quite conservative mathematical audiences can find some C-schemes admissible. Some of the general purpose C-schemes that may be accepted by some mathematical audiences are listed in Table 1 This is by no means an exhaustive list; nor is the classification of schemes it presumes unarguable. In the article from which Table 1 is taken, I discuss the application to informal mathematical reasoning of ten EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 9 Table 1. Summary of reasoning types and schemes (Aberdein, 2013a, 247) (1) Reasoning (a) Retroduction (i) Argument from Gradualism (ii) Argument from Positive Consequences (iii) Argument from Evidence to a Hypothesis (2) Source Based (a) Citation (i) Appeal to Expert Opinion (ii) Argument from Danger (b) Intuition (i) Argument from Position to Know (c) Meta-Argument (i) Ethotic Argument (d) Closure (i) Argument from Ignorance (3) Rule Based (a) Generalization (i) Argument from Example (b) Definition (i) Argument from Definition to Verbal Classification schemes drawn from (Walton et al., 2008). I only have space to address a couple of them in comparable detail here, but I will briefly survey the rest. I classified three schemes as retroduction, that is reasoning backwards from a conclusion, a common strategy in mathematical argument since antiquity. Argument from Gradualism comprises multi-step argumentation. This can be fallacious when the steps are individually dubious or collectively improbable, yielding a slippery slope fallacy. Conversely, if all the steps are deductively valid, it would correspond to a derivation. Some instances of this scheme, however, are neither fallacious nor deductively valid: their admissibility will turn on the standards of rigour of the audience. Argument from Positive Consequences is well described by its name. It finds a place in mathematics in the informal justification of axioms and hypotheses.5 I will discuss Argument from Evidence to a Hypothesis at greater length in the next section. Several of the schemes in Table 1 are source-based: that is, they involve reasoning to a mathematical conclusion from a source external to the reasoning process. The most familiar of these reasoning patterns may be the use of citation, which is ubiquitous in most mathematical research. Appeal to Expert Opinion is an obvious fit for such reasoning, and also one of the most widely studied schemes in the argumentation scheme literature. Argument from Danger, which I also included under citation, is of much narrower application. It captures arguments 5The mathematical uses of Argument from Positive Consequences are also discussed, together with some other schemes not in Table 1, in work by Nikolaos Metaxas and colleagues (Metaxas, 2015, 84; Metaxas et al., 2016, 387). 10 ANDREW ABERDEIN to the effect that one should not act in a way that would be a danger (to oneself or others). I argued that this is employed in what is sometimes (facetiously) called 'proof by intimidation': dismissing objections as trivial, for example. Argument from Position to Know describes a pattern of argument where an informant is taken to have a privileged source of information. The obvious non-mathematical example would be an eye witness; in a mathematical context, this scheme might be employed to characterize appeals to intuition, which some authors analogize to perception (for example, Chudnoff, 2013). Ethotic Arguments are appeals to the character (or ethos) of some individual. It has been shown empirically that such factors can also influence how mathematical results are received (Inglis and Mejıa-Ramos, 2009). Argument from Ignorance is generally treated as a fallacy, since not knowing that something is false is not usually a legitimate reason for treating it as true. Yet it can be a reliable inference in special circumstances, some of which can be found in mathematical reasoning, such as reporting the outcome of an exhaustive search. The last group of schemes in Table 1 are those involving the justification or application of rules. Argument from Definition to Verbal Classification could potentially correspond to a step in a derivation, but it can also be used more casually, and is vulnerable to outright misuse, for example when a definition is subtly misstated. For a more considered example, consider the following: Argumentation Scheme 2. Argument from Example Premise: In this particular case, the individual a has property F and also property G. Conclusion: Therefore, generally, if x has property F, then it also has property G. Critical Questions (1) Is the proposition claimed in the premise in fact true? (2) Does the example cited support the generalization it is supposed to be an instance of? (3) Is the example typical of the kinds of cases the generalization covers? (4) How strong is the generalization? (5) Do special circumstances of the example impair its generalizability? (Walton et al., 2008, 314) Many instantiations of Argument from Example will not be acceptable at least to modern audiences. Enumerative induction, for instance, can be characterized in terms of this scheme. But there are other cases where Argument from Example meets modern standards of rigour. In order to do so, adequate answers to all the critical questions will need to be provided. In particular, question (4) will require an exceptional answer: one justifying the revision of the qualifier from 'generally' to 'necessarily'.6 4. Argument versus Evidence We have explored the relationship between proofs and derivations and between each of these and arguments. We have not yet addressed the relationship between 6For a more extensive discussion of mathematical uses of Scheme 2, see (Aberdein, 2013a, 244). EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 11 evidence and argument, but alert readers may have spotted the following scheme in Table 1: Argumentation Scheme 3. Argument from Evidence to a Hypothesis Major Premise: If A (a hypothesis) is true, then B (a proposition reporting an event) will be observed to be true. Minor Premise: B has been observed to be true, in a given instance. Conclusion: Therefore, [presumably,] A is true. Critical Questions (1) Is it the case that if A is true, then B is true? (2) Has B been observed to be true? (3) Could there be some reason why B is true, other than its being because of A being true? (Walton et al., 2008, 331 f.) This is the pattern of reasoning called abduction by Charles Peirce (for a direct comparison, see Pease and Aberdein, 2011, 22; for an alternative approach to abduction in terms of argumentation schemes, see Metaxas et al., 2016, 386). To observe how this scheme might work in practice, consider the following example of evidence for Goldbach's Conjecture (GC), as reconstructed by the philosopher Alan Baker: Another line of auxiliary argument might be based on the various partial results relating to GC. In 1931, Schnirelmann proved that every even number can be written as the sum of not more than 300,000 primes(!). This upper bound on the number of primes required has since lowered to 6 (Ramaré 1995). In addition, Chen (1978) proved that all sufficiently large even numbers are the sum of a prime and the product of two primes. Such results do not seem to make the truth of GC any more likely. But perhaps they provide evidence that GC is provable (Baker, 2007, 71). Here the hypothesis A is the proposition that GC is provable and the 'event' (or events) that B reports on are a series of proofs of weaker, but related, conjectures. As Baker acknowledges, this is at best suggestive. Critical question (3) is completely open and the argument would only sustain a very weak qualifier. On the other hand, some of the examples of argument from evidence cited in §1 are much more convincing. For instance, the argument for Montgomery's Pair Correlation Conjecture can easily be reconstructed as an instance of Scheme 3, with A a statement of the conjecture and B the observation that 'the agreement near zero number 1012 is close, near perfect near zero number 1016, and even better near zero number 1020' (Barrett et al., 2016, 155). Of course, as stressed in §1, the authors of this argument are not claiming that this is a proof. Hence this instance of Scheme 3 is not one that they would treat as acceptable. Are there any instances of Scheme 3 which a mainstream mathematical audience would treat as acceptable? One possible affirmative answer brings us back to derivations. In his discussion of the relationship between proofs and derivations, Richard Epstein makes the following bold assertion: 'A proof in a fully formal system of logic that a claim follows from some axioms is not a proof in mathematics. It is evidence that can be used in a mathematical proof' (Epstein, 2013, 274). In the terminology of this paper, Epstein may be read as saying that a derivation, or more properly, a derivation trace, should not be mistaken for a proof (or proof trace), but 12 ANDREW ABERDEIN can be employed in a proof as evidence. On the account of proof defended above, such employment would require use of an argumentation scheme, presumably along the lines of Scheme 3. For proofs where the corresponding derivation is comparatively short and straightforward, this may seem to be an unnecessarily scrupulous point. Yes, in principle, the derivation is a mathematical object, but its trace will be similar enough to a proof trace for it to be treated as such with comparatively little additional effort, at least for audiences familiar with such things. In these sorts of cases, the more characteristic response to a derivation trace would be to 'reverse engineer' it into a proof in this manner. But, for longer or more technical derivations, this process is less practical. In such cases, Epstein's analysis seems correct. If there is a sufficiently strong reason for accepting the derivation trace as reliable, then this would be an acceptable instance of Scheme 3. Unsurveyable computer-assisted proof∗ represents a similar application of Scheme 3. Proofs such as Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken's proof of the Four Colour Conjecture or Thomas Hales's proof of Kepler's Conjecture depend essentially on unsurveyably vast computer calculations. Within the human readable component of the proof, these calculations play an evidential role. Thus, if these proofs are acceptable to the mathematical community, then the steps introducing the computer calculations can be seen as acceptable instances of Scheme 3. Of course, while the consensus seems now to be in their favour, I have flagged such results as proof∗ because their acceptability remains a topic of debate. However, if the existence of a derivation is what ultimately underwrites the acceptance of a theorem, then a mechanically verified derivation trace may be an (even more) acceptable instance of Scheme 3. Successful formalization projects, such as Georges Gonthier's work on the Four Colour Theorem or Hales's Flyspeck Project, have provided just such corroboration (Gonthier, 2008; Hales et al., 2017).7 5. Conclusions for Education One of the morals of this paper is that it is important to carefully distinguish proof from derivation. This observation certainly has profound implications for the teaching of mathematics. However, it is scarcely novel: I have already cited a paper from almost thirty years ago which addresses the educational implications of the distinction (Hanna, 1990). The role of evidence in relation to proof and derivation has received rather less attention. I have suggested that it can be successfully accommodated within the framework of argumentation schemes. Specifically, appeals to evidence can be understood as C-schemes: argumentation schemes drawn from natural language reasoning that generally fall short of rigorous proof, but can sometimes be used rigorously. In this manner, mathematical arguments that rely on evidence to provide less than rigorous support for their conclusions can be understood as belonging to the same genus as mathematical proofs, but not the same species. Thereby the importance of rigour in proof is maintained, but without misleading the student into imagining that proof is somehow entirely alien from ordinary reasoning. 7It may be objected that this results in a regress, since the software checking the derivation trace must itself be checked. However, it is what Hales has called 'a rather manageable regress' (Hales, 2008, 1376). The kernel of such proof checking software is very carefully designed to be small enough and clear enough to be amenable to thorough human checking. EVIDENCE, PROOFS, AND DERIVATIONS 13 The framework of argumentation schemes, however, is itself a potentially valuable instrument for the mathematics educator. Toulmin layouts, which are also drawn from the toolbox of argumentation theory, have lately been widely applied to mathematical reasoning by educational theorists (see, for example, Knipping and Reid, 2013). At least in their current form, argumentation schemes are a much more recent invention, and they have yet to receive much attention from mathematics educators: I am only aware of a few studies from one group of researchers specifically applying argumentation schemes to mathematics education (Metaxas et al., 2009; Metaxas, 2015; Metaxas et al., 2016; Koleza et al., 2017). In addition, Aikaterini Konstantinidou and Fabrizio Macagno have discussed the application of argumentation schemes to science education (Konstantinidou and Macagno, 2013; Macagno and Konstantinidou, 2013). They argue that argumentation schemes can have a particular value in 'discovering the implicit beliefs affecting a student's learning process' (Macagno and Konstantinidou, 2013, 235). This is an important task in mathematics education too, and their study would seem to naturally generalize to mathematics education. Perhaps the most exciting opportunity that argumentation schemes represent for mathematics education is that they are already widely implemented within what is sometimes called the 'argument web' (Reed et al., 2017). In recent years, a growing number of software tools of increasing sophistication have been designed for the analysis and evaluation of argument. These tools represent a potentially invaluable resource for the study of mathematical argument, but their application to mathematics has only just begun (Pease et al., 2017; Corneli et al., 2019). Again, I am unaware of any application of these resources in mathematics education: there is a growing body of work applying digital tools to mathematics education (for example, Modeste, 2016; Durand-Guerrier et al., 2019), but not the tools specific to argumentation. They represent an as yet untapped resource, of considerable scale and importance. A final, more speculative benefit may accrue from an educational approach which emphasizes the continuity of mathematical argument and argument in other areas. Some authors have urged that mathematics educators promulgate the value of an education in mathematics as a source of the intellectual virtues and skills necessary for successful navigation of contemporary society (recent examples include Su, 2017; Cheng, 2018). When mathematics is taught in a fashion that emphasizes its differences from everyday reasoning this can be a tough case to make. But argumentation schemes represent a plausible bridge between mathematical and other conversations; and mathematics may thereby provide an invaluable testbed for the acquisition and mastery of argumentation techniques of much wider application. Acknowledgements I presented an earlier version of this paper at the interdisciplinary symposium on Mathematical Evidence and Argument held at the University of Bremen in 2017. I am grateful to the participants for their comments and particularly indebted to Christine Knipping and Eva Müller-Hill for their invitation and their hospitality in Bremen. I am also grateful to three anonymous referees for insightful and thorough comments. 14 ANDREW ABERDEIN References Aaronson, Scott. 2016. P ?= NP. In Open Problems in Mathematics, eds. John Forbes Nash, Jr. and Michael Th. Rassias, 1-122. Cham: Springer. Aberdein, Andrew. 2009. Mathematics and argumentation. Foundations of Science 14(1-2): 1-8. Aberdein, Andrew. 2013a. 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Proofs and arguments: The special case of mathematics. In Cognitive Structures in Scientific Inquiry: Essays in Debate with Theo Kuipers, eds. Roberto Festa, Atocha Aliseda, and Jeanne Peijnenburg, vol. 2, 157-169. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Vaughan, Robert C. 2016. Goldbach's conjectures: A historical perspective. In Open Problems in Mathematics, eds. John Forbes Nash, Jr. and Michael Th. Rassias, 479-520. Cham: Springer. Voisin, Claire. 2016. The Hodge conjecture. In Open Problems in Mathematics, eds. John Forbes Nash, Jr. and Michael Th. Rassias, 521-543. Cham: Springer. Walton, Douglas N., Chris Reed, and Fabrizio Macagno. 2008. Argumentation Schemes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weber, Keith and Lara Alcock. 2004. Semantic and syntactic proof productions. Educational Studies in Mathematics 56: 209-234.
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{ "creator": "Inglis, Matthew", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1587985956000, "description": "There has been little overt discussion of the experimental philosophy of logic or mathematics. So it may be tempting to assume that application of the methods of experimental philosophy to these areas is impractical or unavailing. This assumption is undercut by three trends in recent research: a renewed interest in historical antecedents of experimental philosophy in philosophical logic; a “practice turn” in the philosophies of mathematics and logic; and philosophical interest in a substantial body of work in adjacent disciplines, such as the psychology of reasoning and mathematics education. This introduction offers a snapshot of each trend and addresses how they intersect with some of the standard criticisms of experimental philosophy. It also briefly summarizes the specific contribution of the other chapters of this book.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEI-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Introduction", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Andrew Aberdein & Matthew Inglis Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics Introduction There has been very little overt discussion of the experimental philosophy of logic or mathematics. So it may be tempting to assume that application of the methods of experimental philosophy to logic or the philosophy of mathematics is impractical or unavailing. That this would be a mistake is exhibited by at least three trends in recent research: a renewed interest in historical antecedents of experimental philosophy in philosophical logic; a 'practice turn' in the philosophies of mathematics and logic; and philosophical interest in a substantial body of work in adjacent disciplines, such as the psychology of reasoning and mathematics education. Before turning to the specific contribution that we hope this book will make, we will offer a snapshot of each trend and address how they intersect with some of the standard criticisms of experimental philosophy. Firstly, although experimental philosophy is often thought of as a twenty-first-century phenomenon primarily focussed on questions in ethics and epistemology, it has some important anticipations in earlier projects in the philosophy of logic. The most significant is the work of Arne Naess and the Oslo Group (Naess, 1938, 1959, 1982; Tönnessen, 1951). For instance, Ingemund Gullvåg argued that to understand the meaning of a word such as 'truth', it was 'hardly sufficient that a single person registers his own reactions to this or that sentence, or makes pronouncements based on intuitions' (Gullvåg, 2 1955, 343). Instead, the Oslo group argued, systematic empirical investigations were required. The connections between the 'empirical semantics' developed by the Oslo group and experimental philosophy have now begun to be made explicit by historians of philosophy and further developed by a new generation of researchers (Murphy, 2014; Barnard and Ulatowski, 2016; Chapman, 2018). This productive connection between the empirical methods of two different generations is continued in Barnard and Ulatowski's chapter in the present volume, discussed in greater detail below. Secondly, in recent decades there has been a 'practice turn' in the philosophy of mathematics, focussing on how mathematical research is actually conducted, rather than on the search for foundations for mathematics (Van Kerkhove and Van Bendegem, 2007; Mancosu, 2008). This has naturally led to an interest in empirical data about mathematical practice, a programme dubbed 'Empirical Philosophy of Mathematics' by some of its practitioners (Buldt et al., 2008; Löwe et al., 2010; Pantsar, 2015). There are several distinct axes along which the connections between the philosophy of mathematical practice and empirical work have been drawn. A significant body of work applies cognitive science research on mathematical reasoning to philosophical questions (Pease et al., 2013). This includes work on the status of mathematical knowledge (Cappelletti and Giardino, 2007; Pantsar, 2014); on the symbol systems of mathematics (De Cruz and De Smedt, 2013; Dutilh Novaes, 2013; Marghetis and Núñez, 2013); and on the role of diagrams and visualization in mathematics (Giaquinto, 2007; Hamami and Mumma, 2013). Moreover, modern mathematicians increasingly employ online tools for collaboration. This produces a considerable amount of 3 potential data for researchers interested in mathematical practice, giving rise to another strategy for the investigation of that practice (Martin and Pease, 2013; Martin, 2015; Pease et al., 2017). Although logical practice may have received less attention than its mathematical counterpart, some researchers in the philosophy of logic have pursued a practice turn of their own, modelled on that in the philosophy of mathematics (Dutilh Novaes, 2012). As with its sister programme in philosophy of mathematics, advocates of the philosophy of logical practice stress that too much attention has been paid to foundational issues at the expense of philosophical questions that arise elsewhere, such as in the application of logic to artificial intelligence, game theory, linguistics, and other disciplines. For example, the burgeoning research programme of 'argumentation mining', which applies corpus-based techniques to extract and analyse arguments across large bodies of text, may be seen as a logical counterpart to the use of big data techniques in analysis of mathematical practice (Moens, 2018). Thirdly, there is a growing awareness of how much research in adjacent disciplines has anticipated the research questions of experimental philosophy of logic and mathematics. Philosophers of logic have an extensive body of research on the psychology of reasoning to draw upon (Johnson-Laird, 2006). Lately, some work in the intersection of philosophy of logic and psychology of reasoning has made the relationship to experimental philosophy explicit (Pfeifer, 2012; Pfeifer and Douven, 2014; Ripley, 2016). There is also a substantial research tradition in mathematics education that addresses questions of immediate relevance to the philosophy of mathematical practice (Heinze, 2010; Weber et al., 2014; Weber and Mejía4 Ramos, 2015; Alcock et al., 2016). Understanding mathematical practice is important for education researchers for at least two reasons. First, understanding the behaviour of expert mathematicians helps to decide what the purpose of a mathematics curriculum should be. If a particular activity is highly valued in expert mathematical practice then this perhaps provides a reason for mathematics students to be exposed to some appropriate version of it (see, for example, Ball and Bass, 2000; Harel and Sowder, 2007; Lampert, 1990; Weber et al., 2014). Second, studying the in-the-moment strategies adopted by expert practitioners (in any domain) might provide suggestions for how to develop interventions that assist learners to develop expertise. An example of this approach can be found in the work of Alcock, Hodds, Roy and Inglis (2015). They studied the reading behaviour of research mathematicians, and used these insights to develop training materials that encouraged undergraduates to adopt similar strategies. These training materials significantly increased the amount students learned from reading a mathematical text. In addition, there is now an emerging tradition of interdisciplinary work, applying quantitative techniques to address traditionally philosophical questions, such as mathematical aesthetics (Inglis and Aberdein, 2015, 2016). Some of this work has been presented as an enquiry into 'mathematical cultures' (Löwe, 2016; Larvor, 2016). Likewise, Reuben Hersh, one of the forerunners of the practice turn, has lately called for 'a unified, distinct scholarly activity of mathematics studies: the study of mathematical activity and behavior' (Hersh, 2017, 335). We regard the present volume as, in part, a contribution to the integrative work required for this project. 5 The advent of experimental philosophy has not been without controversy and has provoked a salutary debate on the proper methods of philosophical enquiry. One of the most prominent critiques is the 'expertise defence' of traditional philosophical practice (Nado, 2014; Mizrahi, 2015). This maintains that surveys of non-philosophers have limited bearing on the arguments of philosophers since, as experts, philosophers can be expected to be immune from the errors and biases exhibited by non-experts. This debate has given rise to a substantial literature. However, the experimental philosophies of mathematics and logic seem to have ready responses to the expertise defence. Many studies of mathematical practice focus on professional mathematicians, placing the expertise of the participants essentially beyond dispute. Nonetheless, this is not universally true; for instance, some philosophers (for example, De Cruz, 2016) have used results from the numerical cognition literature to draw conclusions about the ontology of natural numbers. Participants in numerical cognition studies include non-mathematical adults, children and even non-human animals. An important difference between mainstream experimental philosophy and work focused on mathematics is that studies in the latter tradition typically ask their participants-be they mathematicians, children or animals-about mathematics, not about philosophy. (This is just as well, for in Hersh's famous formulation, 'the typical working mathematician is a Platonist on weekdays and a formalist on Sundays' (Hersh, 1979, 32). Such insouciance would not bode well for the resolution of philosophical dilemmas.) In this respect experimental philosophy of mathematics is similar 6 to psychological work on reasoning relevant to debates in the philosophy of logic. Here too participants are typically drawn from a more general population. (Although there clearly is such a thing as logical expertise; for a start, people can be trained to be better at logical reasoning (Attridge et al., 2016).) Just as mathematicians/children/fish are asked about mathematics not philosophy, participants in reasoning studies are asked object-level questions about everyday reasoning, not specialised questions about logical hypotheses that might predict or explain such reasoning. On this basis David Ripley has argued that these studies are better placed to answer the expertise objection than studies relevant to debates in ethics or epistemology (Ripley, 2016). Nonetheless, there is a substantial body of psychological research that reveals a divergence between best practice in reasoning (at least, as defined by logicians) and how lay people actually reason. There is also a substantial body of work critiquing these results. Broadly speaking, they lend themselves to four possible responses: 1. Lay people are to blame: they routinely make damaging errors in their inferential practices; 2. Psychologists are to blame: they fail to understand the relationship between formal and informal reasoning, and thereby design experiments which show only that good reasoners can be hoodwinked by artificial examples; 3. Logicians are to blame: they persist in defending systems of formal inference which do not describe the legitimate inferential practices of ordinary folk; 7 4. No one is to blame: logicians might well be right that formal logic is the best way to reason, but in many (perhaps most) real world circumstances it takes too much cognitive effort to do so. Many such studies, especially in early psychology of reasoning work, are presented as supporting the first response. However, they can often be reinterpreted in support of one of the others. In particular, much research of this sort is implicitly deductivist (and often classicist): it presumes that the best account of human inference will always be deductive logic (and often that classical logic is the best or only viable system of deductive logic). Hence such work is undermined by the successful modelling of informal, non-deductive patterns of inference in argumentation theory (Zenker, 2018) or non-classical logics (Aberdein and Read, 2009). The moral may be that, as with many sciences, theoretical and empirical approaches should be mutually reinforcing: logicians need the empirical research conducted by psychologists of reasoning to corroborate their claim of faithfulness to actual reasoning; psychology of reasoning needs to be informed by current research in logic if it is to stay relevant. Recent research suggests that even preverbal children can exhibit behaviour consistent with logical reasoning (Cesana-Arlotti et al., 2018). Children as young as twelve months were presented with stimuli either complying with or violating simple inferential rules, such as disjunctive syllogism, p∨q,¬p⊢q. That they looked longer at violating cases than they did at stimuli consistent with those rules, just as adults do, suggests that they found those cases incongruous. This provides an echo of a far older debate. 8 The ancient logician Chrysippus argued that dogs employ disjunctive syllogism, since a scent hound, tracking a quarry to a crossroads and eliminating all but one of the exits, will (or so Chrysippus claims) immediately take the last exit without further checks of the trail. The story has been retold many times, with at least four different morals: 1. dogs use logic, so they are as clever as humans; 2. dogs use logic, so using logic is nothing special; 3. dogs reason well enough without logic; 4. dogs reason better for not having logic (for details, see Aberdein, 2008). The third option may be closest to Chrysippus's own; it may also be the best take on the empirical research. That is, such studies do not attribute conscious, reflective awareness of any system of logic to dogs (or infants). Rather, they demonstrate that logic succeeds in tracking the pre-theoretical reasoning not just of the logically educated, but of pretty much anyone capable of rational thought. It is sometimes argued that logic, as an a priori discipline, is immune from revisionary pressures that apply to natural science. If this is so, then there may be little room for empirical research in logic. On the other hand, there is a tradition, associated with W. V. O. Quine in particular, of treating logic as continuous with the natural sciences (Bryant, 2017). In recent years, this debate has been characterized in terms of 'anti-exceptionalism' about logic (Hjortland, 2017; Read, 2018). However, we do not need to resolve the debate in order to observe that it is less damaging to our concerns than it may 9 first appear. Even if one concedes that the truths of logic are analytic and necessary-that is, true in virtue of their meaning and such that they could not have been different-our knowledge of these truths is still fallible. So we may expect the methods whereby we come to know these truths to have much in common with the methods whereby we learn truths in the natural sciences, even though the truths of those disciplines are neither analytic nor necessary. This collection is intended to consolidate and develop the three trends identified above: the reappraisal of the Oslo Group; the practice turn in the philosophies of logic and mathematics; and the reintegration into these philosophies of empirical work from adjacent disciplines. The ten chapters are divided equally between the philosophies of mathematics and logic. Their authors include some of the leading figures in each of the areas of research discussed above. Several chapters are methodological analyses of the applicability of empirical techniques to these areas of philosophy, but many (also) include actual empirical results. They demonstrate a wide variety of different empirical methods, including experiments, surveys, and datamining. Benedikt Löwe and Bart Van Kerkhove's chapter, 'Methodological triangulation in empirical philosophy of mathematics', is written by two of the leading figures in the philosophy of mathematical practice. They survey the uses that have been found for a variety of different empirical methods in philosophy, emphasising that the experimental method in the strict sense is only one of them. They argue for methodological triangulation in empirical 10 philosophy, that is, the employment of a battery of different empirical methods to compensate for the biases and limitations implicit in any one of them. Their paper provides a helpful introduction to the potential that empirical methods offer for the philosopher of mathematics (or logic). In particular, they rehearse a sartorial analogy that Löwe has proposed elsewhere for the different levels of integration between philosophy and empirical methods (Löwe, 2016, 36). He distinguishes 'ready-to-wear', the philosophical exploitation of existing, independently conducted empirical research, from 'bespoke', which involves more direct collaboration, such as philosophers designing projects to be conducted by empirical researchers, and 'do-it-yourself' (homespun?), in which the philosopher conducts all aspects of the research. (We might add that such cross-disciplinary work can cut both ways: empirical researchers can develop the interest and expertise necessary to address philosophical questions. Indeed, some philosophical questions, including many posed by the philosophies of mathematical and logical practice, are already within the remit of nearby empirical disciplines.) It is important to stress, as Löwe and Van Kerkhove do, that this is not a hierarchy of quality. If you are lucky enough to find off-the-peg clothes that are a good fit, they may be much better value than bespoke. And making your own clothes is unlikely to have a good outcome unless you acquire significant expertise. Likewise, when existing empirical studies address the right questions, ready-to-wear studies can be highly effective. The remaining chapters in this collection report on studies of all three varieties. Helen De Cruz's work in the philosophy of mathematics has long made use of empirical results (De Cruz, 2006, 2016). Her chapter, 'Animal 11 cognition, species invariantism and mathematical realism', is a notable piece of ready-to-wear empirical philosophy. She uses a variety of results from numerical cognition (especially neurological and animal work) to tackle a recently influential argument in the philosophy of mathematics. The 'evolutionary debunking' argument against moral realism suggests that our moral beliefs cannot be objectively true if they are the result of a highly contingent evolutionary process. If we had evolved from animals with very different social behaviour (and there are many such species) then we would have a quite different set of moral intuitions, so why imagine that those intuitions track the truth? Mathematical realism, the view that our mathematical beliefs are objectively true, has obvious similarities to moral realism. So might there not be an analogous evolutionary debunking argument against mathematical realism too? However, De Cruz demonstrates that there is significant evidence that the mathematical behaviour of animals is substantially convergent, which suggests that the analogy fails; if anything the empirical data provide support for mathematical realism. The next chapter, 'The beauty (?) of mathematical proofs', also makes extensive use of existing empirical research. We have already noted Catarina Dutilh Novaes's research on logical practice; besides the history and philosophy of logic she also works on social epistemology and the philosophy of mathematics, as in this chapter. She coordinates a number of disparate literatures to propose a novel approach to the aesthetics of mathematical proof grounded in empirical work on affective responses to unexpectedness. The key idea is that in many situations mathematical 12 judgments bring together epistemic and aesthetic components, and that we should not be surprised by this. The next two chapters are drawn from the bespoke tradition: they report on original studies that were conducted by the authors to address (at least) philosophical questions. Both chapters look at aspects of visual reasoning in mathematics. This has been a controversial subject: an influential view maintains that visuals should play no role in mathematical proof, but a growing body of work suggests that this is an unrealistic, indeed harmful, idealization (Larvor, 2013, 2018). Josephine Relaford-Doyle and Rafael Núñez are both cognitive scientists-the latter is a co-author of a landmark in the application of cognitive science to mathematics (Lakoff and Núñez, 2000). Their chapter, 'Can a picture prove a theorem? Using empirical methods to investigate visual proofs by induction', reports an empirical study that investigates how undergraduate students with and without formal mathematical training use images to justify mathematical claims. They focus on visual induction proofs, and find results that challenge James Brown's (non-empirical) claim that such proofs are immediately understandable for people without mathematical training (Brown, 1997). Keith Weber and Juan Pablo Mejía-Ramos are mathematics educators. In their chapter, 'An empirical study on the admissibility of graphical inferences in mathematical proofs', they investigate the admissibility of graphical inferences in proofs in real analysis. They conclude that the type of graphical inference is important to consider when addressing their question. In particular, Weber and Mejía-Ramos find support for the importance of distinguishing between metrical and non-metrical graphical inferences 13 (Larvor, 2018). A metrical graphical inference is one that depends for its success on the measurements of angles, lengths, and so on, being precisely correct, whereas a non-metrical graphical inference does not; that is, the latter sort of inference is unaffected by local deformations in the diagrams at issue. Where the first five chapters focus primarily on the philosophy of mathematics, the remaining five concentrate on the philosophy of logic. In their chapter, 'Does anyone really think that <⌜p⌝ is true if and only if p>?', the philosophers Robert Barnard and Joseph Ulatowski link together Arne Naess's early empirical work, their own recent replications of some of these results, and the contemporary debate on deflationary accounts of truth. As well as noting this chapter's contribution to philosophical theory, given the ongoing replication crisis in psychology (Chambers, 2017), it is worth explicitly remarking upon and celebrating Barnard and Ulatowski's successful replication of Naess's early findings. Igor Douven's research lies at the intersection of several fields, including formal epistemology and cognitive science. His chapter, 'New foundations for fuzzy set theory', seeks to rehabilitate fuzzy set theory as an account of vagueness by grounding it in recent empirical work on conceptual spaces. Conceptual spaces were developed by the cognitive scientist Peter Gärdenfors as a geometrical framework for the qualitative comparison of concepts along multiple dimensions (Gärdenfors, 2000). Douven argues that seeing fuzzy membership as the distance of a point from a prototypical point in such a space is a productive approach to fuzzy set theory and, moreover, 14 that there is empirical support for adopting this view from work conducted by cognitive psychologists. The philosopher Moti Mizrahi's chapter, 'What isn't obvious about "obvious": A big data approach to philosophy of logic', uses a corpus linguistics approach to investigate the obviousness or otherwise of logic. Mizrahi reasons that if logic really was obvious, then the frequency with which logicians use the word 'obvious' should correlate with deductive indicator words such as 'necessary' and 'certainly' but not with inductive indicator words such as 'probably' or 'likely'. By analysing a large corpus of text drawn from research papers published in logic, philosophy, mathematics and biology journals, Mizrahi empirically tests these predictions. While he finds some support for the predictions, he also finds some results that require further explanation. David Over and Nicole Cruz are both psychologists of reasoning. Their chapter, 'Philosophy and the psychology of conditional reasoning', is a wideranging discussion of recent empirical work on conditional statements and its relationship to philosophy. The authors cite an extensive array of empirical studies to argue in favour of a Bayesian account of conditionals and against a mental model account. They conclude that much psychological research on conditionals has paid too little attention to philosophical and logical work. Remedying that oversight has already led to improved empirical studies, and promises to go further. In their chapter, 'Folk judgments about conditional excluded middle', the philosophers Michael J. Shaffer and James Beebe employ empirical studies to motivate a novel analysis of so-called Bizet/Verdi conditionals: 15 • If Bizet and Verdi had been compatriots, Bizet would have been Italian. • If Bizet and Verdi had been compatriots, Verdi would have been French. Across three experiments Shaffer and Beebe find evidence for Alchourrón et al.'s (1985) 'belief revision' theory of counterfactuals, in line with the tradition of the Ramsey Test. Interestingly, they reject the alternative accounts from Lewis (1973) and Stalnaker (1981) by coordinating analyses from both quantitative and qualitative data. The experimental philosophy of logic and mathematics has been quietly thriving for some time. We hope that this collection will form an indispensable resource for future research in the field. References Aberdein, A. (2008). Logic for dogs. In Hales, S. D., ed., What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Dog, pp. 167-181. Open Court, Chicago, IL. Aberdein, A. and Read, S. (2009). 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Springer, Dordrecht. Weber, K., Inglis, M., and Mejía-Ramos, J. P. (2014). How mathematicians obtain conviction: Implications for mathematics instruction and research on epistemic cognition. Educational Psychologist, 49(1):36-58. 23 Weber, K. and Mejía-Ramos, J. P. (2015). On relative and absolute conviction in mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 35(2):15- 21. Zenker, F. (2018). Logic, reasoning, argumentation: Insights from the wild. Logic and Logical Philosophy. Forthcoming.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1576510568000, "description": "In this chapter I argue that intellectual humility is related to argumentation in several distinct but mutually supporting ways. I begin by drawing connections between humility and two topics of long-standing importance to the evaluation of informal arguments: the ad verecundiam fallacy and the principle of charity. I then explore the more explicit role that humility plays in recent work on critical thinking dispositions, deliberative virtues, and virtue theories of argumentation.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEIHA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Intellectual humility and argumentation", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND ARGUMENTATION ANDREW ABERDEIN∗ In this chapter I argue that intellectual humility is related to argumentation in several distinct but mutually supporting ways. I begin by drawing connections between humility and two topics of long-standing importance to the evaluation of informal arguments: the ad verecundiam fallacy and the principle of charity. I then explore the more explicit role that humility plays in recent work on critical thinking dispositions, deliberative virtues, and virtue theories of argumentation. 1. Argumentum ad Verecundiam Modern textbook treatments of informal fallacies offer "argumentum ad verecundiam" as an alternative name for "appeal to illegitimate authority" (for example, Copi et al., 2007, p. 51). However, "verecundiam" is not Latin for illegitimate authority; it is Latin for modesty, reverence, shame, or, perhaps, humility. Together with argumentum ad hominem and argumentum ad ignorantiam, argumentum ad verecundiam owes its name to John Locke. Locke does not explicitly characterize any of these arguments as fallacies, but he does say that they are "arguments, that men, in their reasonings with others, do ordinarily make use of, to prevail on their assent; or, at least, so to awe them, as to silence their opposition" (Locke, 1836, IV.xvii.19). As Locke explains, the trick to ad verecundiam argumentation, is to allege the opinions of men, whose parts, learning, eminency, power, or some other cause has gained a name, and settled their reputation in the common esteem with some kind of authority. When men are established in any kind of dignity, it is thought a breach of modesty for others to derogate any way from it, and question the authority of men, who are in possession of it. This is apt to be censured as carrying with it too much of pride, when a man does not readily yield to the determination of approved authors, which is wont to be received with respect and submission by others: and it is looked upon as insolence for a man to set up and adhere to his own opinion against the current stream of antiquity, or to put it in the balance against that of some learned doctor, or otherwise approved writer. Whoever backs his tenets with such authorities, thinks he ought thereby to carry the cause, and is ready to style it "impudence" in any one who shall stand out against them. This I think may be called argumentum ad verecundiam (ibid.). Locke diagnoses the weakness of such argumentation as taking "another man's opinion to be right, because I, out of respect, or any other consideration but that of conviction, will not contradict him" (ibid.). In modern treatments of this argument, as the fallacy of appeal to illegitimate authority, it is implicitly contrasted with a non-fallacious pattern of argument: appeal to legitimate authority, or more commonly, appeal to expert opinion. Hence modern treatments of the ∗School of Arts & Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL. Date: July 7, 2019. 1 2 ANDREW ABERDEIN fallacy are often much concerned with the recognition of legitimate expertise. In this respect, the ad verecundiam, like several other well-established fallacies, has somewhat drifted from its original designation. Firstly, Locke, as a good empiricist, is prepared to throw doubt on any appeal to authority. Secondly, Locke goes further than recent accounts into the psychological mechanism whereby ad verecundiam arguments succeed. This is the point at which humility becomes relevant. Although Locke does not directly invoke humility in his brief discussion of the ad verecundiam, he is clearly in the near vicinity: indeed, he does employ cognate terms, such as modesty, and antonyms, such as pride. Ian James Kidd defends an account of intellectual humility as "a virtue for the management of intellectual confidence" (Kidd, 2016, p. 396). The intellectually humble would thereby manifest appropriate levels of intellectual confidence, avoiding both the overand under-valuation of their intellectual circumstances (succumbing neither to the Dunning-Kruger Effect nor to Imposter Syndrome, as it were). On such an account, at least some instances of appeal to illegitimate authority may be seen as manifesting the associated vice of deficiency in deferring to someone else's arguments, since lacking confidence in your own. The corresponding vice of excess would represent overconfidence in the face of legitimate authority. This has received less attention in discussion of fallacies. However, the problems it can cause have been addressed by Michelle Ciurria and Khameiel Altamimi, who observe that standard treatments of ad verecundiam are silent "when an appeal to authority has been illegitimately dismissed due to the operation of epistemic injustice or epistemic irresponsibility on the part of a judge or community" (Ciurria and Altamimi, 2014, p. 451). As I have observed elsewhere, such cases may best be understood as a distinct fallacy, dual to the ad verecundiam (Aberdein, 2016a, p. 421). At least on Kidd's account of the virtue, instances of both the ad verecundiam and its dual could be attributed to their proponents' lack of intellectual humility. 2. Principle of Charity Thomas Aquinas maintained that "humility necessarily accompanies charity" (quoted in Overmyer, 2015, p. 658). Nonetheless, the sense in which charity is invoked in argumentation may initially seem somewhat distant from humility. As with the ad verecundiam, it is possible to precisely date the inception of the "principle of charity": it originates in an otherwise obscure article by the philosopher Neil Wilson, from which it was swiftly raised to much greater fame by W. V. O. Quine.1 For Wilson, the principle of charity requires that we favour that interpretation of a word "which will make the largest possible number of [the speaker's] statements true" (Wilson, 1959, p. 532). Quine applies it to somewhat broader purpose, as embodying the "common sense" that "one's interlocutor's silliness, beyond a certain point, is less likely than bad translation" (Quine, 1960, p. 59). In the hands of Donald Davidson, the principle of charity was to become a major methodological maxim: one that "counsels us quite generally to prefer theories of interpretation that minimize disagreement" (Davidson, 1984, p. xvii). Unsurprisingly, the attention paid to the principle of charity in the philosophy of language soon crossed over into logic. In a useful survey, the argumentation theorist Ralph Johnson traces the earliest appeal to a principle of charity in a logic textbook to three works published in the mid-1970s. (I have been unable to find any earlier.) However, as Johnson complains, these three works already employ 1It should be noted that, although the explicit invocation of a principle of charity can be dated with confidence to the 1950s, the underlying sense of charity is manifestly older: Thomas Carlyle, for one, could write of a "charitable reading" almost a century earlier (Carlyle, 1865, p. 560). INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND ARGUMENTATION 3 the principle in distinct ways. For Stephen Thomas, charity mandates that we read a passage as non-argumentative rather than ascribe bad reasoning to its author (Thomas, 1973, p. 9). Robert Baum applies the principle to the evaluation of enthymemes, and construes it as requiring us "to add whatever premises are needed to make the argument as good as possible" (Baum, 1975, p. 15). Michael Scriven offers a much more sweeping definition. For him, the "Principle of Charity requires that we make the best, rather than the worst, possible interpretation of the material we're studying" (Scriven, 1976, p. 71). He glosses this in explicitly ethical terms, as requiring fairness or justice in criticism. Johnson's own definition hews closest to Scriven: "The Principle of Charity which governs all levels of argument analysis is that the critic should provide the best possible interpretation of the material under consideration" (Johnson, 1984, p. 5). He moderates this definition with a restriction on the circumstances in which the critic is so obligated: "the heavy artillery of argument analysis, monitored by the requirements of the Principle of Charity, is to be pressed into service only when one confronts (i) a fully expressed argument (ii) from a serious arguer (iii) on a serious matter" (Johnson, 1984, p. 8). The critical thinking theorist Richard Paul, to whose work we will shortly turn, proposes a similar definition to Johnson's, but makes the connection to humility explicit: "We must feel obliged to hear [views we oppose] in their strongest form to ensure that we do not condemn them out of our own ignorance and bias. At this point we come full circle back to where we began: the need for intellectual humility" (Paul, 2000, p. 170). Here Paul explicitly invokes humility in implicit support of a thesis familiar from Mill's On Liberty: "there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides: it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices" (Mill, 1977, p. 257). And, if we should listen to the other side, we should listen to them at their best. As with the ad verecundiam, the principle of charity may be understood as a mean between complementary vices, here with respect to interpretation of another's arguments rather than acceptance of their premisses. The vice of deficiency may take the form of wilfully obtuse misinterpretation, as in the straw man fallacy; the vice of excess what Scott Aikin and John Casey have characterized as "a little noticed variety of straw man-the distortion which results in being overly charitable to someone's argument, or, as we shall call it, the iron man" (Aikin and Casey, 2016, p. 432). Once again we have uncovered an unfamiliar fallacy dual to a more familiar fallacy. In Kidd's terms, these extremes may also be seen as manifesting the underor over-regulation of intellectual confidence, whether arrogantly twisting an argument into a straw man or obsequiously striving to reinterpret it as an iron man. Thereby each exhibits a failure of humility. 3. Critical Thinking Dispositions Modern argumentation theory is a synthesis of several older research programmes; one of the most important of these is the critical thinking movement. From a trickle at mid century, by the 1980s this had grown into a major programme of educational reform, focussed on improving the thinking abilities of schoolchildren, students, and society at large. For most theorists of critical thinking, such abilities comprise not just a skillset, but also "tendencies, propensities, or inclinations people have to think in particular ways in particular contexts . . . [which] are not the same as, or reducible to, either formal rules of good thinking or specific behaviors or patterns of behavior" (Siegel, 1999, p. 220). Such dispositions are seen as essential to the successful internalization of critical thinking techniques: they present a response to the "transfer problem", that of ensuring 4 ANDREW ABERDEIN that learners go on to use their newly acquired skills outside the classroom (Bereiter, 1995; Bowell and Kingsbury, 2015). Different theorists propose different lists of dispositions, but most such lists include "open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, independent-mindedness, an inquiring attitude, and respect for others in group inquiry and deliberation" (Bailin and Siegel, 2003, p. 183). These dispositions sound more than a little like virtues, an identity some theorists make explicit. Indeed Sharon Bailin and Mark Battersby argue that intellectual virtues are superior to dispositions in a characterization of critical thinking, since "virtues are not psychological reifications added on to the skills of reasoning, but are inherent to the practice of inquiry and come out of appreciation of the nature of the practice" (Bailin and Battersby, 2007, p. 113). They conclude that virtues are better placed to capture the intrinsic value of reason. However, none of the virtues they propose sounds that much like humility. Perhaps the most overt invocation of virtue language by a major proponent of critical thinking lies in the work of Richard Paul. Paul draws a distinction between weak and strong sense critical thinking. The latter comprises "a) an ability to question one's own framework of thought, b) an ability to reconstruct sympathetically and imaginatively the strongest versions of points of view and frameworks of thought opposed to one's own, and c) an ability to reason dialectically (multilogically) to determine when one's own point of view is weakest and when an opposing point of view is strongest" (Paul, 1990, p. 185). As we saw in the previous sections, such abilities can plausibly be seen to depend, amongst other virtues, upon intellectual humility. Indeed, this is a relationship which Paul makes explicit: "To cultivate the kind of intellectual independence implied in the concept of strong sense critical thinking, we must foster intellectual (epistemological) humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, empathy, and fairmindedness" (Paul, 2000, p. 166). Paul defines intellectual humility as "a consciousness of the limits of one's knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one's native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively; sensitivity to bias, prejudice and limitations of one's viewpoint" and a "lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one's beliefs" (ibid.). In a helpful comparative survey of several distinct sets of critical thinking dispositions, the educational theorist Ron Ritchhart proposes six groups of dispositions: "the disposition to be open-minded, to be curious, to be metacognitive, to be strategic, and to be investigative and inquiring, and to reason and use evidence" (Ritchhart, 2001, p. 148). Paul is the only theorist in Ritchhart's survey to propose intellectual humility as a critical thinking disposition. Ritchhart classifies it as borderline between two of his categories: the dispositions to be "metacognitive" and "a truth seeker" (Ritchhart, 2001, p. 149). Paul's conception of strong sense critical thinking certainly stresses metacognitive factors: indeed questioning, or at least reflecting upon, one's own framework of thought is close to a definition of metacognition. Nor is Paul alone in linking metacognition with intellectual humility. Kidd's understanding of intellectual humility requires individuals to reflect upon their own cognition, since they must be "alert to the ways that . . . complex agential, collective, and deep conditions underlie and shape their intellectual confidence" (Kidd, 2016, p. 396). Some virtue epistemologists have made stronger claims for metacognition. For Jerry Green, it is a virtue in its own right (Green, 2019, p. 120). But for Christopher Lepock metacognition is a necessary component of any intellectual virtue-and specifically of intellectual humility (Lepock, 2014, p. 43). Metacognition also has much in common with INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND ARGUMENTATION 5 Jonathan Adler's account of open-mindedness, as "an appreciation of our fallibility" that takes the form of "a second-order (or "meta") attitude toward one's beliefs as believed, and not just toward the specific proposition believed, just as fallibilism is a second-order doubt about the perfection of one's believing, not a doubt about the truth of any specific belief" (Adler, 2004, p. 130). But James Spiegel argues, I think convincingly, that Adler's account should be understood as defining humility rather than open-mindedness (Spiegel, 2012, p. 34). Without taking a stance on any of these specific claims, it does seem reasonable to conclude that the traditional virtue of intellectual humility is closely allied to metacognition, and thereby to critical thinking. 4. Deliberative Virtues Another argumentative context in which the virtue of intellectual humility has been explicitly invoked is the analysis of group deliberation. Scott Aikin and Caleb Clanton have argued that success in group deliberation, and thereby in democratic forms of political decision making, depends on the individual participants manifesting what they call "group-deliberative virtues" (Aikin and Clanton, 2010, p. 413). They stress that such virtues differ from epistemic virtues since they are not just truth-conducive, but also "conducive to cooperation and good sentiments among the deliberators in a group" (Aikin and Clanton, 2010, p. 421). Of course, such well-conducted deliberation may in turn be more likely to settle on the truth. One of Aikin and Clanton's virtues is deliberative humility, which they define as "the willingness to hold one's view fallibly and in such a way as to admit that one might be shown to be wrong in light of better reasons, evidence, and argument" (Aikin and Clanton, 2010, p. 419). They situate deliberative humility as a mean between two vices they term "deliberative hubris" and "deliberative insecurity": the former "the unwillingness to even consider that one's view could be refined or refuted by others", the latter "the inability to think that one could ever be on target about an issue" (Aikin and Clanton, 2010, p. 420). This approach to humility bears an obvious similarity to Kidd's confidence management account. Aikin and Clanton go further than Kidd, however, in arguing that the "epistemic norm of humility is . . . embedded in the very practice of holding any belief whatsoever", since to hold a belief is to be willing to defend it, and to defend it adequately is to give a fair hearing to such challenges as may be raised against it (ibid.).2 This makes intellectual humility pivotal to the practice of group deliberation: without it deliberation cannot be expected to proceed in good faith, but with it belief in all but the safest of claims ought, at least in principle, to lead to group deliberation. The political scientist Kyle Scott takes this point further, arguing that Aikin and Clanton's seven other deliberative virtues (deliberative wit, friendliness, empathy, charity, temperance, courage, and sincerity) all critically depend on humility, which makes humility essential for group deliberation, and thereby for any feasible concept of deliberative democracy (Scott, 2014, p. 230). There is some empirical support for these positive conclusions about the value of intellectual humility for deliberation. There is, as one recent survey has it, an embarrassment of riches in the empirical measurement of humility (McElroyHeltzel et al., 2018). That survey compares 22 different measures, of which four are specifically measures of intellectual humility (McElroy et al., 2014; Hoyle et al., 2016; Krumrei-Mancuso and Rouse, 2016; Leary et al., 2017). Yet more such measures have been published since the data collection period of this survey (Alfano et al., 2017; Haggard et al., 2018; Porter and Schumann, 2018). For example, 2The rhetorician John Duffy makes a complementary point: "to provide evidence is to subject one's self to the authority and judgment of another, which is a form of humility" (Duffy, 2014, p. 220). 6 ANDREW ABERDEIN the psychologists Tenelle Porter and Karina Schumann have developed one of the simpler measures of intellectual humility, consisting of an inventory of nine questions, each to be answered on a seven-point Likert scale (Porter and Schumann, 2018, p. 143). This includes both positively worded questions, such as "I am willing to admit it if I don't know something" and "I like to compliment others on their intellectual strengths", and (reverse scored) negatively worded questions, such as "I feel uncomfortable when someone points out one of my intellectual shortcomings" and "I don't like it when someone points out an intellectual mistake that I made". Porter and Schumann's factor analysis suggests that this measure is one-dimensional, by contrast with some other studies (for example, Alfano et al., 2017; Haggard et al., 2018, whose studies yielded four and three factors, respectively). Porter and Schumann found that "participants who were higher in intellectual humility were more respectful of and more interested in trying to learn about opposing perspectives" both in classroom debates and on emotive public policy issues, such as gun control or same-sex marriage (Porter and Schumann, 2018, pp. 145 ff.). They also demonstrated that "those higher in intellectual humility read a greater proportion (and higher number) of opposing vs. matching reasons than those lower in intellectual humility" (Porter and Schumann, 2018, p. 153). Other studies using different measures have found similar results. For example, Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso and colleagues found that intellectual humility "was associated with more reflective thinking, need for cognition, intellectual engagement, intellectual curiosity, intellectual openness, and open-minded thinking" and "also associated with less social vigilantism, which may promote collaborative and cooperative learning" (Krumrei-Mancuso et al., 2019, p. 14). The results of these studies are consistent with Aikin and Clanton's conclusion that intellectual humility in participants is a crucial, perhaps indispensable, asset in group deliberation. 5. Virtue Theories of Argumentation Although, as we have seen, virtues have been invoked for some time in theories of argument, an explicit virtue theory of argumentation (VTA) is a more recent innovation (for a brief survey, see Aberdein and Cohen, 2016). One of the difficulties that besets argumentation theory as a whole is that it is massively interdisciplinary: it brings together work from many different disciplines, including logic, epistemology, both cognitive and social psychology, communication, management, rhetoric, decision theory, law, computer science, education, economics, and others. This is, of course, a tremendous opportunity, but it also presents a massive coordination problem: it can be difficult for the minority of people in each discipline who focus on argumentation to find each other (and avoid duplicating each other's work). That problem is exacerbated for sub-disciplines of argumentation theory, such as VTA, since the numbers involved are even smaller. Perhaps for this reason, VTA has mostly drawn inspiration from the familiar fields of virtue ethics and virtue epistemology; there has as yet been much less interaction with virtue jurisprudence or virtue-theoretic work in rhetoric and economics, although there is an independent interest in applying virtues (including humility) to argumentation in all of these areas (for example, de Bruin, 2013; Agnew, 2018; Amaya, 2018). A crucial question for VTA is whether its virtues are argumentation-specific or whether it just applies generic intellectual (or moral) virtues to argumentation. For present purposes, this is to ask whether there is any such thing as argumentative humility, distinct from, or a special case of, intellectual humility. If we concede as much, perhaps we should also recognize deliberative humility INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND ARGUMENTATION 7 and critical thinking humility as further subdivisions. We have already seen that Aikin and Clanton distinguish deliberative from epistemic virtues, since being conducive to truth need not be conducive to the optimal conduct of deliberation. In other words, deliberation and belief formation have a different telos. Elsewhere, I have argued that the telos of argumentation is the propagation of truth: "where virtuous knowers are disposed to act in a way that leads to the acquisition of true beliefs, virtuous arguers are disposed to spread true beliefs around" (Aberdein, 2010, p. 173). Katharina Stevens has a more sweeping proposal: "the good of argumentation is the bettering of belief-systems-furthering of knowledge, extension of justificatory inferences, gaining of information and understanding etc." (Stevens, 2016, p. 377). However, the same virtue may contribute to the successful pursuit of different activities with different ends. So, it need not follow that argumentation (let alone deliberation or critical thinking) requires a distinct set of virtues just because it has its own telos. On this basis, at least on Kidd's confidence-calibration account, I think it is reasonable to see intellectual humility as contributing to all of these goals. If intellectual humility is a virtue of argument, how is it related to other such virtues-and what are these other virtues? One radical perspective would be to argue that traditional character virtues, such as intellectual humility, are all that is needed for argumentation. Against such a position, Olivier Morin maintains that "mere civil virtues (respect, humility or honesty) do not suffice: we need virtues that specifically attach to the practice of making conscious inferences" (Morin, 2014, p. 499). I shall not attempt to adjudicate this issue here, although in my own work I follow Daniel Cohen, an early advocate of VTA, in proposing four basic virtues of argument: willingness to engage in serious argumentation; willingness to listen to others; willingness to modify one's own position; and willingness to question the obvious (Cohen, 2005, p. 64). Each of these is to be understood as a mean between a pair of vices. I complicate Cohen's typology by subdividing each of his virtues (and vices) to make room for many of the more traditional, character-based virtues and vices, especially those invoked in the responsibilist approach to virtue epistemology (Aberdein, 2010, 2016a). Specifically, I list intellectual humility as a subtype of willingness to modify one's own position. Perhaps it might with equal justice have been treated as a subtype of willingness to listen to others. Certainly, if one modifies one's own position after carefully listening to another's arguments, one has exercised humility at each step; which step took the greater humility is presumably specific to the individual case.3 More generally, no typology of this kind can be more than suggestive, since the relationship between the virtues is too multi-dimensional to be fully captured by a simple hierarchical classification. Some scholars argue that intellectual humility is not just a virtue of argument, but the virtue of argument-that it has a significance more profound than other such virtues. For example, Lois Agnew maintains that intellectual humility is "a guiding principle of public discourse", central to the discipline of rhetoric (Agnew, 2018, p. 335). And we have already noted Kyle Scott's argument that "humility is pivotal to the proper functioning of the other virtues" (Scott, 2014, p. 230). The concept of a higher-order virtue that is necessary for the regulation of the others is an ancient one. For Aristotle this is the virtue of phronesis, variously translated as wisdom or common sense. A number of virtues of 3On this basis, I am unconcerned by the apparent tension between the discussion of the ad verecundiam fallacy above as a failure of humility and my earlier treatment of it as primarily a failure of recognition of reliable authority, treated as a subtype of willingness to listen to others (Aberdein, 2016a, p. 420). As I argue in that paper, we should not expect fallacies to map neatly to vices: which of these vices is uppermost will turn on features of the individual fallacious argument. 8 ANDREW ABERDEIN argument have been proposed as candidates for a higher-order role in VTA, notably "willingness to inquire" (Hamby, 2015) and "willingness to be rationally persuaded" (Baumtrog, 2016), Elsewhere, I have suggested that intellectual humility may function in this role (Aberdein, 2016b, p. 8). We have already noted the close affinity between intellectual humility and metacognition, which is naturally implicated in any project of higher-order regulation of thinking dispositions. Moreover, the other candidates appear to be subordinate to intellectual humility: if one's level of intellectual confidence is appropriately calibrated, then one should also be both willing to inquire and willing to be rationally persuaded; but if it isn't, one won't be. Nonetheless, as just remarked, the relationship between virtues is complex and multi-dimensional. For this reason, we should be cautious about any simple assignment of priority among virtues. Anything less would be a conspicuous failure of intellectual humility. References Aberdein, Andrew. 2010. Virtue in argument. Argumentation 24(2): 165-179. Aberdein, Andrew. 2016a. The vices of argument. Topoi 35(2): 413-422. Aberdein, Andrew. 2016b. Virtue argumentation and bias. In Argumentation, Objectivity and Bias: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), May 18-21, 2016, eds. Patrick Bondy and Laura Benacquista. Windsor, ON: OSSA. Aberdein, Andrew and Daniel H. Cohen. 2016. Introduction: Virtues and arguments. Topoi 35(2): 339-343. Adler, Jonathan E. 2004. Reconciling open-mindedness and belief. Theory and Research in Education 2(2): 127-42. Agnew, Lois. 2018. Intellectual humility: Rhetoric's defining virtue. Rhetoric Review 37(4): 334-341. Aikin, Scott F. and John P. Casey. 2016. Straw men, iron men, and argumentative virtue. Topoi 35(2): 431-440. Aikin, Scott F. and J. Caleb Clanton. 2010. Developing group-deliberative virtues. Journal of Applied Philosophy 27(4): 409-424. Alfano, Mark, Kathryn Iurino, Paul Stey, Brian Robinson, Markus Christen, Feng Yu, and Daniel Lapsley. 2017. Development and validation of a multidimensional measure of intellectual humility. PLoS ONE 12(8): e0182950. Amaya, Amalia. 2018. The virtue of judicial humility. Jurisprudence 9(1): 97-107. Bailin, Sharon and Mark Battersby. 2007. Reason appreciation. In Reason Reclaimed: Essays in Honor of J. Anthony Blair and Ralph H. Johnston, eds. H. V. Hansen and R. C. Pinto, 107-120. Newport News, VA: Vale. Bailin, Sharon and Harvey Siegel. 2003. Critical thinking. In The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, eds. Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith, and Paul Standish, 181-193. Oxford: Blackwell. Baum, Robert. 1975. Logic. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Baumtrog, Michael D. 2016. The willingness to be rationally persuaded. In Argumentation, Objectivity and Bias: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), May 18-21, 2016, eds. Patrick Bondy and Laura Benacquista. Windsor, ON: OSSA. Bereiter, Carl. 1995. A dispositional view of transfer. In Teaching for Transfer: Fostering Generalization in Learning, eds. Anne McKeough, Judy Lee Lupart, and Anthony Marini, 21-34. New York, NY: Routledge. Bowell, Tracy and Justine Kingsbury. 2015. Virtue and inquiry: Bridging the transfer gap. In Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education, eds. Martin Davies and Ron Barnett, 233-245. London: Palgrave. INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND ARGUMENTATION 9 Carlyle, Thomas. 1865. History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, vol. VI. London: Chapman and Hall. Ciurria, Michelle and Khameiel Altamimi. 2014. Argumentum ad verecundiam: New gender-based criteria for appeals to authority. Argumentation 28(4): 437- 452. Cohen, Daniel H. 2005. Arguments that backfire. In The Uses of Argument, eds. David Hitchcock and Daniel Farr, 58-65. Hamilton, ON: OSSA. Copi, Irving M., Carl Cohen, and Daniel Flage. 2007. Essentials of Logic. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson, second ed. Davidson, Donald. 1984. Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon. de Bruin, Boudewijn. 2013. Epistemic virtues in business. Journal of Business Ethics 113: 583-595. Duffy, John. 2014. Ethical dispositions: A discourse for rhetoric and composition. JAC 34(1-2): 209-237. Green, Jerry. 2019. Metacognition as an epistemic virtue. Southwest Philosophy Review 35(1): 117-129. Haggard, Megan, Wade C. Rowatt, Joseph C. Leman, Benjamin Meagher, Courtney Moore, Thomas Fergus, Dennis Whitcomb, Heather Battaly, Jason Baehr, and Dan Howard-Snyder. 2018. Finding middle ground between intellectual arrogance and intellectual servility: Development and assessment of the limitations-owning intellectual humility scale. Personality and Individual Differences 124: 184-193. Hamby, Benjamin. 2015. Willingness to inquire: The cardinal critical thinking virtue. In Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education, eds. Martin Davies and Ron Barnett, 77-87. London: Palgrave. Hoyle, Rick H., Erin K. Davisson, Kate J. Diebels, and Mark R. Leary. 2016. Holding specific views with humility: Conceptualization and measurement of specific intellectual humility. Personality and Individual Differences 97: 165-172. Johnson, Ralph H. 1984. Charity begins at home. Informal Logic 3(3): 4-9. Kidd, Ian James. 2016. Intellectual humility, confidence, and argumentation. Topoi 35(2): 395-402. Krumrei-Mancuso, Elizabeth J., Megan C. Haggard, Jordan P. LaBouff, and Wade C. Rowatt. 2019. Links between intellectual humility and acquiring knowledge. The Journal of Positive Psychology Forthcoming. Krumrei-Mancuso, Elizabeth J. and Steven V. Rouse. 2016. The development and validation of the comprehensive intellectual humility scale. Journal of Personality Assessment 98(2): 209-221. Leary, Mark R., Kate J. Diebels, Erin K. Davisson, Katrina P. Jongman-Sereno, Jennifer C. Isherwood, Kaitlin T. Raimi, Samantha A. Deffler, and Rick H. Hoyle. 2017. Cognitive and interpersonal features of intellectual humility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 43(6): 793-813. Lepock, Christopher. 2014. Metacognition and intellectual virtue. In Virtue Epistemology Naturalized: Bridges Between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, ed. Abrol Fairweather, 33-48. Cham: Springer. Locke, John. 1836. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London: Tegg. McElroy, Stacey E., Kenneth G. Rice, Don E. Davis, Joshua N. Hook, Peter C. Hill, Everett L. Worthington Jr., and Daryl R. Van Tongeren. 2014. Intellectual humility: Scale development and theoretical elaborations in the context of religious leadership. Journal of Psychology and Theology 42(1): 19-30. McElroy-Heltzel, Stacey E., Don E. Davis, Cirleen DeBlaere, Everett L. Worthington, and Joshua N. Hook. 2018. Embarrassment of riches in the measurement of humility: A critical review of 22 measures. The Journal of Positive Psychology 10 ANDREW ABERDEIN 14(3): 393-404. Mill, John Stuart. 1977. On liberty. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, ed. J. M. Robson, vol. 18, 213-310. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Morin, Olivier. 2014. The virtues of ingenuity: Reasoning and arguing without bias. Topoi 33(2): 499-512. Overmyer, Sheryl. 2015. Exalting the meek virtue of humility in Aquinas. The Heythrop Journal 56(4): 650-662. Paul, Richard. 1990. Critical thinking and the critical person. In Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs in a Rapidly Changing World, 182-205. Sonoma, CA: Sonoma State University. Paul, Richard. 2000. Critical thinking, moral integrity and citizenship: Teaching for the intellectual virtues. In Knowledge, Belief and Character: Readings in Virtue Epistemology, ed. Guy Axtell, 163-175. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Porter, Tenelle and Karina Schumann. 2018. Intellectual humility and openness to the opposing view. Self and Identity 17(2): 139-162. Quine, Willard Van Orman. 1960. Word and Object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ritchhart, Ron. 2001. From IQ to IC: A dispositional view of intelligence. Roeper Review 23(3): 143-150. Scott, Kyle. 2014. The political value of humility. Acta Politica 49(2): 217-233. Scriven, Michael. 1976. Reasoning. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Siegel, Harvey. 1999. What (good) are thinking dispositions? Educational Theory 49(2): 207-221. Spiegel, James S. 2012. Open-mindedness and intellectual humility. Theory and Research in Education 10(1): 27-38. Stevens, Katharina. 2016. The virtuous arguer: One person, four roles. Topoi 35(2): 375-383. Thomas, Stephen N. 1973. Practical Reasoning in Natural Language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wilson, N. L. 1959. Substances without substrata. The Review of Metaphysics 12(4): 521-539.
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ISSN: 2471-9560 Review of Joseph C. Pitt, Heraclitus Redux: Technological Infrastructures and Scientific Change Andrew Aberdein, Florida Institute of Technology, ------------------ Aberdein, Andrew. 2020. "Review of Joseph C. Pitt, Heraclitus Redux: Technological Infrastructures and Scientific Change." Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 9 (7): 18-22. . 18 9 (7): 18-22. 2020. Heraclitus Redux: Technological Infrastructures and Scientific Change Joseph C. Pitt Rowman & Littlefield, 2019 128 pp. A sawing job that would be just ridiculously hard and lengthy using a hand saw would be accomplished with a power saw. Likewise, certain cuts and materials would cause the smaller power saws to overheat or seize up altogether and therefore called for larger power saws. But even with the biggest power saw in the shop, Bobby Shaftoe always got the sense that he was imposing some kind of stress on the machine. It would slow down when the blade contacted the material, it would vibrate, it would heat up, and if you pushed the material through too fast it would threaten to jam. But then one summer he worked in a mill where they had a bandsaw. The bandsaw, its supply of blades, its spare parts, maintenance supplies, special tools and manuals occupied a whole room. It was the only tool he had ever seen with infrastructure. - Stephenson 2000, 270 (emphasis in original) Bobby Shaftoe, one of the protagonists of Neal Stephenson's sprawling epic Cryptonomicon, learns that some tools have infrastructure: the systems necessary for their successful operation far exceed what any one individual could hope to control. But the potential of such tools also far outstrips individual effort: "the most noteworthy thing about the bandsaw was that you could cut anything with it and not only did it do the job quickly and coolly but it didn't seem to notice that it was doing anything. It wasn't even aware that a human being was sliding a great big chunk of stuff through it" (270). Joseph C. Pitt, in his new book Heraclitus Redux, makes a related observation about the tools necessary for modern science: it "relies on this technological infrastructure, in which large components involve work in which engineers play a major role" (38). The technological infrastructure is "an historically determined set of mutually supporting artifacts and structures that enable human activity and provide the means for its development" (36). In other words, it encompasses not just heavy engineering, but also "the range of things that make science possible: funding agencies, universities, private corporations, technicians, labs, graduate students, journals, and so on" (34). (Hence the National Science Foundation, for example, is in Pitt's terms, a social technology (4).) Unless these components are in place and suitably coordinated, then modern scientific research cannot get off the ground. This is a crucial observation for any philosophy of science that hopes to engage with contemporary scientific practice. Although this is not a novel perspective, it is useful to have a selfcontained, concise and trenchantly argued volume to make the case for it. One ostensibly paradoxical consequence of Pitt's perspective is that "engineering research is more fundamental than scientific research" (33). This thesis has wide-ranging implications for the philosophy of science. Pitt argues that "we have the sciences we do because they are embedded in certain technological infrastructures that facilitate certain ways of doing things and discourage others" (15). As a result, "basic notions we associate with science like A. Aberdein 19 'evidence,' 'observation,' and 'explanation' also change over time and are science specific" (4). It is this emphasis on change, not just at the first-order level of ongoing scientific research and its output, but also of the means of understanding such research and its implications, that underpins Pitt's choice of title. His vision of science is "Heraclitian" since "what we call 'science' is a set of multifaceted social processes in a constant state of change" (1). Indeed, philosophy itself is for Pitt also a technological infrastructure, since "it provides the techniques and criteria for critical inquiry regarding our place in the world" (101). Embracing the Problematic Pitt rejects the Kuhnian account of scientific change as insufficiently Heraclitian in suggesting the survival of some more or less unchanged criteria throughout the lifespan of a given paradigm. Kuhn's broader influence has led to increased philosophical focus on case studies, but Pitt also cautions that "we don't really know what constitutes a case study" (8). Echoing an earlier article, he argues that case studies do no real philosophical work: even if they are not cherrypicked to support the author's thesis, they are insufficient to support an inductive generalization (Pitt 2001). (For one rejoinder, see Rittberg and Van Kerkhove 2019.) Instead of either the paradigm or the case study, he advocates the "problematic": "an issue or a set of related issues that have attracted the attention of a number of thinkers over a period of time" (9). The problematic avoids the rigidity of the paradigm and the inanity of the case study, if at the expense of requiring heroic amounts of historical contextualization. Pitt pursues the implications of his Heraclitian account beyond philosophy of science into "the incredible complexity of our contemporary society and how viewing it in terms of technological infrastructures helps to expose that complexity" (91). He works through some of the consequences of the U.S. federal government shutdown of 2018-19 as an illustration of "the extent to which we are captives of our technological infrastructures" (105). Events in 2020 have provided us all with a similar example of vastly greater scale: few people would now dispute that "This shutdown is an excellent example of the interrelatedness of things. It also shows, in the modern world, how complicated it all is and how tied up with our technologies we are" (96). Shutdowns also demonstrate that Luddism can be no solution to the social problems posed by the ubiquity of technological infrastructures: "If we were to live our lives acting only on that about which we could be absolutely certain, we wouldn't live our lives" (60). Instead, Pitt offers some directions in which a solution might be pursued. One answer would be to turn the problem against itself, by developing a technological infrastructure to cope with the complex problems posed by our dependence on technological infrastructures: "one way to anticipate unintended consequences is to model it using the increasingly powerful computers we are building" (103). A more fundamental response is educational. We cannot hope to respond adequately to the challenges posed by technological infrastructures if we do not understand how they work: "the more complicated the science and the more simplified the public explanations, the more readily we tend to accept those fantasies" (50). Hence our dependency on technological infrastructure makes public understanding of science, and the philosophy of science, all the more urgent. Indeed, one of the principal strengths of the book is pedagogic. In particular, Pitt makes effective use of examples drawn from contemporary science. Hence we learn not only of 20 9 (7): 18-22. 2020. Galileo's use of the telescope (Chapter 3) and of scanning tunneling electron microscopes (Chapter 5) but also of the spherical aberration in the main mirror of the Hubble telescope and the complicated systemic failings that led to its being launched with this defect (Chapter 6) and of KATRIN, the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment, an exemplary piece of twenty-first century Big Science (Chapter 7). Pitt works through these examples with care, thereby reinforcing not only familiar concerns about the theoreticity of observation, but also his deeper point that the theories at issue continue to change in profound ways. His discussion of the role of artificial intelligence in science demonstrates this point effectively (Chapter 9). What are we to make of research in the biosciences in which "a computer program designed the experiment. The scientist in charge does not know what the experiment is supposed to do" (86)? Or the use of machine learning techniques, such as generative adversarial networks, to improve the output from scientific instruments? Unlike more conventional computer software, these methods are effectively black boxes, their inner workings in principal inscrutable to the scientists who develop them-let alone the scientists who employ them in other fields. All of these examples are thought provoking and calculated to catch the imagination of philosophy of science students-and their instructors. There are a few regrettable errors, some trivial, some more consequential. The "immortal words ... 'Follow the money'" (104) are of course from All the President's Men (1976) not The Graduate (1967). It was not Georg Joachim Rheticus who "wrote a preface [to Copernicus's De Revolutionibus] in which he described the theory as a purely mathematical account" (30), but Andreas Osiander, much to Rheticus's disgust. Indeed, Rheticus is known to have defaced multiple copies of De Revolutionibus by striking out Osiander's preface (Danielson 2006, 112). And, in the context of a discussion of carbon emissions, it seems doubly confused to refer to "bright spots such as ... the decision by France to phase out its nuclear plants" (104). Firstly, France has made no such decision, although there have been some inconsistent moves to reduce France's uniquely high level of nuclear power generation; Pitt perhaps intended to refer to Germany, which made such a decision in 2011. But, more importantly, from the perspective of climate change remediation, the German nuclear phaseout has been a disaster: it is estimated to have led to an increase in "CO2 emissions of 36.3 Mt per year" (not to mention "more than 1,100 additional deaths per year" from increased air pollution) (Jarvis et al. 2019, 25). Since nuclear power has never produced as much as a quarter of German electricity but consistently produces more than two thirds of French electricity, a similar phase-out in France would be even more catastrophic for climate and public health. Broader Applications Pitt's book should be of value to a broad range of philosophers of science. As a case in point, my own specialism is the philosophy of mathematics, which Pitt does not address directly. Yet his work holds much interest for the philosopher of mathematics-indeed he echoes several recent developments (and philosophers of mathematics have made use of his earlier work: e.g. Rittberg and Van Kerkhove 2019). Technological infrastructure in mathematics can be understood in several distinct ways and Pitt's work holds potential for all of them. A. Aberdein 21 Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, computers have in recent decades come to be used in more and more fundamental ways by mathematicians. The rise of "computer assisted" proofs in turn gave rise to a philosophical debate over the legitimacy of such results which directly parallels debates in (philosophy of) the empirical sciences over the legitimacy of computer assisted observations (MacKenzie 2001). Secondly, progress in mathematics itself can be understood in terms of the development of purely mathematical tools of ever greater complexity (Marquis 1997). Mathematical tools, such as Galois theory or K-theory, provide relationships between mathematical objects of apparently quite different kinds. Once such a relationship has been rigorously established, it is possible to prove results about objects of one kind by studying the related, presumably more tractable, objects of the other kind. In recent decades, the scale and scope of such innovations has come to dwarf much of the previous history of mathematics (Zalamea 2012). Lastly, but perhaps most directly in the spirit of Pitt's work, some recent research into mathematical practice has drawn out the significance of social machines, combinations of people and computers understood as unified problem-solving entities (Martin and Pease 2013; Shadbolt et al. 2019). The computers within mathematical social machines are generally not doing the mathematics (although that is a foreseeable development, at least for routine computation). Rather they facilitate the collaboration and interaction of human mathematicians by providing an appropriate infrastructure. In recent decades, this has helped to transform the way much mathematical research is conducted. In sum, attention to mathematical practice reveals multiple instances of increasingly indispensable and innovative infrastructure. Doubtless close attention to the recent practice of many other sciences would yield similar insights. Heraclitus Redux is a valuable roadmap for philosophers of science setting out to explore such developments. References Danielson, Dennis. 2006. The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution. New York, NY: Walker. Jarvis, Stephen, Olivier Deschenes, and Akshaya Jha. 2019. "The Private and External Costs of Germany's Nuclear Phase-Out." Working Paper 26598, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA. MacKenzie, Donald. 2001. Mechanizing Proof: Computing, Risk, and Trust. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Marquis, Jean-Pierre. 1997. "Abstract Mathematical Tools and Machines for Mathematics." Philosophia Mathematica 5 (3): 250-272. Martin, Ursula and Alison Pease. 2013. "Mathematical Practice, Crowdsourcing, and Social Machines." In Intelligent Computer Mathematics edited by Jacques Carette, David Aspinall, Christoph Lange, Petr Sojka, and Wolfgang Windsteiger, 98-119, vol. 7961 of LNAI. Berlin: Springer. Pitt, Joseph C. 2001. "The Dilemma of Case Studies: Toward a Heraclitian Philosophy of Science." Perspectives on Science 9 (4): 373-382. Rittberg, Colin Jakob and Bart Van Kerkhove. 2019. "Studying Mathematical Practices: The Dilemma of Case Studies." ZDM Mathematics Education 51 (5): 857-868. 22 9 (7): 18-22. 2020. Shadbolt, Nigel, Kieron O'Hara, David De Roure, and Wendy Hall. 2019. The Theory and Practice of Social Machines. Cham: Springer. Stephenson, Neal. 2000. Cryptonomicon. London: Arrow. Zalamea, Fernando. 2012. Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics. Falmouth: Urbanomic.
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{ "creator": "Abell, Catharine", "date": "2005", "datestamp": 1586472022000, "description": "This book has three principle aims: to show that neither vision nor mental imagery involves the creation or inspection of picture-like mental representations; to defend the claim that our visual processes are, in significant part, cognitively impenetrable; and to develop a theory of “visual indexes”. In what follows, I assess Pylyshyn’s success in realising each of these aims in turn. I focus primarily on his arguments against “picture theories” of vision and mental imagery, to which approximately half the book is devoted. I argue that Pylyshyn adopts an unnecessarily restricted interpretation of what it would be for mental representations to be picture-like, and that this leads him prematurely to reject the possibility of explaining the introspective evidence concerning the nature of mental imagery", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABEROZ", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Review of Zenon Pylyshyn's Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/review" }
Review of Zenon Pylyshyn's Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think Catharine Abell, Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 PSYCHE 11 (1), February 2005 REVIEW OF: Pylyshyn, Z. 2003. Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 563pp. US$42.98 hbk. ISBN: 0-262-16217-2. This book has three principle aims: to show that neither vision nor mental imagery involves the creation or inspection of picture-like mental representations; to defend the claim that our visual processes are, in significant part, cognitively impenetrable; and to develop a theory of "visual indexes". In what follows, I assess Pylyshyn's success in realising each of these aims in turn. I focus primarily on his arguments against "picture theories" of vision and mental imagery, to which approximately half the book is devoted. I argue that Pylyshyn adopts an unnecessarily restricted interpretation of what it would be for mental representations to be picture-like, and that this leads him prematurely to reject the possibility of explaining the introspective evidence concerning the nature of mental imagery. 1. The Denial of Pictures in Our Heads The first and final three chapters of this book are devoted to discussion of views according to which either vision or mental imagery is pictorial in nature. Pylyshyn is adamantly opposed to such views, and argues that those who hold them do so only either because, in the case of vision, they succumb to the "intentional fallacy" of attributing to representations properties of what they represent or because, in the case of imagery, they mistakenly believe that introspection provides us with access to the underlying structure of our mental representations. However, he construes that claim that we have picture-like mental representations very narrowly, as entailing the claim that intrinsic features of our cognitive architecture are somehow pictorial. Consequently, as I will argue, he fails to PSYCHE: PSYCHE 2005: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 2 consider several possible contruals of mental representations as picture-like that would enable him to explain the introspective evidence about mental imagery. Chapter 1 comprises a detailed argument against the theory according to which vision creates a picture in the head. He explains the influence of the picture theory as due to the discrepancy between the information provided by our phenomenal visual experience and that contained on our retinas. Visual experience extends beyond the spatial and temporal boundaries imposed by the sensors in the fovea. Pylyshyn believes that this leads some to assume that there is an inner image that holds visual information for longer periods, and records spatially extended information by integrating the information available from the retinas at various moments. However, he argues that the informational richness of perceptual experience is better explained by the hypothesis that we have some method of identifying elements of a visible scene as they appear on successive retinal images. He claims that we assign labels to parts of a visible scene and keep track of the labels that have previously been assigned to those parts that remain in view, thus obviating the need for visual storage of off-foveal visual patterns. Pylyshyn invokes a range of claims from experimental psychology against the picture view. Most of these rely on evidence about the interpretation of pictures to support inferences about perception in general. Such claims depend on the implicit assumption that picture interpretation depends on perceptual mechanisms which process pictures and their objects in the same way. While this is a common assumption among psychologists, it is a matter of continuing debate among philosophers (see, for example, Walton 1990, who argues that picture interpretation depends on imagination in a way that vision does not). Moreover, even if it is warranted, this assumption causes problems for Pylyshyn's argument. He argues that vision cannot involve the creation of an inner picture because the information vision provides about a scene is not nearly so rich or uniformly detailed as that associated with pictures. However, if the interpretation of pictures depends on general visual mechanisms, the information provided by pictures should be no more or less detailed than that provided by vision itself. Furthermore, it is not at all clear that the information provided by pictures is especially rich or detailed. For example, stick figure drawings provide only very schematic information about their objects. This point is made forcefully by Michael Tye (1991) in his discussion of mental imagery, but is neglected by Pylyshyn. The final three chapters address the nature of mental imagery. Pylyshyn's main concern in these chapters is to demonstrate the implausibility of the picture theory of mental imagery. In Chapter 6, he argues that the plausibility of the picture theory results from equivocating between images' content-the properties they represent their objects as having-and their form-the underlying system of representation they employ. In order for the picture theory to be true, he argues, the form of mental images, and not merely their contents, must be picture-like. Because those properties of images that are due to their form are unalterable, he argues, they will be cognitively impenetrable, whereas those that are due to their content will be penetrable. He then argues that the various imaging tasks whose outcomes are commonly invoked in support of the picture theory are cognitively penetrable and thus do not demonstrate that mental images are pictorial in form. PSYCHE: PSYCHE 2005: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 3 In Chapter 7, Pylyshyn seeks to support his argument that mental images are distinguished by their contents rather than their form by showing that they lack any of the essential characteristics of pictures. In particular, he argues that mental images do not share the spatial properties of pictures, and that they are not processed by the visual system in a way that supports the claim that they can themselves be seen. His argument for the latter claim relies heavily on empirical evidence for the dissociation of vision and imagery. However, this evidence does not directly support the claim that our visual mechanisms are not applied to the interpretation of mental imagery. It could equally well be explained as due to the different causes of each, one external and one internal. Chapter 8 addresses the role of mental images in thought. Pylyshyn argues that the contribution that imagery makes to our problem solving abilities is not analogous to that which diagrams make. For example, he argues that, unlike diagrams, mental images do not enable us to notice new spatial relations. However, the evidence he cites for this (for example, that we do not notice the ambiguity of imaged Necker Cubes) may reflect limitations to our capacity to create images rather than limitations to what we can learn from them. He argues that images contribute to thought because their contents are different from those of other mental representations. Consequently, he claims, they get us to notice aspects of things that can be helpful in solving certain problems. However, while he acknowledges that the properties that images typically encode are also encoded by pictures, he denies that they share any of the other characteristics of pictures and thus denies that their role in thought is evidence that they are pictorial. However, several philosophers (eg Lopes 1996, Peacocke 1987) argue that what makes a representation pictorial is precisely the nature of the information it provides. On such accounts, that images typically encode the same properties as pictures is constitutive of their being pictorial. Pylyshyn's argumentative strategy shows that he takes picture theories to challenge the language of thought hypothesis, according to which all mental representations are essentially linguistic. However, it is not clear that picture theorists must deny this hypothesis. Many picture theorists deny that they need do so (for example Kosslyn 1983, Tye 1988). Kosslyn and Tye both propose that mental images are pictorial in virtue of having functional spatial properties. They have such properties in virtue of comprising digital data structures that correspond to two-dimensional matrices, which in turn function like two-dimensional displays that are interpreted in the same way as pictures. Pylyshyn argues that the functional space proposal cannot be invoked in support of the picture theory, since it does not identify any intrinsic properties of images and thus does not say anything about the underlying representational form of mental imagery. However, so long as the picture theory is construed as an attempt to explain the introspective evidence about mental imagery and not as a claim about our cognitive architecture-as indeed Kosslyn and Tye construe it-this argument has no force. Pylyshyn acknowledges that we still lack a good account of precisely what distinguishes mental images from other mental representations. This is surely the most interesting question about mental imagery. It is therefore difficult to understand why Pylyshyn chooses to focus instead on the question of what, if anything, imagery shows about our cognitive architecture. Pylyshyn addresses the former question only insofar as he concludes Chapter 7 by enumerating several constraints that should be met by any PSYCHE: PSYCHE 2005: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 4 theory of mental imagery. These constraints require images to be explained as possessing certain features, including the following: containing information about appearances and the relative locations of objects; referring to individual things; and lacking explicit quantifiers, disjunctions and negations. He does not make any attempt to develop an account that meets such constraints himself. Moreover, he ignores the possibility that a picture theory of mental imagery which is neutral regarding the underlying structure of mental representations could meet these constraints. There is reason to believe that such an account could succeed. Pictures typically meet the constraints that Pylyshyn identifies. Furthermore, contemporary philosophical accounts do not construe pictorial representation as essentially spatial, or in any other way that would have implications for the underlying representational structure of mental images, were they picture-like. Instead, they typically construe pictures' representational properties as depending on their capacity to elicit appropriate visual experiences from their viewers (eg Hopkins 1998, Wollheim 1987), or to engage their viewers' visual mechanisms in appropriate ways (eg Schier 1986). These accounts explain why pictures exhibit their characteristic features by appeal to the experiences they elicit or mechanisms they engage. This suggests that the apparently picture-like features of mental images could likewise be explained by appeal to the role our visual systems play in imaging, irrespective of the underlying representational structure of either vision or imagery. 2. The Cognitive Impenetrability of Early Vision Pylyshyn devotes the second chapter to discussion of whether and in what way vision is cognitively penetrable. He argues that the cognitive penetrability of vision is limited to the initial allocation of visual attention and to late visual processing and that there is an intermediary stage called "early vision" that is informationally encapsulated. The cognitive penetration of vision can thus take two forms: our beliefs may determine what features of a scene we attend to (Pylyshyn goes on to discuss focal attention and its underlying mechanisms in Chapters 4 and 5); and they may influence the way in which we classify the objects that are detected in early visionas chairs, or tables, etc. Pylyshyn argues persuasively that the evidence that is commonly invoked in favour of the thesis that vision is cognitively penetrable can be explained as resulting from one of three things: our allocation of focal attention; the way in which we interpret what we see; or evolved, informationally encapsulated constraints on interpretation in early vision. In Chapter 3, Pylyshyn elaborates on the nature of the evolved constraints he believes to govern interpretation in early vision. These constraints enable the visual system to recover a unique 3D structure from proximal 2D data that are intrinsically ambiguous because they are logically compatible with an indefinite number of different 3D structures. Unlike inferences from general knowledge, he argues, these constraints do not influence processes outside the visual system and do not respond to general knowledge concerning their appropriateness or applicability. However, they reflect principles that apply frequently, but not invariably in our world. Therefore, he claims, they usually, but do not always result in veridical visual representations. He gives examples of such constraints that are drawn both from computer vision and from studies of human vision. PSYCHE: PSYCHE 2005: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 5 3. The Allocation of Visual Indexes to Primitive Visual Objects Pylyshyn's main claim in Chapter 4 is that our attentional focus is allocated to objects rather than locations. He claims that the visual system detects and tracks "primitive visual objects", which are tracked as individuals rather than according to their spatial location or other properties. This claim is supported by two arguments. Firstly, although Pylyshyn identifies focal attention, along with the way we interpret what we see, as one of the two sources of cognitive influence on vision, he argues that attentional focus can nonetheless only be given to "transducable" features of a scene - that is, features whose detection does not involve accessing memory or drawing inferences. If this were not the case, he argues, the notion of attentional focus would have little explanatory value, since any difference whatever between subjects' perceptual experiences could be explained as resulting from differences in what is attended to. Secondly, he argues that the transducable features to which attention is allocated must be objects in a scene, rather than properties of the scene or of objects. He presents a range of empirical evidence in support of this claim, including evidence for the endurance of attention despite change in physical location, temporal interruption, and objects' not being spatially defined. He also presents a range of neuropsychological evidence, including evidence from dysfunctions of attention. The claim that attention is allocated to objects independently of their properties assumes that we have some means of individuating objects that does not depend on property individuation. In Chapter 5, Pylyshyn presents his argument for this assumption. He claims that there is a mechanism, called a visual index, which is deployed prior to focal attention being allocated, that individuates objects and allows them to be tracked before any of their properties have been detected. Visual indexes are references to individual objects in the world. Pylyshyn argues that indexing is a causal, rather than a conceptual process: while certain properties of an object secure assignment of an index, the index does not represent the object it picks out as possessing those properties and continues to pick out that object however its properties may change. The claim that vision involves an indexing mechanism is an interesting one. However, it is not clear how an index, once allocated, could track an object without representing any of its properties. Without some method of comparing those properties that initially secured allocation of an index with the properties of a subsequently viewed visual scene, there seems to be no basis for picking out a particular part of that scene as comprising the object to which the index refers. While Pylyshyn discusses a range of empirical evidence that he takes to support his claim, this evidence is not conclusive and he does not adequately defend the coherence of the notion of a visual index. This book is valuable in many ways. It is engaging and clearly written. It also presents a persuasive defence of the claim that our visual and cognitive processes are independent, which nonetheless does not neglect the various ways in which our beliefs may influence what we see. Furthermore, it is valuable both as a summary of Pylyshyn's views on vision and mental imagery and for its presentation and discussion of the relevant empirical data. However, it does not significantly advance the issues it sets out to discuss. Much of this book re-presents arguments that Pylyshyn has previously developed elsewhere. Moreover, in his discussion of mental imagery in the final three chapters, Pylyshyn is content to argue against a very limited range of construals of the claim that PSYCHE: PSYCHE 2005: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 6 images are pictorial, and does not address either the issue of how else their pictorial nature might be construed or that of how else the difference between mental imagery and other mental representations could be explained. Unfortunately, the book is also ridden with minor typographic errors. References Hopkins, R. 1998. Picture, Image and Experience. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Kosslyn, S.M. 1983. Ghosts in the Mind's Machine. New York, W.W. Norton. Lopes, D. 1996. Understanding Pictures. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Peacocke, C. 1987. Depiction. Philosophical Review XCVI(3): 383-410. Schier, F. 1986. Deeper Into Pictures. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Tye, M. 1988. The picture theory of mental images. Philosophical Review XCVII (4): 497-520. Tye, M. 1991. The Imagery Debate. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press. Walton, K. 1990. Mimesis as Make-Believe. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Wollheim, R. 1987. Painting as an Art. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
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{ "creator": "Abellanosa, Rhoderick John", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1589884528000, "description": "As he moves closer to half of his term as president of the\n Philippines, Rodrigo Roa Duterte has continually been in\n friction with the Catholic Church, specifically with certain\n members of its hierarchy. Mainly identifiable as the\n dividing line between Duterte’s administration and the\n Church is the issue on human rights particularly the\n extrajudicial killings (EJK) of suspected users and pushers\n of illegal drugs. This paper argues that Duterte’s attitude\n and positioning towards the Catholic Church neither\n strengthen nor advance the Philippine state towards a\n greater degree of secularization. On the contrary, the\n Church has become more politically and publicly involved.\n Consequently, it has remained a key actor or interest group\n providing an alternative moral discourse to that of the\n government.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABESIS-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations under the Duterte Administration", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Social Ethics Society Journal of Applied Philosophy Special Issue, December 2018, pp. 55-80 © 2018 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa eISSN: 2546-1885 Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations under the Duterte Administration Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa Sacred Heart School - Ateneo de Cebu Abstract As he moves closer to half of his term as president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Roa Duterte has continually been in friction with the Catholic Church, specifically with certain members of its hierarchy. Mainly identifiable as the dividing line between Duterte's administration and the Church is the issue on human rights particularly the extrajudicial killings (EJK) of suspected users and pushers of illegal drugs. This paper argues that Duterte's attitude and positioning towards the Catholic Church neither strengthen nor advance the Philippine state towards a greater degree of secularization. On the contrary, the Church has become more politically and publicly involved. Consequently, it has remained a key actor or interest group providing an alternative moral discourse to that of the government. Keywords: EJK, Roman Catholicism, secularization, secular morality, church-state relations 56 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa Perhaps second to illegal drugs, the Roman Catholic Church1 is a severely criticized and attacked institution by President Rodrigo Duterte. The president has become an apparently relentless critic not only of the Catholic clergy but also of Catholicism's doctrines.2 A hermeneutic of the public's reaction to Duterte's speeches and actions would reveal not only an implicit approval of his antagonism but also an argument for the necessity of the same within the context of the separation of the Church and State. Without being theoretical about the matter, the supporters of the president are in a way working within the premise that because the state is secular, it is but proper that religion should mind its own business and refrain from meddling in affairs that are basically proper to politics. In a way there is a social subconscious that the current administration has developed as a necessary anti-thesis to religion, particularly the Catholic Church, which has remained dominant, powerful and influential in the Philippine political landscape. This paper argues that Duterte's attitude and positioning towards the Catholic Church neither strengthen nor advance the Philippines towards a greater degree of secularization. Contributing to this is his apparent disregard for human rights mainly through his view and remarks on extrajudicial killings (EJK). This has made the Church more politically and publicly 1 In this paper, Roman Catholic Church is interchangeably used with Church. Conscious of the need for nuance in usage of terminologies when referring to specific political actors, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines or CBCP is used instead of Church. Philippine hierarchy or Philippine bishops are interchangeably used with CBCP. 2 See Kristine Phillips, "Duterte's drug war killed thousands, and Filipinos still loved him. Then he called God 'stupid.'" Available online: . Also, see Rie Takumi (GMA News), "Duterte attacking the credibility of the Catholic church - CBCP." Available online: . Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 57 involved. Consequently, it has remained a key actor or interest group providing an alternative moral discourse to that of the government. Two major points are elaborated in this paper's discussion: I. Duterte's ambivalent moral discourse has not strengthened the needed secular morality which should be the foundation of Philippine politics. II. In light of this, dominant religious forces such as the Catholic Church remain to be a formidable interest group in politics. Secularization: A Review Charles Taylor in a discussion with Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, and Cornel West, points out that "democracies" have to be secular" and this "involve some kind of separation of church and state."3 Thus, "the state can't be officially linked to some religious confession [or institution]."4 More essentially, it also upholds, protects, and allows a plurality of faiths to thrive. If we may further elaborate Taylor's point, there can be no secular state without democratic pluralism, and there can be no democratic pluralism if there is totalitarianism, i.e. the dictatorship of one perspective or paradigm. Although there are various types of applications of secularization, the concept of the secular (sometimes referred to in this essay as secularity) basically means freeing the public sphere from the dictates of religion, especially a religion or church that has a greater advantage of dominating the political and moral discourse. This should not be understood, however, as an attempt to antagonize religion. Philosophers and sociologists have examined more than enough, and their conclusions point to a common if not similar view: religion is always part of society 3 Charles Taylor, "Why We Need a Radical Definition of Secularism," in Judith Butler, Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West, The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 34. 4 Ibid. 58 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa despite the principle of the separation of the Church and state.5 Jose Casanova would prefer to understand secularization as the process of functional differentiation rather than the active effort to intentionally marginalize and thus make irrelevant all religions.6 Secular Morality: The Foundation of Democracy Although a secular state should allow plurality of religions and ideas to thrive, it has an indispensable role to also provide citizens the most minimum basis for their choices regardless of religious orientations including the non-believers.7 For example, in a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines, birth control was at some point heatedly debated. The Church has maintained the position that only natural family planning is morally acceptable. Some lawmakers8 however argued that not all people in the Philippines are Catholics and that even among Catholics there are those who would want to avail of government services should it provide artificial means of birth control. Within the context of a secular democracy, the Philippine government should give weight to the fact that there is a plurality 5 See for example the debate between Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who would eventually become Pope Benedict XVI and Jurgen Habermas in J. Habermas and J. Ratzinger, The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005). Highlighting the role of religion in secular societies, Habermas cited the question of Ernst Wolfgang Bockenforde: Does the free, secularized state exist on the basis of normative presuppositions that it itself cannot guarantee (see p. 21)? 6 Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 12-15. 7 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa, "Religious Freedom and Lawmaking in a Secular State: The Reproductive Health (RH) Bill Case," in Orlando Carvajal, L. Lanaria, R. Abellanosa and others, A Conversation about Life: Points of View on Reproductive Health (Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 2014), 73. 8 For example, Rep. Edcel Lagman's comments that based on periodic surveys 71% among Catholic favor the enactment of the RH Bill. See Carlos Santamaria, "Why Compromise on RH Bill? Lagman Explains." Available online: . Also see Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago's position on the matter in Marilen J. Danguilan, The RH Bill Story: Contentions and Compromises (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2018), 407-413. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 59 rather than singularity of ideas. This means that, in the end, it could not, for it to be genuinely secular and democratic, forever follow the interest of the Church in the issue of birth control. But neither can the state, on the basis of secularity, deprive Catholics of their freedom to practice their belief should they wish to follow their Church's teaching. Thus, a Reproductive Health Law provides a minimum option in the public sphere. It is not an imposition by the state on the people on what they should follow according to their choice in the private realm of their lives. As a secular entity, the state should be stable and grounded by moral principles that are not based on religious teachings nor inspired by any sectarian claim to divine revelation. When Carl Schmitt said that the concepts of the modern theory of the state are "secularized theological concepts" - he, in a way has provided emphasis, that no religion-based morality should be used or favored in the establishment of laws as well as their execution.9 This does not mean though that religions should be abolished, nor their freedoms be curtailed. Simply put, there is a transfer of sovereignty from God to the state. It is thus important for the state to have a clear sense o f secular morality, otherwise, in its absence or lack of clarity, people will go back to their religious morality. De Dios candidly observes this in the Philippine context The real difficulty is not that the Church has suddenly become more insistent and militant: religious morality is, after all, what it is and what it has always been. The problem appears rather to be that the founts and wells of secular morality . . . have run dry. This has created a great vacuum that religious and other private moralities have 9 Here we may quote Schmitt in length: "All significant concept of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concept not only because of their historical development - in which they were transferred from theology to the theory of the state, whereby, for example, the omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver - but also because of their systematic structure, the recognition of which is necessary for a sociological consideration of these concepts." See C. Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1985), p. 36. 60 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa now rushed to fill. The prominent political role of the religious today, for example, owes to the absence of secular organisations - the most important of which are platformbased political parties - that can command people's allegiances and can hold the political establishment to account as a matter of routine (i.e., rather than as periodic cataclysms). The spectacle of nuns serving as human shields for a senate witness is testament to the deep mistrust of the secular law-enforcers and a deficit of faith in the impartiality of secular justice. The need to involve church parishes in a simple matter of distributing rice to the poor merely points up the lack of reliability of the government's own systems.10 The moral foundations of political life are a concern and a project that should have developed and grown with the establishment of the secular state itself. The failure or the lack of appreciation for this is rooted in the idea that morality is basically a religious concern, and that the state should be neutral in matters of morality. This, of course, is apparently wrong. So, if the state cannot base its judgments and rulings say on the Ten Commandments, then what should be the basis for any political or juridical position that involves ethical issues? The Philippine Supreme Court decision Estrada v. Escritor explains: The laws enacted become expressions of public morality. As Justice Holmes put it, (t)he law is the witness and deposit of our moral life. In a liberal democracy, the law reflects social morality over a period of time. Occasionally though, a disproportionate political influence might cause a law to be enacted at odds with public morality or legislature might fail to repeal laws embodying outdated traditional moral view. Law has also been defined 10 Emmanuel S. De Dios, "Secular Morality and the University" UP School of Economics Discussion Papers, no. 0805. Quezon City: University of the Philippines, Diliman, 10. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 61 as something men create in their best moments to protect themselves in their worst moments. Even then, laws are subject to amendment or repeal just as judicial pronouncements are subject to modification and reversal to better reflect the public morals of a society at a given time.11 In sum, democracy cannot be democracy if it is not secular, and vice-versa. A secular democratic state needs a moral foundation that is also secular in nature. Secular morality is thus the state's articulation of its own position on moral issues through legislation and policies. This is needed as the minimal basis for the decision-making of the citizenry. I. Duterte's Ambivalent Moral Discourse and the Secular Morality in the Philippines Kusaka contends that Duterte's moral discourse is hegemonic in that it constructs a "good we" versus an "evil others" view and attitude. At the core of his moral discourse is the emphasis on discipline, which accordingly is a shift from a moral discourse of "kindness to the poor."12 This description of Duterte's moral perspective is, I believe, more of sociological rather than philosophical. Kusaka conceptualizes morality in the context of his study of Duterte, as the president's method and style of delineating his political convictions from those of his critics and detractors. His criticism of the Church is actually a negation of the Church's discourse of compassion. For Duterte, this country will never improve if we will always be compassionate to criminals. This goes to show that for Duterte, ethical perspectives are ambivalent, and goodness does not have a standard definition. 11 Supreme Court of the Philippines. 2003. "Estrada v. Escritor" in 12 Wataru Kusaka, "Bandit Grabbed the State: Duterte's Moral Politics," in Philippines Sociological Review, 65: 52. 62 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa This sort of moral discourse however is not only an indication but also the reason for Duterte's ambivalence towards other moral issues. He has concentrated so much on the war on drugs such that his administration hasn't given priority to other issues that require the backing of an influential executive. Divorce, same-sex marriage, and gambling are recurring moral issues that cannot be put to rest until and unless the Philippine government would seal their fate through laws. Even the reproductive health law is an unfinished project. And yet the current administration has not radicalized enough the implementation of the provisions of reproductive health. It is a lso ironic that although Duterte has expressed in public his support of the RH Law his views on women as well as his public remarks are very sexist and thus contrary to the spirit of the very law he claims to support.13 The Moral Deficit of Duterte Practically, secular morality has not been completely solidified in the Philippines. Proof to this, and as will be elaborated later, is the sustained influence of religious norms and views in the public sphere. Precisely, it took several administrations before Duterte to assert and thus gradually shape and define secular morality. The Ramos administration for example has done this through its effort to promote artificial birth control. When Benigno Aquino III was the president, the Philippine government, through legislation, has had gradually asserted the state's capacity to make political decisions without the influence of sectarian or religious principles and convictions. After year s of battle with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines 13 A concrete example of Duterte's sexist view and behavior was his remark during a speech in Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City. Then a presidential candidate, Duterte gave a rape joke in which he said: "That everyone had lined up to rape her. I got angry. That she was raped? Yes, that too. But it was that she was so beautiful - the mayor should have been the first. What a waste." For details on this see Nicole Curato, "The Early Duterte Presidency in the Philippines" in Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 35(3): 93. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 63 (CBCP) the Philippine government finally put into law the Reproductive Health Bill. It is not just a matter of insisting that there exists a separation of Church and state. More crucial is the conviction on the part of the state that it operates within its own moral frame, which need not be religious, one that gives a neutral blueprint for moral choices in the public sphere. In doing so, the State is telling religious groups that its non-alignment to their convictions is not a gesture of immorality. Simply, there is a different manner of proceeding in being moral. In a democracy however, the state's secular morality has to be grounded on something that is also acceptable, not to say the least one that is reasonably acceptable. Basically, we are referring to the respect for human rights, and the defense of individual liberties. If there is anything that would make the state score in its competitive power play with the Church and other churches, it is none other than the assertion that although its morality is not anchored in religious convictions, it promotes and defends the rights of humanity. These rights are afforded to all regardless of race, creed and gender. Unfortunately, this is a significant area that the Duterte administration obviously lacks. And it is basically the same reason why Duterte himself is to be blamed for weakening if not dissolving the secular morality of the Philippine State. There are two main reasons that would support this claim. First, Duterte's notion of human rights basically evidences his apparent disregard for morality. Put more bluntly, Duterte's governance is not founded on any systematic moral perspective. This does not mean that he does not think of arriving at specific deliverables. He does, but there is no trace that the mode of operation of his governance is based on a specific concrete moral conviction. As will be elaborated later, his war on drugs which has been his rallying cry has relativized the state's moral foundation. 64 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa Secondly, Duterte's political style is characterized by relativism. This does not mean that Duterte is consciously espousing theoretical relativism. But practically speaking his views and approaches cannot be interpreted as one rational whole. If there is one essential hallmark of secular morality it is the avoidance of sliding to relativism.14 Adam Smith as cited in De Dios speaks in his Theory of Moral Sentiments of the difficulty of a "fatherless world" that is of living in a society "filled with nothing but endless misery and wretchedness."15 a) Human Rights If there is any concrete proof that a non-religious person can maintain moral standards it is none other than his observance of the rights of others. Precisely, human rights are universal because they understood as universal indicators of shared human values. The respect for life, liberty, property, and above all the importance of due process are essential ingredients that comprise the non-religious "mores" of the state. All laws revolve around human rights. Supreme Court decisions, and more so the very gesture of giving cognizance to a case presented before it function, operate, and make sense only because everyone understands that a process is important, and it is not just any formal process it is also one that looks into the reasonability of things, the accusations and the defense. Basically, human rights are a constitutive element of a secular state and thus of its foundational secular morality. Human rights as a concept in fact define and characterize the human person as he is conceived from a non-religious, that is, secular point of view. A review of its historical development would remind us that human rights evolved from the notion of the natural rights of man 14 Emmanuel S. De Dios, Secular Morality and the University, 2. 15 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), 235-236 as cited in Emmanuel S. De Dios' Secular Morality and the University. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 65 which was essentially informed and grounded on natural law.16 Human rights are basically about affording everyone equal protection and fair treatment built on commonly shared human values. By repeating again and again that at the center or core of his governance is the war on drugs, Duterte relocates the foundation of his governance from the very point where his legitimacy is located to another point where his existence as an agent of the sovereign would be believed to be justified by practical necessity rather than reason and morality. At the risk of oversimplification, the line of thinking is like this: Duterte has to do what he has to do because he needs to do it; we need Duterte. In his 2018 State of the Nation Address (SONA), Rodrigo Duterte said these words: Let me begin by putting it bluntly: the war against illegal drugs is far from over . . . This is why the illegal drugs war will not be sidelined. Instead, it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began . . . And when illegal drug operations turn nasty and bloody, advocates of human rights lash at - and pillory - our law enforcers and this administration to no end. 17 In defense of this statement, many supporters reiterate the very same argument since Duterte assumed office: the use of illegal drugs is a problem that must be stopped if not, at least, minimized. Such a claim is valid, however lacks qualification. The issue for the critics of Duterte is not his motive or intention but the manner by which he carries his plan. For Duterte, the war on drugs is an all-out war which necessarily requires the non- 16 Romuald Haule, in A. von Bogdandy and R. Wolfrum, eds., Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, Volume 10: 390-392. 17 President Rodrigo Duterte, "SONA 2018." Available online: . 66 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa observance and if needed the disrespect of human rights. To quote once more a portion of his SONA 2018: "Sadly, I have yet to hear really howls of protest from the human rights advocates and church leaders against druglordism, drug dealing and drug pushing as forceful and vociferous as the ones directed against the alleged errant [law] enforcers in the fight against this social scourge." Apparently, the statement is not only a rhetorical blast against his critics. It is also a claim that by protesting against his war on drugs, the Commission on Human Rights and faith-based groups specifically some leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are supportive of drug lords, addicts, and pushers. Duterte has basically solidified a discourse that claims that the war on drugs can ultimately necessitate a practical disregard for human rights. Perhaps one of the most applauded lines in his most recent SONA was when he said: "[y]our concern is human rights, mine is human lives." It may appear that Duterte is confused between human rights and human lives. We may radicalize our interpretation however by saying that his dichotomy is actually an admission that he does not believe in any essential value of human rights apart from its pragmatic or utilitarian value. "In saying that he is more concerned with 'life' he seems to suggest that 'rights' are associated with criminals."18 It is thus apparent that the president is truly convinced that "for this country to be peaceful and orderly, we have to sometimes violate rights and thus save lives. Worse: those who are concerned with human rights see less value in the lives of those who were killed."19 The cost of the current administration's crusade is high. Human Rights Watch has reported that since he assumed office, there has been an estimated 12,000 cases of deaths of suspected drug addicts. Most of the victims live in urban poor communities. 18 Abellanosa, Rhoderick John S. 2018, "Human Rights versusHuman Lives" in Sunstar CDO, available online: . 19 Ibid. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 67 Moreover, the same report reveals that at least 2,555 o f the killings were made by the Philippine National Police.20 Supporters of the administration have argued that the deaths cannot be established with certitude as Duterte's liability. The PNP has also claimed that those who died were "nanlaban" (they fought back against the arresting officer). There are very obvious reasons however why such a defense is not plausible. First, the government has not done any serious investigation on the matter.21 In the very first place, it has continued its operations without any expression of concern for the problem. Secondly, Duterte's words are basically the evidences themselves. He has given blunt remarks that openly his position that drug addicts and all those involved in drugs are not entitled to human rights. In one occasion, for example, he remarked: "[i]f you are shot and I know you are a drug lord, I will run over you five times."22 Citing Devlin, Estrada v. Escritor provides a philosophical basis for the irreplaceable role of human rights in the formation and solidification of a secular morality: "common morality is part of the bondage and the bondage is part of the price of society; and mankind, which needs society, must pay its price." The same Supreme Court decision, citing Oliver Wendell Holmes, explains further: "[t]he law is the witness and deposit of our moral life. In 20 Human Rights Watch, "Philippine Ward on Drugs." Available online: . 21 Human rights experts from the United Nations (UN) no less, including Agnes Callamard, have asked the Philippine government to probe or investigate the killings in the country. Callamard together with Michael Frost and Diego Garcia - Sayan said: "[m]any of the killings appear to be perpetrated by law enforcement offic ials and by unknown assailants. This seems to indicate a climate of official, institutional impunity, which can only encourage further killings and other excessive use of lethal force by law enforcement personnel or those acting on their behalf or with their acquiescence." See Julliane Love De Jesus, "UN rights experts renew plea for Duterte gov't to probe EJKs in PH." Available online: . 22 Reuters, "Philippines' Duterte says no 'justice' for families of drugs war casualties." Available online: . 68 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa a liberal democracy, the law reflects social morality over a period of time." It is therefore a serious assault against the foundation of the state if the Head of Government himself does not believe in the raison d'etre of laws. By disregarding human rights, Duterte slows down the ongoing formation and clarity of definition of secular morality, thereby making the Philippine state morally bankrupt and thus in one way or another a country eaten up by corruption in a more threatening way. Human rights violations, most especially that they are either sponsored or tolerated by the state, has pulled back the status of Philippine politics to a predemocratic condition. While remaining democratic in form, Philippine politics lacks the various essential features of a democracy particularly in the area of social justice and human rights. Analysts have already warned at the outset that Duterte is a president whose political lexicon does not include the words justice, freedom, and democracy.23 Claudio and Abinales accurately describes Duterte's modus operandi: individual [human] rights are "inconsequential compared to a national interest that equates with his own political victories."24 Duterte is a concrete example of a politician who justifies all means with the very end he has in mind or he so desires. b) From Ambivalence to Relativism It was mentioned earlier that although a secular state does not subscribe to any specific religious or sectarian morality, it is not, nonetheless, a case or situation of promoting relativism. The opposite, in fact, is the objective of secular morality: the strengthening of the state's moral foundation in the face of religious, cultural, and partisan pluralism. 23 Claudio, Lisandro E. and Patricio Abinales, "Dutertismo, Maoismo, Nasyonalismo" in Nicole Curato, ed. A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte's Early Presidency (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017), 94. 24 Ibid. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 69 There is all the more a reason why the state should, in the form of legislation and public policy, offer clear answers or responses to its citizens given that no particular religious conviction can be used as a basis in the resolution of moral or ethical questions specifically those that are subject to contestation and negotiation. For example, it is becoming urgent and necessary to settle how the state would respond to the increasing demand for recognition of LGBT rights in the face of competing or contending moral perspectives. It is not the goal and the role of a secular state to "prescribe what autonomous individual ought to decide ."25 Its role instead is to provide the availability of available options that citizens may freely accept or reject as private individuals. It is within the framework of the foregoing discussion that Duterte's governance is problematic. His views and approaches cannot be interpreted as one rational whole.26 He has not facilitated, particularly in the area of law and policymaking, the advancement of concerns which if decided by the government would practically define and clarify the secularization of the state. If assessed or evaluated in terms of moral ascendancy, Duterte's administration and governance is a failure not really because he is a critic of the Catholic Church but because he has not presented, whether formally or at least through some indications, a systematic and consistent framework that would readily serve as a response to the still strongly contending moral perspective of the Catholic Church. Apparently, the Duterte government is ambivalent, not to mention, confusing when it comes to policies and laws that require a clear moral resolve from the end of a secular state. In 2015, Maria Ressa made an analysis of Duterte's contradictions. In her essay, she pointed out Duterte's inconsistencies in six 25 Emmanuel S. De Dios, Secular Morality and the University, 15. 26 Maria Ressa (Rappler), "Duterte, his 6 contradictions and planned dictatorship." Available online: tions/2016/110679-dutertecontradictions-dictatorship. 70 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa essential political points. Here we may mention some: he claims to be a leftist but he is a dictator, he appears to support women's rights but is a womanizer, and he claims to be a gay rights supporter but is actually very sexist.27 II. Religious Discourse in a Secular State The perceived political influence and strength of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, specifically its religious leaders cannot just be attributed to its numbers and networks. The legal dismantling of its formal political control in after the revolution against Spain 1898 has remained unfinished.28 Secularization cannot just be achieved through a constitutional declaration of the separation of Church and state. Precisely, the "secular" is not just a theory or a concept but a condition, and it must be a lived and practiced condition that requires concrete measures, habits of doing, attitudes and more importantly clear political values. The Philippine state across administrations or presidencies has exerted various efforts to strengthen the secular character of the state. In certain situations, however, it has made negotiations and compromises with the Catholic Church. It is therefore an ongoing project that needs reinforcement through legislations, 27 Ressa elaborates: "A known womanizer, Duterte has also funded and supports women's rights. A lead activist for gender equality, Irene Santiago, says he has done much to empower women in Davao. Santiago gained global prominence as a key organizer of the Beijing Women's Conference in 1995, personally thanked by Hillary Clinton on the main stage. Duterte supported the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill through the years it languished in Congress, pushing family planning and population control in his area of influence. In 2012, while Congress and the Church debated RH, Davao City was already giving out free contraceptives. As regards his view on LGBT and sexuality related issues, here is what Ressa observed: "Although he openly admits he's a male chauvinist often shown in his sometimes sexist remarks, he put in place progressive policies, supporting and funding LGBT activists. He also supports gay marriage. These positions remain controversial in Asia's largest Catholic nation roughly 85% Christian, most Roman Catholic. In the early years, it took courage to stand up to the Church, which lobbied hard against reproductive health and sex education. Outside the Vatican, the Philippines is the only other place where divorce is illegal" (Ibid.). 28 Steven Shirley. Guided by God, The Legacy of the Catholic Church in Philippines Politics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2004), 41. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 71 court decisions, and above all the leadership of the president of the republic. Sustained Deprivatization of Religion Yet advancing secularization cannot be accomplished by merely antagonizing the Catholic Church although oftentimes such is necessary. The state is duty bound to provide a minimally acceptable set of principles in the form of policies and laws that would allow people to decide in the level of the public sphere without the dictates and interference of religious institutions and their moralities that are based on theological and thus privately acceptable ethical principles. The state however cannot proceed in its promotion of secular morality in the political sphere if it is not even convinced by the logic and reason of its own legal foundations. A government, and in this case Duterte, which doubts the rationality of the very human rights that it is duty bound to defend - in no way strengthens the secular-moral ascendancy of the state. On the contrary, its perceived disrespect for rights as well as its practically relativist attitude towards important policy issues provides an opening for more criticisms and protests by religious forces most particularly the Roman Catholic Church which has remained a dominant interest group due to its role in Philippine political history. Alternative Moral Discourse The discourse of the Catholic hierarchy, for example, provides ample evidence that indeed a formidable religious group would become an alternative moral discourse albeit a contending block. On January 30, 2017, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines criticized the Duterte administration for allegedly promoting if not supporting extra judicial killings. Citing Ezekiel 18:32, the Philippine bishops expressed deep concern over the many deaths and killings in the campaign against prohibited drugs. 72 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa It thus appeared that the Catholic bishops and the clergy have become the guardians of human rights whereas the state through the administration of Duterte ends up labeled as a human rights violator. Ironically, it is a private group and not the main agent of the public sphere which now stands on behalf of the Filipino people: "[w]e are one with many of our countrymen who want change, but change must be guided by truth and justice."29 An analysis of the discourse of the CBCP would reveal that the Catholic hierarchy hasn't just put forward a pure faith-based critique of Duterte's administration. Just as it did to previous presidents, the Philippine bishops crafted its arguments in a manner that isn't just faith-based but also admissible and comprehensible in the public sphere. The CBCP therefore isn't just arguing on the basis of faith but also reason. To concretize, while it is asserted that "[t]he life of every person comes from God" and that "[n]ot even the government has a right to kill", the Bill of Rights is also invoked: "[e]very person has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty."30 The Philippine hierarchy has made it a point that its critique of Duterte is not without basis, and that isn't just based on plain religious or dogmatic conservatism. In fact, the CBCP has gone as far as linking the problem of drugs and criminality to the problem of poverty. Thus, the bishops argue that: "[T]he step we have to take is to overcome poverty, especially through the giving of permanent work and sufficient wages to workers. Let us strengthen and carry forward the unity and love of the family members. Let us not allow any law that destroys the unity of families. We must also give priority to reforming rogue policemen and corrupt judges. The excessively slow adjudication of court cases is one big reason for the spread of criminality. Often it is the poor who suffer from this system. We also call upon 29 Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, "Pastoral Statement on Death and Killings" (2017). Available online: . 30 1987 Philippine Constitution, Bill of Rights (article III, section 1). Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 73 elected politicians to serve the common good of the people and not their own interests."31 Relying on what has remained of its political capital, the leadership of the Catholic Church and its network of supporters - has once again come forward as an alternative source of morality for the Filipino nation to consider and follow. Recent Philippine political history would tell us that the Catholic Church's defense of its participation in politics is the argument like a running thread across presidential administrations: it is the duty and obligation of the Church to speak on matters of morality. The 1986 EDSA revolution in which some members of the Philippine hierarchy played an important role was by far the biggest investment of the Church that has given it moral ascendancy to fight various forms of corruption and dictatorship. The Church through more or less the same actors within its own institution used the same ascendancy in 2001 that brought down former president Joseph Estrada from power. Apparently, Duterte has been questioning the Church's role in Philippine politics. He has discredited the Philippine bishops to the point of calling their God stupid. He has in fact cursed and blasphemed Catholicism to the highest level, perhaps with the objective of bringing down the Church's credibility to its lowest level. By exposing their corruptions, Duterte is telling Filipinos that it is high time for politics to be left to politicians. In a way, he is saying that the Church cannot even handle its own mess, and there is no reason therefore why it should not remain silent on issues related to human rights and poverty. Critiquing the Church: Style not Content The Catholic Church is not new to criticisms. It has been accused a number of times for meddling in politics. Duterte's criticism and attacks against the Church is not the first and apparently not the last. President Aquino for example criticized some Filipino bishops in front of Pope Francis during his papal visit in 2015, thus: 31 CBCP, Pastoral Statement on Death and Killings (2017). 74 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa "There was a true test of faith when many members of the Church, once advocates for the poor, the marginalized, and the helpless, suddenly became silent in the face of the previous administration's abuses, which we are still trying to rectify to this very day."32 Aquino referred to the refusal of some bishops to call for the resignation of former president Gloria Arroyo after she was accused of electoral fraud in 2005. The accusation of siding with corruption against the bishops was aggravated by another scandal in 2011 in which certain bishops were said to receive Pajero (SUV) from Malacañang. The criticism against the clergy in front of Pope Francis thus continued: "In contrast to their previous silence, some members of the clergy now seem to think that the way to be true to the faith means finding something to criticize, even to the extent that one prelate admonished me to do something about my hair, as if it were a mortal sin.33 The bigger picture of Aquino's fight with some bishops was the opposition of the Philippine hierarchy to the Reproductive Health Bill, which his administration succeeded in legislating. There is a good reason for pointing this out. In the discursive war between Duterte and the Roman Catholic Church, many have missed seeing the point that the bishops in particular have been, for many decades, at the forefront in the public sphere of contestation in Philippine politics. In fact, it would be unnecessary, to say the least an overreaction, for observers to be surprised with the bishops getting criticized or even insulted by Duterte or any politician for that matter. A serious analysis of the current tension between Duterte and Church is also not an issue of the contradicting contents of their 32 Kristine Angeli Sabillo, "Aquino blasts admin, silent Church before Pope." Available online: . 33 Ibid. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 75 discourses. There is really nothing new insofar as Catholic social teaching is concerned. The Church's agenda have remained the same: defense of human life, sexuality, marriage, and the common good - all of which are based on Natural Law and the principles of dignity of the human person, common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity. Apparently, some members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy have not cowered despite Duterte's venomous attacks against the Church. Although not all bishops of the CBCP have openly spoken against the government, certain figures have stood out as consistent critics of the administration. Most known are Bishops Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of Manila and Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan. Another critical voice in the CBCP is Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan who was the former president of the bishops' conference. Oratio Imperata (mandatory prayer to be recited in Masses) has also been separately issued in the Archdiocese of Cebu, Diocese of Dumaguete, and in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan. The explanation for this is no less Duterte's own blueprint of governance. His overemphasis on discipline that is in a way indicative of strongly fascist tendencies - has consequently disregarded the very spirit of Philippine democracy. Apart from democratic principles, no leader can cultivate or strengthen the unfinished project of secularization in the Philippines. Duterte may have lambasted the Church but the naked truth should be told that he is making a cult of his own, a state religion where he himself is god, in the words of Randy David: Dutertismo. He hates the bishops, their corruption and dictatorship, but in many ways he is nothing different. For this very reason, the Philippine state remains crippled without moving any closer to the principles of a secular state. Religion, thus, has remained not only relevant but for some, needed - in order to be saved from Duterte and his fascism. Another good reason why we can say that there is a setback in secularization under the Duterte administration is the president's uneven treatment of religious groups. He attacks the Catholic bishops but has remained associated with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy 76 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa who founded a local cult in Davao. The president even admitted that he got donations from Quiboloy when he was mayor of Davao. 34 He has also appointed a senior minister of Iglesia ni Cristo to his cabinet. Sociologist Randy David's observation accurately describes Duterte's decision and choice, as "Short of actually establishing the INC as its official church, this administration makes no attempt to hide the fact that the Iglesia, which supported the President in the last elections, is its favored church."35 All of this goes to show that Duterte's prejudices against the Church has something to do with plain power struggle. Secularization is not about the marginalization of one religion especially the most dominant that poses threat to state control. More than this, the state should gradually, through its agencies, flex its authority through policies and laws, take the rudder and decide in the spirit of its own laws and democratic principles, on how to go about with the country's future direction. Conclusion The secularization of the Philippine state is an ongoing project that each administration must continually improve through lawmaking and policymaking. Duterte's criticisms of the Catholic Church may have given an impression that the current administration has asserted independence if not autonomy from sectarian influence. However, not even the harshest words against the clergy would successfully define in clearer terms the secular agenda of the state. Secularization is built on the foundations of secular morality. Distinguished from religious morality that is founded on claims of Divine Revelation or religious traditions, secular morality is basically the articulation of the most minimum acceptable option, which citizens may choose in the public sphere. 34 See Pia Ranada, "Duterte Admits Receiving Properties, Cars from Quiboloy." Available online: . 35 Randy David, "Appointing the INC Head as Special Envoy." Available online: . Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 77 Secular morality however presupposes the defense of human rights, something which is arguably a difficulty on the part of Duterte who himself is not totally convinced of doing. By overly focusing on the war on drugs, Duterte has failed to advance the much-needed clarification of the state's secular norms that should have long been concretized by previous administrations in the different legislative agenda and issues such as divorce, same-sex unions, women's rights, and reproductive health. Because the state under the Duterte administration has failed in this regard, the Catholic Church and its brand of morality has remained a significant option, in fact the most systematic moral compass that practically serves as the standard norm. In one way or another, therefore, Duterte has sustained the relevance of the Catholic Church in the public sphere, allowing it more reasons to participate and criticize the government. Until and unless the state would succeed in gradually defining the state's secular moral norms, the Church will always be there to offer itself through discourse in whatever available avenue in the public sphere of contestation. References Abellanosa, Rhoderick John S. "Human Rights versus Human Lives" in Sunstar CDO [24 July 2018], available online: . ____. "Religious Freedom and Lawmaking in a Secular State: The Reproductive Health (RH) Bill Case" in Orlando Carvajal, L. Lanaria, R. Abellanosa and others, A Conversation about Life: Points of View on Reproductive Health. Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 2014. Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. "Pastoral Statement on Death and Killings" in , 2017. 78 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa Claudio, Lisandro E. and Patricio Abinales. "Dutertismo, Maoismo, Nasyonalismo" in Nicole Curato, ed. A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte's Early Presidency. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017. Curato, Nicole. "Politics of Anxiety, Politics of Hope: Penal Populism and Duterte's Rise to Power" in Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 35 (3), 2016, 91-109. Curato, Nicole. "Flirting with Authoritarian Fantasies? Rodrigo Duterte and the New Terms of Philippine Populism" in Journal of Contemporary Asia, DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2016.1239751, 2016. Danguilan, Marilen J. The RH Bill Story: Contentions and Compromises. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2018. David, Randy. "Appointing the INC Head as Special Envoy" in , 2018. De Dios, Emmanuel S. "Secular Morality and the University" UP School of Economics Discussion Papers, no. 0805. Quezon City: University of the Philippines, Diliman, 2008. De Jesus, Julliane Love. "UN rights experts renew plea for Duterte gov't to probe EJKs in PH" in , 2017. Duterte, Rodrigo. "State of the Nation Address 2018" in , 2018. Supreme Court of the Philippines. "Estrada v. Escritor" in p_02_1651.htm, 2003. Haule, Romuald. A. von Bogdandy and R. Wolfrum, eds., Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, Volume 10, 2006, 367395. Human Rights Watch. "Philippines' War on Drugs" in . Kusaka, Wataru. "Bandit Grabbed the State: Duterte's Moral Politics" in Philippines Sociological Review, vol. 65 , 2017, 4975. Setback in Secularization: Church and State Relations... 79 Ranada, Pia. "Duterte Admits Receiving Properties, Cars from Quiboloy" in 1569-duterte-properties-cars-quiboloy-graft-corruption, 2016. Ressa, Maria. "Duterte, his 6 contradictions and planned dictatorship" in 0679-duterte-contradictions-dictatorship, 2015. Reuters. "Philippines' Duterte says no 'justice' for families of drugs war casualties" in , 2018. Sabillo, Kristine Angeli. "Aquino blasts admin, silent Church before Pope" in , 2015. Santamaria, Carlos. "Why Compromise on RH Bill? Lagman Explains" in , 2012. Schmitt, Carl. Political Theology, Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty, trans. G. Schwab. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. Shirley, Steven. Guided by God, The Legacy of the Catholic Church in Philippines Politics. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2004. Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Taylor, Charles. "Why We Need a Radical Definition of Secularism" in Judith Butler, Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West, The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. 80 Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa
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{ "creator": "Abell, Catharine", "date": "2010", "datestamp": 1587682158000, "description": "There is a variety of epistemic roles to which photographs are better suited than non-photographic pictures. Photographs provide more compelling evidence of the existence of the scenes they depict than non-photographic pictures. They are also better sources of information about features of those scenes that are easily overlooked. This chapter examines several different attempts to explain the distinctive epistemic value of photographs, and argues that none is adequate. It then proposes an alternative explanation of their epistemic value. The chapter argues that photographs play the epistemic roles they do because they are typically rich sources of depictively encoded information about the scenes they depict, and reliable depictive representations of those scenes. It then explains why photographs differ from non-photographic pictures in both respects.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABETEV", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The Epistemic Value of Photographs", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
The Epistemic Value of Photographs CATHARINE ABELL Photographs play epistemic roles that most other pictures cannot. Firstly, they can provide compelling evidence that the things they depict existed at the time they were taken. We might doubt that the unfamiliar animals drawn by zoologists of the past ever existed, but be convinced by photographs of Tasmanian tigers that this now extinct marsupial once populated its namesake state. Likewise, a photograph of a politician lunching with a known criminal may convince us of her corruption, when a drawing of the same scene would not. Secondly, photographs play a unique investigative role, enabling us to identify features of their objects that are easily overlooked. Police detectives consult photographs, rather than paintings, of crime scenes, looking for clues that will help them solve cases. Similarly, consumers pore over photographs of potential purchases on eBay, looking for flaws that a hand-drawn picture would not reveal, whether unintentionally or through deliberate omission. This does not mean that all photographs are alike in respect of epistemic value. While many photographs are suited to the epistemic roles described above, others-for example, those that are badly focused-are not. Token photographs may lack the epistemic significance that photographs generally possess, and token non-photographic pictures might have such epistemic Thanks to Katerina Bantinaki and to the audience at Mimesis, Metaphysics, and Make-Believe, a conference in honour of Kendall Walton, University of Leeds, 2007, particularly my commentator, Aaron Meskin, for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this chapter. 82 CATHARINE ABELL significance, although non-photographic pictures generally do not. For example, a painting by Vermeer may better enable us to identify readily overlooked features of the scene it depicts than would a photograph of that scene. Photographs have a distinctive epistemic value because the epistemic properties they generally possess differ from those that non-photographic pictures generally possess. The contrast between the epistemic properties of photographic and non-photographic pictures obtains between photographs, considered in general, and non-photographic pictures, considered in general. Nor does it follow that photographs generally have greater epistemic value than non-photographic pictures generally do. Their epistemic significance simply differs. Non-photographic pictures can play epistemic roles that photographs generally cannot. For example, botanical drawings may make salient features of plants that would not be prominent in photographs of them, but information about which is of particular epistemic value to us. The scope of non-photographic pictures also lends them an epistemic significance that photographs do not have. Whereas photographs can depict only particulars, non-photographic pictures can depict, in addition, objects of a certain type that are not existent particulars of the type at issue. Unlike photographs, they can thus be used to depict the prototypical features of a type in isolation from the accidental features of particular instances of that type. What nonphotographic pictures can teach us may be just as valuable as what photographs can teach us, but each teaches in virtue of different epistemic capacities. My aim, in this chapter, is to explain why photographs are generally able to play the epistemic roles described above, and why non-photographic pictures generally are not. This requires accounts, first, of the difference between the two sorts of picture and, second, of the form of epistemic value (let us call it EV) that a picture must have in order to play those roles. These I offer, respectively, in Sections 1 and 2. In Section 3, I examine three proposed explanations of why photographs generally have EV and non-photographic pictures generally lack it, and argue that none is adequate. In Section 4, I explain why nonphotographic pictures typically have little EV. In Section 5, I explain why the EV of photographs typically exceeds that of non-photographic pictures. THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 83 1. Photographic versus Non-Photographic Pictures For the purposes of this chapter, we can understand a picture as something that depicts. Depiction is a distinctive form of representation, characteristic of figurative paintings, drawings, and photographs. Some philosophers claim that pictures depict their objects in virtue of looking like, or visibly resembling, them (Hopkins 1998). Others deny that depiction can be explained in terms of resemblance (Kulvicki 2006; Lopes 1996). Nevertheless, none denies that pictures generally seem, to those viewers who successfully interpret them, to resemble the things they depict (Kulvicki 2006: 81; Lopes 1996: 4). Although it is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide an account of depiction,1 we can therefore understand a picture's depictive content as that content a grasp of which is generally accompanied by the visual perception of apparent resemblances. In specifying a picture's depictive content, we must be careful to distinguish between its internal and its external object. Its internal object is what it depicts, whereas its external object, if it has one, is the independently existing object whose properties are causally responsible for the picture's surface being marked in the way it is. A black and white photograph of you has a person of indeterminate colour as its internal object, but a person of perfectly determinate colour as its external object. What distinguishes photographic and non-photographic pictures is not the form of representation each employs, but the way in which each is produced. Photographs are produced by largely mechanical means, whereas non-photographic pictures are not. Moreover, photographic mechanisms operate such that all photographs have external objects, and the design features of any photograph (those features in virtue of which it depicts its object) depend causally on the features of its external object, such that the former depend counterfactually on the latter. When I photograph a mountain, for example, the mountain causes my photograph to have the design features it does, such that, had the mountain been different, my photograph would likewise have differed. By contrast, not all nonphotographic pictures have external objects (there need be no existent particular which they depict) and, while the features of some of those that 1 I provide such an account in Abell (2009). 84 CATHARINE ABELL do are counterfactually dependent on features of their external objects, not all are. I might seek to draw a mountain accurately such that the features of the drawing I produce depend counterfactually on those of the mountain. However, faced with the same mountain, I might instead employ a schema or formula for the depiction of a mountain, in which case the features of my drawing need not depend counterfactually on those of the mountain. One might likewise sever the counterfactual dependence of a photograph's features on features of its external object-by over-painting it, for example. However, this would render the photographic mechanism redundant. Consequently, the resultant picture would not be genuinely photographic. Photographers' intentions play a significant role in determining what their photographs depict. Their intentions determine where they point their cameras, what kind of cameras they choose, and how they set their variable parameters. They can also affect depictive content after the photographic mechanism has been employed. By using the darkroom technique of dodging and burning, for example, photographers can realize their intention to represent certain aspects of the photographed scene as darker, and others as lighter, than they would otherwise have been depicted. Likewise, by cropping, they can select which aspects of the photographed scene are depicted.2 However, photographers' intentions can sever the counterfactual dependence of features of the photograph on features of its external object only by overriding the effect of the photographic mechanism, and producing a picture that is not purely photographic. 2. An Account of EV What features enable a picture both to provide compelling evidence that an object existed and had certain properties at the time the picture was produced, and to reveal features of an object that are easily overlooked? We need a clear grasp of EV, the form of epistemic value that enables a picture to play these roles, before attempting to explain why photographs and non-photographic pictures play different epistemic roles. 2 This understanding of what it is to be a photograph is thus broader than Scruton's notion of the ideal photograph (Scruton 1983). THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 85 A picture provides compelling evidence of an object's existence, and of its possessing certain features, only if it is produced by a reliable process. That is, the process linking picture and object must be such that we are likely to form true beliefs about objects on the basis of pictures produced by that process. This requires two things. Firstly, the pictures produced by this process must be likely to carry information about their external objects. Secondly, they must be likely to do so in depictive form. For the purposes of this chapter, we can understand information carrying, with Jonathan Cohen and Aaron Meskin, as a counterfactual relationship between independent variables, such that x's being F carries information about y's being G if and only if the counterfactual conditional (if y were not G, then x would not have been F) is true (Cohen and Meskin 2006: 3). A picture's having a certain feature carries the information that an object has a certain property if and only if, had the object not had that property, the picture would have lacked that feature. Things may carry information in virtue of a variety of different features. A tree trunk may carry information about the tree's age in virtue of the number of rings in its bark. A history book may carry information about a war in virtue of the words written on its pages. A picture-production process is reliable only if the pictures it produces are likely to carry information about their external objects in depictive form. A picture carries the information that an object has a certain property in depictive form if it both carries that information and depicts the object as possessing that property. Pictures may carry information about objects without doing so in depictive form. For example, a photographic negative may carry the information that an object had a certain colour because, had the object's colour differed, the colours of the negative would also have differed. Nevertheless, the negative does not depict the object as having the colour it had: adequate knowledge of the photographic process involved may enable one to work out, from the negative's colour, what colour its external object was, but doing so does not make the negative appear to resemble that object in respect of colour. It is difficult to work out, from a colour negative, the colour of the object about which it carries information. By contrast, it is easy to discern such information from a picture which carries it in depictive form. The information pictures carry in depictive form is easier to grasp than that which they carry in other forms. Consequently, we are more likely to form 86 CATHARINE ABELL true beliefs about objects on the basis of the former information than the latter. It is an interesting question why this is so. One possible explanation is that the interpretation of depictive content engages our visual recognitional abilities (Lopes 1996; Schier 1986), and thus inherits the reliability of our perceptual processes. Nevertheless, detailed discussion of this issue must await another occasion. The upshot of these two conditions is that a process will be more reliable the more likely it is to produce pictures whose depictive content is accurate: whose internal objects have only features possessed by their external objects. Consequently, it is tempting to analyse the reliability of a picture-production process as the probability, given any picture produced by that process, that its object was as it is depicted as being at the time it was produced. However, doubts that there is any non-epistemic account of probability able to accommodate probabilities of inverse conditional properties make this approach seem unpromising (Cohen and Meskin 2006: 4). Fortunately, an alternative, modal analysis is possible. If a picture depictively encodes information about its object, then, according to David Lewis's semantics for counterfactuals (Lewis 1973), its depictive content will differ in the closest possible world in which its object differs. The likelihood that a process will produce pictures that depictively encode information about their external objects can be construed in terms of the distance between worlds in which the depictive content of pictures produced by that process is accurate, and worlds in which it is not.3 Accordingly: A given picture-production process4 is more reliable the greater the distance, for any non-actual picture produced by that process, between the nearest possible world to the actual world in which the picture exists and its external object was as it is depicted as being at the time the picture was produced and the closest possible world to that world in which the picture exists and its external object was not as it is depicted as being at the time the picture was produced. This construal of reliability assumes that the actual world is closer to the former than to the latter world.5 3 In what follows, I construe the likelihood of this outcome in the way specified, not as synonymous for its probability. 4 The level of generality at which any picture-production process is to be individuated depends on how it is conceived by those who designed it (where it is mechanized), or those who use it (where it is not). 5 As Cohen and Meskin point out, Lewis construes distance relations between worlds as interestdependent, which would make counterfactuals depend tacitly on the doxastic (Cohen and Meskin THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 87 We cannot understand EV solely in terms of the reliability of pictureproduction processes. Even if it is the result of a reliable process, a picture will not reveal features of an object that are easily overlooked unless it carries a reasonable amount of information about that object. To play such a role, a picture must also be rich, where richness is a measure of the amount of depictively encoded information a picture carries. The more such information it carries, the richer it is. How much information a picture carries is a measure of the number of features of its external object about which it carries information in depictive form. How finely the features of its object can be individuated is determined by the relations of counterfactual dependence that obtain between picture and object. If a difference in the shape of a single hair on a woman's head would result in a corresponding difference in the shape a portrait of that woman depicts the hair as having, the shape of the hair counts as a feature of the woman about which the picture depictively encodes information. However, if she would have to have lacked hair altogether in order for the portrait to depict her hair differently, her having hair counts as a feature about which the picture depictively encodes information, but neither the shape nor the existence of the individual hair counts as such. A picture may be richer-and the process by which it is made more reliable-regarding some types of features than others. For example, black and white photographic processes may be very likely to produce pictures that depictively encode information about the shape properties of their external objects, and may produce pictures that carry a lot of information about such properties, but are generally both unlikely to produce pictures that depictively encode information about the colour properties of their external objects, and incapable of producing pictures that carry much information about colour properties. We can understand a process's reliability relative to features of a certain type as follows: A given picture-production process is more reliable, relative to features of type F, the greater the distance, for any non-actual picture produced by that process which depicts F features, between the nearest possible 2006: 10). However, like Cohen and Meskin, I take the distance relations between worlds to be mind-independent. 88 CATHARINE ABELL world to the actual world in which the picture exists and its external object had the F features it is depicted as having at the time the picture was produced, and the closest possible world to that world in which the picture exists and its external object did not have the F features it is depicted as having at the time the picture was produced. Again, it is assumed that the actual world is closer to the former than to the latter world. A picture is richer, relative to features of type F, the more information about F features it carries. We thus need to distinguish between a picture's EV simpliciter, and its EV relative to features of a certain type. A picture's EV simpliciter is a measure of its richness and of the reliability of the process by which it was produced, while its EV relative to features of a certain type is a measure of its richness relative to features of that type and the reliability of its production process relative to features of that type. This account construes EV as independent of individual viewers' particular interests and attributions. A picture could have a high EV simpliciter despite the information it conveys being less important to some viewers than the information conveyed by a picture with a lower EV simpliciter, and thus of less overall epistemic value to them. As I noted earlier, EV is not the only form of epistemic value a picture may have. Nevertheless, given that information about features of a certain type is important to viewers, one picture may have greater EV than another relative to features of the type at issue. I have not specified how richness and reliability combine to determine EV. Rather, I construe them as independent dimensions, each of which may contribute to EV in isolation from the other. This reflects the fact that different purposes impose differing demands for reliability and for richness. Someone consulting a picture to determine whether a galloping horse ever has all its hooves in the air simultaneously seeks reliability above richness. The detective who consults pictures of a crime scene looking for information that will enable her to solve the crime seeks both richness and reliability. A fashion stylist who consults pictures of the Paris catwalks looking for inspiration seeks richness over reliability. Individual viewers may make erroneous attributions of EV. A viewer who mistakenly takes a photorealist painting to have been produced by a photographic process will attribute to it greater EV than it possesses. THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 89 Moreover, even when their attributions of EV are accurate, viewers will derive inappropriate beliefs from pictures if they misidentify their external objects on the basis of their internal objects. Suppose the photographs apparently showing the first moon landing were in fact taken in a Hollywood studio. While our beliefs about photographic processes may justify an attribution of high EV to such photographs, it would be wrong to construe them as providing good evidence that a moon landing occurred, since their external object is not a moon landing. Let us now consider three different explanations of the epistemic differences between photographic and non-photographic pictures. Their adequacy will depend on whether they explain it as a difference in EV. 3. Existing Explanations 3.1. Photographs as Transparent According to Kendall Walton, photographs are aids to vision, not mere representations (Walton 1984: 263). Just as we see a scene when we examine it through a telescope or regard its reflection in a mirror, so too, he claims, we literally see a scene when we look at a photograph of it. Photographs are transparent: we see through them to their objects. Like mirrors, they are transparent although their surfaces are visible when we see through them, and although they afford only indirect visual access to things. Unlike mirrors, photographs enable us to see spatially and temporally distant scenes. Seeing through photographs is a unique form of perception that enables us to see things that could not otherwise be seen. Contrarily, Walton argues, most non-photographic pictures are opaque: when we look at them, we see depictive representations, not the scenes they depict. He identifies three conditions that, he claims, are individually necessary for transparency. Firstly, to see one object through another, the object through which it is seen must be counterfactually dependent on the object seen through it. Secondly, this relation of counterfactual dependence must be belief-independent. Walton asks us to suppose that an explorer goes into the jungle and comes back with either photographs or sketches of a dinosaur. Both the photographs and the sketches may convince us that there is a dinosaur in the jungle. However, he argues, 'The important difference is that, in the case of the sketches, we rely on the picture maker's 90 CATHARINE ABELL belief that there is a dinosaur in a way in which we don't in the case of the photographs' (Walton 1984: 263). If the explorer did not believe there were a dinosaur in the jungle, Walton thinks, his sketches wouldn't depict a dinosaur, whereas his photographs would depict a dinosaur no matter what he believed. Finally, Walton claims, transparency requires the preservation of the real relations of similarity and dissimilarity between objects. Pears are similar to apples and dissimilar to bears. Visual experiences of pears reflect this fact: perceivers may mistake pears for apples, but not for bears. Both photographic and non-photographic pictures, and our visual experiences of them, likewise preserve the similarity relations among objects: we may mistake a picture of a pear for a picture of an apple, but would not mistake it for a picture of a bear. However, neither written descriptions nor our experiences of them preserve real similarity relations between the objects they represent. 'Pear' is more like 'bear' than 'apple', and this is reflected in the mistakes we are likely to make about a description's content. Even though a mechanically generated description might exhibit belief-independent counterfactual dependence on its object, therefore, it is not transparent. Walton's account suggests an explanation of photographs as having EV because photographic processes have the reliability of perceptual processes and the richness of perceptual experiences. However, while many visual experiences may be the rich products of reliable processes, not all are. The visual experiences of the myopic and the colour-blind are not. The transparency of photographs therefore does not ensure that they have EV, since photographic processes may be among those visual processes that are unreliable. To explain the EV of photographs, we need an explanation of why photographic processes typically count among reliable visual processes, and why photographs are akin to rich visual experiences.6 Walton suggests that photographic processes are reliable in virtue of 'the fact that our photographic equipment and procedures happen to be standardised in certain respects' (Walton 1984: 273). However, there are many respects in which photographic equipment and procedures are not standardized, but differ considerably. For example, while most 6 A general evaluation of Walton's claim that photographs are transparent is beyond the scope of the present chapter, which is concerned solely with its epistemic implications. For criticisms of this claim, see Cohen and Meskin (2004), Currie (1991), and Dretske (1984). THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 91 cameras utilize visible light, infra-red cameras do not, and both camera types may have either analog or digital mechanisms. Moreover, the mere standardization of such equipment and procedures would achieve only uniformity, not reliability. More needs to be said about the respects of standardization at issue and how they ensure reliability if this explanation is to succeed. One could relinquish the claim that photographs are transparent and simply insist that their epistemic value is explained by their meeting Walton's three conditions. On his account, photographs differ from those non-photographic pictures that depend counterfactually on their objects only in their belief-independence. However, many non-photographic pictures are also belief-independent, but lack the EV of photographs. Picture makers may, and often do, depict objects by employing schemata, or formulae, for the depiction of objects of particular types. In such cases, which schema they employ depends on what they believe about the object they seek to depict. However, many picture makers instead depict objects by attending carefully to their visible features and allowing those features to guide the way in which they mark the picture surface. As Dominic Lopes notes, 'In drawing, the eye and the hand work together, perhaps bypassing the mind, or rather that portion of the mind that deals in concepts and beliefs' (Lopes 1996: 186). There is empirical evidence to support this claim, which suggests that the visual information that guides our motor actions may differ from that carried by conscious visual experience. For example, subjects presented with disks arranged to produce the Tichener or Ebbinghaus illusion have conscious visual experiences that misrepresent the relative sizes of the disks. They experience disks of the same size as differing in size, and disks of different sizes as being of the same size. Nevertheless, when subjects reach for those disks, the aperture produced between finger and thumb is perfectly suited to the actual sizes of the disks, rather than the sizes they are represented as having in subjects' conscious visual experiences (Milner and Goodale 1995: 168).7 Since it is the information carried by conscious visual experience, rather than that used for visually based motor control, that is made available for conceptual mobilization, this evidence suggests that the 7 For philosophical discussion of these results, see Clark (2001) and Jacob and Jeannerod (2003). In their chapters in this volume, Lopes and Nanay discuss further the implications this experiment has for the philosophical understanding of depiction (see Lopes, Ch. 2, Sect. 3; Nanay, Ch. 7, Sect. 7). 92 CATHARINE ABELL information that guides picture makers' actions could indeed bypass their cognitive centres. Walton acknowledges that some non-photographic pictures, such as tracings and 'doodles done automatically, while the doodler's mind is on other things', may be belief-independent (Walton 1984: 267). They too, he claims, are probably transparent. While some such pictures may have EV, however, not all do. An automatic doodle of a crime scene would lack the EV of a photograph of that scene. The belief-independence of photographs does not suffice to explain EV.8 3.2. Photographs as Necessarily Accurate Robert Hopkins has argued that photographs are necessarily accurate (Hopkins 1998).9 For something to depict an object, he argues, it must not only have the right appearance, but also the appropriate history of production. This history comprises a standard of correctness, which determines whether something that appears to depict an object actually does so. Hopkins argues that the standard of correctness for non-photographic pictures is intentional. Something is a non-photographic picture of an object only if its maker intended it to represent that object. Even if it is visually indistinguishable from a picture of a lion, the blotch made by accidentally spilling a bottle of ink is not a picture, since it was not produced with the requisite intention. However, he claims, the standard of correctness that governs photographs cannot depend on photographers' intentions, since photographs that are taken accidentally depict scenes that photographers did not intend them to depict. Instead, he argues, this standard depends on the intentions of those who design the mechanisms with which photographs are taken. Since camera designers cannot always control how these mechanisms are used, their intentions are, of necessity, quite general. Hopkins argues that 'the relevant intention is better put thus. The camera's designer intended that we see in the photographs whatever is causally responsible for those surfaces being marked as they are' (Hopkins 1998: 72). In his view, therefore, the 8 One might think the real difference between photographic and non-photographic pictures lies in the latter's dependence on, and the former's independence from, their maker's intentional states in general, not their beliefs in particular. However, as I will argue in Sect. 5, some photographs depend on developers' visual states. 9 See also Scruton (1983) and Currie (1999: 288). THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 93 standard of correctness for photographs comprises both an intentional and a causal element. The ink blotch is not a photograph, since it is not the product of a mechanism designed with the relevant intentions, and no lion is causally responsible for its appearance. Since it follows from his characterization of camera designers' intentions that they intend the photographs produced with the mechanisms they design to depict their external objects accurately, Hopkins concludes that photographs necessarily depict their objects accurately (Hopkins 1998: 72-3). However, the nature of camera designers' intentions is an empirical matter, not one that can be determined a priori. Like makers of nonphotographic pictures, camera designers may intend that the photographs produced with the mechanisms they design misrepresent their external objects. For example, the designer of a camera whose lens systematically distorts the shape of the things seen through it is best understood as intending that the photographs produced with his camera depict their external objects as having shapes that differ in various systematic ways from the shapes they actually possess. Moreover, even if camera designers' intentions were as Hopkins claims, this would not ensure the accuracy of the photographs produced using their cameras, since development processes are beyond camera designers' control. To the extent that techniques such as dodging and burning are available, which enable the depictive content of photographs to be altered during the development process, photographers can produce photographs that misrepresent their objects, irrespective of camera designers' intentions. Photographs are no less able to misrepresent their objects than other pictures. There is a sense in which photographs are necessarily accurate, but the form of representation at issue is causal (indexical, in Peirce's terminology), rather than depictive. Just as the number of rings in the trunk of a tree may accurately represent the tree's age, in virtue of the causal relation between its age and the rings, so too photographs accurately represent the objects that caused them. When photographs depict their objects accurately, their depictive and causal contents coincide. However, the two kinds of content can come apart. Even if photographs were necessarily accurate qua pictures, Hopkins's claims do not yield an adequate explanation of their epistemic significance. His claims would explain their reliability: there would be no possible world in which a photograph exists but its object was not as the photograph 94 CATHARINE ABELL depicts it at the time the photograph was taken. However, they would not explain their richness. Badly focused photographs have relatively little EV, not because they are produced by unreliable processes, but because they are not rich. Despite their accuracy, a detective would clearly prefer to consult a properly focused photograph of a crime scene. 3.3. Photographs as Spatially Agnostic Informants Cohen and Meskin argue that photographs are epistemically valuable because they are spatially agnostic informants: they carry information about their objects' visually accessible properties other than their egocentric spatial locations, without carrying information about their egocentric spatial locations (that is, about their objects' spatial locations relative to oneself) (Cohen and Meskin 2004: 204). Contrarily, visual experiences can carry information about the former properties of their objects only if they also carry information about the latter. On Cohen and Meskin's view, photographs are epistemically valuable because they can provide information about their objects' visually accessible properties, in conditions in which information about those objects' egocentric spatial location is unavailable (Cohen and Meskin 2004: 205). Many non-photographic pictures are also spatially agnostic informants. Cohen and Meskin construe the epistemic differences between photographs and such pictures as merely apparent, not real. Viewers take photographs, but not most other pictures, to be spatially agnostic informants, they argue, because the type photograph is salient to viewers and because they believe tokens of that type typically to be spatially agnostic informants, whereas this is not true of most non-photographic picture types. A picture type is salient if viewers typically categorize tokens of the type in question as belonging to that type (Cohen and Meskin 2004: 205). The type photograph is salient because viewers typically categorize token photographs as belonging to that type. Contrarily, the type accurate landscape drawing is not salient, as viewers will typically categorize tokens of that type as belonging, not to it, but to the more general type landscape drawing. Whereas viewers believe that tokens of the type photograph typically carry information about visually accessible properties, they do not believe the same of tokens of the type landscape drawing (Cohen and Meskin 2004: 205). Viewers do not take tokens of most non-photographic picture types to be spatially agnostic informants because the types at issue are either not salient to them, or THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 95 they don't believe that tokens of those types are typically spatially agnostic informants. There are two reasons why Cohen and Meskin's account does not suffice to explain our attributions of epistemic value. Firstly, like the type photograph, the type photographic negative is salient. Moreover, while some viewers may not believe that photographic negatives typically carry information about visually accessible properties, others-those with insight into the nature of information-believe that they do. Nevertheless, such viewers will take the photographs produced from such negatives to differ from the negatives in respect of EV. A lawyer would not use negatives, in lieu of the photographs produced from them, to provide a jury with evidence about an object's colour, even if she knew the members of the jury believed the negatives to carry information about the object's colour, since it would be much more difficult for them to derive such information from the negatives than from the photographs. Cohen and Meskin's account fails to accommodate the relevance of the form in which information is carried. Secondly, we may attribute different EV to pictures of two different, salient types, both of which we know to be spatially agnostic informants. For example, we attribute different epistemic value to court drawings than to photographs. If it were permissible to take photographs in the courtroom, most newspapers and television news programmes would show photographs instead of court drawings, precisely because of their distinctive epistemic properties. Like the type photograph, the type court drawing is salient to viewers. The distinctive content of such drawings, and the contexts in which they are usually presented-on television news programmes and in newspaper reports-mean that viewers typically categorize such pictures as belonging to the type court drawing rather than to some more general type. Moreover, viewers also usually believe that court drawings typically carry information about their objects' visually accessible properties. We attribute different epistemic capacities to court drawings and photographs because we take the latter to be both richer and more reliable sources of information about their objects. Because Cohen and Meskin's account does not mention the amount of information pictures carry about their objects' visually accessible properties, it does not capture the epistemic significance of richness. Neither does it capture the epistemic significance of reliability: it appeals to our beliefs about the information different 96 CATHARINE ABELL types of picture typically carry, but not our beliefs about the likelihood that pictures of the relevant types will carry information. It therefore fails to capture the epistemic differences between photographs and court drawings. None of the accounts considered here succeeds in explaining why photographic and non-photographic pictures differ-or appear to differ-with respect to EV. In the remaining sections, I propose an alternative explanation of this difference, which I construe as an actual difference in the EV pictures of the two types actually possess. 4. The EV of Non-Photographic Pictures Non-photographic picture-making processes typically lack the reliability required for their pictures to play the epistemic roles to which photographs are suited, because their makers' intentions affect the relations they bear to their objects. Picture makers' intentions are variable. Sometimes they intend to depict objects accurately, while, at others, they intend to misrepresent them. The fact that someone who uses any non-photographic process might have done so with the intention of misrepresenting an object severely limits the reliability of that process. Generally speaking, those nonphotographic pictures that are the product of intentions to misrepresent objects will misrepresent their external objects. However, it is not true that non-photographic pictures that are products of intentions accurately to represent objects will generally depict them accurately. Picture makers' ability to realize their intentions is constrained both by the limitations to their technical abilities and by the reliability of their visual processes. Even in cases in which they intend to depict something accurately, the former constraint in particular significantly diminishes the likelihood that they will succeed in doing so. Picture makers' intentions affect the reliability of some non-photographic processes more than others. The processes involved in court drawing are more reliable than many other non-photographic processes, for example. A variety of factors-professional norms, the threat of unemployment-make the likelihood that such processes are exploited for the purpose of misrepresenting objects much lower than the likelihood that many other non-photographic processes were used for such a purpose. However, the THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 97 fact that their makers might have intended that they misrepresent their objects affects their reliability nonetheless. The possible world in which a picture produced by a non-photographic process depicts its external object accurately is therefore never very much closer to the actual world than one in which it misrepresents that object. Furthermore, even when non-photographic pictures do carry information about their external objects, the serial process by which they are made limits their richness. Picture makers cannot mark a picture surface so as to achieve simultaneous depictive encoding of information about the various different features of an object. Instead, they must encode information little by little. Consequently, the more information a picture maker seeks to encode depictively, the longer the picture-making process takes. This places practical limits on how much information picture makers can encode in depictive form. Moreover, many of the scenes picture makers seek to depict change during the time taken to produce rich non-photographic pictures of them. This further limits how much depictively encoded information most non-photographic pictures can carry. Some picture makers (Vermeer, for example) possess the tenacity required to pursue richness despite the time required to achieve it. Nevertheless, it is no accident that many of those non-photographic pictures that rival photographs in richness are still lifes or are copied from photographs. 5. The EV of Photographs Most photographic processes are parallel, rather than serial: they enable the simultaneous depictive encoding of information about the various different features of objects. Most cameras simultaneously record light reflected from the various different parts of the scene photographed. While some photographic processes are serial-such as those involved in astronomical photography-this does not affect the richness of the resultant photographs, in so far as the things they are used to photograph remain unchanged during the time taken to photograph them. Moreover, the automation of such serial photographic processes means that there are fewer practical limitations on their employment than on that of serial non-photographic picture-production processes, which require their makers' participation throughout. 98 CATHARINE ABELL Photographs are therefore generally immune to the factors that limit the richness of non-photographic pictures. However, this alone does not explain why they are typically richer than the latter. Poorly focused photographs may be the result of parallel processes, but are less rich than many non-photographic pictures. Photographic richness is a technological achievement. The richness of the photographs that could be produced using early cameras was no greater than that of many paintings. Later cameras could be used to produce much richer photographs, and the advent of colour film further enhanced their capacity for richness, by enabling photographs to encode information depictively about more kinds of features of their objects. Contemporary colour film has enhanced the capacity for photographic richness further still, by enabling photographs to encode more information depictively about the colours of their objects. The fact that a photograph was produced using photographic technology that enables a high degree of richness is no guarantee that it is rich. There are certain conditions that need to be met in order for such technology to yield rich photographs. For example, many cameras will produce them only if there is a certain level of ambient light in the photographed scene, or if the film is exposed for a suitable length of time. Nevertheless, photographs are typically considerably richer than non-photographic pictures because most photographs are produced using photographic technology that ensures a high degree of richness under the conditions in which they are taken. The reason why both photographic technology has developed in the direction of increasing richness and the conditions required for richness are usually met is precisely that, in general, we value richness. We may not value it enough to pursue it at the expense of the other activities we could pursue in the time required to produce a rich non-photographic picture, but we value it enough to want it when the time required to achieve it does not prohibit us from pursuing other activities we value. The reliability of photographic processes results from the standardization, not of the processes themselves, but of the functions they perform. This standardization is enabled by the fact that photographic processes are largely mechanical. Although there is a variety of different photographic mechanisms, both analog and digital, the mechanisms involved in the production of most photographs are alike in respect of the outputs they produce, given certain inputs. In particular, given a certain scene, most such THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 99 mechanisms will yield an accurate depictive representation of that scene. This is a purely contingent fact about photographic mechanisms. Contra Hopkins, camera designers might have intended that the photographs produced with the mechanisms they designed misrepresent their external objects, and thus have designed mechanisms that function to produce inaccurate pictures. The reason why they did not-in the most part, at least-may be that they designed them for consumers who, they assumed, generally value depictive accuracy over inaccuracy. There are two respects in which this standardization is incomplete. Firstly, it is incomplete to the extent that photographic mechanisms do not function to produce accurate photographs. As we have seen, some photographic mechanisms, such as those that incorporate distorting lenses, do not produce accurate photographs. Moreover, many mechanized processes are reliable relative to most, but not all, feature types. For example, many produce photographs that, while otherwise accurate, misrepresent the determinate colours of the scenes they depict. Even those mechanisms that generally produce photographs that are accurate in all respects may have the potential to produce photographs that misrepresent the scenes they depict. This may be because, while the mechanisms at issue produce accurate photographs given most inputs, there are some inputs-for example, scenes of very low absolute illumination-given which they produce inaccurate photographs. Secondly, it is incomplete to the extent that photographic processes are not mechanized. Whereas photographs taken with instamatic cameras and developed in commercial labs are produced by wholly mechanized processes, others are not. To the extent that photographic processes are not mechanized, their outcome is subject to the influence of the same factors as affect the reliability of non-photographic processes. For example, non-mechanized development procedures may depend, not just on photographers' intentions, but also on their visual states. Photographers sometimes include colour charts in the scenes they photograph so that, when they come to develop their photographs, they can check the colours the photographs depict the charts as having against the colours of such a chart (Snyder and Allen 1975: 162). This process will only ensure colour accuracy if photographers both intend to depict objects' colours accurately, and they are not colour-blind. Photographic processes are reliable only to the extent that they function to produce accurate pictures. The easier it is to produce an inaccurate 100 CATHARINE ABELL photograph using a given photographic process, the smaller the distance will be between the nearest possible world in which a picture produced by that process depicts its object accurately and the nearest possible world in which it depicts it inaccurately (assuming the latter world to be further from the actual world), and the less reliable that process will be. Nevertheless, the extent to which photographic processes standardly function to produce accurate pictures makes them considerably more reliable than non-photographic processes. The great majority of photographic mechanisms either function to produce such pictures, or do so under most conditions, or function to produce photographs that are accurate in most respects. Moreover, although the processes by which many photographs are produced are not wholly mechanized, and although photographers' intentions need be no less variable than those of other picture makers, two factors make it considerably harder for photographers to realize their intentions to misrepresent objects than for the makers of non-photographic pictures to do so. Firstly, unlike the latter, they can affect depictive content only if they preserve the counterfactual dependence of features of photographs on features of their external objects. This makes them dependent on the existence of techniques such as dodging and burning, or the use of colour filters, that enable them to influence the causal relation between picture and object without breaking it. Secondly, the extent to which photographic processes are governed by standardly functioning mechanisms significantly restricts the range of available techniques, and thus the capacity for photographic misrepresentation. For example, the use of distorting lenses is one of few techniques that enable the photographic misrepresentation of shape. However, the fact that the process of recording light reflected from scenes photographed is largely governed by standardly functioning mechanisms means that this technique is not readily available to photographers. What of photographic manipulation? There has been a dramatic rise, in recent years, in the frequency with which photographs are intentionally manipulated to misrepresent the scenes they depict. This is a direct result of the increasing prominence of digital photographic equipment; the greater accessibility of the computer technology required to manipulate digital photographs; and the spread of the skills required to use this technology. Digital photographic processes, it seems, can readily be exploited to produce photographs that misrepresent their objects. THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 101 However, it is important to distinguish two forms of digital manipulation. The development of techniques which enable the systematic alteration of the shape or colour a digital photograph depicts its object as having, while preserving the counterfactual dependence of features of the photograph on features of its external object, has made photographic misrepresentation much easier than it previously was, and thus reduced the reliability of digital photographic processes and the EV of the photographs produced by them. By contrast, while techniques which enable the pixel-by-pixel retouching of photographs produce pictures which misrepresent objects' shapes and colours, they override the effect of the photographic mechanism by severing the counterfactual dependence that features of those pictures would otherwise bear to features of the objects photographed, and thus produce pictures that are not purely photographic. Such techniques do not affect the reliability of photographic processes, because they make them redundant. Consequently, although they can be used to undermine the EV of particular photographs by transforming them into non-photographic pictures, they do not diminish the EV that photographic pictures generally possess. Nevertheless, such techniques affect the EV we are likely to attribute to the pictures they are used to produce. The seamlessness of the manipulation enabled by such techniques makes us likely to mistake such pictures for photographs, and thus to attribute to them the EV that photographs generally possess. While digital manipulation of the first kind is still sufficiently rare for the EV typical of photographs to exceed that typical of non-photographic pictures by a comfortable margin, the epistemic future of photographs is by no means assured. As Barbara Savedoff notes, advances in digital photographic processes may one day eradicate the epistemic differences between photographic and non-photographic pictures (Savedoff 1997: 212). Conclusion On two of the explanations I have considered, the epistemic differences between photographic and non-photographic pictures result from essential differences between the two types of picture. Walton sees the difference between the two as consisting in the fact that photographs are aids to vision, 102 CATHARINE ABELL while non-photographic pictures are mere representations. Hopkins sees it as consisting in the fact that they are governed by different standards of correctness. By contrast, while they take photographs to differ epistemically from those non-photographic pictures that do not carry information about objects, Cohen and Meskin take certain of the epistemic differences attributed to pictures of the two types to be merely apparent. I have steered a somewhat different course, arguing that, while photographs in general do differ epistemically from non-photographic pictures in general, this difference is due to wholly contingent factors, namely advances in photographic technology and the standardization of the function of photographic processes. References Abell, Catharine (2009), 'Canny Resemblance', Philosophical Review, 118/2: 183-223. Clark, Andy (2001), 'Visual Experience and Motor Action: Are the Bonds Too Tight?', Philosophical Review, 110/4: 495-519. Cohen, Jonathan and Aaron Meskin (2004), 'On the Epistemic Value of Photographs', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62/2: 197-210. (2006), 'An Objective Counterfactual Theory of Information', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 84/3: 333-52. Currie, Gregory (1991), 'Photography, Painting and Perception', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49/1: 23-9. (1999), 'Visible Traces: Documentary and the Contents of Photographs', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57/3: 285-97. Dretske, Fred (1984), 'Abstract of Comments: Seeing Through Pictures', Nous, 18: 73-4. Hopkins, Robert (1998), Picture, Image and Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Jacob, Pierre and Marc Jeannerod (2003), Ways of Seeing: The Scope and Limits of Visual Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Kulvicki, John (2006), On Images (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Lewis, David (1973), Counterfactuals (Oxford: Blackwell). Lopes, Dominic McIver (1996), Understanding Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press). Milner, A. D. and M. A. Goodale (1995), The Visual Brain in Action (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Savedoff, Barbara (1997), 'Escaping Reality: Digital Imagery and the Resources of Photography', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 55/2: 201-14. THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 103 Schier, Flint (1986), Deeper into Pictures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Scruton, Roger (1983), 'Photography and Representation', in Scruton, The Aesthetic Understanding (London: Methuen). Snyder, Joel and Neil Walsh Allen (1975), 'Photography, Vision and Representation', Critical Inquiry, 2/1: 143-69. Walton, Kendall (1984), 'Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism', Critical Inquiry, 11/2: 246-77.
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{ "creator": "Aberdein, Andrew", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1598428842000, "description": "A review of John Woods, Truth in Fiction: Rethinking its Logic. Cham: Springer, 2018.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABETTA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Tales Tall and True: John Woods on Truth in Fiction", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/review" }
TALES TALL AND TRUE: JOHN WOODS ON TRUTH IN FICTION ANDREW ABERDEIN∗ Truth in Fiction (2018) is a sequel of sorts to John Woods's much earlier The Logic of Fiction (1974). In that book, after canvassing a series of approaches to the semantics of fiction drawn from different areas of nonclassical logic, Woods eventually advocates a system of quantified modal logic which, as he now puts it, "appl[ied] to literary theory the refreshment of a well-understood and rigorously organized instrument of analysis" (125).1 However, the present book reflects the major turn Woods's thinking has taken over recent decades away from the formalization of informal reasoning and towards a naturalized logic. Elsewhere he has revisited his early work applying formal logic to the understanding of the fallacies in the light of this naturalistic turn (for example, Woods, 2013); here he revisits his early work on fiction. Woods now argues that formal approaches to everyday reasoning lose "sight of an important trichotomy which marks the difference between consequencehaving and consequence-spotting and . . . consequence-drawing" (14). Whereas formal logic acquits itself well in accounting for the first of these activities, since the latter two take place "in the psychological spaces of human beings, the need for an empirically sensitive naturalized logic is unmissable" (218). 1. Taking Stories Seriously Woods rightly avers that "One of the worst mistakes a philosopher can make about fiction, especially popular fiction, is to hold that since it is meant mainly for entertainment . . . fiction's not of much interest to anything as serious as philosophy" (104). Truth in Fiction is true to this admirable maxim, and pays due heed not just to fiction in general, but also to many of its idiosyncrasies. Woods complains that other philosophical accounts of fiction often display ∗School of Arts & Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL. Date: August 3, 2020. 1This and all subsequent unqualified page references are to (Woods, 2018). 1 2 ANDREW ABERDEIN "alienation from the home-thinking and home-speakings of stories" (217). Specifically, Woods attributes to many rival theorists of fiction five "Basic Laws of Fiction": I The something law: Everything whatever is something or other. II The existence law: Reference and quantification are existentially loaded. III The truth law: No sentence violating the existence law can be true. IV The fiction law: The sentences of fiction fail to refer and they fail to be true. V The inference law: Inferences from and within fiction operate, if at all, in a much more circumscribed way than natural language in referentially stable inferences (35). All but the first of these laws Woods repudiates as "an irretrievably lost cause for fiction" (149). He reasons as follows. Fiction plays a large part in many people's lives. They talk about fictional characters in much the same way that they talk about non-fictional characters. Hence we should not adhere to the Basic Laws, lest we conclude that in so doing the consumers of fiction are profoundly confused. Consider, for example, betting. Dick Van Dyke, as the eponymous protagonist of the justly neglected romantic comedy Fitzwilly (1967), makes a bar bet over who cut off Samson's hair. Everyone knows that it was Delilah, but, at least according to the King James Bible, everyone is wrong: "she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks" (Judges 16:19, emphasis added). Van Dyke's character wins his bet. But, according to some theologians, the King James Bible has it wrong: the Hebrew text of Judges 16 should be read as implying that Delilah called out (perhaps to Samson, to check he is sound asleep) but then cut off his hair herself (Sasson, 1988). The Anchor Bible, for example, follows this reading. Had this been the Bible in the bar, Fitzwilly would have lost his bet. However, on either account, the doings of Delilah are what Woods calls "bet-sensitive" (105; Woods, 1974, 13): bets can be made about them and settled to the satisfaction of all parties. The outcome of the bet does not alter the bet-sensitivity of the issue; rather, it is because the bet has an outcome that the question is bet-sensitive. Nor does any part of the transaction hinge on whether Delilah was historical or fictional: the bet was on what the Bible says, not whether it was historically accurate. Subtle questions of higher criticism are seldom resolved in saloons. But if Fitzwilly and his drinking companions had bet TALES TALL AND TRUE 3 on who cut the hair from the present king of France, the bet would be irresoluble. In 1967, as in 1905, the present king of France was neither historical nor fictional. He was in Woods's terminology a "nonesuch" (105). Not much counts as a nonesuch. It might be thought that nonesuches would include the postulates of failed theories, such as phlogiston and caloric and the suppositious planet Vulcan (the one intended to explain the anomaly in the perihelion of Mercury, not the unambiguously fictional homeworld of Mr Spock). However, for Woods, Vulcan "was an existential error, but not a referential one" (154). The astronomers who postulated its existence turned out to be wrong, but they had no difficulty in talking about it, both before and after this setback-and nor do we when we recount the story. What they were talking about, it transpired, was a non-existent planet. Woods's commitment to take seriously the idiosyncrasies of (popular) fiction leads him to vexed questions of the interaction between fictional and nonfictional objects and between multiple authors engaging with the same fictions. Here he lightly revises a series of theses introduced in his earlier book (Woods, 1974, 44): The history-constitutivity thesis: A sentence S is history constitutive of a real entity x if and only if S is true, S is about x, and it is not the case that S is true solely in virtue of its utterer's sayso. The fictionalization thesis: S is a fictionalization of a real entity x if and only if S is true, S is about x and S could not have been true of x without the sayso of its author. The history-constitutivity of fictional entities thesis: S is history-constitutive of a fictional entity x if and only if S is true, is about x and is true simply by its author's sayso, and the author whose sayso makes S true is the creator of x. The fictionalization of the fictional thesis: S is a fictionalization of a fictional entity x if and only if S is true and about x, and could not have been true of x in the absence of its author's sayso, and the author in question is not the creator of x (100). These theses permit items from the real world to turn up in works of fiction and fictional items from one fiction to turn up in other fictions, as in pastiche or fanfiction, something many philosophical treatments of fiction overlook. Woods concedes that his theses as presented "aren't quite up to managing the facts presently in view" (102). I discuss some possible avenues for their revision in §4 below. 4 ANDREW ABERDEIN 2. Taking Inconsistencies Lightly A consequence of Woods's determination to take ordinary talk about fiction seriously is that much such talk must be, at least facially, both true and false. It is true that Fitzwilly made a bet in a bar-we can see it on screen. It is also false that Fitzwilly made a bet in a bar-because there is no such person and never was. If Woods's approach is to succeed he must acknowledge this apparent inconsistency and also accommodate the insouciance with which it is typically received. He takes a two-pronged approach to this problem, as he summarizes in the following two theses: The no-contradiction thesis: The systemic inconsistencies of fiction are logical inconsistencies but not logical contradictions. The no-bother thesis: In the circumstances of irremovable absolute inconsistency, closure constraints on consequence-drawing inoculate speakers and reasoners against cognitive collapse (16). In other words, the appearance of inconsistency is mostly removable (first prong) and, even when it isn't, it causes much less trouble than logicians might expect (second prong). Woods finds a solution to "fiction's systemic inconsistency problem" in Aristotle (130). In his Metaphysics, Aristotle states the Law of Non-Contradiction in several distinct ways. The most verbose of these statements reads as follows: "It is impossible that the same thing belong and not belong to the same thing at the same time. And in the same respect" (1005b 19-20, emphasis added). This provides a well-trodden path to inconsistency avoidance: what the paraconsistent logicians Richard Routley and Robert Meyer refer to dismissively as a "difference-of-respect procedure", remarking that it "goes back to the Socratic dialogues" (Routley and Meyer, 1976, 19).2 For example, William Empson employs this approach, observing that it is often feasible to "make the contradiction into two statements; thus 'p and −p' may mean: 'If a = a1, then p; if a = a2, then−p'" (Empson, 1947, 196). Woods adopts a similar approach, in terms of what he calls "the sitedness of truth" (130). He asserts that "the sites primitive" reflects "empirically discernible worldwide linguistic and doxastic behaviour" (191). Hence, to adapt Empson's terms, the ai would be sites, resolving the apparent inconsistency above by making a1 the real world and a2 the fiction of Fitzwilly: 2Woods, in his present naturalistic stance, is naturally unpersuaded by Routley and Meyer's favoured approach: "Paraconsistent logics describe how formal logistic systems, not flesh-and-blood people, manage to spare themselves the perceived chaos of absolute inconsistency" (178). TALES TALL AND TRUE 5 "We read the text knowing that the story it tells is not true in situ the world, and we also know that indeed it is true in situ the story" (140). Sites are less complete than the worlds of modal semantics and not necessarily consistent, thereby distancing Woods's account of fiction from accounts based in possible world semantics, such as that of David Lewis (1978). Woods appeals to sites to support the no-contradiction thesis; to support the no-bother thesis, he invokes "filters". He proposes that "the irrelevance filter is an inbuilt part of our cognitive machinery, doing what nature has designed it to do, for the most part without the distraction of conscious awareness" (187). By prioritizing our immediate concerns over the pursuit of every logical consequence of any combination of our beliefs, we are able to thrive in suboptimal epistemic environments, wherein our belief set is routinely corrupted by apparent contradiction. We succeed at resisting the temptation to draw arbitrary conclusions from inconsistent premisses as the classically valid rule of ex falso quodlibet would permit, but we do this without formally renouncing classical logic. In other words, as Woods puts it, our inconsistent belief set "is equipped with an agenda-irrelevance filter that enables proper subsets of its deductive closure to be truth-tracking" (188). As Woods concedes, his approach exhibits a preference for "the theoretically immature over the theoretically flourishing" (192), and is ultimately a promissory note for future work in cognitive science. Woods's robust commitment to the truth of fictional statements provides a ready solution to what has come to be known as "the paradox of fiction" (140). The paradox is that we are emotionally moved by works of fiction despite knowing that they are not real, even though reality might be thought necessary for the objects of our emotions. Woods persuasively likens fiction to flotation, since in each case, "competing causal powers are in play" (140). Just as floating objects are acted on by gravity, pulling them downwards, and buoyancy, pushing them upwards, so is the reader acted on by the emotional force of a story experienced as true (rightly, in situ the story) and by the knowledge that it is not true (in situ the world). If the story succeeds emotionally, the former outweighs the latter. 3. The Complete Sherlock Holmes The framework set out above allows Woods to tackle a range of questions, best illustrated by example. Woods's recurring example is Sherlock Holmes, an apposite choice not only because "Sherlock 6 ANDREW ABERDEIN is one of the world's best known non-existent objects" (102), but also because the stories in which he occurs present problems for theories of fiction that tidier and more self-contained narratives do not. Woods asserts that, in reading a story set in a world much like our own we may, indeed must, presume many facts about that world that we know to be true of the real world but which have not been explicitly confirmed for the fiction: "fictional works inherit the world" (81). (Woods is thereby committed to what William D'Alessandro calls "implicitism" (2016, 53).) For example, there are several parts of Holmes's anatomy that Arthur Conan Doyle never discusses, but this omission should not be taken to imply their absence.3 As Woods observes, "Sherlock's incompleteness is only an epistemic one, in just the way that Caesar's was or Vladimir Putin's is" (216). Less successfully, he tells us that "even Gregor Samsa had a spine, both before waking up and after, albeit not the same one" (81). But, at least if we follow the consensus of translators that Kafka's "Ungeziefer" should be rendered as something akin to "bug", then what Samsa awoke to find himself was, quite literally, invertebrate. Nonetheless, the problem here is confined to the example: for most fictional characters, spinelessness is strictly metaphorical. The Holmes stories notoriously contain inconsistencies: Dr Watson's war wound is variously in his leg or his shoulder; only two months elapse between April and October in "The Red-Headed League", and so on (Sayers, 1946, 168). Woods observes that most readers take these lapses in their stride: "Watson's wound is in one place or the other and remains, and as is most of what is true of Holmes' faithful friend, unknown to readers" (94). Some readers, of course, are more pertinacious. Notoriously, so in the case of "Sherlockians" playing the "Great Game" of attempting to resolve apparent omissions and inconsistencies in the stories by elaborate (and often tongue-in-cheek) extrapolations from the text and relevant historical sources, on the straight-faced supposition that the stories are historically true. The accidental inspiration for the Great Game was an essay by the writer and priest Ronald Knox satirizing the more far-fetched sort of reasoning sometimes employed in Biblical criticism (Knox, 1920). (This essay seems to mark the point at which "canon", used satirically by Knox, jumped the fence from 3Indeed, Woods reveals elsewhere that "the working title of Truth in Fiction was Sherlock's Member: An Essay on Truth in Fiction . . . I am a bit sorry now that I chickened out" (Woods, 2019, 358). TALES TALL AND TRUE 7 theology to literature and popular culture.) For example, in The Sign of Four, Doyle has Watson wed Mary Morstan, but isolated remarks in later stories suggest that he is widowed and remarries. However, any attempt at a chronology will show Watson moving in and out of Baker St on multiple occasions, which some Sherlockians have taken as evidence of further marriages. Hence Dorothy L. Sayers could complain of "a conspiracy afoot to provide Watson with as many wives as Henry VIII" (Sayers, 1946, 148). The Great Game lends helpful support to one aspect of Woods's account. Woods is at pains to distance himself from the approach to fiction he terms "pretendism" (13). On this account, defended in different guises by philosophers as various as Saul Kripke, Gareth Evans, John Searle, Kendall Walton and, more recently, Bradley Armour-Garb and James Woodbridge, readers of fiction don't believe the things they read, but pretend to do so. Woods rejects pretendism as phenomenologically implausible: readers of fiction do not experience reading fiction "as pretending, play-acting or makebelieving" (20). That is, however, exactly what the players of the Great Game do experience (unless they really have convinced themselves that Holmes was an historical figure). But, crucially, Sherlockians are not typical readers and playing the Great Game is not typical readerly behaviour. If pretendism succeeds as an epistemology of the Great Game, it must fail as an epistemology of everyday fiction consumption. A deeper inconsistency concerns Holmes's death and resurrection. Doyle indulged in an early specimen of what has come to be known as retroactive continuity, or ret-conning, when in "The Empty House" he reversed the decision made a decade earlier in "The Final Problem" to kill off his most famous creation. As Woods acknowledges, problems such as this present a dilemma for his approach. The specific case is not the worst possible, since Watson's presence as potentially unreliable narrator provided Doyle with an effective line of retreat. The wider problem is that presented by serial fiction in general: "how to individuate sites when stories are elements of a series" (95). If each individual story is treated as a distinct site, the continuity of the series is destroyed. But if the series is a single site, then sites cannot help resolve any contradictions internal to the series. Woods's favoured resolution is to treat auctorial statements in serial fictions as provisional, but subject to something like a statute of limitations or "a variant of the common law for the long-gone" (96). That is, after sufficient time has elapsed, some 8 ANDREW ABERDEIN matters should be treated as settled, if defeasibly so, just as missing persons may eventually be declared legally dead. Deepest of all are those "inconsistencies internal to the stories in which they inhere by narratively driven auctorial design" (192). Doyle's works would not seem to supply an example, since his stories were always at least intended to be consistent. Woods suggests Ray Bradbury's celebrated time-travel narrative "Sound of Thunder", in which the characters return to a present which has been changed by their actions in the past. Woods concludes that the nocontradiction thesis will be of no avail and resorts to the no-bother thesis: some statements may indeed be both true and false of Bradbury's 2055, ensuring by ex falso quodlibet that every statement is true as well, but readers are practiced at turning a blind eye to such things. Abandoning the no-contradiction thesis here may be premature-if we interpret the story in terms of Everettian spacetime, the characters return to a different world from the one they left. The natural way of accommodating this to Woods's system would seem to be to treat the two 2055s as different sites. However, the broader point is that readers can tolerate outright inconsistency, although even the most tolerant of readers may eventually abandon a story as incoherent. 4. From Sayso to Fanfic The Holmes narratives have been frequently adapted-perhaps more frequently than any other works. This presents at least two problems: the identity of the characters across the different versions and the canonicity of the adapted works. Woods provides a means of addressing both issues. His history-constitutivity of fictional entities thesis ostensibly restricts canonicity to works produced directly by the creator of an entity, rendering all adaptations noncanonical. However, Woods qualifies his theses to widen the scope to include cases where "ownership of a fictional character passes by agreement to a different author, who is then free to make further things history-constitutive of that identically the same character" (100). For Sherlock Holmes, that would appear to extend canonicity at least to authorised adaptations, from William Gillette's 1899 play onwards. Woods constrains this broad account of canonicity by his world-inheritance thesis: for example, since the later Basil Rathbone films were set in the 1940s when Holmes would have been in his nineties, as Rathbone manifestly was not, "what Hollywood borrowed in 1944 was not the person whom Doyle created TALES TALL AND TRUE 9 but rather the name . . . and a fair bit of its connotation" (118). This applies a fortiori to adaptations set in the twenty-first century, such as Sherlock (2010-17) and Elementary (2012-19); conversely, adaptations set in the 1940s which do depict Holmes as nonagenarian, such as Mr. Holmes (2015), could still be construed as depicting the same character. All of these speculations are at odds with the established usage of "canon" in discussion of Holmes: the 56 stories and four novels published by Doyle (excluding the so-called "apocrypha"- noncanonical pieces written by Doyle-let alone any adaptations). This definition of the Holmes canon is due some deference, as it is so firmly established (and, as we have seen, marks the first use of the term outside of theology). Moreover, on this narrower interpretation, Woods's fictionalization of the fictional thesis not only provides a plausible account of Holmesian pastiche and fanfiction, it also provides an affirmative answer to Sara Uckelman's question, "Is it possible for an author to write fanfic of their own work"?4 At least some of the apocrypha would seem to be exactly this. For example, "The Field Bazaar", written for an Edinburgh University student fund raiser in 1896, may be seen as Doyle fictionalizing his own fictional creations. This sheds doubt, for instance, on Watson's otherwise unattested status as an Edinburgh graduate. There are two questions here: did Doyle seriously intend that Watson graduated from Edinburgh; and, if so, are his extra-canonical statements to that effect history constitutive? Woods's reliance on author's sayso requires him to take authors' intentions seriously, but there is more than one way to do this. The contrast is brought into focus by the question of Dumbledore's sexual orientation: gay according to J. K. Rowling in public comments but as yet unspecified in her novels and film scripts. Can Rowling make history constitutive statements about the fictional entities she created when talking about her work and not just when writing that work? On Woods's account of author's sayso, Rowling would seem entirely unrestricted in how she communicates history constitutive statements. (A perspective Rowling seems to share (Gendler, 2010, 152).) By contrast, we could require that author's sayso is made explicit in the text itself. A possible compromise would be that the author's sayso must be present in the text, but may be wholly implicit, provided that it was intended by the author as something that the 4On Twitter, November 21, 2018. See also (Uckelman, 2018). 10 ANDREW ABERDEIN reader might in principle grasp (Irwin, 2015, 146). External statements such as Rowling's can then be relevant to our understanding of the text by making the implicit explicit. Holmes adaptations present another problem for theories of fiction: they are so numerous that they may qualify as what Roy Cook defines as "massive serialized collaborative fiction" (MSCF). Cook defines "massive" as so large that it is "impossible, extremely implausible, or unlikely that a single person can, or will, experience all parts of the fiction in a manner appropriate for the interpretation, evaluation, and so on of the fiction" (Cook, 2013, 271). This is surely true of the multitudinous versions of Holmes, which are also clearly serial and collaborative, although they may exhibit less cohesion than Cook's examples of the central continuity of DC or Marvel comics. Cook makes five observations about canonicity in MSCFs: (1) "some noncanonical works are interpretationally relevant"; (2) "the canon versus noncanon distinction is sensitive to medium"; (3) "canonicity practices are, at least partially, political and commercial"; (4) "canonicity practices are dynamic and negotiable: a work is not eternally canonical"; and (5) "canonicity practices are participatory" (Cook, 2013, 272 f.). Each of these points suggests possible further refinements to our understanding of sayso. The first reflects the discussion above: perhaps we should favour interpretations that make Watson an Edinburgh graduate and Dumbledore gay, even if we do not have canonical author's sayso to support these claims. The second point offers a possible restriction on sayso: prioritize auctorial statements in the favoured medium. (For Doyle, this is prose: his Sherlock Holmes plays are not usually seen as canonical.) As to the third and fourth points, we have seen that Holmes's death at Reichenbach was made canonical by Doyle's sayso, but is no longer; this reflects a commercial decision: the $45,000 Doyle received from Collier's for bringing Holmes back to life made him the best paid author in the world. The last point suggests perhaps the most important departure from Woods's account: canon formation reflects collective decision making by the audience as much as the author, whose sayso is thereby constrained. These factors suggest a friendly amendment: replace "is the creator of x" with "has canonical authority with respect to x and is accepted by the audience as having acted in accordance with that authority in stating S" in the history-constitutivity of fictional entities thesis and, suitably negated, the fictionalization of the fictional thesis. Creators and their assignees would ordinarily have canonical authority, but may chose not to exercise it, or may intend to exercise TALES TALL AND TRUE 11 it but fail to do so if they are not accepted by the audience as having done so. (Conversely, a creator may chose not to exercise canonical authority, but be (mis)interpreted by the audience as having done so. Unless the creator corrects the error, the audience's take on their sayso should stand.) The audience may revisit their acceptance or rejection. In particular, they may do so at the prompting of the creator, although they are not obliged so to do. While there are many such details in Truth in Fiction with which one may take issue, and there is much left to do in the broader programme of which it is a part, it is never less than a thoughtprovoking and enjoyable read. Anyone interested in the semantics and pragmatics of fiction will find much of value in its pages. References Cook, Roy T. 2013. Canonicity and normativity in massive, serialized, collaborative fiction. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71(3): 271-275. D'Alessandro, William. 2016. Explicitism about truth in fiction. The British Journal of Aesthetics 56(1): 53-65. Empson, William. 1947. Seven Types of Ambiguity. London: Chatto and Windus, 2nd ed. Gendler, Tamar Szabó. 2010. Is Dumbledore gay? Who's to say? In The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles, ed. Gregory Bassham, 143-156. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Irwin, William. 2015. Authorial declaration and extreme actual intentionalism: Is Dumbledore gay? The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73(2): 141-147. Knox, Ronald A. 1920. Studies in the literature of Sherlock Holmes. Blackfriars 1(3): 154-172. Lewis, David. 1978. Truth in fiction. American Philosophical Quarterly 15(1): 37-46. Routley, Richard and Robert K. Meyer. 1976. Dialectical logic, classical logic, and the consistency of the world. Studies in Soviet Thought 16(1/2): 1-25. Sasson, Jack M. 1988. Who cut Samson's hair? (and other trifling issues raised by Judges 16). Prooftexts 8(3): 333-339. Sayers, Dorothy L. 1946. Unpopular Opinions. London: Victor Gollancz. Uckelman, Sara. 2018. Fanfiction, canon, and possible worlds. Online at . 12 ANDREW ABERDEIN Woods, John. 1974. The Logic of Fiction: A Philosophical Sounding of Deviant Logic. The Hague: Mouton. Woods, John. 2013. Errors of Reasoning: Naturalizing the Logic of Inference. London: College Publications. Woods, John. 2018. Truth in Fiction: Rethinking its Logic. Cham: Springer. Woods, John. 2019. On the follies of intercourse between models and fiction: A naturalized causal-response diagnosis. In Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology: Inferential Models for Logic, Language, Cognition and Computation, eds. Ángel NepomucenoFernández, Lorenzo Magnani, Francisco J. Salguero-Lamillar, Cristina Barés-Gómez, and Matthieu Fontaine, 337-371. Cham: Springer.
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10,917,375,591,364,380,000
{ "creator": "Abhinandan, Vijaya", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1562667268000, "description": "A large amount of data is maintained in every Social networking sites.The total data constantly gathered on these sites make it difficult for methods like use of field agents, clipping services and ad-hoc research to maintain social media data. This paper discusses the previous research on sentiment analysis.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABHSAO", "language": "zz", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Sentiment analysis on online social network", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Sentiment analysis on online social network Vijaya Abhinandan Department of Computer Science and Engineering Nalla Malla Reddy Engineering College ABSTRCT A large amount of data is maintained in every Social networking sites.The total data constantly gathered on these sites make it difficult for methods like use of field agents, clipping services and ad-hoc research to maintain social media data. This paper discusses the previous research on sentiment analysis. 1. Introduction and State of Art A large amount of data is maintained in every Social networking sites.The total data constantly gathered on these sites make it difficult for methods like use of field agents, clipping services and ad-hoc research to maintain social media data[2].It is essential to employ tools able of analyzing social media mainly the characteristics of social media. The mining review which uses machine learning and semantic orientation has investigated [3]. The approach which is used to classify the movie review uses the supervised classification. A corpus is formed to represent the data in the documents and all the classifiers are trained using this corpus.Thus the proposed technique is more efficient. The machine learning approach uses supervised learning, the proposed semantic orientation approach uses "un-supervised learning" prior data is not required to mine the data. To investigate the effectiveness of classification of the documents machine learning techniques are used [4]. By experimenting machine learning techniques are much better than human produced baseline for sentiment analysis on a review data. This classification uses features which are based on unigrams and bigrams. Zhu[5] proposed aspect based opinion polling free from textual customer reviews. Opinion polling uses aspect based segmentation model which segment the multi-aspect sentence to single aspect units. A sentiment analyzer to extract opinions has proposed [6] related to a subject from online data documents. Sentiment analyzer uses natural language processing techniques. The sentiment analyzer finds out all the references on the subject and sentiment polarity of each reference is determined. The sentiment analysis conducted by the researches utilized the sentiment lexicon and sentiment pattern database for extraction and association purposes. Alekh Agarwal[7] proposed a machine learning method incorporating linguistic knowledge gathered through synonymy graphs, for effective opinion classification. This approach shows the degree of influence among relationships of documents have on their sentiment analysis. This is brought about by the use of graph-cut technique and opinion words got through synonym graphs of word net. The proposed approach also improves the accuracy of predictions in classification task. Experiments using the system have given results with the accuracy over 90 percent with an advantage of decreased in processing time, with the difference of minimum in the final accuracies. The proposed methodology from the authors resulted in the following conclusions: 1. Automated mining of linguistic information is possible, so demonstrated with the structure of links in word net. 2. Generic method of using graph-cut technique for efficient opinion classification. Ahmed Abbasi[8] proposed sentiment analysis methods which are used to classify the forum opinions in web which are in multiple languages. To enhance the performance of the classifier the entrophy weighted genetic algorithm is incorporated. Using movie review data set the experiments stated that the used techniques are efficient. Machine learning has many application for security and text application for many area [9-13] Anidya et al., [9] ranked the product reviews based on customer-oriented and manufacturer ranking mechanism. The expected helpfulness of the review is used for the ranking and also ranking is based on the expected effect on sale. The proposed methods identify the reviews which have the most impact. To all the customer reviews of a product Miniqing Hu[10] performed mining and summarization process. The process is carried out in three steps: 1. The product characteristics commented by the customer in the review are mined. Natural language processing and Data mining techniques are used for mining. 2. The opinions in the review are identified and the opinions are divided as positive or negative. Set of adjectives words called opinion words are identified. To identify the semantic orientation and opnion orientation of each sentence is decided WordNet is used. 3. Summarize the results. The main objective is to perform summary of a customer reviews of a product which are sold online. Qui[11] analyzed the problems which are related to opinion mining such as the expansion of lexicon and target of the opinion. Good, Bad, Excellent, Poor are the list of opinion words which are used to indicate positive and negative sentiments. Based on boot strapping the link between opinion word and targets relations are identified. Bootstrapping process is started using the initial opinion lexicon. Semi-supervised methods are used in this process. Lei Zhang[12] analyzed opinion words which are domain dependent. Sentiment context of each noun feature which is positive or negative. For identifying the noun product feature two steps are used which are positive or negative. Xiaowen Ding [13] proposed a holistic lexicon-based approach which uses External indications. This approach has the advantage that opinion words which are context dependent are easily handed. Linguistic Patterns are used in this algorithm to deal with special words, phrases. Sentiment classification: Sentiment classification is the classification task of naming an document as positive or negative opinions. Machine learning algorithms are used for sentiment classification. Machine Learning Algorithms: Machine learning algorithm is defined as a system which is able of getting and merging the knowledge automatically.The systems that learn from analytical observation, training, experience, and other means, results in a system that can reveal self-improvement, effectiveness and efficiency. Knowledge and a corresponding knowledge organization are usually used by a machine learning system to test the knowledge acquired, interpret and analyse. Supervised learning generates a function which connects input to expected outputs which are also called as labels. Semi-supervised learning generates an suitable function or classifier in which both lebelled and unlabelled examples are combined[16,18]. Sentiment Analysis Tasks Sentiment classification consists of the polarity classification of a given document text. Positive, negative, neutral express the sentence level opinions. The sentiment analysis can be done at three levels which are: the document level, Sentence level and feature level. Document Level sentiment classification: In document level sentiment analysis main challenge is to extract informative text for inferring sentiment of the whole document. The learning methods can be confused because of objective statements are rendered by subjective statements and complicate further for document categorization task with confliciting sentiment[17]. Sentence level sentiment classification: The sentiment classification is a fine-grained level than document level sentiment classification in which polarity of the sentence can be given by three categories as positive,negative and neutral.The challenge faced by sentence level sentiment classification is the identification features indicating whether sentences are on-topic which is kind of co-reference problem.[17] Feature sentiment classification: Product features as product attributes of components. Analysis of such features for identifying sentiment of the document is called as feature based sentiment analysis. In this approach positive or negative opinion is identified from the already extracted features. It is a fine grained analysis model among all other models[16]. Text Classification The large volume of online text is available through the news feed from internet, mails, databases, websites and the digital libraries. The problem is to arrange text documents from large databases. Naive bayes classifier: The naïve bayes classifier is well known as probabilistic classifier which describes its application to text. The naive bayes classifier was build in order to incorporate the data which is unlabelled. The main aim of learning generative model is to estimation of the parameters which uses labelled training data. The algorithm uses estimated parameters for the classification of new documents by the calculation to which class it belongs to. The navie Bayesian classifier works as follows: By considering samples of a training set ,with the class labels T. C1,C2,C3,.............Ck are the classes .Each sample contains n-dimensional vector,X={x1,x2,x3................xn} which represents n measured values of the n attributes named as A1,A2,A3..........,An respectively. The classifier classifies the X which is the given sample which belongs to the class which has the highest probability. Thus X is belonged to the class C1 if and only. P(Ci/X) > P(Ci/X) for 1 ≤ j ≤ m, j ≠ i. The value of P(Ci/X) which is maximized is called as the maximum posterior hypothesis. By Bayes theorem, P(Ci/X) = P(X/Ci) P(Ci) P(X) P(X) is same for all classes value so only the value of P(X|Ci)P(Ci) needs to be maximized. The estimation of priori probabilities of the class P(Ci) is P(Ci) = freq(Ci, T)/|T| P(X|Ci) ≈ ∏ P(xk|Ci) n k=1 The expectation maximization algorithm oscillates between the steps of guessing the model which depends on probability of distribution over completions of missing data (E-step) and the re-estimation of the model parameters using these completions (M-step). E-step is used only to compute the expected statistics over completions rather than the probability distribution forming over completions. Where M-step consists of re-estimation of the model which can be maximization of the estimated log-likelihood the data.[51,52]. 2.Sentiment Analysis Methods: This section provides a brief description of the eight sentiment analysis methods investigated in this paper. These methods are the most popular in the literature (i.e., the most cited and widely used) and they cover diverse techniques such as the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in assigning polarity, the use of Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT) to create labeled datasets, the use of psychometric scales to identify mood-based sentiments, the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques, and so on. Validation of these methods also varies greatly, from using toy examples to a large collection of labeled data. Emoticons The simplest way to detect polarity (i.e., positive and negative affect) of a message is based on the emoticons it contains. Emoticons are popular in these days, to the extent that some (e.g. <3) are now included in English Oxford Dictionary [19]. Emoticons are primarily face-based and represent happy or sad feelings, although a wide range of non-facial variations exist: for instance, <3 represents a heart and expresses love or affection. To extract polarity from emoticons, we utilize a set of common emoticons from [20, 21, 22] as listed in Table 1. This table also includes the popular variations that express the primary polarities of positive, negative, and neutral. Messages with more than one emoticon were associated to the polarity of the first emoticon that appeared in the text, although we encountered only a small number of such cases in the data. As one may expect, the rate of OSN messages containing at least one emoticon is very low compared to the total number of messages that could express emotion. A recent work has identified that this rate is less than 10% [23]. Therefore, emoticons have been often used in combination with other techniques for building a training dataset in supervised machine learning techniques [24]. SentiStrength Machine-learning-based methods are suitable for applications that need content-driven or adaptive polarity identification models. Many key classifiers for identifying polarity in OSN data have been proposed [26,27,28].The most comprehensive work [28] compared a wide range of supervised and unsupervised classification methods, including simple logistic regression, SVM, J48 classification tree, JRip rule-based classifier, SVM regression, AdaBoost, Decision Table and Naive Bayes. The core classification of this work relies on the set of words in the LIWC dictionary [29], and the authors expanded this baseline by adding new features for the OSN context. The tool named SentiStrengh, which implements a combination of learning techniques that produces the best results and the best training model empirically obtained [28]. 3. Conclusion A large amount of data is maintained in every Social networking sites.The total data constantly gathered on these sites make it difficult for methods like use of field agents, clipping services and ad-hoc research to maintain social media data. This paper discusses the previous research on sentiment analysis. Future direction of analysis online social network will involve many application as mentioned in [36-41]. References: [1]Kim, P:"The Forrester Wave: Brand Monitoring"Forrester Wave,2006. [2]Pang, B., Lee,"Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Linguistics 2008. [3] Lina Zhou,Pimwadee Chaovalit, "Movie Review Mining: a Comparison between Supervised and Unsupervised Classification Approaches", 2005. [4]P.S.Dodds and C.M.Danforth. Measuring the happiness of large-scale written expression: [5] Zhu, Jingbo Wang, Huizhen Zhu, Muhua Tsou,Benjamin K. Ma, Matthew, "Aspect-Based Opinion Polling from Customer Reviews". 2011. [6] Yi, J., T. Nasukawa, R. Bunescu, and W. Niblack:"Sentiment Analyzer: Extracting Sentiments about Given Topic using Natural Language Processing Techniques",,2003 [7]Alekh Agarwal & Pushpak Bhattacharyya,Sentiment analysis: "A new approach for effective use of linguistic knowledge and exploiting similarities in a set of documents to be classified", 2005. [8]Ahmed Abbasi,Hsinchun Chen, And Arab Salem,"Sentiment Analysis in Multiple Languages: Feature Selection for Opinion Classification in Web Forums". [9] Yaqoob, I., et al., The rise of ransomware and emerging security challenges in the Internet of Things. Computer Networks, 2017. [10] Mujtaba, G., et al., Email Classification Research Trends: Review and Open Issues. IEEE Access, 2017. [11] Mujtaba, G., et al., Automatic ICD-10 multi-class classification of cause of death from plaintext autopsy reports through expert-driven feature selection. PloS one, 2017. 12(2): p. e0170242. [12] Al-garadi, M.A., et al., Using online social networks to track a pandemic: A systematic review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 2016. 62: p. 1-11. [13] Zerdoumi, S., et al., Image pattern recognition in big data: taxonomy and open challenges: survey. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 2017: p. 1-31. [14]Anindyam Ghose, PanagiotisG.Ipeirotis: "Designing Novel Review Ranking Systems: Predicting Usefulness and Impact of Reviews". [15] Minqing Hu and Bing Liu, "Mining and Summarizing Customer Reviews". [16] Guang Qiu, Bing Liu, Jiajun Bu and Chun Chen. "Opinion Word Expansion and Target Extraction through Double Propagation". [17] Lei Zhang and Bing Liu. "Identifying Noun Product Features that Imply Opinions.",2011 [18]Xiaowen Ding. A Holistic Lexicon-Based Approach to Opinion Mining. 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[31]A.Bermingham&A.F.Smeaton:"Classifying Sentiment in Microblogs". [32]G.Paltoglou & M.Thelwall: "Unsupervised Sentiment Analysis in Social Media". [33]M.Thelwall:"Sentimentm strength detection in the social web with sentistrength". [34 ] Al-garadi, M.A., K.D. Varathan, and S.D. Ravana, Cybercrime detection in online communications: The experimental case of cyberbullying detection in the Twitter network. Computers in Human Behavior, 2016. 63: p. 433-443. [35] Albrecht, C.C., C.O. Albrecht, and M. Zimbelman, Fraud examination. 2008: Cengage Learning. [36] Al-garadi, M.A., K.D. Varathan, and S.D. Ravana, Identification of influential spreaders in online social networks using interaction weighted K-core decomposition method. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2017. 468: p. 278-288. [37] Berthon, P.R., et al., Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business horizons, 2012. 55(3): p. 261-271. 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{ "creator": "Ables, Brent", "date": "2015", "datestamp": 1587246113000, "description": "In “Belief in the Face of Controversy,” Hilary Kornblith argues for a radical form of epistemic modesty: given that there has been no demonstrable cumulativeprogress in the history of philosophy – as there has been in formal logic, math, and science – Kornblith concludes that philosophers do not have the epistemic credibility to be trusted as authorities on the questions they attempt to answer. After reconstructing Kornblith's position, I will suggest that it requires us to adopt a different conception of philosophy's epistemic value. First, I will argue that ‘progress’ has a different meaning in logic, science and philosophy, and that to judge one of these disciplines by the standards appropriate to one of the others obscures the unique epistemic functions of all. Second, I will argue that philosophy is epistemically unique in that it is a non-relativistic but historically determined excavation of foundations. Finally, drawing on Frank Herbert's Dune, I will suggest that Kornblith leaves us with a choice between two epistemic ideals: the hyper-logical ‘Mentat,’ or the historically informed ‘pre-born.’", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABLDAP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Disagreement and Philosophical Progress", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
© LOGOS & EPISTEME, VI, 1 (2015): 115-127 DISAGREEMENT AND PHILOSOPHICAL PROGRESS Brent ABLES ABSTRACT: In "Belief in the Face of Controversy," Hilary Kornblith argues for a radical form of epistemic modesty: given that there has been no demonstrable cumulative progress in the history of philosophy - as there has been in formal logic, math, and science - Kornblith concludes that philosophers do not have the epistemic credibility to be trusted as authorities on the questions they attempt to answer. After reconstructing Kornblith's position, I will suggest that it requires us to adopt a different conception of philosophy's epistemic value. First, I will argue that 'progress' has a different meaning in logic, science and philosophy, and that to judge one of these disciplines by the standards appropriate to one of the others obscures the unique epistemic functions of all. Second, I will argue that philosophy is epistemically unique in that it is a non-relativistic but historically determined excavation of foundations. Finally, drawing on Frank Herbert's Dune, I will suggest that Kornblith leaves us with a choice between two epistemic ideals: the hyper-logical 'Mentat,' or the historically informed 'pre-born.' KEYWORDS: disagreement, epistemic modesty, epistemic authority, Hilary Kornblith 1. Introduction: The Mentat Ideal In Frank Herbert's popular series of science fiction novels, The Dune Chronicles, humankind has done away with complex machinery and conditioned itself to fill the void. Instead of computers, there are 'Mentats.' A Mentat is a human being with extraordinary logical capacities, able to solve extremely complex problems in a short time and make predictions with a very high degree of empirical accuracy. They receive information as input, and their output is truth. Mentats are still human, however; they marry, exhibit loyalty to their authorities, and have complex emotions. But if they begin to get carried away by those emotions, they need only remind themselves to "function as a Mentat" and their dominant rational side reasserts itself.1 We can probably agree on two facts about Mentats. The first is that they seem like an excellent ideal for the philosopher to uphold. To be able to stop what one is doing, set aside emotions and passions, and function as a Mentat is surely a skill that any honest seeker of truth would want to cultivate. In contemporary 1 Frank Herbert, Dune (New York: Penguin, 1965), 17. Brent Ables 116 analytic epistemology, the paradigm of the epistemic agent is often something very like a Mentat. It is supposed that we receive evidence as input, process that evidence in accordance with the best methods and standards that we have available to us, and form true beliefs as output. Even if it is acknowledged that real-world circumstances might interfere with this process, it is taken by epistemologists of disagreement to be a suitable norm. The second fact is that Mentats belong in science fiction. As much as we would like to be able to cordon off error and the illusions of what William James called our passional nature, we know from experience that willpower and practice cannot reliably accomplish this. Look at the methodology of contemporary science, which demands of any individual researcher a full explanation of the procedures and materials she employs so that her experimental results can be replicated and verified by other scientists. Or take the academic process of peer review, which would hardly be necessary if we could all trust our qualified peers to reach proper conclusions given the same data that we have. These kinds of institutional checks are necessary because academics and scientists can be dishonest, but more fundamentally because we recognize that in the collective human search for truth, even the brightest and most honest individuals among us can - and often do - get things wrong. The Mentat is an artifact of imaginative fiction because the ideal is simply too good to be true. The epistemology of disagreement takes this constitutive imperfection of the rational animal as its starting point. If we were all capable of functioning as Mentats on cue, then substantive philosophical disagreements - indeed, any disagreements whatsoever that go beyond expressions of personal preference - would be systematically resolvable in short order. All the participants would have to do is feed each other the evidence and arguments available, and one of the parties would recognize their error. But this isn't, of course, what happens in the actual practice of philosophy. What happens is that we ask ourselves and each other a varied but limited number of fundamental questions, draw out problems and further questions from that basis, and then argue interminably about those questions and problems at conferences, in journals and private conversations, and even in our heads. As a matter of fact, to paraphrase James, we find ourselves disagreeing. What does this disjunct between the Mentat model and the messy human reality mean for philosophy? What conclusions ought we to draw about a practice whose results seem so apparently at odds with its ideals? Can these conclusions tell us what to do in the case of substantive disagreement with our colleagues? What is the philosophical significance of such disagreement? In "Belief in the Face of Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 117 Controversy," Hilary Kornblith confronts these questions head-on and ends up with some rather pessimistic conclusions about the epistemic authority of philosophy.2 My goal in this essay shall be to evaluate these conclusions and to determine, not just what philosophy can tell us about disagreement, but what disagreement can tell us about philosophy. 2. Kornblith: The Question of Progress Kornblith begins his essay by delimiting the scope of the epistemological problem of disagreement. This reduction is necessary since, at first glance, disagreement is as ubiquitous as belief itself: from politics to religion to simple matters of geographical fact, it seems there is almost no topic about which people do not disagree. Not all disagreements are epistemologically significant, however. In some cases, I may have evidence that others do not have and know (or be reasonably certain) that if they had the same evidence, they would believe as I do. In other situations, I may have good reasons to doubt someone's judgment even if we have the same evidence. If I disagree about a simple addition problem with a child learning arithmetic, clearly it would not be proper for me to defer to the child's belief - no matter how certain she may be. Thus, in cases where I have good reasons to doubt my peer's judgment or their access to relevant evidence, disagreement poses no problem. Conviction itself is no guarantee of truth, or even a reliable indication of it. The epistemologically significant cases of disagreement are those concerning what Kornblith, following Gary Gutting, calls epistemic peers. If you and I are equally intelligent and well-educated, have access to and familiarity with the same evidence, and are both sincere about our beliefs, then we are epistemic peers. These three requirements are jointly necessary, and none alone is sufficient. If we add the proviso that the same interlocutor might be an epistemic peer with regard to one intellectual domain and not another, then we have the idealized interpersonal scenario presupposed by epistemologists of disagreement: a dialogue between humans doing their best to function as Mentats. To be sure, not all writers who make use of the idea of epistemic peerhood use it the same way. One of the more interesting complications of the idea is raised by Adam Elga.3 In addition to the criteria already discussed, Elga adds that epistemic peers must have broadly similar beliefs with regard to the topic under dispute. If you and I are both intelligent and generally well-educated, and we find 2 Hilary Kornblith, "Belief in the Face of Controversy," in Disagreement, ed. Richard Feldman and Ted A. Warfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 29-52. 3 See Adam Elga, "Reflection and Disagreement," Nous 41, 3 (2007): 478-502. Brent Ables 118 ourselves disagreeing about whether the animal that runs in front of us is a squirrel or a chipmunk, then I can disagree you with in this case and still consider you my epistemic peer. It may be that neither of us is especially well-qualified to discuss the physiology of small furry animals, but we nevertheless both have certain beliefs about other facts regarding chipmunks and squirrels: that they have tails and fur, they can climb trees, etc. The question could be resolved simply by reference to an illustrated encyclopedia. If, on the other hand, you are an idealist in the tradition of Berkley and I a strict materialist, then our disagreement about what we see is going to be less amenable to resolution. When you remark on the cute notion in God's mind that illusorily appeared to dart by, I might respond by saying that all I saw was a bundle of furry flesh traversing a plot of space-time. According to Elga, this disagreement is epistemically benign: because we are bringing such radically different sets of beliefs to the table, then our ground for considering each other as epistemic peers dissolves under us. Once we set aside all our differences pertaining to the question at hand, there remains no fact of the matter that would allow me to judge my faculty of judgment against yours. And without shared standards for comparison, the concept of epistemic peerhood is meaningless. Kornblith rejects Elga's additional criterion for epistemic peerhood. He argues that even in cases where beliefs appear to diverge so radically, there are nonetheless still common standards that both parties can appeal to. You and I may disagree about the metaphysical constitution of the critter in front of us, but we both agree that it is not a duck or a lacrosse stick; we both agree that it appeared to run from right to left; we both agree that it appeared to have four legs. Thus, I still have shared grounds for considering you my epistemic peer. Now, Elga might be willing to concede the point in this case. But surely, he might respond, there are other plausible cases where our relevant clusters of belief really do differ radically and irreconcilably. Kornblith's rebuttal attempts to draw a line between degrees of belief-similarity, and where there are degrees there are exceptions to any fixed rule. But a stronger rebuttal to Elga would be to insist that epistemic peerhood doesn't have anything to do with the content of beliefs at all. If you were not already my epistemic peer prior to our sighting the furry animal, then surely you wouldn't become one upon agreeing with me about what we have seen; conversely, if you were already my peer, then I ought not revoke this status when I discover that where I saw a squirrel running you saw a lacrosse stick being thrown. Certainly some response to the discrepancy is warranted, but as Kornblith suggests in the case of disagreements regarding perception, I have no more reason prima facie to think it is your error than mine. Generalizing the point, epistemic Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 119 peerhood is a matter of our trusting the judgmental faculties of another, not endorsing their particular conclusions. It is a sign of methodological competence, not empirical adequacy. For now, however, let us accept Kornblith's understanding of epistemic peerhood. The question of his essay is: what ought we as peers to do when we genuinely disagree with each other? Before examining Kornblith's answer, we note two important facts about the question itself. First, it is not a descriptive question but a normative one. As much as philosophers like to appeal to thought experiments and counterexamples to grease the axles of intuition, no appeals to juries or dinner bill calculations can answer the question on their own. Values must enter the discussion if it is to go anywhere at all. The second fact is that we can't appeal to some kind of latent but abstract error in calculation to come down on one side or the other. In other words, I can't answer the question by saying that if I am right then I should hold my ground, but if I am wrong then I should suspend judgment. No doubt this is true, but it evades the terms of the question inasmuch as both parties initially take their views to be right. The symmetry of epistemic peerhood must not be broken. How, then, does Kornblith advise us to act in the case of genuine disagreement with epistemic peers? Let's take the first form of the example discussed above. If I see a chipmunk running across the ground and you see a squirrel, clearly one of us cannot be right. The animal can't be both chipmunk and squirrel, so barring other relevant possibilities (the animal might be a groundhog) the law of contradiction demands that we come down on one side or another. Nevertheless, neither of us can support our belief with any immediate evidence beyond the simple attestation of perception. Thus, Kornblith concludes, the rational thing for us to do is to suspend judgment until we can consult the encyclopedia. Similarly, if you and I add up a dinner bill and come up with two different sums, one of us must be wrong; the logical thing to do in this case would be to suspend immediate judgment and recalculate the bill separately. What about philosophical disagreement? The widespread presence of disagreement in philosophy is evident from a look at any elementary ethics or metaphysics textbook. But what differentiates philosophy from simple perceptual or mathematical cases, according to Kornblith, is that disagreements in perception or math will or can be easily resolvable. All we have to do is look closer, or redo the calculations. But when philosophers disagree, they usually do so after having examined and considered all the relevant arguments. If they are truly peers, an externalist can't simply tell the internalist to look closer at the arguments to be convinced, nor can she appeal to some impartial third party as an authority (since Brent Ables 120 she and her peer are as authoritative as anyone else on the subject at hand). There may be no impartial way to resolve the dispute, even if we accept that both sides cannot be right. Granted, then, that philosophical disagreements differ importantly from more mundane cases, what should philosophers do in the case of genuine disagreement? Kornblith considers Thomas Kelly's answer that we must simply turn to the arguments and believe what they demonstrate, rejecting it for reasons similar to the ones considered above.4 Pragmatically speaking, a disagreement might well be clarified or even resolved if both parties lay out all the relevant arguments, explicitly asses their cogency and their reasons for finding the arguments cogent, and so on. But since beliefs may still (and often do still) differ after such careful analysis by both parties, the question remains as to how the disputants ought to react to the persistent disagreement. The way Kornblith develops his own answer to the question is interesting, and worth retracing. His most significant move is to expand the discourse beyond the two-party scenario often presupposed by epistemologists of disagreement, shifting the focus of the discussion to the tenability of dissent within a community. His guiding example here is Kelly's discussion of the Newcomb Problem, introduced into decision theory by Robert Nozick in 1969 and debated ever since.5 Kelly tells us that when the problem was first introduced, opinion among decision theorists was split more or less evenly, but that over the next three decades consensus shifted in favor of the two-box option. According to Kelly, these facts about the distribution of opinion should have no bearing on which decision we make now; we must stick to the arguments and make the most rational decision possible. For we can always imagine possible worlds in which the distribution of opinion had developed in the opposite way, or where it remained evenly split. In general, the line between possible disagreement and actual agreement is "an extremely contingent and fragile matter."6 Thus, the lack of disagreement in a field - in a word, consensus - is no guide for making difficult decisions. Kornblith challenges Kelly on his own grounds. According to Kornblith, if we look at the actual history of formal areas of philosophy like logic and decision theory (along with mathematics), we have every reason to think that consensus in such fields is a reliable guide for making decisions. In their infancy, to be sure, 4 See Thomas Kelly, "The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement," Oxford Studies in Epistemology 1 (2005): 167-196. 5 Kelly, "The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement," 182-185. 6 Kelly, "The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement," 181. Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 121 these fields gave rise a wide variety of opinions among practitioners. Kornblith notes that the uncertainty correspondent to this diversity extended to arguments as much as it did to results; it wasn't until these fields developed to a certain extent that we were able to recognize what concepts had resonance and what methods worked. But once they did develop, the passage of time brought with it increased sophistication and, concomitantly, increased consensus. From this, Kornblith draws a rather strong conclusion: Even among experts, of course, convergence of opinion is no guarantee of truth, but one would have to be a radical skeptic about mathematics, logic, probability and decision theory to think that convergence of opinion is not, at this point in the history of these fields, evidence of truth. And at this point in the history of these fields, I think it is fair to say, radical skepticism is no longer a rational option.7 In other words, it is not only irrational to think that mathematics and decision theory do not provide us with truth, it is irrational to think that the bare fact of consensus in these fields does not serve as evidence for their truth. It is not far from this conclusion to the strong normative one that wherever there is a consensus in controversial matters, one ought to believe what the experts believe. Kornblith admits that "convergence of opinion is no guarantee of truth" and encourages us to attend to the relevant arguments or evidence as closely as possible, but despite these apparent concessions, his normative prescription remains the same: whether you are a novice or expert, if there is a consensus, you must go with the consensus. Contra Kelly, it is of no import that we can imagine other possible worlds where the consensus might have turned out differently. Kornblith argues that we can certainly picture a world where Gödel's incompleteness theorem was not discovered by Gödel or wasn't discovered at all, but it would be difficult to picture a world where Gödel published his theorem and it was rejected by the mathematical community at large. Possible, but difficult, for it would require us to rescind our basic faith in the competence of mathematicians in a way that belies the actual progress made within the mathematical community over time. The simple fact that we can imagine worlds where the experts get everything wrong doesn't have any bearing on the fact that in this world, they tend to get things right over time. According to Kornblith, the basic normative principle operative in the restaurant bill case is the same in the cases of mathematics, logic, and decision theory. If I go out to dinner with 17 mutually distrustful friends who all want to 7 Kornblith, "Belief in the Face of Controversy," 40-41. Brent Ables 122 add up the bill separately, and everyone but me calculates the same sum, the obvious thing for me to do in this case is to accept that I have made a mistake. As Kornblith tells us, Things are no different if we move from dividing the bill at a restaurant to solving a problem in decision theory.8 Increased complexity doesn't change the fact that the experts know best. But we ask again: what about philosophy? It's hard to think that Kornblith hasn't strayed from his focus a bit. In fact, he's effectively made his argument already; the case against the epistemic authority of philosophy is made entirely by analogy to fields like mathematics, decision theory, and the natural sciences. If the philosophical community was like the mathematical and scientific communities in the sense that there has been undeniable progress within the community over time, then we would be able to treat philosophers as reliable experts in their field and impart the same epistemic authority to them we do to individual scientists. In that case, where there was a roughly even divide on some controversial philosophical issue, we would be rationally compelled to suspend judgment on the issue. "But," Kornblith tells us, surely it is not reasonable to believe that the philosophical community is like the mathematical or scientific communities in relevant respects. We don't have a long history of steady progress on issues, and, as a result, the case for deferring to community opinion is thereby weakened.9 And the case for the epistemic authority of philosophers - a case, we note, that Kornblith never bothers to make - is also thereby weakened. For where we see no track record of success in the field, we have no reason to trust the authority of the practitioners within that field. The conclusions that Kornblith draws from this argument are merciless. Because of the lack of progress in philosophy, the only conclusion we can reasonably reach is that there is no basis for opinion here on anyone's part at all.10 By Kornblith's standards, it would seem to be as irrational to hold a genuine belief about a philosophical matter - any philosophical matter - as it is to question whether consensus in logic is really evidence that logicians are converging on the truth. To hold such opinions would be as presumptuous as it would be to believe that my calculations were correct and those of my 17 dinner companions were 8 Kornblith, "Belief in the Face of Controversy," 43. 9 Kornblith, "Belief in the Face of Controversy," 44. 10 Kornblith, "Belief in the Face of Controversy," 45. Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 123 wrong. By all means, Kornblith tells us, we should continue to swap arguments like low-value baseball cards and hold our little conferences to make noise out of our precious beliefs, but only so long as at the end of the day, we remind ourselves that it's all much ado about nothing. Kornblith calls this curious defeatism "epistemic modesty." Others might call it a good reason to not do philosophy. 3. Lessons From the History of Philosophy A natural first reaction to Kornblith's argument would be to reject the premise that philosophy hasn't made the same progress as the other disciplines discussed. No doubt progress of some kind has occurred in math and science, but surely it has transpired in philosophy as well. Suppose we take Plato and Aristotle to mark the beginning of systematic philosophy. Very few philosophers still believe in immaterial Forms that subsist independently of the material world, and even fewer believe that because of the superior constitution of their soul, philosophers ought to rule as kings. Aristotle's defense of the institution of slavery is no longer tenable, nor are his conclusions about the inferiority of women. Aside from some general platitudes about virtue and intellectual rigor, in fact, there is little in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks that many rational people endorse today. Is this not progress? As appealing as this approach seems on first glance, I think it is perhaps the weakest response to Kornblith. The kind of progress Kornblith has in mind isn't just a matter of there being a different set of beliefs now than there was two millennia ago, or even a century ago. As Kornblith says, even fashion exhibits such shifts in consensus. Progress implies cumulative change that converges on a fixed point. But there's certainly no track record of fixed conclusions that we can point to as evidence of progress in philosophy. Even in ethics, the domain that philosophers most often try to reserve for themselves against the encroachment of modern science, what we see isn't linear progress so much as perpetual shifts in disagreement. Philosophers might not fancy themselves to be kings anymore, but they're not much help in telling us who ought to rule instead. If we accept Kornblith's definition of progress, then, philosophy has exhibited little to none. But where does this definition come from? We know Kornblith's answer: it is simply the name for the successive advance towards truth evident in formal philosophy, math, and natural science. But does it really make sense to talk about progress in logic and progress in physics as if they were the same phenomenon? Philosophers of science like Kuhn and Lakatos have served the valuable function of reminding us that progress in physics is not nearly as clear-cut as we like to think, and there is an important sense in which theories Brent Ables 124 and observational data are incommensurable from one research program to the next. But suppose we accept for the sake of argument that progress in physics is clear-cut: what relation does the ability to predict and experimentally verify the behavior of natural objects have to progress in logic? Logicians make no predictions and conduct no experiments. There is nothing in the realm of nature that confirms the law of noncontradiction, or demonstrates that the fallacy of ambiguity is a fallacy. The only thing that logical progress and scientific progress seem to have in common is that they are marked by increasing consensus. But if the bare fact of expert consensus can't be proof of progress just on its own, it certainly can't serve to indicate truth either. Perhaps consensus in logic - and mathematics, for that matter - is nothing more than the inevitable outcome of a large group of intelligent people finding the most agreeable ways to manipulate symbols of their own making. Maybe such a view is mistaken, but no one is going to demonstrate that with an experiment in the lab. If I claim that water flows upwards, on the other hand, a simple experiment could prove me wrong. Physics and logic don't share methods, objects, arguments, or procedures of confirmation and falsification; why should they share the same standard of progress? The point here isn't just that Kornblith is glossing over some very important details - although he is - but rather that he is strewing loaded terms across such a diverse terrain that they cease to have any useful meaning at all. I doubt that the truth of physics has much in common with the truth of logic, if indeed the latter really gives us what ought to be called truth. Moreover - and this is the important point - even if the sense of truth in those fields was in some important sense congruent, I see no reason at all to think that the further extension to fields like metaphysics or epistemology is valid. Kornblith is committing his own fallacy of ambiguity here, and doing so with one of the most notoriously slippery terms of our language. Philosophers can't even agree on what truth is; what gives Kornblith the epistemic authority to throw around the term as if we all, philosophers and scientists alike, had come to a consensus about what it meant? This lacuna in Kornblith's argument wouldn't be so important if he weren't basing his entire argument on what amounts to an analogy between philosophy and other disciplines. But, as we have emphasized above, this is precisely what he is doing. This move seems especially egregious since, in the same article, Kornblith has stated that disagreement in perceptual or mathematical cases seems importantly different than disagreement in philosophy. In math or science (where conclusions are ultimately supported by reports of perceptual observation), there is typically an accepted method of confirmation that we can turn to in the case of Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 125 disagreement. But in philosophy the path from disagreement to resolution is rarely so apparent. I'd happily go a step further: when it comes to philosophy, I'm not so sure that resolutions or solutions always exist. Here Kornblith might remount his attack. If philosophical problems can't be solved or, what amounts to the same, if we don't know what it would mean to solve them then surely philosophy never had any epistemic authority to begin with. What good is a problem that can't be solved, or a theory that can't be confirmed? I think the correct answer is that they do a great deal of good, or in any case, have a significant impact. As any philosopher in our dying western Lyceum will readily tell you, the study of philosophy has all kinds of practical benefits at the introductory level: it sharpens critical thinking skills, encourages close reading, makes us question assumptions and assumptions behind assumptions, and perhaps even casts doubt on the idea that holding a fixed set of beliefs is really the most rewarding and productive way to employ one's rational capacities. We need not stop at philosophy 101, however. Philosophy also has influence on the world-historical scale. Hegel is typically lambasted as the caricature of an abstruse, hopelessly abstract metaphysician, but without Hegel there would have been no Marx and the twentieth century would have turned out very differently. If we look at Eastern philosophers like Confucius, the 'real world' applications are even deeper and more pervasive. Moreover, philosophy has served as the cradle for virtually every other major intellectual discipline. Without Aristotle, there would have been no political theory, aesthetic criticism, psychology, physics, biology, optics, etc. Without Plotinus, there would be no God as Christians understand that concept in the West today. If Kornblith wants to deny the epistemic authority of philosophers on the ground that they don't do what the scientists do, he would do well to remember that without philosophy there would be no science as we know it. In sum, Kornblith introduces the dimension of history into the epistemology of disagreement without bothering to make the slightest effort to understand what makes the history of philosophy unique, or valuable, or epistemically significant. If he had done so, he would have realized that philosophy doesn't make progress like physics does because it is a discipline concerned with foundations, and each new epoch in human history brings with it different requirements for such foundations. Cartesian mechanism was both product and mirror of its age, as was Aquinas' scholasticism, Nietzsche's aesthetic anti-nihilism, Quine's holism, and Kornblith's own blithe scientism. One need not be a relativist to understand that different eras in history give rise to different Brent Ables 126 problems and accept different kinds of answers, and one would be myopic to deny that philosophy has accomplished the task of formulating and propagating such questions for longer and at a deeper level than any other intellectual enterprise launched by humankind. The movement of philosophy does not proceed from point A to point B, but from point A to the ground beneath it; if it so happens that it digs all the way through and ends up on the other side of the world speaking a foreign language, ought we to deny its epistemic authority on the grounds that it didn't take the path we thought it would? 4. Conclusion: Mentats and the Pre-born The world of Dune is a veritable epistemological funhouse. In addition to the Mentats, Herbert gives us a very different - and much stranger - model of superhuman intellectuality. The 'pre-born,' as Herbert names them, are human beings who are exposed to a certain type of drug (the melange spice) while still in the womb and thereupon come immediately to mature consciousness. But that's not all: once exposed to the drug, they are imbued with the complete memories of every ancestor in their genetic line. They carry these memories with them for their entire lives, and as such, are able to draw upon an unimaginably vast reservoir of historical experience to guide them along their own paths. Because they have (vicariously) seen it all before, the pre-born are impeccable judges of human behavior, and exhibit a kind of stoic remove from the complications of everyday life. They don't have the problem-solving prowess of the Mentat, but they have something better: the ability to understand why and how problems arise in the first place, and to judge their significance for the human condition as it stands in their historical moment. Perhaps it is for this reason that it is the preborn who always end up on the throne, and Mentats who end up serving them. Few educated people in our own world, aside from radical skeptics and the credulously religious, are likely to deny the epistemic authority of scientists and mathematicians. The ability to function as a Mentat might be beyond the power of any living human, but the factor of time and the contributions of the community make up for this lack: scientific disciplines accomplish collectively and diachronically what the Mentat accomplishes individually and synchronically. I proposed at the start of this essay that the Mentat ideal is also a suitable model for the philosopher. For scientifically-minded, results-oriented thinkers like Kornblith, it might well be. But if my objections against Kornblith in this essay have been successful, then I hope to have laid the ground for a different kind of ideal. Those adhering to this ideal would shift their attention to the historical foundations and precedents for what comes to be. They would pay more attention Disagreement and Philosophical Progress 127 to the genetic causes and conceptual roots of contemporary problems than they would to finding the quickest solution to those problems. They would find an altogether more suitable ideal in the pre-born. This divide between the Mentats and the pre-born might be taken to map onto the divide between analytic and continental philosophy in interesting ways, but within the confines of this essay I can't pursue this idea. My concern is to suggest that although they may adopt different methods, deal with different problems in different ways, and ultimately come up with different results, neither of these ideals intrinsically holds any more epistemic authority than the other. There's nothing wrong with holding some philosophy up to the standards set by modern mathematics and science, so long as the philosophy in question is similar enough to those fields in relevant ways. But there is also nothing wrong with practicing philosophy as an autonomous discipline, judging it by its own standards and in accordance with its own historical successes and failures. If we do the latter, questions of progress and consensus simply don't matter as much as Kornblith thinks they do. The practical virtues of philosophy persist unperturbed in either case, so as far as I can tell there is no normative basis for choosing one over the other. But whichever way we go, thousands of years of endlessly fascinating ideas clamor to be acknowledged, heeded and heard anew. The question is whether we want to hear them.
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{ "creator": "Dyer, Pamela", "date": "2009", "datestamp": 1575709243000, "description": "This article re-examines the theoretical basis for environmental and heritage interpretation in tourist settings in the light of hermeneutic philosophy. It notes that the pioneering vision of heritage interpretation formulated by Freeman Tilden envisaged a broadly educational, ethically informed and transformative art. By contrast, current cognitive psychological attempts to reduce interpretation to the monological transmission of information, targeting universal but individuated cognitive structures, are found to be wanting. Despite growing signs of diversity, this information processing approach to interpretation remains dominant. The article then presents the alternative paradigm of hermeneutics through the works of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, to provide a broader interpretation of interpretation. This not only captures the essence of Tilden’s definition but construes heritage interpretation as a more inclusive, culturally situated, critically reflexive and dialogical practice.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABLHAH", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Heritage and Hermeneutics: Towards a Broader Interpretation of Interpretation", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
This article was downloaded by: [University of the Sunshine Coast] On: 18 March 2012, At: 22:53 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Current Issues in Tourism Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Heritage and hermeneutics: towards a broader interpretation of interpretation Phillip Gordon Ablett a & Pamela Kay Dyer a a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, DC, Australia Available online: 27 Jul 2010 To cite this article: Phillip Gordon Ablett & Pamela Kay Dyer (2009): Heritage and hermeneutics: towards a broader interpretation of interpretation, Current Issues in Tourism, 12:3, 209-233 To link to this article: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. 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Heritage and hermeneutics: towards a broader interpretation of interpretation Phillip Gordon Ablett and Pamela Kay Dyer Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, DC, Australia (Received 17 April 2007; final version received 18 April 2008) This article re-examines the theoretical basis for environmental and heritage interpretation in tourist settings in the light of hermeneutic philosophy. It notes that the pioneering vision of heritage interpretation formulated by Freeman Tilden envisaged a broadly educational, ethically informed and transformative art. By contrast, current cognitive psychological attempts to reduce interpretation to the monological transmission of information, targeting universal but individuated cognitive structures, are found to be wanting. Despite growing signs of diversity, this information processing approach to interpretation remains dominant. The article then presents the alternative paradigm of hermeneutics through the works of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, to provide a broader interpretation of interpretation. This not only captures the essence of Tilden's definition but construes heritage interpretation as a more inclusive, culturally situated, critically reflexive and dialogical practice. Keywords: environmental interpretation; heritage tourism; hermeneutics; Gadamer; Heidegger; Tilden Introduction Tourists visiting a national park or historic site will typically encounter visitor information centres, signage, visual displays, tour guides, park rangers or curators, whose purpose is to "interpret" the heritage values of a place or its artefacts. The question of what is actually meant by "interpretation" in the context of environmental and heritage tourism continues to be raised and contested. Amongst the plethora of definitions in journals and practical manuals, the six principles of Freeman Tilden (1957/1977), outlined in his classic text, Interpreting Our Heritage, have had an enduring influence. Increasingly, however, researchers and practitioners are seeking to reformulate and extend Tilden's principles in terms of contemporary theoretical frameworks and circumstances. Recent endeavours have made reference to phenomenology (Knapp & Yang, 2004; Seamon, 1983, 1991), grounded theory (Knapp & Poff, 2001), symbolic interactionism (Archer & Wearing, 2003), semiotics (Hodge & D'souza, 1994), discourse analysis (Waterton, Smith, & Campbell, 2006), social constructionism (Uzzell, 1998), experiential theories of place (Stewart & Kirby, 1998), critical theory (Jamal & Everett, 2004) and postcolonialism (Staiff, Bushell, & Kennedy, 2002). The dominant framework, however, appears to be a cognitive psychological approach to ISSN 1368-3500 print/ISSN 1747-7603 online # 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13683500802316063 Corresponding author. Email: Current Issues in Tourism Vol. 12, No. 3, May 2009, 209-233 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 communication theory (Ajzen, 1992; Beeton, Weiler, & Ham, 2005; Ham, 1983, 1992; Loomis, 1996; Orams, 1995; Youngentob & Hostetler, 2003) usually characterized by information processing models. This article considers the possible contribution to heritage interpretation in tourist settings of another theoretical approach, hermeneutics (the "theory of interpretation"): a long-standing tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry concerning the nature of interpretation in literary criticism, philosophy, philology, history and social theory (Bauman, 1992; Crotty, 1998; Palmer, 1969). Hermeneutics covers a heterogeneous body of theory and research that has been largely over-looked by heritage and environmental interpreters. Exceptions to this can be found in the work of Mugerauer (1995) on the built environment, Hooper-Greenhill (1999) on museums and Aldridge (1989) and Chen (2003) on the natural environment, but these do not seem to have influenced the interpretation profession in any substantial way. This may well change with what appears to be a growing literature on "experiential approaches" that foster a "sense of place" in heritage tourism (Stewart, Hayward, Devlin, & Kirby, 1998, p. 264; Stewart & Kirby, 1998). Hermeneutical theorists are sometimes referred to in passing (Massey, 2005, p. 12; Tilley, 1994, p. 12) in experiential studies. As Stewart and Kirby (1998, pp. 36-37) point out, however, most of these studies tend to emphasize the uniqueness of experience and setting rather than the interpretive processes which underpin these experiences of place. We propose that hermeneutics can meet this need and provide a theoretical framework generally supportive of these diverse accounts. The neglect of hermeneutics is understandable given the relative absence of European social science perspectives in the founding of heritage interpretation in the United States in the early twentieth century and the belated translation of key hermeneutical texts into English in the 1970s. Over the past four decades, however, hermeneutics has emerged from relative marginality in Anglo-American scholarship to being a significant framework for research in diverse areas such as administration and management (Kress, 1995; Mercier, 1994; Noorderhaven, 2000; Prasad, 2002), consumer research (Arnold & Fischer, 1994), information systems (Boland, 1991; Chalmers, 2004; Myers, 1995), psychology (Martin & Sugarman, 2001; McMillan, 1999; Messer, 1988; Packer, 1985; Rommetveit, 1991; Widdershoven, 1999), communication studies (Arthos, 2000; Deetz, 1978; Radford, 2002; Stewart, 1992) and tourism research (Arcodia, 2005; Tribe, 2001). The main purpose of this article is to bring the hermeneutic tradition into conversation with the theory and practice of heritage interpretation as formulated by Freeman Tilden and subsequent interpreters. In Tilden's (1977) view, heritage interpretation aimed to disclose the significance of both natural and historico-cultural sites to contemporary visitors. This implicitly challenges a long-standing dualism in Western thought that radically separates nature from culture. Not all of Tilden's successors have maintained his holistic conception, preferring instead the narrower term of environmental interpretation, with its stronger emphasis on the natural environment (Beckman, 1991; Ham, 1992; Lewis, 1981; Sharpe, 1976; Youngentob & Hostetler, 2003). However, Tilden's rejection of the nature-culture binary through adopting an inclusive notion of heritage can be coherently and productively grounded in a hermeneutic framework, wherein nature is shown to be always already interpreted through cultural mediation. As we will show, this is particularly evident in the work of Gadamer (1977, 1989), whose notion of "tradition", as the ongoing symbolically mediated and mediating source of meaning, provides a way of understanding both natural and built sites (or artefacts) as cultural heritage. Consequently, heritage tourism is understood in this article to embrace the activities of those who visit both historical and natural sites to experience their culturally mediated significance. 210 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 Over the past 30 years, heritage interpretation has been the subject of concerted attempts to re-frame it in terms of the categories of cognitive psychology (Ham, 1983; Hammitt, 1981; Prince, 1981), particularly as it pertains to communication (Ajzen, 1992; Ham, 1992, p. 3, 2002, p. 9). Much of the literature influenced by this approach assumes that the basic meaning of "interpretation" is settled. It follows, therefore, that tour guides, rangers, curators and other interpretive staff can move on to the more practical and technical aspects of communicating the heritage value of particular sites or artefact to visitors. Some scholars, however, have raised serious doubts as to whether this provides an adequate account of what heritage interpretation is about. David Uzzell (1998, p. 12), for example, asserts that "interpretation is . . . stuck in a rut where the how has become more important than the why". More fundamentally, Uzzell (1998, p. 12) and Staiff et al. (2002, p. 98) express concerns about the epistemological grounds and "content" of interpretation, especially its emphasis on an objectivist, Western scientific paradigm (which underpins cognitive models). Hermeneutics by contrast, particularly the work of Heidegger and Gadamer, disputes the monopolistic claims to truth of scientific objectivism by questioning the universal applicability of its subject-object dualism to all forms of understanding. While hermeneutics is not a refutation of the findings of cognitive psychology, its differing perspective allows for a reconsideration of the latter's problematic assumptions and their consequences in interpretive practice. In particular, we suggest that a predominantly cognitivist approach risks reducing Tilden's rich and transformative conception of interpretation to the unilateral presentation of "information", which Tilden explicitly sought to avoid. Consequently, it is argued that hermeneutics can provide a framework for recapturing and extending Tilden's broader vision of interpretation. This broader formulation also questions the current asymmetry in the interpreter-visitor relationship; pointing towards a more inclusive, culturally situated, critically reflexive and dialogical model of heritage interpretation. The discussion firstly outlines the genealogy of heritage interpretation and the increasing influence of cognitive psychological models and assumptions from the late 1970s onwards. It then elucidates some of the main insights and principles of hermeneutics. The latter is explicated by highlighting four seminal thinkers, Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, who are broadly representative (but by no means exhaustive) of the diverse hermeneutic tradition (Palmer, 1969). In this selection a distinction is made between the "traditional hermeneutics" of Schleiermacher and Dilthey, with their focus on epistemological issues, and the "philosophical hermeneutics" of Heidegger and Gadamer, with their ontological concerns about the nature of the interpreter and interpretive community (Guignon, 2002, p. 265). Both of these perspectives are then employed to address current concerns in heritage interpretation. Against its critics, we also demonstrate that philosophical hermeneutics provides the basis for both a pluralistic (Guignon, 2002, p. 266) and critical (Prasad, 2002, p. 23) approach to interpretation. That is, it allows for a multiplicity of truthful interpretations but nevertheless critically evaluates all such accounts in a model of continuous dialogue that refuses subjectivist relativism. Hermeneutics is a "broad church", and were a comprehensive account possible it would also include a discussion of the distinct but interrelated perspectives of Habermas's (1987) critical theory, Foucault's "interpretive analytics" (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1983), Derrida's "radical hermeneutics" of deconstruction (Caputo & Martinez, 1997) and Ricoeur's (1974) hermeneutics of suspicion and retrieval. We do not have space to do these other critical perspectives justice but would encourage others to draw upon them in enriching heritage interpretation. Indeed, as we have indicated this process of diversification has already begun. We simply aim to clarify the advantages of some of the key insights of the hermeneutic tradition for contemporary heritage interpretation. Accordingly, the Current Issues in Tourism 211 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 main insights of the four selected thinkers are related back to Tilden's principles of interpretation with a view to rehabilitating and re-working some of the latter's neglected dimensions. In effect this points beyond Tilden to the wider discussions about interpretation taking place in other disciplines but consistent with Tilden's basic intention of establishing heritage interpretation as a broadly educational, ethically informed and transformative art. In short, this article revisits the epistemological and ontological bases for heritage interpretation with a view to broadening its theoretical framework in the "holistic" (Archer & Wearing, 2003, p. 6; Wearing, Archer, & Jackson, 2003), "experiential" (Stewart & Kirby, 1998, p. 36) and "critical" (Uzzell, 1998, p. 16) directions that a number of interpretive researchers have advocated. Heritage interpretation: a genealogy The modern practices of heritage tourism interpretation originate from the early conservation movement that began in the United States in the nineteenth century. Its initial inspiration and concerns are reflected in the nature writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Henry Thoreau (1817-1862) and John Muir (1838-1914), which influenced the "nature study" movement in American education. A disciple of Muir's, Enos Mills (1870-1922) is credited as the first environmental interpreter (Brochu & Merriman, 2002a; Civitarese, Legg, & Zueffle, 1997; Fazio, 1975). Mills published the first book on nature guiding and campaigned widely to establish the National Park Service in the United States. His writings stress the need for direct immersion of the visitor in the natural environment to awaken a sense of wonderment; leading to deeper understanding. The aim of nature guiding was "to illuminate and reveal the alluring world outdoors" (Mills, 1920, p. 130). Clearly what Mills had in mind was an art rather than a science, interpretation rather than analysis. It was an outdoors alternative to what Mills deemed the "bookish" traditions of formal learning in schools and museums. Part of the guide's role was to be inter alia "an interpreter of [the sciences of] geology, botany, zoology and natural history" (Mills, 1920, p. 130) but in a way that formed a compelling narrative about the visitor's environment; that ". . . appeals to the imagination and reason, gives flesh and blood to cold facts, makes life stories of inanimate objects" (Mills, 1920, p. 126). As Brochu and Merriman (2002a: 12) point out, the principle that interpretation is not simply information, the recitation of facts, is preserved in Freeman Tilden's (1884-1980) highly influential text Interpreting Our Heritage (1957/1977). In Tilden's oft-cited definition, interpretation is an educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by firsthand experience, and by illustrative media rather than simply to communicate factual information. Interpretation is revelation of a larger truth that lies behind any statement of fact. (Tilden, 1977, p. 8) Tilden (1977, p. 9) expands this preliminary definition by elaborating six principles of environmental interpretation. These hold that interpretation (1) must relate what is displayed to the experience of the visitor; (2) is revelation rather than information; (3) is a teachable art; (4) provokes rather than instructs; (5) relates parts to an underlying whole and that (6) children will need a qualitatively different interpretive approach from adults. These principles were never posited as immutable laws or methods yet it is a testament to Tilden's erudition that they remain fundamental in interpretive program manuals and texts (Brochu & Merriman, 2002b; Ham, 1992; Pond, 1993; Sharpe, 1976). 212 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 As already noted, Tilden also expanded the referents for interpretation to include both the natural and built environments within his broad notion of heritage. More than this, Tilden's view of interpretation is inseparable from an ethically informed conservation practice, encapsulated in the dictum: "through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection" (Tilden, 1977, p. 38). In Tilden's view, interpretation is not simply about cognition but is a fundamentally transformative praxis in which visitors come to re-experience nature or history in a holistic manner. At its most ambitious, the interpretive experience leads the heritage visitor towards a new relationship with nature or history. The ethic which drives interpretation according to Tilden (1977, p. 90) is "love" in the sense of care for the thing interpreted and the people who come to experience it. As will be demonstrated shortly, this view is more consonant with contemporary hermeneutics than a cognitive, information processing model. Such affinity is not surprising given that Tilden was heavily influenced by Emerson's Transcendentalist philosophy, which has its roots (via English Romanticism) in the same German Idealist philosophy that gave rise to hermeneutics (Mitchell, 2005). However, in upholding the extra-cognitive dimensions of interpretation, modern hermeneutics also provides a counter-weight to purely arbitrary subjectivism. Over the past half-century, with the growth of urbanization, the tourist industry, national parks and heritage sites, the need for conserving, managing and communicating environmental values has led to various attempts to reformulate and expand on Tilden's interpretive principles. Some, like the pioneer of British Interpretation, Don Aldridge (1972, pp. 307- 308, 1989, p. 65), have stressed that interpretation is the art of explaining the conservation values of a place to the public, without prescribing what they should think. Both Aldridge (1989) and Uzzell (1998) also emphasize the potential of heritage interpretation to "present alternative scenarios for the future direction of society" (Uzzell, 1998, p. 16), challenging people to think about the sort of world in which they wish to live. In this view interpretation is a critical educational practice based on care for the environment (Stewart et al., 1998, p. 264), in which the visitor's agency and potential wisdom are respected. This broad, artistic, value-driven and transformative vision is extended by interpretive scholars like Beck and Cable (2002) who attribute the qualities of revelation, "gift" and "hope" to environmental and heritage interpretation. On the other hand, with the institutionalization and commodification of National Parks as tourist sites, the potential of interpretation as a "management tool" for controlling visitor behaviour has also been advocated (Beckman, 1988, p. 14; Field & Wagar, 1973; Ham, 2002; Hooper & Weiss, 1991; Sharpe, 1976), and the instrumental or technical means for getting an environmental message across have been increasingly emphasized. In this context, interpretation comes to be viewed as something that managers plan and present to people, rather than something that people might actively make for themselves or with others (Uzzell, 1998, p. 18). Unfortunately, in this sort of managerial or guide-centred model, visitors come to be seen as relatively passive. Such institutional practices favour the use of monosemic and instrumental types of interpretive theory, including those provided by marketing, consumer research and cognitive psychology, and an exclusive emphasis on these risks engendering manipulation rather than understanding (Archer & Wearing, 2003, p. 6; Uzzell, 1998, p. 17). Cognitive psychology and information processing in heritage interpretation Since the 1970s, there have been highly successful attempts to ground heritage interpretation within a predominantly scientific theoretical framework derived primarily from cognitive psychology (DART, 1978; Ham, 1983; Hammitt, 1981, 1984; Kaplan, 1978), particularly Current Issues in Tourism 213 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 as it pertains to communication studies (Ajzen, 1992; Borun & Massey, 1990; Dick, McKee, & Wagar, 1974; Fazio & Gilbert, 2000; Ham, 1992, 2002; Jacobson, McDuff, & Monroe, 2006; Jensen, 2006; Kuo, 2002; Lackey, 2002; Lackey & Ham, 2003; Littlefair, 2003; Loomis, 1996; Prince, 1981; Roggenbuck, 1992; Sanders, 1987; Wechtunyagul, 2007; Youngentob & Hostetler, 2003). Cognitive-inspired studies appear to have been introduced initially as part of a move to "evaluate" the effectiveness of interpretation programs for resource management purposes (McCool & Stankey, 2003; Stewart & Kirby, 1998, p. 33). However, as the categories employed by evaluative researchers were "fed back" into interpretive programs and planning, the theory and practice of interpretation have been re-shaped accordingly (Ham, 1983, 1992; Hammitt, 1981, 1984; Prince, 1981). Prominent strands of cognitive psychological theory applied to interpretation in tourist settings include cognitive map theory (DART, 1978; Hammitt, 1981; Kaplan, 1978; Knopf, 1981; Orams, 1995), cognitive dissonance theory (Orams, 1995), the elaboration likelihood model of communication (Lackey, 2002; Petty, McMichael, & Brennon, 1992), the theory of reasoned action (Bright, Manfredo, Fishbein, & Bath, 1993; Ham & Krumpe, 1996; Manfredo & Bright, 1991), the theory of persuasive communication (Roggenbuck & Berrier, 1982) and the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1992; Beeton et al., 2005; Hendricks, 2000; Jensen, 2006; Roggenbuck, 1992). Cognitive psychology addresses the way humans obtain, retain and process information (Ham, 1983, p. 12) as discrete and representable units of meaning. In keeping with earlier behaviourism it assumes that human individuals act in response to external stimuli but posits that these responses are mediated through cognitive models: mental constructs, representations or beliefs systems of the mind, which may be conscious or unconscious (Widdershoven, 1999). The locus of meaning in this approach resides in each individual's mental constructs which are deemed to correspond with objects, whose representatives they are "within the mind" (Phillips, 1999, p. 259). This approach, therefore, tends to restrict interpretation to the operations of individual cognition. According to Radford (1994), psychology, in both its behaviourist and cognitivist versions, has dominated communication studies since its inception. The dominant framework originated in Shannon and Weaver's (1949, pp. 33-34) cybernetic theory of communication, which psychologists took up in the 1950s. This model delineates the ways in which a message or meanings are transmitted, from a sender (transmitter) via a medium to a receiver in a unilateral fashion (Ajzen, 1992; Ham, 2002; Lackey, 2002; Lackey & Ham, 2003; Manfredo & Bright, 1991; Morgan & Welton, 1994; Prince, 1981). When communication is reduced in this fashion to cognitive information processing, then defining interpretation as a sub-set, "method" or "approach to communication" (Ham, 1992, p. 3, 2002, p. 9) preserves this reductionism in subsequent analyses. The applications of information processing models in heritage interpretation typically involve measuring the extent to which a message is effectively lodged in the mind of the recipients and its persuasiveness with regard to behavioural outcomes (Ajzen, 1992; Armstrong & Weiler, 2003; Beeton et al., 2005; Cable, Knudson, Udd, & Stewart, 1987; Kool, 1986; Youngentob & Hostetler, 2003). While there has been acknowledgement in more recent studies on the way that receivers "elaborate" upon the meanings received (notably Ajzen, 1992), the emphasis is still on bringing the visitors' beliefs and behaviour into accord with the site management's view with maximum efficiency before an interpretation can be regarded as "successful" (Armstrong & Weiler, 2003; Beeton et al., 2005; Ham, 2004; Hendricks, 2000; Roggenbuck, 1992; Youngentob & Hostetler, 2003). Cognitive models of information processing (focusing upon sender-message/ medium-receiver-elaboration and/or feedback) underpin much research, training and 214 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 evaluation carried out by academics working in the field of heritage and environmental interpretation, but it is debatable whether all interpretive practitioners consciously or primarily subscribe to these. The situation on the ground is undoubtedly more eclectic and multi-faceted. Nevertheless, the model's assumptions emphasizing the effectiveness of message retention and obtaining behavioural compliance remain pervasive regardless of whether it is explicitly utilized or not (e.g., Bitgood, 2000; Borun & Miller, 1980; Bright, 1994; Cole, Hammond, & McCool, 1997; Hooper-Greenhill, 1994; Kool, 1986). In recent times, the orthodox cognitivist paradigm in heritage interpretation has been challenged from within psychology by those (notably Uzzell, 1998) committed to social constructionist and socio-cultural approaches. As Stewart and Kirby (1998, p. 36) have noted there has also been a promising shift towards what they characterized as "experiential" approaches to heritage interpretation, involving recognition of the mutli-sensory, affective, kinesthetic and actively "mindful" (as distinct from cognitive) dimensions of interpretation (e.g., Moscardo, 1999, pp. 75-78). This has led to a greater appreciation of the subjective processes involved in the visitors making meanings for themselves, particularly in the work of McIntosh and Prentice (1999). However, the significant theoretical implications of these innovative studies do not appear to have been fully appreciated as yet by the profession or those researchers committed to the dominant cognitive psychological model. Furthermore, these accounts while providing a much more satisfactory account of the tourist's interpretive agency do not yet sufficiently address the interplay of agency and culture. It may be that hermeneutics provides the possibility of a multi-perspectival and multi-disciplinary holistic framework to underpin these newer approaches. In the preceding critique, there is no question that cognitive psychology demonstrates valid findings; however, the portrayal of interpretation as a function of information processing by individuals is unnecessarily reductionist and instrumental in heritage tourist contexts. It takes a special case of communicative interaction and treats it as the whole in the service of agency-centred managerial practices. Further, cognitive psychology makes assumptions about the nature of communication, meaning and human reality that are questionable from a hermeneutic standpoint. The hermeneutic tradition: major thinkers and insights The word hermeneutics derives from the ancient Greek herméneuein, which means "to interpret" or "to understand". It has the same root as the name of the Greek God Hermes, the messenger of divine truth to the limited comprehension of mortals. In classical philosophy it refers variously to the expressing, explaining and translation of meaning, to making the unfamiliar familiar or intelligible (Palmer, 1969, pp. 12-14). Modern hermeneutics grew out of the interpretation of texts, particularly religious texts (Crotty, 1998, pp. 87-88). However since the German Enlightenment, it has been extended to all spheres of human enquiry whereby meaning is seen not as something to be calculated and represented but rather as something to be explicated and extended. The first of the four thinkers to be considered here is Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), a philosopher and theologian, involved in debates about the methodology of philological, juridical and biblical interpretation. Credited with being the first modern philosopher to propose a general theory of interpretation, Schleiermacher (1838/1998, p. 3) defined hermeneutics as "the art of understanding", with a particular emphasis on understanding "the . . . discourse of another person correctly". While concerned with textual analysis, his principles can be generalized to other areas of human knowledge. Unlike some previous interpreters, Schleiermacher did not believe that the meanings Current Issues in Tourism 215 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 of things we encounter in the world are self-evident. On the contrary, texts and objects require an active effort on the part of an interpreter to recover or "make sense" of their meaning and worth. Interpretation is not simply a matter of conveying an already transparent understanding to where there is none but also of unraveling misunderstanding, rectifying error and actively constituting a coherent meaning. Studying the meaning of a text, for example, requires giving weight to both the "objective" rules of grammar and the most likely "subjective" meanings of the original author in their historical context. Given that these procedures involve the interplay of both objective and subjective assessments, Schleiermacher claimed interpretation is necessarily an art and not a science. This artistic quality of interpretation, however, which Tilden (1977, p. 9) also advocates in his third principle of interpretation, does not preclude rigour or the application of teachable principles. The basic interpretive principle for Schleiermacher was that any particular thing we may wish to understand "can only be understood from out of the whole" (Schleiermacher, 1998, p. 27) of which it forms a part. This leads him to posit the circular character of human understanding: "knowledge is always in an apparent circle, that each particular can only be understood via the general". In turn, "the understanding of the whole is . . . conditioned by that of the particular" (Schleiermacher, 1998, p. 231). This principle, known as the "hermeneutic circle", formulated in the early 1800s is reiterated in the fifth of Tilden's six principles: "interpretation should aim to present the whole rather than a part. . ." (Tilden, 1977, p. 9). Taking an example from botany, the isolated leaves of a tree would hold limited botanical meaning without knowledge of their important role (photosynthesis and cellular respiration) for the whole plant of which they form a part. The tree, in turn, becomes more meaningful within a forest habitat or wider ecosystem that includes human beings. Schleiermacher (1998, p. 5) also makes an important distinction between interpretation, which aims to understand the meaning of something (hermeneutical understanding), and communication or rhetoric, which aims to present that understanding to others in a persuasive manner. Interestingly, Schleiermacher's idea of communication (in so far as he deals with communication and not interpretation) is similar to contemporary cognitive-based theories of communication. It relies on the successful, unilateral presentation of one's ideas to another person or group through an effective communicative medium, such as a speech or text. This also emphasizes the authority of the author or "sender" rather than the "receiver" in establishing meaning (Rundell, 1998). It presupposes a largely monological form of communication, such as one finds in advertising and public relations, where the meaning is controlled to produce a particular outcome rather than relying on the interpretive capacity of the audience or any interaction with the sender. This entails an asymmetric power relation in which the receiver is expected to bring themselves into conformity with the sender's authoritative message. Given that Schleiermacher was concerned with Biblical and juridical interpretation in an authoritarian Protestant society, his emphasis on the authority of the author/sender is understandable. Whether this is desirable or even effective in a contemporary tourist context is a question that interpreters need to take seriously when developing programs. Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), the second of the thinkers considered, was a nineteenthcentury psychologist and historian who wanted to turn Schleiermacher's art of interpretation into a science. He believed interpretation was essential not only for understanding texts but for understanding the human world in general. Consequently, Dilthey (1976) expanded Schleiermacher's application of the "hermeneutic circle" to incorporate the broadest historical and cultural contexts. Interpretation for Dilthey was the process 216 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 of questioning the meaning of the thing to be interpreted (e.g., a tree, forest, historic site, rare species or artefact) in relation to its broader contexts (e.g., history, world or environment). An example of Dilthey's circular conceptualization of interpretation, relevant to environmental interpreters, can be illustrated by how we might go about understanding a tree. This can be done in a range of contexts. For example, we could begin by asking about the tree's biological or botanical classification. This involves moving conceptually away from that particular tree to the wider body of arboreal knowledge which forms part of the context of both the tree and the interpreter. It might be identified as Eucalyptus Papuana Aperrerinja (Brooker, 2000), commonly known as a "ghost gum". This term, derived from a broader classificatory system, gives the interpreter information to expand both their own and their audiences' understanding of the particular tree in question. Another context in relation to this particular tree might be historical, or even political. It may be that this tree was the heritage-listed "Tree of Knowledge" at Barcaldine in Queensland under which 3000 defeated strikers were said to have gathered in 1891 to form the Australian Labour Party. This tree made headlines in May 2006 when it was poisoned by vandals on the occasion of the passing of new industrial relations laws by a then conservative Australian Government, restricting the activities of trade unions and collective bargaining rights (Lagan, 2006). In both instances, interpretation is effected by referring the particular to a more general context and then relating this back to the particular. The process of interpretation outlined by Dilthey can be seen to operate on two levels (Lee Martin, 2002; Rundell, 1998). First is the level of mutually shared knowledge that most adults within a society already hold about things through a common language, such as the knowledge to name trees, rocks, people, places, etc. Dilthey calls this common stock of descriptive knowledge (facts), elementary understanding. It is only by raising questions about gaps, possible connections or contradictions in our elementary understanding that we move to the second level of interpretive understanding by traversing the hermeneutic circle (Rundell, 1998). Dilthey's distinction of levels is analogous to that found between factual "information" and interpretation in Tilden's (1977, pp. 9, 18-25) second principle. Interpretation for Tilden always "includes information", but much like Dilthey's elementary understanding, this is only a preliminary step towards interpretation. In both cases, the point of interpretation is the "revelation of a larger truth that lies behind any statement of fact" (Tilden, 1977, p. 8). This search for the larger truth is essentially a hermeneutical exercise, in which the interpreter moves constantly from the interpreted to its broader contexts and back again. In this sense, any interpretation is always ongoing, incomplete and "partial". There are always more questions that can be asked of any site or experience. While Schleiermacher and Dilthey envisaged interpretation as a methodology for the humanities, later hermeneutic philosophers such as Heidegger (1962) and Gadamer (1989) rethink interpretation as underpinning all forms of understanding, including natural science. That is, they see interpretation as ontological, as fundamental to being human. Science, methodologies and research techniques are conceived as arising upon this "primordial" capacity to interpret. By starting with our interpretive capacity rather than its referents, these philosophers also undercut the nature-culture binary referred to above, which can unnecessarily limit and distort our understanding of heritage. The philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), proposed that "interpretation is never a presuppositionless apprehending of something" (Heidegger, 1962, pp. 191-192). The world (both natural and cultural) is always already pre-interpreted as we reflect upon it. Through being socialized in a particular culture and language, we already have a Current Issues in Tourism 217 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 "fore-structure" of innumerable background understandings, practical dispositions, habits and tacit skills for recognizing and negotiating the things we encounter in everyday life (Heidegger, 1962, p. 191). Consequently, we normally experience things, whether natural or cultural things, as "something" and rather than "nothing" (Heidegger, 1962, p. 189). We do not normally need to analyze the separate properties of things we encounter in daily life to understand them. We do not, for example, piece together the separate properties of "green", "leafy", "tall", "wooden trunk" and conclude "Ah ha, it must be a tree!" Recognition, based on a multitude of prior experiences with trees, is instantaneous. The various meanings we give to things, such as trees, will reflect our past experiences, expectations and the place accorded to those things in our culture and its practices. This is how the hermeneutic circle is extended by Heidegger to everyday life, orbiting between the particular thing we may wish to interpret and the myriad of background social practices, habits, routines and experiences. Theoretical or scientific thought also emerges out of this background but is not our most common mode of thinking, nor is it necessarily the best for dealing with the problems of life. According to Heidegger, scientific rationality is powerful but entails metaphysical assumptions that are potentially distorting. Foremost amongst these is subject/object dualism (Heidegger, 1962, p. 87, 1984, p. 132). This is the idea that we humans go about all inquiry as rational, knowing "subjects", confronting the world as a set of separate "objects" that are not part of our subjectivity (consciousness). In short, for the purposes of scientific or theoretical understanding we pretend that we are world-less beings or beings without a context. Furthermore, the world (as objects) confronts us initially as something unknown but nevertheless available for our inspection and potential manipulation. Heidegger wants us to see through the contrivances of this view and consider objective rationality as a derivative and intermittent special purpose form of knowledge. Following Heidegger, Jurgen Habermas (1987) has argued that we only need this analytical-empirical type of knowledge in relation to matters requiring technical control. It follows that we must be extremely careful of its application to questions of meaning and values, including the meaning and worth of our natural environment and cultural heritage. While scientific knowledge explains causal relationships or correlations, it cannot of itself make value judgements or give ultimate meaning to our lives in the universe. The latter requires other forms of understanding. There are, for Heidegger, other forms of "truth" besides scientific truth that have a valid role in interpretation. Heidegger (1977) wants us to de-centre the over-privileged and, thus, lop-sided position we have given scientific (particularly "technological") rationality in our Western culture. This is not because rationality is wrong but because the exclusivity attached to its truthclaims as "the only valid form" of knowledge can seriously distort our understanding of the world. Heidegger wants us to recall other important ways of understanding and experiencing the world that stem from the fact that we are already "in the world" prior to our conceptual understanding of things. Truth, for Heidegger, is not simply the correspondence between statements and objects (as in analytical-empirical epistemology), or the correspondence between internal mental constructs and an external environment (as in cognitive psychology) (Phillips, 1999). Rather, truth is an experience or process that involves unconcealing what was previously concealed. It is, in short, revelation (entbergen). Science is also a mode of revelation but presupposes other more fundamental layers of meaning attributed to things or places, including our preor sub-cognitive practical understandings. Indeed, Heidegger says that it is these implicit and shared background practices that make things intelligible and available to science for empirical testing in the first place (Heidegger, 1962, p. 122). Interpretation therefore involves placing what we wish to interpret in the 218 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 context of these shared background understandings to reveal connections that had previously been hidden or forgotten. Tilden (1977, pp. 9, 18) makes this same point in his second and fourth principles respectively when he says, "interpretation is revelation" and "interpretation is not instruction, but provocation". Heidegger further suggests that we reveal other kinds of truth through art (Heidegger, 1971, pp. 36, 56-56, 67-72), meditative thought (Heidegger, 1971, p. 181), moral reflection (Heidegger, 1962, pp. 344-346) and attentiveness to moods and feelings or what today might be called "emotional intelligence". This accords with Tilden's advice in his fifth principle that interpretation must address "the whole man [or woman] rather than any phase". The recent psychological work on "affect" in heritage interpretation (Orams, 1995; Webb, 2000) promises a broadening of older cognitive framework and may partially confirm Heidegger. However, attempting to explain affective experiences in terms of an individual's "mental" structures (if not a contradiction in terms) offers no self-evident advantage as a basis for interpretation over the dynamic involvement of one's whole being (mind, body and emotions) in shared cultural practices. Living in a world of multiple contexts and change, the human way of being in the light of Heidegger appears multi-layered and dynamic in its interpretive possibilities. Another mode of interpretation for Heidegger (1977, p. 12) that enables us to relate, reveal and provoke significant truths about our environment but resists all logical closure, measurement or control is the poetic (including poetry, lyric narrative and song). This is remarkably consistent with Tilden (1977, p. 27), who says the "interpreter must use art, and at best he [or she] will be somewhat of a poet". Poetry, for Heidegger (1977, pp. 3-35; 2000), is a way of letting language reveal to us the possibilities of all sorts of tacitly understood things and their connections. Consider the following poem, Municipal Tree, by one of Australia's great Indigenous poets, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1990), and the sorts of truth it may reveal. Municipal Gum1 Gumtree in the city street, Hard bitumen around your feet, Rather you should be In the cool world of leafy forest halls And wild bird calls Here you seems to me Like that poor cart-horse Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged, Whose hung head and listless mien express Its hopelessness. Municipal gum, it is dolorous To see you thus Set in your black grass of bitumen- O fellow citizen, What have they done to us? The truth of this poem is not objective but neither is it purely subjective; rather it resides in its provocation to make something significant out of a range of possible meanings that culture makes available. Heidegger (2000) reminds us that the truth of poetic interpretation 1Reproduced by permission of John Wiley & Sons. Current Issues in Tourism 219 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 is not found in factual correctness but its capacity for revelation in particular contexts. The gum tree here, is a thing out of place "in the city street" and "a thing wronged". In another time and place (perhaps the creation dreaming of Noonuccal's people) and certainly prior to European colonization, it would have stood strong and potent (not "castrated") in "the cool world of leafy forest halls". One may be tempted to see a metaphoric parallel here between the fate of this tree and that of Noonuccal's people. The current political context will invariably intrude on most Australian readings of this poem and what it has to say about non-Indigenous society's mis-treatment of nature and Indigenous people. Despite brevity, the associations and emotional resonances of word, rhyme and image are too numerous to list here. Poetry, like art, speaks expansively to a different level of being than the purely cognitive, especially in those cultures that value the poetic in daily life (Gordon, 2000). Heidegger's arguments about the diverse interpretive capacities of human beings have much to offer for heritage interpreters. They point to the importance of valuing other ways of understanding or experiencing truth that are more basic or "primal" than scientific explanation (and not simply as embellishment or technique). Tilden (1977, pp. 9, 47-54) was particularly aware in formulating his sixth principle that children, who have not yet developed abstract analytical skills, need to be addressed by qualitatively different educational programs than those offered to adults. Interpreters, therefore, need to be mindful of the revelatory, truth-disclosing capacities in myth, folklore, narrative, art, poetry and play in addition to science. While interpretive centres may not be suitable for poetry readings, many have utilized story telling (Pastorelli, 2004) and even theatrical performance (Dierking, 1998, p. 62) for both children and adults as part of their interpretive programs. American environmental educator, Susan Strauss in The Passionate Fact (1996) provides an exemplary account of how story telling as an interactive, literary, visual and auditory experience speaks powerfully to both the "head" and "heart" in her on-site performances. The revival of nature writing as a popular genre (both in fiction and non-fiction) also attests to the different forms of engagement the public is seeking with the natural environment and cultural heritage (Sharp, 2005, p. 358). It may be our greatest mistake to think of interpretation, primarily as a cognitive event (Heidegger, 1971, p. 112). The final thinker dealt with here is Heidegger's student Hans George Gadamer (1900- 2003), who extends the former's insights about how our pre-understandings of shared background practices (rather than mental maps) facilitate interpretation with his notions of "cultural tradition", "prejudice" and communication as conversation leading to a "fusion of horizons". Gadamer's work demonstrates the unavoidably social character of the interpretive circle. Not in the sense that we never cogitate alone but rather that all interpretation takes place within an ongoing history, language and inter-subjective context: what Gadamer calls a cultural "tradition". We all inhabit such traditions and are inhabited by them (Gadamer, 1989, p. 358). In this view, nature and natural objects are not things we encounter apart from, or prior to, culture. These too are mediated through cultural traditions, which we explicate and transform through language in our ongoing social interactions, narratives and conversations as heritage. The source of meaning, therefore, in any heritage interpretation resides primarily in cultural traditions and their transformation; not the individual's head. If tradition is the source of meaning it also follows that meaning cannot be "inherent in" the object of interpretation, contrary to the American National Association for Interpretation's (2000) and National Park Service's (2003) definition of interpretation. This is why the "same" artefact or site can have very different meanings to different groups of people. 220 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 The primacy of cultural tradition in providing meaning is evident in the way many North Americans identify the opposite of the urban environment with "the wilderness" (Mugerauer, 1995; Zimmerman, 1992), whereas a Briton may talk about "the countryside" (Aldridge, 1975; Grace, 1996), a non-Indigenous Australian may refer to "the bush" or "outback" (Seddon, 1997; Sharp, 2005) and an Indigenous Australian to "country" (Zeppel, Muloin, & Higginbottom, 2003). These terms, wilderness, countryside, bush and country, are neither transparent descriptions nor (despite some similarities) synonyms. Each term signifies a "sense of place" within the preconceived meanings and practices of ever changing and interweaving traditions. Such traditions do not have to be "national", homogenous, static or mutually exclusive, for Gadamer (1990, p. 288), but they are what connect people and places; making both intelligible across time. While people share traditions, no single understanding contains all aspects of a tradition. We all have a limited "horizon of understanding" or "range of vision . . . from a particular vantage point" (Gadamer, 1989, p. 143). In Gadamer's view, language and tradition "pre-form" our experience of places and things before we ever encounter a professional interpreter. Thus, when Tilden (1977, pp. 9, 11-17) advises in his first principle that interpretation must "relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor", interpreters need to be mindful of the social dimensions of that experience. That is, how personal experience has already been shaped by language and socio-historical tradition. Another word for the unexamined preconceptions of tradition, which have shaped past experience and through which we tend to read new experiences of our environment, is "prejudice". Gadamer, however, does not accept the traditionally negative view of prejudice as necessarily hindering understanding. Prejudices can be distorting but they can also provide a vantage point enabling our understanding (Gadamer, 1989, p. 143). Such prejudgments or pre-understandings are the starting point of any interpretation because they provide the means for us to identify and question the things we encounter. When we encounter something we do not understand, our preconceptions are challenged to change in order that we might understand (Arnold & Fischer, 1994, p. 57). All visitors will bring prejudices to a heritage site. In visiting a forest, a timber-worker or builder may see the trees primarily as an untapped resource. An environmental scientist may see the same trees as vital components of regional bio-diversity in need of conservation. A recreational tourist may experience trees mainly for their aesthetic value or feel that they provide an environment in which to relax and recuperate from a stressful life-style. For the Indigenous Australian visitor, partaking in a non-Western tradition, the trees may be sacred or part of the story of that country, with a spiritual significance that may elude non-Indigenous understandings. These divergent attitudes to the natural environment can cause or reflect conflict in the wider society. In the context of a heritage site, however, there emerges the possibility for a dialogue or conversation across differing positions and reflection upon one's own position. This in turn may lead to a change that attempts to address or overcome the conflicts and disparities of power in the wider society (Packer & Goicoechea, 2000). The recognition of Indigenous land ownership that has occurred at Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and Kakadu National Parks (De Lacy, 1994; Weaver, 1991) in Australia, where many Indigenous inhabitants now conduct interpretation, fosters and perhaps anticipates further developments in this regard. Dialogue facilitates but cannot guarantee positive changes in the relations between different peoples and places. Interpretation, for Gadamer (1989, p. 362), commences with the raising of questions about the thing to be interpreted. It proceeds by way of communication as it does for Current Issues in Tourism 221 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 cognitive psychology but communication is modelled on conversation and not the unilateral transmission of a message. In communication as conversation or dialogue, the roles of "sender" and "receiver" become fluid and reciprocal. There will be an exchange of preconceptions, signs and stories. This will only happen, of course, if both parties are prepared to listen and understand a horizon that is not theirs (Gadamer, 1989, p. 347). This means participants allowing their ideas and feelings about something to be put to the test, allowing others to read and question them in the light of their experience and contexts. In a genuine dialogue we also have to be prepared to admit that another understanding may be right and that our own has to change. We in turn will question the other's understandings from our horizon and they may shift their understanding as a result. No participant holds all the wisdom in a conversation, although some may have more information at their disposal than others. The understanding reached through dialogue is not one of imposed agreement but conviction arising from the to-and-fro interplay of participant's contributions. Ideally, dialogue opens up the possibility of ongoing learning, mutual correction and change. Interpretation, therefore, is a function of communication as conversation and the traditions within, against and between which conversation takes place. In dialogue, we communicate not only with those who may be physically present but we also mobilize the preconceptions of cultural traditions about a site or artefact and bring them to bear on present questions. In this cross-over of present and past conceptions, Gadamer (1989, pp. 273, 374) says, lies the possibility of a "fusion of horizons" in which understanding shifts and the participants change. It may be that a person visits a National Park in a developed country with only an economic or aesthetic view of its value but in conversation with others, encounters views drawn from biology about bio-diversity and the fragility of the ecosystem. Perhaps they will begin to see the forests in a new light and start to review their previous beliefs, feelings and actions. It may also be the case that visitors to a pristine forest site in the developing world need to be made aware of the economic deprivation of the local inhabitants and that conservation is unlikely to be successful without local support and hence some sort of economic upliftment program instituted (Boo, 1990). This is unlikely if views about heritage are simply imposed by a professional interpreter from the dominant cultural or social group and no active participation or reflection by others is encouraged. The professional interpreter, like the visitor, also stands amid cultural tradition and brings prejudgments to their work. Typically, this is a tradition of conservation and revelation, of which there are many variants. Aldridge (1989, pp. 67-73), after a brief historical survey of Western philosophy, identified 26 different conservation ideas that continue to influence conservation practice today. In most contemporary heritage contexts, the interpretive tradition will be informed by science but also by other cultural practices that need to be articulated. So, rather than suppressing prejudices in interpreting something, Gadamer advises anyone seeking understanding to make their prejudices explicit and be prepared to have them examined by others. This requires that the professional interpreter be "reflexive" in explicitly identifying to themselves and their visitors, the tradition(s) in which they as interpreters and the site (these may not be the same) stand and how values and predispositions form part of the interpretation. Reflexivity about oneself and tradition has implications for the education of professional interpreters. It means that in addition to scientific literacy and technical know-how, interpretive staff need to be aware of the diverse and continuing cultural, historical, literary and artistic aspects of tradition that feed into wider public's views of heritage and "sense of place" off-site. This is perhaps most obvious with historical heritage sites. However, the arts and historical work addressing nature are increasingly popular 222 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 (Sharp, 2005) and this is reflected in the growing academic field of "ecological humanities" (Rose & Robin, 2004). These arts foster traditions that professional interpreters and interpretive institutions would benefit from engaging with. Those working in National Parks and forest settings in Australia, for example, would be well served in reading the works of literary naturalists like George Seddon (1997), Tim Flannery (2002) and Ashley Hay (2002). Works of fiction relating to particular regions, like Richard Flanagan's Death of a River Guide (1994) on Tasmania or Murray Bails' Eucalyptus (2002) on western New South Wales, and cinematic works, such as Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (Mt Diogenes) or Rachel Perkins' One Night the Moon filmed in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, can likewise be instructive for heritage interpreters in those areas. These works are not science but they enrich the language and tradition through which their audiences connect with the natural environment and express their concerns. Furthermore, they give interpreters access to the sorts of popular pre-understandings visitors will bring with them to particular heritage sites. It may be that there is not just one cultural tradition encompassing a particular site. Indigenous cultures, despite the devastation of colonialism, are insistently reclaiming their voices in many contemporary heritage settings (Dyer, Aberdeen, & Schuler, 2003; Graham, 1999; Rose, 2000). This raises serious questions for re-negotiating interpretation and at the very least acknowledging that a number of interpretations "belonging in parallel" (Read, 2000, p. 223) are possible. Jane James' (1999) description of interpretative planning at the former Umeewarra Mission site at Port Augusta in South Australia provides a positive model of how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous stories might be told without the latter (a product of the colonizing culture) simply appropriating the former. K. Anne Ketz (2006, p. 80) drawing upon her experience in a Native American context suggests that optimally, as a result of a "process of dialogue and collaborative consultation" with sufficient respect, goodwill and mutual agreement, it may even be possible to produce an "interwoven" account of multiple voices. An account that is inclusive and does not gloss over the harsh realities of past or present has much to offer but such an outcome cannot be presumed in advance of the dialogue. It is also the case that even in situations where Western cultures are dominant that there are always competing streams or contested interpretations within the "same" tradition calling for recognition. This is important for Gadamer because critics such as Apel (1984) and Habermas (1990) have charged that hermeneutics' reliance upon tradition renders it insufficiently critical of the status quo and that any critique must come from elsewhere. In response Gadamer (1990, p. 288) argued that "tradition" is not a prisoner to the past but "exists only in constantly becoming other than it is"; pointing to a dynamic, self-monitoring and creative notion of tradition. In this view, hermeneutics is a genuinely "critical perspective" capable of questioning and changing the dominant interpretation of places and things precisely because traditions already contain within themselves the moral resources for critique and renewal (Prasad, 2002, p. 23). These resources can be retrieved and extended through ongoing interpretive and re-interpretive practices. The philosopher Charles Taylor (1993) supports Gadamer's view, arguing that any historical tradition always contains a variety of "internal goods" that have been lost or covered over. A hermeneutic retrieval, therefore, has the potential to "transcend all our practices such that we are capable of transforming or even repudiating some practices in the name of these goods" (Taylor, 1993, p. 355). An example of hermeneutic retrievals transforming tradition from within can be found in the interpretive practices of the Ngarinyin people in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia. In 1987, the Indigenous community of the Kimberley's with Current Issues in Tourism 223 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 some government funding revived the traditional practice of re-painting rock art (albeit with modern paints) which is central to their interpretation of "country" and the passing on of this knowledge to future generations (Truscott, 2003). This practice was criticized by some heritage experts at the time as damaging to the existing images and funding was withdrawn. However, the interpretation of country continues through an innovative movement in which Ngarinyin artists have adapted their paintings onto the non-traditional canvass medium as a way of teaching their young about country and extending their heritage to new audiences (Roberts, 2005). This latter aspect represents a major shift on the part of the Ngarinyin elders who condoned the movement because many of the images now shown in galleries were considered Mamaa or "untouchable" and so traditionally forbidden to outsiders (EINAR, 2007). Hermeneutics in this broader view is intrinsically bound up with the ongoing re-telling and critically reflexive interchange of the diverse stories that shape and reform our identity and heritage. Gadamer's stress on the culturally situated, dialogic and critically reflexive character of interpretation complements contemporary social learning theories in education. Dierking (1998, pp. 58-61) lists these approaches and cites numerous studies of social interaction in informal learning settings where dialogical interpretation is apparent. Two major approaches that have been explicitly linked to hermeneutics are social constructivism (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999, p. 4) and situated socio-cultural theories of learning (Burbules, 1993; Burbules & Bruce, 2001). Some cognitive psychologists have also embraced ideas from these approaches. The recent application of such ideas in heritage interpretation, particularly in museums, is welcome [e.g., Hein (1999) on "constructivism" and Koran, Willems, and Camp (2000) on "situated cognition"]. However, while these applications break with the uniform cognitive processing model of interpretation, they also represent two competing explanations (Packer & Goicoechea, 2000). Gadamer's hermeneutics by contrast may help reconcile the contradictory tendencies of social constructivism and situated socio-cultural perspectives on learning. On the one hand, Gadamer stresses the active participation, through dialogue and self-reflection, of multiple participants that is essential to interpretation. In this sense, we do construct meaning with others and multiple interpretations are possible. On the other, Gadamer insists that the evolving cultural traditions, in which we are socially and linguistically situated, condition and limit the range of plausible interpretations. In other words, a tree may be simultaneously a resource to a timber merchant and a sacred site to an Indigenous Australian but it is not a submarine. There is no viable tradition or interpretive community that will sustain such a fancy. In this respect Gadamer plots a course for interpretation that avoids the extremes of both objectivist reductionism and subjectivist relativism. Attempting to broaden heritage interpretation in the direction suggested by Gadamer's hermeneutics would have significant implications. Firstly, as a number of commentators have suggested (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999; Uzzell, 1998, p. 19), interpretation would have to be re-conceptualized as a task that belongs equally to visitors as it does to the interpretive specialist. Interpretive audiences would have to be viewed as the professional interpreter's collaborators and dialogue partners. All participants would be seen as potential interpreters. In this context, providing space for a dialogue between the interpretive guide and diverse groups of visitors (such as those from various class, gender, age, religious, ethnic and national backgrounds) is essential in heritage tourist settings. The second major implication for a hermeneutic approach to heritage interpretation would be in regard to the role of the professional interpreter. The interpretive guide cannot and should not attempt to completely control or impose the meanings, which the audience take away with them. However, they do have a responsibility to take a stand on the 224 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 significance of the site and encourage visitors to reflect on their own relationship to ecological or heritage values as an ongoing concern. In order to optimize learning in guided tours, the official interpreter is indispensable as an informed, resource person and moderator of discussion. In this regard, as Christie and Mason (2003) outline, the interpreter can become a "critically reflective practitioner" in a process of educational and ethical transformation. The interpreter or guide after all is best placed to initiate dialogue by raising stimulating questions, keep the discussion open by encouraging a diversity of views and moving conversation forward when participants can only "agree to disagree" (Gadamer, 1989, p. 270). They will also need the humility to listen carefully and admit the limitations of their knowledge. The dialogue does not have to cease when the visitor leaves the site. If the visitor is able to take away interpretive insights, brochures, booklets, invitations to follow-up activities and references to other sources, then the conversation continues by other means. A final word may be added here regarding the changing media and technologies of heritage tourism. Some operators and agencies have shifted from traditional curatorial practices to "edu-tainment" in their interpretive programs. What is important from a hermeneutic perspective is not the presence of entertainment per se but whether or not such practices activate a visitor's negotiation of the hermeneutic circle. As Veverka (2000) says, the educational component of heritage tourism is its defining feature but this should never be sterile or didactic. Gadamer's (1989, p. 92) work supports this view when he suggests that "play" has a legitimate role in interpretation because it allows participants to suspend self-consciousness and imaginatively give themselves over to the activity they may be involved in. Such involvement, according to Gadamer, has no object other than itself for the players and yet its estrangement from "the real" can enable learning and change. A "spectacularly successful" (Sunter, 2003) example of this might be found in the Blood on the Southern Cross, a computerized sound and light show that the Sovereign Hill museum employs for the interpretation of the Eureka rebellion of 1854 at Ballarat in central Victoria. What is decisive, therefore, is not the media but whether such things as simulations, shows or role playing facilitate a meaningful rather than trivial traversing of the hermeneutic circle for the heritage visitor. Conclusion This article began by noting that despite some emerging signs of diversity, the dominant framework underpinning much recent heritage interpretation in tourist settings has been drawn from cognitive psychology. It questioned the limitations of this framework, particularly its emphasis on universal but individuated cognitive structures and information processing models of communication for grounding environmental and heritage interpretation. In contrast to the breadth of Tilden's vision, the cognitive model appears unnecessarily reductionist and instrumental. As an alternative, we argued that the relatively neglected paradigm of hermeneutics has the potential to reinvigorate Tilden's holistic, ethically informed and transformative art of heritage interpretation, developing it in new directions. In support of this argument we reviewed the works of four influential hermeneutic philosophers and noted their affinities with Tilden's aim and principles. We found that the hermeneutic tradition not only sustains Tilden's major claims concerning the nature of interpretation but offers a coherent framework for furthering heritage interpretation as a broadly inclusive, culturally situated, dialogical and critically reflexive art. Furthermore, it is an art that encourages bridging the gaps between the sciences, humanities and popular traditions in heritage interpretation. In re-visiting Schleiermacher's work, we found that his guiding principle of explaining the parts of a phenomenon in terms of a larger whole (explicitly endorsed by Tilden) Current Issues in Tourism 225 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 remains central to any interpretive task today. Schleiermacher's approach also raises for contemporary professional interpreters the problem of power (i.e., the authority to make interpretations) in the relationship between interpreters and their audience. This is something that interpretive planners need to consider if interpretation is to be owned by its audiences in a democratic and pluralistic society. In Dilthey, we see that interpretation is always context-dependent and open to extension. It involves moving between different layers of meaning. Such meaning is not automatically given to sensory perception or common sense. It is only by entering the "hermeneutic circle" with its ongoing reference between artefact (or site) and context that our understanding deepens. Hence, Dilthey provides the key to distinguishing interpretation properly from what Tilden would later call "mere information". Heidegger points to the fact that interpretation always takes place against a background of pre-understandings and it is in light of these that we interpret anything we do not understand. Interpretation is not simply a cognitive event. Rather it involves our whole being as it undergoes a rich variety of experiences within the natural and cultural world. The disclosure of truth then is not a matter of cognitive correspondence but rather of what Tilden would call "revelation," an "un-concealing" of that which is beyond our present purview. The environmental or heritage interpreter, therefore, is not simply representing the world as it is but is rather explicating what has been obscured in the light of our shared pre-understandings. Heidegger also reminds us that science is only one amongst a number of important ways of revealing what is happening in our world. In terms of our continued dwelling within this world, we cannot rely exclusively upon science for meaning and guidance. Poetry, narrative and art are perhaps, in many circumstances, more vital ways of provoking reflection upon our ongoing involvement with natural and cultural heritage. Gadamer reminds us of the social character of interpretation, due to our reliance on language, history and others to place us at the point at which we can begin to interpret anything at all. It follows that meaning is not inherent in things themselves or cognitive structures but rather in cultural traditions. Recognizing the dynamic mediation of such traditions provides a holistic way of understanding what shapes the heritage tourist experience; giving rise to such things as a "sense of place". Interpretation in this view begins by questioning the tradition(s) in which a heritage artefact or site is situated. It proceeds through dialogue within and between participants in such traditions. In this process, prejudices are explicated, entertained (perhaps in a "playful" manner), tested and subject to revision. According to Gadamer, old meanings are recovered and new meanings emerge, in the interaction between co-interpreters, their tradition(s) and the thing being interpreted. The recovery of such meanings can also bring present understandings into question, sometimes radically. This dialogical process fosters critical reflection and change. However, Gadamer's situated, dialogical and reflexive theory of interpretation suggests that genuine interpretation can never be manipulated or imposed. It is always in the process of becoming a process that professional interpreters can facilitate but not force. This article has gone some way in showing how hermeneutics might contribute to the ongoing development of interpretation in heritage tourist settings. In particular, it affirms how heritage interpretation might play a catalytic role or, as Michael Glenn (2006) puts it, provide a "vital spark" in stimulating visitor's reflection upon their connections to place and others. As we have shown, such reflection can be educational, imaginative and transformative. At its most ambitious, a hermeneutical approach to heritage interpretation may help facilitate cultural regeneration, an appreciation of diversity and the enactment of new possibilities for social and ecological sustainability. In short, hermeneutic perspectives have much to offer the conceptualization, planning and practice of heritage interpretation as an inclusive, critical and dialogical endeavour. 226 P.G. Ablett and P.K. Dyer D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f th e Su ns hi ne C oa st ] at 2 2: 53 1 8 M ar ch 2 01 2 If embraced, these approaches would also have significant implications for the evaluation of interpretation. The discussion of these implications, however, requires another article. All that can be said here is that hermeneutics points towards participatory forms of resource management and action research. What this article has sought to do is more basic. It is clearing a path for re-conceptualizing the processes involved in heritage interpretation, particularly the decisive interplay between visitors and culture. In exposing problematic assumptions in past work and proposing a hermeneutic alternative, the case for a broader, polysemic interpretation of interpretation in heritage tourist settings is clear. 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{ "creator": "Abneh, Getye", "date": "manuscript", "datestamp": 1562740570000, "description": "Abstract\n The purpose of this article is to explore the contribution of African philosophy in challenging the impacts of Western hegemony and globalization on Africa. Since Western philosophy claims the “universality” of its philosophy, culture, science and technology, some racist Western philosophers pledge to provide this to Africa as part of their “civilizing mission” because they argue that Africa has no civilization. Nowadays, this notion, supported by globalization, assumes a hegemonic place in Africa. The article examines the impacts of globalization which has increased the cultural, political and economic problems of the continent which require the contribution of African philosophy to be resolved. In so doing,a qualitative method is used by analyzing relevant secondary sources collected from books, book sections, and journal articles. The article argued that African philosophy as such uses critical analysis, synthesis, and criticism to resolve problems facing the people of the continent. So, the African philosophical approach should be used to sort out and do away with African problems. Mostimportantly,recognizing and inculcating the contributions of African traditional values and thoughts that can go hand in hand with the achievements of globalization is vital, for Western science and technology alone are so local, and not enough for the betterment of Africa. Based on this, the article suggested that both the West and Africa should take part in cross-cultural communications so as to create understanding about the pluralistic nature of cultures and the significance of African traditional values and thoughts. This, in turn, empowers African philosophers, the people,governments, and concerned bodies to work on Africanization via rediscovering African identity.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABNTCO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The Contribution of African Philosophy in Challenging Western Hegemony and Globalization", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
The Contribution of African Philosophy in Challenging Western Hegemony and Globalization Getye Abneh, Department of Civic and Ethical Studies, Debre Markos University Abstract The purpose of this article is to explore the contribution of African philosophy in challenging the impacts of Western hegemony and globalization on Africa. Since Western philosophy claims the "universality" of its philosophy, culture, science and technology, some racist Western philosophers pledge to provide this to Africa as part of their "civilizing mission" because they argue that Africa has no civilization. Nowadays, this notion, supported by globalization, assumes a hegemonic place in Africa. The article examines the impacts of globalization which has increased the cultural, political and economic problems of the continent which require the contribution of African philosophy to be resolved. In so doing, a qualitative method is used by analyzing relevant secondary sources collected from books, book sections, and journal articles. The article argued that African philosophy as such uses critical analysis, synthesis, and criticism to resolve problems facing the people of the continent. So, the African philosophical approach should be used to sort out and do away with African problems. Most importantly, recognizing and inculcating the contributions of African traditional values and thoughts that can go hand in hand with the achievements of globalization is vital, for Western science and technology alone are so local, and not enough for the betterment of Africa. Based on this, the article suggested that both the West and Africa should take part in cross-cultural communications so as to create understanding about the pluralistic nature of cultures and the significance of African traditional values and thoughts. This, in turn, empowers African philosophers, the people, governments, and concerned bodies to work on Africanization via rediscovering African identity. Keywords: African Philosophy, Western Philosophy, Civilizing mission, Westernization, Globalization, Intercultural approach, Africanization. 2 Introduction A philosophy that does not try to approach itself to the problems of people of a given society faces may be a mere thought that does not have essentials in that society. The same assumption goes to African philosophy if it does not play this role. In describing this, Bekele argues, "an African philosophy that attempts to be only speculation without having to contribute to the solutions of Africa's problems is a luxury that Africa cannot afford at present" (2002, p. 215). Chukwu also contends the need of applying African philosophy for the problems of Africa. Regarding this, he says "African philosophy should clarify for Africans the social and moral issues of our times and thereby contribute to the aspirations of Africans to attain a more ordered and meaningful existence" (2002, p. 247). The problems that African philosophy tries to address itself are the socio-cultural, economic and political problems caused and aggravated by Western hegemony and globalization. In challenging such causes, African philosophy plays an indispensable role. 1.1 Globalization and Its Impacts on Africa Globalization is the system that recognizes the interdependence of sovereign states on various global issues (Bornman, 2003; Mittelman, 2000; Umezurike, 2009; Lawson, 2010). However, since the West assumed hegemony in the global system via its "superior" culture, philosophy and science, states remain divided as the dominant and the marginalized. The West remains the dominant player of globalization and continues extending itself to the rest of the world with the ambition to universalize its local values. With regard to this, globalization "implies universalization, harmonization, and homogeneity, which ultimately result in the marginalization of African values, institutions, and norms" (Makinda and Okumu, 2008, p. 4). Igboin also states that globalization associates everything with unipolar inclinations, economic and cultural imperialistic tendencies towards unifying the world with Western values (2011). The portrayal of globalization as such is justifiable because the West remains a forerunner and Africa becomes the symbolic representation facing westernization as a serious impact. Africa is the continent facing Western hegemony and the devastating impacts of globalization, since the emergence of Europe-Africa relationship, particularly during colonialism and neo-colonialism, i.e., globalization. The relation of the West to the rest of the world seems mainly aim at exporting its local values and practices, which are antithetical to the traditional values of Africa. Colonialism attempted the goal of extending westernization through "transplanting various European ideas, concepts, and norms [...] into Africa and other parts of the non-European world" (Makinda and Okumu, 2008, p. 15). Globalization did the same thing and serves as a channel of disseminating "Eurocentric languages" such as westernization, modernity (zemenawinet) to Africa. According to Chimakonam, "globalization is a motor that exports Western ideologies such as liberal democracy, capitalism to Africa, and other parts of the world" (2014, p. 137) aiming at Westernizing Africa. The African states were formed "under the guise of transplanting a European institutional system that has made the state in Africa basically a neo-colonial one" (Archie Mafeje cited in Semahagn G. Abebe, nd). Accordingly, globalization is Neo-colonization because it is the continuation of the "civilizing mission of Africa" that was proposed before African colonization. However, "the contradictory nature of globalization offers major benefits, including gains in productivity, technological advances, higher standards of living, more jobs, broader access to consumer products at lower cost, widespread dissemination of information and knowledge, reductions in poverty in some parts of the world, and a release from longstanding social hierarchies in many countries" (Mittelman, 2000, p. 5). Despite the fact that the continent is hitherto a marginal player of globalization that sheds Zemenawinet through westernization from which the continent faces devastating challenges. Westernization is the counterpart of the "civilizing mission" to Africa embracing benefits of globalization such as science and technology. The practice of Western science and technology in Africa replaces the contributions of traditional values and practices of African culture. The impact also affects African sociocultural, political and economic aspects. The western dominant role with its local values in the global system does not provide a room for African systems of thought including the commonly shared values such as humanity, social justice, freedom and equality. Globalization fails to overcome problems related to this because it only reflects occidental culture, science, and philosophy. Globalization, thus, is the system in which Western 3 hegemony assumes transplantation of African traditional values and diverting an African mind into the Western spirit. Globalization, instead, inspires Africans to be enlightened with Western science and technology for modernity (Zemenawinet). Consequently, Westernization deprives the spirit of Africans and distorts their mind into Western one. And this, in turn, enforces all of us in the system to abandon what is ours, and follow even put into practice what belongs to the West. In the experience I come across; the food we cook and eat, the drink we prepare, traditional industries we work in and the products we produce are being desperately affected by Western culture. The pornographic movies, sports shows (English premier league), political agendas (election campaigning in the US between Republicans and Democrats) of the West on CNN, daily updates of news via the internet (Facebook and Twitter) draw our attention in that we neglect ours. This, I think, indicates a Western relentless effort to create a Westernized Africa wherein traditional values have no place. So, what does African philosophy contribute to decolonize the mind of Africans so that we can start looking at ourselves? 1.2 The Contribution of African Philosophy 1.2.1 Challenging the Impacts of Globalization in Africa During colonialism, an African mind was converted into Western ones. Only the black body was not taken away. This continued until post-independence. The black body with Western spirit alters Africans into Afro-western citizens. An African was also culturally separated from African values and forced to adopt Western ones. In a word, the spirit of Africans has been taken away from an African descent. It is for this reason that African philosophy is set to make an African mind free of Western impulse. African philosophy is the key to point the necessities of decolonizing the African mind. I think, this helps an African to reshape African ways of thinking, although an African is embraced with globalization that pronounces Western culture. Nevertheless, African philosophy has a lot to do in challenging negative impacts of globalization in that its primary duty is to back up the identity and prestige that Africans have lost. In so doing, I think, it would not fail to stand against the challenges of Western practices exported into Africa through globalization. This can be done by making Africans its agents and by educating them how to emancipate themselves from the transplantations to come. The main purpose to do this is to recreate an African road or self-designed way (Ogutu, 2002). So as to recreate such a road or way African philosophy needs to challenge the impacts of globalization, and below are some of its contributions. Firstly, it enables Africa to recognize its philosophy that is embedded in African diverse cultures. This suggests the formation of an African center of philosophical traditions so that its descents, most importantly, Sages reflect their philosophies. The sages' philosophical reflection would be a possible input to make a policy used to challenge external impacts. To put another way, the need for cultural policy to make Africa free from the impacts of globalization is urgently needed (Braganca and Wallerstein, 1982). African philosophy, in this case, becomes, "a reflection in its place, culturally, disciplinarily, and intellectually... its place in the formation of identities of its practitioners" (Janz, 2009, p. 6). According to Ibrahim (2013), this is "indigenization" of African ways, which I think, brings the sense of African nationalism. Secondly, African philosophy helps to build the sense of African nationalism based on the African philosophical traditions. It also contributes to organizing the political system that works with African ways and solutions. In achieving this goal, the AU is the sole agency responsible for making a possible dialogue and polylogue with others. African nationalism helps the agency to resist "Eurocentric languages" in the making of domestic policies and other laws. The reason is, "Nationalism is a combination of [African] culture as identity and culture as communication" (Mazrui, 2004, p. 473). For such communication, "the traditional way of life must be the point of departure" (Egbunu, 2013, p. 140). Since African philosophy instructs African cultural, political, economic and social lives of the people, it puts forward the need to make African policies African. The policy, in turn, will determine the relations of Africa with the rest of the world to be based on "Pan-Africa". African philosophy of Pan-African Nationalism is thus, the best way for Africans to understanding Africa's position in global politics. Accordingly, as 4 it enabled Africa to redeem from the yoke of colonialism, it also helps Africa to reduce the Western hegemony and the impacts of globalization. Thirdly, it suggests ways toward an African philosophy of education that helps African educational agencies to make free their curricula from the domination of "Eurocentric languages". Recognition of the valuable traditional value of Africa is part of the African philosophy of education. However, "we largely have educational systems that do not have respect for the homegrown values and various forms of indigenous knowledge" (Bekele, 2002, p. 214). Nevertheless, a philosophy of education that does not recognize the homegrown values of Africa is meaningless. Education with homegrown values empowers the African people with knowledge of themselves. The rationale is an attempt to make education Afro-centered by which Africans search for defining themselves (HapanyengwiChemhuru, 2013; Hallen, 2002 and Mazrui, 2004). In this regard, African philosophy "interrogates the ways in which education can address questions of African identity and the place of the individual in society" (HapanyengwiChemhuru, 2013, p. 50). In such interrogation, African education must be proposed to strike a proportional balance between the achievements of both African indigenous knowledge and the Western science (Bekele, 2002). Moreover, "African leaders should concentrate their efforts on educating their people and educating them on their civic, social, economic and cultural rights and responsibilities, and empowering them" (Ibrahim, 2013, p. 91). The sole purpose is to consider ways of placing African students at the center of their own cultures and historical background capable of emancipating themselves from foreign influences. Fourthly, African philosophy equips Africans to develop "the sense of African humanism and socialism as values of common African heritage" (Bell, 2002, p. 36). I think this would empower the whole of African people to discover where they are and are not as African Nationalistideological philosophers did (More, 2004). Self-consciousness and sense of belongings would follow so that an African sense of global citizenship emerges. This would be a powerful element of reviving true humanity which would be possible through African Cultural Revolution. Fifthly, the African philosophy and African philosophy of education empower Africans to organize centers of African global studies to search for traditional values of African cultures. The search is a step to cope up important traditional values with the achievements of science and technology. This, in other words, is the recognition of African indigenous knowledge that could be the powerhouse of African solutions to resolve problems of the continent. Being equipped with African solutions would allow Africans to challenge the impacts of globalization and handle African problems. The goal of African philosophy is thus to create African solutions via African philosophy of education and make Africans committed to Africanize all aspects. The commitment is to question the Western educational system so that it will be able "to consider itself as an equal partner in the quest of Africa for a change in the lives of African people" (Bekele, 2007, p. 122). Finally, African philosophy in the contemporary situation is a discipline designed to make Africans think about globalization, both its benefits and impacts. It invites Africans to be global citizens in the system reflecting their African worldviews that consider the pluralistic notion of culture. As a result, Africans would be in a strategic position to solve contemporary problems and discover future problems because the pluralistic notion of culture enables them to discover the past (Hallen, 2002). As well, the emergence and development of intercultural approach follow. 1.2.2 The Commitment to Equality and Freedom to the Global Community The African struggle for freedom and equality is not a new phenomenon. The emergence of Pan-Africanism witnesses to this. Based on this, it would not be mistaken to claim that African philosophy emerged on the notion of Pan-Africanism. "African philosophers remind us of a new way to rethink the very concepts of justice and responsibility" (Bell, 2002, p. 66). Such a new way is Africans' revolution to revive African traditional values, the sense of African humanism and socialism to which Pan-Africanism is dedicated. These are elements of PanAfricanism that embrace equality and freedom. "Pan-Africanism was the struggle for racial equality and human 5 dignity by African-Americans and the black people in the Caribbean" (Makinda and Okumu, 2008, p. 19). The primary goal of nationalist-ideological philosophers (PanAfricanists) was the search for the dignity, respect, and emancipation of the people of Africa from foreign influences (More, 2004). The legacy continued until the emergence of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which pursued the liberation movement of Pan-Africanists. Making the African liberation movement worldwide, I think, was a movement of global equality and freedom. An Afrocentric inquiry was also seen as the agency for regaining freedom (Poe, 2003). In the attempt of regaining and fighting for freedom, African philosophy is the sole purpose of addressing not only problems of the continent but also global problems. Pursuing such freedom and equality in the contemporary global order is the basic thing, although they face the enslavement of Western ideology and "Eurocentric language". Observing the situation Fanon avers as if the inhuman conditions of today are not differing from the inhumanity of past experiences (1967). Fanon argues that "all sources of exploitation resemble one another; they are all applied against the same "object": man" (1967, p. xviii-xix). In this situation, African philosophy calls attention to global citizens to strive for their equality and freedom. Nkrumah's conception of African personality is a commitment to assure freedom and equality for the people of African descents not only in the continent but also beyond the continent's boundary. Nkrumah said, "It is only in conditions of total freedom and independence from foreign rule and interference that the aspirations of our people will see real fulfillment and the African genius find it best expression" ("Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah," nd, p. 5). In the making of aware of the African notion of humanism to the global community, Prah suggests PanAfricanism "as a democratic and emancipatory movement shares a common inspiration with the rest of humanity in its historical drive towards freedom, justice, and self-determination" (quoted in Workineh, 2006, p. 156). I think this explains to the world that African philosophy is committed to lesson global freedom and equality that realize the very sense of humanity. 1.2.3 Searching for African Identity and the Role of African Intellectuals Nowadays, the issue of globalization is the contemporary challenge of African identity, although the challenge is not separately seen from the slave trade, colonialism, and racism (Kanu, 2013). These challenges and the emergence of Pan-Africanism are not also separately seen in Africa's search for the original identity. The essence of Pan Africanism embraces Africans' conception of African personality that is embedded in African traditional values. African personality as such "is itself defined by the cluster of humanist principles which underlie the traditional African society" (Nkrumah, 1964, p. 79). The search for African identity has been seen as central to African philosophy. Situma writes "the search of African identity is essentially one of the discourses of Africans" (2002, p. 101). The search for the original identity is the search for "being" an African, which is always in the making. Achebe demonstrates "it is, of course, true that the African identity is still in the making. There is no a final identity that is African. But, at the same time, there is an identity coming into existence. And it has a certain context and a certain meaning" (cited in Appiah, 1992, p. 73). In searching for African identity and in questioning the universality claim of the West, "African philosophy was necessarily deconstructive and the next moment is a reconstruction" (Hook, 2002, p. 92). In that case, "African philosophy can be identified as constitutive of a post-colonial search for a uniquely African identity, which has become lost amid the brutality of the European rape of the African continent" (Deacon, 2003, p. 115). African historical reconstruction, according to Deacon, is a corrective to this and it is intended to present the true picture of the African identity (ibid). As colonialism awakened Africans' consciousness, it helped them to search for their being Africans. Following this, African philosophy becomes the discourse of confirming African identity that is rooted in African ideas of traditional cultures, values, socialism and humanism. Such a discourse still needs to discover African identity since Western subjugation is not over in the contemporary globalization system. Globalization merely marks Western science and technology in Africa at the cost of African identities and values. African philosophy has a function to deconstruct the imposition of Western science in Africa and revive the lost traditional values of Africa. "The agenda for contemporary African philosophy should include the critical and reconstructive treatment of the oral tradition 6 and the exploitation of the literary and scientific resources of the modern world in pursuit of a synthesis" (Graness and Kresse, 1997, p. 181). In this case, "African identities [will] become meaningful and politically contested within historically located debates and theories of race, nation, and culture" (Kanneh, 1998, p. 48). But who is best suited to deconstruct Western impositions on Africa and strive to search for African identity? Plato suggests that a rule of philosopher kings is most important for the political system to rule in a better way (Murray, 1953). It seems Plato conceives the indisputable roles of philosophers and intellectuals for the betterment of a society. "Social revolution" that Nkrumah suggested must have been revived by "an intellectual revolution, a revolution in which [African] thinking and philosophy are directed towards [Africans'] redemption" (Nkrumah, 1965, p. 78). African philosophy and Pan-Africanism are the best ways to make such revolution true, and to address the problems of the continent via recreating African ways and solutions to get back the lost identity. African liberation from the impediments of globalization demands Africans interest in self-determination and an African human dignity. The commitment of Pan-Africanism in searching for African identity via African personality points to the commitment of African philosophers to a better Africa. The spirit of African unity relies on the roles of intellectuals, which is a road to the African capacity to resist the impacts of globalization. Nkrumah said, "Unity is the first prerequisite for destroying Neocolonialism" (Nkrumah, 1965, p. 253). It is through this alone that African personality will be meaningful to the international community. Thus, "Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest, informed man" ("Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah," nd, p. 2). Such an African, Nkrumah contends, is also "a man who submerges self in service to the nation and mankind, abhors greed and detests vanity, whose humility is his strength and whose integrity is his greatness" (ibid). Cesaire also wrote, "it is a new type of society we must create with the help of our brother slaves, a society rich with all productive power of modern times, warm with all the fraternity of olden days" (1972, p. 11). 1.2.4 African Political Philosophers in Uniting African Identity The 1960s saw that African nationalist-ideological philosophers and other committed Africans were upholding Pan African activities. K. Nkrumah, J. Nyerere, N. Mandela, L. S. Senghor were some of the African political philosophers involved in liberating Africa from colonial intrusion. The emergence of the OAU brought African leaders the interest in resisting multidimensional impediments of colonialism and globalization. It seems a political commitment would result in the effort to resist the consequences of globalization. However, since the impacts and African conditions are complex "it would be a futile exercise and an erroneous intellectual approach to perceiving, define, or discuss the African conditions in general, timeless, and spaceless terms void of specificities" (Kasongo, 2010, p. 62). Consequently, leaders' political intervention is important to make intellectuals' effort effective. Nyerere said, "Africa will have to rely upon Africa: African Governments will have to formulate, and carry out policies of maximum national and collective self-reliance. If they do, they will develop; if they do not, Africa will be doomed" (quoted in Abegunrin, 2009, p. 196). Nkrumah adds "only Africa can fight for its identity" ("Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah," nd, p. 2). In this struggle, Nkrumah did not reject the assistance and support of foreign friends, which is important to achieve Africa's Renaissance. The achievement of the Renaissance will be meaningful if the Africans can unite their identity to keep up traditional values that make up African personality. Abegunrin said, "A united and developed Africa, wedded to the basic values of the respect for life that constitutes the undercurrent of its traditional civilizations, will impress humanity with the joy and significance of life" (2009, p. 173). "An Africa united and prosperous, an Africa united and powerful" is an important factor in the issues of dialogue, solidarity, and peace of the whole of humanity (ibid). With this similar account, Nelson Mandela avows the commitment of each African country to the principles of democracy, respect for human rights and the basic tenets of good governance that the global system demands. Also, such commitment, according to Mandela, makes the dream of Africa's rebirth in the new millennium achievable (cited in Abegunrin, 2009). Despite the fact that the African Renaissance requires defending its 7 traditional values and shared values such as human rights, I think, this would lead Africa to continue dependency relationship with its former colonizers. The diverse challenges that Africa faces is a result of the continuous reliance for assistance on Western technical assistance. Nevertheless, African states should break the dependency relationship, according to Dudley (1984). "A break would require not only radical changes in the political and economic structures of these states but also attitudinal changes on the part of the élite - the bureaucratic-managerial and political élite, the military and the intelligentsia" (Dudley, 1984, p. 54). Classes of African political philosophers and political leaders have to be organized to question the "colonizing machines" of the West. These classes have to handle more firmly the weapons of the struggle rooted in their traditional cultures. According to Thiong'o, African philosophers of these classes "have to speak the united language of struggle contained in each of their languages. They must discover their various tongues to sing the song: 'A people united can never be defeated'" (1987, p. 2). 1.2.5 African Philosophers, the Future African Identity, and the African Renaissance The contemporary situation shows that the African people face various economic and social problems to which the commitment of united African philosophers is assumed to sort out the problems and tackle them (Chukwu, 2002). Chukwu argues that African philosophers of the 21st century need to focus on the evolution of philosophies that are socially, politically and economically viable to the African condition (ibid). Besides, science and technology of the West are vital to the African Renaissance. However, because science and technology are not enough for the Renaissance, Africans have lots of things to do with a commitment to revive African traditional values although there are lots of impediments that have overwhelmed Africa. As a result, the African psychological makeup, common socioeconomic and cultural visions need to be united in the sense of Africanness. The making of African identity in the sense of Africanness demands Africans' effort to break the "the colonizing mission" of the West in Africa. A united engagement of the African people in such breaking will achieve the goal of maintaining African values that make Africa's Renaissance true to which African philosophers are the primary actors. In view of this, I claim the African Renaissance presupposes the spirit of being an African with African solutions. In fact, the African Renaissance is being ensured somehow by socioeconomic conditions. Yet, the Renaissance enlightened with globalization does not embrace the African traditional values that can cope with Western achievements. African philosophy is the doctrine that canonizes an African with African spirit to realize the Renaissance. The commitment to do with African ways and cope with Western success is the principle that African philosophy describes. The principle unites Africans to make African cultures and traditions integrated into identical psychological makeup and common destiny. "If Africa's cultural heritage is to come to terms with the latter-day problems of modern nation-states in a globally international community, then African social, political, and economic demands upon and priorities within that community also have to be enunciated and addressed" (Hallen, 2002, p.15). In addition, the making of Africans' future identity and achieving the Renaissance demand intermingling the achievements of Africa's past and present. African philosophy, as has been discussed, facilitates this in the organization of the past, present, and future African articulations of thought and practices (Outlaw, 2004). Similarly, Mudimbe wrote, "the present and the future . . . will be determined by the conception that African intelligence forms of the African past" (1988, p. 206). The intelligence to inquire Africa's past achievements determines the way to disclose contemporary and future African problems on which African philosophers have practical missions (Presbey, 2002 and Balogun, 2014). This mission, according to Balogun, is "socio-political in character and the task of African philosophers is to be committed to fulfilling their scholarly obligations to their societies" (2014, p. 63). Creating a tradition of thinking and discourse is the first task of African philosophers, according to him, to consider the interest and aspirations of the people (ibid). Besides the socio-political matters that affect Africans and dealing with economic issues is the other task of African philosophers. According to L. Keita "economic matters that affect the African life is also left to African philosophers" (quoted in Presbey, 2002, p. 283). Presbey also remarks the essential contributions of Western science 8 and [African] philosophers' involvement in the making of Africa a modern continent (ibid). The contemporary African philosophers in such involvement are not expected to naively dig up and praise the African past attainments (Messay, 2004). Instead of doing so, according to Messay, "they should develop a critical approach to determine the relevance of the traditional philosophy for the modern world with the view of integrating those elements that support the effort of modernization" (ibid, p. 115). Moreover, Africa demands "a younger generation who appreciates the values contained in the indigenous knowledge that are capable of addressing the problem of societies with a degree of complexity" (Bekele, 2002, p. 210). The generation also needs to be aware of the "views which are called 'traditional' still play an important role in the lives of Africans" (Teffo and Roux, 1998, p. 193). Such views, according to Teffo and Roux, "cannot be ignored because they also come into play when issues such as development, education, government, and legislation are discussed" (ibid). 1.3 African Union in 21st Century: An Enthusiasm of Challenging Globalization The intercultural approach, which I defend, suggests the role of the AU in the 21st century to keep up African traditions that can cope with the achievements of globalization. It is clear that the Union has the ambition to transform Africa and keeps the continent from foreign influences. "As a twenty-first-century organization, the AU hopes for a Renaissance that includes improvement in the wealth, health, education, prosperity, and democracy across its member states and closer cooperation among all the countries on the African continent" (Badejo, 2008, p. 9). The Union in this regard seems to strengthen itself to cope with the international community, yet, it is not strong enough in resisting impacts of globalization. The Union merely adheres to declarations made by Western states. It is not working in cooperation with its peoples rather than doing tasks given to it by the UN. This does not let Africans think independently on matters that affect their lives, and fix problems of the continent so as to use African solutions to tackle the problems. It seems to me that the Union is disabled to achieve its objectives in its geography, for the Union merely admits Western experiences rather than discovering and recognizing African past experiences. "In order for the African Union to truly accomplish its objectives in the twenty-first century, it must look back to the past to forge ahead to the future, politically, economically, socially and culturally" (Abegunrin, 2009, p. 192). The look into the past helps the Union to challenge the existing global structures that marginalize the continent. Furthermore, it will be strong to conceptualize and defend African ideas of identity, culture, traditional values, African solutions that cope with Western science and technology. Concluding Remarks Colonialism, slavery, racism, and nowadays, globalization affected important traditional values of Africa. The "civilizing mission" was the proposal the West enunciates to export its local values into Africa, and this continues today in the name of Westernization embracing Western science, culture, and philosophy. The West still pronounces notions of aid, technical assistance, Western philosophy of education and a commitment to transition into the age of technology to which Africa continues expecting the West for its renaissance. This prolongs Western hegemony in Africa, which disables an African independent thinking and manipulating African solutions on matters that affect the lives of the African people. So, the continuity of Western hegemony in Africa is the big issue of Africans calling upon responsible Africans who are empowered with African philosophy. African philosophy demands the responsibilities of Africans and helps them to address the problems of the continent that Western hegemony and globalization caused. The commitment to disclose African problems that the hegemony and globalization caused is the primary task of African philosophers. This suggests the search for African solutions instead of primarily accepting Western solutions without questioning and depending on them. African problems require African ways to resist the destructive effects of Western hegemony and globalization on African traditional values. If Western imposition of its values and ideologies in Africa continues and Africa simply adopts them, the African ideas of humanity, freedom, equality, social justice will be replaced by Western ideas. In 9 addition, the African political system, educational institutions, social integration and the virtue of humanity at large will fail. An Africanized political, social, cultural and educational system is the thirst of Africans that African philosophy dedicates to quench. I think the quench of the thirst will be achieved if an Africanized quick move with the achievements of globalization is kept in mind. The issue is about to keep up important traditional values of the continent that can go hand in hand with Western science and technology. In other words, assuming an equal partnership between African values and Western values is important. But, how? The commitment to challenge Western hegemony and the impacts of globalization should be the goal of African philosophy and its practitioners. So as to succeed in making the goal, questioning the political system of Africa should become the central issue of African political philosophers from all sides. I assume an African political system that allows political philosophers' involvement in policy and decision making enables the people of Africa to seek knowledge of themselves and the continent. African philosophy with regard to this is a discourse that instructs Africans to revive past achievements, explore the contemporary situations and discover the future conditions of the continent. The commitment of African governments to work with African philosophers, intellectuals, the diasporas and education policy makers is a road to Africanize African descents capable of preserving their traditions. This is the same as creating African descents capable of working with African values that cope with the contributions of Western science and values. It is through this that African philosophy would be able to achieve its goal in challenging Western hegemony and the ongoing impacts of globalization. In other words, the future goal of the African philosophy of education must be Africanization, which is a possible way to keep up African cultures, values, religions, ways of dressing and way of speaking African languages. The purpose is to resolve the contemporary problems of the continent and to reduce the impacts of alien values and practices to come to Africa via foreign tourists, scholarship, social media, and so on. It follows from the foregoing suggestions that African philosophy raises the issue of intercultural approach towards the universality claim of the West and Africans' response to it. The intercultural approach is the attempt to make Western values, science and technology alternatives to address African problems, if impossible, to make them equal partners with Africa values in an African place. Since the African ideas of humanity, morality, are important to the whole of humanity at large, intercultural approach helps us put to make philosophy practical and make its practitioners "to preserve in all our relationships the respect for the basic values that constitute a human world" (Fanon, 1967, p. xvii). In other words, intercultural philosophies are required to celebrate the roles of traditional values in realizing humanity and addressing problems that the international community faces. Therefore, intercultural approach (either dialogue or polylogue) is not only the defining element of philosophy, but also the essential part of humanity (Mungwini, 2015). References Abegunrin, O. (2009). Africa in Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Appiah K.A. (1992). In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press. Badejo, D. L. (2008). Global Organizations: The African Union. Chelsea: InfoBase Publishing. Balogun, O. A. (2014). "Theorizing Conflict and Conflict Resolution in an African Philosophical Discourse." In T. Falola and D. P. Sanchez (Eds.), African Culture and Global Politics: Language, Philosophies, and Expressive Culture in Africa and the Diaspora (pp. 5670). New York: Routledge. Bekele G. (2002). "The Role of Sagacity in Resolving Conflicts Peacefully." In Presbey G. et al, (eds.) Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 207-216). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Bell, R. H. (2002). Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues. New York/London: Routledge. Bornman, E. (2003). Struggles of Identity in the Age of Globalization, Communicatio, 24-47. Cesaire, A. (1972). Discourses on Colonialism. Translated by Joan Pinkham. New York/London: Monthly Review. Chimakonam, J. O. (2014). Interrogatory Theory: Paterns of Social Deconstruction, Reconstruction and the Conversational Order in African Philosophy. Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, 1-25. 10 Chukwu, C. N. (2002). "African Philosophy: The Task of Addressing Contemporary Social Problems." In Presbey G. et al (Eds.), Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 247-254). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Dudley, B. I. (1984). "Decolonization and the Problems of Independence." In Michel Crowder (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa (pp. 52-94). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Egbunu, F. E. (2013). A Review of the Question of African Philosophy (Bodunrin, P.O.). International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 138-143. Ekanem, F.E. (2012). On the Ontology of African Philosophy. International Journal Humanities and Social Science Invention, 1, 54-58. Fanon, F. (1967). Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. New York: Pluto Press. Gordon, L.R. (2008). An Introduction to Africana Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hallen, B. (2000). The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: Discourses about Values in Yoruba Culture. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Hook, J. V. (2002). "The Universalist Thesis Revisited: What Direction for African Philosophy in the New Millennium." In Presbey G. et al (Eds.), Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 87-93). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Ibrahim, A. A. (2013). The Impact of Globalization on Africa. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol.3, 85-93. Igboin, B. O. (2011). Colonialism and African Cultural Values. African Journal of History and Culture, 3(6), 96-103. Kanu, I. A. (2013). African Identity and the Emergence of Globalization. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 3(6), 34-42. Lawson, L. (2010). Globalization and the African State. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 37-58. Makinda, S. M. and Okumu, F. W. (Eds.). (2008). The African Union: Challenges of Globalization, Security, Governance. New York: Routledge. Messay, K. (2004). Africa's Quest for a Philosophy of Decolonization. AmsterdamNew York: Rodopi B. V. Mittelman, J. H. (2000). The Globalization Syndrome: Transformation and Resistance. London: Princeton University Press. Mudimbe, V. Y. (1988). The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Nkrumah, K. (1965). Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. New York: International Publishers. Ogutu, G. E. (2002). "African Rennaisance: The Third Milenium Challenge to Thought and Practice in African Philosophy." In Presbey G. et al (Eds.), Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 3-12). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Presbey, G. M. (2002). "African Philosophers on Global Wealth Distribution." In Presbey G. et al (Eds.), Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 283-300). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Semahegn G. Abebe. (nd). The Relevance of African Culture in Building Modern Institutions and the Quest for Legal Pluralism. Saint Louis University School of Law. Situma, J. (2002). "Paradigmatic Constraints and Africa's Quest for Identity." In Presbey G. et al (Eds.), Thought and Practice in African Philosophy (pp. 97-105). Nairobi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Thiong'o, N. W. (1987). Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House. Umezurike, C. (2009). Globalization and Labor in Africa: Ethnic Identity in Nigeria and Cross Border Migration in the Republic of South Africa. Globalizations, 599-619. .
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{ "creator": "Abouali, Abdelatief H.", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1596700848000, "description": "Abstract: In a former paper [21], an exact image compression based on bit-planes blocking was proposed. The proposed algorithm uses two bit codes for block representation. The outcome of the encoding process is two streams: Main Bit Stream, MBS and Residual Bit Stream, RBS. The algorithm core is searching for the greatest block of Unicode to encode in main stream and if not found until size of two by two then it will be kept as is in residual stream. In this paper, a lossy version of that algorithm is presented. The change in the base algorithm is in the definition of the unary-code-block is eased to be above certain percent. The percent is varied from plane to another as their contribution to image power varies. The testing of the proposed algorithm shows comparable results. Image degradations seems restorable even for high compression ratios.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABOBBB", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Bitplanes Block Based Lossy Image Compression", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 19 Bitplanes Block Based Lossy Image Compression Abdelatief H. Abouali HICI, Computer Dept., El-Shorouk Academy, Cairo, Egypt, Email: Abstract: In a former paper [21], an exact image compression based on bit-planes blocking was proposed. The proposed algorithm uses two bit codes for block representation. The outcome of the encoding process is two streams: Main Bit Stream, MBS and Residual Bit Stream, RBS. The algorithm core is searching for the greatest block of Unicode to encode in main stream and if not found until size of two by two then it will be kept as is in residual stream. In this paper, a lossy version of that algorithm is presented. The change in the base algorithm is in the definition of the unary-code-block is eased to be above certain percent. The percent is varied from plane to another as their contribution to image power varies. The testing of the proposed algorithm shows comparable results. Image degradations seems restorable even for high compression ratios. Keywords: bit-planes, image blocks, exact-image compression, encoding, decoding. 1. INTRODUCTION The success of multimedia and image processing based systems, in many cases, is highly tightened to effective encoding to digital images. Demands and the volume of digital images used in systems currently in use within the domains of : education, security, social medial, health care, retail storage, industry quality assurance, entertainment, law enforcement and many others is huge and subject to grow [13]. Therefore, effective storage, processing, transmitting, and recall needed for the development process to continue. To date, human effective storage, processing, recognition, indexing, and recall is far above all developed methodologies and devices man made. The encoding process is an effective representation, in computer vision systems, that increases system capacity to store, access, exchange, and process digital images. Image encoding is achieved by the removal of one or more of the basic image data redundancies: Coding, Interpixel, and Psychovisual [4-5]. Coding redundancy is due to the use of non-optimal code words. Interpixel redundancy results from correlations between image pixels. Psychovisual redundancy is the existence of data that is insignificant to the human visual system (i.e. visually non-essential). Encoding techniques require decoding process to retrieve the compressed image for further use by applications. In video compression, association of frame images, abstraction, and relationships adds more significant encoding step to sets of frame images [6]. Image compression techniques are exact and Lossy[7]. The exact compression techniques assure the retrieval of the decompressed image typical as the original. Lossy compression techniques allow controlled loss of power. The exact image compression techniques include, pixel packing, run-length, Huffman, LZW, arithmetic and Area coding. Lossy techniques includes Transformation Coding, differential, Vector Quantization, object based, Fractal, Block truncation coding, and Sub band coding [8-12]. Good encoding scheme means: low order of algorithm complexity for both encoder and decoder, high signal to noise ratio, high compression ratio, ability to decode at varieties of scales without additional distortion, parallelization ability, as well as the ease to implement software and/or hardware. The well-known encoding algorithms, such as JPEG and MPG, employs a set of basic encoding schemes such as Huffman, differential, quantization, and run-length [13-14]. Block based image compression schemes are numerous as dealing with whole image as a processing unit costly. Blocking coincide with images reality that are connected blocks/labels. From the well-known block based algorithms JPEG, and fractal. In JPEG the blocks are transformed to frequency domain, using DCT, followed by reduction to insignificant blocks, then quantization followed by differential and entropy encoding. Blocking offers JPEG two main advantages low cost transformation and reduces the possibilities of having higher frequencies components. Fractal image encoding based on establishing similarities between small block, ranges, and larger blocks, domains. The blocks similarities enabled the use of the iterative function systems which is the base of fractal encoding. Other blocking schemes could be found in [14-17]. Image Bit-plane is a bit pixel decomposition of an image matrix. Therefor a gray image of n-bit gray resolution contains n-planes. Least Significant Bit Planes, LSBP, contain less significant information compared Most Significant Bit Planes, MSBP. Figure (1) shows the original versus the bit-planes for 8-bit boy and Lena pictures. The bit-planes was a rich topic for both enhancement and compression algorithms as plane-pixels contains only two values 0, and 1. So, The Run Length Encoding, arithmetic and progressive transition are used in bit-planes taking the advantages of binary and similarities of adjacent bits within the same plane [18-20]. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 20 Figure (1) Lena, pepper original and bit-planes for 8-bit gray In this paper, a lossy version of former proposed exact compression/decompression algorithm based on successive block test then encode or divide process is proposed. The algorithm uses two-bit structural encoding together with residual block storage. The encoding is two phases. In the first phase three codes are used and in the second phase third code is consumed in an adaptive run length encoding, for more optimization. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The proposed basic encoding/decoding is described in section 2. Tests, results and discussion are in section 3. Section 4 is the study conclusion. 2. THE PROPOSED ENCODING/DECODING ALGORITHMS The proposed algorithm is a lossy version of a former proposed exact encoding/decoding algorithm [21]. The exact encoding and decoding algorithm are in appendix A, and B consequently. The modification is limited to the encoding process. So, the decoding process is the same for both exact and lossy. The change to the encoding is in the consideration of block all zeros and block all one. The consideration is eased from all one's and all zero's to above certain percent. Planes contributes differently to picture energy, figure (1). Consequently, percent's considered to vary from a plane to another. That is, for a given square block of size, SB with non-null count (BNNC) and block one's count (B1C) the block is considers all zeros only if: - ,0BNNC and p iBNNC CBBNNC   )1( (1) Also, a block is considered all one's only if: - ,0BNNC and p iBNNC CB  )1( (2) ip is plane allowance percent. That is, in the lossy version encoding algorithm the switch case check all zeros' refers to equation (1). Similarly, check of all one's refers to equation (2). Table (1) shows how much of accepted different bits for different block sizes on different percent's. Corollary(1): The allowance percent ip of 0.5 at a plane will lead to the plane encoded as only two-bit either 00' or 11'. That comes from the fact that a plane either one code is more than the second, or equal to. In both cases it will be considered unary code block. Consequently, RBS will be null. Corollary(2): The percent 0.5< ip <0.75 at a plane implies that the RBS nibbles will contain only the hex codes {3,5,6,9,A,C}. In the encoding process, blocks coded or split process until 2x2 size. At this size with that percent range one bit is allowed to have different value for block to be encoded as unary-code block. So, residual will be the case of codes equal counts. Table (1): Accepted different codes for a block size per percent 2x2 4x4 8x8 16x16 32x32 64x64 132x132 256x256 97% 0 0 1 5 20 81 327 1310 94% 0 0 3 12 51 204 819 3276 91% 0 1 5 20 81 327 1310 5242 88% 0 1 7 28 112 450 1802 7208 85% 0 2 8 35 143 573 2293 9175 82% 0 2 10 43 174 696 2785 11141 79% 0 3 12 51 204 819 3276 13107 76% 0 3 14 58 235 942 3768 15073 73% 1 4 16 66 266 1064 4259 17039 70% 1 4 18 74 296 1187 4751 19005 67% 1 5 20 81 327 1310 5242 20971 64% 1 5 22 89 358 1433 5734 22937 61% 1 6 24 97 389 1556 6225 24903 58% 1 6 26 104 419 1679 6717 26869 55% 1 7 28 112 450 1802 7208 28835 52% 1 7 30 120 481 1925 7700 30801 3. EXPERIMINTAL RESULTS AND DISCSSION The used test set of images is the same as of [21], aerial, cameraman, woman-house, Barbara, Lena, and house, Figure (2). The colored ones changed to gray using Matlab' rgb2gray' function as the performance noted to be same for both colored and gray. The percent array in our experiments International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 21 was based on the fact that loss on the higher planes implies great loss in image power. The outer high planes, 7 and 6, assigned high and equal percent's. Considering the implications of Corollaries(1,2), other plane i percent is set in accordance with the rule ip = max( 2 1ip ,0.52). Figure (3) shows the ease percent for planes of our experiments. The highest planes percent's varied from 0.99 to 0.80 with 0.005 decrease step. Assuming ),( yxf is original image matrix of size , MN, are the matrix dimension, maxq is the peak gray, and ),( yxfp is decoded image matrix. Then, the used metrics in our study are: Compression Ratio, sizeimageencoded sizeimageoriginal CR    Mean Square Error, MN yxfpyxf MSE y x * )),(),(( 2    Normalized Root Mean Square Error,     y x y x yxf yxfpyxf NRMSE 2 2 )),(( )),(),(( Peak Signal to Noise Ratio dbMSEqPSNR )/)((log10 2max10 Aerial Cameraman Woman-House Lena House Barbara Figure (2) set of images used in the study Figure (3) Experiments ease percent per planes. The former setup made up 39 experiments done on the six test set images mentioned before. The results are summarized in figures (4) and (5). The figures are the compression ratio against NRMSE, and PSNR. The overall shows house was the best and the aerial the worst. The rest four performance is between the two. The overall performance is comparable with reported in [22-24]. International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 22 Figure (4) compression ratio against NRMSE Figure (5) Compression ratio against PSNR For more focus on the performance figure (6) presents the first seven experiments on each of the test set images. Table (2) presents numerically the corresponding compression ratios. The compression ratios compared to the visual noted distortion is also comparable to recent researches [16] [23]. There is no blocking problem or areas of severe distortion could be noted. The nature of noise looks to be within the reach of filters. Moreover, filters could be designed to partially remove the noise. Figure (6) Decoded images for the first 7 experiments International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 23 Table (2) Compression Ratio's associated with figure (6) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Aerial 1.672 1.892 2.171 2.347 2.573 3.009 3.154 CameraMan 2.600 3.153 3.902 4.451 4.981 6.085 6.700 Woman's House 2.569 3.058 3.681 4.064 4.522 5.443 5.858 Barbara 1.987 2.298 2.714 2.983 3.297 3.894 4.129 Lena 2.061 2.415 2.891 3.195 3.566 4.248 4.585 House 2.910 3.598 4.626 5.657 6.776 8.742 9.807 For more clarification to the performance, compression ratios more or equal to (3,5,10,15,20) are selected and the decoded images are in figure (7). The images degradation for even the 20+ is relatively low. There are no significant blocking effects on the recalled images. The results are comparable to the reported in [22-24]. Figure (7) decoded images at compression ratios more than (3,5,10,15,20) To sum up the results in numerical form for the 39 by 6 experiments, the two extreme perfomance cases were selected and one of the average performnce are displayed in Table (3). The table show that a significant compression ratios could be reached with comparable NRMSE. Also, there are many cases where there is a significant increase in compression ratios while insegnifcant changes in images degradation. Keeping in mind that the algorithm does not include neither transformation nor multiple iterations that International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 24 makes it comparable and appealing compared to others. Discussion The presented algorithm offers a lossy compression technique with significant features compared to others. The algorithm performance is comparable to others. The algorithm is of minor differential to the exact version. In fact, the exact is a special case if the percent vector is set to 100%. All the image properties positively affect compression ratio discussed in [21] applies since the core algorithm is the same. Also, preprocessing with low pass filters positively adds to algorithm performance Table 1: Compression ratio NRMSE for Worest, Best, and Average Aerial House Camera Man CR NRMSE CR NRMSE CR NRMSE 1.6728 0.0304 2.910609 0.020399 2.600351 0.02498 1.8922 0.0455 3.597839 0.031459 3.153668 0.029818 2.1716 0.0741 4.626655 0.042435 3.902665 0.036539 2.3477 0.0818 5.656909 0.044654 4.451493 0.043716 2.5736 0.0862 6.776373 0.053694 4.981358 0.055194 3.0090 0.0973 8.741921 0.064381 6.084980 0.066724 3.1549 0.1016 9.807658 0.068514 6.700679 0.073272 3.2454 0.1255 10.60624 0.079719 7.062354 0.075402 3.6107 0.1340 11.10826 0.079535 8.047274 0.08861 3.9924 0.1467 11.97551 0.090987 9.327474 0.09604 4.1626 0.1525 12.43567 0.097699 9.715153 0.10329 5.2331 0.2098 15.134461 0.100695 12.41359 0.11142 5.3096 0.2116 16.774532 0.115704 13.10982 0.11634 5.4645 0.2168 19.130409 0.132555 13.58012 0.11977 5.8733 0.2188 19.667191 0.134330 14.54012 0.12450 6.0075 0.2239 21.39776 0.138675 14.94081 0.12713 6.2881 0.2439 22.238 0.142236 16.3467 0.14284 7.2050 0.2483 24.9233 0.143216 19.0907 0.18284 7.3697 0.2498 26.5032 0.143577 22.27127 0.20088 7.7786 0.2503 27.073 0.14317 22.77631 0.2091 8.3605 0.2526 30.333 0.169856 26.2039 0.2168 8.8570 0.2755 30.88 0.17039 26.41914 0.21689 9.0809 0.2851 34.551 0.198642 27.42235 0.21492 12.1069 0.2941 41.7626 0.2035 43.902 0.2657 12.3688 0.2990 42.8164 0.20317 47.4468 0.26891 12.6646 0.2993 44.326 0.20919 49.7379 0.27094 12.8499 0.3049 44.326 0.209199 51.73554 0.273481 13.6313 0.3074 46.1034 0.210977 65.40518 0.277392 14.2408 0.3075 47.15244 0.211869 69.06705 0.278211 14.5333 0.3049 47.26295 0.211979 72.70669 0.27795 19.6916 0.4790 58.15084 0.201913 91.98035 0.282861 20.0761 0.4736 58.7174 0.202904 96.00585 0.284234 20.2131 0.4736 60.92121 0.205302 98.08942 0.285546 21.3681 0.4724 67.47593 0.208756 104.5856 0.286996 23.0913 0.4721 69.27695 0.210641 106.1526 0.287084 23.3942 0.4724 70.364783 0.213492 108.18984 0.289048 28.5544 0.4736 90.974839 0.2210526 121.50359 0.290525 29.7232 0.4732 90.974839 0.2210526 137.42804 0.293213 31.5115 0.4584 115.0258 0.2216756 266.00101 0.299966 More complex adaption could be considered such as dropping RBS for equal code cases. In this case, the neighbor blocks could be used heuristically to infer the codes position. Also, successive plane encoding could consider more detailed process. Such as, while encoding planes in sequence starting from the MSBP and for block B in plane i there could be bits that known it will be recovered different. The difference could be 0 recovered as 1 or the opposite. Case of 0 recovered as 1 set all corresponding bits of planes i-1 to 0 to zero and vice versa. This raises the probability of having significant distortion and will enhance the apparent patches that exist in the recovered images Figure (7). Also, considering more detailed percent vector that allows per block size per plane percent could reduce the apparent patches. These changes and others could be the considered in further studies since it requires more investigation and specifications. 4. CONCLUSION A block based lossy image compression is proposed. The proposed algorithm is generalization to former presented algorithm. The generalization is easing the cases of blocks consideration as unary-coded. The algorithm was tested against six well known gray 256 level images. The easing percent used is plane dependent. That is, ease percent array of size equal to the image number of bit-planes. The tests used variety of easing percent to allow range of compression ratios. The performance of the algorithm found to be comparable with others. REFERENCES [1] Tinku Acharya and Ajoy K. Ray, Image Processing: Principles and applications, Wiley-Interscience, 2005 [2] V.P. Baligar, L.M. Patnaik, G.R. Nagabhushana, High compression and low order linear predictor for lossless coding of grayscale images, Image Vis. Comput. 21 (6),2003. [3] D. Salomon, Data Compression: The Complete Reference, third ed., Springer, New York, 2004. [4] D. Salomon, A Guide to Data Compression Methods, Springer, NewYork, 2002. 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International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 25 [10] ABDELATIEF. H ABOUALI,‖ OBJECT-BASED VQ FOR IMAGE COMPRESSION ―, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 1 (2015) pp. 211216 [11] A. H. Abou-Ali, S. M. Abd-El-Moetty, B. Earl Wells, ―RE-CONFIGURABLE HARDWARE BASED FRACTAL NEURAL PROCESSOR‖, The international conference on parallel processing, PDCS-2006, 2006, CA USA. [12] Priyadarshini K S, G S Sharvani, Prapulla S B, A SURVEY ON PARALLEL COMPUTING OF IMAGE COMPRESSION ALGORITHMS JPEG and Fractal Image Compression, International Conference on Computational Systems for Health & Sustainability(CSFHS) 17-18 April 2015 [13] A. Murat Tekalp, Digital Video Processing 2 nd , Prentice Hall NJ, USA 2015 [14] Mehwish Rehman, Muhammad Sharif and Mudassar Raza, Image Compression: A Survey, Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology Maxwell, 2014 [15]Surendar Chandra, and Windsor W. 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[19] Ya-Pei Feng and Zhe-Ming Lu, an efficient hybrid feature for edge-preserving based on block truncation coding and tree-structured vector quantization with edge orientation classification of bit-planes, International Journal of Innovative Computing, Information and Control ICIC 2018 ISSN 1349-4198, Volume 14, Number 3, June 2018 [20] Jungrae Kim, Michael Sullivan, Esha Choukse, and Mattan Erez, Bit-plane compression: transforming data for better compression in many-core architectures, Proceeding ISCA '16 Proceedings of the 43rd International Symposium on Computer Architecture Pages 329-340 [21] Abdelatief H. Abouali,‖BITPLANES BLOCK BASED LOSSY IMAGE COMPRESSION‖, International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS),Vol. 2 Issue 10, OCTOBER - 2018, Pages: XX-XX [22] Mehmet Utku, Gaurav Sharma, A. Murat Tekalp, ‖Gray-level-embedded lossless image compression‖ signal processing: image communication, Elsevier, volume 18, 2003, 443-454 [23] Ghadah Al-Khafaji, ―image compression based on quad-tree and polynomial ―, international Journal of computer applications, Volume 76 No. 3, August 2013. [24] Rajasekhar Reddy , Ravichandran KS, Venkatraman B, Suganya SD,‖ A new approach for the image compression to the medical images using PCASPIHT‖, Biomedical Research 2018; Special Issue: S481-S486 Dr. Abdellatief Hussien Abouali Received B.Sc. from the MTC computer engineering 1984 presidential Honored, Master degree from collage of engineering Cairo University in expert systems, and received Ph.D. the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) USA, Multi-class vector quantization for neural network design. Served in air force research in development till end of 2012, with many applied researches in areas of computers and computers based systems. Working for ElShrook Academy computer science department, Cairo, Egypt. Fields of interest image processing, neural networks, and machine learning , phone :+201120647588 , International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 26 APPENDIX A: Encoding Algorithm Assume that given a square (or squared, null expanded) image matrix I of pixel resolution NxN , nN 2 (or null expanded to closest size satisfies the condition) with q bit colors/grays. Therefore, the image contains q bit-planes ),.......,,( 110 qppp of size equal to .I Definitions:  Divide a square Block B of size 2m , m is divisible by 2, that starts at location sysx bb , as }4,3,2,1{),,,( BBBBSetblockproducethatbbmBDB sysx each of size 2/m and their start locations are )2/,2/(),2/,(),,2/(),,( mbmbmbbbmbbb sysxsysxsysxsysx  consequently.  For a block B: B1C and BNNC are the block 1's count and None Null Count consequently.  Block B is said to be all zeros if block B1C=zeros.  Block B is said to be all ones if B1C=BNNC.  Encoding process of block B of size m that starts at location sysx bb , as BENC(B, sysx bb , , m ) which output plane streams MBS and RBS. BENC (B, sysx bb , , m ) { If m=2 RBS=RBS+ row-scan (B) else {SWITCH (B1C (B), BNNC(B)) Case all zeros: MBS += '00' Case all ones: MBS +='11' Otherwise MBS +='01', m/2). , m/2bm/2,b, BENC(B4m/2), , m/2b,b, BENC(B3 m/2), , bm/2,b, BENC(B2m/2), , b,b, BENC(B1),,,,( sysxsysx sysxsysx  sysx bbmBDB If size ((RBS + MBS) >= plane size) {RBS=rowscan of the plane; MBS=NULL; Return;} } Where are the main bit-stream and residual bit-stream of the sub-block i, i € {1,2,3,4}, the four subblocks of the main block out of the DB() function. Basic Encoding(I) { MSB, RBS set to NULL for all planes. I 0p N 1p N 1qp N } Appendix B: Basic Decoding: The encoded file header contains original image resolution that yields the number of bit-planes and the original image size. The size is squared and expanded to satisfy the former condition. Then a stack is initialized to recover planes through the decode block DECODEB (MBS, RBS). DECODEB (MBS, RBS) { While (stack is not empty) { Popup , sysx bb , , m If Block intersection with original image matrix is ɸ then continue Read from MBS stream two bits into tb Case tb=00 set block to zeros Case tb=11 set bock to ones Case tb=01 If m==2 read from RBS four bits to set row wise block bits. else International Journal of Academic Engineering Research (IJAER) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 10, October - 2018, Pages: 19-27 27 m/2). , b,(bpush m/2), , bm/2,(bpush m/2), , m/2b,(bpush m/2), , m/2bm/2,(bpush ),,,,( sysxsysxsysx sysx  sysx bbmBDB } } The decode procedure has two binary streams MBS, RBS and is as following: - If MBS is NULL row bit-set from RBS else { N). , (0,0push stack DECODEB (MBS, RBS). }
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10,563,852,272,103,630,000
{ "creator": "AbouAli, Abdellatief Hussien", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1595059244000, "description": "Abstract— In this study, a proposed faces recognition methodology based on the neural micro-classifier network. The proposed methodology uses simple well known feature extraction methodology. The feature extraction used is the discrete cosine transformation low frequencies coefficients. The micro-classifier network is a deterministic four layers neural network, the four layers are: input, micro-classifier, counter, and output. The network provide confidence factor, and proper generalization is guaranteed. Also, the network allows incremental learning, and more natural than others. The proposed face recognition methodology was tested using the standard ORL data set. The experimental results of the methodology showed comparative performance.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABOFRU", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Face Recognition Using Dct And Neural Micro-Classifier Network", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 27 Face Recognition Using Dct And Neural Micro-Classifier Network Abdellatief Hussien AbouAli HICI, Computer Science Dept., El-Shorouk Academy, Cairo, Egypt, Email: ; ; Abstract- In this study, a proposed faces recognition methodology based on the neural micro-classifier network. The proposed methodology uses simple well known feature extraction methodology. The feature extraction used is the discrete cosine transformation low frequencies coefficients. The micro-classifier network is a deterministic four layers neural network, the four layers are: input, micro-classifier, counter, and output. The network provide confidence factor, and proper generalization is guaranteed. Also, the network allows incremental learning, and more natural than others. The proposed face recognition methodology was tested using the standard ORL data set. The experimental results of the methodology showed comparative performance. Keywords: Neural networks; Classifier; Feature extraction; Image processing; Discrete Cosine transform; DCT. 1. INTRODUCTION Face recognition progress is a collaboration effort of researchers in diversity of fields such as: neuroscience, computer vision, psychology, pattern recognition, digital image processing, and machine learning. Those efforts started decades back due to its applications and the demands [1-12]. Security systems, robotics, man-machine-interfaces, digital cameras, games, entertainment, authentication, intelligence, satellite, reconnaissance, as well as image indexing applications use face detection and recognition. Acquired images recognition is not a comparison process with recalled pre-stored known individual"s images. Face detection is a lengthy search process for features within an image for blocks contains such face features, and possibly tracks them within a video feed. Recognition process includes: finding set of discriminating features, searching for them, extracting and proper learning these features form training data for discriminations. The learning process induces a discriminating metrics or boundaries. After learning, the induced metrics or boundaries are used to stamp the unknown face by its class ID or recalls its associated data. Face recognition difficulties originates from the variance in the acquired image, for same person face, as a result of: scale, translation, illumination, poses, occlusion, clutters, orientation, expression variations, Imaging conditions, the commonalities in large feature are high, and computational complexity [10]. A face recognition based system basically contains detection, feature extraction, learning, and classification. Yan, Kriegman and Ahuja presented a well-accepted classifications for face detection in [11]. This classification considers four categories that may overlap: knowledge-based or ruled-based, feature-invariant, template matching, and appearance-based. The knowledge-based methods, basically contains rules that acts on segmented elements properties and find out relationships. Then, these properties and relationships are verified using knowledge base rules to find out if it could constitute a human face. Feature invariant methods, uses the structure features that are not affected by acquisition conditions such as: pose, view angle, scale, and orientation to locate faces. Template matching uses a pre-stored standard faces and face features to correlate with. Appearance based uses training images to induce templates and appearance variances to be used in the correlation for detection. Feature selection and extraction goal is finding a minimal subset of features from a set of large possible features that if used properly will lead to minimal recognition errors. The factors affecting feature selection include: dimensionality, inclusion of inclass similarity, inclusion of dissimilarity of inter-classes, ease of finding and implementation, computation complexity, and robustness to former mentioned challenges. Feature selection is a focal point in the recognition process. Therefore, it gained the attention of the researchers" community. The features presented by the community include [4-9] [13][36-38] include: moments, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), Self-organizing map (SOM), Active Shape Models (ASM), Gabor Wavelet Transforms (GWT), and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Classifiers, according to [38], are built based on similarity, probability or decision boundaries. Similarity classifiers use similarity metrics to measure the closeness to the class members or the class preset representative(s). The probability based classifiers uses in or out of class probability. Decision boundary based classifiers; basically find out the separating hyper-surfaces between the classes to find out classes polyhedrons that represent the class"s containers. This process could be done through a training process from data sets through a training vehicle that evolves the surfaces and decision boundaries either implicit or explicit such as case of neural networks. The other way to extract features from the training set which goes through non-iterative process to build up the decision boundaries, such as cases in VQ methods. The classifying vehicles in face recognition could be set to three categories: i) structural ii) statistical and iii) neural networks. In structural, facial attributes such as eyes, nose, mouth, and chin their areas, relative distances and angles between them are used International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 28 [2][15]. In other words local features as well as the relationships features are used. The statistical approach uses image transforms where features are extracted from the whole face [2-9]. The third approach based on learning from known individuals such as: neural networks. Learning directly from raw images requires complex network structures, algorithms of high time complexity [10]. So, Dimension reduction needed through ahead or within the learning process to reduce the complexity and being more focused [16-18]. Artificial Neural networks, ANN, are massive parallel operated interconnected computing elements contains adapted parameters and has associated learning vehicle(s). The training process aims at setting the network parameters to hopefully the proper decision boundaries between the sets. The network basic computational element is the neuron. In the network, neurons organized in layers from input to output. The layers between input and output are called hidden layers. The neurons are interconnected, unidirectional, bidirectional, or both. Neurons interconnections could exist of the same layer, to forward layer, backward one, or combinations. The network topology, transfer function, and learning method are the focal points in network design. The networks topologies includes feed-forward and recurrent [19-20][31-33]. The transfer functions used in neural networks include: linear, sigmoidal, Gaussian, and bi-radial. Networks learning could be supervise, unsupervised or reinforced. The learning could be, also, deep or shallow in structure. From the wildly used networks, multilayer perceptron, radial basis, Hopfield, and self-organizing maps. Neural networks application areas include: functions approximation, classification, forecasting, mapping, security alerts, marketing, classification, as well as recognition. There are many hardware realizations to networks [21]. Neural networks as a classifiers, in general, takes the classification burden to a learning process however there are still basic questions about the proper structure, evolution, and the correct generalization ability [22][23]. The efficiency of face recognition depends on three basic parameters (i) an efficient invariant feature representation with respect to illumination, scaling, rotation, pose... etc. (ii) Classification technique that maps the feature vectors into their appropriate classes with minimal misclassification. (iii) Prober generalization abilities to unknown cases. Human recognition development recognized when babies start classifying all males as father and all females as mother. That is, more or less building a separating hyper plane between the two sets. This classification ability grows and develops by time. So, elder babies consider only males and females with common features with their father, and mother. A finer classification develops by time and association with names in a great complex unknown organization. However, in general, one can infer that adding a new person to some human life requires considering separating him from the previously known others and does not affect among the previous known. Also, one can easily infer that during human"s recognition some sort of features recall happens. That means, there is some form of features memorization exist, not just the boundaries such as ANN, which is linked to that great recognition vehicle. This study proposes face recognition methodology based on a proposed binary classifier neural network. The binary classifier network built on learning separating hyper-planes between pair of classes proposed in [24]. The classifier doesn"t require rebuild of knowledge when adding new classes to the system rather it integrate the knowledge of the new class to the network. The proposed network generalization ability guaranteed giving proper selection of the training set. The network structure is deterministic per problem. Moreover, adding members to a class requires rebuild of those class boundaries with others. The remaining of this paper organized as following: Section two outlines the classifier neural network and the face recognition methodology under the study. Section three contains tests and results. Section four is the study conclusion. 2. FACE RECOGNITION METHODOLGY AND CLASSIFER NETWORK The proposed network and recognition methodology operates in three modes: initial learning, recognition, and incremental learning when needed. During the first mode, initial learning; the system learns the separation between the initial set of classes. In the second mode, operational or recognition, unknown face presented to the system to classify. In the third mode, incremental learning, a new classification abilities integrated to the current network or new subjects added to a class training set. In the first mode, the sets of faces that are the subject of the initial recognition run through three stages: a preprocessing, feature extraction then set in classespairs to an elementary learning separation process. In this elementary learning, the learning algorithm simply finds the separating hyper-plane of its two classes if exist or a local-minima if not [24]. A successful first mode produces per class a set of hyper-planes separate a class from others. The elementary learning processes are parallel processes and don"t include dependencies. The learning process sets its micro-classifier parameters/ weights. The micro-classifier output is similar to the flip-flops. That is, its output ( qq , ). The micro-classifier, MC, assigned the classification of the two classes YX , will have its output q will be 1, if and only if the presented pattern is seen to X class side and vice versa. Figure (1) presents conceptual view of the micro classifier. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 29 Figure (1) Micro-Classifier Figure (2) Classifier Network In the second mode, an unknown face image runs through three stages: a preprocessing, feature extraction. The feature vector is applied, in parallel, to all MCs. The MCs are linked to classes counter array. The MC designated for classification between the two classes YX , its outputs qq , connected YX , counters respectively. The counter array designates the position of the feature vector with respect to class"s polyhedrons. The classes counter array output is the input to the comparator. The comparator sets the class index, which is the class of the greatest vote and compute the recognition quality RQ . In the third mode, adding more classification ability to the network, the training set of images for the classes run through the first two stages to get the new classes features vectors. Then, the system recalls the former classesfeatures. A learning process confined to the separating the new classes from the former classes is initiated. The outcome of the learning processes is used to add more configurations to the network without affecting the existing ones. The added configurations simply activate and set new MC"s, and activate the new classes" counters. Also, as the system goes on a class with miss classification rate over the normal its polyhedron could be reset using more training elements using some agent in a similar process to the former one. Figure (1) shows the learning process of the proposed system. Figure (3) Classifier initial and incremental training International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 30 3. MICRO-CLASSIFIERS The proposed classifier network built based on "micro-classifier" as basic building block. The micro-classifier concerns with classification of two classes of the set of classes. The micro-classifiers training process could be summarized as the two finite sets ,,, finitelRYX l  l iiN M RyxyyyyY andxxxxX   ,},......,,,{ },......,,,{ 321 321 The search process is for l yx R ** , such that ,, ** ** YyXxyy andxx iixiyi yixi     The learning algorithm is based on the study in [24]. The algorithm evolves to representatives say ** , yx  then: Having the ** , yx  for the two sets the separating hyper plane equation is )()(5.0)( ****** yxyxyx p   Where "  " is the vector dot product operator, and p is plane point plane . The hyper plane divide the range of points either X or Y. The classifier for unknown vector Z considered X side if 0))(5.0())(5.0( *****  yxxyx Z  otherwise considered Y side. The micro-classifiers increment the counters of the potential classes from their perspectives. The micro-classifiers act in parallel on its inputs. The second layer acts on the class"s counters i clsc the vector assumed to be of class TmclscRQandniclscclsciffn nin  )/)1(( where m is classes count, ]1,5.0[T is the recognition threshold, and RQ is the recognition quality. 4. FEATURES EXTRACTIONS In general, the failure in feature extraction or the choice of wrong features collapses the recognition process. In biometric systems, features could be global, local, or both. The global feature operator applies to the entire image. However, Local uses chucks or window of the image. In local, window position is used together with operator outcome. Feature bases include: colors, edges, corners, textures, statistical, frequencies coefficients and combinations of them. The feature extraction could be done in spatial and frequency domains [25-26]. DCT used effectively image and video encoding schemes such as JPEG, and MPEG. The basics on which such schemes count on DCT is the fact that lower frequencies contribute more significantly to images quality compared to higher ones. That is roughly points to recalling face from a subset of low DCT coefficients is possible. Therefore, it makes the use of such coefficients as base for classifier legitimist. Figure (4) shows original face against a recalled with 1% lowest coefficients. From the figure the overall shape of the face, position of the eyes, head shape, as well part of: ear and nose are to recognition extend is kept. So, a small percent of coefficients carries significant amount information required for recognition. Figure (4) a recalled picture from 1% of the holistic 2-D DCT International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 31 5. DISCRETE COSINE TRANSFORMATION The photoreceptors have over 1.5 hundred million signals while retinal level approximately receives 1 millions of these which are the subject of biological keeping and recognition [42]. Consequently, thinking of forms or transformations is natural. The transformations role concludes the high redundancies to more abstracted representations. Generally, human vision, and machine processing saturates at certain point of details. Therefore adding more details after saturation does not benefit, and could have negative effect. From the widely used transformations: Fourier, Discrete Cosine transformation (DCT), Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT), Legendre moments, Hue moments, and others. The discrete cosine transformation was widely used as a mean for image abstraction for the purpose of compression [25] as well as feature extraction [43] [45]. The use of the DCT is used by holistic approaches in which transformation is done on the entire image. Also, it is used by the local based and block based approaches to overcome the computation complexity of the transform [25]. Some used combinations of both local and holistic for sake of more informative abstraction [46-47]. The use of the transform in image processing included both single (based on raw and column scans) and two dimensional transform. The two dimensional discrete cosine transform is a transformation from real to real domain. The outcome of the transformation is a real matrix of the same dimension of the original one. The DCT has an inverse that could be used to retrieve the original image from the transformation frequency domain matrix. The matrix elements of lower indices contain the low frequencies of the images. It has been reported that eliminating the highest frequencies is not significantly noted by the human vision and consequently does not affect computer vision. That points to the fact that lowers frequencies more informative than other side. The transformation for an image matrix ),( yxf of dimensions MN , consequently is as following:-                  0 2 0 1 )( ) 2 )12( cos() 2 )12( cos(),()()(),( 1 0 1 0 u N u N u where M vy N ux yxfvuvuC N x M y    The inverse transformation is:-        1 0 1 0 ) 2 )12( cos() 2 )12( cos(),()()(),( N u M v M vy N ux vuCvuyxf   6. TESTING AND RESULTS The source images used in the testing process is the standard ORL database [34]. The most commonly used subset of the ORL database is the famous 40 subjects. Each subject has 10 images in different poses/orientations. These images are gray scaled 0 to 255. Samples from the dataset are in figure (5). International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 32 Figure (1) Samples of the standard testing dataset. Table (1) contains the coefficients of the lowest 8 frequencies of the first two pictures of the first three subjects. Table (1): DCT coefficients Subject 1.0e+03 * 1-1 1-2 2-1 2-2 3-1 3-2 DCT(0,0) 6.2691 6.8428 4.4684 4.3182 5.5249 5.5232 DCT(1,0) -0.1947 0.0471 -0.2885 -0.2588 0.1716 0.0335 DCT(0,1) 0.1710 0.3278 -0.0168 0.2444 0.1937 0.4050 DCT(1,1) 0.0081 -0.3400 0.0554 0.1059 0.2580 -0.0512 DCT(0,2) -0.4683 0.0296 -0.7195 -0.7008 -0.5569 -0.5703 DCT(2,0) -0.8877 -0.1159 -0.4006 -0.4265 -0.5430 -0.6127 DCT(2,1) -0.0659 0.0847 0.0258 -0.0980 -0.0258 -0.0091 DCT(1,2) -0.1078 -0.1183 -0.0261 0.0671 0.0314 0.0025 Experiment 1:In this experiment we will use the entire set, 400, in training. The number DCT coefficients used varied from 1 to 10 of the lowest frequencies. Figure (2) show the result of the experiment. Figure (2) DCT coefficients performance International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 33 Experiment 2:In this experiment eight randomly selected are used in network training and the entire set, 400, in testing. The DCT coefficients used are that of the lowest 25 frequencies. The selections repeated 100 times. The results of the experiment best cases are 31 trails which end with 100% recognition. The worst of the rest 69 trails was having 5 subjects miss-classified i.e. 98.75% of correct recognition. Experiment 3:In the second experiment, six out of the set random selected and the entire set was used in testing. The number of DCT coefficients used varied from three to twenty of lower frequencies. For each case fifty trails are done on the 400 images, using different sets for training. Figure (3) presents the results of the experiments: mean, best and worst. Figure (3) Recognition Percent Against correct recognition For the case of twenty coefficients case the fifty trails correct recognition percent relationship presented in figure (4). The two figures show that the network has stable and decent generalization ability. Also, the network correct classification ability increases with higher rates for smaller number of coefficients which coincide with our former claim. The third point is the network classification ability with relatively low number of coefficients or features is good. The proposed network architecture is simple compared to that of deep networks. Also, the training and use more straight forward [10] [16] [19]. Moreover, the architecture allows incremental learning and partial retraining when needed. There are a lot of bench marks on ORL database which includes: [39] of correct recognition reports percent"s from 85.42% to 93.75 using PCA and NPCA, [40] reported similar to former results on PCA and LDA recognition percent"s from 88.1% to 95.98% on ORL database. Neural networks was used with Eigen-faces in [41] using neural networks case of testing on the entire 400 images 360 was correct identified with 50 Eigen-faces and 15 hidden layer neurons. Figure(4) Correct recognition percent in the 50 trails of 20 DCT coefficients International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 2 Issue 3, March - 2018, Pages: 27-35 34 7. CONCLUSION In this paper, face recognition methodology was introduced. The methodology was based on micro classifiers network which contains four layers: input, micro-classifier, counter, and output. The micro-classifier concerns with classification of two classes of the problem. The micro-classifiers votes for the classes neurons of the next layer. The internal layer process of the classes-neurons evolves to a winner class and quality factor that set the output layer neurons. The DCT transformation was used as feature extraction vehicle after median filter for noise removal. The proposed face recognition methodology was tested using the standard ORL data set. The experimental results of the vehicle showed comparable performance. REFERENCES [1] Chellapa, R., Wilson, C. 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{ "creator": "Aboulafia, Mitchell", "date": "2011", "datestamp": 1587520751000, "description": "Traditionally pragmatists have been favorably disposed to improving our understanding of agency and ethics through the use of empirical research. In the last two decades simulation theory has been championed in certain cognitive science circles as a way of explaining how we attribute mental states and predict human behavior. Drawing on research in psychology and neuroscience, Alvin I. Goldman and Robert M. Gordon have not only used simulation theory to discuss how we “mindread”, but have suggested that the theory has implications for ethics. The limitations of simulation theory for “mindreading” and ethics are addressed in this article from an interactionist or neo-Meadian pragmatic perspective. To demonstrate the limitations of simulation theory scenes from the television show Mad Men are used as “thought-experiments”.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABOTTE", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Through the Eyes of Mad Men: Simulation, Interaction, and Ethics", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PRAGMATISM AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY COPYRIGHT © 2009ASSOCIAZIONE PRAGMA _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 133 Mitchell Aboulafia "Through the Eyes of Mad Men: Simulation, Interaction, and Ethics"1 Abstract. Traditionally pragmatists have been favorably disposed to improving our understanding of agency and ethics through the use of empirical research. In the last two decades simulation theory has been championed in certain cognitive science circles as a way of explaining how we attribute mental states and predict human behavior. Drawing on research in psychology and neuroscience, Alvin I. Goldman and Robert M. Gordon have not only used simulation theory to discuss how we "mindread", but have suggested that the theory has implications for ethics. The limitations of simulation theory for "mindreading" and ethics are addressed in this article from an interactionist or neo-Meadian pragmatic perspective. To demonstrate the limitations of simulation theory scenes from the television show Mad Men are used as "thought-experiments". Not long ago I began to read in earnest about the simulation and theory theory or folk psychology debate in cognitive science. I was led to this debate in researching contemporary approaches to agency in social psychology. Quite coincidently I found myself watching the television series Mad Men. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the title refers to the ad men primarily on Madison Avenue in the 1960's. How fortunate, I thought, to be watching a show about a profession in which the name of the game is simulation or mindreading of a sort, and not only from individual to individual but from individual to groups. If anyone has a better than average ability to mindread--for example, to determine the beliefs and predict the decisions of others--it would be these folks. Now I realize that there is a danger of confusing fiction with fact by appealing to a TV series, but good fiction, which by and large this series has been, is often nuanced in dealing with interpersonal relationships, consolidating our own experiences in well-crafted scenes. Such scenes can help to illuminate theories of mindreading in a manner that parallels more traditional thought experiments. And let me assure the reader in advance that my use of Mad Men will not require you to have watched the show. I will address important features of simulation theory in order to argue that many of its most valuable insights can be found in a tradition influenced by George Herbert Mead. But my interests here are not merely antiquarian. I intend to show that a neo-Median model of how we relate to others can highlight weaknesses in simulation theory. It can also assist in addressing ethical questions in a more sophisticated and comprehensive way than simulation theory, whether it is the hybrid model defended by Alvin I. Goldman or the transformation approach of Robert M. Gordon. My goal is to entice readers into considering how a neo-Meadian framework might offer a productive path for future reflections and research in ethics. 1 A version of this article was presented as the Keynote Address at the 65th Annual Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference, Denver, Colorado, October 2011. I wish to thank Candice Shelby and Catherine Kemp for their suggestions. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 134 Before drawing on some examples from Mad Men to illustrate aspects of simulation theory, it's appropriate to let two influential simulation theorists say a few words about how they view their models. We turn first to Alvin Goldman and his understanding of the differences between simulation theory and theory theory, and then to Robert Gordon. Of course their positions contain nuances that can't be captured by relatively brief quotations. Nevertheless, these carefully crafted summary statements will help to set the stage. I quote first from Goldman's response to criticisms of his book, Simulating Minds, made by Perner and Brandl. Suppose an attributor wishes to mindread a target's decision. If she uses simulation, she will generate a "pretend" decision of her own, extract that decision, and project it onto the target. If she uses theory, on the other hand, she will not produce a pretend - or genuine - decision at all. She will form a belief about the target's decision, based on purely factual or theoretical reasoning from her (the attributor's) beliefs about the targets prior preferences, prior beliefs, and psychological laws (Goldman 2009: 478). Early in his recent book, Simulating Minds, Goldman spells out his understanding of the basics of simulation with regard to decision making in this way. Predicting another's decision is a stock example that ST aims to explain. It says that an attributor goes about this task by imaginatively putting herself into the target's shoes. She pretends to have the same initial states - for example, the same desires and beliefs - and then makes a decision given those initial, pretend states. Having made a decision in the pretend mode, the attributor predicts that this is the decision that the target will make (Goldman 2006: 19). Properly speaking this sort of mindreading - one that involves pretence, imagination, and prediction - is high-level simulation. This is distinguished from low-level simulation, which is a relatively primitive form of simulation for Goldman, one that involves, for example, reading basic emotions from facial expressions. This distinction is not accepted by all simulation theorists. Further, Goldman is challenged by one of the parents of simulation theory regarding a basic feature of his account. According to Robert Gordon, simulation doesn't involve turning to one's own mental states in order to help determine what the other is thinking. Gordon understands simulation in terms of the transformation of oneself into the other. The exemplary case is that of the actor who transforms himself into the character he is playing. Shaun Gallagher presents Gordon's position in the following fashion. I do not retreat introspectively to my own mind to run simulation routines by manipulating propositional attitudes like beliefs and desires. Rather, I put myself in the other person's perspective and look to see what she thinks is true about the world. This involves a transformation that takes place on the personal level. By using my imagination, I imagine/simulate what the other person must think in her situation. I do not imagine myself in her situation; I imagine her in her situation, by imaginatively occupying her situation. The transformation involves an egocentric shift, but does not involve either introspection of my own mental states, or inference making about the other's mental states. I am not concerned with mental states at all. I imagine, in the first-person, how the other person sees the world (Gallagher 2007: 66-67). MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 135 Gordon's position can be seen as responding to Daniel Dennett and others who have claimed that Goldman's model is open to the standard critiques that have been leveled against approaches to mindreading that employ analogy. In Gordon's words, One reason I emphasize transformation is that a number of writers, both pro and con the simulation theory, take simulation to involve an implicit inference from oneself to others. It is essentially the old argument from analogy, which requires that you first recognize your own mental states, perhaps under certain imagined hypothetical conditions, and then infer that the other is in similar states (Gordon 1995: 734). Needless to say, Goldman has a retort, and is unwilling to cede ground on the importance of some form of introspection for the simulation process. In responding to Gordon, he states, "Thus, as I interpret ST, it naturally invites an introspective approach to first-person attribution....[T]here is empirical evidence that third-person mindreading involves use of a brain region responsible for self-reference or self-reflection" (Goldman 2006: 187). Having briefly outlined some of the features of simulation theory, and with caveats that Goldman views his theory as a hybrid, employing both simulation and folk psychology, and that Gordon is quite prepared to acknowledge that hypothetical reasoning has a place in mindreading, we turn to Mad Men2. The central character in Mad Men is Don Draper. He is a whiz at figuring out what will motivate people to buy products. But his talent appears to be mysterious to his colleagues. They stand in awe of how quickly he can determine the right move. We, the audience, have more information about Don than do his colleagues. We know that Don Draper was originally born Dick Whitman. We know that he has lived most of his adult life under an assumed name. We also know enough about his biography - his traumatic childhood, his abusive father - to suggest why he might be so good at his job. He is a person who has had to pay close attention to others in order to survive, first as a child and then as an adult pretending to be someone else. There are four scenes from the show that I wish to discuss, three directly involving Don. Scene one (Mad Men, 2009A). Conrad Hilton has called Don to his hotel suite. They had met at a party but Don didn't know at the time that the man behind a bar, Connie, was Conrad Hilton. It seems that Connie has now tracked him down and wants to talk. He suspects that Don might be really good at his profession. This could be big business for Don. It's Hilton, after all. Within minutes of entering the suite, Connie wants Don to give him advice on an ad campaign. Don resists. He says to Connie, "I think that you wouldn't be in the presidential suite right now if you worked for free". Hilton pushes back. "Don, this is friendly". Don retorts, "Connie, this is my profession; what do you want me to do?" Connie wants him to give him one for free. The mock-ups for the ads are right in front of them on the coffee table. Don lights a cigarette and takes an effortless look. They show hotels with friendly mouse mascots in the foreground. Don briefly pauses and then states his view. "I don't think anyone wants to think about a mouse in a hotel". Hilton realizes that Don is obviously right, even though he admits that the ad campaign was his idea. Chagrined, he asks, "You got something better?". And the courting dance continues. Here is the background for the second scene that we want to consider. The staff in the office of Don's agency becomes aware that there has been a terrible crash of an American 2 If successful advertising utilizes simulation, it does so for strategic reasons. Ad men, mad men, aren't interested in mutual understanding in the manner in which Habermas would define it. No, they are interested in figuring out the other in order to manipulate him or her. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 136 Airlines plane in NY. Presumably everyone is lost. There is black humor around the office about the crash. One of the executives at the agency, Duck, claims to have a personal relationship with a high level executive at American Airlines. Duck knows that American Airlines is very worried about how the crash will affect the company. He believes that they will be looking for a new ad agency. He also believes that their agency can hook them. In a horrible twist of fate, one of the most ambitious young executives in the office, Pete Campbell, learns that his father, with whom he did not get along, died in the crash. In spite of this loss, Duck wants Pete to join him in a meeting with his contact, Shel, at the university club. Pete, naturally, feels very uncomfortable. He doesn't think he can do it. The scene that we wish to consider opens with Duck sitting in the university club with Shel (Mad Men, 2008). The lighting is low and they are comfortably ensconced in leather chairs, drinks nearby. But things are not going well. Shel is hedging, claiming that it's going to be tough to switch to a new agency. Then Pete shows up. Duck introduces him to Shel as his agency's best. Shel reiterates, we don't know where we are yet. Pete tries a typical sales pitch, asserting how enthusiastic they are about working with American Airlines. Shel is not moved. And then Pete says, "We understand how delicate the process of rebuilding the public's confidence will be". Shel responds, "It's not just the public, our stock holders". Pete replies, "I want you to know that should you decide to bring us your business there will be someone on your account who knows exactly what you are going through...My father was on that plane". Shel is shaken and moved. It is something he will pass on, that is, report to his colleagues. The audience is left with the impression that Pete's revelation might have helped salvage the deal. Scene three doesn't involve the agency (Mad Men, 2009B). It takes place in an elementary school classroom. Don and his wife, Betty, have been called in for a teacher's conference because their daughter, Sally, has been acting out and fighting in school. Betty is very pregnant and quiet. She clearly looks depressed, even pained. The teacher, Susan, is young and earnest. She presses Don and Betty about their daughter's behavior. Betty, coolly emotional, reports, "My, um, father passed away (pause) last week, week before, two weeks now". Susan becomes agitated and extremely apologetic. She walks over and holds Betty's hand, saying, "I feel terrible for bringing that up for you". Susan then asks, "Is this grandpa Gene we are talking about? Uh, that poor thing". (Referring to their daughter). If only she (Susan) had known. How horrible! Susan continues, "Now I know why she was asking all of those questions about Medgar Evers' murder". Betty leaves the room and Susan discusses how Sally needs more attention with Don. She says that Sally is grieving. Of course she now understands their daughter's behavior. Susan tells Don, "There is a special pain to losing someone at that age. I don't know if you can understand that". Don responds with a simple, "I can". Betty returns. The fourth scene is a follow-up to the classroom exchange (Mad Men, 2009B). That evening Susan calls Don and Betty at home. Don answers. The camera shifts back and forth from Don to Susan. Susan is smiling at first with a drink in hand. She has called to apologize about their meeting. Don wonders why. Susan becomes very serious. "My father died when I was eight and I might have overdone it relating to Sally in that way...I guess I can get caught up in things and lose perspective". (There is a subtext here. Susan and Don appear to be attracted to each other, which adds further complexity to the interactions in the classroom, but we will pass on them here). In terms of how these scenes relate to simulation theory, let's start with the classroom scene first. If Goldman were to apply simulation theory to the people in this scene, it is unlikely that he would focus solely on low-level emotional simulation, which typically inMITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 137 volves the presence of the person to whom one is responding. Susan, the teacher, seems to be reacting to Betty in this fashion, although it is possible to interpret her reaction to Betty as also involving higher level simulation. But it is not Betty's state that is the most obvious target for a higher level simulation. It is her daughter's. The teacher uses her own feelings and beliefs, her own mental state, to help ascertain how Betty and Don's daughter must be feeling because of the loss. Yet on reflection Susan is aware that she may have overreacted due to the loss of her father as a child. Besides violating the rules of decorum, she may not have simulated Sally correctly, and she definitely failed to simulate Don's state of mind. He had in fact experienced the loss of his father as a child. If simulation is a process that is mediated by one's own mental states, then there is always the possibility of misreading or failure due to an egocentric bias, according to Goldman. And this raises the issue of projection, which Goldman addresses. I shall call the act of assigning a state of one's own to someone else projection...[P]rojection is a standard part of the ST story of mindreading. It is the final stage of each mindreading act, a stage that involves no (further) simulation or pretense. Indeed, it typically involves an "exit" from the simulation mode that occupies the first stage of a two-stage routine (Goldman 2006: 40). But if projection is a basic feature of ST, and if the model is best understood as simulation plus projection, how are we to avoid egocentric biases? There must be some mechanism that prevents us from getting too carried away with our own beliefs and emotions, as did Susan, when we are seeking to mindread. For Goldman the answer is that we quarantine "genuine states that don't correspond to states of the target," thereby keeping them out of the simulation. If they should intrude, "biases are likely to result. If leakage or quarantine failure is rampant, egocentric biases will also be rampant" (Goldman 2006: 41). Further, while simulation requires a projection stage, it is possible that we might have projection without simulation.3 Preventing unwarranted projections involves inhibition. In Goldman's words, Quarantine prevents something from happening that might otherwise occur; specifically, it prevents one's own states from being projected onto the target. In neural terms, such prevention is inhibition. It might be described as "inhibiting the self-perspective". If simulation is a major facet of third-person mindreading, successful mindreading should involve inhibition of the self-perspective (Goldman 2006: 170). Goldman needs "inhibition" for his model to work. But he doesn't actually provide an account of the development of inhibitory mechanisms. In the section of Simulating Minds on egocentrism and projection, he presents us with behavioral studies of egocentric bias that are "interpretable within the projection framework" (Goldman 2006: 165). In the next section, "The Neuropsychology of Quarantine", he turns to a case study involving a stroke victim. Goldman informs us that, "someone impaired in the ability to inhibit the selfperspective should have trouble producing accurate mindreading. This is what ST predicts, and this prediction is dramatically confirmed in the case of a particular stroke patient" (Goldman 2006: 170). The damage done to this stroke victim was in a region of the brain 3 "Given our definition of projection, taking a genuine state of one's own and ascribing that state to another is clearly a case of projection. Is it a case of simulation-plus-projection? We might consider it a 'limiting case' of simulation-plus-projection, a case in which the simulation element is null but the projection element is robust" (Goldman 2006: 41). MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 138 that one study "highlighted as possibly sustaining the ability to inhibit one's own perspective" (Goldman 2006: 171). So we have the case study of one patient (WBA), who is having problems inhibiting her own perspective, who has suffered damage to a region of the brain, a region which possibly has something to do with inhibiting one's own perspective, according to another study. Goldman concludes from these two studies, "it is natural to infer that inhibition of self-perspective is a vital aspect of mindreading (Goldman 2006: 172).4 Something like the inhibition of self-perspective may very well be a part of mindreading, but one case study and one study of a brain region isn't solid evidence. At best Goldman has suggestive results that may point to a necessary condition, a part of the brain that needs to be functioning in order for x to happen, without an explanation of x.5 A mature theory of how inhibition develops is never presented.6 And such a theory would at minimum have to address what an effective, as opposed to "accurate", simulation would mean in different cultural and social contexts, because what we inhibit is not simply a matter of how accurate, if that is the correct term, we need to be, but how effective we want or intend to be.7 To explore how the intention to be effective might complicate the picture for simulationists, let's return to the first scene. Recall that Conrad Hilton has asked Don to his hotel suite for some free advice and to test him. Don understands the game. He can't simply give free advice if he is going to be seen as a valuable player. But he accedes to Connie's request anyway. However, he does so only after lighting a cigarette and allowing himself a pregnant pause, as if to say, 'ok, here is your advice, no effort involved'. If we interpret his response in terms of simulation, in evaluating the mock-ups Don would be placing himself in the shoes of prospective hotel 4 Here is the key paragraph. "Of crucial importance, the evidence from WBA appears to demonstrate that the root of at least some egocentric errors in mindreading is failure to inhibit, or quarantine, self-perspective. This, of course, is precisely ST's story. Because Samson et al.'s evidence about WBA, along with evidence from Vogeley et al. (2001), points to a particular brain region as responsible for this function, it is natural to infer that inhibition of self-perspective is a vital aspect of mindreading"(Goldman 2006: 172). Notice that he gives himself wiggle room at the start of the passage by qualifying the claim with an italicized "some". By the end of the paragraph we have a more general (natural) inference: "inhibition of self-perspective is a vital aspect of mindreading". Both of these remarks must be placed in the context of the manner in which he began the discussion. At the start of, "Egocentrism and Projection," he states, "There is an extensive literature on egocentric biases in mindreading, and this section and the next one ["The Neuropsychology of Quarantine"] argue that these egocentric biases are best explained by the simulation-plus-projection model" (Goldman 2006: 164). 5 To make matters worse, instead of providing any further discussion of his own account of inhibition, Goldman then launches into how TT can not account for the finding of "widespread egocentrism" (Goldman 2006: 172-173). 6 In Simulating Minds Goldman also discusses evidence from childhood studies that suggest there is a connection between inhibitory control and performance on false belief tasks. "Problems with standard false-belief tasks are problems with inhibiting the first-person perspective (section 8.4), which should be distinguished from (problems with) adopting a third-person perspective" (292). He notes that there is a study that challenges the connection between false-belief task errors and inhibition. (To counter this study, Goldman appeals once again to the stroke victim.) To be fair to Goldman, there are other features of his model--for example, the inputs used for simulation-that could lead to problems that we associate with forms of egocentrism, in spite of the fact that he links projection and egocentrism in the sections of the book discussed above (see, note #4). However, these would be due to failures in the simulation stage, not to a failure to inhibit self-perspective, which is directly linked to the projection stage. It is the former, understood in terms of empathy, that will play an important role in considering the implications of ST for ethics, while the latter--that is, inhibition--touches on the question of impartiality. 7 It's interesting to note that at the beginning of the discussion of egocentrism and projection, Goldman sidesteps the issue of when being influenced by one's own "genuine" states is appropriate. "Projection occurs when a genuine, nonpretend state of the attributor seeps into the simulation routine despite its inappropriateness (as judged by information the attributor possesses). This results in an attribution that is inappropriately influenced by the attributor's own current states (genuine, nonpretend states). I won't try to settle the question of when, exactly, being influenced by one's own genuine states is inappropriate" (Goldman: 2006: 165). I would be very curious to know what kind of answer to this question could possibly be envisioned from within his model. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 139 guest(s) through imagination, and then after processing his pretend beliefs, he would project them back on to the target, the hotel guest. How would she react? She would be turned off to ads with mice. Without going into the details of the theory theory versus simulation debate in any depth, I do want briefly to raise the issue here of which model might better explain Don's reaction. According to Joe Cruz and Gordon, What unifies theory theorists is the view that attributing inner states and making sense of the behavior of others is carried out by a capacity that deploys knowledge encoded in a theory. The most straightforward sense in which ST is opposed to TT is that simulation theorists deny that our capacity to attribute mental states is subsumed by a body of knowledge about the minds of others. Rather, our own mental processes are treated as a manipulable model of other minds (Cruz and Gordon 2005). So perhaps Don didn't simulate hotel guests at all. Perhaps he simply inferred, relatively quickly, from his knowledge of people and their aversions, that associating a hotel with a mouse is a bad idea. Since both Goldman and Gordon have conceded that we employ theory at times to read others, how are we to decide whether Don did so in this case? In this particular situation I submit that there is no way. He could have used theory or simulation or both. The interaction can't tell us. How might we tell? Well, if you are a certain kind of cognitive scientist you will argue that different regions or networks of the brain may be involved if we are using theory instead of simulation to read a target. However, what complicates our answer to this question is not only our limited knowledge of the brain but the complexity of the situation itself. If we go back to the scene, we will see that Don is never simply engaged in mindreading in relationship to a prospective hotel guest. He is also seeking to place himself in the best light in relationship to Connie. He needs an effortless and convincing answer. Perhaps there wasn't any simulation or theory in play at all regarding the hotel guests. Perhaps it was all a show for Connie. Don has read Connie through his knowledge of men of a certain age and class background, etc., and/or he has read his facial expressions and body language, allowing him to simulate features of Connie's emotional state. He concluded that any assertive answer was better than none. After all, Don had a strategic intention. His goal was not to mindread prospective guests but to convince Connie. Or possibly there wasn't any theory or simulation involved in his response, only behavioral cues, ones that he may have been little aware of, but which still allowed him to make the call. Yet even if this was all that he was doing, he was in some sense taking the perspective of the other, although not through simulation or theory. His perspective taking might better be viewed as a form of interpersonal praxis, about which I will have much to say shortly. In any case, it is important to note that there was a strategic dance between Don and Connie, one that probably involved multiple sorts of interactions, some better understood in terms effective interaction rather than accurate simulation.8 There is a group of social psychologists, several at Simon Fraser University, who have developed a neo-Meadian approach to agency, in part in response to TT and ST. At first it may be somewhat difficult to see just how they differ from the simulation theorists. There is an extraordinary emphasis in their framework on taking the perspective of the other, which can be framed in terms of stepping into the other guy's shoes, an expression which 8 Note that in spite of the ambiguities in the situation and alternative explanations, Don's responses could still be interpreted in terms of simulation or theory theory by committed ST or TT theorists. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 140 Goldman and other simulationists often use. And like the simulationists they often cite studies that show how infants are interactive and engage in incipient intentional behavior (e.g., gaze following) from an early age, that is, prelinguistically. But they don't conceptualize our relationship to others in the same fashion. Here is how three of them, Jack Martin, Bryan Sokol, and Theo Elfers, frame the differences. Whereas simulation and theory theorists tend to think about perspective taking in cognitive and mentalistic terms supported by neurophysiological mechanisms, we locate perspective taking, its emergence, and its development within the coordinated interactivity and conduct of infants, children, adolescents, and adults with objects and others in the biophysical and sociocultural world. For us, the development of our abilities to work with and through perspectives is not an instantiation or stimulation of preexisting mental concepts and structures. It is a situated, embodied, dynamic, and coordinated way of being and conducting ourselves with others and things that moves from a social, interactive to a psychological, intersubjective footing during ontogenesis. However, even with this graduated emergence of more advanced psychological aspects, perspective taking never loses its situated, embodied foundation. As we interact in a world of objects and others, our orientations are constantly shifting, forming, and transforming in interaction with the activities and orientations of others. It is within this ongoing interaction and coordination that the generative processes of our psychological lives are located (Martin, Sokol, Elfers 2008: 295-296). Part of the difficulty in distinguishing the approach of the interactionists from that of the simulationists revolves around the phrase "taking the perspective (or role) of the other". Simulationists such as Goldman tend to see this activity in terms of low-level mimicry and emotional contagion, or as an explicit attempt to predict how a target will respond using pretend-states, which appears to involve stepping into the other guy's shoes. Mead incorrectly denied the sort of imitation that we find in infants and young children, an error that neo-Meadians do not make. But Mead does supply us with a distinction that is crucial here. For Mead, taking the perspective or role of the other can be seen as taking the attitude of the other. According to Gary Cook, We can avoid some of the misleading connotations of the phrase "taking the role of the other" by using in its stead the alternative phrase Mead himself often employs, namely, "taking the attitude of the other". An attitude, he says, consists of a behavioral disposition, a tendency to respond in a certain manner to certain sorts of stimuli, or the beginnings of an action that seek an occasion for a full release or expression (Cook 1993: 79). When we see two boxers or fencers feinting and parrying, we might say that they are predicting the decision of the other in order to make a decision of their own. Yet, this is not the sort of decision state that allows time for determining the belief states of the opponent. Nor is there simple mimicry taking place. The opponents are taking the attitude of the other in order to respond. There is anticipation of the other but it is not reflective anticipation. So here we have an interactional state that requires a form of taking the perspective of the other but one that is not easily accommodated by the way in which either Goldman or Gordon describe simulation. Of course one can say that they are talking about simulation in terms of mindreading while I am now addressing another phenomenon. This would be a mistake. Much of what they take to be simulation is better described in terms of taking the attitude of the other. And by failing to see perspective taking in attitudinal terms, in addition to mimicry and explicit role taking, we drop out crucial resources for describing how agents naviMITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 141 gate social worlds. Further, why should simulationists be allowed to define how the phrase "taking the perspective of the other" is understood. How might the neo-Meadians' approach cash out in relationship to ST? They would be much more interested in how the dynamic interaction of the agents is responsible for the ways in which they interpret the world and others. Of course this is not to say that there aren't biological, theoretical, and "introspective" factors at play. It is to say that perspective taking, attitude taking, is a process that is in itself transformative. But just to make sure that there is no misunderstanding: the neo-Medians aren't claiming that we don't have wellsettled habits and beliefs. If we didn't, we wouldn't be able to anticipate what others might say or do. However, we also know that our anticipations are modified in ongoing interaction, even if only to a modest degree, and this complicates the picture for the simulationists.9 Let's turn to the third scene to clarify the differences further. Pete, the young executive in Don's agency, wants to sign American Airlines. He enters the university club where his colleague, Duck, is meeting with Shel from AA. Both Duck and Shel appear uncomfortable. Duck wants a deal but Shel isn't moving in the right direction. Pete can see that Duck has not made much progress and he begins a traditional pitch: We really want your business and we are excited about the opportunity to work with you. But it's not working. Then the young ad man says, my father was on the plane. Shel is clearly taken aback. But what is he thinking? He seems to know immediately that this piece of information is game changer. If you are a simulationist, you might say that Shel is already placing himself imaginatively in the mind of the young exec, and through recognizing the extent of his loss, he is in a position to hypothesize and conclude that Pete might have a unique vantage point from which to help repair the airline's reputation. Or perhaps Shel cannot dismiss Pete because he is having a sympathetic reaction to his loss, that is, he is having an emotional response. Or perhaps both of these are occurring, that is, sympathy and simulation involving strategic calculation. But for our purposes the key to their interaction is that it is instigated by the shock of the unanticipated. Pete made a tactical decision to use his own tragic circumstances to get business10. The airline executive thinks that he is reading Pete correctly when he starts his first traditional pitch. And then Shel is surprised, no, shocked by Pete's revelation, and he has to recalibrate on hearing the news. But his new reading isn't merely observational. It is attitudinal and interactive. And Pete is also modulating his presentation in reaction to Shel's responses. Feint and parry. In this situation, all of the agents are recalibrating in light of a novel revelation. How often does someone tell you that his father has died in the plane of the company that you represent? Although this scene involves an extraordinary revelation, the neo-Meadians would argue that less dramatic intrusions of novelty regularly occur in our social interactions and that their approach is well suited to addressing these events. Novel situations help people learn to be adaptable and flexible, which in turn assists them in developing their capacity 9 While of course there must be constancy of beliefs and habits if we are to function with others, there must also be an ongoing assumption that others are not thinking or believing what we assume. This pragmatic fallibilism is built into interactions with which we are all familiar. When a parent says that she knows Johnny like the back of her hand in the morning, and then says in the afternoon, "that's my Johnny, you can never figure out what he is going to do next," we don't accuse her of violating the laws of logic. The fact is that both things can well be true. Of course we can "predict" or anticipate what others will do but we also quite regularly fail at this. Much of the time we got it right enough to function reasonably well with others. And so-called failures to "mindread" should not be understood in terms of not reading a target properly due to lack of knowledge about inputs and outputs. People are not targets in this fashion. They are persons. As persons one of their leading characteristics is their ability to surprise us, in little ways, for example, that permit conversations to continue, and in big ways. 10 We don't know if he knew in advance that he was going raise his father's death. He may have surprised himself by doing so, which raises another set of questions that we will let pass. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 142 for taking more than one perspective at the same time--or to be more exact, at the practical and functional equivalent of "at the same time"11. And learning how to take more than one perspective "simultaneously" in turn allows us to grapple with novel situations. We have here a virtuous circle. As Jack Martin, Jeff Sugarman, and Sarah Hickinbottom note, For Mead, sociality consists of the ability to occupy two or more different perspectives at the same time. The relation of an organism and an environment is continuously dynamic. The natural and social world consists of a multiplicity of perspectives, any one of which may enter into an organism's field of activity. It is by virtue of the organism's ability to be several things simultaneously, in the sense of taking up (acting within) two or more different perspectives, that the organism is able to deal with emergent events or novel, unexpected occurrences (Martin, Sugarman, Hickenbottom 2010: 123-124) 12. Recall that in at least three of the four scenes that have been described, multiple perspectives were potentially in play, and this more accurately comports with more of our social life than does the taking of the perspective of a specific other regarding a particular belief or emotion. Of course we do the latter but even when engaged with one person there is often a multiplicity of perspectives operative on the horizon, a horizon that we anticipate may shift due to novel reactions. In addition, much of our social life is group life. And here is where the ability to take multiple perspectives is most obviously in play. Without addressing this phenomenon or its implications our ethical reflections are impoverished. This impoverishment can be seen in the manner in which Gordon discusses the relationship between impartiality and empathy or sympathy.13 But before turning to Gordon, a few words on Goldman's attempt to join ethics and empathy at the hip are in order. In his 1993 article, "Ethics and Cognitive Science," as well as in his 1992 presidential address to the Pacific Division of the APA, Goldman demonstrated that he was quite prepared to use the term empathy to describe forms of simulation. (Goldman 1993, 1992).14 In Simulating Minds we learn that in ethics empathy probably comes into play at both the level of compassion, care, and concern for the other and at the epistemic level, that is, through helping to clarify what the other may be experiencing (Goldman 2006: 298). Goldman does not claim that empathy can in and of itself make us moral, only that it can be an important component of moral practice if assisted by other tools. For example, one of the problems with focusing on empathy is the danger of parochialism, that is, we tend to be more empathic toward those who are more like us and spatially closer.15 To counter this we need to extend our empathetic sensibilities. Goldman uses what he calls enactment imagination, or E-imagination, to explain how we can counter parochialism. "To accurately E-imagine the situation of an anonymous and distant individual, it helps to receive detailed information about that person's life experience and an image of her and her immediate environment. Thus, news coverage of ongoing wars, famines, and other catastrophes are more effective 11 By using the phrase "at the same time" here I do not mean to imply that multiple perspectives may not involve split second switches from one to the other. The phrase is meant to suggest the practical and functional reality of taking multiple perspectives at once. 12 The passage continues, "Because persons are themselves social, their perspective taking may be enhanced greatly by communication with others through significant symbols" (124). 13 Gordon does not make any systematic distinction between empathy and sympathy in the article that we will be discussing (Gordon 1995). 14 Portions of "Ethics and Cognitive Science" (Goldman 1993) are identical to the published version of Goldman's Presidential Address to the Pacific Division of the APA (Goldman 1992). 15 The notion that similarity is a significant factor in how much empathy we feel for strangers has been questioned in an experiment involving age and occupation. See Batson, Lishner, Cook, and Sawyer (2005). MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 143 when they supply biographical details of selected individuals, as well as photographs or visual footage" (Goldman 2006: 297-298). Heightening our empathic responses may play a role in altruistic actions. But presumably we must also defeat our egocentric biases. As we saw, Goldman appeals to the notions of quarantine and inhibition to explain how to keep egocentric biases in check. However, there doesn't appear to be a connection between these mechanisms and the social development of the self or group dynamics. To his credit, Gordon seeks to tie our ability to distance ourselves from what could be called egocentric biases to our ability to become an other, that is, to a form of sociality, although his model limits his success. In his 1995 paper, "Sympathy, Simulation, and the Impartial Spectator", Gordon must confront a basic problem for his approach. Recall that for Gordon we transform ourselves into the other when we simulate. If transformation is truly successful, we in a sense become the other, as does the actor who is fully engaged in playing a role (Gordon 1995: 734-735). But if we become the other, then we lose the ability to evaluate the other critically, whether we are talking about ethics or other tasks, such as giving advice. How do we avoid falling into this trap? Gordon appeals to Adam Smith for assistance. According to Smith, rather than simply respond to another's pleasure with pleasure and to another's suffering with suffering, we find ourselves turning our attention to the cause of the other's emotion. We imagine ourselves being in the other's situation, ourselves faced with whatever is causing the other's emotion. Then, in imagination, we respond independently, in our own way, to the imagined cause (Gordon 1995: 741). But although Smith is on the right track here he fails to make a distinction that Gordon deems salient, between what the other is experiencing and our own experience. To show this he quotes Smith. As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation (Gordon 1995: 741). For Gordon, simply imagining how we would feel would result in our transforming simulation into a form of projection, which would be deadly for his transformational model, and render it especially useless in making ethical evaluations.16 What does Gordon propose? We must distinguish "between just imagining being in X's situation and making the further adjustments required to imagine being X in X's situation" (Gordon 1995: 741). In other words, we must separate merely imagining being in someone else's situation from imagining being that person in his or her situation. The latter can lead to an over-identification with the other. I in a sense become the other. The former--that is, merely imagining--allows us to still say, "If I were you, I would...", with an implicit, "but I am also not you", factored in. If we perform both of these operations, we can then compare our responses. In Gordon's words, "If your response is the same in each case, approve X's conduct; if not, disapprove" (Gordon 1995: 741). He goes no further with this analysis and moves on to the problem of self-judgment, to which we will turn momentarily. He seems to think that it is enough that he has provided us with a decision procedure. How a rift between these two imaginary states provides an impartial vantage point is never addressed. So in spite of the title of the 16 Smith emphasizes different aspects of sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. We are not confined to our own feelings nearly as much as this quotation would suggest. See, for example, Smith 1976: 317. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 144 article, with its promissory note of addressing impartiality, what Gordon appears to be offering us is a method for holding back so that we don't immediately assent to the actions of others. Or as he has told us earlier, "unlike the explanation or prediction of behavior, moral assessment requires holding back" (Gordon 1995: 740). If we don't hold back we may find ourselves flooded by the other's emotion and unable to judge. But while the activity of holding back may be of assistance, it certainly doesn't produce impartiality, even if we define the term generously17. Gordon tells us that there is one problem with the analysis he presented regarding the decision procedure. How can we handle judging ourselves? We can't use our own beliefs or conduct as we might when we judge someone else, for it is our own conduct that we may have to disapprove. Again, he turns to Smith for assistance and quotes the following passage from The Theory of Moral Sentiments. When I endeavor to examine my own conduct. . . I divide myself, as it were, into two persons; ... I, the examiner and judge, represent a different character from that other I, the person whose conduct is examined into and judged of. The first is the spectator, whose sentiments with regard to my own conduct I endeavour to enter into, by placing myself in his situation, and by considering how it would appear to me, when seen from that particular point of view. The second is the agent, the person whom I properly call myself (Gordon 1995: 741-742; Smith 1976: 113). It's obvious for Gordon that in simulating someone else I can "be out of sympathy with myself" (Gordon, 1995: 742)18. The problem for him is how can I distance myself from my own emotions and motivation when I am the spectator "with my selfsame emotions and motivation" (Gordon 1995: 742). In answering this question Gordon ends his article with the following words, It can happen only if the very process of becoming a spectator, and of coming to regard myself as an other, changes me. I believe that the process does change us, and that this was Smith's contention, too. But the topic is a complex one: observing myself trying to argue the case in a paragraph or two, I see a lot of hand waving. So I will not try. Q.E.D. (Gordon 1995: 742). Yes, too cute and clever by half. But Gordon was actually on to something here, although I cannot locate any place in which he followed up on this discussion. In response to Gordon's words, a neo-Meadian would say: precisely, the process does change us. For example, an impartial spectator would never have arisen without the to and fro of perspective taking, although this is not the only condition19. Mead refers to the ability to place oneself between two perspectives, or systems, as sociality. And it includes the experience of being 17 It's worth noting here how Goldman and Gordon seem to have opposite problems: one worries about egocentric bias, the other about being overwhelmed by the emotions of the other. Nevertheless, in the end they have a similar weakness. They don't have a developed account of the genesis of judgment as it emerges through social interaction. 18 As mentioned in footnote #13, Gordon does not systematically distinguish between empathy and sympathy in this article. For the most part this is not problematic given his goals. But note that when he uses the phrase "sympathy with oneself", it would be difficult to replace it with "empathy with oneself". The terms have different connotations in contemporary American English. Using "sympathy" in this context appears to help move Gordon's argument along. The terms should be more carefully distinguished. 19 Psychopaths can successfully take perspectives and yet lack concern for others, in all likelihood due to emotional deficits (see, Goldman 2006: 293-294, and Prinz 2006: 32). MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 145 "caught" or suspended between one's own perspective and that of another. This is indeed transformative and we learn how to do this as socially interactive or transactive persons. We are self and other, and can be both self and other. But ST, in either Goldman's or Gordon's versions, is not the best way to capture this interactivity because it is grounded in a model of subjectivity that views the self as requiring a bridge--whether it is one of emotional contagion, imagination, or theory--to overcome the self's separation from the other. No doubt we employ these mechanisms in interacting but we don't require them in the manner that Goldman and Gordon suggest.20 Briefly here is how Mead and the neo-Meadians would tell the story. For Mead, the taking of the perspective of others is a condition for the possibility of self-consciousness and self-criticism. Through the reflexivity involved in linguistic interaction the capacity for perspective-taking is nurtured, although it certainly has proto-versions in the interactivity of infants. Specifically, Mead addresses the importance of the vocal gesture in setting the stage for the reflexivity that is made possible by role-taking. For neoMeadians there is a smooth trajectory from infant interactions through early symbolic interactions. In learning to speak one must be able to hear the other as one hears oneself. This proto-role taking sets the stage for taking the perspective of others in more complex social interactions that we call roles. In order to play roles, we must be able to take the position of the other, as well as our own, and invert them. This is a form of stepping into the other guy's shoes but it is interactive from the get-go. As interactions increase we develop a capacity for taking multiple perspectives. Mead uses the game to illustrate this. If I am playing baseball, and I am the pitcher or third baseman, in order to play the game I must be able to take the perspective of everyone else on the team. Is this mindreading? Not as Goldman understands it. There may not be any introspection at all and yet I am engaged in multiple perspectives. Of course there can be introspection, especially when problems arise. But this phenomenon emerges out of my developing ability to take multiple perspectives. I "see" myself from different perspectives and the perspective of the whole, that is, the generalized other. The latter allows me to see myself or an aspect of myself, depending on how one is defining the self, as if I were the (generalized) other. For neo-Meadians, the taking of multiple perspectives contributes to the development of what might be called an impartial spectator, although as a pragmatist, Mead would never view impartiality as a perfectly calibrated neutrality. There is no view from the mountaintop. There is much that could be said here about how one can't generate an impartial spectator from Gordon's or Goldman's models, as they stand. This not only has to do with the lack of interactivity in their approaches, which is one of the conditions for generating a sense of impartiality. It is because their models do not provide the tools for addressing how groups enter into our experience as a unique sort of third person, what Mead refers to as the generalized other. Most of the time when interacting in groups I do not simulate a group mind, that is, try to figure out what everyone is thinking or believing. I imbibe its patterns of behavior as I interact within the group. These patterns, which are akin to Bourdieu's habitus, play a fundamental role in generating perspectives that transcend the self/other dynamic. In short, if we want to use the notion of empathy to develop a robust ethical theory, 20 Sometimes simulationists sound as if they are trying to create a clear telephonic connection between the self and other. But a better metaphor for much of our social lives is the game telephone, in which the original input is rarely identical to the output, as each participant transforms, even if only slightly, the meaning intended in the first person's words. Paradoxically, this suggests how close we are to the other, not how remote, when seen through the interactionist's lens. It seems that the problem of other minds is still setting the stage for the reflections of the simulationists, when it's time to let the "problem" drift off into history, as Dewey would suggest. MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 146 we need to see it in terms of sympathy and interactive perspective-taking21. Further, we need to view people as agents, not targets, who will behave unpredictably, and whose unpredictability is factored into their sociality by others. In this way we may avoid viewing empathy as an escape hatch for subjects seeking to break away from the similarly wired black boxes of their own minds. References Aboulafia, M., (2010), Transcendence: On Self-Determination and Cosmopolitanism, Stanford, Stanford University Press. Batson, C. D. Lishner, D. A. Cook J. Sawyer, S., (2005), "Similarity and Nurturance: Two Possible Sources of Empathy for Strangers", Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27 (1), pp. 15-25. Cook, G., (1993), George Herbert Mead: The Making of a Social Pragmatist, Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press. Cruz, J. Gordon, R., (2005), "Simulation Theory", in Nadel, L., 2005, Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley and Sons, on-line edition (no page numbers). Gallagher, S., (2007), "Logical and Phenomenological Arguments Against Simulation Theory", pp. 63-78, in Hutto, Daniel D., and Ratcliff, Matthew, eds., 2007, Folk Psychology Re-Assessed, Dordrecht, Springer. Goldman, A. I., (2009), "Replies to Perner and Brandl, Saxe, Vignemont, and Carruthers", Philosophical Studies 144, pp. 477-491. Goldman, A. I., (2006), Simulating Minds: The Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience of Mindreading, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Goldman, A. I., (1993), "Ethics and Cognitive Science", Ethics, Vol. 103, No. 2, pp. 337360. Goldman, A. I., (1992), "Empathy, Mind, and Morals", Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 66. No 3, pp. 17-41. 21 In a forthcoming article (Prinz 2011), "Is Empathy Necessary for Morality?" Jesse Prinz responds to the question in his title with a fairly resounding, yet qualified, no. It is qualified because he leaves open the possibility that "empathic concern" may well play an important role in morality (Prinz 2011). I view Prinz's piece as a corrective to exaggerated claims for what empathy can accomplish for moral actors, if by empathy we mean a kind of emotional vicariousness, which is what Prinz addresses. There is no doubt that "empathy" has been overplayed in popular, as well as some scholarly, literature of late. However, I would argue that Prinz in turn has overplayed his hand in this article. His definition of empathy is circumscribed; for example, he tells us that, "We cannot empathize with a group, except by considering each member" (Prinz, 17 online version). And his reading of the research appears weighted toward supporting his own model--which emphasizes the importance of non-empathic emotions, for example, guilt and anger--through undermining the role of a type of empathy in morality. Although, I tend to agree with him about the importance of some of the "emotions" he mentions, his model ends up offering us an either/or--empathy or his preferred emotions--in spite of a few caveats here and there that empathy may not be completely without value. He also dismisses in a rather cavalier fashion the merit of a cosmopolitan outlook, which he views in Kantian terms. I hope to address some of the limitations of Prinz's approach in the future. His article is currently available on the web For an alternative view of cosmopolitanism, see, Aboulafia 2010 . MITCHELL ABOULAFIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MAD MEN _________________________________________________________________________ ISSN: 2036-4091 2011, III, 2 147 Gordon, R. M., (1995), "Sympathy, Simulation, and the Impartial Spectator", Ethics 105, pp. 727-742. Martin, J. Sugarman, J. H. - Hickenbottom S., (2010), Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency, Dordrecht, Springer. Martin J. Sokol, B. W. Elfers, T., (2008), "Taking and Coordinating Perspectives: From Prereflective Interactivity, through Reflective Intersubjectivity, to Metareflective Sociality", Human Development, 51, pp. 294-317. Mad Men, (2009A), "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency", directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, written by Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner, first aired September 20, 2009. Mad Men, (2009B), "The Fog", directed by Phil Abraham, written by Kater Gordon, first aired September 13, 2009. Mad Men, (2008), "Flight 1", directed by Andrew Bernstein, written by Lisa Albert and Matthew Weiner, first aired August 3, 2008. Prinz, Jesse, (2011), "Is Empathy Necessary for Morality?" in Coplan, Amy and Goldie, Peter, eds., Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, forthcoming late 2011. Prinz, J., (2006), "The Emotional Basis of Moral Judgment", Philosophical Explorations, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 29-43. Smith, A., (1976), The Theory of Moral Sentiments, eds., D.D. Raphael and A.L. MacFie, Oxford: Oxford University Press; reprinted, Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1982.
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{ "creator": "Abreu, Cláudio", "date": "2014", "datestamp": 1554382990000, "description": "Although we may find the concept of anomie in Greek thought, it is since Durkheim that the concept begins to be used specifically as a sociological concept. However, a theory of anomie only becomes consolidated since “Social Structure and Anomie” by Robert K. Merton (Merton 1938). The theory becomes important and conquers its space in the rest of the century as one of the most productive theories about deviance. In this study, based on a contemporary conception of scientific theory, that of the structuralist metatheory, a reconstruction of Merton’s approach is proposed, allowing to make explicit the deep structure of the theory.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRAED", "language": "es", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Metatheoria 4(2)(2014): 9-22. ISSN 1853-2322. © Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Publicado en la República Argentina. Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia Structuralist Analysis of Anomie Theory Cláudio Abreu†‡ Resumen Si bien es posible encontrar el concepto de anomia en el pensamiento griego, es a partir de Durkheim que el concepto empieza a ser utilizado específicamente como un concepto sociológico. Sin embargo, una teoría de la anomia se consolida recién a partir de "Social Structure and Anomie", de Robert K. Merton (Merton 1938). La teoría se vuelve importante y conquista su espacio en el resto del siglo XX destacándose como una de las más productivas teorías acerca de la desviación. En este estudio, con base en una concepción contemporánea de teoria científica, la de la metateoría estructuralista, es presentada una reconstrucción de la propuesta de Merton, lo que permite explicitar la estructura profunda de la teoría. Palabras clave: filosofía de la ciencia metateoría estructuralista Robert K. Merton teoría de la anomia Abstract Although we may find the concept of anomie in Greek thought, it is since Durkheim that the concept begins to be used specifically as a sociological concept. However, a theory of anomie only becomes consolidated since "Social Structure and Anomie" by Robert K. Merton (Merton 1938). The theory becomes important and conquers its space in the rest of the century as one of the most productive theories about deviance. In this study, based on a contemporary conception of scientific theory, that of the structuralist metatheory, a reconstruction of Merton's approach is proposed, allowing to make explicit the deep structure of the theory. Keywords: philosophy of science metatheoretical structuralism Robert K. Merton anomie theory  Recibido: 12 de Enero de 2014. Aceptado en: 27 de Marzo de 2014. † Facultad de Guararapes, Brasil; Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina. Para contactar al autor, por favor escriba a: . ‡ Este trabajo ha sido realizado con la ayuda de los proyectos de investigación PICT2007 No 1558 (ANPCyT, Argentina) y PIP No 112201101-01135 (CONICET, Argentina). Agradezco a los integrantes del seminario permanente de filosofía de la ciencia impartido en el marco del Programa de Investigación "Filosofía e Historia de la Ciencia" del Instituto de Estudios sobre la Ciencia y la Tecnología/Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, por las discusiones acerca de versiones previas del trabajo. Asimismo, agradezco a José Luis Falguera y C. Ulises Moulines por los comentarios y discusiones que en mucho ayudaran a llegar a la versión final. A Pablo Lorenzano agradezco de modo especial por las discusiones y su buena voluntad en ayudarme a estructurar la presentación de las ideas en el presente artículo. Ninguno de ellos son responsables de las deficiencias que aún preserve el trabajo. 10 | Cláudio Abreu 1. Introducción Es ampliamente conocido que una teoría de la anomia (TA) se consolida a partir del artículo de Merton intitulado "Social Structure and Anomie" (Merton 1938). Con este trabajo, la teoría se vuelve importante y conquista su espacio, destacándose como una de las más productivas teorías acerca de la desviación, principalmente en lo se refiere al crimen, la delincuencia, la violencia, etc. Durante este período, dicha teoría pasa por algunas alteraciones y algunas "fusiones" con "otras" teorías. Este estudio se enfoca exclusivamente en la formulación de TA conforme es presentada por Merton en "Social Structure and Anomie", en tanto los desarrollos posteriores de la teoría serán objeto de estudio en trabajos ulteriores. En este artículo se exponen las principales ideas contenidas en la publicación de 1938 para posteriormente presentar la reconstrucción de TA. 2. "Social Structure and Anomie" El artículo empieza presentando la oposición de Merton a la tendencia de los sociólogos a atribuir como causa mayor del mal funcionamiento de la estructura social los impulsos biológicos del hombre que no pueden ser socialmente controlados, perspectiva que entiende el orden social como un aparato para la gestión de impulsos y para la transformación (ablandamiento) social de las tensiones. De este modo, la no conformidad estaría basada en la naturaleza original de los individuos y la conformidad sería el fruto de su utilidad o de un condicionamento irracional. Sín embargo, esto no proporciona una base para establecer las condiciones no biológicas que llevan a las desviaciones de lo esperado socialmente en términos de conducta. En este contexto Merton afirma: El esquema conceptual [su propuesta] que se describe está diseñado para proporcionar un enfoque coherente y sistemático para el estudio de las fuentes socio-culturales de la conducta desviada. Nuestro principal objetivo consiste en descubrir cómo algunas estructuras sociales ejercen una presión definida sobre ciertas personas en la sociedad a participar en una conducta inconformista y no [en una] conformista (Merton 1938, p. 672). Con este propósito, Merton distingue por un lado los objetivos definidos culturalmente, que tienen el rol de un marco de referencia aspiracional y, por otro, aquello que define (controlando y regulando) los medios aceptables de tener éxito, es decir, de lograr tales metas: Cada grupo social invariablemente acopla su escala de objetivos deseados con la regla moral o institucional de los procedimientos permitidos y requeridos para la consecución de estos fines. Estas normas regulatorias y los imperativos morales no necesariamente coinciden con las normas técnicas o de eficiencia. Muchos de los procedimientos que desde el punto de vista de los individuos particulares serían más eficientes en la obtención de los valores deseados [...] se excluyen del ámbito institucional de las conductas permitidas (Merton 1938, p. 673). Sin embargo, aunque operen de forma conjunta, los objetivos culturales y las normas institucionales no guardan necesariamente una relación constante entre sí. Es posible que socialmente se dé mayor importancia a los objetivos que a las normas o, por otro lado, puede darse lo inverso, que las normas sean más valoradas socialmente que las objetivos [metas] culturales. Entre estos dos extremos se encuentra un número bastante grande de posibilidades. Tales posibilidades llevan a que "la conducta aberrante [...] puede ser vista como un síntoma de la disociación entre aspiraciones culturalmente definidas y medios socialmente estructurados [disponibles]" (Merton 1938, p. 674). Esto resulta en un conflicto que Merton ilustra con un fenómeno típico de la cultura estadounidense: El énfasis extremo en la acumulación de la riqueza como un símbolo de éxito en nuestra propia sociedad se opone por completo al control efectivo de los modos de regulación institucional de la adquisición de una fortuna. El fraude, la corrupción, el vicio, la delincuencia, en fin, todo el catálogo de Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 11 conductas prohibidas se hace cada vez más común cuando el énfasis en el origen cultural de éxitoobjetivo está divorciado de un énfasis institucional coordinado (Merton 1938, pp. 675-676). Están, por un lado, los objetivos que culturalmente son asumidos como importantes y, por otro, los medios realmente existentes, es decir, los medios disponibles para lograr tales objetivos. Es la disociación entre ellos lo que constituye la anomia, y entonces, la presión hacia el desvío. Una vez que el individuo tiene asimilados de algún modo los objetivos socialmente valorados y las normas (la moral de la sociedad en cuestión), esta situación de conflicto hace necesaria una adaptación, que consiste en tomar una actitud, expresada por una postura frente a esta situación en lo que respecta tanto a los objetivos socialmente valorados como a los medios a la vez eficientes y aceptables para lograr tales objetivos, es decir, los medios recomendables. Las adaptaciones son: (a) innovación, que corresponde a seguir los objetivos socialmente valorados abandonando los medios recomendables socialmente para lograr tales objetivos; (b) ritualismo, cuando se da lo inverso, es decir, el abandono de los objetivos socialmente valorados y la utilización/valoración de los medios recomendables socialmente sin la búsqueda del objetivo socialmente valorado, (c) retraimiento, que corresponde al abandono tanto de los objetivos socialmente valorados como de los medios recomendables; (d) rebelión, que además del abandono de los objetivos socialmente valorados y de los medios recomendables presupone el intento de legitimar una nueva conformación social, principalmente en lo que se refiere a los objetivos socialmente valorados y, lógicamente, también de los medios socialmente recomendables. Estas cuatro adaptaciones son conductas inconformistas. Es evidente que es posible también aceptar los objetivos socialmente valorados e intentar lograrlos a través de medios recomendables, lo que caracteriza la conducta conformista. Cabe decir que estas adaptaciones no se refieren a rasgos de la personalidad, sino a modos de adaptación a cierta situación social, siendo posible el cambio de un tipo de adaptación a otro según sea la situación. Además, importa notar también que es la conformidad, y no la inconformidad, lo que prevalece, siendo así posible la estabilidad y continuidad de la sociedad. La malla de las expectativas de lo que constituye todo orden social se sustenta en el modo de comportamiento de sus miembros pertenecientes a la primera categoría [conformidad]. La conducta de rol convencional orientada hacia los valores básicos del grupo es la regla y no la excepción. Es este hecho por sí solo lo que nos permite hablar de un agregado humano como constituyente de un grupo o una sociedad (Merton 1938, p. 677). Al no obtener éxito en la búsqueda de los objetivos socialmente valorados por no tener acceso a los medios legítimos (recomendábles socialmente), es natural buscar generar una situación que permita escapar de la incómoda circunstancia de fracasar en el intento. Entre estas adaptaciones, la menos frecuente es el retraimiento. Ésta tiene lugar cuando "los objetivos de la cultura y los procedimientos institucionalizados se han asimilado completamente, es decir, con gran intensidad, por el individuo y [se han] impregnado de afecto y de alto valor positivo" (Merton 1938, p. 677), pero que, sin embargo, en la estructura social vigente, los "procedimientos institucionalizados que prometen una medida de éxito en la consecución de los objetivos no están disponibles para el individuo" (Merton 1938, p. 677). Además: Se tomó nota que, donde la frustración se deriva de la falta de acceso a los medios institucionales eficaces para la consecución económica o de cualquer otro tipo del gran valor "éxito", las adaptaciones [...] innovación, ritualismo y rebelión tambien son posibles. El resultado será determinado por la personalidade particular, y por lo tanto, el fondo cultural particular involucrado (Merton 1938, p. 678). En lo que se refiere a la innovación, Merton afirma que este tipo de adaptación tiene lugar cuando "la frustración se elimina por renunciar a los medios institucionales y retener la aspiración al éxito" (Merton 1938, p. 678), el ritualismo ocurre cuando "el objetivo se deja caer [...] pero la conformidad con los costumbres persiste" (Merton 1938, p. 678) y, por último, la rebelión sucede cuando "la emancipación de las normas imperantes [...] conduce a un intento de introducir 'un nuevo orden social'" (Merton 1938, p. 678), lo que significa también nuevos objetivos a ser socialmente valorados 12 | Cláudio Abreu como más importantes. En el caso de la innovación, la baja intensidad en la asimilación de la importancia de los medios recomendables permite la renuncia a ellos, lo que no pasa con respeto a los objetivos socialmente valorados, que tienen su importáncia asimilada con más intensidad. En el caso del ritualismo lo que pasa es justamente el inverso, la asimilación es más intensa con respeto a la importancia de dichos medios que la asimilación de los objetivos socialmente valorados. La rebelión sucede cuando la asimilación de la importancia tanto de dichos objetivos como de los medios recomendables son débiles. Con TA Merton se propone explicar la conducta desviada (inconformista) a partir de aspectos sociales (y no biológicos). Lo hace vinculando, en circunstancias específicas (la imposibilidad de acceder a los medios recomendables y el fracaso en lograr el éxito-objetivo), la asimilación de los objetivos y normas sociales con la ocurrencia de conductas desviadas. La noción clave para entender cómo Merton logra explicar la conducta desviada es la de asimilación en lo que se refiere a los objetivos socialmente valorados positivamente y a las normas (morales) vigentes en la sociedad en cuestión. La noción de igualdad ("el sol brilla para todos"), por la cual se concibe que los objetivos socialmente valorados deben estar al alcance de todos, lleva, una vez que los medios socialmente aceptables no están de hecho al alcance de todos, a una situación en la cual "[l]a frustración y la aspiración frustrada provocan la búsqueda de vías de escape de una situación culturalmente inducida intolerable; o la ambición sin alivio puede tener como efecto intentos ilegales para adquirir los valores dominantes" (Merton 1938, p. 680). 3. El elemento teórico básico de TA 3.1. La clase de los modelos potenciales de TA La reconstrucción de TA que aquí se presenta tiene por base la metodología de la metateoría estructuralista, conforme es presentada en An Architectonic for Science. The Structuralist Program (Balzer, Moulines & Sneed 1987). Se presupone que el lector está familiarizado con los conceptos de dicha metateoría. En el caso de TA, como conceptos constituyentes de la teoría están "individuos", "objetivos", "normas", "medios", "posturas". Además, está el conjunto auxiliar "símbolos comparativos". Éstos son los dominios a partir de los cuales se constituirán (conjuntistamente) las funciones "medios eficientes", "medios aceptables", "medios disponibles", "postura frente a objetivos", "postura frente a medios recomendables", "asimilar [la importancia de los] objetivos" y "asimilar [la importancia de las] reglas (normas)", además de la relación "éxito" (x logra y utilizando z). Teniendo en cuenta estos componentes conceptuales, ya es posible caracterizar el conjunto de los modelos potenciales de TA. D1: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo potencial de la teoría de la anomia (x  Mp(TA)) syss: (1) I ≠  ‖ I‖ < א0 ("individuos") (2) O ≠  ‖ O‖ < א0 ("objetivos") (3) N ≠  ‖ N‖ < א0 ("normas") (4) M ≠  ‖ M‖ < א0 ("medios") (5) P = {+, - , *} ("posturas") (6) ⨀ = { , } (conjunto auxiliar "símbolos comparativos": variable: ) [Conjunto auxiliar] (7) mef: O → (Pot(M) - ) ("medios eficientes") (8) mac: O  (Pot(N) - ) → (Pot(M) - ) ("medios aceptables") DA1: mre = {mi/mi  DII(mef)  mi  DII(mac)} ("medios recomendables") (9) mdi: I  O → Pot(M) ("medios disponibles") Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 13 (10) pob: I  O → P ("postura frente a objetivos") (11) pmr: I  mre → P ("postura frente a medios recomendables") DA2: tco = {α, α'/α  DII(pob)  α'  DII(pmr)} ("tipos de conductas") (12) exi  I  O  M ("éxito" (x logra y utilizando z)) (13) aob: I  O → ⨀ ("asimilar [la importancia de los] objetivos") (14) are: I  (Pot(N) - ) → ⨀, con (Pot(N) - )  DI(mac) = (Pot(N) - )  DI(are) ("asimilar [la importancia de las] reglas (normas)") [el DI(mac) y el DI(are) no están sólo formados por (Pot(N) - ), sino por pares ordenados, en donde el segundo componente de dicho par es un miembro de (Pot(N) - ); el primero es, para mac, un elemento de O, y, para are, un elemento de I] Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) I representa el conjunto de individuos (seres humanos): personas que se relacionan con otras, formando parte de determinados contextos sociales y no de otros, inmersas en la cultura de su lugar (su lugar puede ser desde un pueblito de pescadores bastante aislado hasta el planeta como un todo, dependiendo entonces de las actividades y el nivel cultural-económico de cada individuo). Dado que TA se aplica siempre a una sociedad, se asume que el conjunto de individuos es el conjunto de individuos característico de una sociedad. (2) O representa el conjunto de objetivos: elementos programáticos que identifican la finalidad hacia la cual deben dirigirse los recursos y esfuerzos. Pueden ser materiales (la vivienda propia) y sociales, es decir, de status (presidente de la República). También en este caso, por las razones mencionadas, se asume que el conjunto de objetivos es el conjunto de objetivos característico de una sociedad. (3) N representa el conjunto de normas: ordenamientos imperativos de acción, es decir, reglas, disposiciones o criterios para regular acciones o bien para regular los procedimientos que se deben seguir para la realización de las tareas. Del mismo modo que en el caso de los dos conjuntos anteriores, se asume éste como siendo el conjunto de normas característico de una sociedad. (4) M representa el conjunto de medios: diligencias para conseguir algo, es decir, acciones que sirven para determinados fines. Como en los casos anteriores, se asume este conjunto como el conjunto de los medios existentes en una sociedad. (5) P representa el conjunto de posturas. Es un conjunto constituido por las posibilidades de toma de posición que, en el marco de la teoría, cabe considerar tanto frente a los objetivos como a los medios. Las posibilidades son tres: la aceptación (+), el rechazo (-) y la sustitución (*). Como se verá de inmediato, son los valores que le corresponden al codominio de las funciones pob y pmr. (6) ⨀ representa el conjunto de símbolos comparativos. Es un conjunto auxiliar constituido por dos simbolos "contrarios". Por un lado, "fuerte" (representada por " ") y, por otro, "débil" (representada por " "). Estos símbolos serán empleados en las funciones aob y are. Trabajar con las nociones "fuerte" y "débil" parece dejar la reconstrucción un tanto imprecisa. Justamente es una suerte de imprecisión que se busca aprehender, una vez que la propia teoría esté presentada, cómo es posible notar en la descripción de los tipos de conductas inconformistas, con cierta vaguedad en la apreciación de las razones que subyacen a un tipo de conducta inconformista en específico. Los grados de asimilación no son precisados por Merton. Lo único que cuenta es que x sea más o sea menos o sea de modo igual (ya sea con intensidad fuerte o débil) asimilado que y. Es una métrica simple para expresar una propiedad (la intensidad) de la asimilación, ya sea de normas (are) o de objetivos (aob). (7) mef representa la función de medios eficientes. Esta función le asigna, a un determinado objetivo, un subconjunto del conjunto de los medios. La característica específica de este subconjunto de medios asignado a dicho objetivo es que estos medios son aquellos que son eficientes para lograrlo. 14 | Cláudio Abreu (8) mac representa la función de medios aceptables. Esta función le asigna, a un determinado objetivo, frente a un subconjunto del conjunto de normas, un subconjunto del conjunto de los medios. La característica específica de este subconjunto de medios asignado a dicho objetivo es que estos medios son aquellos que son aceptables socialmente (están de acuerdo con las normas) para lograrlo. DA1: mre representa los "medios recomendables", es decir, aquellos medios que socialmente se espera que sean utilizados para lograr los objetivos. Es un conjunto de medios que son a la vez eficientes y aceptables. (9) mdi representa la función de medios disponibles. Esta función le asigna, a un determinado individuo, con referencia a determinado objetivo, un subconjunto del conjunto de los medios. La característica específica de este subconjunto de medios asignado a dicho individuos es que estos medios son aquellos que están disponibles para ello. (10) pob representa la función de postura frente a objetivos. Esta función le asigna, a un determinado individuo, con referencia a determinado objetivo, una postura. Según el conjunto de posturas, tres son las posibilidades: la aceptación (+), el rechazo (-) y la sustitución (*). Por aceptación se entiende intentar lograr dicho objetivo; el rechazo significa no intentar lograrlo; la sustitución involucra el intento de reemplazo por otro objetivo a ser buscado. Esto es importante para TA una vez que la postura del individuo frente a los objetivos culturales es uno de los componentes que conforman las conductas asumidas por los individuos que la teoría se destina a explicar. (11) pmr representa la función medios recomendables. Esta función le asigna, a un determinado individuo, con referencia a determinado(s) medio(s) recomendable(s), una postura. Del mismo modo que en pob, son tres las posibilidades: la aceptación (+), el rechazo (-) y la sustitución (*). En este caso, por aceptación se entiende utilizar (en el intento de lograr el objetivo en cuestión) algún(os) de los medios recomendables; el rechazo significa no utilizar (en el intento de lograr el objetivo en cuestión) algún(os) de los medios recomendables; la sustitución involucra el intento de reemplazar los actuales medios concebidos como recomendables por otros medios. Esto también es importante para TA una vez que la postura del individuo frente a los medios recomendables es uno de los componentes que conforman las conductas asumidas por los individuos que la teoría pretende explicar. DA2: tco representa los "tipos de conductas". Es un conjunto de pares ordenados, con el primer elemento de dicho par perteneciendo al codominio de pob y el segundo al codominio de pmr. (12) exi representa la relación de éxito. Es una relación entre un individuo, un objetivo y algún(os) medio(s). Representa el hecho del intento de logro de un objetivo por un individuo utilizando para ello algún medio. (13) aob representa la función de asimilar [la importancia de los] objetivos. Esta función le asigna, a un individuo, cierta intensidad en la asimilación de la importancia de los objetivos culturales. Como se ha visto, la intensidad puede ser "fuerte" ( ) o "débil" ( ). (14) are representa la función de asimilar [la importancia de las] reglas (normas). Esta función le asigna, a un individuo, cierta intensidad en la asimilación de la importancia de un subconjunto del conjunto de normas culturales. 3.2. La clase de los modelos de TA La clase de los modelos de una teoría son la contraparte modeloteórica de lo que en la concepción clásica de las teorías se denomina "ley". En el caso de TA, es posible expresar dicha clase del siguiente modo: D2: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo de la teoría de la anomia (x  M(TA)) syss: (1) x  Mp(TA) Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 15 (2) dados I, O, N, M, P y ⨀, existen funciones mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, aob, are y la relación exi, tales que: si mre  DII(mdi) =  y exi = , entonces se cumple: (aob    are  ) = (tco  +, +) Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de TA, pertenezca a los modelos potenciales de TA. (2) Expresa la "ley fundamental" de TA, que afirma que, cuando existe un conflicto entre "estructura cultural y "estructura social" (representadas aquí por objetivos y normas, por un lado, y medios, por el otro), y el individuo no logra un objetivo socialmente valorado, se espera que éste presente una conducta inconformista, debido a (y según sea) la asimilación que haga de la importancia del objetivo y de las normas que regulan los modos aceptables de lograrlo. 3.3. La clase de los modelos parciales de TA Con la mente puesta en la caracterización estructuralista de los modelos potenciales de una teoría, se pueden examinar los conceptos básicos de TA, a saber, I, O, N, M, P, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are, a fin de determinar cuáles de estos conceptos son TA-teóricos y cuáles son TA-no-teóricos, con la mente puesta en que los conceptos TA-teóricos presuponen la ley fundamental de TA para la determinación de su extensión. En el caso de I ("individuos"), considérese la caracterización informal dada de este concepto al ser explicitados los modelos potenciales de TA: I constituye uno de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría. Sin embargo, para averiguar si una entidad particular i pertenece al conjunto I no es necesario presuponer la validez de la ley de TA; bastarían, de hecho, métodos empíricos independientes: aquellos que utilizamos para identificar observacionalmente los seres humanos y distinguirlos de las demás cosas existentes. Lo mismo ocurre con O ("objetivos"), que también constituye otro de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría, es decir, su determinación se da con independencia de TA. La determinación de las entidades que caen bajo este concepto puede darse por la observación del comportamiento, por encuestas y otros modos que permiten establecer la motivación para la acción, es decir, a qué está dirigido el actuar de los individuos. Por lo general, un muestreo con un número significativo de individuos es admitido por los científicos como un dato aceptable acerca de una sociedad. De este modo se puede determinar si un objetivo es característico de (valorado en) una sociedad sin presuponer TA. En lo que se refiere a N ("normas"), que también constituye otro de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría, la determinación de las entidades que lo constituyen es también independiente de TA. De hecho, basta observar, en la mayoría de los casos, los códigos jurídicos y los comportamientos de los individuos. La observación del comportamiento es importante en la medida en que las normas culturales actúan en un contexto que va más allá del jurídico. En las relaciones sociales puede haber sanciones a este o aquel individuo que no esté, por ejemplo, de acuerdo con el hábito, la moda, los procedimientos vigentes en determinado contexto. Como en el caso de los objetivos, por lo general, un muestreo significativo de casos individuales es admitido por los científicos como un dato aceptable acerca de una sociedad. De este modo se puede determinar si una norma es característica (conforma el aparato normativo) de una sociedad. M ("medios"), que es también uno de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría, comprende los modos de lograr los objetivos, es decir, las acciones que sirven para determinados fines. La determinación de las entidades que pertenecen a este conjunto se da, también, con independencia de TA. Dado un objetivo, la determinación de los medios en nada depende de TA, sino de factores, más bien técnicos, ajenos a ella. La observación basada en el 16 | Cláudio Abreu conocimiento (concepción) que se tiene de lo que sea un medio, basta para la determinación de la extensión del concepto. P ("posturas"), que también constituye otro de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría, comprende las posibilidades de toma de posición frente, en el caso de la TA, tanto a los objetivos como a los medios. Como señalado, las posibilidades son tres: la aceptación (+), el rechazo (-) y la sustitución (*). Es evidente que para determinar que alguién tiene una actitud frente algo no hace falta pressuponer la TA, sino que basta el conocimiento comum que es utilizado cotidianamente en las relaciones humanas. En el caso de ⨀, dado que es un conjunto auxiliar, no tiene sentido aplicarle la distinción TAteórico/TA-no-teórico. Así se llega a que, entre los dominios básicos de TA, no se encuentra un concepto que sea TA-teórico. En lo que sigue, se analizan las funciones y la relación definidas (conjuntistamente) a partir de tales dominios. En lo que respecta a mef ("medios eficientes"), determinar que un medio sea o no eficiente para lograr un determinado objetivo es independiente de TA. Más bien depende de la concepción de eficiencia. El medio será considerado eficiente si por él se logra el objetivo en cuestión. Acá, como bien apunta Merton, lo importante son factores técnicos que pueden ser aplicados, en términos de la determinación de la extensión del concepto, por la observación, teniendo en cuenta los factores de eficiencia considerados por los científicos (o, en este caso, técnicos). En el caso de mac ("medios aceptables"), la determinación de los medios que son aceptables para lograr algún objetivo se da también de modo independiente de TA. Determinar si un determinado medio es aceptable o no, requiere averiguar si éste está o no de acuerdo con las normas en cuestión. Basta tener acceso a los códigos jurídicos (en el caso de normas legales) o a la moral (hábitos) en cuestión y entonces constatar el acuerdo o desacuerdo. En el caso de normas jurídicas la determinación se hace efectiva por medio del uso de "técnicas jurídicas" y cuando se trate de normas no formales cabe la observación acerca de la aprobación moral respecto de la utilización de este o aquel medio para lograr determinado objetivo. En cuanto a mdi ("medios disponibles"), determinar si un medio está disponible a cierto individuo no requiere presuponer la ley TA. A partir del análisis de la condición social del individuo se puede determinar qué medios tiene él a su disposición en lo que se refiere a un determinado objetivo. En caso de que la simple observación no alcance, es bastante probable que las encuestas sociales (es decir, las encuestas gubernamentales y de los demás organismos que tratan de indicadores sociales) sirvan para determinar cuáles son las posibilidades existentes (disponibles) para cada tipo de individuo. En el caso de pob ("postura frente a los objetivos"), la determinación de la postura es independiente de TA. Basta, de hecho, observar el comportamiento de los individuos y así averiguar si aceptan, rechazan o intentan sustituir los objetivos. Con pmr ("postura frente a los medios recomendables") pasa lo mismo, la determinación de la postura es independiente de TA. Basta, también, observar el comportamiento de los individuos y así averiguar si aceptan, rechazan o intentan sustituir los medios recomendables. En lo que respecta a exi ("éxito" (x logra y utilizando z)), determinar si esta relación se da o no, requiere procedimientos independientes de TA, como la observación, el sondeo o la entrevista en profundidad, o incluso la técnica denominada "focus group". En los casos en que se disponga de acceso relevante a las acciones, se puede llegar a la determinación sólo por la observación. Cuando esto no es posible, las demás técnicas surgen como alternativas. En lo que respecta a aob ("asimilar [la importancia de los] objetivos"), en donde se le asigna al individuo una intensidad de asimilación de los objetivos culturales, parece no haber manera de determinar los valores que asume esta función sin tener en cuenta la actitud del individuo frente a los objetivos, o sea, su conducta. De este modo, una vez que la ley de la teoría afirma que la conducta (compuesta de dos actitudes, una referente a los objetivos sociales) es dependiente de la asimilación de los objetivos culturales y las normas culturales, está claro que la determinación de los valores de aob es Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 17 dependiente de la teoría, es decir, aob es un concepto TA-teórico. No hay otro modo de determinar el valor que asume esta función en cada aplicación de TA. También en lo que respecta a are ("asimilar [la importancia de las] reglas (normas)"), en donde se le asigna al individuo una intensidad de asimilación de las normas culturales, parece no haber manera de determinar los valores que asume esta función sin tener en cuenta la actitud del individuo frente a las normas. De este modo, una vez que la ley de la teoría afirma que la conducta (compuesta de dos actitudes, una referente a los medios recomendables) es dependiente de la asimilación de los objetivos culturales y las normas culturales, como en el caso de aob, está claro que la determinación de los valores de are es dependiente de la teoría, es decir, are es una función TA-teórica. No hay otro modo de determinar el valor que asume esta función en cada aplicación de TA. Sabiendo que aob y are son los únicos conceptos TA-teóricos, ya se puede caracterizar la clase de los modelos parciales de TA. D3: y = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi es un modelo parcial de la teoría de la anomia (y  Mpp(TA)) syss existe una x tal que: (1) x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are  Mp(TA) (2) y = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi. 3.4. Las condiciones de ligadura de TA Las restricciones impuestas por las leyes no son el único tipo de restricciones que puede imponérsele a los modelos potenciales. Otro tipo de restricciones son lo que se denomina condiciones de ligadura. Éstas vinculan modelos de una teoría según ciertas condiciones (se podría decir, nómicas), entendiéndose así como "leyes sobre leyes". En caso de que un concepto conserve invariablemente una característica de una aplicación de la teoría a otra es posible establecer una condición que exprese dicha conservación, vinculando así distintos modelos (aplicaciones) de dicha teoría. Está claro que no se espera que un individuo tenga siempre la misma adaptación, es decir, frente al hecho de no lograr un objetivo, presente una constancia en el tipo de reacción ante dicho fracaso. Que esto no pasa ya nos lo advierte Merton al señalar que aquí no se trata de un rasgo de personalidad que nos avale esperar siempre lo mismo. Ahora bien, ya cuando uno se enfoca en las funciones TA-teóricas, aob y are, parece que sucede algo distinto. Frente a un objetivo, la asimilación del individuo es la misma (es siempre igual) en la mayoría de los casos en los contextos en que estén involucrados el mismo objetivo y el mismo individuo, para el caso de aob. Con are pasa lo mismo respecto de las normas. Aquí "en la mayoría de los casos" significa que no siempre, pero casi siempre, ocurre que la intensidad de la asimilación de un individuo con respecto a un objetivo es la misma. Una vez más, esto sirve también para are. No es "siempre" así, sino que lo es "en la mayoría de los casos", por el hecho de que puede ocurrir que, debido a la vivencia del individuo (y aquí no se utiliza el término vivencia de modo técnico, y se debe entender vivencia como llegar a la madurez, aprender algo nuevo, pasar por alguna dificultad, alcanzar un logro muy significativo, etc.) él puede cambiar el modo como asimila objetivos y/o normas. Piénsese, como un ejemplo, en el caso en que la sociedad del individuo se encuentre de pronto involucrada en un conflicto bélico. Es de esperar que los objetivos considerados hasta allí como más importantes vean bastante reducida su importancia, mientras que otros objetivos pasen a ocupar la cima de la jerarquía de importancia. Sin embargo, no existiendo ningún factor de peso interviniendo, existe cierta regularidad a lo largo del tiempo, aun cuando con pequeñas variaciones, en el modo como el individuo asimila un objetivo. Así, pues, se asume que TA presenta dos condiciones de ligadura (ambas de igualdad), una para aob y otra para are. Esto significa que, en el caso de aob, ocurre que, cada vez que se tienen dos modelos potenciales de TA y que se dé que ambos tienen el mismo individuo y el mismo objetivo, la asimilación de este objetivo por el individuo será igual, es decir, presentará la misma intensidad. Lo que ocurre en are es análogo a lo que ocurre en aob, solamente cambiándose el objetivo por un conjunto de normas. A estas condiciones de ligadura se le asocian la cláusula ceteris paribus de que el 18 | Cláudio Abreu individuo no sufre ningún cambio (como, por ejemplo, los arriba mencionados). La justificación para postular estas condiciones de ligadura es que, aun cuando se sepa que a lo largo de una vida uno cambia mucho en términos morales, es posible (y de hecho uno lo hace todo el tiempo) asumir que el individuo es constante en la asimilación del objetivo y/o de las normas. Cabe notar que la condición de ligadura de identidad de aob es independiente de la condición de ligadura de identidad de are. No requiere mucho esfuerzo encontrar casos en que, en lo que respecta a ciertos objetivos, las reglas a seguir para lograrlo de modo aceptable hayan cambiado a lo largo del tiempo. Tampoco requiere esfuerzo encontrar casos en donde la normas sirven para regular el modo aceptable de lograr más de un objetivo. D4: La condición de ligadura de identidad de aob "  ,Caob " (en donde el subíndice indica la función de la que se trata, a saber, la función aob, y el supraíndice el tipo de condición de ligadura, a saber, de igualdad), está definida por X   ,Caob si y sólo si X  Mp(TA) y para toda combinación posible x, x'  X  Mp(TA), en donde x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are y x' = I', O', N', M', P', ⨀', mef', mac', mdi', pob', pmr', exi', aob', are', se cumple que: i, o,   (I  I')  (O  O')  (⨀  ⨀')  (aob(i, o, )  aob' (i, o, )) D5: La condición de ligadura de aob "  ,Care " (en donde el subíndice indica la función de la que se trata, a saber, la función are, y el supraíndice el tipo de condición de ligadura, a saber, de igualdad), está definida por X   ,Care si y sólo si X  Mp(TA) y para toda combinación posible x, x'  X  Mp(TA), en donde x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are y x' = I', O', N', M', P', ⨀', mef', mac', mdi', pob', pmr', exi', aob', are', se cumple que: i, nl (l  N  1  l  n),   (I  I')  (N  N')  (⨀  ⨀')  (are(i, nl (l  N  1  l  n), )  are'(i, nl (l  N  1  l  n), )) El efecto constrictivo conjunto de las condiciones ligaduras de TA, es decir, su condición de ligadura global GC(TA), se expresa mediante la intersección conjuntista de las dos condiciones específicas: GC(TA) =  ,Caob   , Care . 3.5. Los vínculos interteóricos de TA En lo que se refiere a los vínculos interteóricos, no existen para el caso de las funciones aob ("asimilar [la importancia de los] objetivos") y are ("asimilar [la importancia de las] reglas (normas)"), pues son conceptos TA-teóricos. Veamos qué se puede decir acerca de los demás conceptos presentes en la teoría. Cabe notar que, como en cierto sentido ya señala la discusión acerca de los métodos de determinación de los conceptos TA-no-teóricos, la teoría no tiene vínculo alguno con alguna teoría científica cristalizada, es decir, plasmada en el conocimiento científico de modo de estar presente en libros de textos, de ser enseñada en las universidades a las nuevas generaciones, etc. Se verá que hay vínculos, pero éstos son con el conomimiento de sentido común, pre-teorías, proto-teorías o folktheories.1 El propio Merton no indica de dónde provienen los conceptos que utiliza en la teoría. A continuación se trata, entonces, de explicitar, en la medida de lo posible, tales vínculos interteóricos. Comencemos con I ("individuos"). Este concepto procede de alguna "teoría" proveniente del conocimiento común; con esta "teoría" sería posible establecer la interpretación intencional básica de este conjunto base principal. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ1. Algo similar ocurre con O ("objetivos"). El concepto de objetivo proviene también de alguna "teoría" del conocimiento común, o algo un poco más elaborado (proto-teoría), con la cual también sería posible establecer la interpretación intencional básica del conjunto de objetivos. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ2. 1 Para una discusión detallada, véase Lorenzano (2013). Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 19 A través de N ("normas"), TA se vincula con alguna teoría de la normativización, aun cuando ésta no sea demasiado elaborada o detallada. Podríamos pensar en una teoría que ya encontramos en posesión por parte de aquellos que tienen que liderar grupos, que trabajan en gestión de instituciones (escuelas, ejército, empresas, etc.,...). Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ3. En el caso de M ("medios"), hay una larga literatura acerca de los medios (y su relación con los fines) que viene desde los antiguos griegos. La noción de medio es extremadamente conocida y forma parte del conocimiento previo existente. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ4. En cuanto a P parece no existir una teoría desarrollada acerca de las posturas (actitudes) aceptación, del rechazo y la sustitución, las que son relevantes para la teoría. En este caso el vínculo interteórico sería con el conocimiento perteneciente al sentido común. Simbolicemos este vínculo por medio de λ5. Por medio de ⨀ ("símbolos comparativos"), se podría postular un vínculo interteórico con alguna teoría de la medición o de la comparación (en la medida en que esta última es distinta de la primera). Sin embargo, se trata en este caso de un conocimiento de sentido común o del uso bastante relajado de una teoría en sentido estricto. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ6. Tratándose de mef ("medios eficientes"), TA podría vincularse con alguna "teoría de la gestión". Sin embargo, parece ser que el uso del concepto está vinculado con un conocimiento práctico que ya se tiene. Se apela al entendimiento común compartido acerca de lo que son medios y eficiencia. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ7. En lo que respecta a mac ("medios aceptables"), sucede exactamente lo mismo que con los medios eficientes: el uso del concepto está con un conocimiento práctico que ya se tiene. Se apela al entendimiento común compartido acerca de lo que son medios y lo que es aceptable en lo que se refiere a ellos. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ8. En cuanto a mdi ("medios disponibles"), TA se vincula con alguna teoría de la disponibilidad. Parece ser, también en este caso, que se trata de un entendimiento práctico de lo que es estar disponible. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ9. Por medio de pob ("postura frente a los objetivos"), función que representa la actitud de un individuo frente a objetivos socialmente aceptados, TA se vincula con el conocimiento perteneciente al sentido común que afirma la capacidad de reacción del individuo frente a algo. También para este caso, Merton no indica aquí ninguna teoría presupuesta específica. Sin embargo, es importante para TA que se asuma que frente a los objetivos socialmente valorados el individuo presente cierta actitud (una de las tres que son relevantes para la teoría). Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ10. Con pmr ("postura frente a los medios recomendables"), la función que a un individuo le asigna una actitud frente a los medios recomendables, pasa exactamente lo mismo que con pob: por medio de esta función la teoría se vincula con el conocimiento perteneciente al sentido común que afirma la capacidad de reacción del individuo frente a algo. Tampoco aquí indica Merton alguna teoría específica presupuesta, pero evidentemente también en este caso es importante para TA que se asuma que frente a los medios aceptables socialmente el individuo presente cierta actitud (también aquí, una de las tres que son relevantes para la teoría). Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ11. En lo que respecta a exi ("éxito" (x logra y utilizando z)), relación que representa el supuesto de que los individuos logran los objetivos socialmente valorados por medio de la utilización de ciertos medios, no hay nada en lo que dice Merton que haga referencia a una teoría del éxito. Asumamos también aquí que la interpretación intencional básica viene dada por el conocimiento común. Simbolizemos este vínculo por medio de λ12. El vínculo interteórico global de TA (L(TA)), formado por la intersección de todos los vínculos interteóricos que tiene esta teoría con otros saberes subyacentes (presupuestos), se define de la siguiente manera: D6: L(TA) ≝  {λ1, λ2, λ3, λ4, λ5, λ6, λ7, λ8, λ9, λ10, λ11, λ12}. 20 | Cláudio Abreu 3.6. Las aplicaciones intencionales de la TA El dominio de aplicaciones intencionales de TA está constituido por la clase de aquellos sistemas empíricos a los que se desea aplicar la ley fundamental de dicha teoría. Estos sistemas no pueden ser caracterizados por medios puramente formales y, además, lo único que se puede decir desde el punto de vista formal es que I(TA)  Mpp(TA). Entre los posibles sistemas empíricos que satisfacen dicha condición formal, cuáles pertenecen al conjunto de las aplicaciones intencionales de una teoría lo deciden, con el auxilio de las aplicaciones paradigmáticas,2 los miembros de la comunidad científica pragmáticamente. En el caso de TA algunos ejemplos de estos sistemas, que pueden extraerse del texto del propio Merton, son: En una forma de conducta desviada, los individuos se atienen a las metas ensalzadas por la cultura mientras que abandonan los medios aprobados por ella para tratar de lograrlos. Naturalmente este esquema no es específico de una sociedad que proclama altas aspiraciones para todos. Pero una sociedad tal tiende a esfumar la línea demarcatoria entre los caminos legítimos e ilegítimos para la autopromoción, puesto que lo que cuenta más que nada es el resultado. Hecha esta composición de lugar, no nos sorprenderá el descubrimiento de los sociólogos de Cornell de que en las universidades americanas los estudiantes más consagrados al "éxito monetario" y a "progresar en el mundo", sostienen, mucho más a menudo que los otros, que "no pueden permitirse el lujo de tener remilgos en cuanto a los medios" que utilicen. Un segundo tipo de respuesta se da cuando hombres que han internalizado las normas morales a tal punto que no puedan ser violadas, se refugian en la rutina. Abandonan a disgusto sus aspiraciones mientras pueden, tal vez con más firmeza aún a causa de ello, de la rutina de sus roles. Son los ritualistas de nuestra sociedad, incontados aunque probablemente legión: los autómatas de la organización, los rutinarios, los religiosos compulsivos. Otros, en fin, se retraen completamente de la lucha por asegurarse un lugar, abandonando tanto sus esperanzas como la relativa seguridad de cumplir de modo rutinario con las reglas. Están en la sociedad, pero no son de ella. Ésos son los retraídos que juntan una vida de a pedacitos, comiendo un poco, durmiendo mucho y abandonando el esfuerzo de crear pautas de la vida cotidiana que puedan respetar. En lo esencial son pasivos, llevan una existencia semioculta (hote-and-carner existence), enajenados de la gama más amplia de los valores sociales. Algunos, por último, consiguen aniquilar al mundo matándose. Naturalmente éstos no son todos los tipos de respuesta desviada. Muy significativos son los rebeldes quienes, al igual que los retraídos, repudian toda una gama de metas y medios culturalmente prescritos pero que, a diferencia de aquéllos, tratan en forma deliberada de desarrollar otros nuevos, teniendo sus propias pretensiones de legitimidad. A ellos pertenecen los disidentes que apelan a una moralidad superior, fundándose en los valores últimos más bien que en las normas particulares de la sociedad. (Merton 1964, pp. 218-219) Teniendo en cuenta los modelos parciales de TA (y = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi) es posible expresar lo presentado por Merton en términos de aplicaciones intencionales de TA, es decir, utilizando los términos TA-no-teóricos. Sea, por ejemplo, una conducta de innovación.  ¿Por cuál razón se constata que los estudiantes [I], para progresar en el mundo [O], aun conociendo el reglamento [N] de la universidad, con relación a los medios [M], en caso de que no tengan disponibles [mdi] medios que sean a la vez aceptables [mac] y eficientes [mef], y por lo tanto les sea imposible lograr el objetivo [exi] de modo aceptable socialmente, muy bien podrían intentar lograrlo [pob = +] utilizando medios no recomendables [pmr = -]? De modo similar, también pueden ser descritos en términos de los modelos parciales de TA los otros ejemplos dados por Merton, aun cuando resulte más trabajoso hacerlo. 2 Las aplicaciones paradigmáticas son aquellas aplicaciones exitosas que se convierten en casos-tipo o típicos de nuevas aplicaciones de la teoría. Las aplicaciones paradigmáticas constituyen las instancias concretas en donde se muestra la conexión entre la teoría y la investigación empírica. Análisis estructuralista de la teoría de la anomia | 21 4. Las especializaciones del elemento teórico básico de TA La red teórica de TA presenta un único nivel de especialización con cuatro líneas. Estas especializaciones se dan de acuerdo con las restricciones impuestas al conjunto de las asimilaciones hechas por los individuos de los objetivos y de las normas culturales, es decir, al conjunto definido a partir de los valores asumidos por las funciones aob y are, ambas funciones TA-teóricas. 4.1. Primera línea de especialización La primera línea de especialización restringe la asimilación a que el individuo haya asimilado con mayor intensidad los objetivos que las normas culturales. D7: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo de la teoría de la anomia para la innovación (x  M(TAINN)) syss: (1) x  M(TA) (2) DII(aob) =  DII(are) = = (tco = +, -) Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de TAINN, debe pertenecer a los modelos de TA. (2) Expresa la ley especial, a saber, la afirmación de que, cuando un individuo asimila más la importancia del objetivo que la de las normas, presenta una conducta innovadora. 4.2. Segunda línea de especialización La segunda línea de especialización restringe la asimilación a que el individuo haya asimilado con mayor intensidad las normas que los objetivos culturales. D8: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo de la teoría de la anomia para el ritualismo (x  M(TARIT)) syss: (1) x  M(TA) (2) DII(aob) =  DII(are) = = (tco = -, +) Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de TARIT, pertenezca a los modelos de TA. (2) Expresa la ley especial, a saber, la afirmación de que cuando asimila más la importancia de las normas que la del objetivo, el individuo presenta una conducta ritualista. 4.3. Tercera línea de especialización La tercera línea de especialización restringe la asimilación a que el individuo haya asimilado igualmente, y con fuerte intensidad, los objetivos y las normas culturales. D9: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo de la teoría de la anomia para el retraimiento (x  M(TARET)) syss: (1) x  M(TA) (2) DII(aob) =  DII(are) = = (tco = -, -) Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de TARET, pertenezca a los modelos de TA. 22 | Cláudio Abreu (2) Expresa la ley especial, a saber, la afirmación de que cuando asimila fuertemente tanto la importancia de las normas como la del objetivo, el individuo presenta una conducta de retraimiento. 4.4. Cuarta línea de especialización La cuarta línea de especialización restringe la asimilación a que el individuo haya asimilado igualmente, y con poca intensidad, los objetivos y las normas culturales. D10: x = I, O, N, M, P, ⨀, mef, mac, mdi, pob, pmr, exi, aob, are es un modelo de la teoría de la anomia para la rebelión (x  M(TAREB)) syss: (1) x  M(TA) (2) DII(aob) =  DII(are) = = (tco = *, *) Comentario sobre este predicado: (1) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de TAREB, pertenezca a los modelos de TA. (2) Expresa la ley especial, a saber, la afirmación de que cuando asimila de modo débil tanto la importancia de las normas como la del objetivo, el individuo presenta una conducta de rebelión. 5. La red teórica de TA Enunciadas las especializaciones de la teoría, es posible expresar gráficamente la red teórica de TA del siguiente modo: TA TAINN TARIT TARET TAREB Bibliografía Balzer, W., Moulines, C.U. y J.D. Sneed (1987), An Architectonic for Science. The Structuralist Program, Dordrecht: Reidel. (Traducción castellana y edición revisada de Pablo Lorenzano: Una arquitectónica para la ciencia. El programa estructuralista, Bernal: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2012.) Clinard, B.M. (ed.) (1964), Anomie and Deviant Behavior: A Discussion and Critique, Nueva York: Free Press. Lorenzano, P. (2013), "Aspectos erotéticos del "hibridismo" de Mendel", Contrastes. Revista Internacional de Filosofía 18: 451-468. Merton, R.K. (1938), "Social Structure and Anomie", American Sociological Review 3: 672-682. Merton, R.K. (1964), "Anomie, Anomia, and Social Interaction: Contexts of Deviant Behavior", en Clinard (1964), pp. 213-242. Figura 1. Representación gráfica de la red teórica de TA
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{ "creator": "Abrams, Jerold J.", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1599497719000, "description": "In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the brilliant scientist Viktor Frankenstein constructs and animates a gigantic and superhumanly powerful man. But upon animation, Frankenstein discovers he neglected beauty, and beholding his hideous creation flees in horror without even naming the man. Abandoned and alone the monster leaves society, yet secretly observing humanity learns language and philosophy and eventually discovers humanity’s self-understanding and his own self-understanding to be grounded in beauty rather than reason.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRAIM", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Aesthetics in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy vol.1 (2018) © 2018 by Alfredo Mac Laughlin. ISSN 2573-881X This article © 2018 by Jerold J. Abrams. Published 2018 June 3. Original publication under a CC-BY-NC License by the Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Jerold J. Abrams Creighton University Abstract In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the brilliant scientist Viktor Frankenstein constructs and animates a gigantic and superhumanly powerful man. But upon animation, Frankenstein discovers he neglected beauty, and beholding his hideous creation flees in horror without even naming the man. Abandoned and alone the monster leaves society, yet secretly observing humanity learns language and philosophy and eventually discovers humanity's self-understanding and his own self-understanding to be grounded in beauty rather than reason. When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw - with shut eyes, but acute mental vision - I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Author's Introduction (8-9) 1. Shelley's Dream In her Author's Introduction Mary Shelley recalls the half-waking dream that would become her brilliant philosophical science fiction novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The "pale student of unhallowed arts" would become the great scientist and modern Prometheus, Viktor Frankenstein, and the "hideous phantasm of a man stretched out" upon the "powerful engine" would become the infamous and terrifying monster. In the novel Frankenstein reverse engineers (engineering by copying form) an artificial man from parts of men and animals and then animates and awakens the assemblage of nonliving parts. But in the moment of animation, when the artificial man rises and opens his eyes and beholds his creator, Frankenstein discovers his creation to be the most horribly hideous thing in the world. Frankenstein, unable to bear the aesthetic horror, flees without naming the artificial man or teaching him to speak or survive on his own. If Adam and Eve with their sudden self-consciousness found themselves abandoned and exiled from the Garden Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 2 of Eden, and forced to form the first civilization, then at the height of that same civilization this new and unnamed artificial Adam, without self-consciousness, now finds himself abandoned and alone, and forced into the wilderness, for none can behold him except in mortal horror. But in the wilderness, and gazing like a scientist on civilization, the artificial man acquires language, and even learns philosophy, and ultimately discovers the true nature of humanity. Instead of the rational animal humanity has always taken itself to be, the artificial man discovers humanity to be the aesthetic animal enamored of the magical power of beauty, and himself tragically no part of humanity. The present essay develops this philosophical interpretation of Frankenstein according to the following structure. Section 2, "Creation and Discovery of the Monster" describes Frankenstein's method of construction and subsequent discovery of his failure to form the artificial man as beautiful. Section 3, "The Beautiful, the Sublime, and the Monster" examines the aesthetic problem of the monster in relation to Aristotle's theory of the beautiful, and the theory of the sublime in Longinus, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and George Santayana. Section 4, "Viktor Frankenstein on the Beautiful and the Sublime" examines Frankenstein's own philosophical study of mountains and ruined castles as beautiful and sublime. Section 5, "The Monster in the Mountains" examines the destruction of Frankenstein's aesthetic experience with the appearance of the monster in the mountains. Section 6, "The Monster's Philosophy" examines the meeting of the man and the monster in the mountains, where the monster eloquently unfolds his heartbreaking story, his hard-won philosophical understanding of the true nature of humanity, his painful acceptance of permanent exile, and finally his request that Frankenstein form for him a female monster so they two may leave civilization for the wilderness. Section 7 concludes the essay. 2. Creation and Discovery of the Monster Originally Frankenstein intended to give the artificial man normal size but the human biological form is composed of very minute parts intricately connected and difficult to handle. As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large. (Shelley, 52) Frankenstein uses parts of large human cadavers and other large animals as may be found in the slaughterhouse such as pigs and cattle and horses. As Frankenstein recalls, "The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials" (53). Anyone might feel disgust at these organs and bones and blood of different species categorized and meticulously prepared for some terrible laboratory synthesis, but Frankenstein delights in the correspondence of anatomical parts of different animals, and how they may be fit together to form a new kind of being. As a scientist Frankenstein examines the anatomical parts in almost purely mechanical terms and apparently without vision of their final aesthetic design except a general proportionality necessary for functionality of form. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 3 But in the moment the dead mass of parts wakes and breathes and slowly moves Frankenstein's pride and elation become terror and disgust. Frankenstein says, "I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs" (56). As Frankenstein looks into the living and dead yellow eyes he sees death itself staring back at him. His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips. (56) Everything about the artificial man is inhuman and all that appears to be human and even otherwise beautiful only exacerbates the inhumanity of his appearance by identity with humanity. The teeth "of pearly whiteness" and hair "a lustrous black, and flowing" might add beauty to a handsome man or beautiful woman, but instead render the artificial man even more visually confusing and disgusting. The face and body appear to be a patchwork of pieces of so many species in a foul tangle of traits and hideous stitchery. Frankenstein has worked only with material and efficient causality, in Aristotle's sense in the Physics, and not the final causality revealed in all the magical masks of form and light worn by nature's wondrously beautiful creatures, especially man and woman. The once proud scientist beholds his creation in terror and disgust, but also disturbed confusion at how he, Frankenstein, with such brilliant eyes and masterful hands, could have made such a horrible thing. Frankenstein says, "I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me" (Shelley, 57). As Harold Bloom writes in his Introduction to his edited volume of critical essays, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, "When the 'dull yellow eye' of his creature opens, this creator falls from the autonomy of a supreme artificer to the terror of a child of earth: 'breathless horror and disgust filled my heart'" (Bloom, 6-7). Denise Gigante in "Facing the Ugly: The Case of Frankenstein" similarly highlights the scene of the "dull yellow eye" strangely "'doubling from a single yellow eye' to two 'watery eyes'" (Gigante, 571). Gigante writes of Frankenstein, "He notices with disgust how the eyeballs are lost in the murkiness, the 'dun-white' of their surrounding sockets, and he even doubts 'if eyes they may be called'" (571). The monster's eyes look like dead watery blobs of opaque yellow glop, failing in color and form and depth, somehow mechanically capable of sight but without glow as index of a man. Floating lost in their murkiness, without reason informing sight with concepts, these eyes know not they are dead. And yet, the monster beholds the man, and apparently by nature smiles happily like a child, and even tries to speak, but already Frankenstein draws back in hatred. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed downstairs. (Shelley, 57) Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 4 The monster beholds his father, but Frankenstein beholds neither his son nor a man but horror itself in the shape of a man and speechless runs. Frankenstein may appear detestable for his abandonment if not for his creation of the monster, but any man would run or worse. According to Noël Carroll in "The Nature of Horror," "Many monsters of the horror genre are interstitial and/or contradictory in terms of being both living and dead: ghosts, zombies, vampires, mummies, the Frankenstein monster, Melmoth, and so on" (Carroll, 55). Frankenstein himself describes the monster in exactly these terms, as alive and dead at once, and even calls the monster a "mummy" and a "demonaical corpse" (Shelley, 57). Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived. (57) Frankenstein's description may seem excessive compared to Dante Alighieri's terrifying monsters in the Inferno, in The Divine Comedy, like the Gorgon Medusa whose eyes once seen turn men to stone (Dante, Inferno IX, lines 46-60), those eyes that contrast with the perfectly beautiful glowing eyes of his beloved Beatrice in the Garden of Eden atop the mountain of Purgatory which "transhumanize" Dante in preparation for his flight through Paradise (Paradiso I, lines 67-72). But Dante traversing the underworld need not behold himself as if in an ontological mirror beholding these terrifying yet imprisoned monsters, while that is precisely Frankenstein's experience in beholding his creation now alive and free to roam the Earth. Frankenstein beholds in the monster a seemingly infinitely shattered and horrifying kaleidoscopic mirror image of humanity, and by this very identity and hideous non-identity with humanity the monster undermines the unity and goodness of humanity. Every man beholds himself in ontological reflection in the eyes of every other man and woman, but no man can behold himself except in absolute terror in beholding the face and form of the monster. His face in the light carries pain to the eye. Frankenstein's discovery of what he has done and not done forces a reversal of direction of action of plot, consistent with Aristotle's theory of tragedy in the Poetics. According to Aristotle, a tragedy is an imitation of a whole action in which a good man's error or fault causes him to fall terribly from good to bad fortune. In Poetics 11 Aristotle claims the tragic plot action reversal to be best when attended by a simultaneous "discovery." A discovery is, as the very word implies, a change from ignorance to knowledge, and thus to either love or hate, in the personages marked for good or evil fortune. The finest form of discovery is one attended by reversal, like that which goes with the discovery in Oedipus. (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1451a30-34, 2324) In Sophocles's Oedipus the King the good king Oedipus once saved Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx with self-knowledge. But now Thebes starves and sickens and dies because the murder mystery of the last king, Laios, remains unsolved; so Oedipus, proud of Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 5 his intellect, vows to solve the mystery. Oedipus consults the blind but all-seeing prophet Teiresias, but Teiresias refuses assistance, so Oedipus insults Teiresias for blindness, and then Teiresias insults Oedipus for mental blindness. Teiresias knows Oedipus to be the very man he seeks. Oedipus unknowingly murdered his father the king, and then married his mother the queen with whom he fathered his siblings. But the mentally blind detective Oedipus eventually uncovers the truth, and finally sees with the eyes of Teiresias: "Now everything is clear" (Sophocles, 77). In the moment Oedipus discovers himself to be the murderer, the action of the plot reverses. His wife and mother Queen Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus beholding her hanged removes her long gold pins from her gown, and plunges them deep into his eyeballs. Finally Oedipus leaves Thebes in exile, as blind as Teiresias, pitiably knowing all. Like Oedipus, Frankenstein is proud of his intellect, and similarly blind to his actions (at least while he performs them), and in the moment of self-discovery the plot reverses against him as well. In this moment of discovery Frankenstein suffers both changes Aristotle identifies for the tragic hero. Frankenstein passes from ignorance to knowledge of his creation and himself, and from love to hate of his creation and himself. But Frankenstein's discovery is not quite a philosophically reflective discovery because, while he knows he neglected beauty, he knows not yet the all-importance of beauty to the identity of humanity. But the monster will make precisely this discovery upon beholding himself with the eyes of a philosopher, and this discovery will also carry unbearable pity and terror, which are the primary emotions of all great tragedies (such as Oedipus the King), according to Aristotle in Poetics 6, 11, and 14 (e.g., 1449b24-28, 2320). 3. The Beautiful, the Sublime, and the Monster According to Aristotle in Metaphysics XIII.3, "The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree" (Aristotle, vol. 1, 1078a36-1078b1, 1075). For example, the objects of geometry such as the sphere and the cube and the pyramid with their symmetry and order and wondrous elegance of line especially reveal the beautiful. But in Frankenstein the monster's lines seem to be scribbled and scratched and blotted so haphazardly not even in negation can they reveal the beautiful. In Poetics 7 Aristotle applies his mathematical aesthetics to animals: Again: to be beautiful, a living creature, and every whole made up of parts, must not only present a certain order in its arrangement of parts, but also be of a certain definite magnitude. Beauty is a matter of size and order, and therefore impossible either in a very minute creature, since our perception becomes indistinct as it approaches instantaneity; or in a creature of vast size-one, say, 1000 miles long- as in that case, instead of the object being seen all at once, the unity and wholeness of it is lost to the beholder. (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1450b34-1451a2, 2322) To be beautiful a creature must not be too small or too large because it must be perceivable as a whole form, and the whole form must also reveal unity among the parts, and the wholeness of the creature must predominate over the parts, which serve the unity of the Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 6 whole. If the creature is too small, then it cannot be seen as a whole with good arrangement of parts, e.g., a clover mite. If the creature is too large, then it cannot be seen as a whole at all, and only the parts appear, e.g., Aristotle's imaginary creature, a thousand miles long. (For perspective, Earth's moon's radius is 1,079 miles long, so Aristotle's imaginary creature is about half the diameter of the moon.) In Frankenstein the monster is large but not colossal, so he can be seen as a whole form, but the parts appear hatefully assembled and violently disarranged, and therefore predominate over the wholeness of form. The monstrous man is not one man but many men and many animals dead and dismembered and reassembled and revealing everywhere sour asymmetry and ontological jumble. The monster's great size only renders this horrible disarrangement more horrible. If the monster were well formed, then his great magnitude might render him brilliantly handsome, perhaps like the "great-souled man" in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics IV.3 (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1123b5-7 and 30, 1773). But instead the monster's magnitude exacerbates his inhuman hideousness and renders him sensuously violent. At eight feet in height with elephantine size and superhuman strength the monster inhabits the ambiguous space between man and giant and this ambiguity augments the horror of his appearance with confusion. In fact, the monster appears to be "interstitial" (or self-contradictory), in Carroll's terms in "The Nature of Horror," in several ways. The monster is alive and dead, a giant and not a giant, a man and not a man, and one and many men and beasts, all at once. And yet, for all his disturbing ambiguity, he is unambiguously and absolutely hideous, and this hideousness alone renders him a monster. As Bloom writes, "a beautiful 'monster' or even a passable one, would not have been a monster" (Bloom, 7; see also Gigante, 568). According to Aristotle in Physics II.8, a monster is a mistake made by nature in forming an animal. As Aristotle writes, "monstrosities will be failures in the purposive effort" (Aristotle, vol. 1, 199b4, 340). Frankenstein's original purpose, as he recalls (at the end of the novel), was to make a "rational animal," using the traditional Aristotelian language: "When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors" (Shelley, 204). "In a fit of enthusiastic madness, I created a rational creature," Frankenstein again recalls (209). But Frankenstein's neglect of beauty undermines this original purpose of forming a "rational animal" or "rational creature." To be a rational creature one must develop one's reason with others and live with others in society. But the monster cannot be recognized aesthetically as a man, so he cannot live in society, and therefore cannot be human. But Frankenstein's deformation of the artificial man also deforms society, and even nature as a whole. A man is a whole of parts, but a man is also a part of the whole of society, and this whole of society is itself a part of the whole of nature. So, by deranging the parts of the artificial man, Frankenstein deranges the whole man, and, by deranging the whole man, Frankenstein deranges the social practices of recognition foundational to society (for none can behold the artificial man except in terror and disgust), and by deranging the whole of society, Frankenstein further deranges nature itself, nature which acts for the beautiful in all her parts and wholes. As Aristotle writes in Parts of Animals I.5, Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 7 Every realm of nature is marvellous: and as Heraclitus, when the strangers who came to visit him found him warming himself at the furnace in the kitchen and hesitated to go in, is reported to have bidden them not to be afraid to enter, as even in that kitchen divinities were present, so we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful. Absence of haphazard and conduciveness of everything to an end are to be found in nature's works in the highest degree, and the end for which those works are put together and produced is a form of the beautiful. (Aristotle, vol. 1, 645a16-25, 1004) Ralph Waldo Emerson echoes this view in Nature: "The ancient Greeks called the world κόσμος, beauty" (Emerson, 12). Every form of nature reveals the beautiful through its "absence of haphazardness" (elegance), but the monster is inelegant in the extreme because his form is a study in haphazardness and distortion. But if nature forms in all her parts the beautiful, and the parts together form a whole which also reveals a form of the beautiful (to be contemplated philosophically), then a gigantic and terrifyingly hideous man also appears to distort the whole of nature. That anyway appears to be the way Frankenstein sees the monster. 4. Viktor Frankenstein on the Beautiful and the Sublime Despite his early blindness to the power of beauty in nature, Frankenstein retreats from society to the mountains to behold their wondrous beauty, and ultimately to forget himself and his terrible act against nature. Frankenstein records a marvelous scene. The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side - the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around, spoke of a power mighty as Omnipotence - and I ceased to fear, or to bend before any being less almighty than that which created and ruled the elements, here displayed in their most terrific guise. Still, as I ascended higher, the valley assumed a more magnificent and astonishing character. Ruined castles hanging on the precipices of piny mountains; the impetuous Arve, and cottages every here and there peeping forth from among the trees, formed a scene of singular beauty. But it was augmented and rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings. (Shelley, 91) The mad scientist who built the most hideous and disgusting thing in the world would appear to be terribly disturbed and incapable of aesthetic sensitivity or refined aesthetic judgment. But now Frankenstein describes the surrounding mountains and castles with penetrating aesthetic perception, almost like a philosophical art critic of otherworldly architecture. In fact, Frankenstein beholds the whole stunningly beautiful scene with the self-sufficient and complete contemplative aesthetic pleasure of Aristotle's philosopher in the Nicomachean Ethics X.4, and even the superhuman intellectual pleasure of Aristotle's godlike philosopher in the Nicomachean Ethics X.7-8. Yet Frankenstein's description also Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 8 bears stunning resemblance to Kant's study of mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, and lightning, as examples of sublimity in nature, in the Critique of the Power of Judgment. Here Kant writes, Bold, overhanging, as it were threatening cliffs, thunder clouds towering up into the heavens, bringing with them flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder, volcanoes with their all-destroying violence, hurricanes with the devastation they leave behind, the boundless ocean set into a rage, a lofty waterfall on a mighty river, etc., make our capacity to resist into an insignificant trifle in comparison with their power. (Kant, 2001, 5: 261, 144) As Kant describes "Bold, overhanging, as it were threatening cliffs," Frankenstein describes "The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side." And as Kant describes "the boundless ocean set into a rage," and "a lofty waterfall on a mighty river," Frankenstein describes "the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around." At first, Frankenstein beholds the mountains as sublime, but then his attention turns to the beautiful castles, and then returns to the mountains-seemingly carrying the concept of dwelling back through analogy through the imagination-to behold the mountains now as sublimely beautiful "white and shining pyramids," apparently crafted by the superhuman hands of "another race of beings" from "another earth." Frankenstein then returns his perception to the beautiful castles, which now appear to be informed by the sublime beauty of the superhuman dwellings, i.e., the mountains. The beautiful castles have been "rendered sublime by the mighty Alps," as the sublime Alps have been rendered beautiful by the "ruined castles." The beauty of the castles, and the sublimity of the mountains, each at first appears distinct, but then synthesize (in Frankenstein's imagination) to form one complete and self-sufficient aesthetic experience of sublime beauty. The beauty of the castles is not separate from the sublimity of the mountains, and the castles as dwellings are not essentially different from the mountains, which also appear as dwellings. The sublime beauty of the mountains is superhuman, and the mountains themselves are superhuman dwellings, and Frankenstein now imagines himself (and even believes himself) to be one of the superhuman craftsmen of these "white and shining pyramids." Once blind to beauty, Frankenstein now appears deeply philosophically reflective and acutely sensitive to the richly textured transitions in his aesthetic field, from natural sublimity, to grand human beauty, to superhuman sublimity, finally to the whole experience as one of superhuman sublime beauty. While Frankenstein's aesthetics of mountains bears close resemblance to Kant's study of the sublime, seemingly synthesized with Aristotle's aesthetics of the beautiful, Longinus's aesthetics in On the Sublime, the first major statement on the sublime, also appears deeply to inform the analysis in Frankenstein. Longinus writes in On the Sublime that "the Sublime consists in a consummate excellence and distinction of language, and that this alone gave to the greatest poets and prose writers their preeminence and clothed them with immortal fame" (Longinus, 163). Longinus's main examples are Plato and Homer for their superhuman voices of philosophy and poetry overwhelming the world with genius. Of Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 9 course, Plato himself in the Ion already identifies the superhuman voice of Homer to be the voice of the Muse speaking through him, and overwhelming all of Greece. In this more than anything, then, I think, the god is showing us, so that we should be in no doubt about it, that these beautiful poems are not human, not even from human beings, but are divine and from gods; that poets are nothing but representatives of the gods, possessed by whoever possesses them. (Plato, 534d-e, 942) Homer himself claims no less, beginning the Iliad channeling the Muse: "Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus and its devastation" (Homer, I, 59). But the superhumanity of the Iliad is multifold, for the Muse sings through Homer, rendering him a unique superhuman medium, who thereby sings superhumanly of a range of superhuman beings. As Longinus writes, "Homer has done his best to make the men in the Iliad gods and the gods men" (Longinus, 189). Homer's sublime soaring song of godlike men like Achilles, and manlike gods like Zeus, sets the Iliad high above the range of mere mortals. But perhaps the greatest power of the Iliad (or any truly sublime literary work) is to cause the reader to feel elation at the thought she herself is somehow the superhuman author of this work. As Longinus writes, "For the true sublime naturally elevates us: uplifted with a sense of proud exaltation, we are filled with joy and pride, as if we had ourselves produced the very thing we heard" (Longinus, 179). This wonderful experience is exactly Frankenstein's experience beholding the mountains and glaciers and castles in sublime exaltation as if he among the alien craftsmen had created all before him. Frankenstein feels as if he were a superhuman maker of superhumanly beautiful and sublime things, and not the inhuman maker of the dead yellow eyes of a walking corpse. His experience is perfect. Frankenstein's study of the beautiful and the sublime also bears resemblance to Santayana's aesthetics in The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of AEsthetic Theory (1896). As Santayana writes, "the sublime is not the ugly, as some descriptions of it might lead us to suppose; it is the supremely, the intoxicatingly beautiful" (Santayana, 151). Here Santayana defines the sublime as superhuman beauty (having already defined beauty as "pleasure objectified"), and categorically excludes ugliness from beauty and sublimity. Santayana also describes the experience of the sublime in quite Longinian terms, as entailing the identification of the reader or beholder with superhuman things or beings. The surprised enlargement of vision, the sudden escape from our ordinary interests and the identification of ourselves with something permanent and superhuman, something much more abstract and inalienable than our changing personality, all this carries us away from the private tragedies before us, and raises us into a sort of ecstasy. (Santayana, 152-153) Frankenstein similarly describes his sublime experience as carrying him away from his private tragedy, by power of enlargement of experience, and a corresponding identification with "something permanent and superhuman," in Santayana's terms, namely, the race of gods and the icy pyramids they built, and the "ever-moving glacier" which fills Frankenstein with "sublime ecstasy" (Shelley, 93-94). In Longinus's terms, Frankenstein Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 10 feels "uplifted with a sense of proud exaltation," as if he himself built the icy mountain pyramids. This feeling of "proud exaltation" is exactly the feeling Frankenstein sought in producing the artificial man, and only this feeling (in the mountains) can make him truly forget what he actually produced in the laboratory. 5. The Monster in the Mountains Frankenstein feels calm and at home in the sublime mountains. But while contemplating the icy pyramids and stormy weather and his own corresponding emotions, suddenly Frankenstein's aesthetic experience shatters and melts: "I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution" (Shelley, 95). The monster runs and jumps over vast crevices in the snow as if he were formed by nature (rather than science) to master this treacherous wilderness of glacier and mountain. "He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes" (95). Previously Frankenstein contemplated castles and mountains too wondrously beautiful for human eyes, but now the monster, "too horrible for human eyes," blinds Frankenstein to beauty and sublimity with loathing. Some may suggest the appearance of the monster merely transforms (rather than destroys) the sublimity of the mountains for Frankenstein, because ugliness (so some claim) can be sublime. For example, prior to Frankenstein, Burke allows for the aesthetic pleasure of the sublimely ugly, in his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. As Burke writes, "Ugliness I imagine ... to be consistent enough with an idea of the sublime. But I would by no means insinuate that ugliness of itself is a sublime idea, unless united with such qualities as excite a strong terror" (Burke, 109). For Burke, the reason ugliness must be so extreme as to be terrifying in order to be sublime is that terror is the essence of the sublime, a definition somewhat recalling Aristotle's aesthetics of terror in the Poetics. As Burke writes, "Indeed, terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently the ruling principle of the sublime" (Burke, 54). Of course, in Frankenstein the monster's ugliness incites terror, so apparently the monster's appearance would determine the judgment of the sublime. But the monster's ugliness is so disturbingly disgustingly terrifying that it always incites loathing, and loathing destroys aesthetic pleasure completely. As Kant writes in the Critique of the Power of Judgment, "only one kind of ugliness cannot be represented in a way adequate to nature without destroying all aesthetic satisfaction, hence beauty in art, namely, that which arouses loathing" (Kant, 2001, 5: 312, 190). In Frankenstein the monster's ugliness unavoidably and immediately arouses loathing, and therefore "destroys all aesthetic satisfaction," and therefore undermines the possibility of sublimity. By undermining all possible aesthetic pleasure, the monster also determines in the mind of the beholder a judgment of the evil. According to Santayana in The Sense of Beauty, That we are endowed with the sense of beauty is a pure gain which brings no evil with it. When the ugly ceases to be amusing or merely uninteresting and becomes Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 11 disgusting, it becomes indeed a positive evil: but a moral and practical, not an aesthetic one. (Santayana, 33) For Santayana, sublimity is beauty perfected, and beauty carries no pain or evil, no negativity, so sublimity can carry no pain, e.g., from terror. Beauty and sublimity, for Santayana (against Burke), are unmixed with pain or evil or ugliness. Santayana returns to this point later in The Sense of Beauty, referring to "that part of our definition of beauty which declares that the values beauty contains are all positive" (Santayana, 151). By contrast, according to Santayana, the ugly may be "amusing" or "interesting," but when the ugly becomes extreme, in the form of the disgusting, then the ugly leaves the sphere of the aesthetic, and enters the sphere of the practical (or moral), and becomes "evil," and this is exactly what happens in Frankenstein. The monster, by appearance alone "more hideous than belongs to humanity" (Shelley, 73), leaves the sphere of the aesthetic, and enters the sphere of the practical to determine a judgment of "positive evil," in Santayana's sense, rendering the monster a "filthy daemon" (Shelley, 73). But the monster's aesthetic appearance, forcing the practical judgment of the filthy or the evil, also forces the further ontological judgment of inhumanity, and this aesthetic-practical-ontological judgment of inhumanity also entails a strange kind of contradiction. On the one hand, the monster bears the general shape of a man, and he possesses the species-defining traits of reason and human emotion. On the other hand, none can recognize him as a man or identify with him as another because of his hideous form. The monster is both human and not human, and while society may fail to grasp this contradiction philosophically its members cannot fail to solve it practically by exile or death. Frankenstein yells at the monster: "Begone, vile insect! or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!" (Shelley, 96). The monster is unsurprised by Frankenstein's reaction: "'I expected this reception, said the daemon.' All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!" (96). If the monster's inhuman appearance once seemed consistent with his prelinguistic "inarticulate sounds," that same appearance now strikingly contrasts with his articulate and even eloquent voice, as he speaks philosophically in universals and particulars. Frankenstein, by contrast, is suddenly insane with hatred and horror: "Abhorred monster!" "Wretched devil!" (96). The shock of horror and hatred seems to derange the intoxicating philosophical contemplation of the mountains and valley and glacier, and even appears to derange Frankenstein's judgment of magnitude. The sight of the monster is so aesthetically horrible that it seems even to distort the foundations of human reason, as if judgment (and possibly the whole higher power of reason) were ultimately grounded in taste. Previously Frankenstein imagined himself a giant like the giants who built the icy pyramids and laid the glacier gently between them, a giant alone in the mountains, at home in the mountains. But then the comparatively tiny monster appears, and somewhat like Medusa aesthetically stuns Frankenstein's intellect so that he cannot break free of his self-image as a giant. Newly enraged but apparently still thinking himself a giant, Frankenstein even threatens to "trample" the monster as if it were some "vile insect" crawling the floors of superhuman castles and pyramids made by gods and giants like Frankenstein himself. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 12 Irrationally Frankenstein attacks the monster, but the monster casually steps aside and calmly proceeds to instruct the so-called man of knowledge on the futility of violence: "Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee" (Shelley, 96). The monster seems to understand that his very appearance deranges the judgment of others, and yet he speaks still rationally and even fatherly on the immorality of violence: "You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?" (96). Frankenstein would crush the monster like an insect, without thought of the insect's humanity, but the monster charges him with immorality for violence even against life itself. But after the monster scolds Frankenstein for violence, as if Frankenstein were the monster's son, the monster reminds Frankenstein that he is the monster's father. The monster says, "Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed" (96-97). The roles of the monster and the man now appear to be completely reversed. The father has become a rash and irrational child, and the child a wise and fatherly man. The natural philosopher has become a violent monster, and the monster a reflective philosopher. As Bloom writes, "The greatest paradox and most astonishing achievement of Mary Shelley's novel is that the monster is more human than his creator" (Bloom, 4). The monster says he lives in the caves of these mountains: "The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which man does not grudge" (Shelley, 97). Earlier Frankenstein beheld the ruined castles as beautiful, and the mountains as sublime dwellings crafted by a higher race of beings, and found these sublime dwellings to render the castles sublime, and himself a giant dwelling amidst these superhuman pyramids. But now the hideous monster claims these superhuman dwellings to be his home, thereby presumably rendering in the mind of Frankenstein the mountains and glacier and castles as hideous and horrible as the monster himself. If the monster were a man and not a monster, a man who had left society to live alone in a mountain cave or a ruined mountain castle to become a philosopher king of ice and sky, then Frankenstein might think the hermit godlike and sublime, and this sublimity even to augment the sublime beauty of the mountains. As Kant writes in the Critique of the Power of Judgment, "To be self-sufficient, hence not to need society, yet without being unsociable, i.e., fleeing it, is something that comes close to the sublime, just like any superiority over needs" (Kant, 5: 275, 157). History and literature present several examples of the sublime hermit in the wilderness, e.g., the wizard Merlin in the forest in the legend of King Arthur, Henry David Thoreau in his cabin in the woods by Walden Pond, and Zarathustra in his mountain cave in Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, each of whom by his presence augments the sublimity of the wilderness. But the monster in Frankenstein, while physically selfsufficient, is not superior to the needs of society, and by his presence in the mountains degrades the mountains, and degrades nature as a whole. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 13 6. The Monster's Philosophy Once Frankenstein's mind stabilizes and adjusts, the monster proceeds to unfold his life story. After his abandonment the monster left civilization and entered the wilderness and learned about nature from experience. The monster explains that he learned to speak by observing the inhabitants of a cottage and imitating their vocal gestures, this power of imitation being natural to all human minds. As Aristotle writes in Poetics 4, "Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation" (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1448b5-9, 2318). Once inside language the monster understands that this "godlike science" of language defines humanity (Shelley, 108). As Aristotle writes in Nicomachean Ethics X.7, "intellect more than anything else is man" (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1178a7-8, 1862). Yet with his increasing understanding of the "godlike science," the monster feels an increasing desire to enter the village, to be with others. "... I easily perceived that, although I eagerly longed to discover myself to the cottagers, I ought not to make the attempt until I had first become master of their language; which knowledge might enable me to make them overlook the deformity of my figure; for with this also the contrast perpetually presented to my eyes had made me acquainted." (Shelley, 110) As the monster studies the magical language of the villagers, he knows himself to be one of them. But as the monster beholds their magically beautiful forms, he knows himself to be horribly different. As the monster recalls, "I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers - their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but was I terrified, when I viewed myself in a transparent pool!" (110). Narcissus in Greek mythology beholds his reflection in a pool of water and cannot bear to look away and falls in love and cannot even bear to live if the pool be only a reflection. But when the monster beholds his reflection in a pool he cannot bear to see it and can barely bear to live knowing others see it too. Joyce Carol Oates, in "Frankenstein's Fallen Angel," finds this scene of the mirror pool to be a reflection, not on Narcissus, but on Eve in Milton's Paradise Lost (lines 456-66). Oates writes, When the demon terrifies himself by seeing his reflection in a pool, and grasping at once the nature of his own deformity, he is surely not mirroring Narcissus, as some commentators have suggested, but Milton's Eve in her surprised discovery of her own beauty, in book 4 of Paradise Lost. (Oates, 547) Oates is right to highlight the scene of Eve beholding her reflection, especially considering that Paradise Lost informs Frankenstein from beginning to end, beginning with an epigraph from the epic (Shelley, 1). Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?- PARADISE LOST. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 14 But perhaps reflections of both Narcissus and Eve appear in the monster's description of the pool, for the monster throughout his dialogue seems to see himself in the whole of European history and literature, as if that tradition were itself a kind of mind, like "the mind of Europe" in T. S. Eliot's "Tradition and Individual Talent" (Eliot, 39, 43). As the monster sees himself visually in the mirror of the pool, he sees himself intellectually in the mirror of the mind of Europe, which includes Narcissus and Milton's Eve. In any case, the monster now presents the problem of his unique form of selfconsciousness arising from these two opposed self-images. On the one hand, he is the hideous and gigantic monster he sees in the pool who terrifies and disgusts all, including himself. On the other hand, he is a rational (and highly intelligent) creature reasoning about being a rational creature, but also reasoning about being a hideous and gigantic monster, and reasoning about the opposition of these two self-images. But reason is intrinsically social and intersubjective, so rational creatures must live in society with others who recognize themselves in one another. But the monster cannot enter society because he is inhumanly hideous and gigantic. Yet he must enter society if he is to become part of society. So the monster forms a rational solution to his aesthetic problem. He knows humanity defines itself by reason rather than physical appearance, so if he can master their "godlike science," then they should (in principle) embrace him, even if with difficulty. After all, human beings, the monster believes, cannot be so shallow as his reflection in the pool. Their intellects and their love must be infinitely deep. "I looked upon them as superior beings, who would be the arbiters of my future destiny. I formed in my imagination a thousand pictures of presenting myself to them, and their reception of me. I imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle demeanour and conciliating words, I should first win their favour, and afterwards their love." (Shelley, 111) The monster plots to offset humanity's natural revulsion with warmth and gentility and flowing eloquence, for that is all the beauty he can offer. But this first strategy is fundamentally flawed. As the monster recalls, "I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity" (110). The monster discovers he was wrong about humanity because humanity is wrong about itself. Humanity defines itself as rational but unconsciously maintains an invisible but very real aesthetic and ontological perimeter around itself. This perimeter preserves the beauty of all its forms and practices and excludes by unspoken standards of taste what threatens aesthetic uniformity. So long as man remains with man and woman, and society holds each in rapture of each and all, no man can truly see himself. But a man like the monster, completely aesthetically removed, may yet see and know himself a man (and not a man), may yet see taste beneath reason, informing reason, and demanding beauty. Humanity is blind to this unity of taste and ontology within itself, and therefore blind to itself, but the monster has no choice and sees it. He sees it in the pool. Beauty, the monster now knows, bewitches all men and women, and makes them men and women. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 15 If the monster's philosophical conclusions seem extreme in their opposition to Aristotle's definition of man and woman as the "rational animals," Aristotle himself in Politics I.2 also draws an invisible perimeter around the state excluding certain rational creatures. Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one, whom Homer denounces-the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts. (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1253a2-6, 1988-1989) The state is a natural whole, and all men and women are linguistic and political parts of this whole, but the bad man or monstrous man or godlike man can be no part of the state, and each instead appears as a lone piece in a game without a board. Aristotle again draws the perimeter of the state when he writes in Politics I.2, "he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of the state" (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1253a27-30, 1988). Kant in the Critique of the Power of Judgment seems to have in mind this same view of the self-sufficient demigod, in describing the sublimely self-sufficient hermit in the woods. Later in Politics III.13 Aristotle writes, if a "god among men" were to appear in the state, then he or she must be assassinated, or exiled, or crowned absolute monarch, this last solution being Aristotle's preferred solution, and even his ideal state (cf. Politics III.17 and VII.14; see also Nicomachean Ethics VII.1, 1145a15-27, 1809-1810). The monster of Frankenstein appears to be a distorted mirror image of Aristotle's "god among men," a superhuman monster who can be no part of society, and who must live in exile in the wilderness, lest Frankenstein or another assassinate him; and yet, apparently, the monster himself would be king of his own domain if only he had a queen by his side. The monster knows he can be no part of human society, and painfully beholds the happiness he would enjoy if only he had been designed with love instead of pride: "Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded" (Shelley, 97). The monster is distraught. "Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?" (117). The monster knows humanity will always identify him as a blot on existence, but somehow he refuses that definition and instead returns to inquiry into his nature, a very human thing to do. "My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them." (125) The questions the monster poses, "Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come?" are questions all rational creatures pose. But they pose these questions because they are rational creatures among other rational creatures. The monster poses these same questions because he is a rational creature who cannot be recognized as a rational creature, and therefore cannot live as a rational creature. The contradiction is maddening. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 16 "I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.'" (126) Frankenstein once imagined his creation to be the first of many who would love and honor their creator: "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me" (Shelley, 52). Now the opposite has transpired as the monster curses his creator for forming a being more hideous than Dante's demons, more hideous precisely for the monster's "very resemblance" to humanity, and for that eternally alone. Even Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost enjoyed the honor and friendship of the fallen angels, but perhaps even they would find the monster unthinkably hideous and form for him a separate prison in the depths of Pandemonium. A friend is "another self," writes Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics IX.4 (Aristotle, vol. 2, 1169b3-10, 1848), but because the monster has no other aesthetic self he can have no friend, and because he can have no friend he can never be happy or fully a man. G. W. F. Hegel in the Phenomenology of Spirit claims a reflective self-consciousness is an "'I' that is 'We' and 'We' that is 'I'" (Hegel, 110). The monster of Frankenstein is both an "I" and a "we" because he is an individually embodied being in language (which is social), but paradoxically he cannot be a "we" because there are no others like him, and therefore he cannot be a fully reflective "I." Faced with the impossibility of recognition by humanity, the monster formulates his second solution to his problem. The monster can be another self and an "I" and a "we" but only if his other self is another monster. So the monster makes his demand of Frankenstein: "You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do" (Shelley, 140). The monster also demands Frankenstein make the female monster similarly gigantic and hideous: "My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects" (139). The monster still recognizes himself as a rational creature, but now also distinguishes his species "monster" from the species "human," and on aesthetic grounds alone. Frankenstein naturally resists, thinking another monster would be another malicious monster, but the monster illuminates the cause of his malice: "I am malicious because I am miserable" (140). Why should the monster respect men and women of society if they despise him for his ugliness when he would love and protect them should they extend him the slightest kindness? The monster says, "Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union." (140) The senses beholding aesthetic horror determine a judgment of inhumanity and undermine immediately any potential recognition of the monster as human. The human senses alone simultaneously and paradoxically define and exclude the monster from his nature, and Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 17 thereby cause his misery and ultimately his malice. The monster acknowledges his bad actions but also instructs Frankenstein that any man in such condition must be a bad man, and yet even a monster might be a good man if allowed to live in peace with a woman who loves him. "If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall become a thing of whose existence every one will be ignorant. My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal." (142) If only he would construct a female monster, says the monster, then Frankenstein would never have to behold his creations again, no one would, because the two monsters would flee Europe for the wilderness of the new world and live their lives in secret and peace. The monster says, "The picture I present to you is peaceful and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness of power and cruelty" (141). The monster, so human in so many ways, appeals to Frankenstein's deepest sense of humanity, even as a son to a father. Frankenstein appreciates the apparent rationality of the solution to the problem, and even reluctantly begins, but he who once lacked foresight now clearly sees the future. The monsters may flee Europe to live quietly and peacefully in the wilderness of the new world, but they will not die alone in that wilderness. They will want children, and their children will want children. This monstrous Adam and Eve will populate the wilderness with monsters, and these monsters will eventually return to civilization. Frankenstein considers this future in language recalling Kant's image of the "race of devils" or "nation of devils" in "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (Kant, 1995, 112). "Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror." (Shelley, 160) Later and again speaking as a practical (and somewhat utilitarian) philosopher Frankenstein recalls his decision to deny his artificial son happiness. "My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attention, because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery. Urged by this view, I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a companion for the first creature." (209) If initially he failed to grasp beauty as fundamental to humanity's self-understanding, Frankenstein at last understands the foundational importance of preserving the aestheticontological perimeter of humanity against the hideous and the monstrous and the disgusting. If once he hoped to stand godlike to a new race of beings, Frankenstein ultimately stands fast for all humanity against the monster's happiness, however human he may be. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 18 7. Conclusion In conclusion, Shelley's Frankenstein is a rich literary investigation of humanity's selfunderstanding, and a subtle philosophical argument against the classical and longstanding Aristotelian definition of man and woman as rational animals. Shelley's greatest achievement in Frankenstein is to reveal this ethereal self-image to be a mask crafted and upheld unconsciously by society throughout history, and then to lift this glittering mask of reason, thereby revealing the true nature of humanity to be beauty and love of beauty. Instead of the godlike animals inhabiting the pure realm of reason, men and women are, in fact, the godlike animals charmed and transfixed by the ethereal beauty of nature in all its forms, in all its forests and roses and butterflies and leopards and wolves, in all their splendor and elegance and grace of form, the aesthetic animals enamored and bewitched by the superhuman sublimity of mountains and glaciers and stars, and above all one another, especially their eyes. Acknowledgments I am grateful to Alfredo Mac Laughlin, Elizabeth F. Cooke, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Any mistakes that remain are my own. Works Cited Alighieri, Dante. 2003. The Divine Comedy. In The Portable Dante. Translated by Mark Musa. New York: Penguin Books. Aristotle. 1984. The Complete Writings of Aristotle. 2 vols. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Bloom, Harold, ed. 2007. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. New York: Chelsea House. Burke, Edmund. 2008. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Edited by Adam Phillips. New York: Oxford University Press. Carroll, Noël. 1987. "The Nature of Horror." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46, no. 1 (Autumn, 1987): 51-59. Eliot, T. S. 1968. Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot. Edited by Frank Kermode. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1971. Nature, Addresses, and Lectures. Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Vol. I. Edited by Edward E. Spiller and Robert R. Ferguson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Gigante, Denise. 2000. "Facing the Ugly: The Case of Frankenstein." ELH 67, no. 2. (Summer, 2000): 565-587. Abrams: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy Vol. 1: 2018 19 Hegel, G. W. F. 1977. Phenomenology of Spirit. Translated by A. V. Miller. New York: Oxford. Homer. 1951. The Iliad of Homer. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago. Kant, Immanuel. 2001. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by Paul Guyer. Translated by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kant, Immanuel. 1995. Political Writings. Edited by Hans Reiss. Translated by H. B. Nisbet. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Longinus. 2005. On the Sublime. Translated by W. H. Fyfe. Revised by Donald Russell. In Aristotle: Poetics; Longinus: On the Sublime; Demetrius: On Style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Milton, John. 2013. Paradise Lost. New York: Routledge. Oates, Joyce Carol. 1984. "Frankenstein's Fallen Angel." Critical Inquiry 10, no. 3. (March, 1984): 543-554. Plato. 1997. Ion. Translated by Paul Woodruff. In Plato: Complete Works. Edited by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett. Santayana, George. 1988. The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of AEsthetic Theory. Critical Edition. Edited by William G. Holzberger and Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. Introduction by Arthur C. Danto. Cambridge: MIT Press. Shelley, Mary. 1992. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Edited by Maurice Hindle. New York: Penguin Books. Sophocles. 1978. Oedipus the King. Translated by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay. New York: Oxford.
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{ "creator": "Abreu, Claudio", "date": "2012", "datestamp": 1562843678000, "description": "Review of Balzer, Wolfgang, Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed,Una arquitectónica para la ciencia. El programa estructuralista, Quilmes:Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2012, 498 pp. Translation by Pablo Lorenzanoof Balzer, Wolfgang; Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed, An Architectonicfor Science. The Structuralist Program, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987, 440 pp.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRBR-7", "language": "pt", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Review of Una arquitectónica para la ciencia. El programa estructuralista", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/review" }
Wolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia | 95 * Recebido: 2 de Julho de 2012. Aceito: 27 de Agosto de 2012. Metatheoria 3(1)(2012): 95-104. ISSN 1853-2322. © Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Publicado en la República Argentina. Resenha de Balzer, Wolfgang, Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia. El programa estructuralista, Quilmes: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2012, 498 pp. Tradução de Pablo Lorenzano de Balzer, Wolfgang; Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed, An Architectonic for Science. The Structuralist Program, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987, 440 pp.* Review of Balzer, Wolfgang, Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia. El programa estructuralista, Quilmes: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2012, 498 pp. Translation by Pablo Lorenzano of Balzer, Wolfgang; Moulines, C. Ulises e Joseph Sneed, An Architectonic for Science. The Structuralist Program, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987, 440 pp. Além de Kuhn: Ciência e teoria hoje An Architectonic for Science. The Structuralist Program, obra editada pela editora Reidel Publishing Company em 1987, trata-se de uma destas obras que a história converte em um clássico da literatura. Se em 1928 surge Der logische Aufbau der Welt (Carnap 1928), trabalho referencial e emblemático para o período clássico da filosofia da ciência, e em 1962 surge The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn 1962), marco de referencia da perspectiva historicista em filosofia da ciência, em 1987 surge esta obra que a recepção posterior (em pouco mais de duas décadas) consolidou como a "bíblia" estruturalista e também como um marco de referência para a filosofia da ciência contemporânea, principalmente no que se refere ao modo como hoje se concebem as teorias científicas. Uma das razões para sua importância é que o trabalho de Joseph Sneed, Wolfgang Balzer e C. Ulises Moulines incorpora tanto características do trabalho de Carnap como características do trabalho de Kuhn, ou seja, elementos da concepção clássica e da concepção historicista. A partir do trabalho pioneiro de Sneed, The Logical Structure of Mathematical Physics (Sneed 1971), a partir do impulso dado por Wolfgang Stegmüller, Balzer e Moulines (então doutorandos de Stegmüller na Universidade de Munique) começam a trabalhar com as idéias de Sneed. Desta junção de esforços surge An Architectonic for Science, obra que mostra a viabilidade da análise e reconstrução formal das teorias científicas reais. Ao tratar das teorias efetivamente usadas, seja pelos cientistas, por exemplo, em laboratórios, ou por professores para o ensino das disciplinas 96 | Cláudio Abreu científicas, como são apresentadas, por exemplo, nos livros de textos, a concepção estruturalista aproxima a filosofia da ciência da realidade científica evitando que a reflexão filosófica, mesmo com rigor formal, fique apenas no âmbito dos experimentos de pensamento. Ainda mais, além de ter propiciado a reconstrução de mais de cinquenta teorias, o instrumental estruturalista não possibilita reconstruções apenas na perspectiva sincrônica, mas também o faz de modo diacrônico, e nisto se aproxima dos aspectos apontados por Kuhn. Se bem contribuem à filosofia da ciência contemporânea tanto as epistemologias naturalizadas, como as discussões acerca de instrumentos e de experimentos e também as filosofias especiais da ciência - aquelas voltadas a uma ciência em especial ou a uma parte de uma ciência -, está claro que no que respeita às teorias científicas os aportes das concepções semânticas são os mais significativos. Isso se deve a que esta família de concepções (que inclui pensadores como P. Suppes, B. van Fraassen y F. Suppe, num primeiro momento, e logo R.N. Giere, M.L. Dalla Chiara, G. Torraldo di Francia, M. Przelecki, R. Wójcicki, G. Ludwig, N.C.A. da Costa e, também, os já mencionados J. Sneed, W. Stegmüller, W. Balzer e U. Moulines) conserva a virtude clássica da clareza e precisão conceituais utilizando, além da lógica formal de primeira ordem, todos os instrumentos lógicos matemáticos que possam contribuir à melhor compreensão das teorias científicas.1 As teorias já não são mais concebidas como um conjunto de enunciados, mas a idéia que compartilham todos estes pensadores é que apresentar uma teoria é querer, entre outras coisas, apresentar uma classe de modelos, este último concebido como um sistema que representa - de modo mais ou menos aproximado - uma parte da realidade. Entre as concepções semânticas se destaca a concepção estruturalista, dentre outras pelas razões apresentadas acima, a ponto de ser reconhecida como a concepção que sem dúvida oferece o tratamento mais satisfatoriamente detalhado e bem ilustrado da estrutura das teorias científicas (Cartwright 2008, p. 65)2 e uma concepção: impressionante em dois aspectos: primeiro, [porque] apresenta uma análise muito detalhada do que pode ser chamada a estrutura profunda de uma teoria empírica. Em segundo lugar, tem mostrado que uma série de teorias científicas reais podem ser reconstruídas como redes de teoria. [...] a riqueza da representação estruturalista das teorias esperamos que nos permita levantar questões novas e interessantes sobre a mudança de teoria e, também, que nos permitirá fundamentar a lógica da mudança de teoria em uma noção empírica adequada de "teoria" (Enqvist 2011, p. 107). Esta breve apresentação do contexto e da importância de An Architectonic for Science serve como justificativa para uma resenha destinada a apresentar a tradução ao espanhol desta obra lançada originalmente em inglês há 25 anos. Dada a proximi1 Para uma detalhada apresentação da filosofia da ciência no século passado envolvendo as três concepções (etapas) confira Díez & Lorenzano (2002). 2 Para um (quase) completo levantamento dos trabalhos desenvolvidos com a utilização do aparato metateórico estruturalista consulte Diederich, Ibarra & Mormann (1989, 1994). Wolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia | 97 dade entre o espanhol e o português, e com isso uma relativa quebra da barreira linguística referente ao inglês existente em alguns contextos, a importância da obra de Sneed, Balzer e Moulines já justificaria a resenha. Contudo, como bem salienta o próprio C. Ulises Moulines na introdução ao volume em espanhol, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia não somente é uma tradução excelente mas também uma edição revisada de An Architectonic for Science. A tradução (e revisão, devidamente dialogada com C. Ulises Moulines) de Pablo Lorenzano não traz erros - sejam de caráter tipográfico ou, em especial em aspectos formais, técnicos -, que a edição original apresentava. Além disso, a tradução brinda ao leitor citações completas dos textos em que se apoiaram os autores: a primeira edição da obra não apresenta, nas citações, a página em que o trecho citado está inserido no texto original. A tradução apresenta esta informação. Além do prólogo ã edição em espanhol, a obra se constitui de uma introdução e oito capítulos. No prólogo, C. Ulises Moulines faz uma interessante reflexão acerca do que passou com o programa estruturalista durante as duas décadas que se seguiram depois do lançamento da obra em 1987. Além de apontar algumas obras posteriores que apresentam os desenvolvimentos do programa, trata de explicitar as contribuições da metateoria estruturalista tanto no que se refere a noções e problemas gerais da filosofia da ciência como também os estudos de caso, ou seja, aplicações do programa estruturalista, levadas a cabo desde 1987. Na introdução, "Visión de conjunto", como o próprio título indica, os autores apresentam a obra, iniciando por aclarar que se trata de um livro acerca da estrutura do conhecimento, que é entendido como crença verdadeira, fundamentada. Neste contexto, por estrutura entendem a maneira em que os valores de verdade ou os valores de probabilidade dos enunciados são interdependentes. Assumem que a ciência empírica é o exemplo paradigmático de conhecimento e anunciam que o livro trata deste tipo de conhecimento. O propósito é proporcionar uma descrição daquelas características estruturais do conhecimento empírico que, pensamos, pudessem servir para distingui-lo, de uma maneira interessante, de outras coisas. Comprometendo-se com certo tipo de holismo, afirmam que aquelas características da ciência empírica que a distinguem completamente das empresas não-científicas somente podem ser vistas claramente considerando-se fragmentos suficientemente "grandes" do conhecimento científico. Assim, o programa estruturalista se constitui de um conjunto de ferramentas conceituais que são utilizadas para representar a estrutura (aspecto sincrônico) de partes do conhecimento científico bem como o desenvolvimento (aspecto diacrônico) destas partes. Não há incompatibilidade entre estudos sincrônicos e diacrônicos da ciência. Contudo, este esquema de representação do conhecimento científico pode ser usado adequadamente ou não. O critério para uma decisão a este respeito é enunciado pelos autores nos seguintes termos: a reconstrução de cada fragmento particular da ciência deveria "gerar" de maneira sistemática, estandardizada e natural as propriedades essenciais deste fragmento e as asserções centrais associadas a ele pelos utilizadores médios deste fragmento (os expertos). 98 | Cláudio Abreu O menor fragmento do conhecimento científico, suficientemente interessante para a filosofia da ciência, é denominado elemento teórico [primeiro sentido do termo teoria no marco da metateoria estruturalista]. Trata-se de um conceito chave para uma imagem local da ciência empírica. Contudo, a ciência é mais que um conjunto enorme, mas finito, de elementos teóricos; estes elementos geralmente encontram-se agrupados pelo que em linguagem estruturalista se denomina vínculo interteórico. Assim se possibilita uma imagem global da ciência, uma vez que por meio destes vínculos se explicita a relação entre teorias. Um conjunto de elementos teóricos - com a mesma estrutura, mas em graus distintos de generalidade - compõe uma rede teórica (segundo sentido do termo teoria). As teorias mais interessantes produzidas até então têm a forma de uma rede deste tipo, que geralmente apresentam um elemento teórico mais geral em termos de abstração que vai especializandose, por meio de restrições adicionais, em elementos teóricos de menos abstração. A rede teórica é uma imagem complexa de uma teoria em determinado instante temporal, uma imagem sincrônica. Ao longo do tempo, as redes teóricas podem sofrer alterações. Isso pode ocorrer de três maneiras: a) é possível que os científicos mudem de ideia a respeito das partes do mundo as quais se pretende aplicar a teoria; b) pode dar-se, também, que com a evolução da atividade científica alguns elementos teóricos desapareçam; por fim, c) o mesmo pode acontecer com alguns vínculos interteóricos. Nestes casos, qualquer um deles, há uma transformação da rede teoria, uma evolução teórica (terceiro sentido do termo teoria) que caracteriza o aspecto diacrônico que também é analisado pela metateoria estruturalista. Um ponto chave para entender a idéia estruturalista acerca das teorias, e em decorrência disto acerca da ciência, é a distinção entre conceitos teóricos e não-teóricos. Uma primeira característica desta distinção é que é relativa às teorias e não absoluta, como, por exemplo, a teoricidade de um conceito era concebida na filosofia clássica da ciência; já não se concebe a linguagem científica como contendo termos observacionais, por um lado, e teóricos, por outro, de modo absoluto. Esta distinção mescla duas distinções: por uma parte, é possível classificar os conceitos como observacionais ou não-observacionais e, por outra parte, classificá-los como teóricos ou não-teóricos. A classificação acerca da teoricidade de um conceito é relativa a uma teoria. Um conceito será teórico se todos os métodos de determinação de sua extensão são dependentes da teoria (critério forte de teoricidade). Deste modo, dada uma teoria T, esta teoria se constituirá de conceitos T-não-teóricos y de conceitos T-teóricos. No primeiro capítulo, "Modelos y estructuras", a partir da idéia de que os fragmentos do conhecimento científico são mais bem caracterizados como entidades modelo-teóricas, os autores apresentam sua posição acerca da justificação intuitiva deste enfoque introduzindo um aparato técnico específico para falar de modelos de teorias. O capítulo inicia com uma discussão acerca da idéia de modelo e se segue com a apresentação de dois componentes dos elementos teóricos, a saber, Wolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia | 99 os modelos e os modelos potenciais. Cabe notar que a distinção entre modelos e modelos potenciais é estreitamente paralela à bem conhecida distinção entre orações de tipo legal e não legal. Com a noção de espécie de estrutura é provido um marco que possibilita falar-se de classe de modelos de uma teoria, uma idéia familiar, como salientam os próprios autores, a idéia de axiomatizar uma teoria mediante a introdução de um predicado conjuntista. Trata-se de um capítulo que procura sentar as bases formais para todo o desenvolvimento do programa estruturalista que é detalhado nos demais capítulos da obra. De modo geral, a não ser no caso do leitor que tem interesse específico em questões formais, o capítulo é perfeitamente dispensável no que se refere ao entendimento global da obra bem como de cada um dos capítulos. O segundo capítulo, "Elementos teóricos", apresenta uma discussão acerca do tipo mais simples de estrutura conjuntista que pode ser identificada com, ou pode servir como uma reconstrução lógica de uma teoria empírica. A apresentação da noção de elemento teórico começa enfatizando que este é constituído de duas partes, uma formal (o núcleo K) e outra aplicativa (as aplicações intencionais I). A partir da introdução desta distinção o capítulo se destina a apresentar os elementos que constituem K, as aplicações intencionais e a forma da asserção que se faz, com K, acerca de I. Uma teoria é, então, uma estrutura do seguinte tipo: T = áK, Iñ. O núcleo formal K é uma estrutura do seguinte tipo: K = áM p , M, M pp , C, Lñ, onde: M p - modelos potenciais - designa aquelas coisas que podem ser subsumidas sob o mesmo marco conceitual de uma teoria dada [as quais] costuma-se chama-las "realizações possíveis", " modelos possíveis" ou "modelos potenciais". Na literatura estruturalista se costuma utilizar este último termo. Os modelos potenciais capturam aqueles fenômenos aos quais faz sentido perguntar se são modelos de uma teoria; M -modelo - designa os modelos potenciais que não só pertencem ao mesmo marco conceitual, mas que, além disso, satisfazem as leis da mesma teoria. São os que se conhece como as leis de uma teoria; M pp -modelos potenciais parciais- designa uma classe de "modelos parciais": fragmentos dos modelos potenciais que podem ser compreendidos ou interpretados independentemente da teoria em questão. São os modelos potenciais menos os conceitos T-teóricos; C - condições de ligadura - que descrevem "conexões" ou "relações" entre aplicações diferentes da mesma teoria; por fim, L - vínculos interteóricos - que descrevem conexões essenciais entre aplicações da teoria em questão e outras teorias diferentes representadas por elementos teóricos diferentes. Além da parte formal, K, está o conjunto de aplicações intencionais I, ou seja, as teorias têm associadas a si algumas descrições informais dos "pedaços" particulares da realidade aos que se tenta aplicá-las. Ao longo do capítulo, estas noções são detalhadamente discutidas, o que ao final vai estabelecer as condições para que se possa entender a noção de asserção empírica de uma teoria, ou seja, o enunciado que afirma que o que o fenômeno empírico a que se pretende aplicar a teoria comporta-se de determinada maneira. Importa notar que esta afirmação é mais forte que dizer que este comportar-se está de acordo com a lei: além da lei, também as condições de ligadura e os vínculos interteóricos estão envolvidos. As primeiras garantem a consistência entre os mo100 | Cláudio Abreu delos da teoria e os segundos a consistência da teoria com as demais do campo de saber em questão, ou seja, aquelas teorias das quais a teoria em questão "utiliza" os conceitos teóricos (e que são para ela mesma conceito não-teóricos). O terceiro capítulo, "Algunos elementos teóricos básicos" apresenta alguns exemplos de elementos teóricos explicitando os conceitos metateóricos introduzidos no capítulo anterior. Os exemplos são: as mecânicas clássica e relativista do choque, a estequiometria daltoniana, a termodinâmica do equilíbrio simples, a mecânica lagrangiana e a economia de intercâmbio puro. Se bem as reconstruções apresentadas são incompletas, no sentido de que apresentam apenas as partes mais fundamentais das teorias em questão e, por outra parte, pressupõem alguns teoremas que estão presentes nas reconstruções quando completas, servem perfeitamente para exemplificar o que até esta altura foi apresentado acerca da concepção de teoria que advoga o estruturalismo metateórico. Em particular, importa salientar a reconstrução da economia de intercâmbio puro que, presente aí, aponta para o fato de que a concepção estruturalista não se aplica apenas às ciências empíricas naturais - como poderia pensar alguém mais desatento ao ter em conta o trabalho fundacional do estruturalismo -, mas também às ciências sociais. Se bem é verdade que a maioria das teorias reconstruídas com o instrumental metateórico estruturalista são teorias das ciências naturais, muitas teorias sociais também foram trabalhadas ao longo destes vinte e cinco anos transcorridos desde o lançamento de An Architectonic for Science. O quarto capítulo, "Redes teóricas", apresenta o seguinte nível de complexidade no que respeita às teorias. Uma rede teórica se constitui de uma série inteira de elementos teóricos interconectados, todos os quais possuem "a mesma estrutura". Importa notar que esta série de elementos teóricos esta constituída por elementos de distintos graus de abstração. O vínculo entre estes elementos teóricos é capturado pela noção de especialização. Um elemento teórico é uma especialização de outro elemento quando possui a mesma estrutura, porém, apresenta algumas restrições a mais. Tais restrições podem ser estabelecidas por meio dos conceitos constituintes da teoria em questão ou por meio de condições de ligaduras e vínculos especiais. O resultado "prático" é que este elemento teórico especializado terá um conjunto de aplicações intencionais restringido. Deste modo, uma teoria complexa não é somente um conjunto amorfo de elementos teóricos, mas sim uma rede de elementos organizados hierarquicamente, o que possibilita representar com muito mais clareza a idéia de Imre Lakatos referente ao núcleo duro de uma teoria e seu cinturão protetor. A rede teórica está constituída de um elemento teórico básico, aquele mais abstrato, e as especializações. As especializações terminais, aquelas que não possuem nenhuma especialização, são as que são contrastadas. Ao se chegar à conclusão de que determinada especialização resulta inadequada, ou seja, que sua asserção empírica é falsa (os "pedaços" de mundo a que se pretende aplicar este elemento teórico não se comportam como a partir dele pode ser previsto), e se decide abandonar este elemento teórico, não se abandona a teoria (agora, entenWolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia | 101 dida como uma rede teórica), mas apenas tal elemento teórico (na linguagem de Lakatos, uma hipótese do cinturão protetor). Com a noção de rede teórica a metateoria estruturalista apresenta a imagem sincrônica de uma teoria. Além de explicitar os distintos níveis de teorização presentes em uma teoria, permite uma leitura mais completa de campos de estudo, apontando à relação existente entre elementos teóricos "parecidos", mas ao mesmo tempo distintos em aspectos relevantes. Além disso, o conceito contribui à, em muitos casos, difícil tarefa de unificação conceitual, de percepção de lacunas teóricas, da relação de uma teoria com outras. Em certa medida, todos estes aspectos estão presentes nos exemplos apresentados pelos autores, neste caso a mecânica clássica de partículas e a termodinâmica do equilíbrio simples. O quinto capítulo, "La estructura diacrónica de las teorías", apresenta o aparato estruturalista para tratar do aspecto diacrónico, ou seja, a existência de uma teoria ao longo de um período de tempo. Como visto, a noção de evolução teórica captura o terceiro sentido do termo teoria no marco da metateoria estruturalista: uma sequência de redes teóricas no tempo histórico sujeita a algumas restrições. Os autores não pretendem, com este conceito, ser exaustivos no que se refere aos aspectos diacrônicos de uma teoria; pretendem somente capturar a cinemática normal de uma teoria. Não são contemplados os aspectos dinâmicos - causas, por exemplo - que produzem as mudanças nas redes teóricas. Ainda mais, o foco está na evolução normal da ciência, o que em linguagem de Kuhn se denominaria "ciência normal", na de Lakatos "programa de investigação científica". De modo geral, a noção de evolução teórica captura mudança(s) na teoria e não mudança de teoria. Não obstante ao foco estar posto nas mudanças, pode-se dizer, internas de uma teoria, os autores apresentam outros quatro casos que bem poderiam também ser tratados formalmente: a emergência inicial de um "paradigma", a emergência gradual de um paradigma em um campo onde havia outro paradigma, a aparição bastante repentina de um novo paradigma que substitui e rejeita totalmente o anterior e, por fim, a substituição de um paradigma mais velho por um mais novo [...] sem rejeitar completamente o antigo. Neste contexto, são apresentados os conceitos pragmáticos envolvidos na tarefa de estabelecer uma reconstrução racional da diacronia de uma teoria em períodos de ciência normal. São eles: períodos históricos, precedência histórica, cientistas, comunidades científicas e gerações científicas. A partir destes conceitos primitivos é desenvolvida formalmente a noção de evolução teórica. Mais uma vez a mecânica clássica de partícula e a teoria do equilíbrio simples são usadas para exemplificar as noções introduzidas. O sexto capítulo, "Relaciones interteóricas", apresenta aquela noção que colocará as teorias empíricas em contato com "seu entorno". Depois de apresentar os três sentidos que a noção de teoria pode ter na tradição estruturalista sempre tratando uma teoria como algo isolado, plenamente cientes de que isto não é o que ocorre na ciência, os autores tratam de capturar as relações que uma "teoria" pode ter com outras "teorias". Dado que há três sentidos para o termo teoria e que agora se trata da relação entre teorias, importa decidir qual dos sentidos será usado. 102 | Cláudio Abreu Fundamentados no fato de que cada sentido do termo posterior ao sentido pelo qual se entende uma teoria como um elemento teórico incluem elementos teóricos, partem das relações entre estes últimos. A idéia básica é a de que tanto nas redes teóricas como nas evoluções teóricas, em verdade, as relações entre teorias se dão entre elementos teóricos. Estas relações constituem um aspecto da identidade de uma teoria e estão representadas no núcleo formal da teoria por meio da noção de vínculo interteórico. Apontando as relações existentes entre as teorias, o aparato estruturalista explicita a importância de ter em conta algumas outras teorias para entender a teoria específica que é o objeto de estudo. Ao longo do capítulo são detalhadas as relações de especialização, de teorização e de redução. Ainda assim, o capítulo apresenta exemplos como a redução da mecânica do choque à mecânica clássica de partículas e a redução da mecânica de corpos rígidos também à mecânica clássica de partículas. Por fim, após a discussão acerca da equivalência empírica entre teorias - exemplificada plenamente no caso das mecânicas lagrangiana e clássica - segue-se uma discussão envolvendo as noções de redução, linguagem e incomensurabilidade. Fica explícita, também neste ponto, a capacidade da metateoria estruturalista de unificar em uma única visão os espíritos clássico e historicista em uma mais frutífera visão das teorias empíricas e, em consequência, da ciência empírica como um todo. O sétimo capítulo, "Aproximación", apresenta a idéia de que qualquer teoria pode ser efetivamente aplicada a seu domínio de aplicações intencionais somente sob a suposição de permitir algum grau de inexatidão ou aproximação no uso da teoria e na reconstrução teórica dos dados. A aproximação, bastante presente na rotina de cientistas experimentais e tecnólogos e nem tanto na de cientistas teóricos, pode ser, segundo os autores, de quatro tipos: aproximação na construção de modelos, na aplicação, aproximação de lei e, por fim, aproximação interteórica. À apresentação de modo intuitivo de cada tipo de aproximação se segue um tratamento técnico bastante denso. Apresentado o tratamento técnico, se passa a "aplicar" a noção no que se refere às asserções empíricas, às redes teóricas e às evoluções teóricas. O capítulo termina com uma ampla apresentação das aproximações interteóricas, com a exemplificação destas feita por meio da relação existente entre Kepler e Newton. Mostrando-se nada inocentes em relação aos pressupostos que sustentam a concepção estruturalista, uma vez que estabeleceram as ideias básicas requeridas para o tratamento da estrutura da ciência, os autores pretendem - com o capítulo dedicado à aproximação - dar conta da natureza inexata ou aproximada da maioria do conhecimento empírico real. A exceção feita à aproximação na construção de modelos, o capítulo apresenta um aparato formal adequado para tratar os outros três tipos de aproximações. A base para este aparato está no conceito tipológico de "uniformidade", derivado de Bourbaki, mas devidamente adaptado, como se pode perceber quando se define "uniformidade empírica". O último capítulo, "La estrutura global de la ciencia", apresenta e segue tratando do entorno de uma teoria. Ao tratar da estrutura global da ciência, apreWolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines e Joseph Sneed, Una arquitectónica para la ciencia | 103 senta novas noções, agora para dar conta de um "pedaço" consideravelmente grande do conhecimento científico, e reconsidera, por exemplo, a noção de teoricidade de um conceito e a noção de aplicação intencional de uma teoria. O objetivo é a estrutura de toda ciência. Todo aparato apresentado, os três sentidos possíveis do termo teoria dentro da tradição estruturalista, afirmam os autores, são ainda "locais" se comparados com "toda a ciência". A partir desde aspecto local, se inicia um movimento a patamares cada vez mais complexos: disso resulta que o papel de um elemento teórico individual irá fazendo-se cada vez menor e menor em um complexo tal. O que o capítulo busca apresentar é conceitos que possam capturar plausivelmente pedaços da ciência empírica maiores que as evoluções teóricas, possibilitando assim, ao menos conceitualmente, uma imagem global da estrutura da ciência. A primeira noção apresentada é a de hólon teórico. Esta noção tenta responder à pergunta acerca das relações interteóricas relevantes para obter uma imagem metacientífica adequada da ciência como um todo. Imediatamente a este questionamento surge, para o contexto formal estruturalista, a pergunta acerca do tipo de estrutura que deve ter esta imagem. No que se refere ao primeiro questionamento, os autores apostam na noção de vínculos interteóricos como um candidato plausível a representar as relações interteóricas em geral. Com esta idéia em mente, introduzem a noção de hólon teórico para capturar conjuntos de elementos teóricos que estão relacionados por meio de vínculos interteóricos arbitrários. A partir do conceito de hólon teórico se pode formalizar o, até então informal, conceito de teoricidade: a ideia intuitiva básica é que outros elementos teóricos conectados a um elemento teórico T por vínculos implicativos provêm meios T-independentes de medição de alguns dos componentes que aparecem em T. Outra noção que é retomada é a noção de aplicação intencional, agora relacionada com a de hólon teórico: se passa a considerar de que maneira as estruturas não-teóricas e as aplicações intencionais de um elemento teórico individual em um hólon estão determinadas pelas propriedades globais do hólon. O capítulo termina com uma análise de possibilidades alternativas referentes à estrutura de um hólon global da ciência. Uma delas é o fundacionalismo e a outra o coerentismo. Ambas são analisadas em detalhe, com a apresentação de seus limites. A apresentação dos capítulos da obra, mais exaustiva a princípio que ao final, serve para demonstrar que não se trata de um livro que prescinda de certos conhecimentos para ser entendido. Como é característico deste tipo de obra - tipo que talvez tenha nas investigações Filosóficas de Wittgenstein seu exemplar mais famoso -, uma completa compreensão somente é possível a partir do entendimento do novo paradigma que é apresentado no livro; contudo, como o paradigma é justamente apresentado no livro, um completo entendimento deste paradigma somente é possível a partir da compreensão do mesmo. Aqui não se tem círculo, como para muitos "desavisados" poderia parecer, mas sim um dilema. Parece plausível pensar que em 1987 este dilema seria mais forte que o é atualmente, pois agora o leitor pode apoiar-se em apresentações mais didáticas do conteúdo do livro. 104 | Cláudio Abreu Além disso, como poderá perceber aquele leitor, que ao ter contato com a obra, possa visualizar com certa clareza o conjunto do instrumental metateórico apresentado, a metateoria estruturalista não exige, por sua adoção para a análise das teorias empíricas, nenhum tipo de comprometimento com alguma posição em discussões como, por exemplo, aquelas acerca do realismo. Por outro lado, estes debates podem ser revistos com base a concepção semântica estruturalista. Este é mais um aspecto que demonstra o potencial do programa estruturalista, potencial este que lamentavelmente ainda não é suficientemente explorado na comunidade filosófica de língua portuguesa. Trata-se de uma obra consistente, densa e desafiadora. Apresentando um programa metacientífico, convoca, por um lado, à aplicação deste a todas as áreas do conhecimento empírico e, por outro, a uma constante revisão do programa mesmo. Trabalhos em ambas as perspectivas foram desenvolvidos ao longo deste quarto de século desde 1987. Espera-se que a aparição da obra em língua espanhola permita que a metateoria seja mais conhecida e, deste modo, que possa contribuir ainda mais à ciência. Cláudio Abreu Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero / Universidad Nacional de Quilmes / Conicet Bibliografia Carnap, R. (1928), Der Logische Aufbau der Welt, Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag. Cartwright, N. (2008), "Reply to Ulrich Gähde", em Hartmann, S., Hoefer, C. e L. Bovens (eds.), Nancy Cartwright's philosophy of Science, New York/Oxford: Routledge, 2008, pp. 6566. Diederich, W., Ibarra, A. e T. Mormann (1989), "Bibliography of structuralism", Erkenntnis 30: 387-407. Diederich, W., Ibarra, A. e T. Mormann (1994), "Bibliography of structuralism II" (1989-1994 and additions), Erkenntnis 41: 403-418. Díez, J.A. e P. Lorenzano (eds.) (2002), Desarrollos actuales de la metateoría estructuralista: problemas y discusiones, Quilmes: Universidad Rovira i Virgili/Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas/Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Enqvist, S. (2011), "A Structuralist Framework for the Logic of Theory Change", em Olsson, E.J. e S. Enqvist (eds.), Belief Revision Meets Philosophy of Science, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 105-135. Kuhn, T.S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1st ed., Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Sneed, J.D. (1971), The Logical Structure of Mathematical Physics, Dordrecht: Reidel.
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{ "creator": "Garškaitė-Milvydienė, Kristina", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1589202703000, "description": "Throughout the history of mankind, energy security has been always seen as a means of protection from disruptions of essential energy systems. The idea of protection from disorders emerged from the process of securing political and military control over energy resources to set up policies and measures on managing risks that affect all elements of energy systems. The various systems placed in a place to achieve energy security are the driving force towards the energy innovations or emerging trends in the energy sector.\n Our paper discusses energy security status and innovations in the energy sector in European Union (EU). We analyze the recent up-to-date developments of the energy policy and exploitation of energy sources, as well as scrutinize the channels of energy streaming to the EU countries and the risks associated with this energy import. Moreover, we argue that the shift to the low-carbon production of energy and the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) might become the key\n issue in ensuring the energy security and independency of the EU from its external energy supplies. Both RES, distributed energy resources (DER) and “green energy” that will be based on the energy efficiency and the shift to the alternative energy supply might change the energy security status quo for the EU.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRESI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Energy security issues in contemporary Europe", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues 2011 1(1) The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania Ministry of National Defence Republic of Lithuania World Institute for Engineering and Technology Education Energy Security Center University of Salford A Greater Manchester University JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 2018 March Volume 7 Number 3 Ministry of National Defence Republic of Lithuania University of Salford A Greater Manchester University The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence Vilnius Gediminas Technical University ENERGY SECURITY ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE Josef Abrhám1, Igor Britchenko1,2, Marija Jankovic3, Kristina Garškaitė-Milvydienė4 1University of Economics, Prague, Winston Churchill Sq. 4, 130 67, Prague, Czech Republic 2Faculty of Technical and Economic Sciences State Higher Vocational School Memorial of Prof. Stanislaw Tarnowskin Henryka Sienkiewicza 50, 39-400, Tarnobrzeg, Poland 3Faculty of Business studies, University of Mediterranean, Vaka Đurovića bb., Podgorica, Montenegro 4Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Saulėtekio 11, 10223 Vilnius, Lithuania E-mails: ; ; Received 27 May 2017; accepted 06 December 2017 Abstract. Throughout the history of mankind, energy security has been always seen as a means of protection from disruptions of essential energy systems. The idea of protection from disorders emerged from the process of securing political and military control over energy resources to set up policies and measures on managing risks that affect all elements of energy systems. The various systems placed in a place to achieve energy security are the driving force towards the energy innovations or emerging trends in the energy sector. Our paper discusses energy security status and innovations in the energy sector in European Union (EU). We analyze the recent up-to-date developments of the energy policy and exploitation of energy sources, as well as scrutinize the channels of energy streaming to the EU countries and the risks associated with this energy import. Moreover, we argue that the shift to the low-carbon production of energy and the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) might become the key issue in ensuring the energy security and independency of the EU from its external energy supplies. Both RES, distributed energy resources (DER) and "green energy" that will be based on the energy efficiency and the shift to the alternative energy supply might change the energy security status quo for the EU. Keywords: energy security, natural gas, oil, renewable energy, distributed energy resources, European Union Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Abrhám, J.; Britchenko, I.; ; Jankovic, M. ; Garškaitė-Milvydienė, K. Energy security issues in contemporary Europe, Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues 7(3): 387-398. JEL Classifications: C10; F64, Q20, Q41 1. Introduction: energy balance in European Union The question of European Union's energy security has intensified on the political agenda in Europe from the mid-2000s, since progresses in the global energy industry have progressively been viewed as a risk by the European Union organizations as well as the member countries governments (Metais 2013). The externalization of the internal energy market of EU has accordingly been perceived as a way of ensuring energy security. 388 JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online Recent years have seen the contemporary Europe focus more consideration to various energy security concerns, particularly in the Eastern and Central Europe including the depletion of oil and other fossil fuel, renewable sources and other alternative sources of energy, and environmental concerns, especially climate change. However, the European energy industry is in the process of great revolution which could form its profiles for years to come. Shifting global environment, the views of energy itself, innovations and technologies, new sources of conventional, but as well renewable energy, need a sufficient answer from the energy firms in Europe but also nations and global institutions. In general, there are several energy security issues which Europe is addressing and must address in the future. Thus, this paper discusses some of the major energy security problems facing the modern Europe, as well as the innovations which are being made to tackle these challenges and ensure energy security. The European Union (EU) energy sector has experienced unpredictable changes over the centuries. These changes are driven by the global agency to mitigate the climate change and decarbonize the energy sector, which has a direct effect on in power supply expenses. The European Commission (EC) has long ago set up a legally binding target for renewable energy sources (RES) to ensure more than 20% of the total energy consumption in the countries of the European Union (EU) by the year of 2020. The fundamental principle of an operative meaning of energy security is that there are uninterrupted, stable supplies at prices which are affordable. Nevertheless, from the perspective of established research on energy security, various features may be presented: the necessity to guarantee necessary investments, the exporters' reliability, or threats associated with passage nations and technical structures, which may result in temporary interruptions (Asif and Muneer 2007). The last factor is possibly the most mentioned when the topic of energy security is talked about across Europe following gas transportation crises from 2006 to 2009 between Ukraine and Russia that led to extreme impacts on some European Union member states. Fascinatingly, the energy market itself, presented as the energy security issues' solution, may correspondingly be a component of the threat if its arrangement becomes unfavorable to customer nations. 2. Paris Agreement and energy consumption The Paris Agreement was reached in December 2015 (although it came to force after its ratification in 2016). The Agreement set very demanding and sometimes ambiguous goals and promises for the EU and other countries (Committee on Climate Change, 2016). In order to achieve these goals, the European Union Member States committed to reaching their own national renewable targets that were set from 10% in Malta to 49% in Sweden (see Calliess and Hey 2013). Additionally, they further have required that 10% of transportation fuel to be produced from renewable power by the year 2020 (Drom 2014). All EU national Member States adopted national renewable targets depicting what measures they were planning to make in order to meet their renewable targets using their objectives. This strategy in cooperates sectoral targets for heating, transport and cooling; planned policy measures; the various mix of renewable innovations they expect to employ and the planned use of cooperation mechanism. The European Union also encourages public interventions such as support systems which remain essential for making renewable energy reforms effective and ensuring the EU energy security objectives. Figure 1 that follows, shows the final energy consumption in EU-28 countries throughout the ten years between 2006 and 2015. The decrease is apparent, so is the consumption of energy, all thanks to the introduction of RES. This process allows to decrease the energy dependency and to diversify the energy security of the European Union. JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 389 Fig. 1. Final energy consumption in EU-28 countries (2006-2015) Source: Eurostat (2017) With regard to the above, it would be useful to demonstrate the shares of RES by the EU Member States. Figure 2 that follows, reports the share of energy from RES in the EU. Fig. 2. Share of energy from RES in EU-28 countries (2006-2015) Source: Eurostat (2017) 390 JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online When looking into the issue of energy security and energy dependency of the EU, one has to mention the topic of natural gas consumption. With regard to this, Balitskiy et al. (2014) point out that channels along which natural gas is supplied to the EU energy markets represents dependence from the Russian supply of gas which presents a threat to the European energy security. They show that there is a long-run relationship between economic growth, natural gas consumption, labor and capital. In the short run, there is bidirectional causality between natural gas consumption and economic growth. The causality running from economic growth to natural gas consumption is positive. In essence, energy is of greatest significance as many contemporary activities depend on it. Thus, according to Korkmaz (2010), one of the main energy security issues in Europe is secure supplies of energy, in order to offer stable energy supplies along with affordable prices to the users. The issue is of most significance for Eastern and Central Europe in which energy security, as a result of history, together with geopolitical aspects, always remains high on the agenda. The interruption in gas supplies experienced in recent years, the continuing Ukraine-Russia conflict and the announcement by Gazprom to halt transportation to Europe via Ukraine after 2019, lead to persistent uncertainty over the stability of Russian gas supplies to Europe. Such concerns are increased by preparations to construct new lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline along with the European Commission's latest decision to give Gazprom augmented capacity utilization of the OPAL pipeline. Similarly, there is a current debate on a suggestion for a revised, regulation on the gas supply's security, on the basis of a regional approach. Furthermore, another critical challenge in the aspect of gas supply is the likely natural resources' depletion. In fact, Metais (2013) states that the International Energy Agency had predicted that the international demand for major sources of energy could amplify by thirty-six percent from 2008 to 2015, where fossil energies would account for more than half of the total growth in main demand of energy. In the European Union alone, the demand for gas was set to grow by 24 percent from 2005 to 2025. Such may partially be described by global policy keenness to minimize carbon dioxide emissions, due to the favorable features of natural gas with regard to ecological issues, and as well by its concrete capability to be an alternative for other energies in electric power production (see Figure 3). Further, the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident as a consequent of tsunami and earthquake in 2011 has a potential of contributing to an amplified gas demand in the EU since nuclear energy skeptics will advocate a switch to plants powered by gas. Yet, although there will be an inclination to shift to other sources of energy, in every sector for economic and environmental reasons, oil will continue to be the key fossil energy in the global principal energy combination till 2035. Fig. 3. Natural gas consumption in the EU (1990-2014) Source: BP (2017) JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 391 Apart from these changes, the smart technology, which advocates for the creation of "smart" cities, health, logistics, international trade and transport, poses an energy security threat for Europe (Franki and Višković 2015; Čábelková et al. 2015, Brodzicki 2016; Štreimikienė et al. 2016; Vasylchak and Halachenko 2016; Varanavicius et al. 2017). The smart technology depends on the use of ICT in production and distribution of a digitalized energy. The use of ICT in power generation and distribution decentralizes energy system and substantially the position of a consumer in the energy value chain hence affecting the energy's procurement cost. Although, smart energy system is primarily advocated for it does have loopholes in its security details. These security gaps are proven by the newly sophisticated cyber-attacks seen in the smart digital ecosystem currently (Abrhám and Wang 2017). To curb these attacks, the government of European Union Member States governments collectively established independent mechanism and measure for protecting her energy systems from external threats called the Cyber Security Strategy System (Chalvatzis and Ioannidis 2017). 3. Literature review: energy security and the new challenges When studying such issues as energy security in contemporary Europe, one has to mention the issues of innovations in energy sector. Innovations constitute an important part of the energy research and the progress in energy extraction, transmission and consumption. The main security issue for Central and Eastern Europe in the power industry is the loop-flows phenomena which are unscheduled flows of power across the boundaries of countries in the Eastern and Central Europe. They are due to congestions in the Germany's internal power grid, unable to successfully transmit electricity from renewable sources, largely from wind farms in the north, to the South of Germany and further down Austria. Consequently, the Czech Republic and Poland's power grids are more frequently utilized by such spontaneous flows (Noreng 2009). Likewise, they block a large portion of transmission capacities on the boundaries of these nations. Such, in turn, both limits prospects for trade and represents a major risk for power grids' stability. Similarly, there is also the issue of modernizing the power generation park and also the transmission lines, a requirement for long-term security for power supply. Many of the EU-11 plants built for power generation are old and thus, there is a threat that in the mid-term outlook, the power shortages, as witnessed in summer 2015 in Poland, could occur more frequently (Noreng 2009). It is critical to note that due to the impromptu loop flows which block the border between Poland and Germany, Poland was not able to import electricity at that point for the purpose of alleviating its balancing issue of the day. All in all, the contemporary Europe has recognized that a modern energy infrastructure is important for an energy market that is integrated and to allow the European Union to fulfill its energy and climate goals. Europe should expand and modernize its energy network in order to absorb energy from renewable sources along with secure supplies all over. Such needs substantial investment in the current electricity and gas networks, with fast expansion of the interconnections. Undeniably, supply security, sustainability or competitiveness goals can never be fulfilled without smart, reliable and resilient energy networks (Yergin 2011). However, another important issue is the link between innovations and sustainable economic growth and development. There is a plethora of studies that confirm the existence of this link therefore advocating for the importance of innovations in energy sector and sustainable development (Rezk et al. 2016; Laužikas et al. 2016; Tvaronavičienė 2016; Akhter 2017; Barberis et al. 2017). Other studies draw the examples of other (non-EU) countries to prove the same point. For example, Pauceanu 2016 is studying the case of Oman and is coming to the similar conclusion with regard to the link between the two. All in all, energy security represents a new challenge that involves looking for the new technological solutions in energy, transport, household heating and other sectors. With the raise of the sharing economy that was popularized by the services such as the car-sharing and ride-sharing service Uber and house-sharing service AirBnB, the energy sector is entering into the new concept of Industry 4.0 (see Prause 2014). In December 2015, the European Council and Parliament agreed on the formation of an Energy Protection Reform Commission called the Network and information systems (the so-called "NIS Directive"). The commission was charged with the responsibility of protecting the European cyber framework. The framework en392 JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online compassed the Digital Single Market, strategy and the Energy Union package. Its main mandate is to create the right conditions for trade and consumer benefits in the digitalization trend currently going on all over the globe (Zielińska 2016). For the smooth running of the European's Digital Single Market, general data protection, and the digital energy available, there is a need for a trustworthy online environment hence the body was formed to curb any energy security threat. The framework is designed to respond coherently and very fast in case of an emergency linked to cybersecurity. The majority of energy supply that is currently used in the European Union is based on energy that is generated from oil and gas burning technologies, while the sources of this oil and gas can often be traced to the neighboring regions and countries which are represented by Russian Federation, Norway, and Algeria, that in total provide about 80% of EU power supply. In the same time, such volatile countries as Ukraine, Turkey, and Belarus serve as the vital energy transit routes to and from the European Union. Figure 4 shows the final energy consumption in Turkey and Ukraine. It becomes clear how little is the consumption in these countries in comparison with the EU patterns and how potentially interested they might be hampering the energy supply for their own political benefits. One can therefore deduce that there is a clear need to have a secure energy supply framework and good political relationship with these EU neighboring countries. Fig. 4. Final energy consumption Turkey and Ukraine (2005-2015) Source: Eurostat (2017) Additionally, the energy system transition will result in a new shifting geographic state that poses a threat to Europe's energy markets as technology and interconnections broaden energy trade around the world. The uncertainty in the energy shifting geographies creates tension and hence the need to for Europe to redefine the approaches to energy security (Markovska et al. 2016; Strielkowski and Bilan 2016). Given that the Europe's wealth, prosperity, and security purely depend on securing a stable and affordable supply of energy, she needs to protectively address energy shifts and the energy landscape to avoid being a victim in the transition. Secondly, the geopolitical outlook around Europe, her political status, and presence in the northern hemisphere as a kingpin directly poses a direct threat to her energy security. It is purely supported by the recent developments in certain European countries that have vastly invested in military power, openly disregarded liberal values and support for illiberal movements intended to create dissension (Weisser 2007). To keep these issues in check, Europe established Energy Community committee aimed at creating a "ring of friends" in the energy trade. Apart from the geopolitical status of Europe and her environs the Middle East and Northern Africa's civil wars, JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 393 political structures, migrations and leadership transitions threatens to erode the existing borders in the regions which are Europe's chief energy supplier. The political, multipolar world and economic relations in energy sector not only provides an opportunity for Europe's energy advancement but also is awake up call for Europe to formulate a strategic approach to ensure the security of her energy. Some countries have grown politically hence increasing the completion in the power corridors while shifting the energy trade patterns posing a challenge to Europe's competitiveness and ability to shape the energy business standards (Pearson 2011). Europe developed the Energy Regulatory Authority who is charged with the responsibility of ensuring sustainability, security of supply and competitiveness. The body ensures that the consumers are not by any way exploited by the energy producers through legislation energy per unit retail price. There has been a two-sided social power conflict in the view of static versus the dynamic energy efficiency. The static energy side seeks to keep the wholesale price lower so that the producers do not have to make huge profits at the expense of the consumers. On the other hand, to ensure productive efficiency, the European government brought investment incentives in the energy supply sector. She too comes up with research funds for other natural energy sources exploration for example, solar and natural gas, which can be used for backups during an emergency or when reliable source fails to deliver hence maintaining the secure energy supply all the time. However, the diversion of time and location of the supply and consumption of energy still poses a conflict in the wholesale market. Since the electricity from the regulatory authorities is very cost effective, it is made available at a marginal cost. The regulation also states that all electricity networks should maintain supply even if one of its components fails. It forces the producers to upgrade their systems to avoid power shortages, which bring blackouts. The bodies also come up with the capacity market incentives in both the supply and consumer end to ensure regular supply even during the peak demands (Aslani 2013). Both the storage and generator companies of electricity receive a predictable revenue stream for proving reliable capacity (Pearson 2011). Europe developed the capacity markets commission, which has the objective of providing long-term cost recovery for markets and maintaining a reserve. The body is responsible for keeping the supply chain constant and reliable even during peak demand. The producers and non-producers of energy receive a predictable reward for proving strong energy capacity. It internal acts as a sure investment in the energy supply security. It also assures the suppliers of revenue if they guarantee supply even during a power outage. These measures ensure no blackouts since there is overcapacity embedded in the system to avoid power shortages. 4. Innovations for security in the energy sector Despite the emerging trends in energy sector across the globe, Europe's energy infrastructure is still largely shaped by her history. Her centralized generation and control system cause the situation. Her energy landscape is dominated by the large energy generating plants and Transmission System Operators (TSO) with the consumer network system consisting of a simple one-way energy flow from the few major productions centers. The primary energy source was coal and oil products. However, these various systems in Europe are beginning to embrace these changes in generation and energy delivery (Pearson 2011). The evolution of the ICT to control energy infrastructure in the recent times has European nations to embrace the green energy act advocacy by inventing the use of renewable energy and use of decarbonized energy. The electricity grid in Europe has developed much that it is no longer a simple network of wires but a more intelligent system that depends on communications and software (Limba et al. 2017). These developments have led to the demand for further investment in the ICT infrastructure mostly in the DSOs operational capabilities priorities and the transmission networks. Another great invention is the computation of the smart grid, which provides information on power consumption. The invention aimed to increase the efficiency of operations. The grid is a computer-based and remotecontrol system that supports central grid operators in the network management (Noailly and Batrakova 2010). The grid also has the capability of producing electric energy from the consumer end. The grid too can regulate energy voltage hence meeting inflexible demands. In order to meet the supply-demand European Union should come with a storage plan that involves the use of excess electricity to pump water into a reservoir and later release it into turbines to produce electricity during high demand hence securing energy supply. Also, the 394 JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online EU massively introduces the smart meters that control the energy supplied record the about amount used up (Noailly and Batrakova 2010; Rausser et al. 2017). These meters have two-way communication between itself and the control center through the networks. These meters also have the capability of detecting and preventing fraud since it can generate and store secure data communications. Nevertheless, it often appears that households eager to change their electricity consumption with the help of smart meters would also be those who are eager to alter their consumption patterns in order to yield the positive impact on environment. Speaking about RES, one can clearly see that the renewable power is frequently used in four critical areas: power generation, water and air heating and cooling, transport, and rural (off-grid) energy assistance. Renewable energy stocks exist over broad geographical regions, in contradiction to other energy reservoirs, which are clustered in a limited number of nations. Accelerated utilization of renewable electricity and energy performance is resulting in vital energy security, climate change reduction, and financial advantages. When greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters start to be held answerable for injuries occurring from GHG discharges leading to climate change, a high price for responsibility mitigation would give compelling grounds for deployment of renewable energy innovations. In global public appraisal surveys, there is substantial support for supporting renewable sources of power such as wind power and solar power. At the national level, about 30 nations around the globe now have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of power reserves. State renewable electricity requirements are prognosticated to grow steadily in the coming years. Some nations and at least a couple countries, Norway and Iceland, generate all their electricity using renewable power promptly, and many other countries have set an aim to reach 100% clean power in eventuality. All in all, it might be that saving on energy can be more relevant for people who do not have their own place to live and are renting their accommodation and experiencing financial difficulties. Not everyone is eager to change her or his "energy behavior", so many people would rather keep their old habits and waste energy just because they are used to that. The EU has to launch an educational and promotional campaign that would educate its citizens how to save energy and to contribute to the overall energy security. 5. Empirical model: determinants of energy security in the European Union With regard to the discussion outlined above and the provisions discussed and presented in the previous sections of this article, it appears interesting to take a closer look at the determinants of energy security in the European Union. In order to test this causality, we would take a look at the regression analysis model of the influence of renewable energy sources (the share of renewables in the total energy consumption) for the sample of the EU28 countries for the period from 1990 until 2016. The models for determining the influencing factors are quite common in economics and include the wide range of aspects from regional development, agricultural economics and entrepreneurship to a variety of fields (Janda et al. 2013; Strielkowski et al., 2017). Our empirical model is based on testing the causality between the total deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) and the economic growth. We employ the Kao cointegration test for testing the hypothesis that the higher the share of RES, the better off is the job market and the higher is the economic growth which is caused both by the increase in the number or jobs created by and for the RES sector (various jobs in "green energy" economy) and by the higher usage of various alternative sources of energy (solar, wind, small-scale hydro, and biomass). All in all, our results would be able to confirm this relationship and to make clear the interdependence between the share of RES in the economy of the EU countries and their economic independence and hence economic and energy security. Therefore, our formal model can also be expressed in the following formal way (1): GDPPP = α + β1Ks + β2Ls +β3ERES+ ε (1) where: GDPPP - is an average value of GDP per capita in the EU-28 countries Ks stock of capital represented by gross fixed capital formation gross domestic fixed investment in the EU-28 countries; JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 395 Ls- stock of labor given by total labor force in a country represented by people older than 15 years, who is economically active according to the definition of International Labor Organization (ILO) in the EU-28; ERES - energy (RES) consumption is a proxy for energy consumption given by the share of RES in the total energy output thousands of tons of oil equivalent (TOE); ε - is an error term. Our test of cointegrated relationship developed by Kao (1999) is based on Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) statistics (2) Yi,t= αi + βXi,t+εi,t t = 1, ... , n; i = 1,..., n (2) where i = 1, .., n represent each country in the panel, t = 1,...,t represent the time period. The null hypothesis suggests that there is no cointegration between variables H0: ρi = 0. For statistical analysis we used automatic lag length selection based on the Schwarz Information Criterion (SIC). When applying the Kao test for the purposes of our specific model, one can describe the relationship in the following system of equations (3), (4), (5), (6): 1 11 12 13 1 it i it it it itlnGDP lnK lnL lnGCα β β β ε= + + + + (3) 2 21 22 23 2 it i it it it itlnK lnGDP lnL lnGCα β β β ε= + + + + (4) 3 31 32 33 3 it i it it it itlnL lnGDP lnK lnGCα β β β ε= + + + + (5) 4 41 42 43 4 it i it it it itlnGC lnGDP lnK lnLα β β β ε= + + + + (6) The results of Kao residual cointegration test between four variables (LL, LGDP, LK and LGC) are presented in Table 1 that follows. Table 1: The results of Kao residual cointegration test Kao Residual Cointegration Test t-Statistic Prob. ADF 1.70 0.038 Residual variance 0.00037 HAC variance 0.00053 Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test Equation Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. RESID(-1) -0.096 0.056 -3.68 0.0059 D(RESID(-1)) 0.24 0.081 4.94 0.0001 D(RESID(-2)) 0.15 0.086 3.32 0.031 D(RESID(-3)) 0.20 0.085 4.19 0.0026 D(RESID(-4)) -0.011 0.084 -1.18 0.75 D(RESID(-5)) 0.17 0.074 4.14 0.0029 R-squared 0.68 Mean dependent variable 0.0035 Adjusted R-squared 0.66 S.D. dependent variable 0.026 S.E. of regression 0.064 Akaike info criterion -6.57 Sum squared residual 0.049 Schwarz criterion -6.48 Log likelihood 757.69 Hannan-Quinn criterion -6.53 Durbin-Watson stat 1.74 Source: Own results 396 JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online The results of Kao residual cointegration test based on Augmented Dickey-Fuller statistics suggest that there is cointegrated relationship between L, GDP, K and GC on significance level of 5 %. Therefore, one can conclude that we found cointegrated relationship between LL, LGDP, LK and LGC. The majority tests show that these variables are cointegrated between each other, where LL is taken as dependent variable. Our results confirm the importance of renewable energy sources (RES) for the economic growth and the creation of jobs in the EU-28 countries. 5. Conclusions and discussions One has to admit that energy security is a very complex concept. The need to ensure energy security raises a lot of issues which modern Europe needs to address. There are a number of energy security issues in the modern Europe as discussed above. One major energy security issues in Europe is secure supplies of energy, which makes it hard for Europe to offer stable energy supplies along with affordable prices to its consumers. Another issue is the possible depletion of gas supply as a result of likely depletion of natural resources. Further, since gas is essentially carried via permanent pipelines that construct direct, lasting interdependency between the buyers and producers, it becomes a challenge to transit the gas when the relation between the two countries is broken-down. To sum it up, it appears that adequate protection of vital energy systems is necessary since it prevents both the long and short-term shocks, which result in system malfunctioning, war, accidents and unsustainable energy demand graph in European Union. This seems to be a very crucial task for the EU, since 80% of its energy is imported from outside. With regard to this, one has to note that during transmission from one set of paradigms to another the system is very vulnerable. Therefore, it is very important to minimize transmission window time. With regard to electricity, the key security issue for Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) in the power industry is the unscheduled flows of power across the boundaries of countries in the Eastern and Central Europe. Similarly, there is the issue of modernizing the power generation park and also the transmission lines, a requirement for long-term security for power supply. However, Europe is looking forward to solving these challenges through innovation and technologies. The EU has established the SET-Plan, which aims to promote innovation for lowcarbon energy sources such as renewable energy sources. Besides, many countries in Europe are promoting the use of electricity smart grids and the development of nuclear power plants as alternatives to the at-risk fossil fuels. Decentralization of the energy system also provides security benefits making it very easy to isolate impacts of attacks to a local part of the scheme. The interdependency among the systems brought about by the energy digitalization should be well understood and preempt ways in which the attackers might use to attack the system and provide the appropriate actions to be taken when such attacks happen. The political will and good relationships should be embraced among the European nations and her neighbors to eliminate cyber-attacks. Moreover, one can also mention that the innovations seen in Europe are geared towards reducing the energy supply shortages and to the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES). Overall, it appears that RES might smooth the transition to the low-carbon economy and to reduce the risks to the energy security in the European Union. Independent alternative energy sources might become a solution to the pending threats the European energy security is facing nowadays. As for the pathways of further research on this topic, we would recommend exploring such interesting ideas and distributed energy generation in the EU remote areas, as well as looking into the concepts that were brought by the sharing economy. For instance, it would be very interesting to see how the peer-to-peer market of electric energy would work in the EU countries and whether this would be able to bring in the new implications for energy efficiency, sufficiency and security. For example, it would be very useful to find and utilize the data on the new projects involving P2P electricity markets as well as to assess the potential of electric vehicles (EV) in EU countries. Some countries, such as the Netherlands, have declared that they would ban the sales of any gasoline-based vehicles starting from 2020 in favor of EVs which is going to create an interesting natural experiment worth exploring by all economists and social scientists alike. JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2029-7017 print/ISSN 2029-7025 online 397 Massive deployment of EVs that is often associated with the introduction of RES in the EU countries, also represents an interesting field of research due to their increased pressure on peaks and the creation of unforeseeable situations on the electricity markets. It might be that the EU countries would still need lots of oil and gas to deal with the effects of the massive decarbonization causing the large-scale sales of EVs and a consequent charging of these EVs by the consumers. We can conclude by saying that energy security in Europe is an uneasy task and it is also a very complicated and complex problem. However, solutions have to be traced for and various options have to be presented and analyzed in order to get the EU countries ready for the volatile changes in the energy balance and sustainable economic growth of the forthcoming decades. References: Abrhám, J.; Wang, J. 2017. 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{ "creator": "Falah, Annisa", "date": "2017", "datestamp": 1562816994000, "description": "Marriage is one of the most important topics in the education field since life in this world is structured by interaction among families and between families and other social institutions. Dissatisfaction and unsustainability of marriage have led the urgency of premarital education in various countries. The problem is that the spread of virtual reality has made marriage itself to become more complex and experience reinterpretation and reconfiguration, moreover with the emergence of new kind of marriage in the digital era, i.e. virtual marriage. Everybody who has observed, known, or even tried, certainly asks the question, “Could (or: should) I accept virtual marriage?” . This study was aimed to investigate the role of tolerance of ambiguity and illusion of intimacy in online dating in predicting the acceptance of virtual marriage. There were 420 adolescents and young adults (212 males, 208 females; Mage=21.10 years old, SDage=1.459 years; 338 students, 82 employees or entrepreneurs) in the Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, participated in this study. It was found that the acceptance was not predicted by the ambiguity tolerance, but by the illusion of intimacy in online dating. The psychometric issues, substantive discussion, and recommendation are presented at the end of this article. The trend of virtual marriage should not be allowed to roll away, by autopilot, without loaded by strategies in designing an online game as one of the pivotal educational technologies that needs to shape appropriate character and attitude for it.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRIVM", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Is Virtual Marriage Acceptable? A Psychological Study Investigating The Role of Ambiguity Tolerance and Intimacy Illusion in Online Dating among Adolescents and Early Adults", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Electronic copy available at: This PDF is the pre-print version of: J. Abraham and A. Falah, "Is Virtual Marriage Acceptable? A Psychological Study Investigating The Role of Ambiguity Tolerance and Intimacy Illusion in Online Dating among Adolescents and Early Adults", 2017, Journal of Psychological and Educational Research, 24(2), 117-143. doi: IS VIRTUAL MARRIAGE ACCEPTABLE? A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE AND INTIMACY ILLUSION IN ONLINE DATING AMONG ADOLESCENTS AND EARLY ADULTS Juneman Abraham  Annisa Falah Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia Abstract Marriage is one of the most important topics in the education field since life in this world is structured by interaction among families and between families and other social institutions. Dissatisfaction and unsustainability of marriage have led the urgency of premarital education in various countries. The problem is that the spread of virtual reality has made marriage itself to become more complex and experience reinterpretation and reconfiguration, moreover with the emergence of new kind of marriage in the digital era, i.e. virtual marriage. Everybody who has observed, known, or even tried, certainly asks the question, "Could (or: should) I accept virtual marriage?" . This study was aimed to investigate the role of tolerance of ambiguity and illusion of intimacy in online dating in predicting the acceptance of virtual marriage. There were 420 adolescents and young adults (212 males, 208 females; Mage=21.10 years old, SDage=1.459 years; 338 students, 82 employees or entrepreneurs) in the Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, participated in this study. It was found that the acceptance was not predicted by the ambiguity tolerance, but by the illusion of intimacy in online dating. The psychometric issues, substantive discussion, and recommendation are presented at the end of this article. The trend of virtual marriage should not be allowed to roll away, by autopilot, without loaded by strategies in designing an online game as one of the pivotal educational technologies that needs to shape appropriate character and attitude for it. Keywords: marriage psychology; ambiguity; online marriage; intimacy illusion; psychotechnology Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to:  Bina Nusantara University, Psychology Department, BINUS Kampus Kijang, Jl. Kemanggisan Ilir III no. 45, Palmerah, DKI Jakarta 11480, Indonesia. Tel: +62215345830 ext. 2632. Fax: 62215300244. E-mail: Electronic copy available at: 2 Introduction The most current development of virtual marriage defines it as a marriage or contractual agreement that is conducted through internet medium in which the activities (wedding ceremony, kisses, etc.) are "played" and the instrumentalities as well as the artifacts (wedding dress, wedding ring, wedding hall, marriage certificate, marriage norms, wedding accessories, etc.) are present digitally in video games that involve visuals, sound, and social and emotional interactions dimensions between digital representatives of selves (avatars) (Freeman et al., 2015; Lo, 2009; Wu et al., 2007). "Virtual marriage" is synonymous with terms such as "cyber marriage", "online wedding", and "in-game marriage". Considering the terms, virtual marriage contains the combination of "virtual game" and "(traditional) marriage" features. As an illustration, the components of goal-directed playfulness (from virtual game) as well as intimacy, commitment, and sexual interaction (from traditional marriage) could be present in the activity of virtual marriage (Freeman et al., 2015). Virtual marriage becomes a prevalent phenomenon in the rapid development of technology. This symptom brings about crucial social transformation since the "traditional" norms are pulverized. As an example, virtual marriage enables someone to choose different gender representation from of the life's actuality of him/herself, as well as it enables same-sex marriage without facing resistances which will be experienced in offline marriage in some certain geographic areas. For some people, these possibilities are considered aversive, even offensive, since they contradict the belief they hold firm all this time (Freeman et al., 2015). When virtual marriage tends to be or becomes a real or serious marriage, it has the potency to disrupt the existing marriage. Wu et al. (2007) found that "virtual affair" done by the legitimate spouse in offline world, which involves having virtual sex with someone else and even taking care of virtual babies as a result of virtual marriage, could lead to a divorce. The 3D virtual world nowadays, as it is known, could facilitate virtual sex (Gilbert, Gonzalez, & Murphy, 2011; Hartoyo & Abraham, 2015) one of the features of virtual marriage. 3 However, on the other hand, many people could get positive aspects from this phenomenon. As an illustration, many people might agree that virtual marriage enables people to learn from each other intimate relationships and learn how to mingle and negotiate with others who have different social identities; the point is "learn to survive" (Freeman et al., 2015). Virtual marriage can make us "achieve a good sense of presence and reality at a distance" (Knudsen, 2002). About it, some people have given a redefinition on virtual world and considered it as real as the offline world (Gilbert, Murphy, & Ãvalos, 2011), at least equally true in affecting human development, as stated in the Co-construction Model (Cool, 2010; Subrahmanyam & Šmahel, 2010). The actors of virtual marriage enjoy their "life adventure", which in one of the interpretations, defies conventional values from the offline world which are stereotypic, bureaucratic, and dominated by heterosexual norms (Wu et al., 2007). Virtual marriage could function as a refreshing option in the midst of the "difficulties" of conducting a marriage in offline world which has so many sociological and legal constraints (Wu et al., 2007). Considering the controversies aforementioned, it is urgent to find the psychological predictors of virtual marriage acceptance. Acceptance is generally defined as "allowing, tolerating, embracing, experiencing, or making contact with a source of stimulation, particularly private experiences, that previously evoked escape, avoidance, or aggression" (Cordova, as cited in Hayes & Pankey, 2003, p. 4). What is meant by virtual marriage acceptance in this study is the attitudes of approving, enduring, and justifying the idea of virtual marriage with its advantages and limitations. The author proposed two predictors; they are ambiguity tolerance and the illusion of intimacy in online dating (see Figure 1). Tolerance of ambiguity (or ambiguity tolerance) is cognitive and emotional tendencies of someone to prefer or idolize (meaning to approach and to process) ambiguous stimuli, i.e. information or thing that is multiinterpretation, complex, ambivalent, risky, unknown, and uncertain, and there is no effort to avoid (or not in a hurry to pass premature judgment or could feel comfortable with) stimuli that are not familiar/habitual, not congruent, and not clear (black-or-white), as well as inconsistent (Baj-Lindsey, 1998; Furnham & Marks, 2013; Herman et al., 2010; Rong & Grover, 2007). The stimuli are considered as interesting as well as challenging things, not as the source of 4 confusion and threat. Rong and Grover (2007) showed that there is a positive correlation between ambiguity tolerance with openness to new experiences, willingness to face change, to update knowledge, and to review their opinion. In counseling field, Harper (2008) found a positive correlation between ambiguity tolerance and counseling self-efficacy of a therapist. Zenasni, Besançon, and Lubart (2008) found that the higher someone's ambiguity tolerance, the higher the creativity is. Meanwhile, some people consider virtual marriage something that is creative, as seen in the following quotation: "... cyber-marriage show the emergence of a new form of sociability made possible by Chinese users' creative adoption of the internet .... instead of homogenizing the world have, on the contrary, challenged the hegemony ...." (Chin, 2010, p. 11). Davis (1995) said that interpersonal communication happens through telemedia (digital and interactive media, "new electronic media"; it includes ingame marriage) increases the level of communication ambiguity. According to Davis, without telemedia, a natural communication has been containing ambiguity; moreover, the ambiguity is multiplicated if the activity is "layered" with media, in addition to the ambiguities intentionally created by the communicators. Virtual marriage includes ambiguities even from its definition. "It could refer to online wedding ceremonies that proceeded to real-life, consummated unions, or to make-believe 'name only' marriages, which these days are generally the case" (Zhuhong, 2010). Unmistakably, there is an online marriage that is perceived as done only through online (without physical face-to-face meeting) and there is one that is assumed to be the beginning or initiation that leads to offline marriage life (Bailey & Chin, 2010). Virtual marriage contains such contradictions. For some people, it is "serious" or "just for fun", "fantasy" or "real", "objectification of self" or "subjectification". Graham (2010) proposed an interesting analysis that the playfulness in virtual marriage paradoxically lies on its seriousness, like in sexual activities in in-game marriage. However, Graham added that in his seriousness, the game player has the awareness of the context of his/her action, that is gaming context. Such awareness shapes the meaning of the actions, although not everybody could understand this paradox. This is the ambiguity of virtual marriage. He 5 proposed a psychological analysis showing that an MMORPG player could "incorporate" such contradictions that the non-player could not. Not only from the definition and nature of the game, but virtual marriage's ambiguity also lies on the ethical and moral aspects. As an illustration, Chareonwongsak (2002) mentioned that in digitization era like today, personal options and public policies are tinted with ambiguities in which the truth becomes "relative" and everybody shapes his on "truth". From the discussions above, it is clear that only those who are enduring ambiguities are the ones who could accept virtual marriage as one of the reasonable dimensions in life. Therefore, the first hypothesis of this research is "The higher someone's ambiguity tolerance, the higher his/her acceptance of virtual marriage is" (H1) (see Figure 1). The second predictor of the virtual marriage acceptance the author proposed is an illusion of intimacy in online dating. This variable was proposed primarily because both virtual marriage and online dating happen in a virtual environment. For instance, both online dating and virtual marriage have virtual chat room which only can be accessed by "partners"; further, the individuals in online dating and in-game marriage also have profile or avatar that represents their identities. In online dating, all users have access to find and browse other users who are potential to become partner based on certain criteria set before. In in-game (virtual) marriage, every user has access to find and browse other users potentially fit and meet certain criteria to get married online in the game based on information available in the user profile. Such behavior in a certain environment context could be generalized into similar environments. The second reason for proposing this predictor is due to the fact that the online daters' self-disclosure, especially those who have attachment anxiety, provides "illusion of greater intimacy" effect (Blackhart, Fitzpatrick, & Williamson, 2014, p. 114) with their partner. The interesting thing is that such anxiety turns up because people do not learn to go through "how to be alone", and therefore "Other people are used, as what one might think of as part objects spare parts to support a fragile self" (Price, 2011). The people who are untrained to deal with aloneness are in fact will feel loneliness and anxiety, and this condition will expand the illusion of intimacy. A bit different from Blackhart et al. (2014), Dröge and Voirol (2011) mentioned that the illusion of intimacy engulfs everybody involved in online dating, not only those who have 6 attachment anxiety. This illusion, further, results in disappointment and frustration, as shown in, "the feelings of intimacy and togetherness that are developing online now become not only questionable but also potentially dangerous, because they tend to draw people into a world of false emotions and illusions .... People experience their passion as dangerous and illusionary simply because the emotions are initially detached from bodily co-presence, and the bodily experience and sexual desire cannot catch up with them in the face-to-face encounter" (Dröge & Voirol, 2011, p. 350-351). However, the statement seems to simplify problems because even togetherness built online could result in genuine intimacy. Price (2011) proposed a key to understand the problem. According to Price, if an activity in a virtual environment is done to preserve or strengthen an existing relationship, the intimacy of real couples could be stronger. However, if we are interacting with a fully "stranger" (perfectly unknown people, without any degree of previous commitment) in an online dating, especially if it is not accompanied by offline meeting, false "illusion of companionship" or the illusion of intimacy might appear. This symptom looks alike-although not identical-illusion of intimacy experienced by someone in parasocial interaction with celebrities or political figures he/she admires (although never meets before) mediated by electronic media (Laken, 2009). It is true that online dating is different from parasocial contexts since online dating happens two-ways, whereas the parasocial interaction only happens one-way. However, the similarity between online dating and parasocial interaction is there is persona or impression management that seldom is "uncovered", let alone the online dating without being combined with offline dating. Figure 1. Hypothetical model predicting online marriage acceptance Note: (+) Positive prediction Ambiguity tolerance Illusion of intimacy in online dating Acceptance of online marriage H2 (+) H1 (+) 7 In the review on John C. Bridges (2012) book, "The Illusion of Intimacy: Problems in the World of Online Dating", which is based on a large number of qualitative studies, Evans (2012) shows Bridges' concern that various kinds of psychological problems might appear in all stages of finding romantic partner through online medium. For instance, on an online dating site, someone could rapidly build intensive feeling to other based on ideal imaginations after looking at the profile or avatar of the counterpart, then hurriedly encourages feeling that he has found the right partner; even though they haven't met before. The most frequent thing that happens, according to Bridges (as cited in Evans, 2012), is the imaginations are "shattered" and then he feels oscillated, rejected, and depressive after the first offline meeting, especially if the meeting is long overdue and the "couple" have been "excessively" (even addictively) communicating only through the internet. The attributed "love" in the first online interaction (for example based on the matching process offered by online dating site) turns out to be regretted as "only an illusion", which is actually only "lust". Meanwhile, the couples in the offline world are busy negotiating one another on solving concrete life problems. They who rely on online dating sites are busy trying various sites which offer various "compatibility matching algorithms" with their own claimed strengths. In another word, online dating per se could not build love ("love" in the sense of synthesis passion, commitment, and intimacy; see Sternberg, 2007). To build love, online dating should interact with other factors. It is not surprising that with such personal characteristic, those who experience the illusion of intimacy in online dating are more capable of accepting virtual marriage because it looks like an "oasis" which could answer or provide closure on their anxiety or "psychological hunger" on intimacy. Therefore, the second hypothesis of this research is "The higher someone's illusion of intimacy in online dating, the higher his/her acceptance of virtual marriage is" (H2) (see Figure 1). Objective The purpose of this research is to find out the role of tolerance toward ambiguity and illusion of intimacy on online dating in predicting virtual 8 marriage acceptance. Method Participants The participants of this study were 420 students and employees or entrepreneurs aged 18-25 years old (212 males and 208 females; Mean of age = 21.10 years old, Standard deviation of age = 1.459 years; 338 students, 82 employees or entrepreneurs), recruited through convenience sampling technique in Greater Area of Jakarta (Jabodetabek area: Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, & Bekasi). As much as 70% of students taking part as samples in this research were recruited from Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia: 15% from Gunadarma University, Depok, West Java, Indonesia; and 15% from Indonesia Banking School, Jakarta, Indonesia. The 82 employee/entrepreneurs have various kinds of jobs, such as accountant, photographer, doctor, teacher, police, IT programmer, etc. Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia with the highest penetration rate for internet use and online game, i.e. 65% of 88.1 million internet active users in Indonesia (Banyumurti, 2016; Maulana, 2015). Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (abbreviated as "Bodetabek") are the main buffer cities of Jakarta. The age range of 18-25 was chosen with the consideration that in this age someone starts to intensively intend to build romantic relationships (Meier & Allen, 2009). The range was chosen also due to the close continuity between adolescence and early adulthood periods, which could be seen as an age continuum with progression or accumulated experience in sexuality, romance, and family (Meier & Allen, 2009). Further, almost all in that age group were assumed to be fluent in using internet technology if being compared to the previous generation, and they are often being called as the first generation of digital natives (Helsper & Enyon, 2009). Since this study is closely related to romance world and virtual environment, the sample choice has a reasonable foundation. Instruments To measure Virtual Marriage Acceptance, the author constructed by adapting and modifying the Attitude toward Same-Sex Marriage Scale 9 (ASSMS) which was developed by Lannutti and Lachia (2007). Some considerations in employing this scale were, first, the context of the scale is the same as the dependent variable context of this study, that is marriage; second, same-sex marriage is also a less conventional matter, as well as virtual marriage; and third, attitude and acceptance are two constructs that are adjacent (even they are coined to be "attitude of acceptance", see Taylor, 2013). The scale in this present study was preceded with an introduction on "virtual marriage" term, as follow: "There are many online games which provide in-game marriage feature with other gamer or player. A character in the form of avatar played by a gamer gets married with other player's character. This virtual marriage only happens in the game. The wedding party is depicted in the online game visualization as weddings in general. Further, they will get a marriage certificate, and even they can take care of children virtually in the game. What do you think about this phenomenon?" The response to this scale consisted of six options, as follows: Strongly Disagree (score of 1), Disagree (score of 2), Slightly Disagree (score of 3), Slightly Agree (score of 4), Agree (score of 5), and Strongly Agree (score of 6). The author developed 23 items, with the examples of statement as follows: "Virtual marriage should be allowed the same rights as offline marriage", "Virtual marriage deserve the same protections as offline marriage", "I am against virtual marriage" (unfavorable item, reversely scored), "I oppose any law that would make it impossible for virtual marriage to be held", "It is morally wrong for virtual marriage to do", "Allowing virtual marriage will change society for the worse" (unfavorable item), "Allowing virtual marriage would improve society", "I am disgusted by the idea of virtual marriage", and "If invited, I would attend a virtual marriage ceremony". The validity and reliability testing on the Scale of Virtual Marriage Acceptance showed that Cronbach's Alpha = .94 (this scale is reliable), with corrected item-total correlations is around .33 to .84 by eliminating one item. Therefore, the scale consisted of 22 items that were valid and reliable. To measure the Tolerance of Ambiguity, the author adapted The Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale developed previously by Herman et al. (2010). The scale consisted of four dimensions and twelve statements describing the 10 tolerance of ambiguity. The four dimensions in the scale are (1) Valuing diverse others, (2) Change, (3) Challenging perspectives, and (4) Unfamiliarity. The response to this scale consisted of six options, as follows: Strongly Disagree (score of 1), Disagree (score of 2), Slightly Disagree (score of 3), Slightly Agree (score of 4), Agree (score of 5), and Strongly Agree (score of 6). The example of items on Valuing others dimension: "I can enjoy being with people whose values are very different from mine", "I can be comfortable with nearly all kinds of people". The example of items on Change dimension: "A good job is one where what is to be done and how it is to be done are always clear" (unfavorable item, reversely scored), "The sooner we all acquire similar values and ideals the better" (unfavorable item, reversely scored). The example of items of Challenging perspectives dimension: "If given a choice, I will usually visit a foreign country rather than vacation at home", "A good teacher is one who makes you wonder about your way of looking at things". The example of items on Unfamiliarity dimension: "I like to surround myself with things that are familiar to me" (unfavorable item, reversely scored), "I like parties where I know most of the people more than ones where all or most of the people are complete strangers" (unfavorable item). The validity and reliability testing on the Tolerance of ambiguity showed that Cronbach's Alpha = .75 (this scale is reliable), with corrected item-total correlations is around .27 to .65 by eliminating three item. Therefore, the scale consisted of 12 items that were valid and reliable. To measure the illusion of intimacy in online dating, the author constructed the measurement instrument based on research results of Bridges (2012) and description of the illusion of intimacy from Fletcher and Kerr (2010) and added several items based on Bridges' research (2012). The author composed 16 statement items. The scale was preceded by an introduction, as follow: "I believe if being compared with offline dating couples (dating in offline world, not virtual/internet world), so online dating couples ...." Meanwhile, the example of the statement is as follow: "Online dating couple will have more personal remembrance about one another for a long time", "Online dating couples have more common belief and attitude", "Online dating couples like the quality of the partner more", "Online dating couples have better mutual care", "Online dating couples have better mutual agreement", 11 "Online dating couples like the way the partner solves problem better", and "Online dating couples forgive one another's mistake easier". The response to this scale consisted of six options, as follows: Strongly Disagree (score of 1), Disagree (score of 2), Slightly Disagree (score of 3), Slightly Agree (score of 4), Agree (score of 5), and Strongly Agree (score of 6). The validity and reliability testing on the Illusion of Intimacy in Online Dating showed that Cronbach's Alpha = .94 (this scale is reliable), with corrected itemtotal correlations is around .41 to .78 without eliminating any item. Therefore, the scale consisted of 16 items that were valid and reliable. Procedure and Design The design of this study was correlational predictive which implemented multiple linear regression analysis as the data analysis technique. The predictors (independent variables) in this study are ambiguity tolerance and the illusion of intimacy in online dating. The criterion (dependent variable) in this study is the acceptance of virtual marriage. The author distributed a questionnaire which consisted of three psychological scales to measure the predictor and criterion variables in Bahasa Indonesia. Before conducting the field research, the author implemented reliability and validity testing on the measurement instruments. In this study, a psychological scale is reliable if it has internal consistency index, Cronbach's Alpha, more than .60. The item validity testing was conducted by correlating the item score with the total score of the corresponding scale, with criteria corrected item-total correlations more than .25 . Results and Discussion As many as 321 (76.43%) participants claimed to have played the online game, and the rest 99 (23.57%) participants claim never played it. Of the 321 participants, the length of experience in playing online game: 86 (26.79%) less than one year (1-11 months), 80 (24.92%) one year, 53 (16.51%) three to five years, 28 (8.72%) two years, 25 (7.79%) six to eight years, 18 (5.61%) nine to twelve years; and the rest, 31 (9.66%) participants provided varied answers ("depends on needs", "every day", "from junior high school to now", "twice a week @ 6 hours", and the like, or above 12 years). From 321 12 participants, 35 (10.90%) participants claimed to ever get involved in a virtual marriage in the certain online game. From those 35 participants, they were asked about both positive and negative sides of virtual marriage. Every participant could express one or more ideas. The author categorized the responses into three perceptual groups, i.e. positive, negative and neutral. The following are the participants' positive perceptions on virtual marriage: (1) If meeting offline, the online couples have the potential to be offline couples as well; (2) The first step to know deeper, understand character, share attention, share with opposite sex; (3) Making online game more fun and exciting; (4) Strengthening self-character; (5) Not feeling alone and there is someone caring (more feeling like close friends), although the counterpart is not physically near; (6) "Fun" and learn to understand one another; (7) Improving the spirit in offline life; (8) Able to love someone without looking at the physical appearance, but loving "with heart"; (9) Passing the free time; (10) Finding relation, getting friend from outside the town, even internationally. It is a media to learn cross-cultural understanding. If move to different city, have a friend already; (11) More understanding and helping one another; (12) Feel the longing more; (13) Feel the partner's sacrifice and struggle better; (14) Could change the self-image; (15) There is no rules and restrictions, "nothing to lose"; (16) There is no agreement that influences the offline life; and (17) Make it easier for those who have difficulties finding partner in offline world. The following are the participants' negative perceptions on virtual marriage: (1) Could be scam, there is mistrust issue; (2) Being worried if the online partner is not like the expectation; (3) If already have offline partner, it could make someone forgets and could create disharmony with the offline partner; (4) Withdrawing or being apart from the real world; (5) Not ethical if it is integrated into personal life; (5) Only to fulfil desire or lust; this objective is not in accordance with the real intention of marriage, that is building prosperous and peaceful family; (6) Antisocial because cannot interact with offline partner in offline world; (7) The danger is much bigger than offline marriage; (8) Not knowing the partner's physical appearance; (9) Wasting time; (10) Could be seen as an instrument to get away from reality for those who cannot make relationship in offline world; (11) Could be played by player who is not in accordance with the age portion (such as children); (12) Not knowing 13 whether the partner is male or female; (13) No physical contacts, so it might do harm to others; (14) The marriage is indefensible; (15) Could not unify online and offline lives; (16) Could make someone feel lazy to find partner in offline world; and (16) Like a small infidelity. The following are the participants' neutral perceptions on virtual marriage: (1) Virtual marriage is only the requirements to get certain items in the game, raising the level in game; (2) Normal, as long as not being maniac; (3) It is an option, it depends on each individual's awareness and belief; (4) "Is it that easy to find someone 'fit' for partner?"; (5) A unique thing; and (6) Changing love life. The multiple linear regression assumption tests using IBM SPSS for Windows showed that the data distribution is normal (see Figure 2), free of multicollinearity among independent variables (VIF < 10, Tolerance > 0.1; see Table 1), and free of heteroscedasticity (no pattern on the scatterplot and the data are distributed above and below 0; see Figure 3). Figure 2. Normality test result (Normal P-P Plot of Regression Standardized Residual) Note: Virtual Marriage_Acc = The acceptance of virtual marriage Figure 3. Heteroscedasticity test result (Scatterplot) Note: Virtual Marriage_Acc = The acceptance of virtual marriage Ambiguity tolerance Illusion of intimacy in online dating Acceptance of online marriage H2 (+) H1 (0) 14 Figure 4. Research result: Regression model predicting online marriage acceptance (n=420) Note: (0) No prediction; (+) Positive prediction H1 First hypothesis not supported; H2 Second hypothesis supported by data The multiple linear regression analysis showed that simultaneously both predictors (illusion of intimacy and ambiguity tolerance) can predict the acceptance of virtual marriage, F(2, 419)=47.379, p=.000, p<.01, with effect size, R=0.185 or 18.5%. However, when being investigated in detail, ambiguity tolerance was found can not predict by itself the acceptance (β=-0.059, p=.187, p>.05), thus H1 was not supported by empirical data (see Figure 4 and Table 1). The illusion of intimacy in online dating was found to be able to predict by itself the acceptance (β=0.418, p=.000, p<.01) in a positive way, thus H2 was supported by empirical data (see Figure 4 and Table 1). The Beta values (β) are standardized coefficients estimating the increased score of criterion variable (online marriage acceptance), in standard deviation unit, in correspondence with one standard deviation increment of the predictor variables scores. Based on the participants' responses, there are paradoxes in their perception of virtual marriage; for example, (1) from time aspect; there are some who consider passing the time, but for the others it is a waste of time; (2) from the inexistence of face-to-face encounters aspect; some think it is a loss, the others consider it is the proof of love and sincere loyalty (believe without seeing); (3) from the inexistence of bond aspect; there are some consider as the preparation of the real marriage in the future, there are others who consider it defies the real intention of marriage; (4) from the impact on overall life aspect; for some, it motivates and supports the search and even development of selfcharacter in general, for others, it is only fake and is an escape from the offline world. These paradoxes show that the ambiguity elements really exist in virtual marriage. Table 1. Multiple Linear Regression Predicting the Acceptance of Virtual Marriage (n=420) Predictor B SE B β t p Tolerance VIF 15 Predictor B SE B β t p Tolerance VIF Ambiguity tolerance -0.183 0.138 -0.059 -1.320 .18 0.982 1.019 Illusion of intimacy in online dating 0.553 0.059 0.418 9.377 .000 0.982 1.019 Note: SE = standard error However, the result of this study showed that the ambiguity tolerance can not predict the acceptance of virtual marriage. The author proposed two explanations on the finding of this present study. First, ambiguity tolerance is a variable that is contextual in nature. In explaining the non-significance of global correlation between ambiguity tolerance and attitudinal conservatism, Durrheim (1998) by using context theory explains that if each of the variables is "broken down" into dimensions based on its content, a correlation could be found between both variables on its similar contents and context domains (such as, similarity in politics or similarity on religious field). The implication of such discussion, according to Durrheim, is that ambiguity tolerance cannot be regarded as global personality trait because it depends on its context, our tolerance level on ambiguity could vary both on the direction (positive/tolerant or negative/intolerant), as well as strength (strong or weak). However, in this present study, ambiguity tolerance, as seen in the measurement scale responded by the participants, is assumed as having a unidimensional factor structure covering diverse enough situational domains, such as: interpersonal experience ("I can enjoy being with people whose values are very different from mine"), job/professional ("A good job is one where what is to be done and how it is to be done are always clear"), education/learning ("A good teacher is one who makes you wonder about your way of looking at things"); although some of the items are related to crosscultural experience. Moreover, the predicted variable (criterion) lies on different domain with the predictor's domain, that is marriage domain, in which exist subdomain in law and/or human right ("Virtual marriage should be allowed the same rights as offline marriage") and subdomain in society area ("Allowing virtual marriage will change society for the worse"). It is not surprising though if the mix of domains results in the nonexistence of correlation-predictive between ambiguity tolerance and acceptance of virtual marriage. 16 The manifestation of attitude and behavior of ambiguity tolerance could not be generalized traversing various attitudinal objects. Bors, Gruman, and Shukla (2010) in their psychometric on ambiguity tolerance measurement also find that "the one-factor solution was clearly the worst fit" (p. 242). Their investigation presumably could be applied in this present study which employed an instrument from Herman et al. (2010). Endres, Camp, and Milner (2015) through their experiment research even found that ambiguity tolerance is not a stable construct but malleable in someone according to the situation faced by the person. Therefore, the next researcher is suggested to (1) re-examine the psychometric properties in ambiguity tolerance psychological scale proposed by Herman et al. (2010) based on classification of dimension/domain of life's situation; and (2) re-examine the predictive relationship between ambiguity tolerance and acceptance of virtual marriage by specifying the items in ambiguity tolerance scale in a context only, i.e. the context of marriage or virtual marriage. The second reason that would explain why there is no predictive relationship related to ambiguity is that during the hypothesis development, the author did not anticipate the direction of ambiguity in influencing the acceptance of the object, value or concept (in this research: virtual marriage). In general, the existing studies show that ambiguity connotes negative (as mentioned in the Introduction section) and correlates negatively with acceptance. The word "tolerance" in "tolerance of ambiguity" shows that ambiguity is something that is aversive since we only tolerate things we do not like. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2005), tolerance means "the ability to bear something unpleasant or annoying, or to continue existing despite disadvantageous conditions". Psychologically, in general people consider ambiguity bad for them because it causes uncertainty, dissonance, difficulties in control, and hindrance to self-development, even temptation to hide or disguise the real meanings (Abraham, Utami, & Faza, 2014; Mitchell & Pilkington, 2000; Norton, Frost, & Ariely, 2007). However, ambiguity also has good influence or impact. Ambiguity is indeed sometimes could not be avoided in this life reality, yet it has the potency to become a huge booster for us to offer a various fresh interpretation, comparison form various 17 angles, and reflection on choices we took, and therefore we develop our existential meaning (Mitchell & Pilikington, 2000). In interpersonal attraction, a field that is close to activities in online dating and virtual marriage, Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2007) through their empirical research found that ambiguity has its attractiveness, and it could bridge two contradictive statements circulating in everyday life: "Familiarity breeds contempt" and, as the counterpart, "Familiarity increases liking". It is true that we will like a person who is similar to us, but the reality shows that frequently we encounter someone who is different with us. In such condition, the more we could get information or knowledge about the person, the lower our positive imaginative portrayal to that person is, and this will reduce our liking. Ambiguity has its attractiveness, especially in initial meetings with initial mates, since it provides an illusion or cognitive bias that the person is similar to us in attitude, personality, and even behavior. This maintains and even increases our expectation to the person. When the person adds only one more thing that is similar with us, we get more "confirmation bias" in our positive impression formation and therefore we will like the person more. Norton et al. (2007) give further explanation on unambiguity which confirms dislike feeling through dissimilarity mediation: "Because individuals expect to find similarity, encountering evidence of dissimilarity is unexpected and therefore impactful; this initial dissimilarity then causes subsequent information to be interpreted as further evidence of dissimilarity. In short, we propose the existence of dissimilarity cascades: One instance of dissimilarity causes subsequent information to be interpreted as further evidence of dissimilarity, leading to relatively greater perceptions of dissimilarity over the course of impression formation" (Norton et al., 2007, p. 98). The explanation on the role of (un)ambiguity above is supported by Gaver, Beaver, and Benford (2003). While Norton et al. explains that our increased attractiveness to others is as the result of ambiguity, Gaver et al. mentioned that our increased attractiveness to technology (online dating and virtual marriage world could be considered as examples) is as a result of ambiguity. In human-computer interaction, they found a positive correlation between ambiguity of media or technological system with personal engagement 18 to it. In their scientific review, there are three paths in which ambiguity shows its influence. The first, ambiguity of information in an interactive environment, such as "fuzzy avatars that hint at locations without specifying them" (Gaver et al., 2003, p. 236) in Bystander reality game, encourages the users to integrate all information they have (about physical and social environments) to fill the information gap to continue playing the game. The second, the ambiguity of context stimulates users to do rethinking, reinterpretation, redefining meaning, and reconceptualization to appropriate technology based on their needs context. This is based on the observation conducted by Gaver et al. that users do not like to be dictated about what the technology at hand will become. The third, ambiguity of relationship leads to self-reflection, questions our attitude and judgment based on action-reaction happens between users and technology. In this case, technology is positioned as "psychological mirrors" (Gaver et al., 2003, p. 239) in which users could do experiments on their identity. Based on the two potential directions of ambiguity, positive and negative, on the acceptance of virtual marriage, it is not surprising that intuitively we imagine the positive and negative scores nullify one another so the average is zero or the inexistence of any predictive correlation. Therefore, the next researchers are expected to (1) also know deeper the frequency, duration, and intensity of someone using online dating sites as well as the pattern of his activities in the sites. The data is very important to be used as variables mediating and/or moderating predictive relationship between ambiguity tolerance and acceptance of virtual marriage; (2) investigate incisively the conditions or contexts wherein technological ambiguity results in frustration and vacuity, and the situations wherein the ambiguity has effects on enthusiasm, excitement, and abundance of meanings, and then measure them separately to calculate their influences on the acceptance of virtual marriage. This research found that illusion of intimacy in online dating can predict the acceptance of virtual marriage in a positive way. As mentioned previously, the illusion of intimacy in online dating is in fact a product of communication of two parties, who both wear "mask" or "impression fortress". According to Bridges (2012), an intensive and extensive researcher in online dating, every individual involves in the online relationship has a tendency to manipulate everything shown to others to make it more interesting and having more attractiveness in others' perspectives. The manipulation could happen in 19 every aspect that could be shown, either synchronously or asynchronously, covering avatar performance, conversation experienced, biodata, and many others. Different with offline communication, someone will experience cognitive overload if in every second he/she has to instantly decide carefully word by word that is appropriate to be said to show certain self-impression when interacting face-to-face with others. The easiness to access information makes someone also experiences the illusion of intimacy. Someone could feel close or intimate with others because he/she already has and knows many information related to the person, especially if from the beginning he/she is managed by pre-conception on similarity between him/herself and the counterpart in online dating situation; even though what he/she has known might be limited to the online dimension, and he/she would never know the correspondence of the "online truth" in offline world. There are three ways how such illusion could happen on online dating sites (Finkel et al., 2012). First, in the access dimension, an online dater thinks he is facing the real others, equipped with the biopsychosocial dimensions, eventhough what he really faces is a body layered by screens, and the things expressed verbally or nonverbally in online dating site's interactions are only part (not whole, even only a small part) of someone's soul. Actually, in fact, we will not be able to comprehensively conclude our compatibility with the potential partner if we do not experience encounters with the whole body, the three-dimension body, along with all phenomenological and existential experiences brought with the body. Furthermore, online daters might think and treat their counterpart as an object (not as subject) because of the availability of lots of alternative counterparts in the online dating sites. Second, in the communication dimension, without a sustainable reality test, online daters might think that the person encountered is the actual people. In fact, the actual person is an aggregate (or gestalt) between online and offline dimensions of someone, not only the online dimension. Third, in the matching process dimension, online daters might consider that the algorithm used by online dating sites is a smartest device or method which "beats the conventional ways" to identify compatibilities between him and the potential partner. In fact, the compatibilities offered by online dating sites are not the most important thing in a relationship's stability or satisfaction; however, the most important thing is: 20 "how the two partners will grow and mature over time, what life circumstances they will confront and coping responses they will exhibit in the future, and how the dynamics of their interaction will ultimately promote or undermine romantic attraction and long-term relationship well-being" (Finkel et al., 2012, p. 4). The algorithm which uses biology, psychology, sociology or spirituality aspects will not be able and indeed impossible to reach the data because when the algorithm calculation is conducted, the data does not exist yet. The first path above is very closely related to the focus of this research, that is an illusion of intimacy. How does the illusion of intimacy facilitate someone's psyche to accept positively virtual marriage? As previously explained, there are some similar features between online dating and virtual marriage. The illusion in online dating finds its convergence with the nature of illusion from virtual marriage; or in another word, the learning process has occurred, to be more specific: transfer of experience from online dating to virtual marriage context. In the access dimension, Lo (2009) clearly shows illusion dimension from virtual marriage: "Online romance perpetuates the illusion of soul or mind because people fall in love in cyberspace not for each other's bodies or physical attractiveness but for their intangible souls or inner feelings .... Love relations in cyberspace create a fantasy" (Lo, 2009, p. 394). Although it is not the focus of illusion description in this research, from communication aspect, Lo (2009) also showed that objectification of the counterpart as identified by Finkel et al. (2012) above-also happens in virtual marriage. Virtual marriage has the potency to nurture a patriarchal culture in which polygamy (one "husband" with many "wives", or, on the contrary, one "wife" with many "husbands") could be done lightly. In virtual marriage, someone could marry as many partners as possible without any limit, anytime, without necessarily playing loyalty and commitment with the partner; although for some people who consider this from a different side, it is a "liberation". In online dating and virtual marriage, someone could "mix" and "build" closeness feeling with his online partner based on his needs (the feeling of intimacy and closeness will be more salient when the needs of relationship are getting higher) while being interspersed with the awareness that it is a relationship with far 21 psychological distance or high construal level. Conclusions This research concludes that the illusion of intimacy in online dating could predict the acceptance of virtual marriage. In this case, virtual marriage could be viewed as the "sustainable experience" from online dating. The tolerance of ambiguity could not predict the acceptance. The author attributed the inexistence of predictive potency on the psychometric problem in the measurement instrument and the flexibility or divergence of the relationship direction of ambiguity toward the acceptance. Therefore, the author suggests to reconstruct the measurement instrument of the tolerance of ambiguity based on his suggestions in Discussion part and to reinvestigate the correlation-predictive with the acceptance. This study was not intended to provide final evaluation with moralistic nuance on whether we should encourage or discourage the existence of online dating and virtual marriage. The significant contribution of this study was more on providing scientific perspective to the readers on the phenomena which might need to be anticipated in the future, in which virtual reality has penetrated the social institution which is known as sacred and has an assured function (i.e. procreation), that is marriage. This research provides the first insight, which if online dating has started to bloom nowadays, we need to put into consideration its implication on virtual marriage in the future together with all the consequences and excesses. At least, according to this research (based on the coefficient of determination from regression analysis), 18.5% of the variance of the acceptance of virtual marriage got its contribution from the significance of the investigated predictor. Since virtual marriage is a phenomenon that is very likely will draw us to make a redefinition of marriage, we need to have reflection on how we will build love and bind relationship one another, as well as to rethink our own psyche in the border (or intersection) of online and offline world; therefore, this study is important to be considered seriously when an individual projects an attitude and behavior toward virtual marriage and when the institutions who 22 make public policies formulate the regulations for cyber world among the society. Since online game has benefits in education field and its success also is determined by psychological factors (Abraham & Sharron, 2015), online game designers and education field stakeholders could also use the result of this study to optimize the positive effect of online game in educating how to build an appropriate attitude on virtual marriage, especially for adolescents and young adults. The next researchers are expected to include spirituality/religiosity factor in building a theoretical model on the acceptance of virtual marriage in the context of societies that are known religious, like Indonesia. The study conducted by Piela (2011) could become a stimulant for the effort. Furthermore, because this research has not put value on levels of acceptance of virtual marriage based on various psycodemographic attributes, a multilevel research is suggested. 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Cultural Studies, 23(3), 381-403. http:// dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/ 09502380902858018 Maulana, A. (2015, March 26). Jumlah pengguna internet indonesia capai 88,1 juta. Liputan6. Retrieved from http:// tekno.liputan6.com/ read/ 2197413/ jumlah-pengguna-internet-indonesia-capai-881-juta Meier, A., & Allen, G. (2009). Romantic relationships from adolescence to young adulthood: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health. Sociological Quarterly, 50(2), 308-335. http:// dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/ j.1533-8525.2009.01142.x Mithcell, G. J., & Pilkington, F. B. (2000). Comfort-discomfort with ambiguity: Flight and freedom in nursing practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 13(1), 31-36. Norton, M. I., Frost, J. H., & Ariely, D. (2007). Less is more: The lure of ambiguity, or why familiarity breeds contempt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 97-105. Piela, A. (2011). Beyond the traditional-modern binary: faith and identity in Muslim women's online matchmaking profiles. CyberOrient, 5(1). Retrieved from Price, M. (2011). Alone in the crowd. Monitor on Psychology, 42(6), 26. Retrieved from http:// monitor/ 2011/ 06/ socialnetworking.aspx 27 Rong, G., & Grover, V. (2009). Keeping up-to-date with information technology: Testing a model of technological knowledge renewal effectiveness for IT professionals. Information & Management, 46(7), 376387. Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Triangulating love. In T. J. Oord (Ed.), The altruism reader: Selections from writings on love, religion, and science (pp. 332347). West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation. Subrahmanyam, K., & Šmahel, D. (2010). Connecting online behavior to adolescent development: A theoretical framework. Digital Youth, 27-39. Taylor, S. (2013). The Power of Acceptance. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https:// blog/ out-the-darkness/ 201304/ the-power-acceptance Wu, W., Fore, S., Wang, X., & Ho, P. S. Y. (2007). Beyond virtual carnival and masquerade: In-game marriage on the Chinese internet. Games and Culture, 2(1), 59-89. Zenasni, F., Besançon, M., & Lubart, T. (2008). Creativity and tolerance of ambiguity: An empirical study. Journal of Creative Behavior, 42(1), 6173. Zhuhong. (2010, April 27). Does cyber matrimony threaten the institution of marriage? All China Women's Federation. Retrieved from http:// womenofchina/ html1/ features/ family/9/87481.htm 28 Received August 19, 2016 Revision October 10, 2016 Accepted November 7,
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{ "creator": "Abreu, Cláudio", "date": "2012", "datestamp": 1590052932000, "description": "El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una reconstrucción de la teoría de los grupos dereferencia. La teoría, desarrollada por Robert K. Merton, ha sido largamente utilizada enlos más variados campos de las ciencias sociales, aunque con escasa o nula consideraciónmetateórica hasta ahora. La reconstrucción atenderá a la presentación que de la misma serecoge en sendos artículos de su libro Social Theory and Social Structure, de 1968, a saber:“Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior” y “Continuities in the theory ofreference groups and social structure”. Para presentar esta reconstrucción me apoyaré en elinstrumental de la Metateoría Estructuralista. Después de una consideración informal de lateoría, serán presentados sus modelos potenciales, modelos, modelos potenciales parciales,sus aplicaciones intencionales y algunos comentarios acerca de la noción de “grupo de referencia”en lo que respeta su carácter relacional y disposicional.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRLTD", "language": "es", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "La teoría de los grupos de referencia", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 287 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 ÁGORA - Papeles de Filosofía - (2012), 31/2: 287-309 ISSN 0211-6642 Recibido: 24/02/2011. Aceptado: 16/05/2012. * Estoy agradecido a la Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica de Argentina que, por medio del proyecto de investigación PICT No 1558, me brinda una beca doctoral y financia el proyecto de investigación PICTR2006 No 2007, así como también al CONICET que financia el proyecto PIP No 112-201101-01135, de los cuales participa este trabajo. Agradezco también a los integrantes del Seminario de Filosofía de la Ciencia, en especial a Pablo Lorenzano, Mercedes O'Lery, Santiago Ginnobili y Christián Carman por sus sugerencias en las discusiones sobre las versiones previas. A José L. Falguera le agradezco el constante empeño, los muchos diálogos y sugerencias acerca de la versión final y la ayuda con el español. Ninguno de ellos son responsables de las deficiencias que aún preserve el trabajo. ** e-mail: La Teoría de Los Grupos de referencia* Cláudio Abreu** Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero / Universidad Nacional de Quilmes / ANPCyT (Argentina) resumen El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una reconstrucción de la teoría de los grupos de referencia. La teoría, desarrollada por Robert K. Merton, ha sido largamente utilizada en los más variados campos de las ciencias sociales, aunque con escasa o nula consideración metateórica hasta ahora. La reconstrucción atenderá a la presentación que de la misma se recoge en sendos artículos de su libro Social Theory and Social Structure, de 1968, a saber: "Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior" y "Continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure". Para presentar esta reconstrucción me apoyaré en el instrumental de la Metateoría Estructuralista. Después de una consideración informal de la teoría, serán presentados sus modelos potenciales, modelos, modelos potenciales parciales, sus aplicaciones intencionales y algunos comentarios acerca de la noción de "grupo de referencia" en lo que respeta su carácter relacional y disposicional. Palabras-clave: Teoría de los grupos de referencia, Merton, metateoría estructuralista. abstract The goal of this article is to present a reconstruction of the reference groups theory. The theory developed by Robert K. Merton is a theory largely used in the most varied fields of Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 288 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 social sciences but, still up to this day, it does not have a more accurate treatment from the metascientific standpoint. The reconstruction will attend the presentation of it is reflected in two articles in his book Social Theory and Social Structure, 1968, namely: "Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior" and "Continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure". To present this reconstruction, we will use the instruments of a contemporary conception of theories, namely the Structuralist Metatheory. After an informal account of the theory will be presented their potential models, models, partial potential models, applications intended and some comments about the notion of "reference group" in what respects its relational and dispositional nature. Keywords: Reference groups theory, Merton, structuralist metatheory. 1. introducción El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una reconstrucción de la teoría de los grupos de referencia (TGR), la teoría desarrollada por Robert K. Merton. Se trata de una teoría largamente utilizada en los más variados campos de las ciencias sociales, pero que hasta hoy no tuvo un tratamiento más preciso desde el punto de vista metacientífico. En este artículo se trata la TGR tal y como ha sido presentada por Merton en sus célebres artículos integrados en Social Theory and Social Structure, 1968, a saber: "Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior" y "Continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure"1. El ulterior desarrollo de la teoría será tratado en posteriores trabajos. Para presentar esta reconstrucción, haremos uso del instrumental de una concepción contemporánea de las teorías, a saber, la Metateoría Estructuralista. Después de una consideración informal de la TGR, serán presentados sus modelos potenciales, modelos, modelos potenciales parciales, sus aplicaciones intencionales y algunos comentarios acerca de la noción de "grupo de referencia" en lo que respeta su carácter relacional y disposicional. De esta manera se puede precisar qué es lo que aporta el trabajo de Merton al entendimiento de la conducta del individuo en sociedad. Es importante esclarecer que la TGR es un ejemplo de lo que Merton denomina teoría de alcance intermedio, o sea, aquellas teorías que se encuentran a mitad de camino [...] entre esas hipótesis de trabajo menores pero necesarias que se producen abundantemente durante las diarias rutinas de la investigación y los esfuerzos sistemáticos totalizadores por desarrollar una teoría unificada que explicara todas las uniformi1 Los dos capítulos aparecen en la segunda edición del libro (1957). La primera edición es de (1949). Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 289 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 dades observadas de la conducta, la organización y los cambios sociales. (Merton, 1968, p.39 [2002, p. 56])2 Cada una de ellas, debería así considerarse [... J una teoría intermedia a las teorías generales de los sistemas sociales que están demasiado lejanas de los tipos particulares de conducta, de organización y del cambio sociales para tomarlas en cuenta en lo que se observa y de las descripciones ordenadamente detalladas de particularidades que no están nada generalizadas. (Merton, 1968, p.39 [2002, p. 56]) Conviene señalar que, a los efectos de la reconstrucción en el marco estructuralista desde una perspectiva sincrónica, la TGR se concibe como un elemento teórico aislado. Ello se debe a que las aportaciones de Merton no hacen referencia a posibles distinciones relevantes que pongan en escena la eventualidad de tener algunas especializaciones. Posibles desarrollos de las aportaciones de Merton, en la línea de desplegar diferentes especializaciones para diferentes grupos de aplicaciones, convertirían lo aquí presentado o en un elemento teórico básico de una red teórica o en un elemento especializado de un elemento teórico básico de alguna teoría de mayor alcance. Como ya se indicó, explorar tales posibilidades queda pospuesto para algún futuro trabajo. 2. aclaraciones preliminares No obstante, parece oportuno empezar por aclarar que, según Merton, es característico de las teorías de alcance intermedio que dichas teorías "no permanecen separadas, sino que se reúnen en redes más amplias de teorías, como se ilustra con las teorías del nivel de aspiración, grupo de referencia y estructura de oportunidad" (Merton, 1968, p. 68 [2002, p. 97]). Al respecto, tal y como asume explícitamente Merton al principio del segundo de los artículos referentes a la TGR, "Continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure", "[sus] páginas [...] están organizadas en relación con problemas teóricos, tanto de grupos de referencia como de materias afines a la estructura social en general" (Merton, 1968, p. 335 [2002, p. 362]). Este comentario nos ayuda a entender una afirmación de Merton al final del mismo artículo, cuando escribe acerca de las consecuencias de la conducta relativa a grupos de referencia que: Al poner fin a esta exposición sobre continuidades de la teoría de la conducta relativa a grupos de referencia, me limito a mencionar, más bien que a analizar, problemas 2 En adelante, lo puesto entre corchetes corresponde a la versión castellana. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 290 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 escogidos de las consecuencias de diferentes tipos de conducta relativa a grupo de referencia. Estudiarlos con el detalle que ahora es posible sería convertir esto en todo un libro extenso más bien que en una información provisional. (Merton, 1968, p. 438 [2002, p. 468]) Con independencia de la extensión, parece que las consecuencias a las que se refiere no requieren considerarse necesariamente para identificar lo que es central para la TGR. Además, al tratar específicamente de las funciones y disfunciones de la conducta relativa a un grupo de referencia, dice: [...] hay 'coherencia entre la teoría de grupo de referencia y ciertos conceptos de la sociología funcional. Parece que éstos se refieren a aspectos diferentes del mismo asunto: uno se enfoca sobre el proceso mediante el cual los individuos se relacionan con los grupos y refieren su conducta a los valores de los grupos; los otros se enfocan sobre las consecuencias de los procesos primordialmente para las estructuras sociales, pero también para los individuos y los grupos comprendidos en las estructuras sociales'. (Merton, 1968, p. 438 [2002, p. 468]) Así tenemos que Merton afirma que la TGR, dicho de modo general, "trata de sistematizar los determinantes y consecuencias de los procesos de valorar y de auto-estimación en que los individuos toman los valores o las normas de otros individuos como sistema comparativo de referencia" (Merton, 1968, p. 228 [2002, p. 314]). Pero además, presenta ideas como la de que "la función de la conformidad es la aceptación por el grupo, así como la progresiva aceptación por el grupo refuerza la tendencia a la conformidad" (Merton, 1968, p. 308 [2002, pp. 334-335]). Aquí, con la reconstrucción que proponemos, tratamos de elucidar lo que concierne a la explicación de la conducta relativa a grupos de referencia. Las cuestiones relativas a 'determinantes', 'consecuencias' y 'función', a las que se hace referencia en las anteriores citas, entendemos que aunque indirectamente tienen que ver con la TGR, no constituyen lo que dicha teoría es directamente en sí misma. Sin embargo, esta mezcla de problemas y/o perspectivas teóricas presentes en dichos artículos parecen ser una muestra paradigmática de lo que Merton expresa por medio de la noción de 'alcance intermedio', no tanto por lo que se refiere a las teorías de alcance intermedio sino que más bien a la orientación de alcance intermedio, o sea, a la idea de que: La teoría sociológica, si ha de avanzar de manera significativa, debe proceder sobre estos planes interrelacionados: 1) desarrollando teorías especiales sobre las cuales derivar hipótesis que se puedan investigar empíricamente y 2) desarrollando, no revelando súbitamente, un esquema conceptual progresivamente más general que sea adecuado para consolidar grupos de teorías especiales. (Merton, 1968, p. 51 [2002, p. 68]) Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 291 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 Esta contextualización hace pensar que Merton entiende su estudio de los grupos de referencia como una oportunidad de sofisticación del funcionalismo. La noción de 'función' (estrechamente vinculada con la noción de 'consecuencias') permite retomar aspectos como el de la conformidad o la inconformidad con, por ejemplo, el intra-grupo. Con ello se estaría apuntando a un vínculo importante con la teoría de la anomia. Lo que hay entonces son relaciones entre 'teorías especiales' en un proceso de 'revelación de un esquema conceptual progresivamente más general'. Este esquema conceptual, que es progresivamente más general en lo que respecta a la conducta del individuo, involucra, en la obra de Merton, la teoría de la anomia -donde metas culturales sirven de guía a la conducta del individuo- y la teoría de los grupos de referencia -donde los valores de un grupo de referencia también sirven de guía a la conducta del individuo-. En ambas teorías, aunque la referencia es externa (social), encontramos que la práctica creativa de los individuos es significativamente importante para las mismas. En este contexto, por ejemplo, a partir de la noción de grupo de referencia, Merton trabaja nociones como 'integridad', 'visibilidad' y 'autoridad' de los grupos sociales, de manera tal que con estas nociones puede tratar sobre la retroalimentación de un sistema social, llegando así a teorías descriptivo-explicativas de la producción y la manutención del sistema social. Con eso, hace que el funcionalismo sea capaz de explicar, haciendo uso de las nociones de 'función manifiesta' y 'función latente', la sociedad por la práctica creativa de sus actores. 3. presentación informal de la TGr Así pues, la TGR pretende explicar la conducta del individuo en lo que concierne a su actitud de asimilar/adaptarse-a los valores de un colectivo, en el sentido de vincularla a su aspiración de afiliarse-a/integrarse-en3 este colectivo. El concepto de grupo de referencia se originó en la psicología social; sin embargo, Merton defiende que "el concepto de grupo de referencia tiene también un lugar distintivo en la teoría de la sociología, con su enfoque 3 Tanto para el caso de "asimilar/adaptarse-a" como para el de "afiliarse-a"/integrarse-en" los pares de expresiones pueden considerarse sinónimas, siendo más apropiado un miembro del par que otro según el contexto de uso. A fin de evitar lo farragoso que sería mantener los pares de expresiones a lo largo del texto, a partir de aquí privilegiaré el uso de "asimilar" y de "afiliarse a" (prescindiendo en este caso del guión del que hice uso previamente). Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 292 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 sobre la estructura y funciones de los ambientes sociales en que están situados los individuos" (Merton, 1968, p. 335 [2002, p. 362]). En todo caso, es importante aclarar que "la expresión ahora consagrada de 'grupo de referencia' tiene algo de inapropiado, porque se aplica no sólo a grupos, sino que también a individuos y a categorías sociales" (Merton, 1968, p. 338 [2002, p. 365]). Un individuo de referencia es aquél que tiene cierto status social diferenciado, como puede ser un artista renombrado, un importante deportista, etc. Reconociendo que, por una cuestión de simplicidad, en la tradición sociológica se utiliza en general la expresión 'grupo de referencia' para designar también individuos de referencia, Merton procura aclarar esta última noción, y lo hace caracterizándola a partir de sus semejanzas y diferencias con respecto a la noción de papeles sociales. El individuo de referencia ha sido descrito con frecuencia como un modelo de papel. Pero, como implican las palabras mismas, el supuesto de que sean cosas conceptualmente sinónimas oscurece una diferencia fundamental en las materias de las cuales se refieren respectivamente. La persona que se identifica con un individuo de referencia tratará de aproximarse a la conducta y valores de aquel individuo en sus diferentes papeles sociales. El concepto de modelo de papel puede tomarse en un sentido más restringido que denota una identificación más limitada con un individuo sólo en uno o en unos pocos papeles seleccionados. (Merton, 1968, pp. 656-357 [2002, p. 384]) En lo que se refiere a los grupos "se entiende en general que el concepto sociológico de grupo se refiere a un número de personas que actúan entre sí de acuerdo con normas establecidas" (Merton, 1968, p. 339 [2002, p. 366]). Las relaciones sociales consagradas y características (formas normadas de interacción) de cada grupo acaban por caracterizarse como aspectos identificables de la estructura social. A su vez, las categorías sociales son caracterizadas por Merton como "agregado de situaciones sociales cuyos ocupantes no están en interacción social. Tienen características sociales idénticas -de sexo, edad, situación matrimonial, ingreso, etc.-, pero no están orientadas necesariamente hacia un cuerpo de normas distintivo y común" (Merton, 168, p. 353 [2002, p. 381]). Es importante en este contexto tener presente que tiene que establecerse una relación entre un individuo y un grupo (que puede estar dado por un único individuo, como ya se señaló) para que éste pueda servir como referencia de aquél. Esto queda más claro si percibimos "que el concepto de la conducta relativa a grupo de referencia presupone algún conocimiento o imagen de las normas y los valores predominantes en el grupo" (Merton 1968, p. 391 [2002, p. 419]). Para concretar puede decirse que la TGR Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 293 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 "se enfoca sobre el proceso mediante el cual los individuos se relacionan con los grupos y refieren su conducta a los valores de los grupos" (Merton, 1968, p. 280 [2002, p. 306]). Por 'valores del grupo' se debe entender cosas como 'normas', 'cánones', 'patrones', 'hábitos', 'prácticas', 'rutinas', 'usos', 'modas', 'costumbres', 'tradiciones', 'etiqueta', 'protocolos', 'ritos', 'procedimientos', 'reglas', etc. La referencia a estos valores puede ser: (i) positiva, cuando "comprende la asimilación motivada de las normas del grupo o de los patrones del grupo" (Merton, 1968, p. 354 [2002, p. 382]); o (ii) negativa, cuando hay "el rechazo motivado, es decir, no sólo la mera no aceptación de las normas, sino que la formación de contranormas" (Merton, 1968, p. 354 [2002, p. 382]); o (iii) neutra, cuando los individuos son completamente indiferentes a la perspectiva de pertenecer o no pertenecer al grupo - esta clase de individuos consta de los que no se orientan en absoluto hacia el grupo ni positiva ni negativamente, pero que podrían hacerlo pues tienen cierta interacción con (conocen) el grupo en cuestión4. Los comentarios previos parecen dar a entender que los grupos de referencias son sin más determinados colectivos o grupos de individuos; es decir, lo que podríamos representar como ciertos conjuntos de individuos (incluidos algunos conjuntos unitarios). Sin embargo, considerarlos así conlleva perder un rasgo decisivo de los grupos de referencia, a saber, que un determinado colectivo o grupo de individuos pasa a ser grupo de referencia en tanto que lo es para un determinado individuo en determinada circunstancia. No hay grupos de referencia en términos absolutos, los hay relativamente a un individuo y una circunstancia. Que ser grupo de referencia es relativo a un individuo debe resultar intuitivamente obvio, toda vez que ser grupo de referencia parece que requiere la adopción de una actitud, un posicionamiento determinado, por parte de ese individuo. Que sea relativo a una circunstancia parece que es apropiado por un par de razones. En primer lugar, lo que sea un grupo de referencia para un individuo en un determinado momento no tiene por qué serlo en otro momento. Esta mera razón 4 La noción de referencia neutra sirve para capturar un fenómeno que es distinto, por ejemplo, del caso en el que el individuo no pertenece a un grupo y es indiferente a pertenecer o no a él porque no está en la órbita de este grupo; o sea, ni siquiera mantiene algún tipo de relación con él. La noción de referencia neutral captura el fenómeno donde un individuo mantiene relación con un grupo (sea como sea esta relación) y, sin embargo, este grupo no sirve (no está como) guía para este individuo; o sea, no se da el caso de ser ni referencia positiva ni referencia negativa para este individuo. Estrictamente no se da la referencia, pero eso no le quita (a la noción de referencia neutral) su valor (y utilidad). Es común la utilización de una noción similar en las encuestas (sea para publicidad, actividades políticas u otras) donde se procura identificar, por ejemplo, la aceptación y rechazo de cierto producto o de cierta persona por parte de la población. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 294 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 daría lugar a que en vez de "circunstancias" se pensara en que la noción de "grupo de referencia" estuviera relativizada a "momentos" (además de estarlo a "individuos"), pero lo cierto es que en el mismo momento un mismo individuo podría considerar dos o más colectivos como grupos de referencia para él (por ejemplo, para un chico dado, una pandilla del barrio, por un lado, y un grupo de compañeros en el centro de estudios, por otro lado). Por eso, en segundo lugar, debe considerarse una noción que intuitivamente sea más compleja que la de "momentos temporales" (que capture la idea de contexto estructural), llamémosla "circunstancia", respecto a las cuales se fija qué colectivos son grupos de referencia; aunque a los efectos de este trabajo las presentaremos como entidades simples. Preservaremos, pues, la noción de grupo de referencia como una noción dependiente de otras tres más básicas; a saber: "individuos", "colectivos"5 y "circunstancias". Teniendo esto en cuenta, podemos decir que la hipótesis central de la teoría es que en la medida en que los individuos de un grupo subalterno o en perspectiva se sienten movidos a afiliarse a un grupo, tenderán a asimilarse a los sentimientos y adaptarse a los valores del estrato del grupo que tiene autoridad y prestigio. (Merton, 1968, p. 308 [2002, pp. 334-335]) En base a esto, Merton afirma que en casos como los de [u]n soldado raso del ejército que busca el ascenso, sólo en un sentido estrecho y teóricamente superficial puede considerarse que siga una conducta diferente de la de un inmigrante que se asimila los valores de un grupo nativo, o de un individuo de clase baja que se ajusta a su concepto de las normas de conducta de la clase media alta, o de un muchacho en una zona de barrios bajos que se orienta hacia los valores de un trabajador de casa de beneficencia y no hacia los valores de la pandilla de la esquina, o de un estudiante de Bennington que abandona las ideas conservadoras de sus padres para adoptar las ideas más liberales de sus compañeros de colegio universitario, o de un católico de clase humilde que se aparta de la norma de su intra-grupo votando por los republicanos, o de un aristócrata francés del siglo XVIII que se alinea en un grupo revolucionario de la época. (Merton, 1968, p. 332 [2002. pp. 359-360]) Todos ellos son casos que responden a la pauta dada por la TGR. Parece claro que la conducta de un individuo, según nos propone Merton, se caracteriza por ser la expresión de un sentimiento por parte de ese individuo en relación al grupo. Según sea este sentimiento, el grupo será de 5 Hasta aquí hablé de "colectivos" o "grupos". A partir de ahora privilegiaré la expresión de "colectivos" para evitar confusiones entre las expresiones de "grupo" y de "grupo de referencia". Además, como se verá, entre los colectivos se incluyen colectivos unitarios (es decir, de un solo individuo), a fin de poder disponer de éstos como valores para la noción de "grupo de referencia". Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 295 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 referencia positiva, negativa o neutra. Puede ser el caso de una "asimilación motivada de las normas del grupo", "[d]el rechazo motivado" de dichas normas (Merton, 1968, p. 354 [2002. p. 382]) o de la neutralidad; es decir, referencia positiva, negativa y neutra, respectivamente. En este sentido, aspirar a pertenecer, por ejemplo, supone aceptación de los valores del grupo. Querer "ser del grupo", "ser como los del grupo", es (presupone) aceptar lo que acepta el grupo. Aspirar a abandonar al grupo es (supone) rechazar lo que acepta el grupo. Y finalmente, están aquellos que no se orientan en absoluto hacia el grupo en cuestión. 4. Los modelos potenciales de la TGr Para la Metateoría Estructuralista las teorías son entidades modelo-teóricas y, por tanto, presentar una teoría requiere, entre otras cosas, presentar una clase de modelos6. El primer paso para ese cometido es dar cuenta de los sistemas de los que cabe preguntarse si son o no son modelos de una teoría, es decir, de lo que en la corriente estructuralista se conoce como los modelos potenciales de dicha teoría. En este apartado se presentan los modelos potenciales de la TGR. Pero antes veamos una aproximación informal de lo que se entiende por modelos potenciales de una teoría dada T. Al respecto dice Moulines: El conjunto de modelos potenciales (al cual, siguiendo la nomenclatura estándar de Stegmüller, designaremos por Mp) viene determinado por las condiciones estructurales o "axiomas impropios" que intervienen en la caracterización de un predicado conjuntista correspondiente a la axiomatización de la teoría en cuestión. Intuitivamente, un modelo potencial de una teoría dada T es cualquier sistema del que sabemos que tiene la estructura conceptual requerida para ser un modelo de T, aunque posiblemente no sepamos si cumple realmente las leyes empíricas (los "verdaderos axiomas") de T y por lo tanto no sepamos si efectivamente es un modelo de T. Con las estructuras contenidas en Mp "conceptuamos la realidad" de determinada manera (de la manera correspondiente al lenguaje de T). Pero con ello, naturalmente, aún 6 Además de entender que presentar una teoría requiere, entre otras cosas, presentar una clase de modelos, la Metateoría Estructuralista se distingue de las demás concepciones semánticas por refinar la noción de teoría. Para la concepción estructuralista, el tipo más simple de estructura conjuntista que pudiera ser identificado con, o pudiera servir como reconstrucción lógica de, una teoría empírica es denominado elemento teórico y puede ser representado, en una primera aproximación, con el par ordenado consistente en el núcleo K y el campo de aplicaciones intencionales I: T=<K, I>. El núcleo K, que constituye la identidad formal de una teoría, es un quíntuplo ordenado <Mp, M, Mpp, C, L>. En la medida que, estas nociones aparezcan en el trabajo serán presentadas con más detalle. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 296 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 no queda garantizado que esa conceptuación sea empíricamente válida y fructífera. (Moulines, 1986. p. 300) En el caso de la TGR entre los constituyentes de la teoría tenemos: "individuos", "colectivos", "valores" y "circunstancias". A ellos hay que añadir un dominio auxiliar que denominamos "evaluaciones". Éstos son los dominios a partir de los cuales se darán (conjuntistamente) las funciones "normativizar", "comportarse" y "aspirar", además de la relación "grupo de referencia". Teniendo en cuenta estos componentes conceptuales (y presuponiendo que el campo de acción del individuo está limitado por el conjunto de relaciones que tiene con los distintos colectivos existentes), ya es posible caracterizar el conjunto de los modelos potenciales de la TGR. d1: Mp(TGr): x es un modelo potencial de la Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia (x ∈ Mp(TGR)) syss existen IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU, tales que: (1) x = <IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU> (2) IND es un conjunto finito, no vacío ("individuos") (3) COL ⊆(Pot (IND)-∅) ("colectivos") (4) VAL es un conjunto finito, no vacío ("valores") (5) CIR es un conjunto finito, no vacío ("circunstancias") (6) EVA = {+, -, ?} ("evaluaciones"), es un dominio auxiliar (7) nor: COL × CIR → (Pot (VAL) -∅) ("normativizar (o asignar valores)") (8) com: IND × CIR × (Pot (VAL) -∅) → EVA ("comportarse") (9) asp: IND × CIR × COL → EVA ("aspirar") (10) GRU⊆COL × IND × CIR ("grupo de referencia, para un individuo en una circunstancia") Comentarios a este predicado: (1) Presenta la estructura de los modelos potenciales, conformada según los componentes conceptuales característicos de la TGR. (2) IND representa un conjunto de seres humanos (o individuos). Personas que llevan su vida relacionándose con otras, siendo parte de determinados contextos sociales y no siendo parte de otros, inmersas en la cultura de su lugar (su lugar puede ser desde un pueblito de pescadores hasta el planeta como un todo, dependiendo entonces de las actividades y el nivel cultural-económico de cada individuo). (3) COL es un conjunto de colectivos de individuos. Desde un "colectivo unitario" formado por un solo individuo, pasando por grupos de personas con cierta identidad de grupo asumida por sus miembros Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 297 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 (identidad que proporcionan unas normas, más o menos explícitas, compartidas), hasta, incluso, categorías sociales determinadas por una característica que comprenden fenómenos como, por ejemplo, los "individuos de un sexo" o las "clases sociales". Lo que es distintivo de estos colectivos, así caracterizados, es que tienen como condición necesaria el estar constituidos por individuos. Pueden ser grupos que existen actualmente o que no existan más (es decir, que hayan existido y hayan terminado desapareciendo), pueden ser grupos cerrados (aquellos que no permiten o dificultan en mucho el ingreso de nuevos integrantes) o abiertos (aquellos que permiten el ingreso de nuevos integrantes, muchos incluso los buscan constantemente), pueden ser grupos a los cuales se pertenece o no, pueden ser grupos a los cuales ya se perteneció y hoy ya no se pertenece; un colectivo puede ser un grupo al que se aspire ingresar, del que resulte indiferente la afiliación, o incluso del que se tenga razones para desear no pertenecer. No toda posible combinación de individuos es uno de estos colectivos, sólo ciertas combinaciones lo son (por ejemplo, no sería un colectivo para nuestra teoría el resultante de considerar conjuntamente un individuo de Caracas, otro de Londres y otro de Praga que no tuvieran nada socialmente relevante que ver entre sí). (4) VAL es el conjunto de valores: normas, cánones, patrones, hábitos, rutinas, usos, modas, costumbres, tradiciones, etiquetas, protocolos, ritos, procedimientos, prácticas, reglas..., que están presentes en la sociedad constituyendo la moral de los grupos sociales. Los valores son principios que permiten orientar los comportamientos (o conductas) a adoptar; son creencias fundamentales que ayudan a preferir, evaluar y elegir unas cosas en lugar de otras, o unos comportamientos (o conductas) en lugar de otro; son normas que rigen las conductas. (5) CIR es el conjunto de contextos estructurales o circunstancias. Captura el estado de cosas que sirve de escenario para que puedan "actuar" los individuos y los colectivos. Aunque podría ser caracterizada como una noción compleja (con estructura), no se hace así en esta reconstrucción por entenderse que la matización en nada contribuiría para un mejor entendimiento de la teoría en tanto que autónoma, tal y como se la considera aquí; es decir, siendo bastante clara la noción intuitiva de circunstancia, presentarla como una estructura no afectaría en nada lo que es central e importante para la reconstrucción a la luz de la consideración autónoma que de la Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 298 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 misma aquí se hace (otra cosa es que pueda tener interés esa consideración más estructurada de la circunstancias en un marco más amplio de teorías del que forme parte la TGR). (6) EVA es un conjunto de elementos auxiliares. Sus elementos son los tres tipos de posibilidades que cabe considerar al hacer evaluaciones, es decir, sus elementos son la posibilidad positiva (+), la negativa (-) y la neutra (?). El uso de estos elementos en la reconstrucción es algo peculiar y, justamente por eso, será aclarado más adelante cuando aparezcan en las funciones correspondientes. En todo caso, como se verá de inmediato, son los valores que le corresponden al codominio de las funciones com y asp. (7) nor es la función que a un colectivo le asigna, en determinada circunstancia, ciertos valores. Esto es importante para la TGR una vez que estos valores estarán (o no) directamente involucrados con el comportamiento del individuo. Es en base a estos valores que se tiene la función "comportarse". (8) com es la función que a un individuo, en determinada circunstancia, atribuye una relación particular respecto a un conjunto de valores, puede ser de tres maneras: i) de asimilar este conjunto de valores (+), ii) de rechazar a este conjunto de valores (-) o iii) de ser indiferente con respecto a este conjunto de valores (?). (9) asp es la función que a un individuo, en una circunstancia, atribuye una relación particular respecto a un colectivo, puede ser de tres maneras: i) de aspirar a pertenecer a este colectivo (+), ii) de aspirar a no-pertenecer a este colectivo (-) o iii) ser indiferente con respecto a pertenecer a este colectivo (?). Captura la actitud del individuo hacia el colectivo. (10) GRU es una relación entre colectivos, individuos y circunstancias, de manera que determinado colectivo es grupo de referencia para un individuo en cierta circunstancia. Así pues, vincula el comportamiento (conducta) del individuo, por medio de los valores, a un colectivo. Este vínculo es lo que hace que el colectivo pase a ser grupo de referencia para este individuo en lo que se refiere a este comportamiento (conducta). Cuando i) el individuo asimila el conjunto de valores de colectivo, hay referencia positiva, ii) el individuo rechaza el conjunto de valores del colectivo, hay referencia negativa iii) el individuo es indiferente, bajo las condiciones ya mencionadas, con respecto al conjunto de valores del colectivo, hay referencia neutra. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 299 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 5. Los modelos actuales de la TGr Los modelos de una teoría son las entidades que satisfacen la totalidad de las condiciones introducidas, es decir, presentan las restricciones que introduce la teoría a este último. En el caso de la TGR, es posible expresarlos del siguiente modo: d2: M(TGr): x es un modelo potencial de la Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia (x ∈ M(TGR)) syss existen IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU, tales que: (1) x = <IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU> (2) x ∈ Mp(TGR) (3) para todo ind∈IND, col∈COL, vi (i∈N, 1≤i≤n)∈VAL, cir∈CIR, a∈EVA, y siendo {vl, ..., vk}∈(Pot (VAL) -∅): GRU(col, ind, cir) ↔ (si se diera que asp(ind, cir, col)=a y que nor(col, cir)= {vg, ..., vk}, entonces se daría que com (ind, cir, {vg, ..., vk})=a) Comentario sobre este predicado (1) Presenta la estructura de los modelos potenciales, conformada según los componentes conceptuales característicos de la TGR. (2) Expresa la condición formal de que x, para ser modelo de la TGR, pertenezca a los modelos potenciales de la TGR. (3) Un colectivo es un grupo de referencia para un individuo en determinada circunstancia syss (si se diera que la aspiración del individuo en esa circunstancia a afiliarse al colectivo tiene la evaluación a y la normativa del colectivo en cuestión en esa circunstancia viene dada por los valores {vl, ..., vk}, entonces se daría que el comportamiento del individuo en esa circuntancia respecto a esos valores -normativa- tiene la evaluación a). Nótese que a debe tener uno de los tres valores que pertenecen a EVA, y que tras el bicondicional se requiere que si el valor de asp es a, el valor de com sea el mismo. 6. Los modelos potenciales parciales de la teoría Es importante tener presente que Los modelos parciales de una teoría T son las estructuras que describen, mediante conceptos no-teóricos o "empíricos" relativamente a T, los sistema posibles a los que es concebible aplicar T. Constituyen, por así decir, la "base empírica" de T (en el sentido relativo). Su construcción no presupone ni los conceptos específicos de T Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 300 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 ni sus principios. Generalmente son otras teorías, previas a T, las que proveen los modelos parciales de T. Al conjunto de todos los modelos parciales de una teoría dada lo llamamos Mpp. Este conjunto queda determinado por un predicado conjuntista definidos por los mismos axiomas estructurales que determinan Mp exceptuando aquellos que se refieren a los conceptos T-teóricos. (Moulines, 1986. p. 300) Teniendo esto en cuenta, se puede examinar los conceptos básicos de TGR, a saber, IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU, a fin de determinar cuáles de estos conceptos son TGR-teóricos y cuáles son TGRno-teóricos, con la mente puesta en que los TGR-teóricos presuponen el principio o ley de la TGR para la determinación de sus valores. Comencemos con IND. Considérese la caracterización informal que dimos de este concepto al explicitar los modelos potenciales de TGR. Así pues, IND constituye uno de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría. Sin embargo, para averiguar si una entidad particular pertenece al conjunto IND no es necesario presuponer la validez de la ley de TGR; bastarían, de hecho, métodos empíricos independientes, aquellos que utilizamos para identificar observacionalmente los seres humanos y distinguirlos de las demás cosas existentes en nuestra vida cotidiana. Algo similar ocurre con COL. Este concepto es también un concepto que constituye otro de los conjuntos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría; sin embargo, se trata de un conjunto derivado de IND. A pesar de ese carácter derivado y dado su papel especialmente relevante en la teoría, voy a hablar de la entidad que designa como "conjunto (o dominio) básico" forzando dicha noción. Que un conjunto de individuos cualquiera pertenezca a COL se determina empíricamente, con independencia de la ley fundamental de la TGR. La observación del comportamiento y/o de algunas de las características de los individuos nos permite determinar las entidades que pertenezcan a dicho conjunto. Con cada sujeto humano podemos conformar un colectivo, dado extensionalmente por el conjunto unitario al que ese sujeto pertenece. Un grupo es identificado como tal por una semejanza en las actitudes, las acciones, los comportamientos de sus integrantes. En algunos casos semejanzas geográficas, educacionales, tecnológicas -pero todas ellas con la característica de que hay interacción entre los individuos-. La determinación de sus integrantes puede darse por una sencilla observación (en muchos y variados casos) o por una investigación histórica por relatos orales o bibliográficos que relaten las actitudes, las acciones, los comportamientos de sus integrantes (grupos que no existen más). En grupos formales, como asociaciones, es posible buscar en los registros de la asociación el listado de integrantes, o sea, los documentos de Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 301 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 la asociación, la carpeta para tomar lista en una clase, el anuncio con los listados de profesores del departamento de determinada disciplina y muchos otros documentos posibilitan la determinación. Por fin, en cuanto a las categorías sociales, la semejanza puede ser económica, educacional, tecnológica, etc., pero no necesariamente con interacción entre los individuos. La determinación de las entidades que componen este tipo de colectivo, una vez que se tenga establecido el criterio (por ejemplo, varones entre 50 y 70 años de determinada ciudad), se establece por medio de encuestas, de acceso a bancos de datos que contengan dicha información. También VAL constituye otro de los conjuntos básicos principales que establecen la ontología empírica de la teoría, comprende los valores determinados empíricamente, con independencia de la TGR. La determinación de las entidades que caen bajo este concepto puede darse por el acceso a estatutos, códigos de leyes (normas y reglas), por publicaciones especializadas (moda), por manuales (etiqueta, protocolo, rito, procedimiento), etc. En lo que se refiere a CIR, el conjunto de contextos estructurales o circunstancias, parece darse lo mismo. Considerando la caracterización informal que dimos de este concepto al explicitar los modelos potenciales de la TGR, debe recordarse que ésta es una noción intuitiva idealizada. De hecho es una noción vaga que podría comprender, además del componente temporal, otros factores respecto a los que relativizar, por ejemplo, la combinación de valores asumida por un colectivo o el comportamiento de un colectivo. Entre esos factores encontraríamos eventos (que incluyen el componente temporal) o aspectos geográficos junto a un componente temporal (considérese cómo los valores asumidos por un grupo pueden, en determinado momento, estar condicionados por eventos como un estallido social o por estar viviendo en una determinada zona). La determinación de las circunstancias para cada aplicación de la TGR es establecida por los científicos (sociólogos) por convención, a la luz del problema (aplicación pretendida) a considerar. La convención no tiene por qué ser arbitraria, puede darse razón de la misma en función del problema considerado. Consideramos EVA como un conjunto auxiliar, por lo que estrictamente no formaría parte de los conceptos descriptivos característicos de la TGR. Sus entidades podrían ser, convencionalmente, tres cualesquiera, que representen la evaluación positiva, la negativa y la neutra. Aquí hemos elegido "+", "-" y "?". Sin embargo, parece conveniente que figure explícitamente en la estructura, aun tratándose de un conjunto auxiliar, ya que proporciona valores del codominio de dos funciones. Considerar los conjuntos auxiliares explícitamente en la estructura es un procedimiento habitual cuando Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 302 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 parece conveniente para una mayor claridad conceptual de la teoría a identificar. Claramente, todos los dominios básicos empíricos de la teoría son TGRno teóricos. Todos ellos pueden ser determinados de forma independiente de la teoría. Téngase presente que EVA, en tanto que dominio auxiliar, no es ni TGR-teórico ni TGR-no-teórico, ya que no da cuenta de un dominio empírico, es decir, no corresponde a un concepto empírico. Veremos ahora lo que pasa en el caso de las funciones y la relación que presenta la TGR. En lo que respeta a nor, es la función que a un colectivo le asigna, en determinada circunstancia, cierta combinación de valores. Claramente esta función es determinada de modo independiente de la TGR. La determinación de la combinación de valores que caracteriza un colectivo en determinada circunstancia puede darse a partir del comportamiento de los integrantes de los colectivos, cuando estos comportamientos manifiestan dichos valores. También puede darse por medio de la expresión del individuo (cuando conforma un colectivo unitario) o, por ejemplo, de líderes (para grupos). Puede determinarse el valor de la función por una investigación en documentos oficiales tales como los estatutos (grupos formales). Asimismo usando procedimientos técnicos más complejos. Por ejemplo, los valores asignados en determinadas circunstancias a las categorías sociales pueden ser determinados por encuestas, como, por ejemplo, aquellas en las cuales los encuestados tienen que contestar ciertas cuestiones para saber si cada uno está habilitado a continuar haciendo la encuesta o no, y con ello determinar si forma parte o no de cierto colectivo; en caso de estar habilitado (esté dentro de los parámetros establecidos para la encuesta) se le pregunta acerca de lo que le resulta más importante, lo que le gusta, lo que no le gusta, y con ello se establecen la combinación de valores para ese individuo. La comparación del resultado de estas encuestas determina los valores de determinada categoría social. También com, la función que asigna a un individuo, en determinada circunstancia, la aceptación activa, el rechazo activo o la indiferencia dado la actitud del individuo con respecto a un conjunto (una combinación) de valores. Los valores que adquiera la función pueden ser determinados de modo independiente de la teoría una vez que se tengan establecidos los argumentos de la función. Dado un individuo y la circunstancia relevante, una vez determinada una combinación de valores, la observación de la actividad del individuo nos permite identificar cuál de las tres posibilidades (+, -, ?) es el caso. En cuanto a asp, la función que a un individuo, en una circunstancia, atribuye una relación particular respecto a un colectivo, se recuerda que Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 303 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 dicha relación puede ser de tres maneras: i) de aspirar a pertenecer a este colectivo (+), ii) de aspirar a no-pertenecer a este colectivo (-) o iii) ser indiferente con respecto a pertenecer a este colectivo (?). La función captura la actitud del individuo hacia el colectivo. Ésta también es una función que puede tener su valor determinado de modo independiente de la TGR. Un método posible para dicha determinación es preguntarle al individuo directamente acerca de determinado colectivo si él aspira pertenecer, si aspira no pertenecer o si es indiferente cuanto a eso. Otro modo de determinación sería la utilización de técnicas como la aplicación de cuestionarios o la realización de dinámicas de grupo. En ninguno de los tres casos es necesario presuponer la ley fundamental de la TGR para que sea posible la determinación. Finalmente tenemos GRU, una relación entre colectivos, individuos y circunstancias. Para que se pueda determinar qué colectivo satisface la relación GRU, dado un individuo determinado y una circunstancia determinada, se requiere que se cumplan ciertas condiciones se obtenga un resultado; las condiciones son: 1) que la aspiración del individuo en esa circunstancia a afiliarse a un colectivo tenga una evaluación a, es decir, que sea determinable la aspiración del individuo considerado, en cierta circunstancia, respecto a un determinado colectivo; y 2) que sea determinable la normativa del colectivo en cuestión, en esa circunstancia, como una determinada combinación de valores {vl, ..., vk}. El resultado debe ser que el comportamiento del individuo tenga la evaluación a, es decir, el mismo valor que el obtenido para asp al aplicar esa función al individuo en cuestión, en la circunstancia considerada, respecto al mismo colectivo. Dicha relación entre condiciones y resultado forma parte de lo que es la ley fundamental de la TGR: la relación entre las condiciones 1) y 2), por un lado, y el resultado implicado (por medio de un condicional subjuntivo), por otro lado, constituyen el consecuente del bicondicional que expresa la ley fundamental de la TGR. Única y exclusivamente de este modo es posible determinar GRU7. No hay otro condicional subjuntivo que permita establecer si un colectivo es un grupo de referencia para un individuo en cierta circunstancia: no hay otra condición de prueba respecto a la que obtener un determinado resultado que permita establecer que un colectivo en determinada circunstancia es un grupo de referencia para un individuo. De este modo GRU se caracteriza como una relación TGR-teórica, pues su determinación es dependiente de la TGR. 7 El concepto de grupo de referencia se caracteriza como un concepto relacional disposicional. Más adelante trataré de modo más detallado de esta peculiaridad del concepto. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 304 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 Sabiendo que apenas GRU es constituyente del conjunto de términos TGR-teóricos ya se puede caracterizar a los modelos potenciales parciales de la teoría. d3: Mpp(TGr): y es un modelo potencial parcial de la Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia (y ∈ Mpp(TGR)) syss existen IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU tales que: (1) x = <IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp, GRU > (2) x ∈ Mp(TGR) (3) y = <IND, COL, VAL, CIR, EVA, nor, com, asp> 7. Las aplicaciones intencionales de la TGr El dominio de aplicaciones intencionales de TGR constituye la clase de aquellos sistemas empíricos a los que se desea aplicar la ley fundamental de dicha teoría. Estos sistemas no pueden ser caracterizados por medios puramente formales y además, lo único que se puede decir desde el punto de vista formal es que i(TGR) ⊆ Mpp(TGR). Entre los posibles sistemas empíricos que satisfacen dicha condición formal, los que pertenecen al conjunto de las aplicaciones intencionales de una teoría se decide pragmáticamente por parte de la comunidad de científicos. Algunos ejemplos de estos sistemas, como visto, según Merton (1968, p. 323 [2002, p. 350]), son: a) El hecho de que sólo en un sentido estrecho y teóricamente superficial puede considerarse que el soldado raso del ejército que busca el ascenso siga una conducta diferente de la de un inmigrante que se asimila los valores de un grupo nativo. En realidad son dos aplicaciones comparadas por su similitud estructural: por un lado, un individuo, en la circunstancia de ser soldado raso del ejército y buscar ascenso [asp (+)], según la propuesta de analogía entre las aplicaciones, asimila [com (+)] los valores de [nor] un colectivo superior en la jerarquía; por otro lado, un individuo, en la circunstancia de ser un inmigrante y asimilar [com (+)] los valores de [nor] un colectivo nativo, otra vez, según la propuesta de analogía, quiere [asp (+)] integrarse a este colectivo. En este ejemplo existen dos individuos distintos que presentan el mismo comportamiento referente a los valores de sus respectivos colectivos. La analogía entre las dos aplicaciones puede considerarse el tipo de procedimiento descrito por Kuhn (1962) para expandir las aplicaciones de una teoría a partir de algunas paradigmáticas aprendiendo a ver cuáles son los aspectos relevantes de la semejanza entre las aplicaciones paradigmáticas al ampliar las aplicaciones pretendidas a nuevos casos. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 305 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 b) El hecho de que un muchacho en una zona de barrios bajos se oriente hacia los valores de un trabajador de casa de beneficencia y no hacia los valores de la pandilla de la esquina. En este caso se da una situación en la que se pueden observar dos comportamientos distintos: por un lado i), un individuo, en la circunstancia de ser un joven de una zona de barrios bajos y no orientarse a la pandilla de la esquina, se oriente hacia [com (+)] los valores de [nor] un trabajador de casa de beneficencia (colectivo) y, por otro lado ii), este mismo individuo en la circunstancia de ser un joven de una zona de barrios bajos y orientarse hacia los valores de un trabajador de casa de beneficencia, no se oriente hacia [com (?)] los valores de [nor] la pandilla de la esquina (colectivo). Importa recordar que no orientarse a tales valores no es el mismo que orientarse negativamente a dichos valores. Mismo con la vaguedad del ejemplo propiciado por Merton, parece ser el caso que el individuo desea [asp] participar del colectivo de los trabajadores de casas de beneficencia y es indiferente [asp] respeto a la pandilla de la esquina. El comportamiento con referencia a los valores de un colectivo es distinto del comportamiento con referencia a los valores de otro. Cada caso, estrictamente, es una aplicación diferente de la TGR, aunque con una interdependencia entre las mismas, interdependencia de la que no se extraen consecuencias relevantes por la TGR. c) El hecho de que un estudiante de Bennington abandone las ideas conservadoras de sus padres para adoptar las ideas más liberales de sus compañeros de colegio universitario. También en este caso se da una situación de la cual se puede observar dos comportamientos distintos: por un lado i), que un individuo en la circunstancia de ser estudiante de Bennington y de no adoptar hasta entonces ideas liberales, abandona [com (-)] las ideas conservadoras (valores) de [nor] sus padres (colectivo) y, por otro lado ii), este mismo individuo, en la circunstancia de ser estudiante de Bennington y ter adoptado posiciones conservadoras en el pasado, adopta [com (+)] las ideas más liberales (valores) de [nor] sus compañeros de colegio universitario (colectivo). El comportamiento con referencia a los valores de un colectivo es distinto del comportamiento con referencia a los valores de otro. Nuevamente, cada caso, estrictamente, es una aplicación diferente de la TGR, aunque con una interdependencia entre las mismas, interdependencia de la que no se extraen consecuencias relevantes por la TGR. El hecho de que dos (los ejemplos b) y c)) de los tres ejemplos traigan una situación en la cual se puede observar dos comportamientos pudiera llevar a pensar que la aplicación de la TGR requiere la comparación entre dos comportamientos. Aunque sea más intuitiva la presentación de los ejemplos de este modo, no cabe de hecho contemplar este tipo de comparación Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 306 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 para la aplicación de la teoría; los dos comportamientos se conciben como aplicaciones autónomas de la TGR. El ejemplo a) muestra esto claramente. Lo más que cabe es, dado un comportamiento x cualquiera que pudiera ser comparado con el propiamente considerado en la aplicación, es integrar x como parte de la circunstancia de dicha aplicación. 8 observaciones acerca del carácter relacional y disposicional de la noción teórica Gru La reconstrucción de la TGR mostró que el concepto "grupo de referencia" es un concepto relacional disposicional, o sea, el concepto captura una relación que para efectuarse requiere que si se dieran ciertas condiciones se obtendría determinado resultado. En realidad, tal y como se indicó, "grupo de referencia" abrevia "grupo de referencia para un individuo en cierta circunstancia". En lo que respecta al carácter relacional del concepto, como se habrá observado, un determinado colectivo es un grupo de referencia relativamente a un individuo y una circunstancia. De esta forma qué colectivo sea grupo de referencia depende del individuo que se considere, pero de la circunstancia también; si cambia la circunstancia, y aunque el individuo sea el mismo, puede darse que otro colectivo sea grupo de referencia para él, o que no lo sea ninguno. Para que un colectivo sea grupo de referencia para un individuo en una circunstancia, es necesario y suficiente, como ya se señaló, que se cumpla el condicional subjuntivo que forma parte de la ley de TGR. En lo que respeta al carácter disposicional del concepto, cabe notar que un colectivo, para poseer la propiedad "ser un grupo de referencia" para cierto individuo en determinada circunstancia, debe, como ya se indicó, encontrarse en la situación de que "si se diera que la aspiración del individuo en esa circunstancia a afiliarse al colectivo tiene la evaluación a y la normativa del colectivo en cuestión en dicha circunstancia viene dada por los valores {vl, ..., vk}, entonces se daría que el comportamiento del individuo en esa circuntancia respecto a esos valores -normativa- tiene la evaluación a". Dicho de otro modo: el que efectivamente un determinado colectivo sea grupo de referencia para un individuo en cierta circunstancia depende de que sea correcto (verdadero) un condicional subjuntivo en cuyo antecedente se establecen la condiciones de prueba y en cuyo consecuente se establece el resultado a obtener. En lo que respecta a su carácter disposicional, casos como el del concepto "grupo de referencia" no son pocos en la ciencia. Stegmüller, por ejem- Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 307 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 plo, (1970), lista diferentes instancias donde son comunes conceptos disposicionales. Nos hace ver que "muchas de las propiedades de los objetos físicos son disposicionales", que "también entre las propiedades perceptibles es frecuente encontrar disposiciones", asimismo "otra clase [de conceptos disposicionales] la constituyen las disposiciones psíquicas", además de que "numerosos conceptos de la sociología, de la antropología, de la economía y de la politología son conceptos disposicionales" y, por fin, indica "aquella clase de disposiciones que en los tratados de filosofía de la ciencia se suelen tomar como ejemplos: se trata de conceptos físicos, químicos y de otras ciencias naturales, de diverso grado de generalidad" (Stegmüller 1970, pp. 214-216 [1979, pp. 245-248])8. Esta muestra de la variedad de campos donde están presentes conceptos con estas características le lleva a plantear: Dado que en cualquier construcción sistemática de la ciencia, el número de predicados básicos debe ser pequeño para construir un sistema lo más simple posible y no perder la visión de conjunto, seguro que no se van a escoger todos los predicados disposicionales como predicados primitivos. Con ello hemos llegado a la cuestión decisiva: "¿De qué manera hay que introducir en el lenguaje de la ciencia predicados disposicionales que no sean predicados básicos primitivos?". (Stegmüller 1970, p. 217 [1979, p. 248]) No hay que olvidar que Stegmüller con dicho pasaje se sitúa en el marco de la consideración neopositivista inicial de que el lenguaje de la ciencia tendría dos sublenguajes, uno básico observacional y otro teórico, y que a ambos sublenguajes subyacería la lógica clásica de primer orden. En tal marco el sublenguaje básico se concebía como asentado en ciertas expresiones básicas que se toman como primitivas. En lo que respecta al vocabulario descriptivo se suponía, pues, que se disponía de términos "observacionales" básicos a los que deberían reducirse, en principio vía definiciones, los otros términos científicos que tuvieran verdadera significación empírica. Dicha consideración supuso un importante problema metateórico. El caso de los términos disposicionales en dicho contexto se mostró especialmente relevante de las limitaciones de las pretensiones neopositivistas iniciales, toda vez que pese a ser aparentemente poco abstractos, y por ello próximos a términos observacionales, ni podían considerarse dando cuenta de propiedades o relaciones observables ni podían definirse mediante enunciados tales que: (i) se pueda dar cuenta de su forma lógica mediante la lógica clásica de primer orden; y (ii) sólo contengan términos observacionales básicos (términos primitivos básicos). Entre los intentos de hallar una solución en dicho marco estuvo: primero el de recurrir a las definiciones operacionales 8 En adelante, lo puesto entre corchetes corresponde a la versión castellana. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 308 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 (mediante un condicional material); después el de los enunciados reductivos (Carnap, 1936). Cabe notar que en el marco de la discusión neopositivista, y atendiendo a la distinción teórico-observacional, se plantearon dudas acerca de dónde situar los términos disposicionales, si en el ámbito de lo teórico o en el de lo observacional. Por un lado, no daban cuenta de propiedades o relaciones observables, por lo que no formaban parte de las expresiones observacionales básicas; por otro lado, parecían lo suficientemente próximos al lenguaje observacional como para pensar que cabía reducirlos (vía definiciones explicitables conforme a la lógica clásica de primer orden) a oraciones que sólo contuvieran términos observacionales básicos, y por esa vía integrarlas en el vocabulario observacional ampliado. Sin embargo, las pretensiones de reducción (vía definiciones operacionales o vía enunciados reductivos), mediante oraciones explicitables en lógica clásica de primer orden, se mostraron insatisfactorias (cf. Stegmüller, 1970, pp. 213-238 [1979, pp. 244272]). Uno de los motivos de tal inadecuación se debe al carácter subjuntivo de los condicionales que conforman las definiciones operacionales. Finalmente, en el marco de discusión neopositivista se terminó asumiendo el carácter teórico de los términos disposicionales. En la reconstrucción aquí proporcionada, aunque no se asume una dicotomía teórico/observacional, sino una distinción relativa a cada teoría, T-teórico/T-no-teórico, parece evidente que respecto a la TGR, el término GRU (o el concepto que expresa) es teórico precisamente porque su determinación depende de una ley -la que se presenta como ley de TGR- que contiene un condicional subjuntivo con las condiciones de prueba y el resultado a obtener para que un determinado colectivo sea considerado grupo de referencia para un individuo y una circunstancia. Nótese en cualquier caso que al decir esto se apunta simplemente a la peculiaridad de GRU en el marco de TGR. 9. conclusión En el trabajo, después de algunas aclaraciones preliminares y una presentación informal de la teoría, fueran presentados sus modelos potenciales, modelos, modelos potenciales parciales, sus aplicaciones intencionales y, al final, algunas observaciones acerca del carácter relacional y disposicional de la noción "grupo de referencia". De esta manera se pudo precisar qué es lo que aporta el trabajo de Merton a un mejor entendimiento de la conducta del individuo en sociedad. Cláudio Abreu La Teoría de los Grupos de Referencia 309 ÁGORA (2012), Vol. 31, no 2: 287-309 El concepto "grupo de referencia" es utilizado por Merton para explicar parte do espectro de la acción humana en sociedad. Asimismo, el tratamiento más preciso de la teoría, además de presentar los demás conceptos constituyentes de la TGR, aporta para un mejor entendimiento de su campo de aplicación. En este aspecto cabe destacar que el carácter relacional y disposicional del concepto "grupo de referencia" nos hace entender la dinámica de aplicación de la TGR. Además, la reconstrucción supone un nuevo aporte -propiciando mejores elementos a la reflexión- a la discusión propuesta en Lorenzano & Abreu (2010) acerca de la propuesta mertoniana referente a las teorías de alcance intermedio. Como se puede ver en el referido trabajo, es posible mostrar como el concepto de teorías de alcance intermedio de Merton puede precisarse, y entenderse mejor, si se lo relaciona, en lugar de con la concepción clásica de las teorías, con la Metateoría Estructuralista. La presente reconstrucción es un caso concreto de la discusión general presentada en aquella ocasión. referencias bibliográficas Carnap, R. (1936-1937) "Testability and Meaning", in: Philosophy of Science, 3, pp. 420-468; 4, pp. 1-40. Kuhn, T. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (trad. castellana: La Estructura de las Revoluciones Científicas. Fondo Cultura Económica, México 1975). Lorenzano, P.; Abreu, C. (2010) "Las teorías de alcance intermedio de Robert K. Merton y las concepciones clásica y estructuralista de las teorías". In: Martins, R. A.; Lewowicz, L.; Ferreira, J. M. H.; Silva, C. C.; Martins, L. A. P. (eds.) (2010). Filosofia e história da ciencia no Cone Sul. Seleção de trabalhos do 6o Encontro. Campinas: Associação de Filosofia e História da Ciência do Cone Sul (AFHIC), pp. 482-492. Merton, R. K. (1949-1957) Social Theory and Social Structure, engarged edition. New York: The Free Press, 1968 (trad. cast.: Teoría y Estructura Sociales. 4. ed. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2002). Moulines, C. U. (1986) "Redes teóricas". In: Rolleri, J. L. Estructura y desarrollo de las teorías científicas. México: UNAM, pp. 299-326. Stegmüller, W. (1970) Theorie und Erfahrung. Springer, Berlín-Heidelberg, (trad.. cast.: Teoría y Experiencia. Ariel, Barcelona, 1979).
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{ "creator": "Abraham, Juneman", "date": "2013", "datestamp": 1562813055000, "description": "Title in English: Pastoral Counseling Psychology: Premarital, Marriage, and Family Contexts. \"Pastoral counseling\" is different from \"Christian counseling\". Pastoral counseling is a counseling orientation (not a theoretical school) that emphasizes openness to exploration (including tolerating mystery or ambiguity) of spiritual and religious issues (e.g., the concept of God) on clients and between clients and counselors, in which case the issue might be viewed as the root of daily life problems. Pastoral counseling still uses the concepts of counseling psychology or psychotherapy in general, such as the helping relationship or therapeutic relations. Pastoral counseling psychology is demanded to be pro-active, continuous challenging itself to perform critical reflection and to contribute thoughts and praxis \"in concreto\" in solving psychological problems.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRPKP", "language": "id", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Psikologi Konseling Pastoral: Pengantar Editor Ahli", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/book" }
"Dengan semakin hebatnya masalah-masalah dalam keluarga Kristen, maka semakin penting pula buku ini untuk dibaca oleh para Pendeta maupun para Konselor pernikahan Kristen, sebagai buku panduan. Moderamen GBKP memberikan apresiasi yang tinggi kepada kedua penulis buku ini, untuk menambah referensi bagi para konselor pernikahan. Semoga buku ini menjadi berkat yang besar bagi keluarga-keluarga Kristen di masa depan maupun masa kini." Pdt. Matius P. Barus M.Th (Ketua Umum Moderamen GBKP) Psikologi Konseling Pastoral Editor Ahli Juneman Psikologi Konseling Pastoral Psikologi Konseling Pastoral Nasib Sembiring Yosef Dedy Pradipto konteks pranikah, pernikahan, dan keluarga Editor Ahli Juneman Penerbit Kanisius PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL: Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga 072347 © 2013 Kanisius Penerbit Kanisius (Anggota IKAPI) Jl. Cempaka 9, Deresan, Yogyakarta 55281, INDONESIA Kotak Pos 1125/Yk, Yogyakarta 55011, INDONESIA Telepon (0274) 588783, 565996; Fax (0274) 563349 E-mail : Website : Cetakan ke3 2 1 Tahun 15 14 13 ISBN 978-979-21-3545-9 Hak cipta dilindungi undang-undang Dilarang memperbanyak karya tulis ini dalam bentuk dan dengan cara apa pun, termasuk fotokopi, tanpa izin tertulis dari Penerbit. Dicetak oleh Percetakan Kanisius Yogyakarta PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI - v PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI Juneman, S.Psi., M.Si. Judul utama buku ini adalah Psikologi Konseling Pastoral. "Konseling pastoral" berbeda dari "konseling kristen" semata-mata. Konseling pastoral merupakan sebuah orientasi konseling (bukan mazhab teoretis) yang menekankan keterbukaan untuk melakukan penggalian (termasuk menoleransi misteri/ ambiguitas) persoalan spiritual dan religius (misalnya, konsep Tuhan) pada klien serta antara klien dan konselor, dalam hal mana persoalan tersebut boleh dipandang sebagai akar masalah kehidupan sehari-hari; sedangkan konseling Kristen lebih menekankan preskripsi teks kitab suci dan berpusat pada doa (Hicks & Hightower, 1999). Persoalan religius atau spiritual itu sendiri, sebagai problem nonpatologis, telah dimasukkan dalam kategori diagnostik dalam Kitab Psikiatri DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) tahun 1994 (Kode V62.89), antara lain problem perubahan dalam keanggotaan, praktik-praktik, dan kepercayaan religius (Juneman, 2010). Konseling pastoral tetap menggunakan konsep-konsep psikologi konseling atau psikoterapi pada umumnya, seperti hubungan pertolongan (helping rela- tionship) atau relasi terapeutik. Sepanjang sejarahnya, konseling pastoral terinspirasi secara variatif oleh berbagai pendekatan teoretis maupun praktis dalam psikologi, seperti (1) Psikoanalisis Sigmund Freud (yang menekankan ketidaksadaran; yang menurut sejumlah ahli dapat sejalan dengan konsep teologis imoralitas), (2) Psikoanalisis Carl Gustav Jung (yang menekankan pentingnya kenyataan spiritual dalam kepribadian), (3) Psikoterapi interpersonal (yang berfokus pada dinamika pengalaman dan kualitas relasi, kelekatan dan kehilangan, komunikasi dan konflik), (4) Psikologi kognitif (yang menekankan fungsi dan asumsi-asumsi kognitif), (5) Teori sistem (yang menekankan pemahaman tentang genealogi dan karakteristik sistem keluarga asal) (Woodruff, 2002), (6) Logoterapi Viktor Frankl (yang menekankan pema haman fenomenologis-hermeneutis terhadap kapasitas spiritual seseorang untuk mencari makna kehidupan, bahkan dalam penderitaan dan kematian) (Kimble, 2001), (7) Model-model psikobiologi atau psikomedis (yang menevi - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL - Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga kan kan eliminasi penyebab-penyebab nosologis, seperti kuman, racun, sel pembunuh, peradangan, dan sebagainya, dalam rangka healing dan peningkatan kualitas hidup) (Frick, 2010); (8) Pendekatan Gestalt Fritz Perls (yang menekankan amalgamasi eklektik dari ragam teori dan prinsip terapeutik da lam perjalanan klien "di sini dan saat ini"/here and now) (Knights, 2002); sampai dengan (9) Pendekatan evolusioner (yang menekankan bahwa perilaku religius merupakan adaptasi kognisi secara evolutif karena kesuksesannya dalam berbagai ranah kehidupan nonreligius) (Barrett, 2011). "Variatif", artinya tidak ada orientasi tunggal dalam konseling pastoral. Kendati demikian, yang menjadi ciri distingtif dari hampir semua konseling pastoral adalah (1) tiadanya kompartementalisasi atau perpecahan antara "siapa sang konselor/terapis" dan "apa keyakinan spiritual sang konselor/terapis"; (2) menggunakan nilainilai spiritual klien (yang boleh jadi berbeda dari nilai-nilai spiritual konselor pastoral) sebagai sumberdaya proses terapeutik; (3) memungkinkan klien/ konseli untuk memperdalam hubungannya dengan Yang Ilahi (sebagaimana didefinisikan oleh klien itu sendiri) dengan cara-cara yang menghasilkan pertumbuhan pribadi klien; dan (4) mengasumsikan klien sebagai orang yang tak terhingga nilainya (a person of infinite value) sebagai citra Tuhan (Hicks & Hightower, 1999). Tema-tema perdebatan abadi dalam konseling pastoral antara lain sebagai berikut (Strunk, 2000): (1) Bagaimana konselor pastoral berbeda dari konselor atau psikoterapis sekular? (identitas konselor pastoral); (2) Apakah cara yang paling kreatif dan otentik untuk mengintegrasikan ilmu-ilmu tentang manusia (human sciences) dengan paradigma teologis/keimanan?; (3) Apa sajakah yang dibutuhkan untuk membuat konseling pastoral menjadi bagian integral dari kultur kesehatan/terapi yang lebih luas tanpa mengorbankan atau kehilangan identitas uniknya yang berakar dalam iman dan spiritualitas?; dan (4) Mungkinkah konselor pastoral menjadi inklusif secara radikal dalam membangun teori dan praksisnya, mencakup ragam jender, keyakinan, etnisitas, dan sebagainya; dan pada saat yang sama memperoleh tempat yang layak dalam proyek-proyek terapeutik yang lebih luas? Konseling pastoral berakar pada konsen kultural dan intelektual yang menghendaki dialog yang berkelanjutan antara ilmu positivistik (science) dan agama (religion). Salah satu rujukan awal mengenai dialektika ini adalah karya klasik William James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study of human Nature" (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1902/1985) yang menjadi basis studi psikologis tentang agama. Sebagai implikasinya, dalam konseling pastoral, ter dapat integrasi secara sengaja (intensional) antara spiritualitas/teologi dan PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI - vii psikologi, antara identitas pastoral dengan praktik psikoterapeutik. Integrasi ini tercermin dalam perkataan seorang konselor, "Pekerjaan profesional konseling pastoral saya merupakan doa saya", dan dalam perkataan seorang konselor kepada kliennya, "Tell me what you find in the Bible, and I will tell you what you are" (Pfister, 1948), meskipun - sebagaimana disebutkan sebelumnya di atas - referensi dan preskripsi skriptural tidak menjadi penekanan pertama-tama dalam konseling pastoral, melainkan yang ditekankan adalah kerangka hubungan terapeutik. Idealnya, relasi konselor dengan konseli/klien dalam konseling adalah relasi kontraktual empatis-mutualistis, bukan relasi otoritarian (dari pihak konselor) atau relasi dependensi (dari pihak konseli). Di samping itu, kepercayaan (trust) atau keyakinan bahwa orang lain tidak akan merugikan (dan/ atau akan menguntungkan) diri, merupakan kunci penting dalam hubungan antara konseli dengan konselor (Zimmerman & Meier, 1999). Konselor dan konseli dapat berjalan dalam "jalur yang sama" (common path) apabila kedua nya mencapai kesepakatan mengenai apa yang dikehendaki oleh Yang Ilahi, tujuan umum dari penciptaan dirinya sebagai manusia, dan tujuan-tujuan khusus kehidupan; namun tidak jarang pula konselor dan konseli masuk dalam situasi ketidakpastian (uncertainty), dan dalam kasus-kasus yang demi kian pendekatan non-directional dalam konseling sangat perlu dilakukan (Frick, 2010). Dalam konteks ini, perlu juga dipertimbangkan pendapat Foucault (1979/1994) yang menyatakan bahwa istilah "pastoral" sangat bersifat pater nalis tis, sehingga apa pun wacana pastoral (termasuk dalam konseling pastoral) hanyalah merupakan diskursus kekuasaan. Foucault mengamati bahwa hal tersebut terlaksana dalam taraf makro politik pemerintahan dalam wujud pemaksaan pemikiran teologis mengenai "penggembalaan" (sheperding). Oleh karenanya, konselor pastoral patut mewaspadai tindakannya sendiri, apakah mensubordinasi kebebasan dan otentisitas diri (keaslian, penguasaan diri) konseli ataukah tidak. Sejarah konseling pastoral di Indonesia diuraikan secara komprehensif oleh van Beek (2002). Menurutnya, teologi pastoral dan pastoral care (pendampingan pastoral) masuk ke Indonesia melalui kolonialisme Belanda (sifatnya deduktif, otoritatif, dogmatis, eklesiatis); sedangkan konseling pastoral belakangan masuk ke Indonesia melalui Pasifik dari Amerika Serikat (sifatnya induktif, mulai dari "dunia batin"/inner world dan pengalaman konseli yang disajikan kepada konselor). Tokoh-tokoh teologi pastoral dan konseling pastoral di Indonesia adalah Johannes Ludwig Chrysostomus Abineno (Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Jakarta) dan Tjaard Hommes ("Aliran Eropa"); Mesach Krisetya (Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga) dan Yakub Susabda ("Aliran Amerika"); serta Paulus Santosa dan Aart Martin van Beek yang awalnya berpusat di Rumah viii - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL - Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga Sakit Bethesda Yogyakarta ("Aliran Holistik"). "Aliran holistik" menekankan faktor-faktor kontekstual kesehatan fisik, mental, spiritual, dan sosial-ekonomi dari individu, keluarga, dan komunitas, karena diasumsikan bahwa, misalnya, masalah fisik atau mental atau sosial dapat menyebabkan konflik spiritual. Memang, model konseling pastoral di Indonesia seyogianya memperhatikan konteks sosial di mana masyarakat banyak didera oleh persoalan kemiskinan, ketidakadilan sosial, ketidakberdayaan, yang seluruhnya berlangsung dalam relasi kompleks antar-budaya dan antar-agama dalam masyarakat. Ada empat lokus yang menjadi basis konseling pastoral (van Beek, 2002), yakni (1) gereja, (2) lingkungan klinis atau rumah sakit, (3) lingkungan akade mis, dan (4) kantor/pekerjaan. Kesulitan dari pendekatan gerejawi adalah sifat pendekatannya yang cenderung pasif; dalam arti pada umumnya pastor/pendeta menunggu orang yang sedang membutuhkan untuk datang kepadanya, terlebih lagi bilamana pastor/pendeta tidak aktif terlibat dalam kehidupan komunitasnya dan/atau tidak berbekal keterampilan caring dan konseling. Dalam pendekatan gerejawi ini, seorang konselor juga perlu hatihati untuk tidak terjebak dalam "supernaturalisasi", misalnya memperlakukan orang yang terkena gangguan jiwa sebagai orang yang kerasukan setan. Pada pendekatan klinis di rumah sakit, konseling pastoral dilayani oleh perawat-perawat pastoral yang dibekali pelajaran komunikasi terapeutik. Tantangan bagi pendekatan klinis adalah berjejaring dengan agensi-agensi di luar rumah sakit sehingga dapat memberikan asistensi maksimal kepada pasien di rumah sakit. Konseling pastoral yang berakar secara kultural di gereja juga mendapat pengaruh dari lingkungan akademis berupa kurikulum. Perkembangan dalam dunia akademis konseling pastoral misalnya terjadi pada tahun 1998, di mana Adriana Lala, seorang pendeta dan dosen perempuan di Universitas Kristen Indonesia Tomohon memperoleh derajat doktoral dalam bidang Konseling Pastoral di South East Asian Graduate School of Theology. Beliau menulis disertasi tentang hubungan antara trauma, komunikasi, dan kekuasaan di dua unit Pendidikan Pastoral Klinis di Rumah Sakit Cikini di Jakarta. Di samping itu, interdisiplinisasi antara teologi, hermeneutika (penafsiran terhadap pengalaman dan intensi seseorang), antropologi kultural, sosiologi dan psikologi dengan konseling pastoral juga tumbuh dalam lingkungan akademis. Tantangan bagi layanan konseling pastoral di universitas sangat beragam. Namun demikian, persoalan hubungan pacaran antar-agama dan antar-etnis di kalangan mahasiswa, hubungan seksual di luar nikah, serta percobaan bunuh diri, merupakan kasus-kasus yang lazim ditemui. Pendekatan berbasis kantor/pekerjaan dimulai dari Pusat-pusat Pendampingan Pastoral yang berbagi tempat dengan gedung rumah sakit atau perkantoran. PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI - ix Jadi, konselor pastoral dapat melaksanakan praktiknya baik melalui pusat-pusat konseling pastoral, sistem-sistem kesehatan, lingkungan religius, atau praktik pribadi. Konselor pastoral pun bekerjasama secara akuntabel de ngan disiplin ilmu dan profesi lain yang terkait dengan kesehatan mental, dan bertanggung jawab untuk menggunakan metode-metode psikologis yang dikombinasikan dengan dimensi spiritual yang termutakhir dan terefektif. Dalam kerjasamanya, misalnya, apabila klien membutuhkan pengobatan atau perawatan rumah sakit, maka konselor dapat merujuk pada psikiater untuk evaluasi lebih lanjut. Apabila konseli membutuhkan layanan psikologis spesifik yang tidak dapat dipenuhi oleh kualifikasi konselor pastoral, maka konselor memberikan rujukan pada psikolog klinis. Dengan demikian, pusatpusat konseling pastoral seyogianya memiliki definisi yang standar mengenai konseling pastoral, tujuan yang jelas, kurikulum, standar operasi dan prosedur, dan bilamana memungkinkan, sertifikasi, serta supervisi pelatihan yang ketat. Dalam rangka penyusunan hal-hal tersebut di Indonesia, jurnal-jurnal konseling pastoral dapat memberikan informasi mengenai state of the art dari psikologi konseling pastoral, antara lain Journal of Pastoral Care, Pastoral Psychology, Abstracts of Research in Pastoral Care and Counseling, the Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry, the Journal of Pastoral Counseling, Pilgrimage: Psychotherapy and Personal Exploration, dan the Journal of Psychology and Theology (Strunk, 2000). Dalam konteks konseling pastoral terhadap pemuda (yang menjadi subjek dari konseling pra-nikah, pernikahan, dan keluarga yang dikupas dalam buku ini), Hulme (1964) mengemukakan sejumlah fakta yang penting: (1) Bagi pemuda, mencari pertolongan kepada orang dewasa biasanya merupakan hal yang memalukan; fakta ini harus dipertimbangkan dalam layanan; (2) Pemuda dapat membayangkan bagaimana pendeta/pastornya melakukan konseling berdasarkan khotbah sang pendeta/pastor di mimbar yang berkali-kali didengar nya; (3) Pemuda tidak suka terjebak dalam situasi "wajib mengikuti nasihat" yang mengancam rasa bebasnya; (4) Pemuda mengungkapkan masalahnya dimulai dari masalah-masalah "permukaan" sebelum membicarakan masalah yang sesungguhnya, dan proses ini bergantung pada kepercayaan (trust)-nya kepada konselornya; (5) Pemuda ingin dipahami dan diperlakukan bukan sebagai masalah, melainkan sebagai orang yang unik; serta (6) Pemuda mengantisipasi posisi pastor/pendeta sebagai representasi dunia Spiritual bahkan Tuhan sendiri; oleh karena itu pemuda merasa terbantu jika pastor/pendeta dalam dialognya meno longnya mempersepsi anugerah Tuhan (termasuk anugerah pemaafan) secara eksistensial. x - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL - Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga Lebih jauh, berhadapan dengan pluralisme kepentingan dalam dunia modern dewasa ini, psikologi konseling pastoral dituntut untuk pro-aktif, terusmenerus menantang dirinya untuk menceburkan diri, melakukan refleksi kritis, dan memberikan kontribusi pemikiran dan praksis nyata dalam persoalanpersoalan psikologis yang didiskusikan pada taraf makro politik kebijakan, seperti aborsi, pernikahan sesama jenis, kawin campur, manipulasi genom manusia, penanaman sel punca, dan sebagainya, beserta dampak psikologis, etis, dan sosialnya. Peran utama dari psikologi konseling pastoral dalam hal ini tentu saja adalah advokasi citra Tuhan dalam diri manusia. Walau berada pada tingkat diskusi yang berbeda, advokasi pada taraf makro ini sejalan dengan pendapat Dayringer (2012) baru-baru ini, "The pastoral counselor is a facilitator who tries to provide a good enough holding environment while working with the God images of people who are willing to share important parts of their deepest selves." Buku yang ditulis oleh Nasib Sembiring dan Yosef Dedy Pradipto ini dapat dipandang sebagai upaya untuk membumikan psikologi konseling pastoral dalam lapangan kehidupan keseharian. Dalam buku ini tercermin kerinduan kedua penulis yang saat ini tengah menempuh studi di Program Doktor Psikologi untuk mengintegrasikan psikologi dengan teologi, dan mena riknya, Bab I sampai dengan Bab V dirangkai sebagai sebuah kontinum konseling pastoral terhadap kehidupan relasional heterogami, yakni kehidupan pra-nikah, pernikahan, sampai dengan kehidupan berumah tangga. Memang demikian sebaiknya konseling pastoral itu: dengan tulus melibatkan diri dalam segenap fase dalam siklus kehidupan, dan tidak fragmentaris dalam praksis layanannya. Demikianlah saya hantarkan buku ini ke hadapan pembaca. Akhirnya saya ucapkan, "Selamat menyelami buku ini dan menyambut butir-butir mutiaranya. Selamat menempuh perjalanan psikospiritual!" Jakarta, Januari 2013 Juneman PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI - xi Daftar Rujukan Barrett, J. L. (2011). Cognitive science of religion: Looking back, looking forward. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50(2), 229-239. Dayringer, R. (2012). The image of God in pastoral counseling. Journal of Reli- gion and Health, 51, 49-56. Foucault, M. (1979/1994). "Omnes et singulatim": Vers une critique de la raison politique. Dalam Dits et Écrits, Tome IV, 134-61. Paris, France: Gallimard. Frick, E. (2010). Pastoral and psychotherapeutic counseling. Christian Bioethics, 16(1), 30-47. Hicks, W. J., & Hightower, J. E. (1999). Pastoral counseling. American Journal of Pastoral Counseling, 3(1), 43-50. Hulme, W. E. (1964). Pastoral counseling with youth. Pastoral Psychology, 15(7), 42-48. Juneman. (2010). Psychology of fashion. Yogyakarta: LKIS. Kimble, M. A. (2001). Logotherapy and pastoral counseling. Journal of Religious Gerontology, 11(3-4), 43-57. Knights, W. A. (2002). Pastoral counseling: A Gestalt approach. New York: Haworth Pastoral Press. Pfister, O. (1948). Christianity and fear: A study in history and in the psychology and hygiene of religion. New York: Macmillan. Strunk, O. C. (2000). Pastoral counseling: The definitional dilemma. Encyclopedia of psychology, 6, 64-66. van Beek, A. M. (2002). Pastoral counseling in Indonesia. American Journal of Pastoral Counseling, 5(1-2), 151-173. Woodruff, C. R. (2002). Pastoral counselling: An American perspective. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 30(1), 93-101. Zimmerman, G. L., & Meier, A. (1999). Outcomes in pastoral counselling. Amer- ican Journal of Pastoral Counseling, 2(2), 67-88. Daftar Isi - xvii DAfTAR IsI PENGANTAR EDITOR AHLI ................................................................................................................... v UCAPAN TERIMA KASIH .......................................................................................................................... xiii DAFTAR ISI ................................................................................................................................................................. xvii BAB I - RELEVANSI DAN SIGNIFIKANSI KONSELING PRANIKAH .......... 1 1.1. Kasus 1: Perselingkuhan ......................................................................................... 12 1.2. Kasus 2: Konflik yang Menimbulkan Kekerasan ........................... 15 1.3. Kasus 3: Kekerasan Suami terhadap Isteri ........................................... 18 1.4. Kasus 4: Pertengkaran dalam Rumah Tangga .................................. 22 1.5. Hubungan Studi Kasus dengan Pelayanan Pastoral Pranikah ................................................................................................................................... 25 BAB II - PSIKOLOGI DAN TEOLOGI PERNIKAHAN .................................................. 27 2.1. Definisi Pernikahan ...................................................................................................... 27 2.2. Pernikahan Menurut Agama Kristen ......................................................... 28 2.3. Pernikahan Kristen secara Historis .............................................................. 30 2.4. Pernikahan Kristen secara Teologis ............................................................. 33 2.5. Kasih dan Kesetiaan sebagai Dasar Hidup Bersama .................. 42 2.6. Dari Memilih Jodoh hingga Berumah Tangga .................................. 49 2.7. Pernikahan yang Bahagia ....................................................................................... 58 BAB III - RELASI INTERPERSONAL DALAM KELUARGA .................................. 63 3.1. Pengertian dan Uraian Historis Relasi Interpersonal ................ 64 3.2. Tipe dan Tahap Relasi Interpersonal .......................................................... 67 3.3. Tugas Perkembangan Keluarga ....................................................................... 73 3.4. Sifat dari Relasi Interpersonal dalam Keluarga ............................... 78 3.5. Unsur-Unsur dari Relasi Interpersonal dalam Pernikahan . 83 BAB IV - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL ................................................................ 97 4.1. Dasar-Dasar Pelayanan Pastoral ..................................................................... 100 4.2. Fungsi Pelayanan Pastoral .................................................................................... 103 4.3. Bentuk-Bentuk Pelayanan Pastoral .............................................................. 105 4.4. Pelayanan Pastoral Pranikah .............................................................................. 108 xviii - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL - Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga 4.5. Pelayanan Pastoral dan Keharmonisan Keluarga ......................... 115 4.6. Prinsip Holistik Konseling Pastoral ............................................................. 117 BAB V - PENUTUP .............................................................................................................................................. 123 5.1. Kesimpulan Umum ...................................................................................................... 123 5.2. Pelatihan Dasar Konseling .................................................................................. 129 5.3. Pendekatan Preventif ................................................................................................. 130 5.4. Konseling Pernikahan ................................................................................................ 131 5.5. Retreat Keluarga .............................................................................................................. 132 5.6. Pemerkayaan Pernikahan ...................................................................................... 132 5.7. Mitra dalam Pelayanan ............................................................................................ 133 5.8. Refleksi Teologis ............................................................................................................. 133 KEPUSTAKAAN ..................................................................................................................................................... 137 INDEKS NAMA ................................................................................................................................................................................ 151 BIOGRAFI PENULIS DAN EDITOR AHLI .................................................................................. 153 BIOGRAFI PENULIS DAN EDITOR AHLI - 155 Editor Ahli: Juneman, Dosen Tetap pada Jurusan Psikologi, Fakultas Humaniora, Universitas Bina Nusantara; serta Dosen Tidak Tetap pada program-program studi Psikologi Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya Jakarta, Universitas Bhayangkara Jakarta Raya, Universitas Pancasila, Universitas Mercu Buana Jakarta, dan Universitas Pelita Harapan. Matakuliah yang diampunya antara lain Psikologi Umum, Psikologi Sosial, Sejarah Pemikiran Tentang Manusia, Filsafat Manusia, Ilmu-ilmu Sosial Untuk Psikologi, Psikologi Kepribadian, Analisis Perubahan Sosial, Manajemen Perubahan Perilaku, Metodologi Penelitian Kuantitatif & Kualitatif, dan Konstruksi Alat Ukur Psikologi. Alumnus program studi S1 Psikologi Universitas Persada Indonesia YAI (UPI YAI) dan Alumnus program Magister Sains Psikologi Sosial Universitas Indonesia (UI). Memperoleh sertifikasi internasional Certified Webmaster Professional (CWP) dari World Organization of Webmasters (2001). Memegang sertifikasi alat ukur Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) for Adult and Adolescent (2010), serta sertifikat Assessment Centre Assessors Training Program (2011). Lulus Grundstufe I & II dari Goethe Institut Jakarta serta Niveaux I & II dari Centre Culturel Français (CCF) de Jakarta (2002). Menjabat sebagai Subject Content Specialist Bidang Metodologi Penelitian Psikologi (2011), selanjutnya Subject Content Coordinator Bidang Psikologi Sosial-Komunitas (sejak 2012) pada Universitas Bina Nusantara, Anggota Pengurus Himpunan Psikologi Indonesia (HIMPSI) Wilayah DKI Jakarta (periode 2007-2008, 2008-2011, 2011-2015), Anggota Pengurus Ikatan Psikologi Sosial HIMPSI (periode 2010-2014), Wakil Dekan/Ketua Program Studi S1 Psikologi Universitas Bhayangkara Jakarta Raya (2008-2011), Anggota Pengurus Departemen Pusat Penelitian Ikatan Alumni Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Persada Indonesia YAI (periode 20102013), Anggota American Psychological Association (APGS-APA, 2009-2011). Ia merupakan Anggota Pendiri Asosiasi Ilmu Forensik Indonesia (AIFI, 2010), Anggota Aktif Jejaring Komunikasi Kesehatan Jiwa (JEJAK JIWA) Indonesia (2007-sekarang), serta Konsultan dan Pelatih pada Mercu Buana Training & Consulting/MBTC (2006-2010). Ia juga merupakan Anggota Sidang Penyunting Jurnal Ilmiah Psikologi PSIKOBUANA Universitas Mercu Buana Jakarta (20082011, , ISSN 2085-4242), Jurnal Kesehatan Jiwa Indonesia ATARAXIS (2007), Indonesian Journal of Legal and Forensic Sciences/IJLFS (2008, ISSN 1979-1763), Jurnal Psikologi Ulayat/Indonesian Journal of Indigenous Psychology 156 - PSIKOLOGI KONSELING PASTORAL - Konteks Pranikah, Pernikahan, dan Keluarga (sejak 2012, ISSN 2088-4230); dan Ketua Sidang Penyunting Jurnal Ilmiah Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi/JPIO (sejak 2012, , ISSN 23028440, bekerjasama dengan Asosiasi Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi/APIO PP HIMPSI). Menulis buku hasil penelitian Psychology of Fashion (LKIS, 2010, ISBN 9789792553253). BIOGRAFI PENULIS DAN EDITOR AHLI -
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{ "creator": "Abraham, Juneman", "date": "2015", "datestamp": 1562816933000, "description": "Title in English: Psychology of Nationality as A New Studies Umbrella in Indonesia. Abstract: The role of psychology in dealing with issues of and improving the welfare of the nation has often been raised into topics of psychology seminars and conferences, both in subdisciplines of social psychology, clinical-macro psychology, and other subdisciplines. Psychology, as a science that deals with human dimensions, tries to contribute from formulating the definition of \"nation\" to doing research and social intervention on the nation's problems. This phenomenon is very encouraging because it shows that we are continually questioning ourselves as a nation, a precondition for healthy development, as well as seeing and trying to reach the possibilities of how our nation will \"become\". Every psychology (assumed that psychology is not singular) that indicates and prescribes adherence of feelings and commitments of citizens with the imagined community of the nation deserve to be called as Psychology of Nationality.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRPKS", "language": "id", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/book" }
Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia Juneman Abraham Peran psikologi dalam menangani persoalan dan meningkatkan kesejahteraan bangsa sudah sering diangkat menjadi topik-topik seminar dan konferensi psikologi, baik dalam subdisiplin psikologi sosial, klinis-makro, maupun subdisiplin yang lain. Psikologi, sebagai ilmu yang bersinggungan dengan dimensi-dimensi manusia, mencoba berkontribusi mulai dari merumuskan definisi "bangsa" sampai dengan melakukan penelitian dan intervensi sosial solutif terhadap permasalahan bangsa. Gejala ini sangat menggembirakan karena hal ini menunjukkan bahwa kita terus-menerus mempertanyakan diri kita sebagai sebuah bangsa, sebuah prakondisi akan perkembangan yang sehat, sekaligus melihat dan mencoba menjangkau kemungkinan-kemungkinan bagaimana bangsa kita akan "menjadi". Dalam salah satu definisi dalam kerangka kewargaan (civic), seperti bangsa Indonesia, basis kesatuan bangsa dikonsepsikan berdasarkan keterlibatan sukarela para warga (citizen)-nya dalam prinsip ideologis dasar, seperti perasaan sebagai warga (sense of citizenship), komitmen terhadap lembaganya, serta partisipasi yang diminta ideologi dan lembaga-lembaga itu (Meeus, Duriez, Vanbeselaere, & Boen, 2010, dalam Juneman & Meinarno, 2012). Lebih lanjut, apabila diperlukan adanya perubahan ideologi, maka konsensus negosiatif antar warga dapat memungkinkan hal tersebut. Dalam hal ini, keanggotaan kelompok dapat diperoleh siapapun yang memenuhi secara demokratis kriteria yang ada. Dari aspek psikologis, bangsa (Volk, nation) merupakan komunitas yang diikat oleh persepsi-persepsi subjektif yang melihat dirinya sebagai bagian dari bangsa itu, dan karenanya bangsa memiliki jiwa (Volksgeist, national spirit; Volksseele, national psyche), yang sesungguhnya bukan berasal dari kesamaan kesukuan, bahasa, atau kekerabatan, melainkan berasal dari identifikasi psikologis pribadi-pribadi yang bersama-sama meleburkan diri dengan bangsa tersebut (Lazarus & Steinthal, dalam Rosenberg, 2008). Berdasarkan definisi-definisi di atas, maka setiap psikologi (diandaikan bahwa psikologi itu tidak singular) yang mengindikasikan dan mempreskripsikan kerekatan perasaan dan komitmen warga dengan komunitas bangsa yang diimajinasikannya layak disebut sebagai Psikologi Kebangsaan. Mengapa Psikologi Kebangsaan menjadi penting sebagai suatu bidang studi dewasa ini? Sebagaimana kita ketahui, bangsa menghadapi berbagai persoalan sepanjang sejarahnya. Sebagian besar persoalan, apabila ditilik, sesungguhnya merupakan persoalan bagaimana bangsa berperilaku. Psikologi sebagai ilmu yang berhasrat menemukan hukum-hukum perilaku, apabila sukses dalam misinya itu dalam konteks kolektif-kebangsaan, akan berkontribusi dalam memahami, menjelaskan, serta meminimalisasikan bahkan menyelesaikan berbagai varian persoalan bangsa yang timbul, mungkin timbul, dan pernah timbul dalam berbagai jenis dan skalanya. Dalam konteks Indonesia, psikologi kebangsaan menjadi semakin relevan karena jika kita berbicara Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. tentang peran Indonesia dalam kancah internasional, yang pada 2015 semakin faktual dengan masuknya dalam era Masyarakat Ekonomi ASEAN (di mana Indonesia merupakan bagiannya), maka bukan hanya psikologi internasional yang perlu dikuasai, namun justru psikologi bangsa kita sendiri lah yang pertama-tama perlu digali dan dipetakan karakteristik, kekuatan dan kerentanannya, sambil menghubungkan diri dan berdinamika dengan jejaring internasional. Pertanyaan lebih lanjut adalah bagaimana metode mengenali psikologi bangsa? Wilhelm Wundt, Bapak Psikologi, pernah menyatakan bahwa perkembangan jiwa kolektif dapat diakses melalui bahasa, mitos, dan adat (Wundt, dalam Rosenberg, 2008). Implikasinya, psikologi kebangsaan perlu berkolaborasi dengan ilmu linguistik, mitologi, dan etnologi (juga ilmu-ilmu fisik, dan sosial lainnya, termasuk psikohistori, cf. Bendersky, 1988) dalam mempelajari kehidupan mental bangsa. Yang perlu ditekankan di sini adalah bahwa psikologi kebangsaan tidak berbicara tentang penjumlahan psikologi sekumpulan individu yang menjadi anggota sebuah bangsa, juga tidak berbicara tentang psikologi massa yang statis dan dapat diprediksikan dalam kondisi tertentu. Psikologi kebangsaan merupakan sebuah gestalt (totalitas) interaksi yang menampakkan konfigurasi baru dari jiwa-jiwa individu-individu tersebut yang selalu tetap terbuka terhadap kemungkinankemungkinan perkembangan personal dan situasional yang dapat mengubah gestalt itu. Yang berinteraksi bukan hanya aspek sadar, tetapi juga aspek-aspek tidak sadar; bukan hanya aspek masa sekarang, tetapi juga aspek historis dan aspek visioner; bukan hanya aspek individu tetapi juga kelembagaan. Ringkasnya, psikologi kebangsaan berbicara mengenai "perjalanan" identitas dan bangunan ingatan dari individu-individu dan lembaga-lembaga menuju kolektivitas bangsa, dari bangsa pada masa yang lalu menjadi bangsa pada masa sekarang dan "potensi menjadinya" bangsa di masa yang akan datang. Tidak heran, Woodworth (1912) sejak lama mengingatkan bahwa kita perlu berhati-hati dalam melakukan generalisasi tentang karakter dan perilaku bangsa. Mengapa? Sebab bangsa selalu dalam kondisi "bergerak" yang berada dalam "ketegangan" antara sosiologi masyarakat, kondisi alam, dan psikologi individual anggota bangsa. Mengambil kesimpulan tentang jiwa bangsa sangatlah tidak mudah; kita bisa tergelincir pada simplifikasi yang boleh jadi tidak akan menambah sesuatu pemahaman apa mengenai bangsa kita, melainkan hanya akan memperburuk arah perjalanan bangsa. Oleh karenanya, pencatatan yang tekun, kaya, dan hati-hati mengenai kasus-kasus perilaku anggota bangsa sambil menyandingkannya dengan hipotesis mengenai situasi umum jiwa bangsa, bahkan yang menunjukkan konflik pemahaman antar keduanya, menjadi sangat penting untuk tidak terjebak dalam penyederhanaan dimaksud. Guna memahami psikologi kebangsaan, di samping menyelidiki "perjalanan" dari individualitas menuju kolektivitas-bangsa sebagaimana disebutkan di atas, dari arah lain kita juga dapat mendekatinya dengan cara menyorotnya dari psikologi kelompok yang lebih luas, seperti Psikologi Asia, Psikologi Asia Tenggara, dan Psikologi ASEAN, di mana bangsa Indonesia menjadi bagiannya. Mengapa pendekatan ini dapat dibenarkan? Oleh karena, perlu kita akui, bahwa psikologi sebagai sebuah ilmu tidak bebas nilai (Kim, 1995), dan bangsa kita membagi sejumlah nilai yang sama (shared values) dengan bangsa-bangsa yang terdekat di sekeliling kita. Sebagai contoh, Psikologi Masyarakat Asia dalam salah satu simpulnya bersifat relasional, kontekstual, dan kolektif (Kim, Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. 1995), sesuatu yang nampaknya juga eksis dalam masyarakat kita. Yang patut kita waspadai, sekali lagi, adalah perampatan (generalisasi) yang berlebihan. Meskipun sejak membuminya Psikologi Asia dengan hadirnya Asian Psychological Association (APsyA), Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians (ABRA), ASEAN Regional Union of Psychological Societies (ARUPS), dan Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP), kita memiliki "teropong" dan "lensa" psikologi baru untuk melihat masyarakat Indonesia, kita perlu menyadari bahwa teropong dan lensa itu juga tidak selalu memadai dan meminta kita berkontribusi, melalui Psikologi Kebangsaan, untuk meningkatkan kecanggihan segenap teknologi psikologi kita itu agar lebih peka dan presisif dalam pernyataan kita mengenai psikologi kita sendiri. Hal lain yang perlu memperoleh perhatian kita adalah bahwa, sebagaimana psikologi yang tidak singular dengan berbagai asumsi epistemologis yang dapat saling "bertabrakan" (Juneman, 2013), demikian pula Psikologi Kebangsaan. Psikologi Kebangsaan jangan diharapkan untuk menghasilkan profil kejiwaan dan perilaku bangsa yang berlaku bagi semua anggota bangsa. Dalam salah satu studi Psikologi Kebangsaan yang sudah dimulai sejak lama di Tiongkok, Boorman dan Boorman (1967) menemukan bahwa Masyarakat Tionghoa memiliki beberapa deskripsi psikologis yang kontradiktif, yang dipengaruhi antara lain oleh perbedaan karakteristik provinsial. Kontradiksikontradiksi (kalau tidak "interlocking realities", William James dalam Boorman & Boorman, 1967) yang mesti dianggap sebagai paradoks dalam Psikologi Kebangsaan sangat dimungkinkan, dan justru jangan dianggap sebagai kegagalan Psikologi itu, melainkan merupakan kenyataan yang membawa kita kepada pemahaman psikologis yang semakin mendekati kebenaran. Psikologi Kebangsaan adalah psikologi yang realistis, yang tidak duduk di "menara gading", yang cair, yang tidak formalistik. Saudara Imam Ratrioso telah mencanangkan bukunya "Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi" (ISBN 9786021201220) sebagai yang pertama dari Seri Buku Psikologi Kebangsaan. Sebenarnya buku ini terinspirasi dari apa yang pernah dilakukan Mochtar Lubis ketika menulis dan menyampaikan Pidato Kebudayaan di Taman Ismail Marzuki Tahun 1977. Pada saat itu, Mochtar Lubis mengemukakan tujuh ciri manusia Indonesia, sebagai berikut: (1) hipokritis (munafik), (2) segan dan enggan bertanggungjawab atas perbuatannya, kelakuannya, pikirannya, dan sebagainya, (3) berjiwa feodal, (4) percaya takhyul, (5) artistik, (6) berwatak lemah, dan (7) ciri lainnya: tidak hemat, lebih suka tidak bekerja keras (kecuali terpaksa), kurang sabar, cepat cemburu dan dengki terhadap orang yang dilihatnya lebih darinya, gampang senang dan bangga pada yang hampa-hampa, manusia-sok, tukang tiru, cenderung bermalas-malasan, cukup logis, masih lemah dalam mengaitkan antara sebab dan akibat, mesra dalam hubungan antar manusia, ikatan kekeluargaan yang mesra, berhati lembut, suka damai, punya rasa humor yang cukup baik, cepat belajar (Lubis, 2013). Saudara Ratrioso (2015), tiga puluh delapan tahun kemudian, mengemukakan delapan hipotesis tentang profil manusia Indonesia pasca-reformasi, yaitu (1) semakin mementingkan diri sendiri, (2) kemauan belajar yang rendah, (3) semakin agresif, (4) melunturnya kesadaran KeIndonesia-an, (5) kemenangan materialisme yang semakin sempurna, (6) kepasrahan yang tetap tinggi, (7) tetap mudah memaafkan, dan (8) tahan menderita. Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. Berbeda dari Lubis, Ratrioso (2015) menggunakan teori-teori psikologi sebagai alat bantu untuk memahami manusia Indonesia. Di samping itu, Ratrioso membatasi kesimpulannya, yakni hanya berlaku bagi manusia Indonesia yang hidup pasca-reformasi. Sebelumnya, Psikolog Sarlito Wirawan Sarwono (2005) menulis artikel berjudul "Bangsa Yang teledor", Budayawan Emmanuel Subangun (2007) menulis "Bangsa Yang Lupa Ingatan", Psikiater Limas Sutanto (2008) menulis "Bangsa Yang Dangkal". Kendati demikian, terdapat persamaan di antara tulisan-tulisan itu, yakni tiadanya basis penelitian empiris, semacam sosial-epidemiologis, sebagai landasan bagi berdirinya kesimpulankesimpulan mereka tentang jiwa bangsa ini. Cukup mengejutkan bahwa hampir 40 tahun kita mendambakan adanya kesimpulan yang lebih bertanggungjawab mengenai ciri atau sifat umum Manusia Indonesia berdasarkan kesadaran kritis mengenai tingkat urgensi atau kepentingannya, namun kita tidak melakukan sesuatu upaya yang serius untuk menyelenggarakan semacam national initiatives dalam rangka itu. Nah, patut kita renungkan, ciri manusia Indonesia apakah yang tercermin dari kenyataan ini? Terdapat sejumlah hal yang menarik perhatian saya dari buku ini. Pertama, Ratrioso dengan jeli menghubungkan pembahasan pikirannya dengan Revolusi Mental yang digaungkan oleh Presiden Joko Widodo. Suatu kali saya di penghujung tahun 2014 bertemu dengan Bapak Ichsan Malik, praktisi psikologi perdamaian, yang dikenal sebagai pencetus gerakan Baku Bae ketika terjadi konflik sosial di Ambon. Ia menyatakan satu hal yang menarik, yaitu bahwa di saat revolusi mental diangkat, psikologi malah "meeental". "Ini kan kita jadinya seperti ngeledek!" ujar beliau. Benar juga! Revolusi mental merupakan sebuah terminologi yang seharusnya merupakan ranah utama psikologi, karena psikologi mempelajari kehidupan mental. Saudara Ratrioso tepat sekali ketika dalam bukunya di Bagian 3 "Apa Yang Harus Dilakukan dan Darimana Dimulai" guna menghadapi gambaran manusia Indonesia yang "seakan-akan pesimistik"; ia menyatakan pertama-tama kita perlu "Mengkonstruksi lagi jatidiri dan karakter bangsa", suatu anjuran yang tepat sekali menyentuh jantung tindakan psikologis. Revolusi mental memang harus berawal dari mental juga, bukan dari fisik bangsa. Mental yang menjadi fokus adalah mental bangsa, yang kita bayangkan sebagai koordinat dari segenap proses dan praktik sosial bangsa ini, baik yang dihidupi oleh individu maupun lembaga-lembaga sosial. Selanjutnya, Ratrioso menyatakan dalam bukunya: "Acara pernikahan atau hajatan itu bagus, termasuk membuat pasar malam juga bagus. Tapi jika caranya menutup fasilitas umum yang sudah lazim dipakai orang banyak, tanpa ada izin dan panduan yang jelas, tentu saja ini tidak bisa dibiarkan. Praktik demikian merupakan cermin konsep berpikir bahwa orang lain tidak penting." Amatan ini adalah amatan yang tajam! Hipotesis Ratrioso bahwa bagi manusia Indonesia "orang lain tidak penting" seolah membantah konsepsi Psikologi Timur dan Psikologi Orang Indonesia yang selama ini meyakini bahwa orang Indonesia memiliki konsep diri interdependen-relasional-kolektivistik (yang justru sangat mempertimbangkan orang lain), bukan konsep diri independen-individualistik seperti orang Barat. Seperti yang saya kemukakan sebelumnya, bahwa paradoks dalam profil sebuah bangsa sangat dimungkinkan. Persoalannya adalah bagaimana menjembatani pemahaman-pemahaman Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. yang paradoksal itu. Apabila kita menggunakan rumus sederhana dari Bapak Psikolog Sosial, Kurt Lewin, bahwa perilaku merupakan fungsi dari diri dan lingkungan (Behavior = function (Person, Environment)), maka kita boleh menarik dugaan sementara bahwa kegiatan individu memantau interaksinya dengan lingkungan akan menentukan caranya memandang orang lain dalam lingkungan dan menyikapinya dalam kurun waktu tertentu. Dalam anekdot Ratrioso di atas, ada kemungkinan bahwa secara ekologis, ada batas-batas (definisi) tentang "orang lain". Ada "orang lain" yang dianggap penting dengan perilaku itu; ada "orang lain" yang dianggap tidak penting dengan perilaku itu. Siapakah "orang lain" bagi kita dalam berbagi konteks lingkungan, dengan demikian merupakan pertanyaan yang perlu dijawab jika kita ingin menyimpulkan apakah bangsa kita memang semakin mementingkan diri sendiri. Pada halaman 57, Ratrioso mengungkapkan: "Ceramah agama yang diminati adalah yang banyak lucunya, hiburannya dan hadiahnya. Para dai yang mengajarkan pengetahuan secara serius dan sungguhsungguh tidak mendapat tempat di hati rakyat. Rakyat maunya belajar itu yang tidak sungguh-sungguh tapi kalau bisa langsung menghasilkan kehidupan yang enak, mewah, dan masuk surga. Sebagian kita sudah semakin apatis terhadap proses-proses yang rasional untuk memperbaiki hidup." Hal ini merupakan gejala yang serius! Jika kita setuju bahwa pendidikan formal merupakan salah satu ajang untuk melakukan revolusi mental, kita juga perlu menyadari bahwa gejala yang dikemukakan Ratrioso di atas juga melanda ruang-ruang kelas di sekolah-sekolah formal kita. Arus pragmatisme dan instanisme memiliki ekses-ekses yang justru lebih menguasai kita ketimbang kebaikan-kebaikan originalnya. Kita harus merevolusi secara menyeluruh proses-proses interaksional yang terjadi dalam ruangruang kelas pembelajaran kita. Apabila Ratrioso mensinyalir bahwa gejala di atas mencerminkan kemauan belajar yang rendah, saya ingin menambahkan bahwa betapa kemauan belajar kita setinggi atau sesedikit apapun sangat perlu untuk dibarengi dengan interaksi yang mampu memfasilitasi aktualisasi dari kemauan itu. Kita ingat pepatah "Sedikit demi sedikit lama-lama menjadi bukit." Persoalannya di sini adalah bagaimana mendesain sebuah interaksi yang mampu menghubungkan antara kemauan dai (dalam kasus di atas) atau guru dengan kemauan orang yang belajar. Apa artinya? Idealisme dan pragmatisme, dai dan jamaah, guru dan siswa perlu dipertemukan. Perlu dihidupkan negosiasi di antara keduanya. Selama ini kita barangkali menjadi tidak adil dengan sertamerta "menyalahkan" salah satu pihak, kalau tidak dai-nya ya jamaah-nya, kalau tidak gurunya ya siswanya; atau materi khotbah atau kurikulumnya. Padahal, kita tidak pernah secara sistematis dan berkelanjutan bertemu dan berdialog antara pembelajar dan pelajar. Malahan saya mencermati bahwa pertemuan antara sekolah, guru, dan siswa diadakan seringkali untuk memenuhi syarat administratif akreditasi sekolah! Kalau begini, tidak ada proses perjumpaan dari hati ke hati. Tidak akan ada yang mengalami revolusi mental sehingga tidak akan terjadi pula percepatan pembelajaran. Di halaman 98, Ratrioso berujar: "Kekerasan dalam rumah tangga (KDRT) juga merebak sampai ke tingkat yang tidak bisa dinalar oleh akal siapapun. Ada istri mencincang suaminya, ada suami yang Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. membakar istrinya, ada ibu yang membunuh anaknya dan memasukkan jaddnya ke septic tank dan masih banyak lagi kasus-kasus kekerasan yang sudah tak bisa terakomodasi oleh nalar yang waras." Ratrioso memberikan contoh ini untuk menjelaskan hipotesisnya mengenai salah satu potret manusia Indonesia, yakni "makhluk yang semakin agresif". Saya setuju sekaligus tergelitik ketika Ratrioso memasukkan kata "waras" dan "akal" ketika menyoal tentang kekerasan. Saya berpendapat bahwa banyak dari aspek-aspek kewarasan kita bersangkut paut dengan bahasa. Saya pernah menunjukkan melalui sebuah artikel saya yang berjudul Bahasa Sebagai Praktik Sosial bahwa masalah pendidikan sampai dengan masalah bunuh diri dapat dianalisis dengan pendekatan analisis bahasa (Juneman, 2010). Masalah bahasa apa yang ada dalam kasus di atas? Mengutip pendapat Sudaryanto, seorang pakar linguistik (dalam Frans Sartono, 2014), istilah "kekerasan" tidak begitu konkret. Yang lebih konkret adalah "kekejaman" atau "kejahatan"; jadi seharusnya "Kekejaman (atau Kejahatan) dalam rumah tangga" bukan "Kekerasan dalam rumah tangga". Sudaryanto mengatakan bahwa salah satu fungsi bahasa yang utama adalah mengembangkan akal budi. Dengan menggunakan bahasa secara keliru, maka banyak permasalahan manusia yang akan timbul dan lestari (Juneman, 2010), dan akal budi (dalam istilah Ratrioso: nalar, kewarasan) tidak akan berkembang baik. Bila demikian, persoalan akan tetap tinggal seperti benang kusut, seberapa daya dan upaya pun kita keluarkan. Tepat sekali Sudaryanto menyatakan bahwa revolusi mental berawal dari bahasa. Kalau begitu, apakah perlu ditambahkan lagi profil manusia Indonesia ditinjau dari penggunaan bahasanya? Ini merupakan pertanyaan yang menurut hemat saya sangat mendesak untuk didiskusikan dalam rangka studi Psikologi Kebangsaan. Saya mengucapkan banyak selamat kepada Saudara Ratrioso atas penerbitan buku ini. Saya mengenal beliau sejak enam tahun yang lalu. Dalam perjalanan pulang dari sebuah acara Himpunan Psikologi Indonesia di tahun 2010, ia menyampaikan kepada saya bahwa ia ingin menulis sebuah buku tentang bangsa ini dengan menggunakan pendekatan psikologi. Ia mengemukakan kegelisahannya atas kondisi bangsa, dan bertanya-tanya mengapa psikologi tidak bisa melakukan sesuatu untuk ambil bagian, sedikitnya dari sisi pemikiran, untuk turut memperbaiki keadaan bangsa ini. Menulis sebuah buku tidaklah mudah, apalagi buku yang memetakan kondisi manusia Indonesia. Namun atas kegigihan dan ketekunannya, ia berhasil juga membuahkan buku ini. Saya kira tidak berlebihan jika penulisan buku ini dipandang sebagai salah satu upaya yang sangat penting dalam perjalanan bangsa ini, lebih-lebih dalam menegakkan payung studi Psikologi Kebangsaan di negeri ini. Upaya ini perlu dilembagakan, bukan dalam arti "dibuat kaku" melainkan agar terjaga keberlangsungannya, dan terus-menerus diperbarui. Referensi Astaf'ev, P. E. (2006). Nationality and universal tasks: Toward a Russian national psychology. Russian Studies in Philosophy, 45(2), 5-33. Bendersky, J. W. (1988). Psychohistory before Hitler: Early military analyses of German national psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 24, 167-182. Cara mengutip: Abraham, J. (2015). Psikologi Kebangsaan Sebagai Payung Studi Baru di Indonesia (Epilog). In: Ratrioso, I., Rakyat Nggak Jelas: Potret Manusia Indonesia Pasca Reformasi (pp. 323-339). Jakarta: ReneBook. Boorman, H. L., & Boorman, S. A. (1967). Strategy and national psychology in China. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, National Character in the Perspective of the Social Sciences, 370, 143-155. Juneman. (2010, 29 Mei). Bahasa sebagai praktik sosial. Koran Jakarta, h. 4. an_ Juneman. (2013). Psikologi dan gugatan epistemologis terhadap perumpunan ilmu dalam Undang Undang Pendidikan Tinggi. Dalam Prapto Yuwono, Neil Semuel Rupidara, Ferry F. Karwur, & Titi Susilowati (Eds.), Menggugat fragmentasi dan rigiditas pohon ilmu, 43-68, ISBN 978-979-8154-47-8. Juneman, & Meinarno, E. A. (2013). Semakin kental identitas religius semakin lunturkah identitas nasional? Peran Keberpancasilaan pada remaja Indonesia. Dalam Jas Laile Suzana Jaafar, Yahaya Mahamood, Zahari Ishak (2013)(Eds.), Menongkah arus globalisasi: Isu-isu psikologi di Malaysia dan Indonesia. Kuala Lumpur: Jabatan Psikologi Pendidikan dan Kaunseling, Universiti Malaya. Kim, U. (1995). Psychology, science, and culture: Cross-cultural analysis of national psychologies. International Journal of Psychology, 30, 662-679. Lubis, M. (2013). Manusia Indonesia: Sebuah pertanggungjawaban. Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia. Rosenberg, D. J. (2008). Patho-teleology and the spirit of war: The psychoanalytic inheritance of national psychology. Monatshefte, 100(2), 213-225. Sartono, F. (2014). Revolusi mental berawal dari bahasa. Kompas. .Bahasa Sarwono, S. W. (2005, 17 September). Bangsa yang teledor. Kompas, h. 6. Subangun, E. (2007). Bangsa yang lupa ingatan. Ataraxis: Indonesian Journal of Mental Health, 1(1), 2-4. Sutanto, L. (2008, 31 Juli). Bangsa yang dangkal. Kompas. Woodworth, R. S. (1912). National psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 9(10), 397-399.
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{ "creator": "Takwin, Bagus", "date": "forthcoming", "datestamp": 1562761048000, "description": "Corruption prevention can be more effective if it does not rely merely on legal enforcement. This theoretical review aimed to propose a hypothetical psychological model capable of explaining the behavior of corruption. Moral disengagement is a variable that is considered ontologically closest in “distance” to the variable of corruption behavior. Counterfeit self, implicit self-theory, ethical mindset and moral emotion are taken into account as the pivotal factors of the corruption behavior and its mechanism of moral disengagement. Counterfeit self along with some moderating variables are regarded to “set” one’s future corrupt behavior based on his/her past/prior ethical or unethical behavior and moral emotions. This review discovered a conjectural-theoretical model of the corruption psychology. It can be used to design a social intervention and training for individuals to manage the mindset and emotion that can buffer counterfeit self effect. In addition, the users of these research findings are recommended to be aware of the surroundings that consist of groups of people with particular ethical mindset, moral emotion proneness and self-theory.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRPMO", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Psychological Mechanism of Corruption: A Comprehensive Review", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/review" }
OPEN ACCESS Asian Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1992-1454 DOI: 10.3923/ajsr.2018. Review Article Psychological Mechanism of Corruption: A Comprehensive Review 1Juneman Abraham, 2Julia Suleeman and 2Bagus Takwin 1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia Abstract Corruption prevention can be more effective if it does not rely merely on legal enforcement. This theoretical review aimed to propose a hypothetical psychological model capable of explaining the behavior of corruption. Moral disengagement is a variable that is considered ontologically closest in "distance" to the variable of corruption behavior. Counterfeit self, implicit self-theory, ethical mindset and moral emotion are taken into account as the pivotal factors of the corruption behavior and its mechanism of moral disengagement. Counterfeit self along with some moderating variables are regarded to "set" one's future corrupt behavior based on his/her past/prior ethical or unethical behavior and moral emotions. This review discovered a conjectural-theoretical model of the corruption psychology. It can be used to design a social intervention and training for individuals to manage the mindset and emotion that can buffer counterfeit self effect. In addition, the users of these research findings are recommended to be aware of the surroundings that consist of groups of people with particular ethical mindset, moral emotion proneness and self-theory. Key words: Corruption, moral disengagement, counterfeit self, ethical mindset, self-theory, moral emotion Received: Accepted: Published: Citation: Juneman Abraham, Julia Suleeman and Bagus Takwin, 2018. Psychological mechanism of corruption: A comprehensive review. Asian J. Sci. Res., CC: CC-CC. Corresponding Author: Juneman Abraham, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jl. Kemanggisan Ilir III No. 45, Palmerah, 11480 Jakarta, Indonesia Tel: +62215345830 Ext. 2632 Fax: +62215350655 Copyright: © 2018 Juneman Abraham et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interest: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its supporting information files. Online First Version. Source: Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 INTRODUCTION One of the roots of social problems in Indonesia and many other developing countries is corruption1. Corruption is an abuse of public authority for personal or private interest that disadvantages public by doing things that are against the prevailing law2. In a perspective, corruption is categorized as an unethical behavior. Unethical behavior is described as an act that has harmful effects on others and is "either illegal or morally unacceptable to the larger community"3. An example of corruption behavior is as follow4,5: "A President Director of State-Owned Enterprise sells state land, which has been a state-owned enterprise's asset, to an entrepreneur who wants to build a hospital with free care for poor people. The sale is conducted according to formal procedures in the auction process. However, the entrepreneur and President Director manipulate some provisions to a lower price than required. The company manages to sell for the lower price and the President Director earns 5 billion IDR, as a reward for helping the entrepreneur realize the goodwill. The entrepreneur has good intentions in building a hospital with free service for poor people. Besides that, the President Director conducted the land sale mostly according to applicable procedures, but he also did some manipulations of applicable provisions". Corruption is unethical, unfair and unjust6-12 as well as urgent to investigate13-16 because, (1) It weakens the actualization of human potentials, (2) Contrary to virtue ethics, corrupt behavior decreases the capacity of the perpetrator as a moral agent capable of considering the moral meaning in every fact of life, (3) It has inter-generational detrimental impacts from past to present, from present to future, creating erosion of trustworthiness norms, (4) It decreases confidence in political representation, (5) It lowers the dignity, pride and competitiveness of a nation and (6) It is institutionalized in the legislative, executive and judicial structures. Unfortunately, the development of corruption is more rapid than research on corruption. The psychological factors influencing corrupt behavior are attempted to explain. They are categorized into various major perspectives in psychology such as psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive and multi-level socio-cultural approach17 in individual, group and community settings. As reviewed by Abraham and Pane17, psychodynamic approach emphasizes on oedipal conflict related to authority, envy and defensive mechanism. Behavioristic approach explains corruption as the function of reinforcement existing in the environment. The rational-analytical approach emphasizes that corruption is a result of calculative-rational decision making based on loss and benefit. The sociocognitive approach emphasizes on the cognitive bias (knowledge, belief, perception) working on interpersonal and intergroup setting. The cultural approach emphasizes the roles of cultural orientation (collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance) and social norms (injunctive norms and descriptive norms) in explaining corruption. Numerous studies have found linkages between cultures (national, organizational, local)-distributed in social norms (injunctive, descriptive) and level of corruption18-23 because of rationalizations by the culture that sharpen the good-bad feeling. An examples of narratives about the role of "culture" of corruption is tribute culture (in Indonesian: "Budaya upeti") in Java, Indonesia. The word "culture" is in quotation marks because it has the potential to reinterpret and to counter as well as to negotiate the dominant discourse on culture's contribution to corruption24. In essence, corruption is culturally unacceptable based on a number of arguments. The very first argument comes from public agreement side. Corruption does not include justifiable action in most societies' cultural repertoires23. Cultures of Indonesia, where the authors live, are anti-corruption, for instance, cultural values of siri'na pacce (shame for human's existential survival, which is based on integrity, personal and family dignity as well as empathy to community) in South Sulawesi25 and Java's culture of alus, which considers the happiness of others26. Zhang23 stated that "cultural sense" that lives in contrast with major assumptions on culture's supportive nature toward corruption is capable of overcoming legal sense so that an individual would not commit immoral acts even without a legal obstacle. People are "often restrained from self-interested behavior not by the fear of legal sanctions, but rather by our sense of right and wrong"23. Another argument that culture at its heart does not support corruption comes from an example: Respect for trust can be manifested in the practice of writing a detailed (for Americans) or brief (for Chinese) contract/agreement. Contract letters are not important to the Chinese but are to Americans27 and both these contrary practices are all based on, indeed, just the same values or priorities, i.e., the importance of trust. Hierarchy and inclusiveness of application of a moral virtue might also differ across cultures28. This claim illustrates the complexity and dynamics of morality's development within a cultural context. The moral foundation argument29, for example, contains five universal moral foundations: Care, fairness, loyalty, respect for authority and purity. However, different psychological foundations can exist as a result of "adaptive social challenges throughout evolutionary history"29. In other words, cultural shifts in viewing an action's morality can also occur. In the middle of this controversy, Magnis-Suseno30 suggested the following: 2 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 Moral consistency Corruption behavior Moral balancing Ethical mindset (consequentialism vs. deontology) Moral disengagement Self-theory (Incremental vs. entity) Counterfeit selfPast unethical behavior Moral emotion (Shame and guilt proneness) Fig. 1: Visual hypothetical model explaining corruption behavior "There is absolutely no reason to deny that in different socio-cultural situations, concrete moral norms are also different. What should be asked is: How far is the difference? Is it different only for the concrete norms that cannot be separated from the situation and certain socio-cultural conditions (whereas, the basic moral principles of mankind remain the same) or differences until the roots in the moral view among human beings?... Apparently the profound differences between the moral systems of various societies and cultures which are known from the research of anthropologists, ethnologists and historians do not force us to reject the moral unity of mankind"30. In addition, when religion is regarded as a form of or integral to, culture31, "unfortunately", study results suggest the total lack of difference in religious groups' perception of corruption32. The opportunity for corrupt practices cannot be viewed as a cultural opportunity. When opportunities for different types of corruption are ubiquitous, corruption is not appropriately attributed to culture7. A practical implication is that law enforcement agencies need to deepen their fundamental philosophy of society's plurality of norms. If this study's main assumption is believed i.e., the existence of humankind's moral unity, whatever the culture, then high moral efficacy belongs to the people. Rationalization of corrupt behavior misusing "local wisdom premise" could be strongly argued against. Furthermore, the use of the term "cultural corruption" will not be justified because corruption is unacceptable in any culture. Among the psychological approaches, which one has the highest efficacy in explaining corruption? Narvaez33, a proponent of social intuitionist model, stated that human cognition is an impure individualistic phenomenon but is embodied in a social situation. Narvaez33 concluded that one's decision to behave ethically or unethically is determined by interacting factors such as gut feelings, mood, energy, purpose, preference, situational pressure, contextual guidance quality, social influence, logical coherence with self-image and the history of previous behaviors. In short, corruption is an interactive coordinate between the situational factor and personal factor. In this present review, moral disengagement (MD) is placed as a sociocognitive variable representing the interaction of cognitive, affective as well as self and situational variables, as hypothesized and shown in Fig. 1. MORAL DISENGAGEMENT From a psychological perspective, one of the ways to explain why people corrupt is by using process perspective. The most plausible psychological theory in relation to the perspective is moral disengagement34-36. Moore35 and Moore et al.36 are the first persons who explicated knowledge application about MD to explain corruption. The MD theory is based on the basic question, why there are some people who can be involved in inhumane action without being stressed37. Private interest is one of the goals of those detached from moral awareness. According to this 3 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 theory, there is a cognitive mechanism that reinterprets the moral in the person so that moral self-regulation is blocked or even does not work. In politics, the phenomenon is easily identified. Further, Moore35 stated that MD application generalization can be very strong in the act of corruption. There are some dimensions in MD construct that are very relevant to corruption38. The MD is related to the use of "psychological maneuver". As an example, moral justification involves cognitive reconstruction over the affected behavior. Barsky38 argued that people, in general, are not willing to behave unethically, like corruption, except if they find justification for the behavior. The psychological process taking place is that this behavior is viewed by the actors as still bearing moral values, e.g., beneficial to the organization; or when a member of parliament views corruption as "lubricating oil for development"39. In that condition, moral judgment is compromised for the sake of the actor's interest. Another dimension is euphemistic labeling. For example, Indonesian Golkar party's statement saying that a sting operation (in Indonesian: Operasi Tangkap Tangan/OTT) launched by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) team to arrest its cadre, Bengkulu governor, Ridwan Mukti, is a "sign that the party is developing"40. Actor of corruption is said as a part of a "team player" who maintains the sustainability of a system41. In everyday life, advantageous comparison-another dimension of MD-spreads through some memes among younger generations. As an example, there are memes with texts as in the following examples: "Students who like to cheat are called trash. However, a student who cheats for his/her own benefit and leaves his/her friend in a difficulty is lower than trash"( CIB26gZUYAEGeJH.jpg). Advantageous comparison is also reflected in the saying, "George felt he had to choose between being a failure or being a fake"42. It is as if there are things worse than corruption, e.g., doing corruption alone without involving peers, or failing in general life, so corruption can be more justified. Another dimension of MD is displacement of responsibility. The corruptive actors deny their responsibility and make external attribution (for example, because of the pressure from the superintendent or because other people in the community conduct the similar act of corruption). This is done to minimize individual's contribution to an act that disadvantages others. This occurs in an expression like, "It is none of my business what the corporation does in overseas bribery"43 and "I played such a small part that I'm not really responsible"35. Some expressions like, "no one was really harmed"43 and "this little bit of money doesn't affect anything in a huge company like X"44 describe this mechanism. Other dimensions of MD with a significant role in corruption are distortion of consequence and dehumanization. They are relieving or liberating people from depression or uncomfortable feeling/dissonance evolving as the expected consequences of conducting such behavior. The distortion can be in a form of expression or belief that corruption sacrifices no one (victimless). The MD assessment can be used by various government or private institutions to identify the at-risk parties or those who are prone to conduct corruption. Business institutions using this present review can minimize corrupt behavior based on MD assessment. The benefit is that the "cleaner" institutions will receive ethical perception from their stakeholders that will increase trust in and loyalty to the institutions45. COUNTERFEIT SELF Self is a continuously developed identity through identification process in a companionship world, playing a role as a relatively autonomous subject ("I") and can take various positions as an object ("me") at the same time that serves as a dialogue partner for the subject and its various positions46. This definition of self does not want to be trapped in essentialism because self consists of some properties that continuously experience reactualization. Self can undergo fragmentation if there is no coherence between the knower ("I") and the known ("me") self properties47. Self can also endure inflation when it exaggerates positive belief in him/her. Counterfeit self is different from hypocrisy. To understand the difference, types of self need to be elaborated. Two relevant types of self to discuss in the context of counterfeit self are the institutional self (i.e., self as anchored in institutions) and the impulsive self (i.e., self as anchored in impulse). The two types of self are dynamically changing together with one's true/real self. True self, in the approach of role theory, is "the self we are striving to live up48. True/real self is in tension with the impulsive self and the institutional self. True/real self can transform into the counterfeit/deceptive self when the self is occupied or dominated with institutionalized motivations/goals that are artificial, not coming from one self (or: alien) but are controlling the self. If one "plays" institutional game, there will be an erosion of his/her true/real self. 4 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 In front of institutional self, the real self is the self with a "standard" that will appear reliable if it does not fall into/is not trapped in the institutional game. Turner48 discussed it as follow, "the real self is revealed when a person does something solely because he wants to-not because it is good or bad or noble or courageous or self-sacrificing, but because he spontaneously wishes to do so". In front of impulsive self, the real self is something that is "discovered". On the other hand, institutional self views self-discovery as illogical. Self is a "created" (achieved, chosen, worked on) entity not "discovered". Discovering self, according to institutional self, is like "opening the door" for true/real self, but the "changes" is not simple. According to institutional self, self-discovery is risky because the impulsive self can use any means such as alcohol or drugs as long as they are functional for the discovery. Meanwhile, for institutional self, "the new self" that goes beyond impulsive self limitation must be created. "The new self" is the true self for institutional self. Institutional self is active and volitional as well as negotiates with inner needs (satisfy oneself) and outer needs (ingratiation, presented to satisfy others). Based on the propositions, it can be concluded that, according to Turner48, the counterfeit self is the institutionalized self that is losing its control because of pressure or being overwhelmed by the surroundings. The difference of counterfeit self from hypocrisy can be seen from the two perspectives. In front of institutional self, hypocrisy is one's failure to live his/her standard. This self is not counterfeit self as long as it does not have any "misrepresentation" motive, exaggerating self-appearance that is not congruent with the real internal situation. In front of impulsive self, hypocrisy means determining self-standard that is not harmonized with individual's capacity and preference. Even though the standard can be lived up (in a way that it is: Done, run, fulfilled), he/she remains a hypocrite if at the same time he must minimize the desire/passion to "get out from/stop" the expectations of the standard. Vannini and Franzese49 theoretical study showed that the characteristics of authenticity of the self (the antonym of counterfeit self) consist of two combined components, i.e., "I" (subjective, oriented towards self) and "me" (objective, oriented towards others) borrowing the symbolic interactionist paradigm, "authenticity influences not only self-views but how we negotiate interactions in which self-views are at stake". Based on Vannini and Franzese's49 theoretical study, authenticity is the function of one's view on his/her moral status. The following sums up their expression: "(A)uthenticity-as virtuous it may seem-cannot be exempt from the need to strike a balance between ideal and necessity. In fact, it would even seem that being authentic at all times, under all circumstances, would represent a serious practical problem for the self and society-again, especially, if we view authenticity as a way of acting in accordance to laws of one's own making. Individuals have been found to submerge authenticity for different reasons at times to maintain congeniality, at times for self-protection and at times for self-gain..."49. Authentic/inauthentic self is the result of one's reflection on his/her moral self-image, which can change along with moral behavior quest. The individual is involved in substantial negotiations between his/her personal needs and social influence. In Gino et al.50 experiments, users of counterfeit products (producing counterfeit self) were given the opportunity to exaggerate their performance to gain bigger financial reward and there is a chance to be appreciated by others. There is an experience of "reducing experienced ethical dissonance" than "reducing anticipated ethical dissonance"51 constituting a moral justification. The dissonance condition triggers a reaction to conduct several things for self-concept maintenance52-53. Some of them are (1) Distancing, i.e., "pointing to other people's moral failings"51, (2) Moral hypocrisy, embracing two different cognitive elements at the same time. An example of moral hypocrisy is evaluating our own moral transgressions in a more moderate way that is in line with MD moral justification element; evoking a sense of integrity or decency the feeling as good people based on the willingness to improve self-image. Meanwhile, they know that they are not that good. In other words, they tolerate selfdeception, but harshly judge others' moral transgressions51. Indeed, one method of dissonance reduction is becoming very critical towards others' moral behaviors as a defensive effort to restore the "polluted/contaminated" moral self-concept. Other dissonance reduction methods can be done by the following series of psychological events54: Counterfeit behavior actor experiences self-signaling. This signal shows that there is a discrepancy between the things appeared (such as accessories, behavior) and the "real self" who is wearing the fashion or doing the behavior. The signal is then processed and the person will rethink about him/herself, whether he/she has no integrity, or is not respectable. If he/she accepts, even implicitly, that he/she is immoral, there is a possibility that this person continues his/her moral career on dishonesty track. Thus, it is obvious that regardless whatever ethical dissonance reduction one takes, the counterfeit behavior will lead to mental corruption (counterfeit self). Therefore, the effect of counterfeit behavior does not only refer to oneself (to be more unethical, to be more corrupt) but also refers socially in a form of accusing or even sacrificing others (victimization). 5 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 One's behavior history is mostly dominated by ordinary but dishonest/unethical behavior, at least according to Ayal and Gino55 claim. It is demonstrated by people who, (1) Echo moral values, fight to maintain public and private moral self-image, but who, (2) Behave immorally whenever there is a chance, that they think they can get away with and (3) Feel that they have no problems when they commit "little" dishonesty. Ayal and Gino55 named the gap between the number (1), number (2) and number (3) as ethical dissonance. "Everyday's life" unethical behavior (which ethic is "ambiguous" and which its unethical behavior seems to be not serious) is, in fact, has a high potential to produce future unethical behavior. This behavior is also known as no harm no foul behavior56,57, such as using counterfeit product bringing forth counterfeit self that seems to cause no disadvantage for others. Dissonance reduction, such as trivialization or other cognitive consonance restoration efforts, will lead to higher degree of unethical psychological mechanism58. For example, people often underestimate or overlook the true moral cost of the use of the counterfeit product because of motivated forgetting or willful ignorance element. The use of counterfeit product leads to the next unethical behavior (even in a behavior domain that is different from consumptive behavior, such as academic cheating), as found out by Gino et al.50, because moral leniency and moral disengagement are at work. Counterfeit self could be measured by self-alienation dimension59 although the measurement scale excludes misinterpretation motive boosting self-image in the social environment. There are three academic arguments. The first argument, the self-alienation measurement follows Gino's measurement tradition50,53 that use the feeling of being alienated to measure counterfeit self. Besides, Rae60 also stressed that, "If we understand what it is to be alienated, we also, at least implicitly, understand what it is to be authentic. Similarly, if we understand what it is to be authentic, we, at least, implicitly understand that if we lack those aspects of being that constitute an authentic way of being, we are alienated.... By implicitly disclosing what it is to be authentic, a description of alienation also provides us with an understanding of what the actual self should be, what it should strive for and ultimately, the way it should comport itself"60. In simpler words, alienation and authenticity are two sides of the same coin. Alienation refers to a condition where the actual self is not in unity with self history (past perspective) or his/her ideal self (future perspective). Meanwhile, historical and teleological aspects develop the authentic self. Alienation is an ontological component of authentic self 60, whereas, the other two components of authentic self (i.e., authentic living and accepting external influence61) are just derivations of from socio-behavioral aspects of alienation situation. The second argument, it was often difficult to manipulate counterfeit behavior. This pragmatic approach recommends measuring the current global self status, i.e., whether or not it was alienated, to know the degree of counterfeit self. The third argument, the measurement relies on scientific evidence of Wood et al.61 that counterfeit self/self-alienation has a negative correlation with self-acceptance (r = -0.39, p<0.01). In fact, impression management and self-presentation are commonly used when one has acceptance intention62-63. In short, even though counterfeit self is measured only using self-alienation scale without quantifying the ingratiation motive, the scale could indicate the existence of the motive. Complementing the measure, qualitatively, manipulation check of counterfeit self could be acquired by asking whether those who exhibited counterfeit behavior narrate that they were not being themselves. It should be that they who experience alienation from their true self (e.g., "keeping up with the Jones" to get a high position, pretend to like a job, wearing disliked clothes to appreciate the person who gave, to bear with a conversation because of the worry about being excluded, exhibit the quality of being "easy-going /boisterous" to make many friends when they are actually quiet) will bring to certain negative emotional experience like sad, afraid, angry, less comfortable, annoyed, confused and ashamed. This proposition is based on Gino et al.53 study stated that inauthenticity leads people to experience negative moral emotion like shyness. On the other hand, those who did not exhibit counterfeit behavior might narrate that they became themselves, e.g., stated the truth about themselves to others, narrated something without fear of having to bear consequences, said anything without feeling uncomfortable, had the freedom to defend their opinion without feeling bad. The exhibited emotions might be positive emotions such as pleased, calm, good, happy and confident. Note that negative emotions could also present, mixed with positive emotions. The mixed emotions are common because becoming the true-self often results in depressing social rewards. However, authentic individuals manage to deal with the negative emotions. Parents can use the findings of this review to be aware of the importance of unconditional positive regard for children so that they do not grow up with inauthentic/counterfeit tendency64. 6 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 IMPLICIT SELF-THEORY Classical discussion on social perception shows that every person holds the implicit theory of self and others that influence one's attitude and behavior65. This belief is invisibly at work in understanding and processing social information, influencing social attribution process and providing conclusion and prediction about a social event. The word "implicit" in the implicit theory of self shows that the belief one holds is related to a complex meaning system that is not always be realized66. There are two kinds of self-theory (how one views his/her personality), i.e., entity and incremental theories. According to Dweck67, both theories will determine the types of information one seeks, the attention direction and the way to conclude something (attribution) based on the limited data. In non-moral aspect of life like intelligence, it is known that people with entity theory tend to pay more attention to performance. Therefore, an experience of academic failure will bring the people to self-handicapping behavior making them prone to behave negatively towards feedback, defensive, disengage from academic activities, experience helplessness, skip classes and have low aspiration and achievement. Meanwhile, incremental theory one holds predicts the pursuit of mastery and the choosing of challenging tasks that are predicted to increase their skill and ability even though they may experience short confusion or failure, they tend to be persistent, resilient and involved more in various tasks focusing on learning66. Entity theorists use stable, dispositional or characterological individual trait information to judge others and tend to ignore situational information. It is also known as "correspondence bias"68,69. Those people believe that the "status" of one's trait and his/her demonstrated behavior have a strong correlation68,69. On the other hand, incremental theorists form attribution by using less dispositional information and do not rely on stereotypes. The people appreciate situational process and condition as factors that shape the behavior one exhibits67-69. In the field of morality, Chiu et al.70 investigated the influence of implicit theories (self theories/lay theories). The first claim of their article stated that every moral belief bears in it an implicit theory of moral behavior resources about the individuals and their social world. Chiu et al.70, through five studies, found out that people who embrace entity theory (fixed mindset) will focus on obligations, i.e., duty-based moral belief, such as the obligation to fulfill the role. The followers of this theory are always "haunted" by a question of "is my behavior already in line with the permanent moral order in the world?" People with entity self-theory view fixedness of moral order, whereas people with an incremental self-theory view the malleability. The study of self-theory assumes humans as "dynamic creatures who are highly sensitive to cues in their environment and who are capable of change and growth"71. Carol Dweck's self-theory is a motivational model that includes "distinct goals, learning opportunities, degree of effort, reaction to failure and performance" that are proven to influence one's behavior intention72. It is very appropriate to set self-theory as a corruption predictor because it describes that every person melts intention and opportunity elements (two elements often generally conceptualized as two main factors of corruption73) in a "theory" of viewing the world. The answer to the questions, "will people use or create a chance to do corruption?" and "is corruption intended?" are rooted in the self-theory. People who embrace entity theory will manage their behavior to maintain status quo or moral prescription that is assumed as static, determined, such as laws, norms, ethical codes and stable moral obligations in society. The behavior that is not in line with the norms will be punished. If the actor is him/herself, he/she will do self-punishment or self-sanction. The steps to deal with negative emotion resulted from the punishment are quickly secured. The problem is, the failure is not further thought and interpreted, but only be repressed. The entity theorists do not object to sacrifice their freedom and rights as long as moral rules are enforced. Good behavior, which is in accordance with the rules, is seen as a "normal" thing that it would not invite appreciation or praise, especially in an exaggerating way70. In the context of intelligence, entity theorists focus more on the effort to document and demonstrate the ability they possess through performance in self-validation framework; e.g., they study not merely to gain and master new knowledge74. Dweck and Grant74 stated clearly the differences of the two theories in dealing with difficult tasks, "for entity theorists, the continued difficulty of the task was a source of distress, whereas, for incremental theorists, the progress was a source of growing confidence and of enjoyment". This is related to morality because in dealing with a moral dilemma, people experience the dilemma as an "easy" or "difficult" matter to solve, people invest effort in reasoning, judging and achieving a moral decision75,76. Incremental theorists will put forward behavior plasticity, historical behavioral changes and learning experience in social life. They believe that every person has the right to develop his/her self-potential toward self-fulfillment. Those with higher incremental theory (lower entity theory) believe that they can 7 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 change and grow, that they will not avoid morally worrying situations. They even approach it and persistently face the challenge of morality but at the same time are more willing to fix the mistakes77. It is not surprising that their morality is individually developed, not only following the intention of the social. Incremental theorists (with growth mindset) will focus on rights (right-based moral belief; such as the right to have an equal chance), in a way that the rights are contextualized in moral principles70. Incremental theorists believe that the world can be shaped so that they are always looking for-not depending themselves on the stabilities of-principles to manage the world to be a better place to live in. Moral orders prevailing in the society are not absolute or static, but dynamic. Because they make moral orders relative, moral obligation is not the "commander". The "commander" is respect for human rights that must always be fought for. If incremental theorists face or do unethical behavior (such as counterfeit behavior), they will implement negotiation (including self-negotiation) so that their moral self-concept does not immediately drop70. This is supported by Miller et al.65 study showed that incremental theorists tend to conduct external attribution, which is viewing a situation as a chance to learn. If one feels that he/she fails in demonstrating moral behavior, for example, because he/she conducts counterfeit behavior, the failure is regarded as challenge and motivation. In other words, they apply moral balancing to increase their moral self-concept and not to give up in conducting internal attribution "I am miserable, my moral quality is bad". They treat the failure of demonstrating ethical behavior as a measurement of to what extend their moral is developed, not to lament but to plan focus and effort to further develop78. On the other hand, if they are successful in demonstrating moral behavior, they may be more relaxed and let him/herself experiments with ambiguous moral restriction and see if there is a challenge of a chance to learn from the experience. The point is they focus on the process that considers various psychological processes (such as need, goal, emotional condition and etc.; not one's personality character) and situation, not result. People with entity theory only focus on the positive quality of moral role models but pay less attention to the fact that moral failure or violation may contribute to their moral development79. These people believe that few people possess moral perfection and bear stable, unchangeable moral traits. Meanwhile, people with incremental theory believe that the failure experienced by moral role models inspires moral development because the failure can be seen as a means of learning and growth. They also believe that "moral exemplar" does not belong only to the perfect moral model but also an imperfect moral model. People with entity theory tend to place themselves as the assessor and judge of the law (act more negatively towards moral transgression), whereas, people with incremental theory tend to emphasize the significance of education, training and social intervention (act more positively toward moral violation situation). Learning about different affective and cognitive reactions toward moral violations among entity and incremental theorists, it can be assumed that negative emotion is significantly found among entity theorists. Will having a negative affect on a moral violation encourages betterment in behavior? Miller et al.65 previously mentioned about the activated anger in entity theorists when they do moral violation. Entity theorists possess higher negative moral emotion (disgust, anger, negative criticism, insult) after they do moral violation. Miller et al.65 argued that negative affect reaction occurs because entity theorists (compared to incremental theorists) assume that moral violation is always deeply intentional when it was done by the actor. It means that immoral behavior is rooted in the actor's personality, in line with correspondence bias. For entity theorists, the cue of the situation is not sought80. The negative affect occurs intuitively and becomes heuristics that is quickly applied into a situation based on social intuitionist model of Haidt81 in a way that the negative affect "acts" as an affect82-83 that reflects "retributive" intention towards moral transgression. Entity and incremental theories are identified as "theories" because they are different from what is known as self "concept". Thomas and Sarnecka84 explained, "they are rich, structured modes of reasoning deserving of the word 'theory'"84. This self-theory determines relationship network between self-concept and antecedents along with the consequences78. As an example, the failure someone experiences, academic or moral failure, influences how one views the fact about him/herself (self-concept) and attitude/judgment on the view (self-esteem). Both entity and incremental theories can experience negative self-concept and low self-esteem because of failure. Nevertheless, the thing that sharply differentiates the two theories is how to conceptualize antecedent (attribution; explaining why failure takes place) and restore the self-concept and self-esteem (whether one uses upward or downward social comparison, for example) to maintain positive self-concept. "Theory" in this case is a coherent ideational networks used by lay people (lay theories) defining one's life attributes such as intelligence, personality, as relatively static or dynamic. People who view that the attributes are static (entity theory) will engage in downward social comparison (to create comfort by comparing 8 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 him/herself to those whose test scores are lower or those with more moral violations); whereas the ones who view that the attributes are dynamic (incremental theory) will engage in upward social comparison (challenge oneself to learn from those with higher test scores or those with less moral violation). It is obvious that entity vs. incremental "theoretical system" can predict one's behavioral pattern, including corruption. This review recommends focusing on entity self-theory (ES) for predicting corruption behavior among Indonesians. There are three reasons. The first reason, the theories are exist in a unidimensional construct70,85. It means that entity and incremental self-theory is on a continuum, if one's self-theory (e.g., entity) is low, the other theory (i.e., incremental) is high. Therefore, the measurement needs to be focused on one of the self theories. This position is supported by the empirical findings of Thomas and Sarnecka84 stated that entity and incremental self-theory are not categorical variables. Psychometrically, they found out that the response to the self-theory psychological scales forms a normal distribution that they concluded, "We found a continuum of beliefs... Our data do not suggest that they are distinct"84. More or less people are in particular position between entity and incremental self theories. The second reason, ES should be prioritized because Indonesian is known as a religious society and at the same time religious prejudice and discrimination are widespread. Meanwhile, it is known that religious prejudice is closely related to fixed mindset or entity self-theory86. Therefore, it is interesting to see how entity theory level (high vs. low) predicts corruption behavior. The third reason, Chiu et al.70 found that compared to American society, Asian society (including Indonesia) embrace entity self-theory because Asian society is oriented to responsibility (duty-based morality) and behave punitively towards transgressions. American society is oriented more to rights (in correlation with incremental self-theory) and behave negotiatively towards moral violations. However, Wong-On-Wing and Lui87 found the contrary facts that (1) Moral belief of the followers of entity theory tends to be among Americans (as the representative of Westerners) and (2) Moral belief of the followers of incremental theory tend to be among Chinese (as the representative of Easterners). It indicates a complexity that the difference of self-theories reflects also the difference within a culture, not only the difference between cultures. In measuring self-theory, it is possible to include altogether measurement of individual's implicit theory of others, places, things and the world in general. It is known as "generalization of the model beyond the self"88. The basic assumption is that the belief in oneself is closely related to belief in the world. For example, if one believes that changeability and controllability of oneself are high, it also applies to what one's belief in changeability and controllability of the world. A "theoretical system" is also at work in this matter. As an example, those who embrace entity theory will tend to monitor, measure and judge various things, whereas, those who embrace incremental theory will tend to work on and develop the things. It should also be noticed that entity theorists could be beset by overconfidence bias. They do not need accurate information input to learn effectively. They judge information that was not in line with the belief in positive moral characteristics as interfering and troublesome that they tended to avoid negative and corrective feedback on their morality. Entity theorists are less tolerant of moral behavior deviation based on the existing social system70. Therefore, it can be assumed that (1) The interaction between high entity theory and high counterfeit behavior should result in corruption behavior (helplessness phenomenon) and (2) The interaction between low entity theory and high counterfeit behavior should result in less corruption behavior because the self does not provide punishment but a chance to change. Nevertheless, there might also be another dynamic of entity theorist. Dweck89 opened a possibility by stating, "fixed mindset (entity theory) gives self-esteem formula and a way to love and respect from others. The mindset presents to offer a simple and direct way to an appreciation and live..... (but) you may say that your effort to be better has failed. And you can still take growth mindset (incremental theory) step. You will feel miserable and keep looking for information that will help you to self betterment." This perspective might present a challenge for assumption that an entity theory renders the individuals vulnerable to maladaptive reactions in the face of failure, that there is still the "third possibility" besides "entity theory" and "incremental theory", that is the believe that the self holds entity theory, but taking incremental behavioral steps. Related to this fruitful possibility, Church90 and Church et al.91 found that implicit theories prevail stronger in individualistic than collectivistic culture provided that "trait and contextual beliefs are not bipolar opposites. Rather, people can be implicit interaction theorists, believing in varying degrees in both the traitedness and contextuality of behavior"91. 9 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 ETHICAL MINDSET One's ways to deal with moral dilemma depends on his/her ethical mindset92, whether it is rule-based mindset (deontological thinking)-which measures the goodness of moral behavior based on moral principles/rules or outcome-based mindset (consequentialist thinking) which measures the goodness of moral behavior based on the benefits for as many people as possible (rules can be made relative). Ethical/moral mindset is defined as "the filter of personal beliefs and values deriving from the individual's inner self through which appreciation of, reflection about and actions on situations that develop"93. The definition is in accordance with ethical mindset definition used by Cornelissen et al.94, "past work has demonstrated that this distinction (consequentialism/outcome-based mindset vs. deontology/rule-based mindset) is not exclusively philosophical but that individuals consider it meaningful when reflecting on their behavior, are flexible in the use of either type of moral arguments"94 Ethical mindset is one of the mindsets besides other mindsets such as analytic mindset, collaborative mindset and action mindset93. The strength of outcome-based ethical mindset is its support for cognitive efficiency and society's welfare, the strength of rule-based ethical mindset is its encouragement for perspective taking and religiosity95. Ethical mindset bridges reflection and action. Reflection without action is passivity and action without reflection is thoughtlessness93. Ethical mindset is a relevant predictor of moral disengagement or corruption behavior because it fully describes the tendency of action and reflection unity (i.e. readiness to look and act) that influences one's ethical behavior. Ethical mindset is derived from personal moral philosophy94 and is not rooted in particular religious belief, therefore, it can apply to people with any religions or beliefs. The synonym of mindset is mental set96. Operationally, ethical mindset or moral thinking is defined as one's way to deal with a moral dilemma he/she faces92. Using construal level theory (CLT) explanation framework, Mullen and Monin97 showed that rule-based mindset (deontology) is related to high CLT (abstract moral behavior representation), whereas, outcome-based mindset (consequentialism or utilitarianism) is closely related to low CLT (concrete moral behavior representation). Mental construal characteristics with high CLT are (1) A-contextual, it means that it does not consider a specific situation one faces, (2) Focusing on permanent and cross-situational moral behavior and (3) Answering the question on "why?" (principle). Construal mental characteristics with low CLT are (1) Contextual, specific, time-bound, (2) Focusing on temporary moral behavior attribute and (3) Answering the question on "how?" (strategy). People may ask whether the rule considered by rule-based mindset (deontology) followers is the same or similar with duty considered by the followers of entity theory of self. It seems that there are differences. When Cornelissen et al.94 stated that, "Of special interest is the case in which individuals are consistently unethical. In the current studies, we showed that a rule-based mind-set can lead to a consistent pattern of unethical behavior, in which violating a rule becomes the norm," what is referred to as the rule in rule-based mindset is a matter that is personally perceived by individuals as rules or norms and it can change according to the preceding events (in the case stated by Cornelissen et al.94 the past unethical act could become the rule). It means that when past experience is an ethical act, what serves as the rule is the prevailing norm or law in the society. Meanwhile, the duty referred by Chiu et al.70 is always "existing moral order" that is formed by social institutional and social world in general. However, deontology that serves as the base of rule-based mindset has several weaknesses. They are (1) It has no clear values guaranteed by each rule, this perspective cannot explain why a rule must be obeyed, what is the goodness or the badness, as well as what important is that the principle/rule is blindly obeyed and (2) It does not care about the consequence of an action as a result of obeying the rule/principle and this eliminates one's obligation to be responsible for his/her action30. This review recommends outcome-based ethical mindset (OM) as a predictor of corruption behavior because Indonesian society is known as a collectivist society, whereas, utilitarianism (which is the philosophical root of OM) is the foundation of collectivism98. Based on CLT characteristics (high vs. low), people with the rule-based mindset (associated with high CLT) view their moral behavior from time to time as the reflection or derivation of their global, coherent personality or identity and overarching behavior in various long-term situations97. Therefore, it is logical to assume that rule-based mindset can predict moral consistency, i.e., doing corruption after doing a counterfeit behavior. In this case, psychological consonance is maintained94. Abstraction leads to moral consistency because it focuses on superordinate goals making a person monitors whether his/her behavior closer to his/her moral values or principles. If one embraces rule-based ethical mindset, they will think that counterfeit behavior and counterfeit self are parts of their moral principles that they will always hold the principles by manifesting immoral behavior (corruption). 10 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 In contrast, people with the outcome-based mindset (associated with low CLT) view their moral behavior from time to time as ways or means to achieve moral self-image. In this case, moral self-image is preserved. The ways or means can change (such as turned, deviated and etc.) from time to time. Therefore, it is logical to assume that outcome-based mindset can predict moral balancing, i.e., less doing corruption after doing a counterfeit behavior. Concretization leads to moral balancing because, in practice, people can see the constraints of their moral behavior clearer. If a person experiences moral deprivation due to a counterfeit behavior and he/she exercises consequentialism thinking, he/she will use the strategic means to return to be a morally acceptable person by not being corrupt. In the medical field, Sade99 discussed the reason why focusing on outcome-based mindset (consequentialism) by prioritizing beneficence ethical principles, "always act to the greatest benefit of your patient's health"100 without considering autonomy ethical principle has its own problem. Sade responded to Tavaglione and Hurst100, who justified the act of "lying for the goodness of patients". Tavaglione and Hurst100 gave an example of an ethical dilemma situation. A patient, X, is diagnosed by a doctor that he/she needs treatment Y. No experienced doctor will be able to deny the fact. Patient X also completely agrees to be given Y treatment. However, based on the insurance system X has, it is impossible to fund Y treatment based on the current diagnosis. Patient X can receive Y treatment if the doctor does what is known as gaming the healthcare system by giving a false diagnosis or change the diagnosis or in short: Lie to an institution. Tavaglione and Hurst100 argued that gaming the system can be justified by a number of arguments. The first argument, the medical world bears internal morality, which is a hippocratic argument, stating that patient's interest to be cured or to fight against his/her illness must be prioritized. Therefore, based on this argument, this system can be "corrupted", "breached" in order to reinforce the inherent internal morality in the medical world. The second argument, people live in the world with a not so ideal social structure that it is not appropriate to exercise ideal theory. The possible implication is, "we are thus interested in agents eager to act as well as possible in circumstances that are not as good as possible"100. In this context, lying to save the patient and/or other similar actions on behalf of "making a better world", can be justified. If the doctor does not tell a lie, the doctor can be accused of conducting self-defeating because he/she desires an ideal world but he/she hinders the realization of idealization's outcome (which can only be achieved by lying). In addition, in the context of the world's situation where "a just rule" is not guaranteed, distributive principle and contractual justice justified by rule-based mindset (deontological thinking) cannot be taken care of. The third argument, moral intuitionist reasoning will defense the stance that there is no absolute rule that prevails in any situation forever, including the rule to tell the truth or not to tell a lie. Based on this argument, the rationality of humanity (for example, "must be honest") is not the goal, but a means to achieve the goal of humanity. In the context of doctor-patient-insurance above, the act of lying may promote humanity. It is obvious that the arguments proposed by Tavaglione and Hurst100 are based on relativization of moral rules by exercising outcome-based mindset to advocate perceived positive consequence/outcome. Nevertheless, Sade99 criticized Tavaglione and Hurst100 by stating that doctors who accept Tavaglione and Hurst100 suggestion are indeed practicing self-deception. Even though he/she relies on "internal morality", the doctor must realize that they get the personal financial benefit when they give treatment Y to his/her patient. Self-deception brings about a consequence, the doctors experience moral erosion, a moral disengagement phenomenon, especially when habituation takes place; the doctors could repeatedly tell lies to the insurance company on behalf of humanity or medical morality. It should be remembered that this self-deception also takes place in one's experience with counterfeit self. Another explanation why outcome-based ethical mindset would predict corruption behavior in a positive direction is because antecedent event and psychological mechanism (both physiologically and interpersonally) underlying risky acts (e.g., mocking, insulting, violating the law, act aggressively and etc.) in uncertain situations are similar to consequentialist/utilitarianist position in moral dilemma, both produce negative affect101. The antecedents referred to are (1) Neurocognitive antecedent in the form of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) brain lesion and psychopathology, (2) Neurochemical antecedent in the form of serotonin activity, (3) Hormonal antecedent in the form of testosterone increase, (4) Intrapsychic antecedent in the form of positive effect and (5) Interpersonal antecedent in the form of power and social connection. These all antecedents have been proven to increase both risk taking and outcome-based mindset as well as regulate negative affect after both take place. Meanwhile, corruption is an example of risky acts. The similarity of the two (risky and outcome-based acts) is that there is a cognitive process saying that the person is able to deal with and manage negative affective process resulted from a decision making in uncertainty or utilitarian/consequentialist moral choice. 11 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 When people reject deontological/rule-based principle (the opposite of consequentialism/utilitarianism/outcomebased ethical mindset), the individual has actually been in a "moral uncertainty" situation because he/she experiences disconnection from moral principles, values and intuition. The premise proposed by Lucas and Galinsky101 was that, in everyday reality, utilitarian act requirements are not easily fulfilled. They further stated, "limited time, money and resources mean that maximizing utility for some involves trading off the utility of others. People often deviate from utility maximization in favor of alternatives that align with their moral intuitions and values"101. This explanation emphasizes that people may have difficulties in separating outcome-based ethical mindset (utilitarianism) from rule-based ethical mindset (deontology) in psychological, moral intuition level. In this way, consequentialist/utilitarian acts are actually in psychological tensions, "grey" area. Benefits maximization cannot be guaranteed in the midst of the limitations. In this situation, if negative affect regulation is ongoing, consequentialists are ready to take risks that lead them to moral disengagement and corruption behavior. Applying developmental psychology perspective, it needs to be noticed that the ethical position of university students with outcome-based ethical mindset is predicted to be more stable than highs school students' with the same mindset. High school students were more prone to make one option as a replacement of other options (i.e., choosing outcome-based ethical mindset because they do not like rules) and regarded consequentialism as a challenging choice (in a favorable way) because teenagers tend to favor risky behavior and rule violation as well as high self-orientation. It is in accordance with socioemotional system development in the brain during puberty period that seeks for "reward" especially in front of their peers and it will decrease when they are entering early adolescent period due to cognitive control system development102. This reality shows more unstable ethical attitudes in high school students103. This becomes truer in the educational system of high schools in Indonesia that does not emphasize the use of debate or disputation methods. Meanwhile, higher education, with its particular philosophy classes, helps students explore and confirm their ethical positions. Therefore, it should be expected that the choosing of outcome-based ethical mindset by university students would reflect more their actual positions, not a displacement phenomenon as might be found among high school students. It should also be noted that consequentialism (outcome-based ethical mindset) and egoism's features intersect in terms of using calculation logic. Kahane et al.104 reminded that there is the possibility of a gap between utilitarianists/consequentialists in philosophical and lay-psychological level. For example, outcome-based ethical mindset philosophical characteristics of "no-nonsense, tough-headed and unsentimental approach to morality"104 in psychological level are not in line with moral intuition and even develops skepticism towards morality. On the contrary, lay people who impartially concern with public interests will not easily let go deontological principles. In other words, they also experience internal tension. Furthermore, Garofalo et al.7 argued that variance in moral practices and ethical theories can actually be reduced to a particular underlying aspect. For example, deontology (rule-based ethical mindset) and consequentialism (outcome-based ethical mindset) overlap somewhat in ethical principles. However, in consequentialism, principle upholds the greatest happiness for the greatest number. In contrast, deontology-although it is not based on the good or bad judgment of an action's consequences-implicitly recognizes the ultimate goal's existence7. Furthermore, according to Garofalo et al.7, convergence between consequentialism and deontology lies not in intuitionism because intuitions "like tastes, provide little basis for argumentation," but rather in character theory or virtue ethics that "guarantee" ethics' universalism. It is worth providing a concrete example of convergence that has implications for ethical judgments on corruption. However, virtue ethics, deontology and consequentialism/utilitarianism can be reduced again to an aspect of the "hypothetical imperatives" system105, which produces social contract theory, capable of covering all of these. The coverage is evident in the conceptual relationship: "If you want the outcome, then you ought to do what will produce it. Which in this case means the virtues of character that will more reliably cause in you the behaviors that will generate that most desired outcome"105. PAST BEHAVIOR Rusch106 study of corruption cases in some countries showed that an individual's devoirs to past behavior are in line with "foot-in-the-door" phenomenon that is explained in social psychology. That is, one's commitment to small scale behavior will encourage consistency until the person is able to do the similar behavior in a bigger scale. In this case, a mental heuristic is served as one's benchmark to continue similar ethical or unethical behavior in the future. It will be dangerous if past unethical behavior is automatically "rationalized" (e.g., being a counterfeit self) as one of cognitive dissonance reduction ways, making it appears in line with positive moral self-concept, especially when the unethical behavior is ambiguous55, an example is bringing home office's stationery. In this case, the absence of feedback107 leads to future 12 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 unethical behaviors, but, it is unique that self-concept of the actor is still the ethical one (he/she thinks that he is morally acceptable). In everyday life, people meet two general phenomena of the consistency of one's moral behavior. Those who never cease to do good deeds or continuously do bad things have demonstrated moral consistency. However, there are people who, in daily life, are known as virtuous people, transform into actors of corruption, murderers, representing moral licensing phenomenon, i.e., doing unethical after doing ethical things. The other way around, a cheater or plagiarist who demonstrates repentance ("to turn, return to the right path") and other prosocial behaviors (such as donating to orphans), representing moral balancing phenomenon, i.e., doing ethical after doing unethical things. In relation to this, Zimbardo (as cited in Dittmann108) stated, "'That line between good and evil is permeable,' Zimbardo said, 'Any of us can move across it.... all have the capacity for love and evil-to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein. It's the situation that brings that out'"108. There are some "individual's situations" that are going to be identified and determined as the variables moderating past/prior behavior in predicting future moral behavior. Blanken et al.109 identified five moderators: "(1) The type of moral licensing induction (traits vs. actions), (2) The behavior measured in the dependent variable (actual vs. hypothetical) and (3) The domain in which the behaviors take place (same vs. different) as well as (4) Article status (published vs. unpublished) and (5) Control condition (neutral vs. negative)"109. Variables number (1), (2) and (3) are categorized as theoretical moderators, whereas, the other two are methodological moderators. As an example, the hypothesis proposed by Blanken et al.109 stated that (1) the act of remembering our own moral behaviors leads to moral licensing; on the contrary, remembering our own moral principles/characteristics leads to moral consistency, (2) demonstrating unethical behaviors leads to higher moral licensing on the same or similar field behavior. The reason is that remembering behavior/action make one feels that he/she has made some progress on his/her morality (closer to moral goal) that it will be easier for him/her to relax or even release his/her moral ambition (because it is "a little bit more"). On the contrary, remembering a moral characteristics/principles makes one activates his/her general moral identity that facilitates him/her to behave according to moral norms. "Mental accounting" argument can be used to see the above phenomena clearer. The analogy is if one unexpectedly receives some amount of money from a particular field (such as, plane passengers receive financial compensation from the airline due to delayed flight), then it will be easier for the individual to spend the money for the same field (for example, use the money to buy more luxurious dinner in the flight). It is not surprising because it is easier for behaviors to build "network" in a near or similar field. Nevertheless, 91 researches involving 7397 participants did not find the significance of moderation effect of variables number (1), (2), (3) and (5)110. Their findings only confirmed moderation effect of publication bias in moral licensing researches. It means that moral licensing effect is bigger in published articles. Mullen and Monin97 did not conduct empirical research like Blanken et al.109, but they conducted a systematic review. Based on the review, they offer five perspectives that moderate sequential moral behavior, i.e., (1) Construal level (abstract vs. concrete), (2) Progress versus commitment, (3) Identification, (4) Value reflection indicated by the initial behavior and (5) Ambiguity of initial and target behavior. Mullen and Monin97 claimed that moderator variables based on the five overarching variables could be produced and the mechanism of moral behavior consistency can be discovered. MORAL EMOTION Pizarro110 suggested that the court system is mistaken when it assumes that the jury (or judge, in the Indonesian context) believes that emotions have no role in decision-making. This bias was inspired by a Kantian philosophical view that emotions should be avoided or ignored because (1) They can contaminate a person's moral thinking or moral reasoning, (2) Emotions prevent a person from impartiality, an attribute required by the justice system because emotions include features of distortive favoritism, (3) Emotions are vulnerable to be influenced by any situation (e.g., light, smell, physical appearance, event) and (4) Emotions are anti-intellectual, irrational and involuntary, they result in a person deciding not on the basis of free will or authentic choice110. However, moral theorists often forget that existence of moral principles and reasoning (vis-à-vis moral emotion) does not automatically imply the application or actualization of the principles when a concrete situation needs or requires them110. On the contrary, moral emotion-interacting with moral reasoning-recognizes and tells how and when a concrete moral situation must be handled by a moral agent. In this case, moral emotion produces higher-order moral judgment. Moral emotion and moral reasons can be mutually inclusive or complementary in giving feedback. This fact overcomes objections about the significance of the "bad" role of moral emotion in moral judgment. Apparently, the real significance-at least based on current emotional theories-is good/positive. 13 Asian J. Sci. Res., 2018 According to Blair and Fowler111, moral emotion is related to the interests and welfare of whole society including an individual. Moral emotion emerges as a response to a moral violation or as a motivation for someone to conduct moral behaviors112. This emotion is a response to all forms of social change, threat or opportunity that can affect a person's selfhood112. When moral standards are violated, moral emotions or self-conscious emotions respond with the emergence of feelings that serve as moral barometers, such as guilt and shame76. The emergence of guilt and shame can occur in two conditions that arise as reactions to anticipation and to consequences76. When a person intends to act in a way that deviates from a moral standard, he/she can preliminarily evaluate the act's consequences leading to the raise of anticipatory guilt or shame76. In contrast, if a person simply acts without any preliminary judgment, then the appearance of guilt or shame functions as a consequence. In the case of anticipatory guilt or shame, what matters is the person's proneness to guilt or shame. In the consequential case, if the person does not anticipate at all, or does anticipate but neglects the feeling and does not perceive any impact, the person is said less prone to guilt or shame and so does not restrain norm-violating behavior. The "proneness" construct describes (1) The degree of a person's moral internalization, which affects, (2) Anticipation of moral emotion for future moral transgression, which in turn affects (3) The predictability of unethical behavior. The significant contribution of this moral emotion approach is that the burden on structural approaches to corruption prevention can be reduced since this approach believes that "public surveillance is not required to prevent moral transgressions; instead, (people's) conscience guides them"113. Louie114 explained further differences in functional roles between shame and guilt in society's everyday reality: "In shame-based cultures, public humiliation, scorn or censure are relied upon more heavily to keep individuals in obedience whereas, the Western notion of guilt and corrective behaviors comes from an individual's development of an internal conscience.... A traditional Westerner may experience shame as a result of something they did, whereas, Asians entrenched in a shame-bound system or culture will experience shame not only individually but also collectively when someone has done something dishonorable"114. Proneness to guilt and shame115 cannot stand alone in initiating or preventing corrupt behavior, but such proneness does affect judgment (1) About the harm and benefits of corruption (which affect judgment about corruption's effects on justice), (2) About corruption's acceptability from a cultural point of view and (3) About the tolerableness of moral transgression as a retributive instrument against "psychological contract" violations. Integrating the moral emotion and moral reasoning (compare also: Abraham and Pradipto116 for Indonesian representation on "corruption") perspectives, from the perspective knowledge management, people can even learn from the prisoners117 about the proposed variables in this review and, accordingly, build anti-corruption e-learning sites16 that supports corruption prevention. CONCLUSION This review found a hypothetical model of the corruption psychology of which the novelties are (1) Its coverage of the ethical psychology, social context, time perspective and the dynamics of moral behavioral change and (2) its antecedent attempt to have dialogues with cultural arguments. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This present review discovered a conjectural-theoretical model that is useful for explaining and predicting corruption behavior. This model is beneficial in supporting corruption prevention programs held by Corruption Eradication Commission and its stakeholders. For example, the model could be applied in designing instructional courses (in the school context), training curriculums (in the office context) and social intervention strategies (in the community context) to raise awareness about personal and social dynamics that influence the tendency of corruption. Another benefit is that judicial decision makers on corruption cases could optimize this model by integrating psychological viewpoints concerning counterfeit self, moral emotion, ethical mindset, self-theory, past behavior and moral disengagement in achieving law enforcement approaching the sense of community justice. This study will help future researchers to uncover the very soft sides of corruption behavior by testing the model, wholly or partially, using correlational and/or (quasi-)experimental as well as cross-sectional and/or longitudinal methodologies. Further studies could also integrate literacy perspectives on corruption at the local, provincial and national levels. 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Blair, J. and K. Fowler, 2008. Moral emotions and moral reasoning from the perspective of affective cognitive neuroscience: A selective review. Int. J. Dev. Sci., 2: 303-323. 112. Haidt, J., 2003. The Moral Emotions. In: Handbook of Affective Sciences (Series in Affective Science), Davidson, R.J., K.R. Scherer and H.H. Goldsmith (Eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK., ISBN-13: 9780195126013, pp: 852-870. 113. Cohen, T.R., A.T. Panter and N. Turan, 2012. Guilt proneness and moral character. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci., 21: 355-359. 114. Louie, S., 2014. Asian shame and honor: A cultural conundrum and case study. blog/minority-report/201406/asian-shame-and-honor 115. Abraham, J., M.Y. Sari, A. Azizah and W. Ispurwanto, 2017. Guilt and shame proneness: The role of work meaning and perceived unethicality of no harm no foul behavior among private sector employees. J. Psychol. Educ. Res., 25: 90-114. 116. Abraham, J. and Y.D. Pradipto, 2016. Corruption: Its Representations and Psychology in Indonesia. In: Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences 2016: Proceedings of the Asian Conference, Picken, S.D.B. (Ed.). The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, pp: 357-369. 117. Abraham, J. and R. Adiratna, 2014. Learned Helplessness of Prisoners: Psychology and Knowledge Management Perspective. In: Knowledge Management: Proceedings of the 15th European Conference, Vivas, C. and P. Sequeira (Eds.)., Vol. 1, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, Wood Lane, Sonning Common, UK., ISBN-13: 9781910309346, pp: 1-7.
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{ "creator": "Abraham, Juneman", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1562667333000, "description": "This present study aims at exploring the meaning of the building of Santa Maria de Fatima Catholic Church (abbreviated as: SMFCC) or Toasebio Parish located in District Glodok, Jakarta, Indonesia. The author exposes in advance the meaning of the physical elements of the building SMFCC as understood by history writers and building experts. These meanings are not inseparable from the elements of human activities in the building. Through qualitative methods and literature review, the author describes in the Results section, how those meanings can be further interpreted through the existing studies and expressions of the SMFCC Parish Head. It is found that these meanings are contested − from the direction of religious faith and of culture − but complete our understandings of the church which is well-known as an Indonesian cultural heritage and dominated by Chinese and pastors from Europe.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABRTAN", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "‘There are No Such Great Philosophies’: Contested Meanings of Toasebio Parish in Jakarta", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
'THERE ARE NO SUCH GREAT PHILOSOPHIES' CONTESTED MEANINGS OF TOASEBIO PARISH IN JAKARTA Juneman Abraham1 1 Bina Nusantara University, Psychology Department, Jakarta, Indonesia, ABSTRACT This present study aims at exploring the meaning of the building of Santa Maria de Fatima Catholic Church (abbreviated as: SMFCC) or Toasebio Parish located in District Glodok, Jakarta, Indonesia. The author exposes in advance the meaning of the physical elements of the building SMFCC as understood by history writers and building experts. These meanings are not inseparable from the elements of human activities in the building. Through qualitative methods and literature review, the author describes in the Results section, how those meanings can be further interpreted through the existing studies and expressions of the SMFCC Parish Head. It is found that these meanings are contested − from the direction of religious faith and of culture − but complete our understandings of the church which is well-known as an Indonesian cultural heritage and dominated by Chinese and pastors from Europe. Keywords: meaning, church, cultural heritage, Jakarta INTRODUCTION A church building that becomes a melting pot of various cultures must have great potential as a place of meaning contestation. This is because culture and religion contain systems of meaning and even mutually pervasive; in other words: culture is religious, and religion is cultural [1]. Morgan elaborated further, as follows: "Whereas culture and religion are convergent expressions of meaning, anthropology and theology must be understood to be disciplines addressed to the systematics of meaning, and, ..., the analysis of meaning will inevitably involve an analysis of the symbol as meaning bearer" [1, p. 371]. The present study has the same spirit as Morgan's proposition, and aims to illustrate the meanings contained in the Santa Maria de Fatima Catholic Church (SMFCC), located in Jakarta, Indonesia capital city. In the handbook of Church History of Saint Maria de Fatima, the origins of SMFCC are presented [Toasebio, Sejarah singkat Gereja Saint Maria de Fatima, (n.d.)]. We mention [erratum: It is mentioned] that the original building SMFCC already existed since the early 19th century in the form of a house with Chinese architecture. Attributes that characterize this house were: First, luxury and grandeur, nobility, characterized by male and female lion statues on the right and left in front of the building. That said, originally in its vast yard there was also a sapodilla tree and a high-floor joglo pavilion and the land was surrounded by a high walled wall [2]. Second, on the roof, peaks look sticking out. Third, on the edge of the roof, there is a combination of red yellow-gold and green-leaves with flower ornaments and fruits (symbols of peace and prosperity) and writing in Chinese characters. Fourth, on the edge of the roof of the main building there were four Chinese writings, namely 'Hok Shau Kang Ning' (front side) which means 'house or place of peace', 'Hok Chia Phin An' (back side) meaning 'one family would be safe and wealthy', 'Nan An Shien' (the left side) which is thought to be one of the areas in China from the homeowner's family, as well as 'Chuan Chau Fu' (right-hand side) hypothesized as the surname of the owner. The building element that makes it function as a church is a large cross on the roof of the main building, an 'Gereja Katolik Santa Maria de Fatima' inscription mounted above the main door of the church, the bell tower standing on the right side of the front of the church, and the Maria de Fatima Hill on the left front of the church. The altar of this church comes from the place of family prayer. In 1972 the Church of Santa Maria de Fatima was officially recognized and protected by the Law as National Cultural Heritage, and on 29 March 1993, it was officially declared as a Jakarta Provincial Heritage Building with the Decree of the Governor of Jakarta PRE-PRINT VERSION 2 no. 457/1993 (Komsos Paroki Toasebio, as cited in [Berto, Paroki Toasebio, gereja inkulturasi, 2017, ]). In 1950, three Jesuit priests (two from Austria and one from Netherlands) who came from mainland China, followed by Pastor Wilhelmus Krause Van Eiden SJ (1953), a state law expert, bought a plot of land in Toosebiostraat area (now: Jalan Kemenangan III) to establish churches, dormitories and schools for Overseas Chinese. The land was purchased from a Kapitan (a name for a Chinese descendant of the Dutch colonial period) surnamed Tjioe [2, p. 8]. In 1954, when Father Matthias Leitenbauer SJ arrived in Jakarta, the land and buildings on it officially belonged to the church. Land payments were collected from pastors' funds by providing oneyear foreign language courses in Toasebio and the Catholic community in Austria. Because many of the people spoke only Mandarin, the Chinese Pastor, Father Joannes Tcheng Chao Min SJ, was assigend in. On September 14, 1955, Toasebio Station was promoted to become a Parish, the Saint Maria de Fatima. Starting from the request of the Xaverian Missionary Society (SX) to the Archbishop of Jakarta, Mgr. Adrianus Djajasepoetra SJ, in order to work in the Archdiocese of Jakarta, the Bishop offered the Toasebio Parish to the Xaverian Society. On November 1, 1970, the Toasebio Parish was handed over to Father Pietro Grappoli SX, which was subsequently replaced by Father Otello Pancani SX [2, p. 10]. During the activity of Father Otello, there were: the extensive renovation of the Church building, the replacement of floors and ceilings and the arrangement of the site for the Maria de Fatima statue − from Ortisei (Northern Italy) − and the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue. On the idea of Father Otello, a wood was carved depicting Jesus on a cross flanked by two criminals. The carving was sent from Italy and installed in the days of Pastor Liliano SX. The carving was mounted over the front of the altar. On March 10, 1989, Father Josep Bagnara SX was appointed Archbishop of Jakarta, Mgr. Leo Soekoto SJ, as the Head of Parish of Toasebio SMFCC. Since Father Josep's work, it is held six times per week the Holy Mass (i.e. once on Saturday afternoon, and 5 times on Sunday). Among the mass schedules, there is also a sacred Mass in Chinese, which is held every Sunday at 4:00 pm. In the Toasebio Parish 50 Year Book [2, p. 3-4], Father Josep Bagnara pointed out that SMFCC (a.k.a. Toasebio) at Glodok sub-district, Tambora, is the most crowded area in Jakarta. In that year, 2015, Toasebio Catholics numbered approximately 4500 people. In the same book, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith as Apostolic Nuncio, the Vatican's Ambassador to Indonesia delivered the message, "I wish Santa Maria parish could produce a few saints even for public veneration one day. That would be the challenge.... We ought to remember that it is really the Lord who has made this Our Lady of Fatima parish grow that way. For, 'unless the Lord builds the house, in vain do its builders toil,' says the psalmist [Ps. 127:1]". Thamrin and Arifianto, experts on buildings, wrote their analyses on SMFCC as follow: "The process of building this church utilizes existing buildings without changing the existing structure so it still looks authentic .... The application of Chinese cultural diversity in the interior design of this church looks at aspects of shape, use of materials, and colors in buildings, layout space, space-forming elements, transition elements, space fill elements, and aesthetic elements .... The shape of this church building which was originally a symmetry-looking residence is preserved to this day and is one of the distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics that lead to a life which is balanced .... This church has a roof in the shape of ren zi xuan shan which is generally used in residential buildings. At the end of the roof of the building has a swallow's tail which is commonly used in palace buildings, pagoda, and noble house .... The right and left of the church building is escorted by a pair of cion sai (rock lion). The male is on the left with his right claw on the ball symbolizing the unity of the whole country, and the female on the right with her left paw stroking the lion who symbolizes the source of happiness .... At the front wall of the church, there are ornamental motifs, i.e. the peony flower motif symbolizes honor, and meanders symbolize longevity, as well as geometric patterns or diaper patterns. The existing geometric pattern in the form of a circle is the symbol of heaven, and a box is the symbol of the earth, so it is placed at the top of the wall. The combination of these decorations shows the position of homeowners who expect happiness in a balanced life .... The use of red in this area 3 shows the degree of sanctity, as the center of church activity in proclaiming the good news.... Sedilia of the priests is an extension of the scholar's seat during the Ming dynasty." [4] Parish of SMFCC (Toasebio) from 1955 to 1970 (for 15 years) was served and led by Jesuit (Society of Jesus) priests. The ministry's work was continued by the Xaverian Missionary Society (SX) and assisted by CDD speakers to serve Chinese-speaking people. Until 2018, the SX Society has been instrumental in developing the Toasebio Parish for 48 years (1970-2018). Today the Toasebio Parish is led by Father Fernando Abis SX (since 2015). It is interesting to know his perspective on the SMFCC building; whether there is any compatibility, contradiction, or 'revision' to what has been suggested by the history writers and the building experts as mentioned above. When compared to Coomans' investigations, the interesting thing found throughout this study is that almost no SMFCC priests are "actively involved in the debate about sacred art and architecture" [5, p. 91], at least in terms of documentation that SMFCC owns. This also prompted the author to conduct an interview with the Head of the SMFCC Parish. MATERIALS AND METHODS This present study uses qualitative method and literature review. Data was collected from the present Head of the SMFCC Toasebio Parish, Father Fernando Abis SX, by conducting an indepth interview on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 (Fig. 1). Interview data was then compared with findings from both from internal documents of SMFCC. and from scientific journals. RESULTS The 1950s' atmosphere of building and rebuilding (renovation) SMFCC in Chinatown of Jakarta may not be much different from building a Christian church in China at the beginning of the 20th century. Among the challenges is that in addition the church building must be recognizable as a church, should also be practical, beautiful, and suitable for worship [5]. In relation to the practicality dimension of SMFCC (Fig. 2-4), Father Fernando Abis said that, in a church, there is indeed no virtue of any culture, including Chinese culture, above others. The uniqueness of the SMFCC, which is the maintenance of the Mandarin background of the majority of Chinese descendants, should be seen as 'the winning of the needs of the people'. The Catholic Church wants all cultures to get 'their own home' in the church, where people feel accepted as they are, so they are driven to accept others as they are as well. The context of the need for the establishment of the SMFCC Parish (originally: Toasebio Statio Station) was as a special treatment place for Chinese descents so they could be protected from a less conducive atmosphere in those days, where "Chinese ethnicity is separated from the host community" [6, p. 2] and culminated in the New Order Era where the three pillars of Chinese culture, namely the Chinese-language press, Chinese high schools, and Chinese ethnic organizations were eliminated from Indonesia [6]. The use of Chinese language was not supported since 1966. In the early days of SMFCC, the longtime Father in China came to SMFCC and used Chinese language and culture to serve and develop the 'alienated' and 'solidarity-needy' Chinese people in Jakarta. SMFCC formed a group of Mandarin that existed until now. People who can not speak Indonesian can comfortably pray according to their conscience and comprehension in Mandarin. Not surprisingly, on the basis of this practical dimension, Father Fernando Abis stated, 'There are no such great philosophies, indeed. In fact, there is no intention of the form of the church and its parts to carry a particular message. The synthesis of elements of the church is dominated by practical actions, the contribution of some aspirant people, who follow the spiritual appetite of the majority of Chinese Catholics.' [Father F. Abis 2018, pers.comm., 4 Apr] The form of the church is an expression of the taste of the local community in a given time and arranged in such a way that supports the sense of security, majesty, beauty, and prayerfulness. 4 In the aspect of beauty, a French Jesuit handbook (as cited in [5, p. 104]) conveyed, "Inscriptions of happiness and longevity... and all other familiar things to a Chinese would create a sympathetic atmosphere and attract him to a church" although this is criticized for not conforming to the "comforting theory of pain, which Christ came to teach". In this connection, Father Fernando Abis emphasized the phrase 'ens bonum, verum et pulchrum convertuntur' which according to him means: goodness, truth, and beauty are mutually supportive, substituting, and convertible. The beautiful has no faults. The beautiful is a gift from God. The truth must be beautiful. The beautiful must be good. For example, the pulpit in the SMFCC contains elements of carvings that are the encounter between Chinese art and Balinese art. The overall aesthetic of SMFCC is a bonum, because the beautiful, harmonious impression of this church makes SMFCC a reasonable, comfortable place of prayer, which gives an atmosphere of prayer for people, making people feel 'at home'. It was stressed by Father Fernando Abis, that carvings, sculptures, etc., are symbols that show the true faith (verum) in depth. In the context of SMFCC, one should not misunderstand an important thing: The element of diversity, inculturation, and cultural encounter within the SMFCC is inappropriate when positioned as a conductor to complete faith. It is not the diversity that is the basis of the development of faith. Rather, the opposite. It is faith that brings appreciation for diversity. For by faith, brotherhood and love are measured. Faith is the basis for respecting all cultures and all ways of prayer with any symbol, structure, or passion. Therefore, in the SMFCC, people are not exclusive; they can meet believers of any tribe. In the aspect of fitness for worship/liturgy, Coomans [5] had pointed to the fact that Papal Encyclical Letters of Maximum Illud and Rerum Ecclesiae provide an endorsement of the inculturation of the church with the local culture. Since the priests of SMFCC are dominated by priests from outside Indonesia (Austria, Italy, Spain, etc.) − where this condition differs from most of the Catholic churches in Jakarta nowadays − it can be assumed that a special adaptation of priests, especially Westerners, is required. Except for pastors who have worked in mainland China, at least they have to learn indigenous actuality, ranging from material conditions, climate, and Chinese culture. In relation to this, Father Fernando Abis emphasized that "Any artifact of any culture which is a symbol of spiritual relationships (the sign of faith, the grace of God), which supports the heart-directedness to God, shows prayer and unity (i.e. mutually recognizes and respects) in faith (as the tradition inherited from Christ), is lawful, in the sense that it can be used as far as it takes, as long as it is free of superstition." [Father F. Abis 2018, pers.comm., 4 Apr]. He took the example in the SMFCC context, the Tabernacle ("A cupboard or boxlike receptacle for the exclusive reservation of the Blessed Sacrament" [Catholic Dictionary. Tabernacle, 2018, ]) presumably in the past was the most valuable jewelry store of a housewife. In addition, the place for reading scriptures uses Chinese noble home materials, whether former doors or other materials, which was then accommodated and matched to the need of the church. Father Fernando Abis also compared with the term 'basilica'. According to him, in the original meaning, it is a large house king residence, the place for his relatives and general people, which could be used to gather. Basilica is a general term that then has a spiritual connotation, which is a church building. However, the principle in general terms and spiritual terms are actually the same. CONCLUSIONS This present study assumes that culture and religion are inseparable in explaining meanings. A prominent finding of this study is that the cultural encounter between priests and people as well as between church citizens and cross-cultural objects is interpreted differently − but complementary in perfecting our understanding of the parish − by history writers, building experts and parish leader. The historians the construction experts made cultural symbols of the architecture of the church building as a 'foreground', a material for the primary collective representation analysis. In contrast, the Parish Head, Father Fernando Abis SX, performed a sort of "desecularization − from above" [7] in its loosest sense, by making theological faith an 5 unwavering basis of all interpretations of the SMFCC's physical atmosphere and its community activities. Architectural philosophies and cultural interpretations are placed as the 'background' in the Father's narrative; a more or less natural thing, considering his position as a church leader. BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] J. Morgan. Religion and culture as meaning systems: a dialogue between Geertz and Tillich. The Journal of Religion, vol. 57, issue 4, October (1977), 363-375. [2] A.T. Gunarta, R. Glen, K.A. Kusumawati, A.J. Teddy. Buku kenangan 50 tahun Paroki Santamaria de Fatima 1955-2015, Paroki Santamaria de Fatima, Jakarta (2015) 1-120. [4] D. Thamrin, F. Arifianto. Keragaman budaya Tionghoa pada interior Gereja Katolik (Studi kasus: Gereja Santa Maria De Fatima di Jakarta Barat). Dimensi Interior, vol. 9, issue 1, June (2011), 1-12. [5] T. Coomans. A pragmatic approach to church construction in Northern China at the time of Christian inculturation. In: "The handbook 'Le missionnaire constructeur'", 1926. Frontiers of Architectural Research, vol. 3, issue 2, June (2014), 89-107. [6] L. Suryadinata. Kebijakan Negara Indonesia terhadap Etnik Tionghoa: dari asimilasi ke multikulturalisme?. Antropologi Indonesia, vol. XXVII, issue 71, May (2003), 1-12. [7] V. Karpov. Desecularization: a conceptual framework. Journal of Church and State, vol. 52, issue 2, July (2010), 232-270. Fig. 1 - Juneman Abraham (the author) with Father Fernando Abis SX, the Head of Toasebio/SMFCC Parish, after an interview session Fig. 2 - Toasebio Parish SMFCC (a day before Chinese New Year). Source: Fina, WhatsApp Group PASKA Ricci on 15 February 2018 Fig. 3 - Toasebio Parish [Fina, 15 Feb 2018] Fig. 4 - Toasebio Parish [Fina, 15 Feb 2018]
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{ "creator": "Abtroun, Sihem Neïla", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1589192723000, "description": "This commentary explores the notion of vulnerability applied to pregnant women in clinical research. The use of this notion, related to a semantic problem, raises an ethical issue and participates in the quasi-systematic exclusion of this sub-population from the research process.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABTVDF", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Vulnérabilité des femmes enceintes en éthique de la recherche: un problème sémantique", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
SN Abtroun. Can J Bioeth / Rev Can Bioeth. 2019, 2(2):11-14 Canadian Journal of Bioethics Revue canadienne de bioéthique 2019 SN Abtroun. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ISSN 2561-4665 COMMENTAIRE CRITIQUE / CRITICAL COMMENTARY (ÉVALUÉ PAR LES PAIRS / PEER-REVIEWED) Vulnérabilité des femmes enceintes en éthique de la recherche : un problème sémantique Sihem Neïla Abtroun1 Résumé Abstract Ce commentaire s'intéresse à la notion de vulnérabilité appliquée aux femmes enceintes en recherche clinique. L'utilisation de cette notion, liée à un problème sémantique, soulève un enjeu éthique et participe à l'exclusion quasi systématique de cette frange de la population du processus de recherche. This commentary explores the notion of vulnerability applied to pregnant women in clinical research. The use of this notion, related to a semantic problem, raises an ethical issue and participates in the quasi-systematic exclusion of this sub-population from the research process. Mots-clés Keywords éthique de la recherche, femmes enceintes, vulnérabilité, stigmatisation, recherche clinique research ethics, pregnant women, vulnerability, stigmatization, clinical research Introduction La vulnérabilité des femmes enceintes, dans le domaine de la recherche, est sujette à controverse du fait de la définition même du terme " vulnérabilité " : il s'agit d'un paradigme qui existe entre certains textes de régulations de la recherche qui ont évolué et ne catégorisent pas les femmes enceintes comme vulnérables, et la réalité du milieu de la recherche qui les exclut continuellement du fait de la simple perception de cette frange de la population comme vulnérable [1-4]. À l'instar du conseil des organisations internationales des sciences médicales (CIOMS), l'Énoncé de Politique des Trois Conseils, deuxième édition (EPTC2) - a qui régit la recherche avec des participants humains au Canada - ne catégorise pas les femmes enceintes comme une population vulnérable, mais l'attention particulière qui leur est portée pourrait participer à leur perception comme des personnes vulnérables et porter à confusion [5,6,7]. Bien qu'il n'existe pas de définition uniformisée du concept de vulnérabilité, il en existe diverses compréhensions et appréhensions par les chercheurs en recherche clinique qui l'utilisent abusivement pour exclure les femmes enceintes. Il est aussi important de souligner que dans d'autres textes règlementaires à l'international, comme les textes législatifs régissant la recherche en France [8] ou le Code of Federal Regulations aux ÉtatsUnis [9], aussi bien que dans la littérature biomédicale [4], les femmes enceintes sont encore clairement qualifiées de " vulnérables ". On comprend donc que cette notion de vulnérabilité et le problème sémantique qu'elle soulève sont fortement ancrés dans la pratique en recherche et plus particulièrement en recherche clinique. On s'intéressera donc dans ce commentaire à la notion de vulnérabilité des femmes enceintes selon deux conceptions : la première, aisément réfutable, liée à la capacité décisionnelle et la seconde liée au risque de tort potentiel. On conclura par le fait que la compréhension erronée de la notion de vulnérabilité et son application aux femmes enceintes ont participé à leur exclusion systématique de la recherche, d'où la nécessité de se libérer de la vision surprotectrice et contre-productive de la vulnérabilité supposée des femmes enceintes et ainsi promouvoir leur participation à la recherche. Femmes enceintes : participantes vulnérables Comme nous l'avons souligné précédemment, il existe plusieurs conceptions de la vulnérabilité. Les plus répandues sont la vision nord-américaine où la vulnérabilité est liée à une altération de la capacité décisionnelle et la vision internationale à prédominance européenne liée au risque de tort couru par le participant. Au Canada, selon l'EPTC2, " la vulnérabilité résulte souvent d'une capacité décisionnelle limitée ou d'un accès limité à des biens sociaux comme des droits, des opportunités de développement et du pouvoir " [7]. Tout en sachant que l'EPTC2 ne qualifie pas les femmes enceintes de vulnérables per se, nous utiliserons sa définition dans un premier temps pour pouvoir analyser cette conception souvent utilisée à tort de la vulnérabilité chez la femme enceinte [5,7]. Cette conception de la vulnérabilité est aisément réfutée, car dans le cas des femmes enceintes, le fait d'avoir été fécondé et donc de porter un être vivant en elle ne modifie pas leur pouvoir décisionnel ni leur statut socioéconomique. Ainsi, si cette définition de la vulnérabilité proposée par l'EPTC2 est appliquée stricto sensu à la femme enceinte, elle renverrait donc à une notion erronée. En ce qui concerne cette sous-population féminine, il n'existe pas de problème de compréhension ni de limitation de ressource ou d'accès ; sachant qu'il existe des situations où les femmes peuvent être désavantagées, du fait d'inégalités de genres et socioculturelles, indépendamment de leur statut de gestation [10]. Cette définition apparait donc comme obsolète et ne saurait être appliquée aux femmes enceintes. Cependant, Basaia décrit la femme enceinte comme vulnérable du point de vue psychologique, à cause des changements liés à la grossesse, mais qui " conserve toutes ses aptitudes qui la maintiennent libre de ses choix " reprenant le concept de " personne vulnérable, mais capable " [8]. Cette description problématique de la femme enceinte " vulnérable, mais capable " pourrait potentiellement contribuer à son exclusion systématique, mais aussi celle de l'ensemble des femmes en s'inscrivant dans une version paternaliste extrême, certes peu probable, où toutes femmes subissant des variations physiologiques seraient exclues. van der Zande et collègues ont quant à eux analysé " la vulnérabilité des femmes enceintes en recherche clinique ". Ils ont identifié quatre notions de vulnérabilité pour la femme enceinte : 1) la difficulté à obtenir un consentement éclairé, qui ne peut être appliqué dans ce cas ; 2) une susceptibilité accrue à la coercition par le fait d'être induit en erreur en mettant le bien-être Abtroun 2019 Page 12 éventuel du foetus avant leur propre bien-être ; 3) la vulnérabilité propre du foetus comme un participant inapte ; et enfin 4) une augmentation du risque lors de la recherche par manque de données scientifiques concernant les femmes durant la grossesse. Les auteurs ont finalement réfuté les trois premières visions et ont conclu que la vulnérabilité de la femme enceinte est due au manque de savoir scientifique concernant cette sous-population qui entraine un risque plus élevé par rapport aux autres participants à la recherche [4]. Si plusieurs visions en recherche clinique contribuent à la catégorisation des femmes enceintes comme vulnérables, la plus répandue actuellement serait peut-être celle liée au fait d'un risque possiblement plus élevé lors de leur participation aux processus de recherche [2,3,11-13]. Cette conception de la vulnérabilité répond à la vision internationale de la vulnérabilité liée aux risques potentiels auxquels s'exposent potentiellement les participants. Ainsi, Hurst définit la vulnérabilité comme " un risque accru de subir un tort et qui peut exister ponctuellement ou durablement, face à toutes sortes de torts, pour différentes raisons " [12, p.1057]. Tout en évoquant la multifactorialité de la vulnérabilité, celle-ci pourrait alors s'appliquer aux femmes enceintes de différentes façons. Tout d'abord, elles font face à des modifications physiques et physiologiques de leurs corps qui s'apprêtent à faire grandir un être en elles ainsi qu'à des modifications psychiques : les émotions par rapport à leurs foetus existent dès le début de la grossesse. À cela sont associées une responsabilité accrue et une protection instinctive de la future mère envers son enfant à venir. Enfin, le foetus représente une entité propre exposée à des risques malformatifs et abortifs, et il est aussi appelé à être individu vivant (enfant puis adulte) qui pourrait subir les conséquences de la recherche, avec comme une ombre noire qui plane les réminiscences des dérives de la recherche liées à la thalidomide ou au distilbène. Dans le milieu de la recherche clinique, la santé physique et psychologique de la femme enceinte est souvent mise au second plan par rapport à la santé du foetus. Selon la conception traditionnelle de la grossesse, il y aurait une dichotomie entre le foetus et la femme gestante (la mère) qui peut parfois mener à la priorisation du foetus au détriment de la mère [2,14]. Toutefois il semble que l'on devrait considérer la femme enceinte et son foetus comme un couple indissociable et interconnecté ; une modification de l'état de l'un a inévitablement des répercussions sur l'autre, qu'il soit bénéfique ou non [1]. On peut imaginer, par exemple, qu'une participation à une recherche clinique qui améliorerait la santé du foetus et de l'enfant à venir améliorera par conséquent la santé psychologique et la qualité de vie future de la mère. De la même manière, les risques ainsi que les éventuelles répercussions à court et long terme pour la femme gestante seule, le couple mère-foetus et l'enfant à venir sont incontestables. Mais si la femme enceinte appartient à une sous-population à risque accru, cela signifie-t-il nécessairement que ce groupe est vulnérable et doit être surprotégé? Sachant que cette catégorisation pourrait conduire à son exclusion en se basant sur une vulnérabilité plus " hypothétique " que réelle [5]. En réponse à van der Zande et collègues [4], Krubiner et Fraden [14] ont relevé le fait que les femmes gestantes représentent une partie importante des soins thérapeutiques administrés dans les différentes sociétés, mais leur exclusion de la recherche biomédicale perpétue " un cercle vicieux " qui induit un manque de connaissance et donc leur exclusion systématique. Le point le plus pertinent étant que les femmes enceintes doivent " être protégées durant la recherche et non pas de la recherche elle-même " [14]. Le statut des femmes enceintes en recherche est qualifié de " vulnérabilité paradoxale " [13] car la majorité des médications prescrites aux femmes durant la grossesse ne sont pas agréées pour être utilisées chez les femmes enceintes [3-4]. Dans certains cas, seul l'état de grossesse induit une iniquité face à la participation potentielle des femmes enceintes à la recherche. Ainsi à travers l'exemple allemand, Wild [2] illustre parfaitement ce concept : bien qu'il n'existe pas de législation précise régulant la recherche sur les femmes enceintes en Allemagne, leur vulnérabilité est largement acceptée. Elle rapporte plusieurs cas où les femmes enceintes sont exclues catégoriquement de la recherche clinique. Un des exemples les plus parlants est celui du ministère de la santé allemand qui, en 2009, a publié que des essais cliniques en vue de l'approbation d'une vaccination contre la souche H5N1 n'ont pas été conduits sur les femmes enceintes pour raisons éthiques. L'auteure note que " les raisons éthiques " ne sont ni spécifiées ni explicitées, mais résultent de stéréotypes [2]. Il est évident que considérer les femmes gestantes comme vulnérables restreint la conduite d'essais cliniques qui permettraient pourtant d'augmenter les données scientifiques probantes les concernant. L'existence de telles données améliorerait leur participation aux processus de recherche [3] alimentant un puits sans fin. Une mesure de protection qui, en finalité, entraine une exclusion. Par conséquent, l'utilisation et la perception mêmes du terme de " vulnérabilité " pour décrire la population des femmes enceintes est inadéquat. Il pose un problème sémantique réel, car il fait référence dans le domaine de la recherche soit à une possible incapacité décisionnelle qui est généralement absente dans ce cas, soit à un risque incommensurable par le seul fait que la femme est gestante. Ainsi, la femme qui était une participante compétente et potentielle perd cette possibilité par le seul fait de porter un foetus et nécessite donc une protection accrue qui finit par l'exclure quasi systématiquement de la recherche. Femmes enceintes : participantes particulières Prenons l'exemple des textes de régulation de la recherche qui ne considère pas les femmes enceintes comme vulnérables per se [5-7,15]. Ainsi, L'EPTC2 ne catégorise pas les femmes enceintes comme vulnérables, mais requiert à travers l'article 4.3 que " les femmes ne doivent pas être indûment exclues de la recherche uniquement en raison de leur capacité de procréer ou parce qu'elles sont enceintes ou qu'elles allaitent. [...] À moins qu'il n'y ait une raison valable de le faire, les chercheurs ne devraient pas exclure les femmes de la recherche en raison de leur capacité de reproduction ou parce qu'elles sont enceintes ou parce qu'elles allaitent " [7], et cela tout en tenant compte des risques et des bénéfices de leur participation. Cette conception de participante particulière est confortée par le Conseil des organisations internationales des sciences médicales (CIOMS) qui, en 2016, a affirmé que " les femmes enceintes ne doivent pas être considérées comme des personnes Abtroun 2019 Page 13 vulnérables simplement en raison de leur état. Toutefois, des circonstances particulières, telles que les risques pour le foetus, peuvent justifier la mise en place de mesures de protection spéciales. " [6] Cependant, bien que L'EPTC2 et le CIOMS, dans la ligne directrice 19, encouragent la participation des femmes enceintes à la recherche, ils soulèvent la difficulté de son application concrète dans le milieu de la recherche. Par exemple, le CIOMS met en avant le bénéfice personnel de la femme et de son foetus : si le bénéfice de la recherche est sociétal et non individuel, les femmes enceintes ne pourront y participer que si le risque est minime, ceci met clairement en évidence le problème de l'évaluation éthique du bénéfice-risque ; bien qu'il tente d'apporter des solutions et préconise d'inclure les femmes gestantes " uniquement après un examen rigoureux des meilleures données pertinentes possibles " [7,15]. Ces données probantes étant le plus souvent insuffisantes, le CIOMS tout comme l'EPTC2 dans l'application de l'article 4.3 (cité ci-dessus), s'en remet aux chercheurs et aux comités d'éthique [6,7], qui ont tendance à être surprotecteurs [1,9]. Mais cette surprotection des femmes et de leur foetus ne doit pas participer à leur exclusion systématique. Comment alors résoudre ce dilemme? Est-il lié au terme lui-même de vulnérabilité ou à son signifié? Même si la femme enceinte est potentiellement exposée à plus de risque dans la recherche du fait du manque de connaissances, sa protection doit s'affranchir de cette vision paternaliste historique et par conséquent ne pas considérer l'utilisation du terme de vulnérabilité pour les femmes enceintes. Si les femmes enceintes ne doivent pas être catégorisées comme vulnérables, elles sont des participantes particulières et le risque potentiel encouru nécessite une évaluation éthique plus raisonnable et plus prudente pour leur inclusion dans la recherche, mais ce postulat est valable pour tout participant à la recherche. Afin de promouvoir la participation des femmes enceintes à la recherche, van der Graaf propose de s'appuyer sur un système de santé apprenant ce qui répondrait aux attentes cliniques et de développement de la recherche, ce qui permettrait de dépasser les mécanismes surprotecteurs liés à une surestimation des risques par la communauté de la recherche [15]. Cependant un tel système ne permettrait que d'améliorer des protocoles existants, mais ne permettrait pas nécessairement le développement de nouveau traitement. Par exemple : il est évident que pour une condition comme l'hypertension gravidique et la prééclampsie, l'étude continue des données permettrait d'améliorer la santé de la mère et de l'enfant par une amélioration de la démarche diagnostique et thérapeutique, mais il serait tout de même difficile d'inclure des femmes enceintes pour tester de nouveaux médicaments. Quel que soit le domaine de recherche, il s'agit plus d'une évaluation éthiquement acceptable du risque encouru pour la santé physique et psychologique de la future mère et de la santé du foetus et/ou de l'enfant à venir, que de vulnérabilité telle que perçue dans ce milieu. En considérant les principes éthiques de base de la recherche, soit la bienfaisance et la non-malfaisance, la considération et l'évaluation du risque - même si celui-ci est plus élevé pour les femmes enceintes - ne doivent pas signifier pour elles systématiquement leur non-inclusion ou leur exclusion des processus de recherche. Conclusion Il serait préférable de supprimer le terme " vulnérabilité ", utilisé à tort pour les femmes enceintes, et de les considérer certes comme une sous population à part entière en tenant compte de leurs particularités physiques et psychologiques, mais sans surprotection. La femme enceinte est certes une participante particulière, cependant la grossesse n'est pas un état débilitant, mais un cycle immuable de la vie humaine qui permet de perpétuer l'humanité. Ainsi les femmes enceintes doivent être incluses dans la recherche en tenant compte des différents enjeux éthiques sans stigmatiser ou surprotéger cette frange de la population par rapport à une autre. Comme tout participant, elle peut faire face à des situations ou contextes augmentant sa vulnérabilité, mais cela est indépendant de son statut gestationnel. Une vision éthique acceptable serait plutôt de promouvoir leur inclusion et de leur offrir une information plus détaillée : des risques encourus à court et long terme pour elles et leur foetus et surtout des bénéfices potentiels et attendus de leur participation à la recherche pour la sous-population des femmes enceintes, de la population des femmes et de la société en général. Un défi futur et peut-être utopique en éthique de la recherche serait donc d'abolir définitivement le terme sémantiquement problématique de vulnérabilité pour les femmes enceintes. Remerciements Acknowledgements L'auteur tient à remercier Bryn Williams-Jones pour ses précieux commentaires. Elle remercie également les éditeurs et l'évaluateur externe pour leurs critiques constructives et leurs suggestions enrichissantes. The author would like to thank Bryn Williams-Jones for his valuable and helpful comments. She also thanks the editors and the external evaluator for their constructive critique and enriching suggestions. Conflit d'intérêts Conflicts of Interest L'auteur est éditrice pour la Revue canadienne de bioéthique. Son directeur de recherche est Bryn Williams-Jones, éditeur en chef de la revue. The author is editor for the Canadian Journal of Bioethics. Her PhD supervisor is Bryn Williams-Jones, Editor-in-chief of the journal. Responsabilités des évaluateurs externes Peer-reviewer responsibilities Les évaluations des examinateurs externes sont prises en considération de façon sérieuse par les éditeurs et les auteurs dans la préparation des manuscrits pour publication. Toutefois, être nommé comme examinateur n'indique pas nécessairement l'approbation de ce manuscrit. Les éditeurs de Revue canadienne de bioéthique assument la responsabilité entière de l'acceptation finale et la publication d'un article. Reviewer evaluations are given serious consideration by the editors and authors in the preparation of manuscripts for publication. Nonetheless, being named as a reviewer does not necessarily denote approval of a manuscript; the editors of Canadian Journal of Bioethics take full responsibility for final acceptance and publication of an article. Édition/Editors: Patrick Gogognon & Aliya Affdal Abtroun 2019 Page 14 Évaluation/Peer-Review: Samia Hurst Affiliations 1 Programmes de bioéthique, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada Correspondance / Correspondence: Sihem Neïla Abtroun, Reçu/Received: 27 Feb 2018 Publié/Published: 11 Mar 2019 Les éditeurs suivront les recommandations et les procédures décrites dans le Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors de COPE. Plus précisément, ils travaillent pour s'assurer des plus hautes normes éthiques de la publication, y compris l'identification et la gestion des conflits d'intérêts (pour les éditeurs et pour les auteurs), la juste évaluation des manuscrits et la publication de manuscrits qui répondent aux normes d'excellence de la revue. The editors follow the recommendations and procedures outlined in the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Specifically, the editors will work to ensure the highest ethical standards of publication, including: the identification and management of conflicts of interest (for editors and for authors), the fair evaluation of manuscripts, and the publication of manuscripts that meet the journal's standards of excellence. Références 1. Lyerly AD, Little MO, Faden R. The second wave: Toward responsible inclusion of pregnant women in research. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. 2008;1(2):5-22. 2. Wild V. How are pregnant women vulnerable research participants? International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 2012;5(2):82-104. 3. Schonfeld T. The perils of protection: vulnerability and women in clinical research. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 2013; 34(3):189-206. 4. van der Zande ISE, van der Graaf R, Oudijk MA, van Delden JJM. Vulnerability of pregnant women in clinical research. Journal of Medical Ethics 2017; 43(10):657-63. 5. Johnson LSM. When hypothetical vulnerability becomes actual: research participation and the autonomy of pregnant women. Dans: Baylis F, Ballantyne A, rédacteurs. Clinical Research Involving Pregnant Women. Cham : Springer International Publishing; 2016:161-78. 6. World Health Organization, Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences. International Ethical Guidelines for Health-Related Research Involving Humans. Genève: CIOMS; 2016. 7. CRSH, CRSNG, IRSC. Chapitre 4. Justice et équité dans la participation à la recherche. Énoncé de politique des trois Conseils : Éthique de la recherche avec des êtres humains. Ottawa; 2014. 8. Basaia A. Protection de la femme enceinte dans la recherche biomédicale. La Revue Sage-Femme 2014;13(1):611. 9. Protection of Human Subjects. 45 CFR 46. US Government; 2018. 10. Macklin R. A global ethics approach to vulnerability. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. 2012;5(2):64-81. 11. Sheppard MK. Vulnerability, therapeutic misconception and informed consent: is there a need for special treatment of pregnant women in fetus-regarding clinical trials? Journal of Medical Ethics 2015;42(2):127-31. 12. Hurst S. Protéger les personnes vulnérables : une exigence éthique à clarifier. Revue Médicale Suisse 2013;9:1054-1057. 13. Den hollander Geerte C., Browne J l., Arhinful D, van der Graaf R, Klipstein-Grobusch K. Power difference and risk perception: mapping vulnerability within the decision process of pregnant women towards clinical trial participation in an urban middle-income setting. Developing World Bioethics. 2016;18(2):68-75. 14. Krubiner CB, Faden RR. Pregnant women should not be categorised as a "vulnerable population" in biomedical research studies: ending a vicious cycle of "vulnerability." Journal of Medical Ethics. 2017;43(10):664-5. 15. van der Graaf R, van der Zande ISE, van Delden JJM. How the CIOMS guidelines contribute to fair inclusion of pregnant women in research. Bioethics. 20 Oct 2018 [Epub].
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{ "creator": "El-Najjar Abed ELhaleem Ahmad", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1507026349000, "description": "Infants and children are suffering from a lots of nausea and vomiting problems. Doctors, usually face various difficulties dealing\n with these problems because of their similarities. In this paper, we present an expert system to help users in getting the correct\n diagnosis of problems of nausea and vomiting in infants and children (Gastro-esophageal reflux, Gastroenteritis, Systemic Infection, Bowel obstruction, Tumors, A bleeding disease, tonsillitis, and Hepatitis pharynx). Furthermore, this expert system provide information about the disease and how to deal with it. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement this expert system.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAES-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "An expert system for nausea and vomiting problems in infants and children", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Medicine Research 114 International Journal of Medicine Research ISSN: 2455-7404; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.42 Volume 1; Issue 2; May 2016; Page No. 114-117 An expert system for nausea and vomiting problems in infants and children Samy S Abu Naser, Abed ELhaleem Ahmad El-Najjar Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Abstract Infants and children are suffering from a lots of nausea and vomiting problems. Doctors, usually face various difficulties dealing with these problems because of their similarities. In this paper, we present an expert system to help users in getting the correct diagnosis of problems of nausea and vomiting in infants and children (Gastro-esophageal reflux, Gastroenteritis, Systemic Infection, Bowel obstruction, Tumors, A bleeding disease, tonsillitis, and Hepatitis pharynx). Furthermore, this expert system provide information about the disease and how to deal with it. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement this expert system. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Expert Systems; SL5 Object; Nausea; Vomiting; infants and children 1. Introduction Nausea and vomiting are general in children, and are frequently element of a mild, short-lived illness, normally caused by a viral infectivity. Even though the majority of children get better from nausea and vomiting without any extravagance, it is significant to recognize when to seek out assistant if the child does not get better [3,4]. Spitting up in infants (gastroesophageal reflux) is covered separately. For vomiting, nausea, stomach disorders endured by several children one cause for entering the food or polluted air way [30, 31]. Vomiting happens when nerves in the body or brain detect a trigger, for instance food poisoning, specific infections or drugs, or movement. Nausea typically, but not at all times, takes place prior to vomiting. Younger children might not be capable of identifying nausea, while they may grumble of a stomach ache or have other wide-ranging grievances. Vomiting frequently has an advantage because it gives a way for the body to dispose probably hurtful materials. But, medicines and techniques to persuade vomiting (e.g. syrup of ipecac, placing a finger in the throat) are not any more suggested, even if an infant or child has ingested a dangerous materials. In this situation, it is better to right away request emergency medical support [32]. Fig 1: a child 2. Expert system language Expert Systems language is a set of programs which allow the building of an expert system through the creation of knowledge and rules [11, 14] see figure 2 for details. Expert systems have three essential components 1. User interface: presents questions to the user and accepts inputs from them. 2. Knowledge base: contains data, facts, rules and objects in a specific knowledge domain. The knowledge base obtained from the human expert is prepared by a knowledge engineer as most human experts are not skilled in computer programming. 3. Inference engine: this is software that matches the users input with data contained in the knowledge base to reach appropriate answers. This is done using inference rules e.g. IF conditions THEN statements ELSE statements rules. Fig 2: Component of the expert systems The proposed Expert System for Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children Diagnosis was implemented using SL5 Object language which stands for Simpler Level 5 Object expert system language [2]. It is a forward chaining expert system that can make inferences about facts of the world using rules, objects and take appropriate actions as a result. The SL5 Object language is implemented in Delphi Embarcadero RAD Studio XE6 [2]. SL5 Object language is easy for the knowledge engineer to build the expert system and for the end users when they use it. International Journal of Medicine Research 115 3. Literature Review There are many expert system that were designed to diagnose diseases [15, 29]. But there is no specialized expert system for diagnosis of the Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children available. Although it's linked to several human diseases such as: Diabetes, bacterial, Ear, Eye, Mouth Problems [1, 6, 8, 15, 29]. Talayeh developed an expert system for diabetes diagnosis [13]. MYCIN is a famous expert system for diagnosing bacterial infections [24]. Some of these Expert Systems are specialized in one specific disease and other in a few diseases. However, the current proposed expert system is specialized in the diagnosis of Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children. 4. Materials and Methods The proposed expert system perform diagnosis for the Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children by asking questions that requires True/False answers. The proposed expert system will ask the user to choose the correct answer in each frame. At the end of the diagnosis session, the proposed expert system provides the proper diagnosis of the problem and offer a recommendation of the symptoms to the users. Figure 3 shows the first screen of the expert system session. Figure 4 shows an example of True/False question and Figure 5 shows how the expert system displays the diagnosis of the problem and the recommendation for treating the patient. Fig 3: shows first screen of the expert system session Fig 4: shows an example of TRUE/FALSE question type Fig 5: The expert system displays the diagnosis of the problem and the recommendation for treating the patient. International Journal of Medicine Research 116 5. Knowledge Representation The main sources of the knowledge for this expert system are Physician and specializes websites for Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children. The collected knowledge have been transformed into SL5 Object Knowledge base syntax: Facts, Rules and Objects. Currently the expert system has 11 rules which cover Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children. The core cause of the Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children may be by a problem in a different part of the body. In numerous cases, physician may not discover a cause for the ache. When a cause is recognized, general explanations take account of [3, 5, 30, 34,].  This is most likely spitting up a general occurrence for infants on formula. Not widespread is a lactose intolerance or milk allergy.  This form of vomiting may be from a obstruction at the end of the stomach named as pyloric stenosis.  Child may have an obstruction of the intestines identified as intussusception.  Vomiting and diarrhea may be from viral gastroenteritis or maybe from a trouble with aformula.  Infant or child could be on the edge of dehydration. 5.1 Causes of nausea and vomiting in children and infants  Allergies, are general causes of vomiting and feeling to the occurrence of the child to definite foods.  Food poisoning, in this situation go along with by stints of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach spasm.  Overeating, in some situations, children lean to eat a vigorous meal.  Brain disorder, if there exists an Astound to the brain, or due to the existence of a tumor near the spinal cord vomiting happens.  Intestinal obstruction, this case happen for babies, one of the rare situation not go with by diarrhea or fever.  Meningitis 5.2 Causes of nausea and vomiting in children  Inflammation of the intestines and bowel viral  Inflammation of the intestines and colon bacterial  Food poisoning  Pelvic  Peritonitis  Pharyngitis  Pneumonia  Harsh cough 5.3 Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children As much as it hurt to observe the child vomits, causing the situation of vomiting serious apprehension him/her, Vagaye suspicious state of the body to get rid of upset stomach things, frequently accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, but when it occurs without an accompanying symptom of a further fear and may need intervention therapeutically offer on doctor to study the actions one's can take when your child is vomiting. Here are the top causes of vomiting in children: If the child vomiting take care of feeding him fluids to avoid dehydration and avoid the risk of solids, does not provide for your child and a full meal after vomiting, and bitch about dairy products. Vomiting in children is often caused by a viral infection, the situation has sometimes identified as stomach flu, or gastroenteritis. Typically accompanied by diarrhea case, even though there is no treatment for the problem, but the good side is that the situation stabilizes on its own within a few days. Attention of feeding the child fluids to avoid the risk of drought. Allergies, are common causes of vomiting and sensitivity to the presence of the child toward certain foods. If your child is in the weaning phase and try out new foods are possibly to cause him/her eaten sensitivity, such as eggs, or soy, or dairy products, or shellfish, or peanuts. If the cause of vomiting is a sensitive cases will steady on its own, and it is sensible to keep away from this food. Food poisoning, in this case accompanied by bouts of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach spasm. The situation may be caused by bacteria, or not cooked the meat well, or some dairy products and fatty cream, or eating foods that has been expired for a long period of time. Overeating, in some cases, children tend to eat a hearty meal, and may be of junk food that causes disruption to the digestive system. Anxiety and stress, emotional stress can lead to an imbalance in the digestive system, resulting in nausea or vomiting or diarrhea. This condition occurs for adolescents often not for children. Brain disorder, if there were a shock to the brain, or due to the presence of a tumor near the spinal cord vomiting occurs. Intestinal obstruction, this situation occur for babies, one of the rare cases not accompanied by diarrhea or fever. Home procedures to deal with vomiting:  Do not give the child a meal after vomiting only after 3060 minutes to give the stomach enough time to recover.  Start with small amounts of fluids after the stomach break, and better to give the child water or natural juices, not ready-made. Your child does not force on fluid intake, simply eat two tablespoons or 3, and wait 5 minutes and then resume fluid intake.  Avoid solids, do not provide your child a full meal after vomiting, and avoid dairy products.  Avoid the causes of vomiting such as strong odors such as onions or perfume may aggravate symptoms. 6. Conclusion In this paper, a proposed expert system was presented for aiding Physicians in diagnosing patients with possible Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children. Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children patients can get the diagnosis faster and more accurate than the traditional diagnosis done by physicians. This expert system does not require rigorous training to be used; it has a straightforward and user friendly interface. It was developed using SL5 Object expert system language. The results of the preliminary testing of the expert system showed potential. 7. Future Work This expert system is considered to be a base of future ones; more Nausea and Vomiting in Infants and Children are planned to be added to the expert system and to make it more accessible to users from anywhere at any time. 8. References 1. Abu Naser SS, Akkila AN. A Proposed Expert System for Skin Diseases Diagnosis. INSInet Publication. Journal of Applied Sciences Research. 2008; 4(12):1682-1693. International Journal of Medicine Research 117 2. Abu Naser SS. SL5 Object: the Simpler Level 5 Object Expert System Language, International. Journal of Soft Computing, Mathematics and Control (IJSCMC). 2015; 4(4):25-37. 3. Mayo Clinic, . Date visited 303-2016. 4. Family Doctor, health-tools/search-by-symptom/mouth-problems-infantschildren.html, Date visited 30-3-2016. 5. mAccessed 30 March 2016. 6. Abu Naser SS, Ola AZ. An expert system for diagnosing eye diseases using Clips. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 2008, 4-10. Available: Vol4No10.pdf 7. Abu Naser SS, Baraka M, Baraka AA. Proposed Expert System For Guiding Freshman Students In Selecting A Major In Al-Azhar University, Gaza. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 4(9):889-893. Available: research-papers/Vol4No9/15Vol4No9.pdf 8. Abu Naser SS, Kashkash K, Fayyad M. Developing an Expert System for Plant Disease Diagnosis. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 1(2):78-85. jai.2008.78.85 9. Wikipedia, Accessed 30 March 2016. 10. Abu Naser SS, ALmursheidi SA. Knowledge Based System for Neck Pain Diagnosis, World Wide. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):12-18.Available: . com/vol%202/issue%204/pdf/13.2.pdf 11. Durkin J. Expert Systems: Design and Development, ISBN 0-02-330970-9, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1994. 12. Giarratano J, RileyG. Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition. Boston MA, Thomson/PWS Publishing Company, 2004. ISBN: 0534937446. 13. TalayehTabibi. An Expert System for Diabetes Diagnosis, American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal, 2012. 14. Russell S,Norvig P. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Second Edition, 2002. ISBN 0-13-103805-2. 15. Abu Naser SS, El-Hissi H, Abu-Rass M, El-Khozondar N. An expert system for endocrine diagnosis and treatments using JESS. Journal of Artificial. Intelligence, 2010; 3(4):239-251. 16. Abu Naser SS, Al-Dahdooh R, Mushtaha A, El-Naffar M. Knowledge Management in ESMDA: Expert System for Medical Diagnostic Assistance, AIML Journal. 2010, 2002. 17. Abu Naser SS, Alhabbash M. Male Infertility Expert system Diagnoses and Treatment, American. Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2:4. 18. Abu Naser SS, Mahdi A. A proposed Expert System for Foot Diseases Diagnosis, American. Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2(4). 19. Abu Naser SS, AlDahdooh R. Lower Back Pain Expert System Diagnosis and Treatment. Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies. (JMESS) 2016, 2-4. 20. Abu Naser SS, Hamed AM. An Expert System for Mouth Problems in Infants and Children. Journal of Multidisciplinary. Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016, 2-4. 21. Abu Naser SS, Abu Hasanein H.Ear Diseases Diagnosis Expert System UsingSL5 Object. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):41-47. 22. Azaab S,Abu Naser SS, Sulisel O.A proposed expert system for selecting exploratory factor analysis procedures. Journal of the college of education. 2000; 4(2):9-2. 23. Randolph A. Miller et al. INTERNIST-1 An Experimental Computer-Based Diagnostic Consultant for General Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, 1982; 307:468-76. 24. Buchanan BG, Shortliffe EH. Rule Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984, ISBN 978-0-201-10172-0. 25. Yoon YR, Brobst P, Bergstresser, Peterson L. ComputerBased Medical Systems, Proceedings of Third Annual IEEE Symposium on, 1990; 3(6):306-312. 26. Wollina U. Common skin diseases: uncommon presentations. Clinics in Dermatology, 2005; 23(5):443445. . 2005. 01. 001. 27. Abu Naser SS, El Haddad I. An Expert System for Genital Problems in Infants, World Wide. Journal of Multidisciplinary. Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016, 2-5. 28. Abu Naser SS, Bastami B. A Proposed Rule Based System for Breasts Cancer Diagnosis. World Wide. Journal of Multidisciplinary. Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016, 2-5. 29. Abu Naser SS, Shaath M. Expert System Urination Problems Diagnosis. World Wide. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016, 2-5. 30. Abu Naser SS, Hilles M. An Expert System for Shoulder Problems Using CLIPS. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016, 2-5. 31. Nausea and Vomiting, Date visited 15-4-2016. 32. Nausea and Vomiting, , Date visited 15-4-2016. 33. Nauseaand Vomiting, /adventures-in-vomiting, Date visited 15-4-2016. 34. Nausea and Vomiting, /English/health-issues/conditions/abdominal/Pages/ Treating-Vomiting.aspxm, Date visited 15-4-2016. 35. Nausea and Vomiting, , Date visited 15-4-2016.
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{ "creator": "Al-Hanjori Mones M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1507026250000, "description": "Male genital problems and injuries may occur quite simply because of the scrotum and penis are not protected like other organs.\n Genital problems and injuries normally happen through: recreational activities (like Football, Hooky, biking, basketball), workrelated\n tasks (like contact to irritating chemicals), downhill drop, and sexual activity.\n A genital injury frequently causes harsh pain that typically disappear fast without causing enduring harm. Home handling is\n generally all that is required for trivial problems or injuries. Pain, inflammation, staining, or rashes that are coexist with other\n symptoms might be a source for concern. Genital problems in men is one of the most common problems which requires fast\n intervention. In this paper we present an expert system that help men diagnose their genital problems and give them the proper\n treatment.\n SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement this expert system.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAES-5", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "An expert system for men genital problems diagnosis and treatment", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Medicine Research 83 International Journal of Medicine Research ISSN: 2455-7404; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.42 Volume 1; Issue 2; May 2016; Page No. 83-86 An expert system for men genital problems diagnosis and treatment Samy S Abu Naser, Mones M Al-Hanjori Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Abstract Male genital problems and injuries may occur quite simply because of the scrotum and penis are not protected like other organs. Genital problems and injuries normally happen through: recreational activities (like Football, Hooky, biking, basketball), workrelated tasks (like contact to irritating chemicals), downhill drop, and sexual activity. A genital injury frequently causes harsh pain that typically disappear fast without causing enduring harm. Home handling is generally all that is required for trivial problems or injuries. Pain, inflammation, staining, or rashes that are coexist with other symptoms might be a source for concern. Genital problems in men is one of the most common problems which requires fast intervention. In this paper we present an expert system that help men diagnose their genital problems and give them the proper treatment. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement this expert system. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, SL5 Object language, Men Genital Problems. 1. Introduction There may be many medications to treat sexual problems in males, depending on the causes. Problems that result from trauma, infections, as well as a simple irritation often cured by treatment or for a long time. In other cases, male sexual problems cannot be cured, but treatment can successfully reduce or eliminate symptoms. This applies to many diseases, through sexual contact are often dealing with transmitted diseases with medicine, but also some other issues that can be treated with drugs or surgery. While it may be impossible to completely heal every problem of the males, treatment options can be successful. One should consult his doctor to find the most effective treatment for a certain problem [1, 2]. Figure 1 shows male reproduction system. Fig 1: Male reproduction system [1] 1. Expert systems Expert systems is a branch of artificial intelligence that have had the majority of impact, especially in medicine, finance, telecommunications, customer service, transportation, aviation, and more lately, written communication. Artificial intelligence systems based on expert systems by using technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision, all of which are central to highly developed systems [16, 17, 19]. 2.1 Advantages of Expert Systems  Expert advice available on the system all the time  Expert knowledge of a human expert is attained before he/she passes away  Can be employed as to train staff to enhance their expertise  Put together rational decisions without human emotions  They do not get tired like human  Give answers efficiently without the need of more staff  Use natural language interface to make them user friendly 2.2 Limitations of Expert Systems  Covers a specific field of knowledge  Good expert system may require lot of effort and cost International Journal of Medicine Research 84  Expert systems are not as good as human experts.  Expert systems do not learn from mistakes properly  Dubious to come up with creative solutions 2.3 Definition of expert systems: The expert system is a rather popular term that describes computer program, which came to the throne and individual performance or association that owns the expert knowledge and understanding in this field [19]. Today, as a rule, known as artificial intelligence, expert systems has a long history dating back to the 1970s. But, of course, such a system will integrate knowledge that contains an experience that has been collected and inference engine a set of rules for applying the knowledge base for the exact condition to explain the program. They can improve complex expert systems with the additions to the knowledge base or the group regulations. Expert Systems have a good role in the field of financial service systems, healthcare, manufacturing, and video games [17, 19]. 2. Knowledge Representation The main sources of the knowledge to this rule expert system for men genitals problems diagnoses from [1, 5, 8, 9, 14]. The collected knowledge was converted in to Sl5 Object knowledge base (facts, rules and objects) syntax [7]. Currently, our expert system has 13 rules. This expert system can help the user with the following men genital problems.  Sexually transmitted infections Sexually transmitted infections are infections that one may get by having sex with a person who is infected. These infections are typically passed from one person to another through vaginal contact, but they may also be passed through oral sex or skin-to-skin contact. Sexually transmitted infections can be caused by viruses (hepatitis B, herpes, HIV and the human papilloma virus) or bacteria (chlamydia, gonorrhea).  Urinary tract infection A urinary tract infection is an infection in the kidneys, the bladder and the urethra. As blood pour through the kidneys, waste is removed and stored in the bladder as urine.  Yeast infection Vaginal yeast infections are attributable to a fungus known as Candida albicans. Yeast are small organisms that usually exist in a few numbers on the skin and within the vagina. The acidic environment of the vagina keep out yeast from increasing. If the vagina has less amount of acid, a lot of yeast may grow and cause a vaginal infection.  Genital warts Genital warts are small, flat, flesh-colored bumps. Genital warts are attributable to a lot of types of human papilloma virus. Human papilloma virus is associated with cancer of the vulva, anus and penis; however, it does not usually lead to cancer.  Syphilis Syphilis is a severe infection conceded from one person to another during sexual contact. The main cause of it is bacteria. One can get syphilis by touching the blood or sores of a person who has syphilis, particularly sores on the person's mouth, penis, vagina or anus.  Prostate cancer Prostate cancer is when abnormal cells develop in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is one of the mainly widespread types of cancer in men. A good number of types of prostate cancer develop gradually, but several types can be aggressive. This means the cancer grows rapidly and can proliferate to other parts of the body. As soon as cancer spreads, physicians state that the cancer has "metastasized."  Prostatitis Prostatitis is an irritation of the prostate gland. Prostatitis might be easily mystified with other infections in the urinary tract. When one think he has prostatitis, he should see his doctor.  Testicular torsion Testicular torsion happens when the spermatic string becomes twisted. This stops the blood supply to the testicles.  Testicular cancer Testicular cancer starts in one or both of the testicles. The testicles are situated in the scrotum, the skin that hangs up beneath the penis. Hormones and sperm are developed in the testicles.  Varicose veins Varicose veins are veins that are distended and protuberance above the surface of the skin. They may be twisted and are frequently blue or dark purple. Varicose veins are most generally found on the legs or feet, but they might be found on the groin. 3. Literature Review Many expert systems have been designed [6, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 39] to help facilitating diagnosing and managing a lot of diseases and medical problems which considered as a part of applying Artificial Intelligence and computer science in order to help doctors, hospitals and health care facilities decision making to enable them to offer their health services in the correct way. One Expert System was found for diagnosing genital problems in infants [32]. However, our expert system diagnosing genital problems in men and recommend the proper treatment. 4. Materials and Methods The proposed expert system perform diagnosis in men genital problems by asking questions that requires True/False answers. The proposed expert system will ask the user to choose the correct answer in each screen. At the end of the diagnosis session, the proposed expert system provides the proper diagnosis of the problem and present a recommendation for the treatment to the users. Figure 2 shows the first screen of the expert system session. Figure 3 shows how the expert system displays the diagnosis of the problem and the recommendation for treating the patient. International Journal of Medicine Research 85 Fig 2: First screen shot of the expert system diagnosis session Fig 3: Shows the expert system diagnosis and recommendation 5. Conclusion In this paper, we presented an expert system that consists of facts, rules, and objects to help men in diagnosing their genital problems, and help in giving them the proper recommendations for the treatment of the problems they have. The diagnosis is faster and more accurate than conventional diagnosis. This expert system does not require intensive training in order to be ready for use, because it is easy and user friendly. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement the proposed expert system. 6. References 1. , Date visited 15-5-2016. 2. , Date visited 15-5-2016. 3. , Date visited 15-5-2016. 4. m, Date visited 15-5-2016 5. , Date visited 15-5-2016 6. Abu Naser SS, Akkila AN. A Proposed Expert System for Skin Diseases Diagnosis. INSInet Publication, Journal of Applied Sciences Research. 2008; 4(12):16821693. 7. Abu Naser SS. SL5 Object: the Simpler Level 5 Object Expert System Language, International Journal of Soft Computing, Mathematics and Control (IJSCMC). 2015; 4(4):25-37. 8. . Date visited 1-5-2016. 9. , Date visited 15-5-2016. 10. .htm 11. Abu Naser SS, Ola AZ. An expert system for diagnosing eye diseases using Clips. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 2008; 4(10). Available: International Journal of Medicine Research 86 12. Abu Naser SS, Baraka M, Baraka AA. Proposed Expert System For Guiding Freshman Students In Selecting A Major In Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 4(9):889-893. Available: 13. Abu Naser SS, Kashkash K, Fayyad M. Developing an Expert System for Plant Disease Diagnosis, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 1(2):78-85. Available: 14. Wikipedia, , Accessed 30 April 2016. 15. Abu Naser SS, ALmursheidi SA. Knowledge Based System for Neck Pain Diagnosis, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):12-18. Available : 16. Durkin J. Expert Systems: Design and Development, ISBN 0-02-330970-9, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1994. 17. Giarratano J, Riley G. Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition. Boston, MA, Thomson/PWS Publishing Company, 2004. ISBN: 0534937446. 18. Talayeh Tabibi. An Expert System for Diabetes Diagnosis. American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal. 2012. 19. Russell S, Norvig P. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Second Edition, 2002. ISBN 0-13-103805-2. 20. Abu Naser SS, El-Hissi H, Abu-Rass M, El-Khozondar N. An expert system for endocrine diagnosis and treatments using JESS, Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 2010; 3(4), 239-251. 21. Abu Naser SS, Al-Dahdooh R, Mushtaha A, El-Naffar M. Knowledge Management in ESMDA: Expert System for Medical Diagnostic Assistance. AIML Journal. 2010. 22. Abu Naser SS, Kashkash K, Fayyad M. Developing an Expert System for Plant Disease Diagnosis, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 1:(2). 23. Abu Naser SS, Alhabbash M. Male Infertility Expert system Diagnoses and Treatment, American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2:(4). 24. Abu Naser SS, Mahdi A. A proposed Expert System for Foot Diseases Diagnosis, American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2:(4). 25. Abu Naser SS, AlDahdooh R. Lower Back Pain Expert System Diagnosis and Treatment, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016; 2(4). 26. Abu Naser SS, Hamed AM. An Expert System for Mouth Problems in Infants and Children, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016; 2(4). 27. Abu Naser SS, Abu Hasanein H. Ear Diseases Diagnosis Expert System Using SL5 Object. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):41-47. 28. Azaab S. Abu Naser SS, Sulisel O. A proposed expert system for selecting exploratory factor analysis procedures. Journal of the college of education. 2000; 4(2):9-2 29. Buchanan BG, Shortliffe EH. Rule Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley, 1984. ISBN 978-0-201-10172-0. 30. Yoon YR, Brobst P, Bergstresser, Peterson L, ComputerBased Medical Systems, Proceedings of Third Annual IEEE Symposium on, 1990; 3-6:306-312. 31. Wollina U. Common skin diseases: uncommon presentations. Clinics in Dermatology, 2005; 23(5):443445. Doi: 10.1016/ j.clindermatol. 2005. 01. 001. 32. Rubin A. Design of an expert system and its application to dermatopathology, 2007; 21(3):269-274. D O I: 10.1 1 1 1 /j.1 3 6 5 -25 5 9.1992.tb00386.x, http:// dx.doi.org/ 1 0. 1 1 11/ j. 13652559.1992.tb00386.x 33. Thomas A, Quirina V, Steven F, Feldman R, Sara Q. Treating Skin Disease: SelfManagement Behaviors of Latino Farm workers. Journal of Agromedicine. 2006; 11(2):27-35, DOI: 10.1300/J096v11n02-06. 34. Abu Naser SS, Shaath M. Expert System Urination Problems Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 35. Abu Naser SS, Bastami BA. Proposed Rule Based System for Breasts Cancer Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 36. Abu Naser SS, Hilles M. An Expert System for Shoulder Problems Using CLIPS. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 37. Abu Naser SS, El Haddad IA. An Expert System for Genital Problems in Infants, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 38. Abu Naser SS, Alawar MW. An Expert System for Feeding Problems in Infants and Children, International Journal of Medicines Research (IJMR), 2016; 1(2). 39. Abu Naser SS, El-Najjar AA. An Expert System for Nausea and Vomiting Problems in Infants and Children, International Journal of Medicines Research (IJMR), 2016; 1(2).
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{ "creator": "Alawar Mariam W.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1507025847000, "description": "A lot of infants have significant food-related problems, as well as spitting up, rejecting new foods, or not accepting to eat at specific times. These issues are frequently ordinary and are not a sign that the baby is unwell. According to the National Institutes of Health, 25% of generally developing infants and 35% of babies with neurodevelopmental disabilities are tormented by some sort of feeding problem. Some, for example rejecting to eat specific foods or being overly finicky, are momentary and don’t cause any health dangers.\n This paper proposes an expert system that can be used to successfully diagnose Feeding problems in infants and children. The suggested systems were found to be beneficial approach in addition to existing impartial ones. So far as the authors are aware, this is the initial effort of using an expert system in attaining good performance in a real world application. This expert system was designed and implemented to help parents diagnose these problems and get a recommendation of how to deal with infants and children.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAES", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "An expert system for feeding problems in infants and children", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Medicine Research 79 International Journal of Medicine Research ISSN: 2455-7404; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.42 Volume 1; Issue 2; May 2016; Page No. 79-82 An expert system for feeding problems in infants and children Samy S Abu Naser, Mariam W Alawar Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza. Abstract A lot of infants have significant food-related problems, as well as spitting up, rejecting new foods, or not accepting to eat at specific times. These issues are frequently ordinary and are not a sign that the baby is unwell. According to the National Institutes of Health, 25% of generally developing infants and 35% of babies with neurodevelopmental disabilities are tormented by some sort of feeding problem. Some, for example rejecting to eat specific foods or being overly finicky, are momentary and don't cause any health dangers. This paper proposes an expert system that can be used to successfully diagnose Feeding problems in infants and children. The suggested systems were found to be beneficial approach in addition to existing impartial ones. So far as the authors are aware, this is the initial effort of using an expert system in attaining good performance in a real world application. This expert system was designed and implemented to help parents diagnose these problems and get a recommendation of how to deal with infants and children. Keywords: Feeding assessment, Feeding problems, Food aversion, Food refusal, expert systems 1. Introduction Infancy feeding problems are projected to happen in up to 25% of generally developing children and in up to 35% of children having neurodevelopmental disabilities. One familiar definition of feeding problems is the incapability or refutation to eat specific foods. Problems with feeding can lead to important unconstructive nutritional, developmental and psychological sequelae. Since the harshness of these sequelae is connected to the age at onset, level and interval of the feeding problem, before time identification and administration are significant. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines to recognize feeding problems in the first three years of life; to present a newly developed instrument to assess the presence of feeding problems and watch the effects of management; and to explain basic management methods that may get rid of or enhance feeding dysfunction [1, 4]. Many of infants have significant food-related problems, as well as spitting up, rejecting new foods, or not accepting to eat at specific times. These issues are frequently ordinary and are not an sign that the baby is unwell. According to the National Institutes of Health, 25% of generally developing infants and 35% of babies with neurodevelopmental disabilities are tormented by some sort of feeding problem. Some, for example rejecting to eat specific foods or being overly finicky, are momentary and don't cause any health dangers [7, 8]. Nevertheless, problems for instance food allergies, vomiting, and constantly rejecting foods and liquids may designate and fundamental medical condition. It can have unpleasant effects on an infant's health and may need medical attention. Swallowing disorders, medically identified as dysphagia, may happen at dissimilar stages throughout the infant's swallowing progression, and consist of [12, 34, 40].  Oral Phase: The oral stage is incorporated of sucking, chewing, and moving foods and/or liquids to the throat.  Pharyngeal Phase: The pharyngeal phase is when the infant starts to swallow and move food down the throat, yet closes off the throat to prevent it from going into the airway, which keeps out choking.  Esophageal Phase: The esophageal phases contains calming and contraction the openings of the esophagus and pushing food into the stomach 2. Expert System Language Expert Systems language is a group of programs that aid the knowledge engineer in building expert system through the creation of knowledge (rules and facts). See figure 1 for details. An expert system is typically consists of at least three main components [14, 15, 17].  Knowledge Base The knowledge base is a collection of rules and facts derived from the human expert. Rules typically takes the form: IF <antecedent> THEN <consequent> The antecedent is the condition that must be satisfied. When the antecedent is satisfied, the rule is triggered and is said to "fire". The consequent is the action that is performed when the rule fires.  Inference Engine The inference engine is the main processing element of the expert system. The inference engine select rules from the agenda to fire. If no rules found in the agenda, the inference engine must get information from the end user to be able to add more rules to the agenda. It uses knowledge base, in order to conclude situations. It is responsible for collecting the data from the end user, by asking questions and applying it wherever necessary. International Journal of Medicine Research 80  User Interface A user interface is the technique the expert system interacts with the end user. These can be through dialog boxes, command prompts, forms, or other input methods. Fig 1: Components of Expert Systems The proposed Expert System for Feeding Problems in Infants and Children diagnosis was designed and implemented using, CLIPS Language [15]. CLIPS is a public domain software tool for building expert systems. The name is stands for "C Language Integrated Production System [15]. 3. Materials and Methods. The proposed expert system will ask the user a number of questions about the signs and symptoms of the patient and at the end of the session the diagnosis and the recommendation for taking care of the patient. 4. Literature Review There is no dedicated expert system for feeding problems in infants and children in the literature; however, there are a good number of medical expert systems that were designed to help with diagnosing diseases such as: Foot problem, Male fertility problems, Ear problems, Hearing Problems, neck pain problems, low back pain problems, eye problems, and endocrine problems [5, 6, 11, 13, 16, 18, 33]. 5. Knowledge representation The main source of the knowledge for this expert system are physicians and specialized websites. The captured knowledge have been converted into CLIPS Knowledge base syntax (facts and rules). Here is a brief identification of feeding problems in infants and children problems that the expert system can help the user with. 5.1 Symptoms of Infant Feeding Problems Infants with feeding problems may show a few symptoms, but signs and symptoms may vary according to every person and the brutality of the feeding issues. General signs and symptoms of infant feeding problems comprise [35, 36].  Semi-circled the back and body whilst feeding  Meticulousness or shortage of attentiveness during feeding  Rejecting to eat food and drink fluids  Rejecting various textures of food  Extremely lengthy feeding times  Chewing problems  Difficulty with bottle and/or breast feeding  Coughing during feeding times  Extreme drooling  Complexity in coordinating breathing with eating and drinking  Augmented nasal staleness throughout meals  Husky, or breathy sound quality  Rescreening spitting up and/or vomiting  Frequent pneumonia or respiratory infections  Slow weight gain or development Infants having feeding problems may as well be at risk for: Dehydration, aspiration, chronic lung disease, or poor nutrition. 5.2 Diagnosis of Infant Feeding Problems When a baby is having complexity with feeding, it's significant to call the pediatrician right away. Although feeding problems are frequently insignificant, it's essential to seek medical action in case there is a fundamental medical matter. The pediatrician will usually begin by testing the infant and addressing and diagnose any medical clarifications for the feeding complication, including, if applicable, the attendance of excessive reflux or metabolic disorders. A pathologist who specializes in take cares of infants and children with feeding and swallowing disorders may as well test out the baby's symptoms, and if appropriate, recommend a pathology early involvement [37, 40]. 5.3 Treatment Options for Infant Feeding Problems Treatment differs very much depending on the reason and signs of the feeding matters. The following are amongst a few handling options for babies with feeding problems [38-40].  Medical treatment.  Feeding therapy.  Nutritional modification.  Encouraging an increased approval of new foods and textures.  Food temperature and texture modification.  Postural or positioning modifications.  Behavior administration techniques.  Mouth training to make the mouth muscles stronger  Tongue movement and chewing training  Encouraging various types of foods, as well different textures  Assist with sucking improvement  Changing food textures and liquid thickness to make sure secure swallowing In urgent situation cases involving feeding disorders, hospitalization may be essential. The baby may as well require feeding tube while there in order to take in enough nutrition. Nevertheless, the majority of cases of infant feeding problems are deal with before hospitalization. As said earlier, nutritional therapy and/or regular meetings with baby's doctor are enough to assist with feeding. A team approach between parents, caregivers, baby's pediatrician, and professionals International Journal of Medicine Research 81 such as dietitians, therapists, and speech pathologists is often the main optimal way to overcome these problems. In some instances, an infant may be placed on a precise diet and approved nutritional supplements, the majority often when they are underweight, undergoing treatment, and experiences developmental delays [39]. 5.4 Causes of Infant Feeding Problems The following are a few causes of feeding and swallowing disorders in infants [40]. 1. Medical Causes of Infant Feeding Problems  Traumatic birth injuries that lead to neurological disorders, such as cerebral palsy  Cleft lip and/or cleft palate  Autism  Neck and head abnormalities  Premature birth  Low birth weight  Respiratory problems  Heart disease  Gastrointestinal disorders  Medications that decrease appetite 2. Non-medical Causes of Infant Feeding Problems Non-medical reasons that may affect a baby's feeding patterns include [38]. The baby may be stressed or scared about something  The baby isn't receiving enough attention or emotional care from parents and/or loved ones (feels alone, anxious)  The baby simply does not like the tastes, smell, and/or texture of certain foods 5.5 Infant Feeding Problems Prognosis and Long-term Outlook When the feeding problems are addressed as early as the baby begins to show signs of feeding problems, for example losing weight and rejecting to eat, the prognosis is generally favorable and is typically resolved within short period of health conditions or effect. When the baby left untreated, nonetheless, infant feeding problems may guide to a myriad of problems, including delayed physical development, delayed mental development, learning disorders, and more. Actually, these developmental delays may stay within infant through childhood and into and through maturity. Once specific foods with high nutritional value is not a part of a growing infant's diet, there is a possibility that oral motor development will be delayed, which in turn can guide to more delays, such as speech problems, slow growth, cognitive matters, and behavioral disorders [1, 4]. 6. Conclusions In this paper we proposed an expert system that can be used to successfully diagnose feeding problems in infants and children. The suggested system was found to be beneficial approach in addition to existing impartial ones. So far as the authors are aware, this is the initial effort of using an expert system in attaining good performance in a real world application. This expert system was designed and implemented in CLIPS language to help parents diagnose their infant and children problems and get a recommendation of how to them. 7. References 3. 5-5-2016 4. 5-5-2016 5. issues/miscellaneous_disorders_in_infants_and_young_ children/feeding_problems.html 5-5-2016 6. FeedingandSwallowing.pdf 5-5-2016 7. Abu Naser SS, Akkila AN. A Proposed Expert System for Skin Diseases Diagnosis. INSInet Publication. Journal of Applied Sciences Research. 2008; 4(12):16821693. 8. Abu Naser SS, SL5 Object: the Simpler Level 5 Object Expert System Language, International Journal of Soft Computing, Mathematics and Control (IJSCMC). 2015; 4(4):25-37. 9. Mayo Clinic, . Date visited 30-3-2016. 10. Family Doctor, , Date visited 30-3-2016. 11. Abu Naser SS, Ola AZ. An expert system for diagnosing eye diseases using Clips. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 2008; 4:(10). Available: 12. Abu Naser SS, Baraka M, Baraka AA. Proposed Expert System For Guiding Freshman Students In Selecting A Major In Al-Azhar University, Gaza. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 4(9):889-893. Available: 13. Abu Naser SS, Kashkash K, Fayyad M. Developing an Expert System for Plant Disease Diagnosis, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 1(2):78-85. Available: 14. Wikipedia, Accessed 30 March 2016. 15. Abu Naser SS, ALmursheidi SA. Knowledge Based System for Neck Pain Diagnosis, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):12-18. Available : 16. Durkin J. Expert Systems: Design and Development, ISBN 0-02-330970-9, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1994. 17. Giarratano J, Riley G. Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition. Boston, MA, Thomson/PWS Publishing Company, 2004. ISBN: 0534937446. 18. Talayeh Tabibi. An Expert System for Diabetes Diagnosis, American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal. 2012. 19. Russell S, Norvig P. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Second Edition, 2002. ISBN 0-13-103805-2. International Journal of Medicine Research 82 20. Abu Naser SS, El-Hissi H, Abu-Rass M, El-Khozondar N. An expert system for endocrine diagnosis and treatments using JESS, Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 2010; 3(4):239-251. 21. Abu Naser SS, Al-Dahdooh R, Mushtaha A, El-Naffar M. Knowledge Management in ESMDA: Expert System for Medical Diagnostic Assistance, AIML Journal. 2010. 22. Abu Naser SS, Alhabbash M. Male Infertility Expert system Diagnoses and Treatment, American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2(4). 23. Abu Naser SS, Mahdi A. A proposed Expert System for Foot Diseases Diagnosis, American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2(4). 24. Abu Naser SS, AlDahdooh R. Lower Back Pain Expert System Diagnosis and Treatment, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016; 2(4). 25. Abu Naser SS, Hamed AM. An Expert System for Mouth Problems in Infants and Children, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016; 2(4). 26. Abu Naser SS, Abu Hasanein H. Ear Diseases Diagnosis Expert System Using SL5 Object. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(4):41-47. 27. Azaab S, Abu Naser SS, Sulisel O. A proposed expert system for selecting exploratory factor analysis procedures. Journal of the college of education. 2000; 4(2):9-2 28. Randolph Miller A. INTERNIST-1: An Experimental Computer-Based Diagnostic Consultant for General Internal Medicine. New England Journal of Medicine. 1982; 468-76. 29. Buchanan BG, Shortliffe EH. Rule Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley, 1984. ISBN 978-0-201-10172-0. 30. Yoon YR, Brobst P, Bergstresser, Peterson L. ComputerBased Medical Systems, Proceedings of Third Annual IEEE Symposium on, 1990; 3-6:306-312. 31. Wollina U. Common skin diseases: uncommon presentations. Clinics in Dermatology, 2005; 23(5):443445. j.clindermatol. 2005. 01. 001. 32. Abu Naser SS, El Haddad I. An Expert System for Genital Problems in Infants, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 33. Abu Naser SS, Bastami BA. Proposed Rule Based System for Breasts Cancer Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 34. Abu Naser SS, Shaath M. Expert System Urination Problems Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 35. Abu Naser SS, Hilles M. An Expert System for Shoulder Problems Using CLIPS. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD). 2016; 2(5). 36. Sisson LA, Van Hasselt VB. Feeding disorders. In: Luiselli JK, editor. Behavioral Medicine and Developmental Disabilities. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989, 45-73. 37. Palmer S, Horn S. Feeding problems in children. In: Palmer S, Ekvall S, editors. Pediatric Nutrition in Developmental Disorders. Springfield: Charles C Thomas; 1978, 13:107-129. 38. Babbitt R, Hoch TA, Coe DA. Behavioral assessment and treatment of pediatric feeding disorders. J Dev BehavPediatr. 1994; 15:278-91. [PubMed] 39. Hunter JG. Pediatric feeding dysfunction. In: Semmler CJ, Hunter JG, editors. Early Occupational Therapy Intervention: Neonates to Three Years. Gaithersburg: Aspen Publishers Inc, 1990, 124-84. 40. Illingworth RS, Lister J. The critical or sensitive period, with special reference to certain feeding problems in infants and children. J Pediatr. 1964; 65:839-48. [PubMed] 41. Archer LA, Szatmari P. Assessment and treatment of food aversion in a four year old boy: A multidimensional approach. Can J Psychiatry. 1990; 35:501-5. [PubMed] 42. Cloud H. Feeding problems of the child with special health care needs. In: Ekvall SW, editor. Pediatric Nutrition in Chronic Diseases and Developmental Disorders. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 203-42.
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{ "creator": "Abu-Mohaned, Dalffa", "date": "2020", "datestamp": 1583485245000, "description": "Throughout this research, imposing the training of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to play tic-tac-toe bored game, by training the ANN to play the tic-tac-toe logic using the set of mathematical combination of the sequences that could be played by the system and using both the Gradient Descent Algorithm explicitly and the Elimination theory rules implicitly. And so on the system should be able to produce imunate amalgamations to solve every state within the game course to make better of results of winnings or getting draw.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAFT", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "ANN for Tic-Tac-Toe Learning", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 9 ANN for Tic-Tac-Toe Learning Mohaned Abu Dalffa Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Al-Azhar University Gaza, Palestine Abstract: Throughout this research, imposing the training of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to play tic-tac-toe bored game, by training the ANN to play the tic-tac-toe logic using the set of mathematical combination of the sequences that could be played by the system and using both the Gradient Descent Algorithm explicitly and the Elimination theory rules implicitly. And so on the system should be able to produce imunate amalgamations to solve every state within the game course to make better of results of winnings or getting draw. Keywords: Tic-Tac-Toe, neural network, ANN, prediction. 1. INTRODUCTION Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts [1] created a computational model for neural networks based on mathematics and algorithms called threshold logic. This model paved the way for neural network research to split into two approaches. One approach focused on biological processes in the brain while the other focused on the application of neural networks to artificial intelligence. This work led to work on nerve networks and their link to finite automata [2]. Artificial Neural Networks are computing algorithms that can solve complex problems imitating animal brain processes in a simplified manner [3]. Perceptron-type neural networks consist of artificial neurons or nodes, which are information processing units arranged in layers and interconnected by synaptic weights (connections). Neurons can filter and transmit information in a supervised fashion in order to build a predictive model that classifies data stored in memory. A typical ANN model is a three-layered network of interconnected nodes: the input layer, the hidden layer, and the output layer. The nodes between input and output layers can form one or more hidden layers. Every neuron in one layer has a link to every other neuron in the next layer, but neurons belonging to the same layer have no connections between them (Figure 1). The input layer receives information from the outside world, the hidden layer performs the information processing and the output layer produces the class label or predicts continuous values. The values from the input layer entering a hidden node are multiplied by weights, a set of predetermined numbers, and the products are then added to produce a single number. This number is passed as an argument to a nonlinear mathematical function, the activation function, which returns a number between 0 and 1[4]. Figure 1. Neural network architecture. Figure 2. Neural network active node. In Fig.2, the net sum of the weighted inputs entering a node j and the output activation function that converts a neuron's weighted input to its output activation (the most commonly used is the sigmoid function), are given by the equations respectively. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 10 The neuron, and therefore the ANN, has two modes of operation, the training mode and the using mode. During the training phase, a data set with actual inputs and outputs will be used as examples to teach the system how to predict outputs. This supervised learning begins with random weights and, by using gradient descent search algorithms like Backpropagation, adjusts the weights to be applied to the task at hand. The difference between target output values and obtained values is used in the error function to drive learning [12]. The error function depends on the weights, which need to be modified in order to minimize the error. For a given training set {(x 1 ,t 1 ), (x 2 ,t 2 ),, (x k ,t k )} consisting of k ordered pairs of n inputs and m dimensional vectors (n-inputs, moutputs), which are called the input and output patterns, the error for the output of each neuron can be defined by the equation: while the error function of the network that must be minimized is given by: Where Oj is the output produced when the input pattern x j from the training set enters the network, and t j is the target value [13]. During the training mode, each weight is changed adding to its previous value the quantity Where γ is a constant that gives the learning rate. The higher the learning rate, the faster the convergent will be, but the searching path may trapped around the optimal solution and convergence become impossible. Once a set of good weights have been found, the neural network model can take another dataset with unknown output values and predict automatic the corresponding outputs. 2. TIC-TAC-TOE THEORY Tic-tac-toe is played on a three-by-three grid (see figure 3). Each player takes turn to place a symbol on an open square. One player's symbol is "X" and the other's is "O". The game is over once a player has three signs in a row: horizontally, ver tically, or diagonally (as shown in figure 4). The game can end with a draw result (as shown in figure 5), if there is no possibility of winning for both players. Figure 3: Empty board Figure 4: Palyer X win Figure 5: Draw game The Tic-Tac-Toe game can be generalized to an (m, n, k) game in which two players take turns to put a symbol of their own color on an m × n board, with the goal of getting k of their own color in a row. Tic-tac-toe is specifically (3, 3, 3) game, where m =3, n=3 and k= 3 in this game [6]. If played correctly, the game will end in a draw, making tic-tac-toe a pointless game [8]. 3. FUN HISTORICAL FACTS Games played on three-in-a-row boards can be traced back to ancient Egypt [9], where such game boards have been found on roofing tiles dating from around 1300 BCE[10]. An early variation of tic-tac-toe was played in the Roman Empire, around the first century BC. It was called terni lapilli (three pebbles at a time) and instead of having any number of pieces, each player only had three, thus they had to move them around to empty spaces to keep playing [11]. The game's grid markings have been found chalked all over Rome. Another closely related International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 11 ancient game is Three Men's Morris which is also played on a simple grid and requires three pieces in a row to finish,[12] and Picaria, a game of the Puebloans. The different names of the game are more recent. The first print reference to "noughts and crosses", the British name, appeared in 1858, in an issue of Notes and Queries[13]. The first print reference to a game called "tick-tack-toe" occurred in 1884, but referred to "a children's game played on a slate, consisting in trying with the eyes shut to bring the pencil down on one of the numbers of a set, the number hit being scored". "Tic-tac-toe" may also derive from "tick-tack", the name of an old version of backgammon first described in 1558. The US renaming of "noughts and crosses" as "tic-tac-toe" occurred in the 20th century[14]. In 1952, OXO (or Noughts and Crosses), developed by British computer scientist Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC computer at the University of Cambridge, became one of the first known video games[15,16]. The computer player could play perfect games of tic-tac-toe against a human opponent.11 In 1975, tic-tac-toe was also used by MIT students to demonstrate the computational power of Tinkertoy elements. The Tinkertoy computer, made out of (almost) only Tinkertoys, is able to play tic-tac-toe perfectly [17]. It is currently on display at the Museum of Science, Boston. 4. COMBINATORY When considering only the state of the board, and after taking into account board symmetries (i.e. rotations and reflections), there are only 138 terminal board positions. A combinatorics study of the game shows that when "X" makes the first move every time, the game is won as follows[18]:  91 distinct positions are won by (X)  44 distinct positions are won by (O)  3 distinct positions are drawn (often called a "cat's game[19]") 5. STRATEGY A player can play a perfect game of tic-tac-toe (to win or at least, draw) if each time it is his turn to play, he chooses the first available move from the following list, as used in Newell and Simon's 1972 tic-tac-toe program[20]. 1Win: If the player has two in a row, they can place a third to get three in a row. 2Block: If the opponent has two in a row, the player must play the third themselves to block the opponent. 3Fork: Create an opportunity where the player has two threats to win (two non-blocked lines of 2). 4Blocking an opponent's fork: If there is only one possible fork for the opponent, the player should block it. Otherwise, the player should block any forks in any way that simultaneously allows them to create two in a row. Otherwise, the player should create a two in a row to force the opponent into defending, as long as it doesn't result in them creating a fork. For example, if "X" has two opposite corners and "O" has the center, "O" must not play a corner in order to win. (Playing a corner in this scenario creates a fork for "X" to win.) 5Center: A player marks the center. (If it is the first move of the game, playing on a corner gives the second player more opportunities to make a mistake and may therefore be the better choice; however, it makes no difference between perfect players.) 6Opposite corner: If the opponent is in the corner, the player plays the opposite corner. 7Empty corner: The player plays in a corner square. 8Empty side: The player plays in a middle square on any of the 4 sides. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 12 Optimal strategy for player X if starting in a corner. In each grid, the shaded red X denotes the optimal move, and the location of O's next move gives the next subgrid to examine. Note that only two sequences of moves by O (both starting with center, top-right, left-mid) lead to a draw, with the remaining sequences leading to wins from X. The first player, who shall be designated "X", has 3 possible positions to mark during the first turn. Superficially, it might seem that there are 9 possible positions, corresponding to the 9 squares in the grid. However, by rotating the board, we will find that in the first turn, every corner mark is strategically equivalent to every other corner mark. The same is true of every edge (side middle) mark. For strategy purposes, there are therefore only three possible first marks: corner, edge, or center. Player X can win or force a draw from any of these starting marks; however, playing the corner gives the opponent the smallest choice of squares which must be played to avoid losing[21]. This might suggest that the corner is the best opening move for X, however another study [22] shows that if the players are not perfect, an opening move in the center is best for X. The second player, who shall be designated "O", must respond to X's opening mark in such a way as to avoid the forced win. Player O must always respond to a corner opening with a center mark, and to a center opening with a corner mark. An edge opening must be answered either with a center mark, a corner mark next to the X, or an edge mark opposite the X. Any other responses will allow X to force the win. Once the opening is completed, O's task is to follow the above list of priorities in order to force the draw, or else to gain a win if X makes a weak play. More detailedly, to guarantee a draw, O should adopt the following strategies: Optimal strategy for player O. Player O can always force a win or draw by taking center. If it is taken by X, then O must take a corner International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 13 If X plays corner opening move, O should take center, and then an edge, forcing X to block in the next move. This will stop any forks from happening. When both X and O are perfect players and X chooses to start by marking a corner, O takes the center, and X takes the corner opposite the original. In that case, O is free to choose any edge as its second move. However, if X is not a perfect player and has played a corner and then an edge, O should not play the opposite edge as its second move, because then X is not forced to block in the next move and can fork. If X plays edge opening move, O should take center or one of the corners adjacent to X, and then follow the above list of priorities, mainly paying attention to block forks. If X plays center opening move, O should take corner, and then follow the above list of priorities, mainly paying attention to block forks. When X plays corner first, and O is not a perfect player, the following may happen: If O responds with a center mark (best move for them), a perfect X player will take the corner opposite the original. Then O should play an edge. However, if O plays a corner as its second move, a perfect X player will mark the remaining corner, blocking O's 3-in-a-row and making their own fork. If O responds with a corner mark, X is guaranteed to win, by simply taking any of the other two corners and then the last, a fork. (since when X takes the third corner, O can only take the position between the two X's. Then X can take the only remaining corner to win). Further details Consider a board with the nine positions numbered as follows: When X plays 1 as their opening move, then O should take 5. Then X takes 9 (in this situation, O should not take 3 or 7, O should take 2, 4, 6 or 8): X1 → O5 → X9 → O2 → X8 → O7 → X3 → O6 → X4, this game will be a draw. or 6 (in this situation, O should not take 4 or 7, O should take 2, 3, 8 or 9. In fact, taking 9 is the best move, since a non-perfect player X may take 4, then O can take 7 to win).  X1 → O5 → X6 → O2 → X8, then O should not take 3, or X can take 7 to win, and O should not take 4, or X can take 9 to win, O should take 7 or 9.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O2 → X8 → O7 → X3 → O9 → X4, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O2 → X8 → O9 → X4 (7) → O7 (4) → X3, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O3 → X7 → O4 → X8 (9) → O9 (8) → X2, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O8 → X2 → O3 → X7 → O4 → X9, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O9, then X should not take 4, or O can take 7 to win, X should take 2, 3, 7 or 8.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O9 → X2 → O3 → X7 → O4 → X8, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O9 → X3 → O2 → X8 → O4 (7) → X7 (4), this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O9 → X7 → O4 → X2 (3) → O3 (2) → X8, this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O9 → X8 → O2 (3, 4, 7) → X4/7 (4/7, 2/3, 2/3) → O7/4 (7/4, 3/2, 3/2) → X3 (2, 7, 4), this game will be a draw. If X is not a perfect player, X may take 2 or 3 as second move. Then this game will be a draw, X cannot win.  X1 → O5 → X2 → O3 → X7 → O4 → X6 → O8 (9) → X9 (8), this game will be a draw.  X1 → O5 → X3 → O2 → X8 → O4 (6) → X6 (4) → O9 (7) → X7 (9), this game will be a draw. If X plays 1 opening move, and O is not a perfect player, the following may happen: Although O takes the only good position (5) as first move, but O takes a bad position as second move:  X1 → O5 → X9 → O3 → X7, then X can take 4 or 8 to win.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O4 → X3, then X can take 2 or 9 to win.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O7 → X3, then X can take 2 or 9 to win. Although O takes good positions as the first two moves, but O takes a bad position as third move: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 14  X1 → O5 → X6 → O2 → X8 → O3 → X7, then X can take 4 or 9 to win.  X1 → O5 → X6 → O2 → X8 → O4 → X9, then X can take 3 or 7 to win. O takes a bad position as first move (except of 5, all other positions are bad):  X1 → O3 → X7 → O4 → X9, then X can take 5 or 8 to win.  X1 → O9 → X3 → O2 → X7, then X can take 4 or 5 to win.  X1 → O2 → X5 → O9 → X7, then X can take 3 or 4 to win.  X1 → O6 → X5 → O9 → X3, then X can take 2 or 7 to win 6. THE METHODOLOGY The EasyNN-Plus program was used to develop the ANN model. The structure of the neural network was set as feedforward, in which the output layer connects only to the previous layer. ANN training used 83% of the 958 cases (798) and 17% of cases (160) were selected for the validation set. All cases were randomly selected by the EasyNN-Plus program. The parameters considered the input layer for the neural network training can be seen in the following adjacent figures, combined with other parameters describing the combinations of the tic-tac-toe game regression. A total of nine input parameters were used in the development of the ANN model (see Appendix). Several configurations of ANN were tested in other to find the best performing combination of number of hidden layers and nodes per layer. In all configurations, Eq. was used as activation function to smooth the output signal of each node: Where x is the sum of the weighted input of each previous node plus the bias of the node itself. ANN results were evaluated based on the coefficient of determination of all strategies possible to the game mind, the mean bias error. The accuracy of these ANNs was then compared to the accuracy of the original ANN (which includes all eight input parameters). Technique and Description Gradient Descent Formula was used in terms of measuring and evaluating each suitable move would and could be used: Gradient descent is a first-order iterative optimization algorithm for finding the minimum of a function. To find a local minimum of a function using gradient descent, one takes steps proportional to the negative of the gradient (or approximate gradient) of the function at the current point. If instead one takes steps proportional to the positive of the gradient, one approaches a local maximum of that function; the procedure is then known as gradient ascent. Data Used in tic-tac-toe International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 15 Table 1: Input and output attributes SN. Attribute Name Type of Attribute 1 top-left-square: {x,o,b} Input 2 top-middle-square: {x,o,b} Input 3 top-right-square: {x,o,b} Input 4 middle-left-square: {x,o,b} Input 5 middle-middle-square: {x,o,b} Input 6 middle-right-square: {x,o,b} Input 7 bottom-left-square: {x,o,b} Input 8 bottom-middle-square: {x,o,b} Input 9 bottom-right-square: {x,o,b} Input 10 Class: {positive, negative} Output The original dataset was normalized to be ready for Just NN environment. Dataset consists of 958 samples. It was divided into 83% of the total sample for training and 17% for the total samples into validation. That means the size of the training sample is equal 498 and the size of the validation samples is 160. The ANN model consist of three layers: one layer for input (9 neuron), one Hidden Layer (3 neuron) and one output layer (one neuron) (as shown in Figure 6). The ANN model was trained and validated. The number of cycles was 3580 and the error rate was equal 0.018237 and the accuracy was 99.38% (as shown Figure 7). The relative importance of the attribute was found as in Figure 8. Figure 6: Neural Network Design International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems (IJEAIS) ISSN: 2000-000X Vol. 3 Issue 2, February - 2019, Pages: 9-17 16 Figure 7: Neural Network model training and validation Figure 8: Neural Network relative importance of the attributes 7. CONCLUSION In this research, we presented the training of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to play tic-tac-toe bored game, by training the ANN to play the tic-tac-toe logic using the set of mathematical combination of the sequences that could be played by the system and using both the Gradient Descent Algorithm explicitly and the Elimination theory rules implicitly. The accuracy of the ANN model we got was 99.38%. 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{ "creator": "Abu Naser, Samy S.", "date": "2017", "datestamp": 1562846174000, "description": "Intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is a computer system which aims to provide immediate and customized or reactions to learners, usually without the intervention of human teacher's instructions. Secretariats professional to have the common goal of learning a meaningful and effective manner through the use of a variety of computing technologies enabled. There are many examples of professional Secretariats used in both formal education and in professional settings that have proven their capabilities. There is a close relationship between private lessons intelligent, cognitive learning and design theories; and there are ongoing to improve the effectiveness of ITS research. And it aims to find a solution to the problem of over-reliance on students' teachers for quality education. The program aims to provide access to high-quality education to every student, and therefore the reform of the education system as a whole.\n In this paper, we will use Intelligent Tutoring System Builder (ITSB) to build an education system on cloud computing in terms of the concept of cloud computing and components and how to take advantage of cloud computing in the field.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAIT-3", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "An Intelligent Tutoring System for Cloud Computing", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Research and Development 76 International Journal of Academic Research and Development ISSN: 2455-4197, Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 Volume 2; Issue 1; January 2017; Page No. 76-80 An intelligent tutoring system for cloud computing 1 Hasan Abdulla Abu Hasanein, 2 Samy S Abu Naser 1 Department of Information Technology, Israa University, Gaza, Palestine 2 Department of Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Abstract Intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is a computer system which aims to provide immediate and customized or reactions to learners, usually without the intervention of human teacher's instructions. Secretariats professional to have the common goal of learning a meaningful and effective manner through the use of a variety of computing technologies enabled. There are many examples of professional Secretariats used in both formal education and in professional settings that have proven their capabilities. There is a close relationship between private lessons intelligent, cognitive learning and design theories; and there are ongoing to improve the effectiveness of ITS research. And it aims to find a solution to the problem of over-reliance on students' teachers for quality education. The program aims to provide access to high-quality education to every student, and therefore the reform of the education system as a whole. In this paper, we will use Intelligent Tutoring System Builder (ITSB) to build an education system on cloud computing in terms of the concept of cloud computing and components and how to take advantage of cloud computing in the field. Keywords: intelligent tutoring system, intelligent tutoring system builder, cloud computing 1. Introduction It is no secret one of the great technological development in which we live in the present, bringing to the use of computers and the Internet of the elements of daily life such as water and electricity, and in the light of this great development was necessary to take advantage of it in the field of education. Intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is one of the areas which have emerged recently and aimed to take advantage as much as possible of evolution in which we live. Intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is software which aims to provide immediate instructions and customized or reactions to learners usually without the intervention of human teacher. The goal of building intelligent Privacy lessons cloud computing system is to teach students the general concepts and components of mathematical computing and its importance in our daily lives and how to use them in the field of education [5, 6]. 2. Literature Review There are many intelligent tutoring systems in various fields [4-34]. Since the launch of these systems, programmers racing to develop intelligent tutoring systems to help learners overcome the difficulties they face. A lot of previous research papers were read about the subject of intelligent tutoring but no research paper was found related to cloud computing. 3. ITS Architecture Fig 1: ITS architecture International Journal of Academic Research and Development 77 You may need the design and selection of stages of intelligence information. Learner information collection agent enables a system to collect personal information, previous educational experiences and results of pre-agent learner. Also record activities such as mouse movements and learning time period and exam scores. Learner profiling agent and agent activity monitoring are two types of profiling the factors that apply to the making and improving the situation. The profiling agent learner resides partial information from different learner and determines the level of intelligence, and learning and former preference learning of learners. Agent activity monitoring assessment of learning time of each session, the results of the exam and the exam has spent time and in this way determine the path of learning and knowledge level of the learner [4]. In the next step, when the agent modeling personal learner receives information of learners in the design stage, and begins to learn or improve modeling. After this step model automatically sent to the learning and planning agent in the selection phase. Undersecretary of analyzes based tutorial on model and then update it. And finally sent a personal learning plan learner agent. The Under educational materials such as personal contents, exams, feedback is vital for leaners. 3.1 Domain Model Architecture This domain of a set of chapters consists all of them many lessons, information becomes more difficult when you move from each chapter to another, came the chapters and lessons are organized within them as follows [1, 2, 3]:  Introduction to Cloud Computing  What cloud computing  The history of the emergence of cloud computing  What is the basic idea of cloud computing?  Cloud Computing Component  Software as a Service  Platform as a service  Infrastructure as a service.  The benefits and obstacles to cloud computing  The benefits of cloud computing  Obstacles and threats to use cloud computing  Cloud Computing Service Providers  What is the role of cloud computing service provider?  What are the main leading companies in the cloud computing service?  Security in cloud computing  Use of cloud computing  Cloud computing in trade  Cloud Computing in Education  Cloud computing in companies 3.2 Student Model Architecture Each student when using the system for the first time the rules of the art is by default set up a special file the student and give him a user name and password, then the student Login to your account through a dedicated student user interface and then provide the student to choose the part you want presided, and the system in turn offer lessons within this segment so that the student can study them. There in the system a set of questions for each lesson and each of these lessons have a certain level of difficulty through the student answers to these questions, the system determining the level of the student. If it exceeds the student questions the degree of success, the collection system is considered to be a student of this part has been successfully completed, and thus the system moves the student to the next part and so on. 3.3 Pedagogical Module Architecture The teacher enters the main parts of the material and then enters each part of the lessons. The teacher then enter the questions and you're adding each question according to the levels they want, and can also determine the degree of success for each lesson and that if a student got on top of them, the sign system is transferred to the next level. This section also contains an interface through which the teacher to follow up the students who use the system, so that it can see the levels at which they arrived, and it can monitor the performance of students and the extent of their understanding of the lessons. 3.4 User Interface Model This ITSB tool used to build our current ITS supports two classes of users: students and teachers. When the teacher logs in the system, the teacher can add/modify/delete lessons, exercises, answers of exercises, initial ITS basic information, initial information about students, configure/adjust the color, font name, and size of all combo boxes, buttons, and menus.. A screenshot of the teacher interface is shown in Fig 2, Fig 3, Fig 4, and Fig 5. However, when the student logs into the system, he/she can study the lessons, examples and questions. When the student clicks on Exercises button then "new problem" button is enabled and the student can click on it to be given a new problem to solve. The student should click on the "check" button to check his/her answer is correct or not. When the student wants to see his/her performance he/she should click on "stats" button. See Fig 6 and Fig 7. Fig 2: Login Screen International Journal of Academic Research and Development 78 Fig 3: Add basic ITS data Fig 4: Add Student initial data Fig 5: choose the font, color, sizes for other screens Fig 6: Lessons and examples area Fig 7: Exercises area 4. Evaluation We have evaluated the intelligent tutoring system teaching cloud computing by presenting it to a group of teachers who specializes in cloud computing and another group of students. Both groups were asked to evaluate system. Then we asked them to fill questionnaire about it. The questionnaire consisted of questions regarding advantages of ITS, completeness of the material, quality of the ITS design. The results of the evaluation by both groups were very acceptable. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we have designed an Intelligent Tutoring System teaching cloud computing by using ITSB authoring tool. The ITS system was designed to ease the study of cloud computing lessons by the students and overcome the difficulties they face. The ITS for cloud computing architecture and requirements of each part of International Journal of Academic Research and Development 79 the ITS system have been explained. We conducted an evaluation of the ITS two groups of teachers and students and the results were very acceptable. References 1. Rafaels RJ. Cloud Computing: From Beginning to End, 2015. 2. Arshdeep B, Vijay M. Cloud Computing: A HandsOn Approach, 2013. 3. Thomas E. Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture and Cloud Computing Design Patterns, 2015. 4. Abu Naser S. JEE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Java Expression Evaluation. Information Technology Journal, Scialert. 2008; 7(3):528-532. 5. Abu Eloun NN, Abu Naser SS. 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An Intelligent Tutoring System for Health Problems Related To Addiction of Video Game Playing. International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research. 2017; 2(1). 11. Aldahdooh R, Abu Naser SS. Development and Evaluation of the Oracle Intelligent Tutoring System (OITS). European Academic Research. 2017; 4(10). 12. Alhabbash MI, Mahdi AO, Abu Naser SS. An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Grammar English Tenses. European Advanced Research, 2016; 4(9):7743-7757. 13. Al-Hanjori MM, Shaath MZ, Abu Naser SS. Learning Computer Networks Using Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017; 2(1). 14. Almurshidi SH, Abu Naser SS. Stomach Disease Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development, 2017; 2(1). 15. Almurshidi SH, Naser SSA. Design and Development of Diabetes Intelligent Tutoring System. European Academic Research. 2017; 4(9):8117-8128. 16. Al-Nakhal MA, Abu Naser SS. An Intelligent Tutoring System for learning Computer Theory. European Academic Research. 2017; 4(10). 17. El Haddad IA, Abu Naser SS. ADO-Tutor: Intelligent Tutoring System for leaning ADO.NET. European Academic Research. 2017; 4(10). 18. Elnajjar AA, Abu Naser SS. DSE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching DES Information Security Algorithm. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017; 2(1). 19. Hilles MM, Abu Naser SS. Knowledge-based Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Mongo Database. European Academic Research, 2017; 4(10). 20. Mahdi AO, Alhabbash MI, Abu Naser SS. An intelligent tutoring system for teaching advanced topics in information security. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 2016; 2(12):1-9. 21. Mahmoud AY, Barakat MS, Ajjour MJ. Design and Development of ELearning University System (Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2016; 2(5):498-504. 22. Naser S, Evaluating the effectiveness of the CPPTutor an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C++. Journal of Applied Sciences Research; , 2009; 5(1):109-114. 23. Naser SA. A comparative study between Animated Intelligent Tutoring Systems (AITS) and Video-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems (VITS). Al-Aqsa University Journal, 2001; 5(1):1. 24. Naser SA. An Agent Based Intelligent Tutoring System For Parameter Passing In Java Programming. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology, 2008; 4(7). 25. Naser SA, Ahmed A, Al-Masri N, Sultan YA. Human Computer Interaction Design of the LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications (IJAIA), 2011; 2(3):6070. 26. Naser SSA. Intelligent tutoring system for teaching database to sophomore students in Gaza and its effect on their performance. Information Technology Journal; Scialert. 2006; 5(5):916-922. 27. Naser SSA. Developing an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C++. Information Technology Journal; Scialert, 2008; 7(7):1055-1060. 28. Naser SSA. A Qualitative Study of LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology, 2012; 4(1):209-220. 29. Naser SSA. Predicting learners performance using artificial neural networks in linear programming intelligent tutoring system. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications, 2012; 3(2):6573. 30. Naser SSA. ITSB: An Intelligent Tutoring System Authoring Tool. Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016; 3(5):63-71. 31. Naser SSA, Sulisel O. The effect of using computer aided instruction on performance of 10th grade International Journal of Academic Research and Development 80 biology in Gaza. Journal of the College of Education. 2000; 4:9-37. 32. Naser SSA. Developing visualization tool for teaching AI searching algorithms, Information Technology Journal, Scialert, 2008; 7(2):350-355. 33. Shaath MZ, Al-hanjouri M, Abu Naser SS, ALdahdooh R. Photoshop (CS6) Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Academic Research and Development 2017; 2(1). 34. Alawar MW, Abu Naser SS. CSS-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for CSS and HTML. International Journal of Academic Research and Development 2017; 2(1).
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{ "creator": "Ahmed, Hind Haidar", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1597310513000, "description": "Abstract: Background: Tuberculosis is a major public health problem world-wide, it is contagious disease caused by organism mycobacterium tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to assess the level of zinc and albumin in newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Khartoum state. \n Methods: Fifty blood samples were collected from newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients during the period between April to May 2017, chosen randomly from Abu Anga Teaching Hospital and fifty blood samples from apparently healthy individuals serve as control group. Estimation of serum albumin level was performed using spectrophotometer and estimation of serum zinc by using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results were analyzed by using (SPSS) computer program. \n Results: The study showed that, serum level of zinc and albumin were significantly decrease in patients compared to control group (mean± SD for cases versus control).\n For zinc :( 0.16±0.05 versus 0.58± 0.13 mg/l, P. value= 0.000). For albumin: (2.5±0.58 versus 4.1±0.31g/dl, P. value= 0.000). The result of this study showed that, there was statically significant decrease in the mean of BMI in patients compared to control group. Mean ±SD for case versus control (18.7±0.17 versus 21.5±1.7). The result of this study showed that, pulmonary tuberculosis most common among age between (20-39) years (52%) and (48%) of patients between age (40-58) years and this disease most abundant in males (78%) than females (22%). Persons correlation showed that there was no correlation between serum zinc level and age (r =-0.128, p. value=0.374) also there was no correlation between the level of serum albumin and age (r=0.137, p. value =0.344).\n Conclusion: The serum levels of zinc and albumin were significantly decreased in newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Khartoum state.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUAOS", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Assessment of Serum Zinc and Albumin Levels among Newly Diagnosed Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Khartoum State", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 7-10 7 Assessment of Serum Zinc and Albumin Levels among Newly Diagnosed Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Khartoum State Nuha Eljaili Abubaker, Hassan Siddig AbdElgader Omar, Hind Haidar Ahmed 1*Nuha Eljaili Abubaker Head Department of Clinical Chemistry, College of Medical Laboratory Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan 1*Hind Haidar Ahmed Department of Microbiology, College of Medical Laboratory Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan 2* Hassan Siddig AbdElgader Omar 2 College of Medical Laboratory Science, AL-Neelin University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan Abstract: Background: Tuberculosis is a major public health problem world-wide, it is contagious disease caused by organism mycobacterium tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to assess the level of zinc and albumin in newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Khartoum state. Methods: Fifty blood samples were collected from newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients during the period between April to May 2017, chosen randomly from Abu Anga Teaching Hospital and fifty blood samples from apparently healthy individuals serve as control group. Estimation of serum albumin level was performed using spectrophotometer and estimation of serum zinc by using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results were analyzed by using (SPSS) computer program. Results: The study showed that, serum level of zinc and albumin were significantly decrease in patients compared to control group (mean± SD for cases versus control). For zinc :( 0.16±0.05 versus 0.58± 0.13 mg/l, P. value= 0.000). For albumin: (2.5±0.58 versus 4.1±0.31g/dl, P. value= 0.000). The result of this study showed that, there was statically significant decrease in the mean of BMI in patients compared to control group. Mean ±SD for case versus control (18.7±0.17 versus 21.5±1.7). The result of this study showed that, pulmonary tuberculosis most common among age between (20-39) years (52%) and (48%) of patients between age (40-58) years and this disease most abundant in males (78%) than females (22%). Persons correlation showed that there was no correlation between serum zinc level and age (r =-0.128, p. value=0.374) also there was no correlation between the level of serum albumin and age (r=0.137, p. value =0.344). Conclusion: The serum levels of zinc and albumin were significantly decreased in newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Khartoum state. Keywords: Pulmonary tuberculosis patients, Zink level, Albumin level 1. INTRODUCTION Tuberculosis is a major public health problem worldwide. It is responsible for more than 2 million deaths each year's, kills more adults than any other disease; especially developing countries is the second biggest killer. Globally it is contagious disease caused by organism mycobacterium tuberculosis, aerobic non-motile bacillus, it is a bacterium can attack any part of the body, most commonly the lung. It is spreads through the air, when infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit. The propel TB germs known as bacilli into air, inhalation of very small numbers of bacilli will lead Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (1). Mycobacterium tuberculosis infect about one-third of world's population, of whom more than 80% live in developing countries like Iran and India (2). Annually, more than 8 million people have developed TB and approximately 1.8 million cases result in death (3). More than 80% of TB patients live in Asia and subSaharan Africa, considered by WHO to be "high burden countries." Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of the disease. (4,5,6) India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan together account for more than half of the global estimate of active TB. (7) Population increases in South Asia and central Africa alone will account for ~75% of new cases of active TB in the next ten years (8).For the most part, active TB cases have steadily declined in western and central Europe, North and South America, and in the Middle East, but are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union (4,6) Malnutrition may predispose individuals who have latent infection to active disease as malnutrition affects cellmediated immunity, which decreases the body defense to TB and increases the risk of infection (9). For this reason, malnutrition and tuberculosis have a long history of being associated with each other (10). Micronutrient like zinc play important role in many biological system such as, biochemical reactions in metabolism, maintenance of nutritional health, growth of the human tissues and organs, zinc is used by the cells of the immune system to destroy bacteria such as, tubercle or Escherichia coli (4). Deficiency of zinc impairs over all immune function and resistance to infection (11). The reason for low serum zinc International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 7-10 8 level in TB patient could be multi-factorial. Firstly, a change in distribution of zinc in the body tissues is known to occur in chronic infections, with a net flow of zinc to the liver for synthesis of acute phase reactants including metalo enzymes. Secondly, zinc might be utilized by tuberculosis for growth and multiplication (12). Albumin is a globular protein; serum albumin is the protein of human blood plasma. There is relationship between TB and nutrition. Serum albumin is macronutrient, most common essential parameter used for evaluation of nutritional status patient with TB (13). 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was conducted in Abu Anga Teaching Hospital, Khartoum -Sudan from April to May 2017. A total of 120 individual were enrolled in this study; divided into two groups, 60 healthy individual (Control group) and 60 patients newly diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (cases group). The study was approved by hospital's ethics committee. Informed consent was obtained from patients before blood sampling. Inclusion criteria Patients newly diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis infection and healthy individual serve as control were included in this study. Exclusion criteria Patients with other diseases that affect the levels of serum zinc and albumin such as liver diseases, Chronic renal failure, nephritic syndrome, previous anti-TB treatment, using supplementation containing zinc and Patients that refuse to participate in this study were excluded. Blood sample and Analysis About 2ml of venous blood was collected from the antecubital vein by taking aseptic precautions. Care was taken to prevent venous stasis during the sample collection. The blood was allowed to clot and the serum was separated by centrifugation. The estimation of the parameters was carried out within 4-6 hrs. The samples were analyzed for Serum zinc by using atomic absorption method and Serum albumin was measured by using spectrophotometer method at 630nm.(14) The internal control sera of two different levels were used to calibrate the instruments. Data was analyzed using SPSS computer program version (21), the mean and standard deviation were obtained and the independent T test used for comparison (p value of ≤ 0.05) was considered significant and person correlation was used for correlation. 3. RESULTS In comparison with the controls, tuberculosis patients had statistical significantly lower means of serum Zinc and albumin in case group compared to control group, zinc (mean ±SD), for cases versus control,(0.16±0.04 versus 0.58±0.13mg/l, P. value = 0.000), albumin (mean ±SD, for cases versus control, (2.45±0.57 versus 4.07±0.30g/dl, P. value = 0.000). The mean of BMI in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, was significantly decreased compared to control group (mean± SD for cases versus control, 18.7±0.17 versus 21.5±1.7) as in table (1). Table (1): Mean concentration of serum zinc and albumin in case and control groups: Variables Case (n=60) Mean ± SD Control (n=60) Mean ± SD P. value Zinc mg/l 0.16 ± 0.04 0.58 ± 0.13 0.000 Albumin g/dl 2.45 ± 0.57 4.07 ± 0.30 0.000 BMI kg/ cm2 18.7±0.17 21.5±1.7 0.000 *Result given in mean ±SD. *P. value < 0.05 consider significant. Independent sample T test was used for comparison. The present study observed that, no statistical significant difference between means concentration of serum zinc and albumin among age in case group. The mean of serum zinc and albumin in patients between (20-39) years versus the mean in patients between (40-58) years, (mean ± SD; zinc,( 0.17 ± 0.05 versus 0.16 ± 0.05 mg/dl, p. value =0.268) albumin (2.4 ± 0.54 versus 2.5 ± 0.62 g/dl, p. value= 0.592) as in table (2). Table (2): Mean concentration of serum zinc and albumin among age in case group. Variables (20-39 years) n=52% Mean ± SD (40-58 years) n=48% Mean ± SD P .value Zinc mg/l 0.17 ± 0.05 0.16 ± 0.05 0.268 Albumin g/dl 2.4 ± 0.54 2.5 ± 0.62 0.592 *Result given in mean± SD. *P .value < 0.05 consider significant. Independent sample T test was used for comparison. In this study, 78% of patients were males, while 22% were females as shown in figure (1) International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 7-10 9 Figure (1): Gender distribution in case group. The result showed that, 52% of patients at age range between (20-39) years and 48% of patients at age range between (4058) years, as shown in figure (2). Figure (2): Age distribution among case group. Correlation between the level of serum zinc and age showed, there was no statistical significant difference (r= 0.128, P. value= 0.374) as in figure (3) Zinc mg/l .4.3.2.10.0 AG E 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figure (3): Correlation between serum zinc and age (r= 0 .128, P. value= 0.374). Correlation between serum albumin level and age showed, there was no statistical significant difference (r=0.137, P .value = 0.344) as in figure (4). A lbumin g/dl 3.53.02.52.01.51.0 AG E 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figure (4): correlation between serum albumin and age (r=0.137, P .value =0.344). 4. DISCUSSION Pulmonary tuberculosis is a global disease affecting about third of the world's population with its attendant mortality and morbidity (15). Pulmonary tuberculosis can affect many substances in the body by decreasing them. This study was carried out to assess serum zinc and albumin levels in newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Khartoum state. From the finding of this study the mean serum levels of zinc and albumin were significantly decreased in case group in comparison to control group (P.value=0.000). This result agreed with another study, which showed that; serum zinc and albumin concentration frequently decreased in case group compared to control group (16). The reduction in zinc and albumin concentration in TB patients were considered to be nutritional factors, enteropathy and acute phase reactant proteins, redistribution of zinc from plasma to other tissues, or a reduction of the hepatic production of metabollothionin, a protein that transport zinc to the liver, albumin level in the serum decreases with increase in severity. This is because of hemodynamic changes that occur in response to T cell reaction and decreased synthesis as a result of direct inhibition by cytokines (17). Parallel finding to this results observed by other studies carried by many authors (16, 17, 18), their findings confirmed that patients with pulmonary tuberculosis at greater risk of development of low serum zinc and albumin and place them at risk of developing life threatening situation. Result of this study showed that, there was significant decreased in BMI in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis compared to control group (P.value=0.000), this result agreed with another studies done in Indonesia and Malawi (19, 20) . The low BMI in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis may be due to poor dietary intake, anorexia and impaired absorption of nutrients or increased catabolism (13). Low BMI is a known risk factor for mortality (21). The result of current study showed that pulmonary tuberculosis most common among age (20-58) years. These results in agreement with previous study, which showed that pulmonary tuberculosis infection is common among, age (18-54) years. (15).The finding of this study revealed that, the majority of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis participate in this study were male (78%) while female was (22%). These results in agreement with previous study that showed pulmonary tuberculosis infection is more common in male than female (18). It is of interest to observe that there was no correlation between zinc level and age of patients. This result agreed with another result, which showed that, there was no correlation between zinc levels and age (21). According to Males 78% Femal es 22% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 20-39 40-58 62% 38% Age group/years International Journal of Academic Health and Medical Research (IJAHMR) ISSN: 2000-007X Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2019, Pages: 7-10 10 finding of this present study, there was no correlation between serum albumin level in PTB patients and age. These results agreed with another study, which showed no correlation was found between age and serum albumin level (16) . 5. CONCLUSION According to the results of this study, it concluded that serum zinc and albumin levels are decreased in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, BMI is decreased in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and there are no correlation between zinc, albumin level and age. 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to express our appreciation to all participants in the study. We thank the staff of Abu Anga Teaching Hospital in Khartoum State for their co-operations. Finally, we appreciate everyone who supports us. REFERENCES 1. Bhandari, S., Badade, Z.G., Neupane, Y. Role of Micronutrient Zinc in Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences. 2013; 15: 1-3. Organization WHO. Tuberculosis. Saudi Med Journal.2013; 34:1205-1207. 3. Organization WHO. The Global Tuberculosis Control .WHO Journal.2016; 4:437-439. 4. Doyin, O., Sambe, D., Justin, O., Winston, W.,Stephen, M., Silvio, W.Nutrition and tuberculosis: a review of the literature and consideration for TB control programs. Global tuberculosis control: WHO report. 2007; 376. 5. Doyin, O., Sambe, D., Justin, O., Winston, W., Stephen, M., Silvio, W. Nutrition and tuberculosis: a review of the literature and consideration for TB control programs. Global tuberculosis control: WHO report; 2005. 6. Doyin,O., Sambe, D., Justin, O., Winston, W.,Stephen, M., Silvio, W.Nutrition and tuberculosis: a review of the literature and consideration for TB control programs. Global tuberculosis control: WHO report ; 2006. 7. Davies, P.D. The worldwide increase in tuberculosis: how demographic changes, HIV infection and increasing numbers in poverty are increasing tuberculosis. Ann Med.2003; 35(4):235-243. 8. Corbett, E.L., Watt, C.J., Walker, N. The growing burden of tuberculosis: global trends and interactions with the HIV epidemic. Arch Intern Med. 2003; 163(9):10091021. 9. Cegielski, J.P., McMurray, D.N. The relationship between malnutrition and tuberculosis: evidence from studies in humans and experimental animals; InternationalJournalTuberculosis andLungDisease. 1994; 8(3):286-298. 10. Gupta, K.P., Gupta, R., Atreja, A. Tuberculosisand nutrition. LungIndia.2009; 26(1):9-16. 11. Walker, C.F., Black, R.E. Zinc and the risk for infectious disease. Annu Rev Nutr.2004; 24:255-275. 12. Liu, X. Determination of trace elements in serum of tuberculosis patients. JiuWSY, 2000; 29(6): 395-396. 13. Hopewell, P.C. Overview of clinical tuberculosis. In: Tuberculosis Pathogenesis, Washington.1994; 16:25-36. 14. Doyin, O., Sambe, D., Justin, O., Winston, W.,Stephen, M., Silvio, W. Nutrition and tuberculosis: a review of the literature and consideration for TB control programs. Global tuberculosis control: WHO report;2005. 15. Banarsidas, B., Park, K. Epidemiology of communicable diseases. Park's text book of preventive and social medicine, 19thedition. 2007; 150. 16. Mythili, C. Role of Micronutrient Zinc in Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Sch. J. App. Med. Sci.2016; 4(5):1519-1524). 17. Modawe, G. Biochemical Parameters in Relation to Tuberculosis in Sudanese Patientiens. Sudan JMS.2014; 3(9): 177-180. 18. Damburam, A., Garbati, M. A., Yusuph, H. Serum proteins in health and in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Nigeria. Journal of Infectious Diseases and Immunity. 2012; 4(2): 16-19. 19. Karyadi, F. Poor micronutrient status of active PTB patients in Indonesia. J . Nutr. 2000; 130:2953-2958. 20. Van, L. Malnutrition and severity of lung disease in adults with PTB in Malawi. Int. J. tuberc. 2004; 8: 211-217. 21. Van, L. Triple trouble: the role of malnutrition in tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus coinfection. Nutr Rev. 2003; 61: 81-90.
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{ "creator": "Al Shobaki, Mazen J.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1562858318000, "description": "This paper aims to identify computerized management information systems resources and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza.\n This research used two dimensions. The first dimension is computerized management information systems and the second dimension the Development of Performance.\n The control sample was (063). (360) questioners were distributed and (306) were retrieved back with a percentage of (85%). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression.\n The overall findings of the current study suggested the presence of a statistically significant relationship between resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza.\n The study recommended the following: The need to strengthen the company's management interest in the potential of computerized management information systems and using them in the computerization of all the company's activities. And the need to involve workers and users in the design of computerized management information systems and assessment and development process. And strengthen the relationship between users and information systems personnel in the department responsible for the system. And it is essential that the company is developing the infrastructure for information technology in general, and computerized management information systems, in particular for the development of performance. And increase interest in providing resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems.\n The current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza resources explores the status of Computerized management information systems and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza increasing interest in Computerized management information systems through continuity, keeping pace with technological means and modern techniques.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUCMI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Computerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
ISSN 2286-4822 EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8/ November 2016 Impact Factor: 3.4546 (UIF) DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+) Computerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza SAMY S. ABU NASER1 MAZEN J. AL SHOBAKI Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Gaza-Strip, Palestine Abstract: This paper aims to identify computerized management information systems resources and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This research used two dimensions. The first dimension is computerized management information systems and the second dimension the Development of Performance. The control sample was (063). (360) questioners were distributed and (306) were retrieved back with a percentage of (85%). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study suggested the presence of a statistically significant relationship between resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized 1 Corresponding author: Professor Dr. Samy S. Abu Naser, Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6970 management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The study recommended the following: The need to strengthen the company's management interest in the potential of computerized management information systems and using them in the computerization of all the company's activities. And the need to involve workers and users in the design of computerized management information systems and assessment and development process. And strengthen the relationship between users and information systems personnel in the department responsible for the system. And it is essential that the company is developing the infrastructure for information technology in general, and computerized management information systems, in particular for the development of performance. And increase interest in providing resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems. The current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza resources explores the status of Computerized management information systems and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza increasing interest in Computerized management information systems through continuity, keeping pace with technological means and modern techniques. Key words: Following the Computerized management information systems, improving performance, the Development of Performance, Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. INTRODUCTION Modern technology added to the management a new recipe to enable it to perform better than before, prompting them to exploit those scientific breakthroughs in the field of modern technology desiring to improve and develop the performance, by increasing the speed of completion, accuracy of transactions, Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6971 provide customer service in line with their needs and desires, help by reporting to support the decision-making process. Thus improve the quality of decisions, increase their value and productivity based on information. Gad El Rab (2008) believes that accompanying these developments, the expansion in the use of information that computer applications has made one of its components key in order to take advantage of its large abilities which is equal to the increasing size of the organization, where it managed the importance of information systems in the benefits generated by such flexibility and speed of delivery, reduce costs and the possibility of providing useful information Systems in the appropriate time, in addition to being used on the level of administrative processes and activities at different levels. And the preservation and dissemination of information through the various aspects of the organization. Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza is private and limited joint-stock company, is working on the distribution of electric power in the Gaza Strip, and looks forward to working continuously to improve and raise the efficiency of its performance by relying on computerized management information systems, which are the backbone of the administrative development, to make the results of performance in line with the company's goals. Computerized management information systems allowed great opportunity for various business organizations in strengthening their competitiveness and achieve their desired objectives, also contributed to the development and improvement of the performance development by these systems rely on modern and sophisticated technology which enables these organizations to draw policies and directions based on real information and enable them to take correct administrative decisions, in addition to that computerized management information systems lead to develop and improve the Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6972 performance of employees because of their relationship with the professional development of functional employees, and in the completion of the tasks and functions assigned to employees quickly, efficiently and with high productivity. The expansion of the business, and the presence of large organizational structures, prompted management to build a database and a larger system of positive interaction and structured to achieve its objectives and general goals, where the pursuit of this research is to identify the weaknesses in the computerized management information system in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza, and therefore attempt to treat and then be able to develop and raise the efficiency of the performance of their employees. So, the researchers tried through this research to answer the following main question: What is the relationship between the computerized management information systems resources and the development of performance in the Electricity distribution company in Gaza? The objective of this study is to:  To identify the perceptions of employees in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza toward computerized management information systems resources.  To identify the relationship between the main resources for the computerized management information systems and development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza.  To identify relationship between personal changes to employees' perceptions about the computerized management information systems and perceptions of employees and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza resources. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6973  To identify the level of performance in the development of the electricity distribution company in Gaza.  To provide recommendations and suggestions to help improve performance by enhancing the use of computerized management information systems in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The current study draws on the literature to explore this topic in depth and then turns to an implied investigation to assess and determine the most influential variables. In view of the literature review, the study raises the questions of: Q1. Is there a relationship between the computerized management information systems resources and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza? Q2. Are there differences between the perceptions of respondents about the computerized management information systems resources related to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza, attributed to personal variables (gender, age, educational qualification, years of service)? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza that explores the computerized management information systems resources. LITERATURE REVIEW Computerized Management Information Systems Resources: Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6974 AL-Gharbaoui (2014) reached to a positive relationship between the computerized health information systems and the level of functionality for those working in health centers. Zinedine and al-Ajrami (2013) reached that electronic programs contribute to raising the performance levels and productivity of the workers at the Deanship of Admission and Registration in Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and that the software used in the deanship contributed to the selection of a qualified elements in the field of information technology. Al-Murad (2012) in research about Management Information System Characteristics and its impact on the indicators success, the information resource of the important resources of the organization, and came through which Thakbak competitive advantage and superior performance down to the organizational success. And that this information needs to run, no need to plan, organize and control in order to take advantage of them well, and benefit from their use. Abu Karim (2013) concluded that the devices are the main requirement of computerized management information systems working to improve management performance systems, followed by users who are using information systems, then performance improvement, and software, while the least impact on information systems: technician specialists and databases. The results clarified that the response by the employees in the systems is high, and responding to maintenance by employees in systems is high, the results showed that the devices used are flexible enough, that the devices currently in use is one of the best and latest technology available, the management and operation of the databases is featuring high capability on the addition and modification, the management and operation of databases is characterized by high capacity storage, and there is statistically significant differences between the management information systems and the improvement of administrative performance attributed to years of service. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6975 Al-Araby (2012) showed a statistically significant differences relationship between the use of information technology and (performance size, quality of performance, efficiency, simplify the work). The study also showed no statistically significant differences relationship between the use of information technology and fast task, no statistically significant differences about the impact of the use of information technology on job performance attributable to the variables (gender, educational qualification). In contrast, there were statistically significant differences about the impact of the use of information technology on job performance attributable to the variables (age, seniority, functional category). AL-Saraireh (2011) showed that the functionality of the faculty level was high, the researchers recommended that the universities to strengthen the functionality of faculty members, to identify their needs and desires to achieve the possible ones to satisfy them, and provide an incentive system, promotive, physical gifts, and moral, as they have a positive impact in maintaining the level of job performance high. Myeong and Choi (2010) reached a positive change to the impact of information technology on decision-making policies. Al-Otaibi (2010) concluded that there is clarity in a sample study of the importance of the use of information technology in human resource management, senior management supports the transition to the use of information technology to the management of human resources, provide adequate infrastructure to help in the use of information technology in management human resources, there are no statistically significant differences between the perceptions of the respondents attributed to demographic variables (gender, educational qualification, experience, functional level). Dweik (2010) showed that the computerized information health system currently used in the Gaza European Hospital has good affect on medical and administrative areas of the business as well as Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6976 the medical and administrative decisions, and that there are constraints limit the effectiveness of health information systems and most important of them: the weakness of funds required. Al-Halabi (2010) concluded that the computerized management information systems requirements (physical, software, human and organizational) enjoys a high from the viewpoint of respondents efficiently, as the study found that there is no statistically significant relationship on the impact of computerized management information systems on the decentralization of the Ministry Finance in Gaza Strip due to demographic variables (gender, age, experience, qualification career, the scientific level). AL-Tahrawi (2010) found that the existence of specialized human resources management departments by (67%), non-governmental organizations provide financial resources to the development of the capacity of its staff internally and externally, and it will help them in the development of educational and academic standing, as well as an existing performance appraisal system on the basis of the bonus system. AL-Omari (2009) found the presence of impact that statistically significant with the requirements of the operation and management information systems (physical, software, human, organizational) on the performance of employees in the telecommunications company, and statistically significant differences between the perceptions of the respondents on the subject of the study are due demographic variables (scientific level, years of experience, the workplace, the functional level), and the presence of good level of material resources, human resources, software resources and organizational resources. Supattra and Boonmak (2007) concluded that the administrative information and information technology increase the organization's effectiveness and efficiency of their performance and improve the strategic work Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6977 in systems, when one rely on management information technology and information systems, the greater the efficiency of the Organization and increased effectiveness and the better the culture of workers in the organization about the efficiency of performance and effectiveness. Al-Bshabshah (2005) reached to the presence of significant impact to the quality of information systems on the raising level of functionality, the presence of a strong statistically significant differences between the information systems of various dimensions and functionality of a relationship, the presence of a strong significant impact of software supplies on functionality, and there are significant statistical differences between the perceptions of the respondents attributed to (age, educational qualification, functional level). COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS Computerized management information systems are the use of computers in the assembly and operation of the storage and dissemination of information, and notes that computers including content of the hardware and software serves as the tools you use certified information systems at Computer (Sultan, 2000), management information systems is a comprehensive system works to collect all the information necessary for all management functions with the aim of administrative support private managers by providing in time clear and accurate information to help them plan and organize their work and thus take appropriate decisions in order to provide the necessary information, as others added to the definition of computerized information systems (AL-Hassania, 2002). The importance of computerized management information systems is highlighted in the fact that its main Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6978 task is to provide the necessary data and processed to produce useful management information, in a timely manner, accurate and appropriate quantity and commensurate with the needs of decision-makers (Idris, 2007). the information as a storage of the organization, including addressed from the information that allows configures of a historical description of their conditions, discovery of easy errors that might occur, which means that information systems should bring confidence to surveillance to be effective coordination and communication between the various interests through exchange of information and documents associated with the various flows, and because of their role in helping in the decision-making process by finding a basis or foundation for the analysis of the initial warning signs that stand out both internally and externally (Guendlchi and al-Janabi, 2009), as well as helping to improve performance by increasing the speed of completion and accuracy of transactions, provide customer service in line with their needs and desires also help by reporting provided to support the process which make decisions and thus improve the quality of decisions and increase their value and productivity based on the information provided and the associated productivity organization (AlBshabshah, 2005). The importance of management information systems for organizations classified into three main roles: support pilot operations, support decision making by managers, and support the development and implementation of strategies to achieve competitive advantage , also the importance of management information systems lies in the support of the organization and supporting basic operations (Kurdish and AlAdel, 2003). COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE: The development of performance in organizations is linked to the optimal use of financial and human resources available in Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6979 the organization through the use of appropriate methods to achieve the objectives of the organization and therefore based on clear and objective goals doable to achieve the best level of performance (Al-Othman, 2003), it is not limited to the use of this organization on a field without the other but are used in organizations at the senior management level are strategic and competitive dimension, used on the middle management level, where useful in processes of implementation and described the information here as a tactical dominated by the character of repetition, also used on the lower level of management so as to enhance the monitoring process of direct and supervise the conduct of repeated operations (Al-Salem, and Makkawi 2004). Therefore, the researchers believe that the computerized management information systems help in the development of performance where they help to speed decision-making on a sound basis provided real information, adequate and in timely manner, and provide information to the various administrative levels and help departments in operations planning, control, regulation, facilitate administrative communication between all administrative levels, and help the organization in strategic planning, opening of new markets, working to increase the efficiency of the performance of staff development the development of management techniques, make the best investment of the available data, the speed of completion of transactions and accuracy, reduce cost, and improve the level of service, as well as take advantage of the electronic devices in the analysis, display and save information. Computerized management information systems resources and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: H1: There is statistically significant relationship between the computerized management information systems resources and Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6980 the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-1: There are significant relationship differences between the physical resources to computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. h1-2: There are significant relationship differences between software resources to computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. h1-3:.There are significant relationship differences between human resources management information systems and the development of computerized performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. h1-4:.There are significant relationship differences between the organizational resources to computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. RESEARCH DESIGN Study population and sampling This study conducted at Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. It is highly reputable one and established in 1991. The population is (1022) employees, the control sample (733). The usable sample was (520), which makes response rate (71%). The sample of the study was selected using random sampling from different management levels where all levels are affected by computerized management information systems resources, the study sample size was (360) questionnaires, (360) questionnaires were distributed on study participants, (306) were returned back with a percentage of (85%). Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6981 Research instrument The first dimension referring to the model used in the study is computerized management information systems resources and the second dimension of the instrument is the development of performance. The authors with the help of other research literature (Naser, and Al Shobaki, 2016), (Shobaki and Naser, 2016), (Abu Naser, and Al Shobaki, 2016), (Alfoazin, 2003), (Naser et. al., 2016) ,(AL-Gharbaoui, 2014), (Al-Halabi, 2010), (Al-Othman, 2003), (Al-Quds Open University, 2007), (Muasher, 2006), (Suwailem, 2003), (Zinedine and al-Ajrami, 2013), (Naser et. al., 2010), (Naser and ALmursheidi, 2016), (Abu Naser et. al., 2016) prepared the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. Search Tools The researchers prepared a questionnaire for the "computerized management information systems resources and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza." Structural validity The degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring. It shows the relevance of each field of study to the overall degree of the questionnaire paragraphs. Table 1 shows that all correlation coefficients in all fields of the questionnaire are statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05) and therefore the questionnaire fields are considered to be valid to what it was supposed to measure. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6982 Validity and reliability assessment: The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α values for all dimensions were > (0.05). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency. The researchers used Alpha Cronbach method to measure the stability of the questionnaire, and the results were as shown in Table 2. Table 2 showed that the value of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was high for each field of the questionnaire ranging from 0.803 to 0.926. As well as the value of the alpha coefficient for all the paragraphs of the questionnaire was (0.958). This means that the reliability coefficient is high, so that the researchers were certain about the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, which made them confident about suitability of questionnaire for analyzing the results and answering questions of the study and testing of the hypotheses. Statistical procedures: The researchers used the questionnaire data for analysis through statistical analysis software (SPSS). Nonparametric statistical tests were used because Lekert scale is a main statistical measure which used the following tools: 1. Percentages, frequencies, and relative arithmetic average are mainly used for the purpose of knowing repeated variable categories, and benefit researchers in the description of the study sample. 2. Cronbach's Alpha Test was used to determine the stability of the paragraphs of the questionnaire. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6983 3. Spearman Correlation Coefficient to measure the degree of correlation. This test is used to study the relationship between the variables in the case of nonparametric data. 4. Sign Test to see whether the average degree of responsiveness has reached a degree of neutrality, a 3 or not. 5. Mann-Whitney Test to see whether there were statistically significant differences between two fields of ordinal data. 6. Kruskal-Wallis Test to see whether there were statistically significant differences between the three fields or more of the ordinal data. 7. Multi-linear regression model. Data analysis and discussion of results: H1: There are statistically significant relationship between the computerized management information systems resources and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. Ensuing the following sub-hypotheses: h1-1: There are significant relationship differences between the physical resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This hypothesis was tested through paragraphs of the field of physical resources for computerized management information systems, the test signal have been used to see if the average degree of responsiveness has been reached, the degree of neutrality, namely, (3), or not, and the results are shown in the following table. Table 3 argued that the arithmetic average of all field paragraphs equal to (4.04) means that the relative arithmetic average equals (80.87%), the value of the sign test (16:48) and that the probability value (Sig.) equal to (0.000), so the field Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6984 "material resources for computerized Management Information Systems" statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05), which shows that the average degree of responsiveness to this area is fundamentally different from the degree of neutrality, namely, (3) this means that there is approval by the respondents on this field. As a result of the first sub-hypothesis: there are significant relationship differences between the physical resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The study coincided with a study Al-bshabshah (2005) which found a significant effect of the physical requirements for information systems on job performance of Jordanian insurance organization, and coincided well with the study of Abu Karim (2013) which concluded that the devices currently used are flexible enough, the best and latest technology available, and Al-Halabi (2010) study concluded that the physical requirements of the computerized management information systems has a high efficiency from the perspective of the respondents, AL-Tahrawi (2010) study found that nongovernmental organizations provide financial resources for the development of the capabilities of its staff internally and externally, and also agrees with AL-Omari (2009) study that found the presence of impact statistically significant of the physical requirements of management information systems on the performance of employees in the telecommunications company, and the existence of a good level of physical resources, and disagreed with the findings of a study of Dweik (2010) which reached to lake of the required funds. h1-2: There are significant relationship differences between software resources of computerized management information Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6985 systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This hypothesis was tested through paragraphs of software resources field, and sign test was used to determine whether the average degree of responsiveness has reached a degree of neutrality, namely, (3) or not. The results are shown in the following table 4. Table 4 shows that the arithmetic average of all field paragraphs equal to (4.03) which means that the arithmetic average equals (80.55%), the value of sign test (16:35) and that the probability value (Sig.) Equal to (0.00), so it is considered that the field " software resources of computerized management information systems" statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05), which shows that the average degree of responsiveness to this field fundamentally different from the degree of neutrality (3), this means that there is approval by the respondents on this field. Table 4 shows that the correlation coefficient generally between software resources of computerized management information systems and performance development in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza equal to (0.278), and that the probability value (Sig.) Equal to (0.000) which is less than the significance level (a ≤ 0.05 ) and this indicates the presence of statistical significant effect between software resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the electricity distribution company in Gaza. As a result of sub-second hypothesis: There are significant relationship differences between software resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. AL-Gharbaoui (2014) study reached a high degree of approval by the members of the study population in terms of Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6986 the possibilities for the use of computerized health information systems, (Zinedine and al-Ajrami, 2013) study concluded that the software used in the deanship contributed the selection of a qualified elements in the field of information technology, also agreed with the study of Abu Karim which concluded that the management and operation of databases featuring high on the addition, modification capacity and storage, also agreed with the study of Al-Araby (2012), which reached significant relationship differences between the use of information technology and functionality of employees, as well as the study of Al-Otaibi (2010) which reached a sufficient infrastructure to help in the use of information technology in human resources management, also agreed with the study of Al-Halabi (2010) which concluded that the requirements of (physical, software, human and organizational resources) computerized management information, systems has a high efficiency from the perspective of the respondents, the study of AL-Omari (2009) reached a good level of software resources, the study of Al-bshabshah (2005) reached a significant impact of software supplies on job performance. h1-3: There are significant relationship differences between human resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This hypothesis was tested through paragraphs of human resources field, and sign test was used to determine whether the average degree of responsiveness has reached a degree of neutrality, namely, (3) or not. The results are shown in the following table 5. Table 5 argued that the arithmetic average of all field paragraphs equal to (3.92) which means that the relative arithmetic average equals (0.00), so the field "human resources computerized management information systems " statistically Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6987 significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Thus, the average degree of the response to this field is fundamentally different from the degree of neutrality (3), this means that there is approval by the respondents on this field. Table 5 shows that the correlation coefficient in general between computerized human resources management information systems and performance development in Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza equal to (0.0365), and that the value of probability (Sig) equal to (0.000) which is less than the significance level (a ≤ 0.05) , this indicates the presence of a statistically significant effect of computerized human resources management information systems and the development of performance in Electricity distribution company in Gaza. As a result of sub-third hypothesis: There are significant relationship differences between human resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. Which explains the result of this hypothesis is that the skill and efficiency of workers in the department responsible for the information system has led to the raising of efficiency of the system works, and this is consistent with the study of AlGharbaoui (2014) which reached the following findings and a high degree of approval by the members of the study population in terms of the possibilities for the use of applications of computerized health information systems, as well as the study of Zinedine and al-Ajrami (2013) which concluded that the software used in the deanship contributed to the selection of a qualified elements in the field of information technology, the identification of training needs electronically to improve the performance of career employees at the Deanship of Admission and Registration, the study of Abu Karim (2013) concluded that the response by the system workers and system Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6988 maintenance workers are high, also agreed with the study of (Myeong and Choi, 2010) which found a positive change of the impact of information technology on the process of decisionmaking among government users policies, also agreed with the study of Al-Otaibi (2010) which reached the importance of the use of information technology in human resource management, supporting the academic management transformation to the use of information technology for the human resources management, provide adequate infrastructure to help in the use of information technology in human resources management, as well as the study of Al-Halabi (2010) which concluded that requirements of computerized human management information systems has a high efficiency from the perspective of the respondents, the study of AL-Tahrawi (2010) which found the existence of specialized departments of human resources management by (67%), as well as the study of AL-Omari (2009) which reached to the existence of the statistical significance effect of the requirements of human management information systems on the performance of employees in the telecommunications company, and the existence of a good level of human resources. h1-4: There are significant relationship differences between organizational resources of computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This hypothesis was tested through paragraphs of organizational resources field, and sign test was used to determine whether the average degree of responsiveness has reached a degree of neutrality, namely, (3) or not. The results are shown in the following table 6. Table 6 can be argued that the arithmetic average of all field paragraphs equal to (3.78) which means that the relative arithmetic average equals (75.67%), the sign test value (15.66) Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6989 and that the probability value (Sig) equal to (0.00), so the field "organizational resources of computerized management information systems "statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05) which indicates that the average temperature of the response to this field is fundamentally different from the degree of neutrality, namely (3), this means that there is approval by the respondents on this field. The table shows that the link is generally coefficient between organizational resources of computerized management information systems and performance development in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza equal to (0.386), and that the probability value (Sig) equal to (0.000) which is less than the significance level (a ≤ 0.05) and this shows the presence of a statistically significant effect of organizational resources of the computerized management information systems and the performance development in Electricity distribution company in Gaza. As a result the fourth sub-hypothesis: There are significant relationship differences between organizational resources of computerized management information systems and the performance development in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The result of this hypothesis is due to the attention of resources of computerized management information systems, which contributed to the rapid provision of appropriate information to all management levels commensurate with the nature of the work of each level. The study coincided with Al-Salem and Makkawi (2004) study which found a relationship between organizational resources of computerized management information systems and the performance development in the Jordanian industrial companies, also agreed with the study of Al-Halabi (2010) and the study of AL-Omari (2009) which concluded that the requirements (physical, software, human and organizational) of Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6990 computerized management information systems have a high viewpoint from the respondents efficiently, AL-Tahrawi (2010) study found the existence of specialized human resources management departments, as well as agreed with the study of Supattra and Boonmak (2007) which found that whenever an organization rely on management information systems and information technology the greater the efficiency and increased effectiveness. also agreed with the study of Al-bshabshah (2005) which reached to the existence of a significant impact of the quality of information systems to raise the level of functionality, and the presence of a statistically significant relationship between powerful information systems with the various dimensions and functionality of performance development. While disagreed with the study of Myeong and Choi (2010) which found an increase in the barriers to sharing information due to some environmental changes, including the mandate to provide the information with complex ways to manage data, and negative attitudes to share information requirements. MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION MODEL The use of multiple regression model to test the relationship between management requirements and operation of management information systems and the development of performance and creating an equation linking them. Stepwise was used to find the best equation of the line multi-regression. It was found that the three dimensions listed by their effect on development of performance: human resources for computerized management information systems, organizational resources for computerized management information systems, and Physical resources for computerized management information systems. But software resource for Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6991 computerized management information systems has been excluded from the form because it is ineffective on the development of performance according to Stepwise, and can be explained by the existence of many variables which have greater influence resource for computerized management information systems and the development of performance. The coefficient of determination is equal to 29%. This means that 29% of the variation in the development of performance can be explained by the previous regression multiple linear equation and this ratio is considered acceptable in human studies. The remaining 71% perhaps go back to other variables that may affect independent of the organization in the development of performance. Notes from the former table: probability value of each of the three dimensions are: 0.00, 0.008, 0.008, respectively, which is less than the significance level (a ≤ 0.05) and so there is substantial relationship for each of the three dimensions and the Development of Performance. CONCLUSION: The results showed that the computerized management information systems resources have a positive relationship on the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The results revealed the presence of a statistically significant relationship between resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. Based on previous results, researchers suggest a set of recommendations that could lead to the development of performance through computerized management information Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6992 systems in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza are as follows: The need to strengthen the company's management interest in the use of computerized management information in all its components and elements of systems being an important variable which contributes to the development of performance. Exploit the potential of computerized management information systems and using them in the computerization of all the company's activities in terms of software design that covers all activities undertaken by the company. The need to aware staff of the importance of computerized management information systems and their relationship to the development of performance, because of their importance in the conduct of the company's business, and raise the efficiency of job performance, and help the company to improve the quality of services provided to customers through faster completion of management transactions, reduce errors, and speed of response to customer requests. The need to involve staff and users in the design and assessment of computerized management information systems and development process, given their importance in achieving high morale, and inform staff of their importance in the company. Strengthening the relationship between the users of information system and personnel systems in the department responsible for the system so that employees understand the technological and technical information needs of all users of information systems. Training administrators in the Department of Information system for certain periods to equip them with technical expertise to increase their understanding of the work, networks and the complete system. Emphasize on the importance of Information Technology Department existence, with a specialized computerized Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6993 management information systems, clear technical responsibilities, and work in a team to implement the mechanisms of computerized management information systems, be in direct contact with employees in the departments to provide best quality services and Technical support as soon as possible. It is essential that the company develop the infrastructure for information technology in general, and computerized management information systems, in particular for the development of performance. Increased attention to provide material resources of equipment and devices used in the computerized management information system, and the interest in providing technical resources for management information systems keeping pace with technological means and modern techniques and work on the training of personnel to use those systems. Greater attention to computerized human resource management information systems "specialists technicians and end-users" through a variety of disciplines working in the field of computerized management information systems. REFERENCES 1. 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Abu Naser, Samy S. and Al Shobaki, Mazen J.(2016), Requirements of using Decision Support Systems as an Entry Point for Operations of Re-engineering in the Universities ( Applied study on the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip), World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, Issue 4. 4. Abu Sheikha, Nader (2000), Human Resource Management, Dar Al Safa for publication and printer, Jordan, the first edition. 5. Ahearne Michael، Schillewaert Niels (2001), "the effect of Information Technology on Salesperson Performance"، E Business Research Center. 6. Al-Araby, Attia (2012), the impact of the use of information technology on the job performance of workers in the local government field study at the University of RqlhAlgeria, Faculty of economic and business sciences easing, magazine researcher, Tenth Issue. 7. Al-bshabshah, Samer (2005), The impact of the quality of management information systems to raise the performance of the functional level of the Jordanian Social Security Corporation, Accounting and Management magazine, insurance, Oman, First Issue, Volume 10. 8. Alfoazin, Rashid (2003), Modern information systems and their impact on the performance of employees, a survey in the Customs Authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the study of MS, Jamvh Nayef Security Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 9. AL-Gharbaoui, Mahmoud Hassan (2014), computerized health information and its relationship to performance Alozivyfield study systems on UNRWA primary health Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6995 centers in the Gaza Strip, a study Master (unpublished), Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine. 10. Al-Halabi, Dia Al-Haq (2010), "computerized management information systems and their impact on the decentralization Empirical Study on the Finance Ministry in the Gaza Strip," Master Thesis (unpublished), the Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine. 11. AL-Hassania, Salim Ibrahim (2002), "Management Information Systems", Second Edition, Warraq Foundation Publishing and Distribution, Amman, Jordan. 12. Al-Murad, N. (2012). Management Information System Characteristics and its impact on the indicators success, Journal of Management and Economics, 43(9). 13. AL-Omari, Ayman (2009), impact of computerized management information systems personnel in the performance of the Palestinian telecommunications company, Master Thesis (unpublished), the Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine. 14. Al-Otaibi, Aziza (2010), The impact of the use of information technology on the performance of human resources at the Australian Academy in Melbourne, and the impact on job performance, the study of MS (unpublished), the British Arab Academy for Higher Education, London. 15. Al-Othman, Mohamed (2003), the delegation of authority and its impact on the adequacy of performance, Master Thesis (unpublished), Naif Arab University for Security floated, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 16. Al-Quds Open University (2007), Management Information Systems, Al-Quds Open University Press, Jordan. 17. Al-Salem, Saeed, and Makkawi Nazem Mahmoud (2004): The impact of the structural characteristics in Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6996 the effectiveness of information systems "field study in Jordan's contribution to industrial companies," Jordan Journal of Applied Sciences, First Issue, Volume 7. 18. AL-Saraireh, Dr. Khalid Ahmed (2011), job performance among faculty members in the Jordanian public universities from the perspective of the department heads, Mutah University, the University of Damascus magazine -alcild 27 First Issue + II of Jordan. 19. AL-Tahrawi, Abdel Moneim (2010), The role of human resources development strategies in the institutional development of performance in the non-governmental organizations in Gaza, Master Thesis (unpublished), Faculty of Commerce, the Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine. 20. Dweik, Musbah (2010), The impact of computerized health information systems on administrative and medical decisions Empirical Study on the Gaza European Hospital, Master Thesis (unpublished), Faculty of Commerce, the Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine. 21. Gad El Rab, Said (2008), Information Systems Managmentbasics and administrative applications, Press Ashri, Ismailia, Egypt. 22. Guendlchi, Amer al-Janabi, Aladdin (2009), Management Information Systems, ninth edition, Dar march publishing, distribution and printing, Amman, Jordan. 23. Guendlchi, Amer and Ibrahim al-Janabi, Aladdin (2005), Management Information Systems, the first edition, Dar march for Publishing and Distribution, Amman, Jordan. 24. Guendljugi Amer al-Janabi, Aladdin (2005), Management Information Systems, Dar march for printing and publishing, Oman, the first edition. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6997 25. Idris, Thabet (2007), management information systems in contemporary organizations, Dar University, the first edition, Alexandria, Egypt. 26. Kurdish, Manal Mohammed, and Jalal Ibrahim AlAdel (2003), Introduction to Management Information Systems, the new University House, Egypt. 27. Muasher, Ziad, fertile Mohammed (2006), The impact of organizational and technical factors Ge administrative information systems applications in the Jordanian banking sector, Jordan Journal of Business Administration, Oman, the fourth issue, Volume 2. 28. Myeong ,Seunghwan and Choi, Younghoon (2010), "Effects of Information Technology on Policy DecisionMaking Processes", Some Evidences Beyond Rhetoric , Administration & Society July 2, 2010 vol. 42 no. 4 44145. 29. Naser S.S.A., Mazen J Al Shobaki, Youssef M Abu Amuna, (2016). Measuring knowledge management maturity at HEI to enhance performance-an empirical study at Al-Azhar University in Palestine. International Journal of Commerce and Management Research, 2(5), pp. 55-62. 30. Naser, S S.A. and ALmursheidi, S.H.., (2016). A Knowledge Based System for Neck Pain Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD), 2(4), pp.12-18. 31. Naser, S.A., Al-Dahdooh, R., Mushtaha, A. and ElNaffar, M., (2010). Knowledge Management in ESMDA: Expert System for Medical Diagnostic Assistance. AIML Journal. 10(1). pp.31-40. 32. Naser, S.S.A., and Al Shobaki, Mazen J.(2016), Enhancing the Use of Decision Support Systems for ReEngineering of Operations and Business-Applied Study on the Palestinian Universities, Journal of Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6998 Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), July 26, 2016, P: (505-512). 33. Naser S. S. A. and Shobaki M. J. A. (2016), The Impact of Mangement Requirements and Operations of Computerized Management Information Systems. to Improve Performance. (Practical Study on the employees of the company of Gaza Electricity Distribution). First Scientific Conference for Community Development 5-6 November, 2016, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Al-Azhar University of Gaza, Palestine. 34. Naser, Samy S. Abu; Shobaki, Mazen J. Al; Amuna, Youssef M. Abu; ,Promoting Knowledge Management Components in the Palestinian Higher Education Institutions A Comparative Study, ILSHS, 73, 42-53, 2016, SciPress Ltd.� 35. Naser, Samy S. Abu; Shobaki, Mazen J. Al. (2016)., Computerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza, European Academic Research, 4(8).� 36. Shobaki, M. J. A., & Naser, S. S. A. (2016). Performance development and its relationship to demographic variables among users of computerized management information systems in Gaza electricity Distribution Company. IJHSSR, 2(10), 21-30. Shobaki, M. J. A., & Naser, S. S. A. (2016). Decision support systems and its role in developing the universities strategic management: Islamic university in Gaza as a case study., IJARD, 1(10), 33-47. 37. Shobaki, M. J. A., & Naser, S. S. A. (2016). The reality of modern methods applied in process of performance assessments of employees in the municipalities in Gaza Strip. IJASR, 1(7), 14-23. 38. Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 6999 Tables: Table 1: The correlation coefficient between each value of every field of the questionnaire and the total value of the questionnaire No. The field Spearman correlation coefficient Statistical value (Sig.) 1. Physical resources for the computerized management information systems 3.8.6 *3.333 2. Software resources for computerized management information systems 3.6.3 *3.333 3. Human Resources Computerized Management Information Systems 3.83. *3.333 4. Organizational resources to computerized management information systems 3.8.8 *3.333 5. The performance of employees 3.57. *3.333 Correlation statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Table 2: Alpha Cronbach test results to measure the stability of the questionnaire No. The field Cronbach's alpha coefficient 1. Physical resources for computerized management information systems 3.860 2. Software resources for computerized management information systems 3.8.0 3. Human resources computerized Management Information Systems 3.830 4. Organizational resources for computerized management information systems 3.8.0 5. The performance of employees 3...6 6. All areas of the questionnaire 3..08 Table 3: The arithmetic mean value of probability and correlation coefficient for each paragraph of the field of physical resources No. Paragraph SMA The correlation coefficient SMA SMA relative Selection value Probability value (Sig.) The value of the correlation coefficient Probability value (Sig.) 1. Provide adequate computers to accomplish the work required. 4.64 ...88 .6.60 *3.333 3..60 *3.33. 2. The system provides enough space to store information 4.4. 88.00 .0.36 *3.333 3..08 *3.333 3. Provide tools for data entry the fits business needs. 4.08 80.0. .6.00 *3.333 3..40 *3.333 4. Output means of information fits the business needs. 4.04 86.86 .6... *3.333 3...3 *3.333 5. Speed of the hardware fits the required workload to be accomplish. 0.6. 0...6 8.40 *3.333 3..83 *3.333 6. Match the available network with business needs. 0.0. 00.8. .3.0. *3.333 3..00 *3.333 7. Characterized by fast network connection. 0.60 00.43 .... *3.... 3..40 *3.333 8. Rarely happens an interruption in the network used. 0.0. 0..88 0.4. *3.333 3..00 *3.333 Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 7000 9. Information network used provides sufficient capacity to achieve the goals of the information system. 0..4 08.8. .4..0 *3.333 3..34 *3.333 10. Resolve the imbalance in the network quickly. 4.34 83.0. .4.48 *3.333 3..8. *3.333 All field vertebrae together 4.34 83.80 .6.48 *3.333 3.043 *3.333 * The difference between the averages is statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Table 4: The arithmetic mean value of probability and correlation coefficient for each paragraph of the software resources for computerized management information systems No. Paragraph SMA The correlation coefficient SMA SMA relative Selection value Probability value (Sig.) The value of the correlation coefficient Probability value (Sig.) 1. Software used commensurate with the job requirements. 4.30 8..00 .0.06 *3.333 3.... *3.333 2. Software is updated in line with business needs. 0... 0..83 .0... *3.333 3.3.0 *3.000 3. Software used is in agreement with devices used 4.38 8..03 .0.80 *3.333 3..0. *3.33. 4. Software used is in agreement with the network used in the business 0..0 0..38 .0.66 *3.333 3..08 *3.333 5. Software used cover all activities 0.80 00.0. ....6 *3.333 3...0 *3.333 6. Computer software and applications are easy to use 4..4 8..8. .0.00 *3.333 3..36 *3.333 7. All instructions needed to run the software is available 4.30 83.66 .0.0. *3.333 3..40 *3.333 8. Programs provide information with the right quantity and precision 4.3. 83..0 .4.0. *3.333 3..84 *3.333 9. Programs used to retrieve information quickly 4.30 83... .0.06 *3.333 3..00 *3.33. 10. There is control over the programs used in order to ensure operational safety 4..3 8...6 .0.03 *3.333 3.04. *3.333 All field vertebrae together 4.30 83.00 .6.00 *3.333 3..08 *3.333 *The difference between the averages is statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Table 5: The arithmetic mean value of probability and correlation coefficient for each paragraph of the field of computerized human resources management information systems No. Paragraph SMA The correlation coefficient SMA SMA relative Selection value Probability value (Sig.) The value of the correlation coefficient Probability value (Sig.) 1. Technical Section of computerized system answer quickly my queries 0.00 00.04 ....8 *3.333 3...8 *3.333 Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 7001 2. Specialized section of computerized system resolve the problems that we face while using the network or the system ..3 80... .0.04 *3.333 3...4 *3.3.4 3. It is contacted with the department responsible for the computerized information system directly. 4..0 8..68 .0.00 *3.333 3..86 *3.33. 4. I have good relations with the personnel department in charge of the computerized information system. 4.08 80.68 .6.80 *3.333 3..03 *3.333 5. Staff in department of computerized information system understands my different needs 4.30 8..30 .0..0 *3.333 3.044 *3.333 6. The concerned department of computerized information system is committed to promises on time. 0.00 03.0. 8..0 *3.333 3..0 *3.333 7. The concerned department of computerized information system offer the same level of service at all times. 0.00 0..03 0.88 *3.333 3.030 *3.333 8. The concerned department of computerized information system have sufficient skills 4.30 8..30 .0.43 *3.333 3.038 *3.333 9. Employees the concerned department of computerized information system and users of the system are involved in the system design and development 0.48 6..6. 0.. *3.333 3..08 *3.33. 10. Users of computerized information system qualified to work on the system. 0... 0..04 .0... *3.333 3...0 *3.333 All field vertebrae together 0... 08.0. .6..6 *3.333 3.060 *3.333 *The difference between the averages is statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Table 6: The arithmetic mean value of probability and correlation coefficient for each paragraph of the field of organizational resources of the computerized management information systems No. Paragraph SMA The correlation coefficient SMA SMA relative Selection value Probability value (Sig.) The value of the correlation coefficient Probability value (Sig.) 1. The available information Fits with the job needs 4.38 8..00 .6... *3.333 3..0. *3.333 2. You can get the information available to senior management easily 0.38 6..03 ..38 *3.333 3..08 *3.33. 3. Any organizational level can get the information obtained by any other level 0.36 6...0 3.60 *3.333 3..60 *3.333 Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al ShobakiComputerized Management Information Systems Resources and their Relationship to the Development of Performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. IV, Issue 8 / November 2016 7002 4. The development of a computerized information system needs a decision of the senior management 4... 8...6 .0.3. *3.333 3..0. *3.330 5. It senior management provides the necessary financial support for the use of a computerized information system 4.36 8...8 .0.3. *3.333 3..0. *3.3.. 6. Senior management follows the course of action based on the use of computerized information system 0،.4 08.00 .0... *3.333 3..36 *3.333 7. Senior management encourages the use of computerized information system 4..4 84.0. .0.80 *3.333 3..63 *3.333 8. Senior management provide training programs on the use of computerized information system 0..0 0..33 .4.44 *3.333 3..40 *3.333 9. Senior management concerned with the views and suggestions on the use of computerized information system 0.03 6..00 8.86 *3.333 3.000 *3.333 10. Senior management provide necessary requirements to improve the use of the computerized information system 0.84 06.00 .0.8. *3.333 3..48 *3.333 All field vertebrae together 0.08 00.60 .0.66 *3.333 3.086 *3.333 *The difference between the averages is statistically significant at the level of significance (a ≤ 0.05). Table 7: Results of Stepwisemultiple linear regression Dimensions The parameter value The value of t Potential value Fixed amount ...60 .3..80 3.333 Human Resources Computerized Management Information Systems 3..88 0.830 3.333 Organizational resources to computerized management information systems 3..0. ..608 3.338 Physical resources for the computerized management information systems 3..03 ..663 3.
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{ "creator": "Al-Bayed, Mohran H.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1562865585000, "description": "Today’s everyone normal life can include a normal rate of playing computer games or video games; but what about an excessive or compulsive use of video games that impact on our life? Our kids, who usually spend a lot of time in playing video games will likely have a trouble in paying attention to their school lessons. In this paper, we introduce an expert system to help users in getting the correct diagnosis of the health problem of video game addictions that range from (Musculoskeletal issues, Vision problems and Obesity). Moreover, this expert system provides information about the problem and tell us how we can solve it. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement the expert system.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUDHP", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Detecting Health Problems Related to Addiction of Video Game Playing Using an Expert System", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
~ 7 ~ WWJMRD 2015; 2(9): 7-12 Impact Factor MJIF: 4.25 e-ISSN: 2454-6615 Samy S. Abu Naser Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, AlAzhar University, Gaza, Palestine Mohran H. Al-Bayed Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, AlAzhar University, Gaza, Palestine Correspondence: Samy S. Abu Naser Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, AlAzhar University, Gaza, Palestine Detecting Health Problems Related to Addiction of Video Game Playing Using an Expert System Samy S. Abu Naser, Mohran H. Al-Bayed Abstract Today's everyone normal life can include a normal rate of playing computer games or video games; but what about an excessive or compulsive use of video games that impact on our life? Our kids, who usually spend a lot of time in playing video games will likely have a trouble in paying attention to their school lessons. In this paper, we introduce an expert system to help users in getting the correct diagnosis of the health problem of video game addictions that range from (Musculoskeletal issues, Vision problems and Obesity). Moreover, this expert system provides information about the problem and tell us how we can solve it. SL5 Object expert system language was used to design and implement the expert system. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Expert Systems; SL5 Object; Video Games; Health; Video Game Addiction Introduction There are Different point of view in video game that include societal and scientific arguments about whether the content of video games can lead to a negative behavior and attitudes in a player normal life, and whether this is reflected to the overall video game industry. Fig 1: Video game addiction Even though from the 1980s, the starter of games development industry has confirmed their industry as a very meaningful space for any person that will play, and event it can be used as an educational tool in the schools. On the other hand, another opinion was rising because of the negative effects that link between addiction of video games, violence, aggression and other issues that appeared specially for specific video game genres [3]. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) made a survey [4] in 2016 about the Computer And Video Game Industry and gathered data from more than 4,000 households and surveyed about their game play habits and attitudes, and found that every house contain at least one person who play games for at least 3 hours/week with average of 13 years from his life. About half of this is female (48%), with high percent of 21% of the total ages of 18 or younger, and the majority of parents (91%) say it must be present on purchasing video games and want to check Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) [30] before letting their children play the game. One of the extensive games playing is Musculoskeletal issues that are physical complaints that happen during video game playing and range from pain in (hands and wrists, back and neck) or lower back pain to tendon injuries (tendinosis) of the hands and wrists that happen World Wide Journal of Multidiscip linary Research and Development ~ 8 ~ World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development from game controller, which contain numbness and a blister caused by friction between the thumb and the controller because of the rapid game play [31]. The other one is the Vision problems that are happened because of mass viewing sessions of electronic games devices and can cause eye strain, on cornea, pupil, and iris [32] and that can lead to headaches, dizziness, and evens chances of vomiting from focusing on a screen. Over that, the Obesity are linked to increase Body Mass Index (BMI) when the child spends more time in playing game over his day [33]. Expert System Language Expert Systems language is a set of programs which allow the building of an expert system through the creation of knowledge and rules, [6,10,11,13,21] see figure 2 for details. Expert systems have three essential components: 1. User interface: presents questions to the user and accepts inputs from them. 2. Knowledge base: contains data, facts, rules and objects in a specific knowledge domain. The knowledge base obtained from the human expert is prepared by a knowledge engineer as most human experts are not skilled in computer programming. 3. Inference engine: this is software that matches the users input with data contained in the knowledge base to reach appropriate answers. This is done using inference rules e.g. IF conditions THEN statements ELSE statements rules. Fig 2: Component of the expert systems The Expert System for detecting gamers health problems was implemented using SL5 Object language which stands for Simpler Level 5 Object expert system language [2]. It is a forward chaining expert system that can make inferences about facts of the world using rules, objects and take appropriate actions as a result. The SL5 Object language is implemented in Delphi Embarcadero RAD Studio XE6[2]. SL5 Object language is easy for the knowledge engineer to build the expert system and for the end users when they use it. Literature Review There are many expert systems that were designed to diagnose diseases in human[1,5,9,14-20,26-29,34-37] and plants [7]. But there is no specialized expert system for detecting gamers health problems. Although it's linked to several human diseases such as: Diabetes, bacterial, Ear, Eye, foot, Mouth Problems. Talayeh developed an expert system for diabetes diagnosis [12]. MYCIN is a famous expert system for diagnosing bacterial infections [24]. Some of these Expert Systems are specialized in one specific disease and other in a few diseases. However, the current proposed expert system is specialized in the diagnosis of video games playing health problem. Materials and Methods The proposed expert system performs diagnosis of video games playing health problem by asking questions that requires Yes/No answers. The proposed expert system will ask the user to choose the correct answer in each question window. At the end of the diagnosis session, the proposed expert system provides the proper diagnosis of the problem and offer a recommendation of the symptoms to the users. Figure 3 shows the first screen of the expert system session. Figure 4 shows an example of STRING question. Figure 5 shows an example of NUMERIC question and Figure 6 shows how the expert system displays the info for the patient, the health problem -if patient have oneand the recommendation for treating the health problem. ~ 9 ~ World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development Fig 3: Shows start screen of the expert system session Fig 4: Shows an example of STRING question type Fig 5: Shows an example of NUMERIC question type ~ 10 ~ World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development Fig 6: The expert system displays the diagnosis of the problem and the recommendation for treating the health problem. Knowledge Representation The main sources of the knowledge for this expert system are physician and specialized websites for the impact of the long period video game playing. The collected knowledge has been transformed into SL5 Object Knowledge base syntax: Facts, Rules and Objects. Currently the expert system has 31 rules which cover 3 major health problem. The core cause of this problems are the long period of playing video games. In numerous cases, physician may not discover a cause for the ache. When a cause is recognized, general explanations take account of [3, 31-33]:  Child will have pain in hands and wrists.  Child will have pain in the back and this can be in the lower back.  Child will have pain in the neck.  Child could be having tendon injuries on the hands or wrists.  Child may have an overweight problem.  Child could be having cause eye strain, on cornea, pupil, and iris.  Child may have headaches, dizziness, and evens chances of vomiting from focusing on a screen. Causes of Gamers Health Problems  Long time playing without any breaks.  Eat while playing.  Less healthy seats on the playing location.  Fatigue.  Migraines due to intense concentration or eye strain.  Carpal tunnel syndrome caused by the overuse of a controller or computer mouse.  Poor personal hygiene. Kids Video Games Health Problems As much as it hurt to observe your child health go down while he/she is playing video games, but you need to watch your kids gaming time and check what are the types of games that he is playing. Here are the top causes that need your handle as fast as you see them: If your kid plays for more than 1.5 hour, then you need to move him away to take a break from time to time. Typically accompanied by letting him busy with something different for about 10-minute rest. Hands and wrists pain, in this case happen from un-fitting controller to your kid hands size or from long time playing, and this solved by buying the correct size controller for your kid. Back and neck pain, are happened from un-healthy seats that are our kids seat on the playing time. Tendon injuries on the hands or wrists are situation happen with the escalating use of computers both in the home for recreational purposes and in schools for teaching, the possible incidence of hand and wrist problems may need to be highlighted. Perhaps "hand care" instruction should be implemented to solve this problem. Overweigh happens because playing games make the player hungry and encourage them to eat more fast food rather than the healthy food. Typically, this happens because of spending more time on playing games without stopping and this is not because they don't exercise, and this can solve by making exercise on the gym. Play games for hours, all of that staring can put a real strain on your eyes. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is not one specific eye problem. Instead, the term encompasses a whole range of eye strain and pain experienced by computer users. Here are some home advices to deal with your kids before the problem got bigger:  Do not give the child the freedom to play games without check it is appropriated or not from its ESRB.  Avoid to let your kids play for more than 1.5 hours without any breaks.  Make a health seat and location for your kids playing.  Play with your kids selected video game while you can, so you can observe him in a real gaming situation.  Give your kids a nice massage from time to time. Conclusion In this paper, an expert system was developed for aiding ~ 11 ~ World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development Physicians in diagnosing patients with possible Games Health Problems. This diagnosis is faster and more accurate than the traditional diagnosis which is done by physicians. This expert system does not require rigorous training to be used; it has a straightforward and user friendly interface. It was developed using SL5 Object expert system language. The results of the preliminary testing of the expert system was a success. Future Work This expert system is considered to be a base of future ones; more Gamers Health Problem are planned to be added to the expert system and to make it more accessible to users from anywhere at any time. References 1. Naser S.S.A., and N.A. Alaa, 2008. A Proposed Expert System for Skin Diseases Diagnosis. Journal of Applied Sciences Research 4 (12), 1682-1693 2. Naser, S.S.A., SL5 OBJECT: SIMPLER LEVEL 5 OBJECT EXPERT SYSTEM LANGUAGE. International Journal of Soft Computing, Mathematics and Control (IJSCMC), 2015, 4(4) , pp.25-37. 3. 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{ "creator": "Abushawish, Hussam F.", "date": "2018", "datestamp": 1596700849000, "description": "Abstract: The emphasis of this study is placed on enhancing understanding of how transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change form an effectual model of influence on institutional effectiveness in higher education. The study used the descriptive analytical method and approached the study problem with a case study design. The primary research instrument comprised a semi-structured interview with 4 informants from the case study university who were purposefully selected based on their willingness and knowledgeability as knowledgeable and willing informants are assumed to provide accurate and rich data which contributes to explain and enhance understanding of study problem. The study clarified the relationship among three key factors of influence on institutional effectiveness in Palestinian higher education, namely, transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change. It revealed learned lessons necessary to guide the practice of Palestinian universities toward more effectiveness and adaptiveness in the face of brutally demanding external environment.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUETI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Exploring the Influence of Transformational Leadership, Institutional culture, and Strategic Change on Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 1 Exploring the Influence of Transformational Leadership, Institutional culture, and Strategic Change on Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education Hussam F. Abushawish Department of Business Administration, Palestine Technical College, Deir Al Balah, Palestine Abstract: The emphasis of this study is placed on enhancing understanding of how transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change form an effectual model of influence on institutional effectiveness in higher education. The study used the descriptive analytical method and approached the study problem with a case study design. The primary research instrument comprised a semi-structured interview with 4 informants from the case study university who were purposefully selected based on their willingness and knowledgeability as knowledgeable and willing informants are assumed to provide accurate and rich data which contributes to explain and enhance understanding of study problem. The study clarified the relationship among three key factors of influence on institutional effectiveness in Palestinian higher education, namely, transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change. It revealed learned lessons necessary to guide the practice of Palestinian universities toward more effectiveness and adaptiveness in the face of brutally demanding external environment. Keywords- higher education; transformational leadership; institutional culture; strategic change; institutional effectiveness 1. INTRODUCTION The World Bank (2012) emphasized the rising significance of higher education in economic growth in a world intensely dominated by global knowledge economies and growing competitiveness. Higher education is a potential force to encourage economic growth by expanding employment and raising productivity through preparing highly skilled workforce for the various economic activities, increasing technological capacity, and leading research to drive innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity. Obviously, investing in higher education is a key process toward the wellbeing of individuals and nations. However, various scholars claimed that Palestinian universities are ineffective as they cannot adapt to numerous changing realities in their environment. The biggest threat is the massively growing public demand on higher education. An increasing public hunger for higher education has placed further pressures on universities and resulted in various severe chronic problems in terms of student access to higher education, institutional capacity to contain large numbers of students, rising demands for educational quality, the relevance of institutional outcomes to the labor market, and institutional governance (AlSubu', 2009; Hashweh, Hashweh, & Berryman, 2003). Accordingly, universities in Palestine suffer from a serious dilemma of misalignment with their external environments, the matter which caused them to grow more ineffective and incapable of adaptively addressing these environmental threats. Therefore, the critical question that ascended is whether universities are effective and capable to support economic and social development in Palestine. This question encouraged authentic interventions to address these critical concerns of effectiveness. The starting step to revitalizing Palestinian higher education is probably to identify the key factors which potentially predict institutional effectiveness in Palestinian universities. In this respect, and informed by an extensive review of literature, this study identified transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change as key determinants of university institutional effectiveness in Palestine. Hence, the major contribution of this study is to provide keen insights into the link which exists among transformational leadership, institutional culture, strategic change, and institutional effectiveness through learning firsthand from key informants from the target university. This qualitative exploration enhances our understanding of the nature of the relationship that exists among such key factors. Also, it provides performance implications and learned lessons with regard to how these crucial organizational factors interact to form an effectual model of influence on institutional effectiveness in higher education. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Higher education has become an area of optimal interest to researchers, policy makers, and scholars due to its obvious link to the wellbeing of nations. It is envisioned as a powerful force to drive sustained and competitive economic development and social welfare and stability. Because the International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 2 world in the 21st century is increasingly organized around global knowledge economies, where education and knowledge are treated as human capital that is utilized for high value social and economic return, higher education has become a growing industry as well as an area of intense public demand. Therefore, various governmental and institutional policies are ever more mandated to drive and support this view across the globe (Jenks, 2008). As a result, higher education is now at the core of nations' awareness, and national strategies and policies are aimed at enhancing higher education systems as producers of highly qualified individuals as well as intellectual leaders who actively participate in economic activities. Even though, as demands for enhanced contribution of higher education in building nations' capacities grow, challenges and external pressures on higher education also increase in ways which may enormously undermine its effectiveness. From the international perspective, many pressures and challenges were reported to exert a substantial influence on higher education (Stensaker & Norgard, 2001; Cummings et al., 2005; Hanna, 2003; Obenchain et al., 2002; & Eckel, Hill, and Green, 1998). That is, institutions of higher education face a double-sided pressure where they are pressurized to meet growing demands for national and international standardization associated with powerful external challenges which have extreme consequences on their effectiveness. Such stressful challenges include keeping higher education affordable in an age of growing public demand on higher education while controlling tight financial situation; containing large numbers of students coupled with growing demands for educational quality, effectiveness, and efficiency; meeting the demands of globalization and the resulting expulsion of knowledge inside and outside academia; and serving the needs of local and international labor markets by introducing new technological skills for the industry. From the perspective of Palestinian higher education, two official reports revealed major environmental threats to higher education which were associated with detrimental deterioration in its effectiveness. The first report (AlSubu', 2009 & Hashweh, Hashweh, & Berryman, 2003) emphasized that although Palestinian universities improved in terms of a noticeable increase in student enrolment, yet this seems to place further persistent challenges on the Palestinian universities. First of all, Palestinian universities face a problem of student access to higher education and institutional capacity to contain large number of students. Pressurized with massively growing public demand on higher education, universities are required to make higher education affordable despite that they are incapable of containing large numbers of students which exceed their capacity. This is associated with decreased fund, inadequate database, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient number of qualified teachers, restrictions to academic personnel mobility due to the occupation, and inadequate access to and use of ICT. Second, the intense growth in student enrolment created increasing demands for educational quality in Palestinian higher education. Educational quality in universities has deteriorated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in terms of neglected teacher quality, faculty overloads, increased student-teacher ratio, journal-teacher ratio, and percentage of teachers holding specific degrees. Third, the issue of how responsive higher education is to the demands of economic growth and individual welfare was considered a critical challenge to higher education in Palestine. Market demand for higher education graduates is getting low due to deteriorating economic development which is combined with high rates of population growth. Consequently, there are high rates of unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza. Also, there are evident signs of an unfavorable and adverse misalignment between higher education and the local labor market. For example, universities have inappropriate production in certain disciplines and have irregular and un-established relationship with the local market. Employers commonly report that higher education graduates are too theoretical, lacking proper work ethics, under qualified, deficient at English language skills, and lacking management and entrepreneurial skills. Other aspects of irrelevance in higher education was explained in growing market demands for new programs and appropriate production to support the economy compared to disproportions in program enrolment distribution from one side and imbalances in enrolment distribution between universities and technical colleges from the other. The need for creating a proper connection between Palestinian higher education and the local labor market was further emphasized by the Education Development Strategic Plan 2008-2012 which was launched by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (2008). The focal point of this plan focused on the incremental transformation of higher education from a supply-oriented into a more demand-oriented sector as a major goal to accomplish in order to maximize the relevance between university outputs and the labor market needs and to guarantee quality education. Fourth, Palestinian higher education lacks an effective governance model. Palestinian universities have different types of governing bodies. Governmental universities have advisory councils, public institutions have boards of trustees (except for Al-Quds open university which has advisory board), and private institutions have boards of directors. There are clear manifestations of weak governance in Palestinian higher education. For instance, boards do not meet regularly, not all boards provide financial oversight, and many of the boards do not set the strategic direction of their institutions. The deteriorating conditions of Palestinian higher education denote that it may have ignored vital factors which potentially account for their effectiveness, namely, strategic change, transformational leadership, and institutional culture (Abushawish, Ali & Jamil, 2013). Universities have International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 3 seemingly been unaware of the changing nature of change in organizations in the 21st century as they are rooted in traditional simple, first order change which is no longer fitting the increasing impetus and scope of organizational change (Anderson & Anderson. 2010; Balogun, 2001; Koning, 2010; & Van De Ven, 1993). They have ignored strategic change which is a more powerful and an appropriate fit for organizations today. Consequently, they are incapable of anticipating change and adaptively responding to ever changing unpredictable environmental conditions which detrimentally diminish their effectiveness. Therefore, they have to make strategic change a top priority on their agendas by means of changing their cultures, strategies, structures, and systems. Because they have not developed a proper capacity for strategic change, they are likely to fail to reposition themselves in the face of increasingly competitive and unpredictable environmental forces and, therefore, suffer from misalignment with their environments and grow more ineffective. Hence, the question of whether Palestinian universities implement a strategic change approach or not is truly an issue of success and even survival because strategic change can lead to breakthrough results in ways which foster institutional effectiveness (Anderson & Anderson 2010). In addition, the suggestion that Palestinian universities are becoming increasingly ineffective due to their incapability to address powerful environmental threats signifies a critical absence of an effective leadership approach for change. This is clearly established in the literature as transformational leadership is claimed to be significantly associated with institutional effectiveness (Scully; 2008; Bass & Riggio, 2006; Al-Otaibi 2006; Clatt & Hiebert, 2001; & Sarros & Santora, 2001), and that it influences institutional effectiveness through strategic change (Anderson & Anderson, 2010). It is inferred that universities have become ineffective due to ignoring the critical role of transformational leadership in planning and implementing strategic change to create a proper connection with their environment and, in turn, to become more effective. A snapshot of the current situation can be summarizes this way: the reason why Palestinian universities are growing ineffective is that they lack effective leaders who are capable of meeting the demands of the rather complicated strategic change. Universities need a new breed of leaders who are changecentered and capable of leading universities through transformation by transforming culture, inspiring followers to pursue into the prescribed direction, and fostering innovation and transformation (Marshall, 2011; Benitez, Davidson, & Flaxman, 2009; Pagan, 2008; Bass & Riggio, 2006; & Lievens, Van Geit, & Coetsier, 1997). Hence, the shift of organizational emphasis to strategic change as a more fitting type to the increasing impetus and scope of organizational change has increased demands for a new breed of change-centered, innovative leaders who are capable of leading organizations through transformation to achieve results beyond expectations. In this context, transformational leadership is believed to be "the best-fitting model for effective leadership in today's world" (Bass & Riggio, 2006, p. 224). It envisions new directions and strategies and inspires others to move toward the desired strategic outcomes. It also satisfies people's desire for universal leader across cultures. Therefore, it is believed to be a powerful predictor of leadership and thus of institutional effectiveness (Bass & Riggio, 2006; & Schell IV, Youngblood & Farrington, 2008). As organizational survival basically depends on institutional effectiveness which, in turn, is vitally affected by the leader's style of leadership, most organizations seek to develop transformational capacity in order to be responsive to change and to cope with powerful forces present in their external environments so that they can achieve institutional effectiveness and success. Nevertheless, transformational leadership and institutional culture are mutually dependent. The literature on leadershipculture relationship shows that institutional culture is a key determinant of leadership and institutional effectiveness ( Michaelis, Stgmaier, & Sonntag, 2010; Lin & McDonough III, 2009; Bass & Riggio, 2006; Schein, 2004; Kulkarni, 2010; Block, 2002; & Fullan & Hargreaves1996). Transformational leaders need the support of a strong institutional culture to achieve institutional effectiveness through strategic change. What this infers is that institutional culture enhances the role of leadership and facilitates strategic change. Organizations with a weak culture that are dominated by old traditions, values, and regulations usually have poor performance because theses cultural elements hamper innovation and change. Furthermore, the present weak university-environment connection and the deteriorating institutional effectiveness necessitates the need to create a more adaptive institutional culture as a key adaptive organizational element. Shaping a strong culture is the starting step toward institutional effectiveness because without a well-established culture no vision, mission, or strategy will contribute to corporate strategic change and success (Marshall, 2011; Peterson & Deal, 2009; Schein, 2004; Singh & Bhandarker, 1990). It is inferred that universities need to be aware that leadership, institutional culture, and institutional effectiveness are significantly interconnected (Kulkarni, 2010; Michaelis, Stgmaier, & Sonntag, 2010; Lin & McDonough III, 2009; Bass & Riggio, 2006; Schein, 2004; Block, 2002; & Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996). Key persons in these universities need to embrace the powerful role of culture as an adaptive organizational tool. Institutional culture is basically grounded in the organizational paradigm which guides organizational strategy, practices, and behaviors toward the prescribed organizational direction. Because culture comprises a set of organizational assumptions derived from collective understanding of organizational capability and environmental threats (Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, 2005), it has a strong potential for influencing the formulation of organizational strategy in universities toward creating a proper connection between them and their environment in ways which account for enhanced institutional effectiveness. International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 4 Furthermore, a second major source of motivation for conducting this study is the reported gaps in the body of research as related to the link among transformational leadership, institutional culture, strategic change, and institutional effectiveness. Most importantly, Sarros, Cooper, and Santora (2008) asserted that there is a little empirical evidence of the hypothetical connection among transformational leadership, institutional culture, and innovation which contribute to organizational change. In addition, Jaskyte (2004) confirmed that the empirical investigation of the link between leadership and innovation, as a critical contributor to organizational change, has been ignored in the literature. Also, despite numerous theoretical conclusions about the effectiveness of transformational leadership, there is no empirical evidence of how effective transformational leaders are in educational settings (Stewart, 2006). Besides, despite frequent theoretical associations between leadership and culture in the literature, there has been little empirical evidence of this link and its implications to practitioners. (Ogbonna & Harris, 2000, p. 771). Finally, the potential role of culture has been ignored in most leadership-performance relationship studies (Jing and Avery, 2008). In this regard, the current qualitative study will enhance our understanding of how these factors relate to one another in the context of Palestinian higher education.. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The principal objective of this qualitative data analysis is to enhance understanding of how transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change serve as a model of influence on institutional effectiveness in the context of higher education through answering the following qualitative questions: 1. How do the respondents perceive the current state of transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change? what factors contributed to this perception of these variables? 2. How does Transformational Leadership influence Institutional effectiveness and Strategic Change? 3. How does Institutional culture affect the relationship between Transformational Leadership and Strategic Change? 4. How does Strategic Change mediate the relationship between Transformational Leadership and Institutional effectiveness? 3. METHODOLOGY Qualitative methods are primarily based on interpreting human behaviors and experiences in a given phenomenon. In this respect, interviews form the most commonly used qualitative data collection method in educational settings (Given et al, 2008). For purposes of this study, semistructured interviews constituted the primary technique for the qualitative data collection. Ruane (2005) stated that "the interview is a purposeful conversation wherein the interviewer has a set of research agenda i.e., key points or questions that must be addressed" (p.149). According to Hancock (1998), an interview is a major qualitative method of data collection, which involves three types: highly structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. Unlike the highly structured interviews which involve tightly structured questionnaire-like questions, semi-structured interviews allow the researcher to use topic-based open-ended questions to investigate certain topics in ways which provide opportunities for detailed discussion during the interview. The sample consisted of 4 informants who were purposefully selected from target university on the basis of their knowledgeability and willingness to respond. Knowledgeable and willing informants have the potential to provide accurate and rich data (Kumar, 1989). Therefore, 4 informants with at least ten years of experience were selected. The interviews were conducted by means of direct question and answer sessions between the researcher and these informants. The interview questions that were informed by the main guiding qualitative questions were validated by requesting expert judges to ensure that the questions are relevant and investigate what they are supposed to investigate. The interviews were conducted in Arabic because it is the mother tongue of the informants. To ensure valid responses, the participants were informed of the objectives, the significance, and the procedures of the interview. They were guaranteed that their responses would be treated with strict confidentiality. For this purpose, the real names of the interviewees were not used and were coded according to the order in which the interviews were conducted (i.e. interviewee 1). Written records of the interview sessions were kept through taking extensive notes during the interviews, and these were supplemented by means of video-recording for truly capturing the data from the informants. The resulting written verbatim transcripts constituted the research data (Ruane, 2005). Subsequent to the data collection, established techniques were used to analyze the qualitative data for coding and developing themes out of the initial narratives (Creswell, 2012; Creswell & Miller, 2000; & Given et al, 2008). That is, thematic analysis was employed through utilizing the following six steps in analyzing the data obtained from the interviews: (1) Organizing the data for analysis through transcribing interviews; (2) Preliminarily exploring the data by skimming the interview transcripts to grasp a general sense of it; (3) Coding initial narratives and developing themes and descriptions by combining similar codes together as well as interrelating themes to tell a narrative; (4) Presenting qualitative findings both through constructing narratives and visual displays such as figures, tables, and diagrams; (5) Interpreting the presented findings through introducing personal insights, relating the findings to the literature, and suggesting recommendations or future research; and (6) Ensuring validity of the finding by applying International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 5 Member Checking and Peer Review techniques (Creswell, 2012). In order to ensure the credibility of the interview data, two techniques were used based on determining how accurately the interview findings reflect reality in the university under investigation. These two techniques enabled the researcher to utilize various standpoints of participants and outsiders respectively regarding the validity of findings. The finest technique used by the researcher to establish validity of findings is Member Checking. In this technique, accounts by the informants were paraphrased back to them by the researcher during the interview to ensure credibility of the collected data. The second technique is Peer Review where a person who is familiar with the study discipline and problem was invited by the researcher to review the interview process and the data findings. Peer reviewers are particularly crucial because they provide support concerning the methodology and the interpretations involved (Creswell & Miller, 2000). 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION By means of thematic analysis, the analysis of the qualitative data provided sufficient answers to the qualitative guiding questions. The qualitative findings yielded six major themes which are assumed to provide insightful explanation and understanding of the manner transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change influence institutional effectiveness in higher education. These key themes are presented below to explain the quantitative findings of the current study. 4.1 Qualitative Question One How do the respondents perceive the current state of transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change as identified in phase one; what factors contributed to this perception of these variables? Informants' responses mirrored the reality of transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change in the current university and yielded two significant themes. The first theme dealt with how the informants perceived the current state of transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change and its relative causes. The second theme described perceived key antecedents for successful implementation of transformational leadership in Palestinian higher education. 4.1.1 Theme1: Perspectives on Current Transformational Leadership, Institutional culture, and strategic Change in Palestinian Higher Education: Reality and Causes 4.1.1.1 Perceived Level of Transformational Leadership Exploration of the qualitative data revealed consistent responses from informants to questions relating to the reality of transformational leadership and whether the perceived transformational leadership affected institutional effectiveness in the target university. Transformational leadership was reported to be high at the case study university. The qualitative exploration also revealed that this perceived level of transformational leadership was attributed to specific factors. Responses from the informants demonstrated a common agreement on the reality of transformational leadership at the university. They consistently indicated that the level of transformational leadership is moderately high and that this corresponded to the current leadership style of the university. Contradictory remarks, however, emerged from two informants with the first stating that transformational leadership may have developed accidentally, i.e., not an intentional approach, and the other indicating that the level of transformational leadership could be higher as respondents to the questionnaire may have had inadequate understanding of the construct and thus underestimated it. Nevertheless, the general tendency in the interview data was that, in reality, transformational leadership is at moderately high level, and that the informants felt comfortable about it. This feeling was due to the sense that there is no idealism in leadership. There was a clear indication that the results reflected a leadership orientation toward adopting more transformational aspects of leadership. An account from one interviewee put it this way: The results really reflect the general tendency (of the university) and that the university leadership is becoming more oriented toward transformational leadership...... We are moving in the right direction. Interviewee 1, dean Another interviewee noted: This is true. The results reflect a transformational style of leadership. Interviewee 3, lecturer However, there was a common view among the informants of the need to improve the transformational competency of the university as certain organizational aspects were reported to be inadequately improving. An example of such weak aspects was the relevance between the university outcomes and the demands of the local labor market. This need for improvement was further explained: Yet, we need further improvement in this field to cope with the international developments. We are in need to improve our educational and leadership processes. For International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 6 example, there is a slow improvement in e-learning and interactive learning, and the gap between the university outcomes and the demands of the local market is widening. Interviewee 1, dean In order to grasp a detailed view concerning the reality of transformational leadership at the university, the informants were requested to explain the underlying causes which led to the perceived level of transformational leadership at the university. Their accounts revealed that the perceived level of transformational leadership was a natural result of a new leadership orientation that has developed over time. This evolution of leadership across time was explained as follows: Yes, transformational leadership is an effective leadership approach for the university. In the beginning we used scientific leadership. Then, we had orientation toward more humanoriented leadership styles until we finally became oriented toward transformational leadership. Interviewee 4, dean 4.1.1.2 Reality of Institutional culture The qualitative findings of the current study revealed that the interview participants' responses reflected positive views of their university culture. The participants confirmed that the university has a moderately transformational culture. This type of culture denoted a moderate presence of the 4 Is, implying that the university is effective (Bass & Riggio, 2006). In this respect, an account from a participant expressed a favorable view of his university culture by stating that: This is true and there are various proofs for this (type of culture): Threatening and toughness are rarely used with employees and student because the causes that lead to such unfavorable practices are not present due to the existence of a clear culture that prevents misbehavior. Interviewee 4, dean The driving force for the existence of such an effective culture was suggested to be a sustaining system of values which pervaded throughout the university such as participative leadership, virtue, justice, mutual understanding, collaboration, commitment, collective suffering, and collective responsibility. A respondent claimed that: The university has good values such as virtue, discipline, commitment, and the just and fair implementation of the system of regulations and laws on people. Interviewee 1, dean Nevertheless, participants signaled a growing demand to improve some cultural aspects at the university. They indicated that although the university culture was considered effective, it is nevertheless not ideal. Certain aspects should be considered for improvement to increase the influence of institutional culture on the university performance such as the university systems, work routine, role perception, the relationship between the university leadership and employees, the university-community connections, and the university leadership's assumptions about change. An interview respondent's remarks on the current university culture highlighted this need for improvement: It is true (that the current culture is moderately transformational), yet the current culture needs improvement with regard to university systems, work routine, role perception, leadershipemployees relationships, and university-community connections. Interviewee 1, dean While another respondent denoted that unsupportive leadership assumptions of change is a critical cultural aspect that needs reconsideration: We have financial difficulties as well as difficulties relating to leadership assumptions about change. Interviewee 2, dean 4.1.1.3 Challenges to Strategic Change As far as strategic change in the target university is concerned, exploration of related data revealed that the university has a moderately high capacity for strategic change. The informants indicated that the university had a good, yet not ideal, capability for strategic change planning and implementation. As expected, this capability was shaped because the university has the required qualified personnel. As noted by an informant: Generally the situation is good but it still needs further improvement, particularly in the mechanism required for enhancing the implementation of plans. Interviewee 1, dean International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 7 Nevertheless, the informants admitted that the university faced difficulties pertaining, in particular, to the implementation of strategic change, suggesting that the university must improve its methods of change implementation. In this context, various forces were reported to negatively affect the university's capability for strategic change implementation. First of all, the external environment of the university was perceived as a major difficulty to implementing strategic change. Given the complicated current sociopolitical and economic conditions in Palestine, the external environment is extremely unstable and, thus, very unpredictable in ways which place greater pressures on the part of the university. The effect of this extremely unstable environment was suggested to be so complicated that it imposed further activities and tasks that had not initially been included in the strategic plan to address unpredictable external changes and challenges. The interruption of such extra activities meant that strategic plans were not fully accomplished. This difficulty was best described in this account: Some objectives were achieved by 7080% whereas some others were not achieved. This is because of many promptly intercepting activities from outside the strategic plan which are imposed due to the current changes, emergencies, the current political situation, the occupation, and the blockade. Interviewee 4, dean Another proposed difficulty that inhibited strategic change implementation at the university related to reduced financial capacity. It was indicated that the university had been undergoing financial difficulties because of the current political and economic conditions in Palestine. This meant that the university was not in shape for full range of strategic change planning and implementation. That is, significant areas of change might have been bypassed as a result of financial difficulties. It was also assumed that the underlying assumptions of the university leadership about change probably exerted a regressive effect on strategic change implementation. The inference is that the university leadership might not be in full favor of change; rather it preferred keeping the current state unless it was forced to address abrupt challenges seriously affecting it. The previous conclusions about the reality of strategic change at the university were manifested in these remarks: We have only 70% of the capacity for strategic change because we have financial difficulties as well as difficulties relating to leadership assumptions about change. Interviewee 2, dean It is, thus, indicated that the university tended to apply an abrupt response, reactive approach when facing compelling environmental challenges that threatened its existence rather than creating new realities by means of incrementally changing its existing institutional culture and strategy. This indicates university leaders' favoritism of keeping the current state while engaging in strategic change in case of abruptly threatening challenges. 4.1.2 Theme 2: Key Antecedents to Transformational Leadership Implementation The qualitative data analysis related to transformational leadership raised a second major theme revolving around crucial antecedents to transformational leadership. It was evident that some concerns emerged about key antecedents that need to be attained in order to assume successful implementation of transformational leadership in Palestinian higher education. Therefore, more consideration must be given to its antecedents in Palestinian higher education. Thus, the qualitative findings revealed that the potential success of transformational leadership in Palestinian higher education is contingent on meeting certain conditions or antecedents. The first and most important antecedent to transformational leadership implementation in Palestinian higher education involved adequately understanding the construct. The informants reported that there is a need to understand transformational leadership because there is a substantial degree of complexity associated with it. This sort of complexity causes a great deal of uncertainty that hinders introducing transformational leadership into Palestinian universities. Therefore, it is inferred that there is a compelling need to first understand transformational leadership by means of organizational learning and training. As a respondent put it: Transformational leadership is definitely important, but leadership by exception is better because transformational leadership is a high level leadership approach, and our Arab World does not yet reach an adequate degree of understanding it. However, both can be combined. Interviewee 2, dean It was thus indicated that adequate understanding of transformational leadership guarantees an appropriate use as well as a proper atmosphere for an effective implementation of transformational leadership in Palestinian higher education. International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 8 Exploration of the qualitative data illustrated a second antecedent, namely, adopting a university-driven versus a private-sector driven leadership style. Concerns of the informants were placed on adapting transformational leadership to suit the context of higher education because universities are different from the business sector which seeks only profit. In contrary, Palestinian universities have a scientific role with a focus placed on providing the society with highly qualified individuals to participate in its growth and development. The indication is that the transformational styles that worked well for industry and business may not be applicable to Palestinian higher education. While the informants illustrated the need for transformational leadership in Palestinian universities, they also valued inclusive, participative, and democratic aspects of leadership. This denoted that transformational leadership should be adapted to universities in the sense that it is inclusive and participative rather than directive in order to maximize its impact on employees and the university as a whole. Such a call for a participative style of transformational leadership was best fitted in this comment: Although transformational leadership is mainly linked with the private sector, but it can be implemented in the university in condition that it should be implemented differently from the way it is implemented in the private sector. Interviewee 3, lecturer The last antecedent that was revealed in the qualitative data was the need for attaining governmental and social support. This antecedent presumes an effective system of leadership thinking and practice in which institutional leadership, the government, and the society play vital roles. Accounts by the informants revealed that for transformational leadership to turn Palestinian universities into effective bodies, transformational leaders need the full support of the government and the society. As no leadership stands alone, its effectiveness basically depends on the provision of competent human resources, financial resources, and technology. Comments from a participant illustrated this needed type of support as an antecedent for leadership success: Although transformational leadership creates organizational transformation, yet it needs resources, and support in terms of human, financial, and technological support from the government and the society. This is what is meant by system. Interviewee1, dean Thus, the needed support can be provided in these terms so that leaders have all the needed human capital and the instruments to transform the university into highly effective body. 4.2 Qualitative Question Two How does Transformational Leadership influence Institutional effectiveness and Strategic Change? To gain good understanding of how transformational leadership can predict institutional effectiveness and strategic change, a qualitative exploration was conducted to provide more insights into the potential explanatory power of transformational leadership from the views of key informants from the target university. Exploration of the qualitative data resulted in the following theme: 4.2.1 Theme 3: Transformational Leadership: Potentiality for Palestinian Higher Education Responses from the informants to questions relating to whether transformational leadership is a potential component of a successful university were in line with the general results of the effectiveness of transformational leadership in the literature. The various responses revealed the relevance of transformational leadership for the context of higher education. Yet, the views of informants varied from instant agreement to conditional agreement in perceiving it to be a key predictor of institutional effectiveness and strategic change at Palestinian universities. Most of the informants valued transformational leadership as a superior leadership approach to increase university effectiveness. These views of effective transformational leadership were based on its established impacts in various settings including industry, business, and higher education. One informant confirmed that transformational leadership is a very effective style of leadership. He said: No doubt, using such a modern leadership style as transformational leadership makes us more capable of investing our resources to achieve our goals. Its effectiveness is proven. Interviewee 4, dean Therefore, based on their perception of transformational leadership, these informants presented a keen interest in the introduction of transformational leadership into Palestinian higher education to elevate the level of institutional effectiveness. The informants also believed that transformational leadership is the best fitting leadership approach for change. They conceived it to be an adaptive leadership style with a capability to align the university with the rapidly changing environment. These views painted a conclusive picture of transformational leadership's influence on university International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 9 effectiveness through inspiring and motivating employees and focusing on organizational vision and mission to institutionalize change to cope with the changing world outside the university. Perhaps the most striking illustration about the role of transformational leadership in university adaptation to change came from this account: Transformational leadership is crucial to adapt to the external environment through change, not by imitating others. Therefore, we need a transformational leader because this type of leader creates change, not merely awaiting it. Interviewee 1, dean As such, the qualitative data revealed that there is sufficient consciousness of the need for change as a pathway for increased institutional effectiveness, and that this change can be attained by adopting an effective leadership approach like transformational leadership. This conclusion was grounded on the fact that transformational leadership is an adaptive leadership approach to change. It is, therefore, perceived as a relevant leadership style for change in the context of Palestinian higher education. Nevertheless, two of the informants expressed an ambivalent view of an effective transformational leadership in Palestinian universities. However, their views were themselves distinct. The first informant justified his attitude by stating that there is no ideal leadership approach for organizations today. That is, transformational leadership needs to be synergized with other leadership styles for maximum impact in the university. The other informant related his view to the complexity associated with transformational leadership implementation stating that the Arab world is not yet ready to adequately understand and apply it. He claimed that: Transformational leadership is definitely important, but leadership by exception (authorization) is better because transformational leadership is a high level leadership approach, and our Arab World does not yet reach an adequate degree of understanding it. However, both can be combined. Interviewee 2, lecturer Nevertheless, both participants concluded that transformational leadership can be potentially applicable to Palestinian higher education in association with other organizational elements or leadership styles. A respondent's comment emphasized this conditional need for transformational leadership by saying: The authentic use and the proper understanding of transformational leadership and setting the ground for collective establishment of shared vision and mission and in planning in addition to supporting institutional culture would certainly lead to success. All these (elements) facilitate a better investment in our resources to achieve our goals. Interviewee 4, dean The impact of perceived transformational leadership on institutional effectiveness was also explored through asking the informants whether the current leadership style affected the university performance. The resulting qualitative findings were in line with the previous literature stating that organizations are more effective when their leaders are transformational (e.g., Bass & Riggio, 2006; Hancott, 2005; and Jandaghi, Matin, & Farjami, 2009). Generally, the informants were of the attitude that transformational leadership accounted for better university performance, implying that their university was more effective because its leadership was transformational. Their views suggested that transformational leadership incrementally increased the university's performance in terms of significant improvement of outcomes. Reported indicators denoting such increased effectiveness included expansion in academic programs, international prizes, institutional ranking, and a greater proportion of positions obtained by the university's graduates in the labor market compared to those obtained by the graduates of other universities. The underlying assumption which can be constructed from the various accounts raised by the informants is that transformational leadership accounts for more effectiveness in Palestinian universities because it is a change-oriented leadership approach. One participant illustrated this assumption by affirming that: This (transformational leadership) approach enormously influenced the university, and this influence is indicated by the amount of change taking place in academic programs, international prizes.... Our graduates are taking 45% of the total positions available in the government and the UNRWA. Interviewee 1, dean Thus, analysis of the interview data presented sufficient evidence that transformational leadership is potentially a key determinant of institutional effectiveness. Transformational leadership can exert a substantial influence on institutional effectiveness in Palestinian universities by means of inspiring International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 10 employees to act in the prescribed direction and creating successful change or transformation to enable the university to face the important challenges present in its environment. Transformational leadership was also perceived to promote the university internal capability by maximizing the use of its resources and opportunities for effectiveness and success. In conclusion, transformational leadership is potentially a powerful force in Palestinian institutions of higher education. When the university leadership was perceived to be transformational, performance was also envisioned to increase and vice versa. Such qualitative finding as revealed by the informants supported previous findings about the favorable association between transformational leadership and institutional effectiveness. For this reason, transformational leadership is demonstrated to be a key factor of institutional effectiveness in Palestinian higher education. 4.3 Qualitative Question 3 How does Institutional culture influence the relationship between Transformational Leadership and Strategic Change? Informants' views on the way institutional culture enhances the transformational leadership influence on strategic change were explored. This qualitative exploration resulted in two themes. The first theme explored the role of institutional culture in fostering the transformational leadership-strategic change link in the target university, and the other demonstrated the need for an interactive effect of transformational leadership and institutional culture on strategic change. 4.3.1 Theme 4: Role of Institutional Culture in the Transformational Leadership-Strategic Change Relationship With respect to the role of institutional culture in the effect of transformational leadership on strategic change, the examination of this link resulted in insightful explanations. Generally, institutional culture at the target university was theorized to support the link between transformational leadership and strategic change. The informants attributed this influence of institutional culture on the link between transformational leadership and strategic change to the existence of core values which significantly enhanced organizational commitment to change. Such reported values included participative leadership, moral authority, and organizational commitment. This perceived positive role of culture in the relationship between transformational leadership and strategic change was highlighted by a participant: Yes, the current institutional culture supports leadership influence on change because it is based on shared responsibility. This culture resulted from long-endured suffering by the occupation, the matter which led to increased commitment and loyalty. Interviewee 3, lecturer Even so, there were clear implications that institutional culture at the university is not ideally effective. These implications may explain why institutional culture negatively affected the influence of transformational leadership on strategic change. As previously stated, a growing need to improve some cultural aspects at the university was necessitated to increase the influence of institutional culture on the university's performance. This denoted that these aspects may not be appropriately improving. Such cultural aspects included university systems, work routine, role perception, leader-employee relationships, and universitycommunity connections. This need was apparent in the following comments highlighting this strong need for improvement: It is true (that the current culture is moderately transformational), yet the current culture needs improvement with regard to university systems, work routine, role perception, leadershipemployees relationships, and university-community connections. Interviewee 1, dean Although informants initially perceived a favorable role of institutional culture in the relationship between transformational leadership and strategic change, the weakness of such central cultural aspects somehow reflected university leadership assumptions that may not be in full support of change, which, therefore, may suppress the influence of institutional culture on this relationship. The implication of such weakening cultural aspects is that the shaped university culture may not be nurturing independent and critical thinking, creativity, and innovation in the leader and the led because it values maintaining the current state rather than reframing problems, questioning underlying assumptions, and approaching old situations in new ways. Therefore, informants may be satisfied with their university culture but may not be realizing what and how certain cultural elements may contribute to inversed effect on the leadershipchange relationship. In addition, the suggested inappropriate leadershipemployee relationship meant that the university leadership may not be serving as coaches and mentors. That is, there were no established channels for personalized communication through which senior university leaders could build the capacities of their employees and satisfy their needs for growth and development. Consequently, these leaders may not gain highly committed and engaged employees who are supportive of change. Hence, because the university culture International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 11 does not value strong leadership-employee relationship, it was likely to inhibit the influence of transformational leadership on strategic change simply because even if the employees were committed to their university, they may not be aware or capable of proceeding in the prescribed organizational direction. While these employees were committed to doing their jobs right, their work might not be aligned with the organizational vision and mission. Moreover, it was inferred from the responses that the university developed an adaptive capability in response to instant and unpredictable external challenges. However, an inference could be made that the university tended to respond principally to abrupt compelling environmental challenges threatening its existence rather than pervasively, incrementally changing its existing institutional culture and strategy. Given the sociopolitical and economic conditions of the Palestinian society, it is probably very common for institutions of higher education to follow an abrupt and reactive response approach to forceful environmental challenges because the environment is increasingly very unstable and unpredictable. Yet, this approach to change indicated that the university leadership functioned in a reactive, not a proactive, manner. This type of response does not guarantee that the university leadership's assumptions were centered on change. Rather, it indicates that the university leadership favors maintaining the current state while tending to address abruptly compelling environmental challenges instantly affecting it. This situation was summed up in this account: The university has the capability to address any emergency or abrupt problem quickly because it has an appropriate institutional culture. In 2000, the road was closed by the occupation, the matter which resulted in depriving employees and students from the south to come to the university. The university overcame this problem within 7 days by opening a new branch in the south when only 5 weeks were remaining to end the semester...... Also, during the war on Gaza in 2008-2009 the university was heavily bombarded and its labs and lecture halls were greatly destroyed. Yet, one week after the war, new labs were prepared and the university contacted other universities for a compensation program for its students. Interviewee 4, dean In support of this reactive response tendency of the university, a view of university leadership assumptions that are unsupportive of change was also described. This view suggested that the university leadership had restraining underlying assumptions about change. Therefore, such cultural assumptions probably can exert an adverse effect on the influence of transformational leadership on strategic change. What can be inferred is that the university leadership might not be in full favor of change; thus preferring keeping the current state unless it was compelled to address abrupt challenges seriously affecting it. To this end, an informant commented: We have only 70% of the capacity for strategic change because we have financial difficulties as well as difficulties relating to leadership assumptions about change. Interviewee 2, dean These conclusions indicated that institutional culture can exert an adverse role in the influence of transformational leadership on strategic change when it lacks crucial changeoriented cultural assumptions and elements. It was clearly indicated that the university leadership does not favor change because it rooted in cultural assumptions grounded in maintaining the current state while allowing for reactive responses to abrupt environmental challenges affecting the university. This approach, however, does not provide the needed cultural support for the influence of leadership on strategic change. Instead, it more likely to keep the university responsive to certain compelling external pressures rather than being innovative in the sense that it could create new realities by changing its culture and strategies. Nevertheless, the university was able to balance consistency needs with maintaining the status quo through this approach. Yet, the qualitative findings indicated that the university has not shifted its emphasis from simple change to a more complicated large-scale type of change which requires a shift in institutional culture, strategy, and structure. The qualitative findings relating to the effect of institutional culture in the relationship between transformational leadership and strategic change as perceived by informants were consistent with previously established findings in the literature. For example, Obenchain, Johnson, and Dion (2002) favored institutional cultures that develop cultural values of growth, innovation, and flexibility for institutions of higher education because these specific types of culture are likely to nurture innovation more frequently than others. However, Jaskyte (2004) realized that the influence of leadership on innovativeness was inhibited by a stability-infused culture, as transformational leadership was not associated with innovativeness due to the existence of this culture type. In addition, Bass and Riggio (2006) confirmed that organizations that were perceived as successful were led by transformational leaders who maintained a timeless philosophy based on meeting consistency needs and leadership for change. In addition, Yiing and Ahmed (2009) revealed that supportive cultures, but not bureaucratic culture, significantly moderated the relationship between leadership behaviors and organizational commitment. Also, Sherbagi International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 12 (2007) concluded that leadership and institutional culture are significant antecedents of organizational commitment which, in return, enhances organizational performance by increasing joint employee contribution to the organization. 4.3.2 Theme 5: Transformational Leadership and Institutional culture: Potential Synergism in Palestinian Higher Education In response to whether transformational leadership independently predicts strategic change in Palestinian higher education, the informants provided critical insights into potential interaction between transformational leadership and institutional culture. While transformational leadership was viewed as a primary factor of university success, by itself it would fall short of improving university capabilities to implement successful strategic change. This belief that was expressed in the interviews indicated that transformational leadership may not be equally effective in all settings because it is contingent on other organizational factors that may affect its influence on strategic change. Whereas various factors were initially suggested to affect this influence, i.e., human, financial, and physical resources, and technology, institutional culture emerged as the most powerful force to interact with transformational leadership in the context of strategic change in the target universities. This is supported by Michaelis, Stgmaier, and Sonntag (2010) and Lin and McDonough III (2009) who stated that the influence of transformational leadership on change is not the same under all conditions because other contextual factors, precisely institutional culture, affect this influence. Such view of the link between transformational leadership and institutional culture was elaborated by an informant: Strategic change requires other factors besides transformational leadership.... This is very likely (that institutional culture is another component of change success) because it facilitates commitment and loyalty. These influential values contribute to successful strategic change. Interviewee 3, lecturer There was a strong agreement among the informants that the relationship between transformational leadership and strategic change is dependent on institutional culture. Even effective forms of transformational leadership may not adequately result in strategic change without the role of specific types of institutional culture. Institutional culture sets organizational assumptions, goals, and criteria which, in turn, align leaders and followers with the prescribed direction of the university, thus affecting the overall change and performance of the university. Therefore, a strong feeling was developed across the informants implying that the success or failure of change is contingent on the type of culture present in the university, with a view in favor of a more supportive culture. That is, institutional culture either supports or undermines leadership influence on strategic change based on whether it is infused with values and assumptions supportive of change. This idea was best illustrated in this account: Culture guides the behaviors of employees, and success or failure basically depends on the existing institutional culture. It also encourages satisfaction, cooperation, collective work, and loyalty. Therefore, if the current institutional culture was based on carelessness and rejecting responsibility, failure would be the fatal end. Interviewee 1, dean This finding is in line with previously established findings stating that transformational leadership and institutional culture are tightly interrelated (Bass & Riggio, 2006; Schein, 2004; and Kulkarni, 2010). It is also in supported by Yiing and Ahmed (2009) who concluded that innovative and supportive cultures, but not a bureaucratic culture, significantly moderated the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment. The potential favorable effect that a supportive institutional culture can have in facilitating the implementation of strategic change in the university was also present in the minds of informants. Institutional culture was commonly seen as a repertoire of deep organizational values and assumptions which drive and align individual as well as organizational behaviors with the strategic direction of the university. Therefore, a contribution of culture to organizational stability was manifest in terms of creating a sense of organizational identity. This identity, in turn, acts as a powerful stabilizing force in the university, causing the cultural assumptions and values to persist over time while creating opportunities for maintaining employees focused on such core organizational elements such as vision, mission, and objectives. Put another way, it creates a collective sense of vision and mission-oriented responsibility which is driven by persistent cultural assumptions and values in ways which facilitate strategic change. Therefore, what the qualitative findings denote is that transformational leadership and institutional culture have the potential to work in combination to influence strategic change. As one participant put it: Institutional culture reflects a system of current organizational values which make all those present at the university site to have the sense of "We" rather than "I". The pervasiveness of such type of culture enables new employees International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 13 to engage in work. Therefore, the university takes into account setting the conditions for new employees to learn the prevailing institutional culture through work. This leads to commitment and elimination of misbehavior which if happened would be so narrowly committed. The practice of culture achieves the expected goals through the active participation of employees and students, and the presence of institutional culture creates stability. Interviewee 4, dean. What the previous findings indicate is that there is a potential for synergism between transformational leadership and institutional culture in Palestinian higher education. Therefore, greater emphasis should be given to understanding these two determinants of strategic change so that they are properly incorporated and combined in the context of Palestinian universities for increased capability of strategic change. The link between transformational leadership and institutional culture is consistent with the findings of Block (2002) who found that employees who rated their leaders as highly transformational were more likely to have positive views of their institutional culture, thus denoting that transformational leadership and institutional culture exist in combination. 4.4 Qualitative Question 4 How does Strategic Change mediate the relationship between Transformational Leadership and Institutional effectiveness? Informants' perspectives on how strategic change mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and institutional effectiveness were also explored. This qualitative exploration revealed one major theme concerned with how far strategic change is needed, implemented, and influential in Palestinian higher education. 4.4.1 Theme 6: Strategic Change: Incontestable Need and Impact in Palestinian Higher Education Investigation of the qualitative data with regard to the role of strategic change revealed a clear need for strategic change planning and implementation in Palestinian higher education. The informants believed that strategic change is potentially a critical factor for university success. This implies that senior leadership can improve the university performance through planning and implementing strategic change to maximize the use of its resources and opportunities. This positive view of strategic change stemmed from the concept that it principally contributes to institutional effectiveness in different ways. For one thing, strategic change involves a revolutionary change in attitudes and ways of thinking throughout the university. As such, strategic change creates a learning community in which employees are engaged in organizational learning to improve the internal capability of the university in the face of ever changing environment. Furthermore, it refers to a highly planned, methodological approach of change. Therefore, it has the likeliness of having higher rates of success where mistakes are maximally reduced. It also deals with the future of the university where strategies are formulated to effectively address current and future environmental issues affecting the university. Accordingly, strategic change meaningfully contributes to internal capability improvement and, in return, raises the university performance and capability to expand in its environment. A respondent summarized the need for strategic change by stating that: Strategic change is required both in its radical and partial forms because it is a planned change with reduced likeliness for mistakes and higher rates of success. Interviewee 3, lecturer The impact of perceived strategic change was an issue of interest is this research. Informants' responses to whether the latest university strategic plans were successful yielded a plain perspective about how effective strategic change was in the university. The informants conceptualized their university to incrementally improve its capacity for strategic change over time. Although previous strategies were not meeting expectations, they provided the strategic planning teams with a rich experience that guided the formulation of the newest strategies. For instance, the first strategic plan of 2004 was out of reach and, therefore, was not satisfactorily accomplished due to considerably long time span for implementation combined with an ever changing environment. Yet, it was overtly expressed that a thorough assessment of this strategic plan provided the university with prosperous lessons which informed the formulation of the next strategic plan of 2011. Therefore, those strategies were reported to serve as a general framework for developing a cohesive direction for the university. As a result, the university's capacity for strategic change improved. This incremental capacity building of strategic change was pointed out: The previous strategic plans and initiatives served to prescribe a strategic direction for the university, and they provided us with rich experience as we took advantage of them. The first strategic plan of 2004 was not as successful as expected because of a long time span of implementation in an era of uncertainty and wars. We revised the first plan and benefited a lot from it in the context of International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 14 the second plan of 2011 which was successful. We are currently proceeding in the right direction. Interviewee 1, dean. A major outcome of this improved capacity for strategic change at the university was increased alignment with the prescribed direction of the university. A significant manifestation of this impact of strategic change on the university performance was realized in terms of notable academic achievements, better university ranking, and higher ratio of students taking in jobs in the local labor market, thus denoting enhanced university effectiveness. This impact of strategic change on the university performance was described: I am not sure (that the latest strategic plans were successful) but there are great achievements in academics ..... Normally, the success of strategic plans in the academic side increased the university effectiveness. Interviewee 3, lecturer Thus, strategic change is a vital component through which university leaders can enhance university performance. This finding was consistent with the quantitative findings of the current study stating when the university had high levels of transformational leadership and strategic change, it was perceived by the participants to be effective. Thus, it provided insights into the manner I which strategic change mediated the influence of transformational leadership on institutional effectiveness. 5. LEARNED LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS The qualitative exploration of the relationships existing among the variables of the current study yielded three significant lessons of key relevance to Palestinian higher education. These lessons are potentially so important that they may provide a ground for informing and guiding policy making concerning institutional effectiveness in Palestinian higher education. 5.1 Lesson 1: For Better or Worse, Strategic Change is a Prevailing Force The first lesson which can be learned from this qualitative exploration is that for better or worse strategic change is a prevailing force. In the case of higher levels of strategic change, university performance is supposed to improve. Thus, it is inferred that in the case of poor competence for strategic change, the university performance would deteriorate. Therefore, it was concluded that strategic change is a key predictor of institutional effectiveness. This finding was supported by Anderson and Anderson (2010), Bass and Riggio (2006), Van De Ven (1993), and Singh and Bhandarker (1990) who stated that strategic change influences institutional effectiveness in terms of increasing organizational capability to cope with rapidly changing environment through adapting organizational strategies and assumptions. Therefore, institutions of higher education must shift their emphasis from first-order, simple type of change to a more radical type of change known as strategic change to cope with the increased momentum for organizational change in higher education. 5.2 Lesson 2: Transformational Leadership and Institutional culture are Vital for Effective Strategic Change The second lesson implies that in order for Palestinian universities to implement successful strategic change, they must emphasize two principal organizational factors of influence on strategic change. The first is transformational leadership. It was evident from the qualitative analysis that the extent to which strategic change was successful was contingent on the presence of effective forms of leadership. This was manifested in the university under investigation. For instance, capability for strategic change was perceived higher at the university when the university leadership was also perceived moderately transformational. Similarly, in contrast, it would be lower if the university leadership was ineffective. This is consistent with the previous literature on leadership and change which has shown that the success of change is conditional on the degree transformational leadership is present in the organization (Anderson & Anderson, 2010; Mulla, 2010; & Bass & Riggio, 2006). The second factor of influence on strategic change was suggested to be the prevailing institutional culture of the university. Exploration of the reality of strategic change in the target university revealed that the university capability for strategic change planning and implementation was also greatly affected by the degree to which the university culture was perceived to be effective. When institutional culture was perceived higher, the university capability for strategic change was also perceived higher. Therefore, an inference can be made that a low capability for strategic change may be an outcome of ineffective university culture. This is in line with Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington (2005) who explained that institutional culture informs the formulation of organizational strategy in ways which contribute to proper organizational alignment with the external environment. It is also consistent with Bass and Riggio (2006) and Schein (2004) who confirmed that leaders tend to improve organizational performance through strategic change by means of creating certain types of institutional culture. International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 15 5.3 Lesson 3: Transformational Leadership and Institutional culture do not Simply Exist; They Synergize to Create a Combined Effect on Strategic Change The third lesson is that strategic change does not simply require the presence of effective transformational leadership and institutional culture. Rather, it necessitates a proper synergism between transformational leadership and institutional culture. That is, the success of strategic change in the context of Palestinian higher education is contingent on the degree to which transformational leadership and institutional culture synergize to bring about a combined effect on strategic change. Therefore, greater emphasis must be placed on developing highly effective forms of transformational leadership and institutional culture to maximize their combined influence on strategic change, and thus, on university effectiveness. This greatest concern emerged from the qualitative analysis which indicated that ignoring certain aspects of transformational leadership and institutional culture weakens these specific types and, in return, may inhibit their favorable influence on strategic change. The current qualitative exploration provided clear endorsement of the needed synergism between transformational leadership and institutional culture. For instance, the qualitative findings provided significant evidence for an inverse effect of institutional culture in the relationship between transformational leadership and strategic change at the university due to unfavorable university leadership's assumptions about change combined with undermined cultural aspects that were relevant to change. What this indicates is that, for better or worse, transformational leadership and institutional culture interact to influence institutional effectiveness through strategic change. CONCLUSION Overall, the qualitative study concluded that transformational leadership, institutional culture, and strategic change are potentially significant predictors of institutional effectiveness in Palestinian higher education. Supported by previous literature, this study provided clear endorsement of the needed synergism between transformational leadership and institutional culture. It revealed that unattended key leadership dimensions of optimal relevance to change such as intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration combined with the presence of unfavorable university leadership's assumptions about change may hinder institutional capacity to plan and implement strategic change in ways which also impede institutional effectiveness. It was therefore indicated that improving such key transformational leadership dimensions and reinforcing university assumptions supportive of change may account for a combined favorable influence of transformational leadership and institutional culture on strategic change and, in turn, help institutions of higher education to become more effective and adaptive. REFERENCES Abushawish, H. F., Ali, A. J., and Jamil, H. (2013). Key Predictors of Organizational Effectiveness in Palestinian Higher Education: What Matters for Outcome? Journal of Education Policy, Planning & Administration, 2(2), 55-79. 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The leadership-Culture Connection: An Exploratory Investigation. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 24 (6), pp. 318334. Clatt, B. and Hiebert, M. (2001). The Encyclopedia of Leadership: A Practical Guide to Popular Leadership Theories and Techniques. USA: McGraw-Hill. Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. 4th Edition. USA: Pearson Education, Inc. Creswell, J & Miller, D. (2000). Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry. Theory into Practice, 39 (3), pp. 124-130. Cummings, R., Philips, R., Tilbrook, R., and Lowe, K. (2005). Middle-Out Approaches to Reform of International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2000-001X Vol. 2 Issue 11, November - 2018, Pages: 1-17 16 University Teaching and Learning: Champions Striding Between the "Top-down" and "Bottom-up" Approaches. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 6 (1), pp. 1-18. Eckel, P., Hill, B., Green, G. (1998). On change: En Routes to transformation. American Council on Education. Retrieved [June 27 th 2011] from: . Fullan, M and Hargreaves, A. (1996). What's worth fighting for in Your School. USA: Teachers College Press. Given, L. et al (2008). The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, Volumes 1 & 2. United Kingdom: Sage Publications Ltd. Hancock, B. (1998, updated 2002). An Introduction to Quantitative Research. Trent Focus Group. Hancott, D. (2005). The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Performance in the Largest Public Companies in Canada. Published PhD Dissertation, Capella University. Hanna, D. (2003). Building a Leadership vision: Eleven Strategic Challenges for Higher Education. Educause Review, July/August 2003, 24-34. Hashweh, M, Hashweh, M, and Berryman, S. (2003). An Assessment of Higher Education Needs in the West Bank and Gaza. US Agency for International Development, September, 2003. Jandaghi, G., Matin, H., and Farjami, A. (2009).Comparing Transformational Leadership in Successful and Unsuccessful Companies. International Journal of Human and Social Science, 4 (3), 2009, pp. 212217. Jaskyte, K. (2004). Transformational Leadership, Institutional culture, and Innovativeness in Nonprofit Organizations. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 15 (2), pp. 153-168. Jenk, C (2008). Building University Research Culture. In Al-Hawaj, A, Al-Ali, W. and Twizell, E. Higher Education in The Twenty-first Century: Issues and Challenges (pp. 9-13). UK: Taylor and Francis Group. Jing, F. and Avery, G. (2008). Where Have The Mediating Variables In Leadership-Performance Research Gone? Journal of Business & Economics Research, 6(10) PP. 73-84. Johnson G., Scholes, K., and Whittington, R. (2005). Exploring Corporate Strategy. 7th Edition. England: Pearson Education Limited Koning, L. (2010, August 22) [Online]. [Accessed July 15 th 2011] Available from World Wide Web: Kulkarni, Shraddha. 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Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25 (4), pp. 408-429. Ministry of Education & Higher Education. Education Development Strategic Plan 2008-2012. Ramallah, Palestine. Mulla, Z. (2010). Transformational Leadership is the Key to Innovation in Organizations. Obenchain, A., Johnson, W., and Dion, P. (2002). Innovation in Higher Education: The Influence of Institutional culture. Paper presented at the Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ogbonna, E. and Harris, L. (2000). Leadership Style, Institutional culture, and Performance: Empirical Evidence from UK Companies. International Journal of Human resource Management, 11 (4) pp. 766-788. Pagan, N. (2008). Transformational Leadership: Review of "The leadership Challenge: A Call for the Transformational Leader" by Noel M. Tichy and David O. Ulrich. Peterson, K and Deal, T. (2009).The Shaping School Culture Field Book. (2nd Ed.). USA: Jossy-Bass. 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Mason (eds), Proceedings of the 2008 Industrial Engineering Research Conference, pp. 1160-1165. Vancouver, BC, Canada. Scully, S. (2008). Transformational Leadership During transformational Change: A Model for Change Leadership. Formative Consulting. Singh, P and Bhandarker, A. (1990). Corporate Success and Transformational Leadership. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers Stensaker, B. & Norgard, J. (2001). Innovation and Isomorphism: A Case-study of University Identity Struggle 1969-1999. Higher Education, 42 (4), pp. 473-492. The World Bank. (2012). Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research for Growth in East Asia. USA: The World Bank. Van de Ven, A. (1993). An Assessment of Perspectives on Strategic Change. In Zan, L. Zambon, C. and Pettigrew, A. (eds), Perspectives on Strategic Change, pp. 313-323. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Yiing, L. and Ahmed, K. (2009). The Moderating Effects of Institutional culture on the Relationships Between Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment and Between Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction and Performance. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 30 (1), pp. 53-86.
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{ "creator": "Abu Naser, Samy S.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1562860618000, "description": "Abstract. Intelligent Tutoring System Builder (ITSB) is an authoring tool designed and developed to aid teachers in constructing intelligent tutoring systems in a multidisciplinary fields. The teacher is needed to create a set of pedagogical fundamentals, which, in line, are inured to automatically build up a broad tutor framework and construct an intelligent tutoring system. In this paper an explanation of the theory and the architecture of the tool is outlined. A presentation of several system components, the requirements of the different components, integration of these components in ITSB tool are shown. Furthermore, implanting of requirements, cognitive principle, and common design fundamentals in the tool to ease the use of teachers. A variety of design matters, an example of building an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Java language using ITSB tool and an evaluation are presented.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUIAI", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "ITSB: An Intelligent Tutoring System Authoring Tool", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Available online Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 63 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Research Article ISSN: 2394-2630 CODEN(USA): JSERBR ITSB: An Intelligent Tutoring System Authoring Tool Samy S Abu Naser Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Abstract Intelligent Tutoring System Builder (ITSB) is an authoring tool designed and developed to aid teachers in constructing intelligent tutoring systems in multidisciplinary fields. The teacher is needed to create a set of pedagogical fundamentals, which, in line, are inured to automatically build up a broad tutor framework and construct an intelligent tutoring system. In this paper an explanation of the theory and the architecture of the tool are outlined. A presentation of several system components, the requirements of the different components, integration of these components in ITSB tool are shown. Furthermore, implanting of requirements, cognitive principle, and common design fundamentals in the tool to ease the use of teachers. A variety of design matters, an example of building an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Java language using ITSB tool and an evaluation are presented. Keywords ITSB, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Java Language Introduction Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a software that aims to provide immediate and customized instruction or feedback to learners [1-14], typically without interference from a human teacher. ITSs have the general aim to facilitate learning in a evocative and efficient way by using a diversity of computing technologies. There are a lot of examples of ITSs being used in both official education and professional situations in which they have confirmed their abilities and boundaries. There is a strong association between intelligent tutoring, cognitive learning theories and design. ITS intends to solve the problem of over-dependency of students over teachers for superiority education. It intends to offer access to high-class education to every student, consequently improving the whole educational system. The aim of ITS authoring tool is to simplify the development of construction ITSs and reduce the ability threshold for constructing them. In addition, they permit the quick prototype of ITS design. Accomplishing these objectives will assist ITS developers and users who do not have computational thoughts construct ITSs. Computational thoughts concerned with creating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are formulated can efficiently carried out by an information processing agent. Literature Review The Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tool allows a teacher to include learning by doing to online lessons [15]. It facilitates the creation of two categories of tutors: example-tracing tutors that can be produced with no programming however it needs problem-specific authoring, and cognitive tutors, that need Artificial Intelligence programming to create a cognitive model of student problem solving however, provide tutoring across a variety of problems [15]. The Extensible Problem Specific Tutor [16] is web authoring tool that assists quickly developing exampletracing tutors on existing interfaces that reduces tutor development time, and permits the interface to be Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 64 separable from the tutoring component. The Presentation Manager gives visual feedback to the student on the interface. RIDES is an authoring tool for creating and delivering graphical simulations and simulation-based training. With RIDES, the author can convert a set of simulations into interactive, graphical tutorials. Actually, the reason why RIDES might never be used for reproducing Ms. Lindquist is due to its limitation to construct tutors based on simulations only [17]. ASPIRE an authoring tool for assisting with the creation and delivery of constraint-based tutoring systems. It produces constraints that structure the domain model with the help of the domain expert, reducing the programming expertise necessary for developing a new constraint-based tutor. The system also offers all the domain-independent functionality of constraint-based ITSs [18]. ITSB Authoring Tool Overview ITSB authoring tool is a shell for crating intelligent tutoring systems. It is designed and developed using Delphi Embarcadero XE8, 2015; ITSB authoring tool is two systems in one application. The first one is the teacher system where he/she add the course materials, questions and answers etc. and the second system is the students where he/she learn the course material and practice exercises. The following sections describe the system architecture and next an illustration of the different modules, their purpose, functions, and goals etc are outlined. ITSB System Architecture A normal ITS has four fundamental modules: domain model, teaching model, student model and user interfaces. The domain model adds the course configuration in a structured style. A course may have a variety of parts, such as division, sub-divisions, and topics. These parts are stored in the domain model together with their dependencies. All the materials and resources necessary to tutor a student are also kept in this module. The student model is the demonstration of the students the system is coping with. The student model provides the system with all required information so it can adapt itself with the student. Therefore, student model is a vital tool for the adaptation process. The teaching module contains all the decision-making procedure concerning course preparation and adaptation. Often, this module is called the control engine, because this module controls the entire system, by accepting inputs from the other parts. Lastly, the user interfaces have two sections one for the student and the other for the teacher. Teacher's interface is accustomed to arrange and adjust the system and its different parts. So, the teacher's interface behaves as the authoring tool. By his interface, the teacher can add new lessons, adjust the established ones, and revise teaching methods. The student's interface is used to convey all the teaching commands. The sort and the type of these commands would differ with student's ability and performance level. A general system architecture is shown in Fig. 1. Figure 1: Overall System Architecture of ITSB Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 65 ITSB Domain Model The domain model is concerned with the lessons, its arrangement and a range of elements. There are two fundamental components in domain model. The first component, Domain Organization Model, deals with the arrangement and organization of the lessons and its topics. The second one, Repository, deals with the materials being taught themselves. ITSB Student Model State based approach was implemented in the student model. However, there are quite a few parameters for educational modeling of a student throughout a learning procedure. Two parameters were taken into account in this paper:  Coverage: the topics covered by a student and  Performance of a student: (measured through his ability to comprehend and his problem solving skills. ITSB Teaching Module Teaching module is considered to be the most important component of an ITS. The primary task of this module is to arrange a sequence of teaching actions to be taken during a teaching process. These actions and their sequence should go with the student's ability, requirement and objectives. The arrangement is done at two stages. At the first stage, ordering of the topics for the student needs to be arranged. This stage begins from the initial state and finishes when all the topics are included in the sequence. At the second stage, after a topic is chosen another arrangement is essential to compute the exact technique of teaching that topic. This engages selecting the proper type of the document and the proper medium. ITSB User Interfaces Interfaces are an essential part of the ITSB system. There are two classes of users, teachers and the students. The ITSB authoring tool has both interfaces. Each class of users see different interface for their interactions with the system. The teachers interface is the shell of ITSB for configuration and adjustment of the system. The teacher's interface or the authoring interface consists of three parts, used to configure the different parts of the system, one to configure the Student Model, one for authoring the Domain Organization Model and the third for maintaining the Repository (see Fig. 1). Through these interfaces a teacher can configure various aspects of the system, like initial information about the student , enter students lessons, questions and answers, configure and adjust the color, font name and size of all menus, buttons, comb boxes etc. Thus, this interface provides the system with the required flexibility and robustness. Moreover, due to this interface the system can become domain independent. A screenshot of the teacher's interface is shown in Fig 2, Fig 3, Fig 4 and Fig 5. Figure 2: Form for adding Lessons and Examples Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 66 Figure 3: Form for adding initial students information Figure 4: Form for adjusting Fonts of all screens of the system Figure 5: Form for adding constants of the system Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 67 Figure 6: Form for adding questions and answers Student interface is the front-end for the student to interact with the system. The interface has a bidirectional communication mechanism (see Fig. 1). The system presents all the learning documents and test materials to the student through this interface. Performance of the student in the tests is conveyed back to the system, specifically to the student model by it. This feedback is vital because the adaptation process would depend on this. So, the success of adaptive planning depends on it and its communication with teaching module (See Fig 7, Fig 8, Fig 9). Figure 7: Student lessons and examples form Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 68 Figure 8: Student Exercises form Apart from these, the student interface also provides various courses and performance related information to the student, such as the performance history of the student, how much of the course has been covered, detailed test results etc. These help a student to identify and rectify his status (See Fig 9). Figure 9: Student statistics form Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 69 Multiple Language Support ITSB authoring tool currently support two languages. The default language is English language. If the user prefer Arabic Language, He/she can just click on one button in first Login form. Once the user clicks the Arabic button, it translate all buttons, menus, titles, and subtitles; furthermore it switch the direction of the forms from Left-to-Right into Right-to-Left (See Fig 10, Fig 11). Figure 10: Logging Form in English Language Figure 11: Logging Form in Arabic language ITSB Evaluation Two evaluations were carried out to test the ITSB intelligent tutoring system authoring tool. The first evaluation was to let a group of teachers each prepare the materials: lessons, examples, exercises, answers, student information, and system constants etc. for introductory java programming. Then each teacher was asked to enter the prepared materials using a copy of the ITSB tool. The next step was to gather the opinion of each teacher in team of how easy, efficient, and friendly was the ITSB tool. The second evaluation was to let a group of students use one of the resultant intelligent tutoring system to see how easy, efficient, and friendly. Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 70 The result of the first evaluation (teachers evaluation) and second evaluation (students evaluation) are promising as shown in Table 1. Table 1: The results of both evaluations Category Teachers Evaluation Results Students Evaluation Results The system is easy to use 88% 92% The System is efficient 85% 90% The System is friendly 82% 93% Conclusion In this paper we have described the theory and architecture of the ITSB tool. ITSB tool is an authoring tool designed and developed to aid teachers in building intelligent tutoring systems in multidisciplinary fields. Several system components, requirements of the different components, and integration of these components in ITSB tool were outlined. Furthermore, implantation of requirements, cognitive principle, and common design fundamentals in the tool to ease the use of teachers. A variety of design matters, and an example of building an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Java language using ITSB tool was outlined. Two evaluations of the teachers and students perspective were presented and the results were promising. References [1]. Naser, S.S.A., (2008). Developing an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C++. Information technology journal, 7(7), pp.1055-1060. [2]. Naser, S.S.A., (2008). Developing visualization tool for teaching AI searching algorithms. Information Technology Journal, 7(2), pp.350-355. [3]. Naser, S.S.A., (2012). Predicting learners performance using artificial neural networks in linear programming intelligent tutoring system. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications, 3(2), p.65. [4]. Naser, S.S.A., (2006). Intelligent tutoring system for teaching database to sophomore students in Gaza and its effect on their performance. Information Technology Journal, 5(5), pp.916-922. [5]. Naser, S., (2009). Evaluating the effectiveness of the CPP-Tutor an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C ++ . Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 5(1), pp.109-114. [6]. Naser, S.A., (2008). An agent based intelligent tutoring system for parameter passing in java programming. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology, 4(7). [7]. Abu-Naser, S., Ahmed, A., Al-Masri, N., Deeb, A., Moshtaha, E. and AbuLamdy, M., (2011). An Intelligent Tutoring System for Learning Java Objects. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Applications (IJAIA), 2(2). [8]. Abu-Naser, S., Al-Masri, A., Sultan, Y.A. and Zaqout, I., (2011). A prototype decision support system for optimizing the effectiveness of elearning in educational institutions. International Journal of Data Mining & Knowledge Management Process, 1(4). [9]. Naser, S.S.A., (2008). JEE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System For Java Expressions Evaluation. Information Technology Journal, 7(3), pp.528-532. [10]. Naser, S.S.A., (2012). A Qualitative Study of LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology, 4(1), p.209. [11]. Naser, S.A., Ahmed, A., Al-Masri, N. and Sultan, Y.A., (2011). Human Computer Interaction Design of the LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications (IJAIA), 2(3,), pp. 60-70. [12]. Abu Naser, S.S., (2001). A comparative study between animated intelligent tutoring systems AITS and video-based intelligent tutoring systems VITS. Al-Aqsa Univ. J, 5, pp.72-96. [13]. Abu Naser, S.S. and Sulisel, O., (2000). The effect of using computer aided instruction on performance of 10th grade biology in Gaza. J. Coll. Edu, 4, pp.9-37. Naser SSA Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(5):63-71 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 71 [14]. Abu Naser, S., (2008). JEE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Java Expression Evaluation. Information Technology, 7(3), pp.528-532. [15]. Koedinger, K. R., Aleven, V. A., & Heffernan, N. (2003). Toward a rapid development environment for cognitive tutors. Artificial intelligence in education: Shaping the Future of Learning Through Intelligent Technologies, 97, 455. [16]. Gilbert, S., Blessing, S. B., & Kodavali, S. (2009). The Extensible Problem-Specific Tutor (xPST): Evaluation of an API for tutoring on existing interfaces. Paper presented at the Artificial Intelligence in Education. [17]. Allen Munro, Mark C. Johnson, Quentin A. Pizzini, David S. Surmon, Douglas M. Towne, James L. Wogulis (1997). Authoring Simulation-Centered Tutors with RIDES. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 8, 284-316. [18]. Mitrovic, A., Suraweera, P., Martin, B., Zakharov, K., Milik, N., & Holland, J. (2006). Authoring constraint-based tutors in ASPIRE. Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems.
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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1562682135000, "description": "This paper aims to determine knowledge management (KM) factors which have strong impact on high performance. Also, the study aims to compare KMM between intermediate colleges. This study was applied on three intermediate colleges in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian productivity organization model was applied to measure KMM. Second dimension which assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was 190. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, simple linear regression and step wise regression and LSD test. The overall findings of the current study show that maturity level is in the second level. Findings also support the main hypothesis and its sub- hypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are the processes, KM leadership, people and KM outcomes. In addition, there are differences in high performance for college (PTC). Furthermore, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study between intermediate colleges in Palestine that explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. Research limitations was that the survey findings were based on intermediate colleges in Gaza Strip.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUKFA-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "KM Factors Affecting High Performance in Intermediate Colleges and its Impact on High Performance - Comparative Study", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Computational Research Progress in Applied Science & Engineering ©PEARL publication, 2016 CRPASE Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 157 ISSN 2423-4591 KM Factors Affecting High Performance in Intermediate Colleges and its Impact on High Performance Comparative Study Samy S. Abu Naser, Mazen J. Al Shobaki, Youssef M. Abu Amuna Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Keywords Abstract Knowledge Management, KM Maturity, High performance, Intermediate Colleges, Asian Productivity Model This paper aims to determine knowledge management (KM) factors which have strong impact on high performance. Also, the study aims to compare KMM between intermediate colleges. This study was applied on three intermediate colleges in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian productivity organization model was applied to measure KMM. Second dimension which assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was 190. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", simple linear regression and step wise regression and LSD test. The overall findings of the current study show that maturity level is in the second level. Findings also support the main hypothesis and its subhypotheses . The most important factors effecting high performance are the processes, KM leadership, people and KM outcomes. In addition, there are differences in high performance for college (PTC). Furthermore, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study between intermediate colleges in Palestine that explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. Research limitations was that the survey findings were based on intermediate colleges in Gaza Strip. 1. Introduction Knowledge management in intermediate colleges is the main aim of those organizations, where they produce and manage knowledge through human activities and technical practices to link individuals from various administrative levels and sections. This process establishing working groups and trust relationships which produce share and exchange of knowledge they own, support individual and collective learning processes, and then improve and develop individual and organizational performance. Measuring KMM is an important process and the purpose of the measurement should be obvious and within right criteria based on successful experiences with the capability to recognize knowledge gaps that must be remedied in order to take full advantage of the knowledge [1, 2]. The objective of this study is to measure and compare KMM in HEI. Also the study aims to define KMM level to encourage them moving to a higher level.  Corresponding Author: E-mail address: - Tel, (+970) 599783837 - Fax, (+970) 82641888 Received: 01 August 2016; Accepted: 05 October 2016 In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Q1. What are the most influential factors on intermediate colleges' performance resulting from KMM? Q2. How to link KMM with performance and benefit from it for future performance improvements? Q3. Are there any differences in high performance related to intermediate college? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is explore the differences in high performance at intermediate colleges using KMM. 2. Literature Review 2.1. knowledge Concept During the past two decades, knowledge and information are considered as the most important resources of creating value and the most important factors for creating competitive advantage, as a result, they have been changed into necessary activities [3, 4]. Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 159 Knowledge in an organization can be broadly classified into two categories: explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is that which can be measured, captured, examined, and can easily be passed onto others in a codified format-a formal and systematic language. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is highly personal, context-specific and comes from one's experience. It is hard to measure, capture or examine. Since knowledge is valuable it should be managed and utilized wisely [1, 5]. Knowledge has been recognized as a valuable organizational resource and a foundation for competitive advantage in today's business environment. Its value is magnified by it being closely related to another important organizational resource in today's dynamic global markets - time [4, 6, 7]. Today's organizations are viewed as wellsprings of knowledge and thus cannot afford to lose time or looking for old knowledge they are unable to retrieve by trying to know what they know [6, 8]. 2.2. Knowledge Management Importance The rapid growth of data and technologies trigger the transformation of data to useful information, known as knowledge. Nowadays, people are aware of the worth of knowledge and the styles to obtain, recognize, capture, save and leverage it, so that knowledge can be shared without losing it; in the other words know how to manage knowledge. In this way the term of KM is created [6, 9]. Knowledge Management (KM) is a process where organizations have formulated ways in the attempt to recognize and archive knowledge assets within the organization that are derived from the employees of various departments or faculties and in some cases, even from other organizations that share the similar area of interests or specialization [9, 10]. Knowledge management, which can produce the power of compatibility and survival for organizations, is based on the attraction and productivity of knowledge and its management. But, for organizations which are to be responsible in the today's developing information world and have competitive positions, it is vital to experience the access to processes of knowledge management, practically [5, 8, 9]. Nowadays, organizations entering a knowledge community in which the main economic resources are no longer considered as capitals, natural resources, or working, but it is knowledge and knowledge-based staff which have main functions [1, 3, 8]. For many organizations improving performance is not only dependent on the successful deployment of tangible assets and natural resources but also on the effective management of knowledge [11, 12]. Technology infrastructure, organizational structure and organizational culture are linked to the organization knowledge infrastructure capability; and knowledge process (obtain, recognize, capture, share, save and leverage) are linked to the organization knowledge process capability. Taken together, these resources determine the knowledge management capability of the organization, which in turn has been linked to various measures of organizational performance [5, 10, 11, 13]. 2.3. Knowledge Management in Intermediate Colleges Intermediate colleges are cognitive intensity institutions where the primary function is based on knowledge, production of knowledge, documentation and publishing. There is a growing belief that knowledge management in educational institutions help build the future of a dynamic learning environment, development and improvement of the efficiency activities of knowledge sharing and improve the overall performance of the organization [3, 14-26]. Ramachandran et al. defined KM in HEI as the systematic attempt to develop and implement knowledge practices in universities with the support of major strategic assistance factors [6]. Also, as defined by Petrides and Nodine [27], it is a frame or a way for individuals working in the educational institution to develop a set of practices to gather information and share what they know, which resulting in behaviors or actions that will improve the level of services and products offered by the educational institution. Laal defined it as the process of converting information and intellectual assets to a continuing value that connect individuals with the knowledge they need to take action when they need it [9]. According to the previous definitions, KM in HEI is similar knowledge management in industrial organizations or services, in terms of operations and activities, with a focus on the link between individuals and management to enhance the quality of outputs and achieve a competitive advantage in performance and outputs. HEI offer their services primarily to the community, and represents members of the community the main beneficiaries of universities. Researchers identified the most reasons why HEI environment is the most suitable to adopt KM as the existence of technology infrastructure, confidence and knowledge sharing is normal in universities and students enroll in a college to access to knowledge [14, 17, 28-32]. Critical factors for KM in intermediate colleges: The most critical variables that has an effect on sharing knowledge in universities are benefits and rewards [17, 33]. Hislop suggests that the issues that concern to the staff regarding to assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sharing knowledge [34]. Benefits can be real rewards which improve the organization's performance and stability. Rahman et al. and Bock et al. pointed that social sharing benefits cannot be estimated quantitatively; instead it is a personal commitment, trust and gratitude [5, 35]. Leadership style is an additional important factor which plays an essential role in endorsement and development of knowledge exchange behavior, by contributing in experiential learning for staff, providing opportunities for supervising operations, development information technology systems, rewards and opportunities and interaction systems [2, 12, 33, 36, 37]. The role of the leader can be completely different in the educational institutions where there are two types of leadership: academic and hierarchical management leadership. Significant tensions can exist when people with administrative capacity control the academic environment [38]. Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 160 There is an immense dispute about the role of culture in educational institutions in the field of knowledge management and exchange [1, 2, 10-12, 33]. It has been indicated that the academic departments are complex and cultures may be different among departments in different disciplines [10]. The fact that remains dominant here is that the academic community has a culture of participation more than other forms of organizations and that cooperation is the essence of knowledge management [17, 39]. One more important factor is organizational structure [1, 2, 10]. This structure might be a major difficulty for the exchange of knowledge. For that reason, organizational structure should be flexibly designed to persuade participation and cross-border cooperation inside the organization. The combination between formal organizational structure and nonhierarchical structure enhance knowledge generating and sharing [2, 33, 40, 41]. High performance in intermediate colleges: Intermediate colleges are service organizations providing education and knowledge. They are also responsible for providing the society with qualified people for jobs, so they deliberately to achieve high performance in their activities by teaching process. This performance measured by many excellence models such as BSC, Malcolm Baldrige American model, European model and Canadian model [42]. Those models depend on several criteria, leadership, strategic planning, customer orientation, KM, human resource, operations Management and the outcomes. Also the scales might be financial or non-financial. Lee and Teseng pointed that financial scales connected directly with long term objectives, measuring the success of strategic plans and the ability to adapt with changes in external environment. Financial scales consist of ROI, sales growth, income before taxes, net profit, ROA, etc. [43]. While operational scales provide a hidden image for performance such as new products, product quality, market share, innovation, customer retention, social responsibility [8, 44]. Al-hady defined high performance in universities "The performance that helps in achieving strategic objectives and effectiveness according to quality scales". KM can improve this performance in high rates [27, 45]. Rani, Sania, ALHayaly and Alnajjar added that KM positively affects organizational outcomes of organization innovation, product improvement and employee improvement [46, 47]. These researchers [14, 29, 48-49] mention the main fields of high performance in universities:  Reduce costs and increase profits: Educational institutions seeking to cut costs by reducing the costs of services provided to students and the level of operational and administrative costs of operations, leading to an increase in profits.  Improve Quality: The overall quality management approach depends on the joint efforts by which the participation of all individuals on an ongoing basis to improve the institution's performance.  Scientific research: Scientific research in educational institutions is the key element of high performance which helps in the advancement of professional practice and gains the confidence of the industry, and demonstrates the intellectual contributions of the faculty member.  Community Service: It is an essential element in evaluation process of high performance that clarifies the role of the institution in civil society service and its contribution to solving its problems. 2.4. Knowledge Management Maturity KMM determines the level of organization existing capacity affecting on knowledge management processes, where every organization particular track a special sequence of maturity. Knowledge management maturity models describes the steps of growth, which is expected to be up to the organization to develop their knowledge management and organizational performance [17, 50]. Also it determines the stages of institutional knowledge maturity, which is expected to pass by any institution on its way to improve their practices and competitive advantages and thus improve the overall performance of the institution [51]. The importance of knowledge management measurement can be determined as follows [52, 53]  Helps measure the institution to identify knowledge gaps they have.  Determine the impact of knowledge gaps on the performance, growth and development of the institution.  Helps to manage knowledge possessed by the organization more efficiently.  Provides the enterprise with analytical tools works to promote knowledge and address gaps.  Identify strategies and activities to fill those gaps in knowledge. Asian productivity organization developed a model to measure KMM, designed after a study lasted for five months. This model has been adopted by the Asian Organization of Production (APO) to develop tools and knowledge management techniques. Working team consist of experts in knowledge management from Japan, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines [54]. This model consist of a general framework for knowledge management, knowledge management tool and measuring tool to measure the maturity of knowledge management as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. KM framework Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 161 This framework consists of a row of enablers for knowledge management, starting from the organization's mission and vision in the middle of the circle, which sets strategy and organization capabilities. Then we move on to the second frame, which includes knowledge management processes and the factors that accelerate the processes of knowledge management like leadership, individuals, processes and technology. In the last phase, the results of using knowledge management are represented by quality, productivity, profitability and growth of the organization. The model defined seven fields to measure KM: KM Leadership, process, people, technology, knowledge process, learning and innovation and KM outcomes as in Figure 2. After measuring KM, the results showed on a radar chart identifying the areas that have strength and the areas that need improvement and the organization has an opportunity to improve them. Figure 2. Radar Chart Figure 3. Maturity levels model The next step is to determine the level of maturity of knowledge management in the organization and comparing it with the maturity levels model. Knowledge management maturity consists of five levels are composed as follows (as shown in Figure 3) 1Reaction: The organization is not interested in knowledge management and focused on enhancing productivity and competitiveness. 2Initiation level: The organization begins to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 162 3Expansion: Knowledge management is fully applied. 4Refinement: Organization evaluates knowledge management on an ongoing basis. 5Maturity level: Knowledge management exists primarily as a driver in every organization's process. 2.5. KMM and High Performance Knowledge management is not the only factor affecting performance and output of the organization, but it is one of many factors. Factors enabling high performance are leadership style, strategic planning, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, customers oriented, human resource management and administrative processes [13]. In first or second level of maturity, KM operations are local and lead to focus on a particular section in the organization without a comprehensive strategy to support those efforts. Here we can say that the impact of KM processes is not dramatically evident on the organization's performance. Therefore we can say that the first and second level of knowledge management maturity levels represent normal performance [55]. When reaching level three and four, organization begins to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three and four use technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. Finally, KMM at level five represent full integrated knowledge management operations and employees understand the role of knowledge sharing and cooperation in improving the performance for individuals and organization. Such behavior supports creative activities, leads to better competitive advantages and enhance the value chain to customers and suppliers [50, 56-57]. Figure 4. The conceptual framework The relation between the model used in this study (See Figure 4) and high performance leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: H1: There is a statistically significant effect for using the Asian knowledge model to measure intermediate colleges' high performance. As the previous model suggest, leadership plays a critical role in the success of KM implementation. If there is a strong commitment at executive management level to change the organizational culture, then the organization will be able to create the values that lead to knowledge sharing [14, 58]. To achieve that, organization needs a leadership style able to manage organization elements to achieve the best and maximum advantage of the existing knowledge in organization to improve performance. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-1: There is a statistically significant effect for KM leadership on intermediate colleges high performance. Operations are considered a complete knowledge inside organization. As value of chain reflects how far can organization add value in each production step to achieve organizational efficiency and increase performance [50, 59]. This leads to the following second sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-2: There is a statistically significant effect for operations on intermediate colleges high performance. Many KM research confirmed individual's impact on high performance. These authors [2, 14, 39, 50] explained that individual's motivations and method of interpretation, transfer and implementation of knowledge management processes influence greatly in determining the shape and nature of knowledge and how to manage it. Therefore, individual is the most powerful element of an effective knowledge management implementation. This leads to the following third sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-3: There is a statistically significant effect for people on intermediate colleges high performance. New technology plays a major role in performance improving by providing the right information at the right time and using them to rationalize decisions. Add to that technology needed to enhance sharing knowledge and learning inside organization. The integration between knowledge and organizational process enhance performance and competitive advantages [30, 50, 60]. This leads to the following forth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-4: There is a statistically significant effect for technology on intermediate colleges high performance. Knowledge process like generation, storage, distribution and implementation facilitates work within the organization. The presence of a specialist team captures knowledge and encourages workers to invest and participate in it. With the existence of an effective leadership leading those operations to bring harmony between them reduce the total cost of work and increase financial returns for organization. This leads to achieve creativity, innovation and high productivity [3, 37, 48, 61]. This leads to the following fifth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-5: There is a statistically significant effect for Knowledge process on intermediate colleges high performance. Hila and Sangjae discussed learning and creativity in organization. Modern organizations characterized with continuous learning and applying the gained experience in their daily routine. Organizations seeking to recruit the experience gained from learning process in continuous performance development [12, 62]. This leads to the following sixth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-6: There is a statistically significant effect for learning and innovation on intermediate colleges high performance. KM outcomes must reflex on effectiveness and efficiency inside the organization. This leads to high performance at individual level and organizational level [2, KMM MODE L HEI EXCELLENCE PERFORMANC E MATURITY LEVEL Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 163 3, 50]. This leads to the following seventh sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-7: There is a statistically significant effect for KM outcomes on intermediate colleges high performance. Other authors and KM experts added other variables and suggested new models which are more manifold. Those models included the pervious variables and variables like intellectual capital, agility, training and cultural capital [4, 7, 63]. H2: There are statistically significant differences for high performance related to the intermediate college. 3. Research Design 3.1. Study Population and Sampling This study conducted at three intermediate colleges: Palestine Technical College (PTC), College of Applied Science (UCAS), College of Science and Technology (SCT). According to the model, the sample must be between 70%-80% from the population of the study [51]. The population are 237 employees, the control sample 190. The usable sample was 167, which makes the response rate 87%). 3.4. Research Instrument The first dimension referring to the model used in the study, is a prepared in advance questionnaire by the Asian productivity organization (KM assessment tool) as in Table 1. The second dimension of the instrument which measure high performance in intermediate colleges was developed by the current authors with the help of other research literature [14, 48-49, 61, 64-66]. Also Trustees validity has been conducted by a group of expert in KM and management field. Those statements were further revised and modified by the experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a neutral category for scale midpoint. Table 1. Research instrument Dimension 1: (Ind. V.) KM Assessment Tool No. of statements Dimension 2: (D.V.) High performance in HEI No. of statements Cat 1.0: KM Leadership 6 16 Cat 2.0: Processes 6 Cat 3.0: People 6 Cat 4.0: Technology 6 Cat 5.0: Knowledge Processes 6 Cat 6.0: Learning and Innovation 6 Cat 7.0: KM Outcomes 6 3.2. Validity and Reliability Assessment The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α value for all dimensions were greater than 0.5. It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency as shown in Table 2. Table 2. Validity and reliability No. of Statements Validity (√CA 2 ) Reliability(Cronbach Alpha) Dimension 6 0.767 0.875 KM Leadership 6 0.728 0.853 Processes 6 0.795 0.891 People 6 0.766 0.875 Technology 6 0.559 0.747 Knowledge Processes 6 0.560 0.748 Learning and Innovation 6 0.676 0.822 KM Outcomes 16 0.827 0.909 High performance 58 0.818 0.894 All Dimensions 3.3. Statistical Procedures Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", simple linear regression, OLSordinary least squares and step wise regression, LSD test for differences. 4. Data Analysis and Discussion of Results Simple linear regression and "ANOVA" tests were used to test hypotheses. Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable on a single dependent variable (High performance). The results are shown in Table 3. The results of regression test indicate that sig. is less than 0.05 for all independent variables, which mean that there are significant statistically effect for independent variables on excellence performance. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient sign for all independent variables was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be increase in performance. Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 164 Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate r2 of all the changes that occur in performance, and there is a rate 100-r2 due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model , in addition to the random error. The table reveals that the findings of significance level are less than 0.05, which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable (KM assessment tool) with its 7 sub-dimensions and the dependent variable (high performance). Each dimension in the independent variable has an effect individually on the dependent variable. According to that, we accept hypothesis H1 and it is sub-hypotheses. Table 3. Simple Linear Regression and "ANOVA" Variable Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 Regression coefficient Pearson coefficient r Sign R2 H1 KM Leadership 0.0 Significant 0.245 0.444 + 19.7%  Processes 0.0 Significant 0.253 0.453 + 20.6%  People 0.0 Significant 0.172 0.315 + 9.9%  Technology 0.001 Significant 0.188 0.192 + 3.7%  Knowledge Processes 0.017 Significant 0.112 0.143 + 2%  Learning and Innovation 0.0 Significant 0.187 0.232 + 5.4%  KM Outcomes 0.0 Significant 0.222 0.307 + 9.4%  Step wise regression conducted to arrange the effect of each variable in KMM model on the dependent variable and excluding of other insignificant variables. Table 4 shows that four variables were effecting significantly (Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes,) and three were not effecting (Learning and Innovation, Technology, Learning and Innovation). The explanation for that is the effect for the four variables were very strong on high performance more than (Knowledge Processes, Learning and Innovation, Technology) from the point of view of the sample. Table 4. Step Wise R Rank Variable T Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 1 Processes 3.5 0.001 significant 2 KM Leadership 2.88 0.004 significant 3 People 2.47 0.014 significant 4 KM Outcomes 2.24 0.025 significant 5 Knowledge Processes 1.83 0. 068 insignificant 6 Learning and Innovation 0.705 0.48 insignificant 7 Technology 0.27 0.78 insignificant According to the model, radar chart had been done by calculating the response of each paragraph in sub-domains rates as shown in Table 5. The total score was 118.7348 which mean that KMM is in level tow (initiation). Intermediate colleges begin to realize the need for knowledge management or have already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. In that level of maturity, intermediate colleges must expand KM implementation to reach for level three. Also from Table 4 we find that dimensions 57 need to be improved. For the second hypothesis H2, LSD test conducted, and the results showed that there are differences in high performance for college (PTC) with mean diff. 0.14578 and there are differences in high performance for college (UCAS) with mean diff. 0.14578 as shown in Table 6. Table 5. Radar Chart No. SubDomain Palestine Technical College (5-30) College of Applied Science (5-30) College of Science and Technology (5-30) Total 1 Leadership 20.08138 19.65659 20.00862 19.91553 2 Processes 18.5036 17.61538 17.67816 17.93238 3 People 18.01079 17.30769 16.89655 17.76811 4 Technology 17.57914 17.46154 16.48276 17.17448 5 Knowledge Processes 16.33453 16.24176 15.54023 16.03884 6 Learning and Innovation 15.8777 15.51648 14.90805 15.43407 7 KM Outcomes 14.80576 14.51648 14.09195 14.47139 Total (42-210) 121.19 118.3159 115.6063 118.7348 Abu Naser et al. Comput. Res. Prog. Appl. Sci. Eng. Vol. 02(04), 158-167, October 2016 165 Table 6. LSD TEST 5. Conclusions The concept of KM implementation is already known in Palestinian intermediate colleges. Many studies conducted on KM. The originality of study comes from being discussing KMM using a solid model. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM lead to high performance. KMM assessment shows that the intermediate colleges' maturity level is in the second level where the organization begins to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management where knowledge sharing and collaboration is common. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes. Others factors (Technology, learning and innovation, knowledge process) effecting also on high performance but cause of other factors are stronger and there are random faults the effect was insignificant in step wise regression. Intermediate colleges need to invest more in those dimensions to enhance their effect on performance. Also we can find that KMM for intermediate colleges is at the second level, therefore, more concentrating on KM factors is needed. 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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1559834055000, "description": "This paper aims to measure Knowledge Management Maturity (KMM) in the universities to determine the impact of knowledge\n management on high performance. This study was applied on Al-Quds Open University in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian\n productivity organization model was applied to measure KMM. Second dimension which assess high performance was\n developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (306). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses\n testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise\n Regression.The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring high performance. KMM\n assessment shows that maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is sub- hypotheses. The\n most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes and Learning and\n Innovation. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is\n the first comparative study in the universities of Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity Model.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUKFA", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "KMM Factors Affecting High Performance in Universities Case study on Al-Quds Open University in Gaza-Strip", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 46 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering KM Maturity Factors Affecting High Performance in Universities "Case study on Al-Quds Open University in Gaza-Strip" 1Samy S. Abu Naser, 2Mazen J. Al Shobaki, 3Youssef M. Abu Amuna 1Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza,, Palestine 2Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza,, Palestine 3Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine E-mail: , , ABSTRACT This paper aims to measure Knowledge Management Maturity (KMM) in the universities to determine the impact of knowledge management on high performance. This study was applied on Al-Quds Open University in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian productivity organization model was applied to measure KMM. Second dimension which assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (306). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression.The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring high performance. KMM assessment shows that maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes and Learning and Innovation. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study in the universities of Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity Model. Keywords: Knowledge Management, KM Maturity, High performance, Universities, Asian Productivity Model. 1. INTRODUCTION Knowledge management in universities is the main aim of those organizations, where they produce and manage knowledge through human activities and technical practices to link individuals from various administrative levels and sections. This process is establishing working groups and trust relationships which produce share and exchange of knowledge they own, support individual and collective learning processes, and then improve and develop individual and organizational performance. Measuring knowledge management maturity is an important process and the purpose of the measurement should be obvious and within right criteria based on successful experiences with the capability to recognize knowledge gaps that must be remedied in order to take full advantage of the knowledge [26, 41]. The objective of this study is to measure knowledge management maturity in the universities. Also the study aims to define KMM level in the universities to encourage them moving to a higher level. The literature review shows that although this subject has got much attention, in general, the studies concentrate on KM implementation. Many diverse attempts to regulate a common model have been done, but knowledge management maturity still a concept requires a standard framework to use in the universities. In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Q1. What are the most influential factors on the University performance resulting from knowledge management maturity? Q2. How to link knowledge management maturity with performance and benefit from it for future performance improvements? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is explore the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Knowledge Management in Universities Universities are cognitive intensity institutions where the primary function is based on knowledge, production of knowledge, documentation and publishing. There is a growing belief that knowledge management in educational institutions help build the future of a dynamic learning environment, development and improvement of the efficiency activities of knowledge sharing and improve the overall performance of the organization [1, 2, 24, 49]. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 47 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Ramachandran et al. defined KM in universities as "Systematic attempt to develop and implement knowledge practices in universities with the support of major strategic assistance factors "[40]. Also defined by Petrides and Nodine as" A frame or a way for individuals working in the educational institution to develop a set of practices to gather information and share what they know, which resulting in behaviors or actions that will improve the level of services and products offered by the educational institution"[34]. Laal defined it as "the process of converting information and intellectual assets to a continuing value that connect individuals with the knowledge they need to take action when they need it"[25]. According to previous definitions, KM in universities is similar knowledge management in industrial organizations or services, in terms of operations and activities, with a focus on the link between individuals and management to enhance the quality of outputs and achieve a competitive advantage in performance and outputs. Universities offer their services primarily to the community, and represents members of the community the main beneficiaries of Universities. Researchers identified the most reasons why universities environment is the most suitable to adopt KM: The existence of technology infrastructure, confidence and knowledge sharing is normal in universities and students enroll in a college to access to knowledge [1, 12, 14, 22, 28, 44, 57-59, 61-65]. 2.2 Critical factors for KM in Universities: The most critical variables that has an effect on sharing knowledge in universities are benefits and rewards [48]. While the research about this still few, Hislop suggests that the issues that concern to the staff regarding to assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sharing knowledge [16]. Benefits can be real rewards which improve the organization's performance and stability. It will be a big mistake when participation "is likely to" lead to abandonment of a source of strength and experience to others. While Rahman et al. and Bock et al. pointed that social sharing benefits cannot be estimated quantitatively, instead it is a personal commitment, trust and gratitude [7, 39]. Leadership style is an additional important factor which play a essential role in endorsement and development of knowledge exchange behavior, by contributing in experiential learning for staff, providing opportunities for supervising operations, development information technology systems, rewards and opportunities and interaction systems [41, 42, 43, 48, and 53]. The role of the leader can be completely different in the educational institutions where there are two types of leadership. First type is academic leadership which is interested in highlighting the knowledge, professional cognition, experience, personal qualities and teams. The second type is hierarchical management leadership with features such as: work, responsibilities, control and give power to position rather than ability. Significant tensions can exist when people with administrative capacity control the academic environment [11]. There is a immense dispute about the role of culture in educational institutions in the field of knowledge management and exchange [10, 26, 30, 41, 43, and 48]. For example, (Cronin) talked about contrast between the existence of companies cultures such as HP Computer Inc. "The HP Way" and the lack of any global culture like this in an universities [11]. Also (Lee) pointed that academic departments are complex and cultures may be different among departments in different disciplines [10]. The fact that remains dominant here is that the academic community have a culture of participation more than other forms of organizations and that cooperation is the essence of knowledge management [37]. One more important factor is organizational structure [10, 26, 41]. The structure of educational institutions diverge significantly from the other organizations. This structure might be a major difficulty for the exchange of knowledge, as the physical and psychological issue may be other obstacles which can guide to individualism. For that reason, organizational structure should be flexibly designed to persuade participation and cross-border cooperation inside the organization. The combination between formal organizational structure and nonhierarchical structure enhance knowledge generating and sharing [9, 41, 48, 56,60]. 2.3 High Performance in Universities: The educational institutions are service organizations providing education and knowledge to students and conducting scientific research. They are also responsible for providing the society with qualified people for jobs, so they deliberately to achieve high performance in their activities by teaching process. Teaching process represents the intellectual capital for a variety of activities characterized by mental and intellectual nature and a host of other traditional activities. This performance measured by many excellence models such as BSC, Malcolm Baldrige American model, European model and Canadian model [3]. Those models depend on several criteria, leadership, strategic planning, customer orientation, KM, human resource, operations Management and the outcomes. Also the scales might be financial or non-financial. Lee and Teseng pointed that financial scales connected directly with long term objectives, measuring the success of strategic plans and the ability to adapt with changes in external environment. Financial scales consist of ROI, sales growth, income before taxes, net profit, ROA,.etc [27]. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 48 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering While operational scales provide a hidden image for performance such as new products, product quality, market share, innovation, customer retention, social responsibility[8,38]. Al-hady defined high performance in universities "The performance that helps in achieving strategic objectives and effectiveness according to quality scales". KM can improve this performance in high rates [34, 47]. Rani, Sania, AL-Hayaly and Alnajjar added that KM positively affects organizational outcomes of company innovation, product improvement and employee improvement[54, 55 ]. These researchers [1, 5, 14, 29] mention the main fields of high performance in universities:  Reduce costs and increase profits: Educational institutions seeking to cut costs by reducing the costs of services provided to students and the level of operational and administrative costs of operations, leading to an increase in profits.  Improve Quality: The overall quality management approach depends on the joint efforts by which the participation of all individuals on an ongoing basis to improve the institution's performance.  Scientific research: Scientific research in educational institutions is the key element of high performance, which helps in the advancement of professional practice and gain the confidence of the industry, and demonstrates the intellectual contributions of the faculty member.  Community Service: It is an essential element in evaluation process of high performance that clarifies the role of the institution in civil society service and its contribution to solving its problems. 2.4 Knowledge Management Maturity: Knowledge management maturity determines the level of organization existing capacity affecting on knowledge management processes, where every organization particular track a special sequence of maturity. Knowledge management maturity models describes the steps of growth, which is expected to be up to the organization to develop their knowledge management and organizational performance [23,57]. Also it determines the stages of institutional knowledge maturity, which is expected to pass by any institution on its way to improve their practices and competitive advantages, those institutions that rely mainly on innovation and dissemination of knowledge like universities and thus improve the overall performance of the institution [46]. The maturity models describe the nature of things with the passage of time, such as development of knowledge management, what is necessary to move from a given level to another and stability at a certain level [20, 51]. O'Brien, Hoss and Schussed determined the importance of KM measurement as follow [18, 32]:  Helps measure the institution to identify knowledge gaps they have.  Determine the impact of knowledge gaps on the performance, growth and development of the institution.  Helps to manage knowledge possessed by the organization more efficiently.  Provides the enterprise with analytical tools works to promote knowledge and address gaps.  Identify strategies and activities to fill those gaps in knowledge. Asian productivity organization developed a model to measure KMM, designed after a study lasted for five months. This model have been adopted by the Asian Organization of Production (APO) to develop tools and knowledge management techniques. Working team consist of experts in knowledge management from Japan, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines [51]. This model consist of a general framework for knowledge management, knowledge management tool and measuring tool to measure the maturity of knowledge management as shown in figure 1. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 49 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Figure 1. KM framework This framework consists of a row of enablers for knowledge management, starting from the organization's mission and vision in the middle of the circle, which sets strategy and organization capabilities. Then we move on to the second frame, which includes knowledge management processes and the factors that accelerate the processes of knowledge management like leadership, individuals, processes and technology. In the last phase, the results of using knowledge management represented by quality, productivity, profitability and growth of the organization. The model defined seven fields to measure KM: KM Leadership, process, people, technology, knowledge process, learning and innovation and KM outcomes. After measuring KM, the results showed on a radar chart identifying the areas that have strength and the areas that need improvement and the organization has an opportunity to improve them. Figure 2: Radar Chart ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 50 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering The next step is to determine the level of maturity of knowledge management in the organization and comparing it with the maturity levels model. Figure 3: Maturity levels model Knowledge management maturity consist of five levels is composed as follow: 1Reaction: The organization is not interested in knowledge management and focused on enhancing productivity and competitiveness. 2Initiation level: The organization begin to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. 3Expansion: Knowledge management is fully applied. 4Refinement: Organization evaluates knowledge management on an ongoing basis. 5Maturity level: Knowledge management exist primarily as a driver in every organization's process. 2.5 KMM and high performance: Knowledge management is not the only factor affecting performance and output of the organization, but it is one of many factors. Factors enabling high performance are leadership style, strategic planning, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, customers oriented, human resource management and administrative processes [52]. In first or second level of maturity, KM operations are local and lead to focus on a particular section in the organization without a comprehensive strategy to support those efforts. Here we can say that the impact of KM processes is not dramatically evident on the organization's performance. Therefore we can say that the first and second level of knowledge management maturity levels represent normal performance [6]. When reaching level three and four, organization begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three and four using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. Finally, KMM at level five represent full integrated knowledge management operations and employees understand the role of knowledge sharing and cooperation in improving the performance for individuals and organization. Such behavior supports creative activities, leads to better competitive advantages and enhance the value chain to customers and suppliers [19, 20, and 23]. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 51 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Figure 4: The conceptual framework The relation between the model used in this study and high performance leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: h1: There is a statistically significant effect for using the Asian knowledge model to measure universities high performance. As the previous model suggest, leadership plays a critical role in the success of KM implementation. If there is a strong commitment at executive management level to change the organizational culture, then the organization will be able to create the values that lead to knowledge sharing[1,4]. To achieve that, organization needs a leadership style able to manage organization elements to achieve the best and maximum advantage of the existing knowledge in organization to improve performance. Also the leadership need to link the mission and the vision and the objectives of the organization with knowledge management strategies. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-1: There is a statistically significant effect for KM leadership on universities high performance. Operations are considered a complete knowledge inside organization. As value chain reflect how far can organization add value in each production step to achieve organizational efficiency and increase performance [23, 33]. This leads to the following second sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-2: There is a statistically significant effect for operations on universities high performance. Many KM research confirmed individual's impact on high performance. These authors [1, 23, 37, and 41] explained that individual's motivations and method of interpretation, transfer and implementation of knowledge management processes influence greatly in determining the shape and nature of knowledge and how to manage it. Therefore, individual is the most powerful element of an effective knowledge management implementation. This leads to the following third sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-3: There is a statistically significant effect for people on universities high performance. New technology plays a major role in performance improving by providing the right information at the right time and using them to rationalize decisions. Add to that technology needed to enhance sharing knowledge and learning inside organization. The integration between knowledge and organizational process enhance performance and competitive advantages [22, 23, and 35]. This leads to the following forth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-4: There is a statistically significant effect for technology on universities high performance. Knowledge process like generation, storage, distribution and implementation facilitates work within the organization. The presence of a specialist team to capture knowledge and encourage workers to invest and participate it, with the existence of an effective leadership leading those operations to bring harmony between them reduce the total cost of work and increase financial returns for organization. This leads to achieve creativity, innovation and high productivity [5, 24, 50, and 53]. This leads to the following fifth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-5: There is a statistically significant effect for Knowledge process on universities high performance. Hila and Sangjae discussed learning and creativity in organization. Modern organizations characterized with continuous learning and applying the gained experience in their daily routine. Organizations seeking to recruit the experience gained from learning process in continuous performance development [15, 43]. This leads to the following sixth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-6: There is a statistically significant effect for learning and innovation on universities high performance. KM outcomes must reflex on effectiveness and efficiency inside the organization. This leads to high performance at individual level and organizational level [23, 24, and 41]. This leads to the following seventh sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-7: There is a statistically significant effect for KM outcomes on universities high performance. KMM MODEL HEI EXCELLENCE PERFORMANCE MATURITY LEVEL ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 52 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Other authors and KM experts added other variables and suggested new models which are more manifold. Those models included the pervious variables and variables like intellectual capital, agility, training and cultural capital [21, 36, 45]. As established earlier, the current study examine the validity of the Asian productivity model for measuring KMM in universities. 3. RESEARCH DESIGN 3.1 Study population and sampling: This study conducted at Al-Quds Open University in Gaza Strip - Palestine. It is highly reputable one and established in 1991. The population are (306) employees, the control sample (244). The usable sample was (112), which makes the response rate (46%). 3.2 Research instrument: The first dimension referring to the model used in the study, is a prepared in advance questionnaire by the Asian productivity organization (KM Assessment Tool). This tool contain seven audit criteria categories. The second dimension of the instrument which measure high performance in universities was developed by the current authors with the help of other research literature [1, 5, 29, and 50]. These statements were further revised and modified by experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. Table 1: Research instrument Dimension 1: (Ind.V.) KM Assessment Tool No. of statements Dimension 2: (D.V.) High performance in HEI No. of statements Cat 1.0: KM Leadership 6 16 Cat 2.0: Processes 6 Cat 3.0: People 6 Cat 4.0: Technology 6 Cat 5.0: Knowledge Processes 6 Cat 6.0: Learning and Innovation 6 Cat 7.0: KM Outcomes 6 3.3 Validity and reliability assessment: The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α values for all dimensions were > (0.5). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency. 3.4 Statistical procedures: Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression, OLSOrdinary Least Squares and Step Wise Regression. 3.5 Data analysis and discussion of results: Simple linear regression and "ANOVA" tests were used to test hypotheses. Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable on a single dependent variable (High performance). The results are shown in Table 2. The results of regression test indicate that sig. is less than (0.05) for all independent variables, which mean that there are significant statistically effect for independent variables on excellence performance. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient sign for all independent variables was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be increase in performance. Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate (r2) of all the changes that occur in performance , and there is a rate (100 r2) due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model , in addition to the random error. The table reveals that the findings of significance level are less than (0.05), which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and each dimension in the independent variable effect individually on the dependent variable. Therefore, we accept the main hypothesis and it is sub-hypotheses. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 53 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Table 2: Simple Linear Regression and "ANOVA" Variable Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 Regression coefficient Pearson coefficient r sign R2 KM Leadership 0.0 Significant 0.201 0.396 + 15.68% Processes 0.0 Significant 0.211 0.411 + 16.89% People 0.0 Significant 0.291 0.502 + 25.2% Technology 0.001 Significant 0.323 0.467 + 21.8% Knowledge Processes 0.017 Significant 0.189 0.232 + 5.38% Learning and Innovation 0.0 Significant 0.169 0.298 + 8.88% KM Outcomes 0.0 Significant 0.264 0.274 + 7.5% Further analysis, using Step wise regression conducted to arrange the effect of each variable in the knowledge management maturity model on the dependent variable and excluding of other insignificant variables. Table 3. Shows that five variables were effecting significantly (Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes,) and two were not effecting (Learning and Innovation, Technology, Learning and Innovation). The explanation for that is the effect for the four variables were very strong on high performance more than (Knowledge Processes, Learning and Innovation, Technology) from the point of view of the sample. Table 3: Step Wise R Rank Variable T Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 1 Processes 3.2 0.003 significant 2 KM Leadership 3.16 0.004 significant 3 People 2.69 0.011 significant 4 KM Outcomes 2.11 0.032 significant 5 Knowledge Processes 1.35 0. 68 insignificant 6 Learning and Innovation 1.52 0.035 significant 7 Technology 0.49 0.67 insignificant According to the model, radar chart had been done by calculating the response of each paragraph in sub-domains rates as shown in Table 4. The total score was (126.94) which means that KMM is in level three (Expansion). University begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. In that level of maturity, university must expand here KM implementation to reach for level four where KM measuring is a continuous process. Also from table 4 we find that dimensions (5, 6, and 7) need to be improved. Table 4: Radar Chart No. Sub-Domain Al-Quds (5-30) 1 Leadership 22.16 2 Processes 24.13 3 People 20.13 4 Technology 17.92 5 Knowledge Processes 11.23 6 Learning and Innovation 14.36 7 KM Outcomes 16.56 Total (42-210) 126.49 ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (5) pp. 46-56, OCT 2016 54 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 5 October 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering 4. CONCLUSION The concept of KM implementation is already known in Palestinian universities. Many studies conducted on KM. The originality of study comes from being discussing KMM using a solid model. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is leads to high performance. KMM assessment shows that the university maturity level is in level three where knowledge sharing and collaboration is common. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is sub-hypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes, Learning and Innovation. Furthermore, the model effect totally on high performance. To have more accurate results (to generalize the model), another assessment must be done in periodical schedule (6 months for instant) after implementing the improved process. Authors recommend to adopt this model in universities in Palestine as a benchmark for knowledge management maturity and develop the model within specific criteria which suit with the MOHE requirements for high performance in higher educational Institutions. 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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1549530302000, "description": "The paper assesses Knowledge Management Maturity(KMM) in the universities to determine the impact of knowledge management on performance excellence. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University and Al-Quds Open University in Gaza strip, Palestine.\n This paper depends on Asian productivity organization model that used to assess KMM. Second dimension which assess performance excellence was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (610). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression.\n The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring performance excellence. KMM assessment shows that both universities maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is sub- hypotheses. The most important factors effecting performance excellence are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study in the universities of Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity Model.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUKMM", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Knowledge Management Maturity in Universities and its Impact on Performance Excellence \"Comparative study\"", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Available online Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 4 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Research Article ISSN: 2394-2630 CODEN(USA): JSERBR Knowledge Management Maturity in Universities and its Impact on Performance Excellence "Comparative study" Samy S Abu Naser, Mazen J Al-Shobaki, Youssef M Abu Amuna Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza Abstract The paper assesses Knowledge Management Maturity (KMM) in the universities to determine the impact of knowledge management on performance excellence. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University and Al-Quds Open University in Gaza strip, Palestine. This paper depends on Asian productivity organization model that used to assess KMM. Second dimension which assess performance excellence was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (610). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring performance excellence. KMM assessment shows that both universities maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses. The most important factors effecting performance excellence are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study in the universities of Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity Model. Keywords Knowledge Management, KM Maturity, Performance excellence, Universities, Asian Productivity Model. Introduction Knowledge management in educational institutions is the main aim of those organizations, where they produce and manage knowledge through human activities and technical practices to link individuals from various administrative levels and sections. This process establishing working groups and trust relationships which produce share and exchange of knowledge they own, support individual and collective learning processes, and then improve and develop individual and organizational performance. Measuring knowledge management maturity is an important process and should not be ignored simply by knowledge management processes. The purpose of the measurement should be obvious and within right criteria based on successful experiences with the capability to recognize knowledge gaps that must be remedied in order to take full advantage of the knowledge, followed by procedures to enhance performance and efficiency to meet future challenges and attain outstanding performance [1-2]. The objective of this study is to examine the validity of the Asian productivity model in measuring knowledge management maturity in the universities. Also the study aims to define KMM level in the universities to encourage them moving to a higher level. This leads to performance excellence for individuals and organizations. The literature shows that although this subject has got much attention, in general, the studies concentrate on KM implementation. Many diverse attempts to regulate a common model have been done, but knowledge management maturity still a concept requires a standard framework to use in the universities. The current study draws on the literature to investigate this topic in depth and then turns to an implied exploration to assess the extent to which the model is precise and conclude the most important variables. In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 5 Q1. What are the most influential factors on the Universities performance resulting from knowledge management maturity? Q2. How to link knowledge management maturity with performance and benefit from it for future performance improvements? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study in the Universities of Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. Literature Review Knowledge management in Universities Universities are cognitive intensity institutions where the primary function is based on knowledge, production of knowledge, documentation and publishing. There is a growing belief that knowledge management in educational institutions help build the future of a dynamic learning environment, development and improvement of the efficiency activities of knowledge sharing and improve the overall performance of the organization [3-6]. Ramachandran et al. defined KM in universities as "Systematic attempt to develop and implement knowledge practices in universities with the support of major strategic assistance factors "[7]. Also defined by Petrides and Nodine as" A frame or a way for individuals working in the educational institution to develop a set of practices to gather information and share what they know, which resulting in behaviors or actions that will improve the level of services and products offered by the educational institution"[8]. Laal defined it as "the process of converting information and intellectual assets to a continuing value that connect individuals with the knowledge they need to take action when they need it"[9]. According to previous definitions, KM in universities is similar knowledge management in industrial organizations or services, in terms of operations and activities, with a focus on the link between individuals and management to enhance the quality of outputs and achieve a competitive advantage in performance and outputs. Universities offer their services primarily to the community, and represents members of the community the main beneficiaries of Universities. Researchers identified the most reasons why universities environment is the most suitable to adopt KM: The existence of technology infrastructure, confidence and knowledge sharing is normal in universities and students enroll in a college to access to knowledge [3, 10-14]. Critical factors for KM in Universities The most critical variables that has an effect on sharing knowledge in universities are benefits and rewards [15]. While the research about this still few, Hislop suggests that the issues that concern to the staff regarding to assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sharing knowledge [16]. Benefits can be real rewards which improve the organization's performance and stability. It will be a big mistake when participation "is likely to" lead to abandonment of a source of strength and experience to others. While Rahman et al. and Bock et al. pointed that social sharing benefits cannot be estimated quantitatively, instead it is a personal commitment, trust and gratitude [17-18]. Leadership style is an additional important factor which play a essential role in endorsement and development of knowledge exchange behavior, by contributing in experiential learning for staff, providing opportunities for supervising operations, development information technology systems, rewards and opportunities and interaction systems [2, 15, 19-21]. The role of the leader can be completely different in the educational institutions where there are two types of leadership. First type is academic leadership which is interested in highlighting the knowledge, professional cognition, experience, personal qualities and teams. The second type is hierarchical management leadership with features such as: work, responsibilities, control and give power to position rather than ability. Significant tensions can exist when people with administrative capacity control the academic environment [11]. There is a immense dispute about the role of culture in educational institutions in the field of knowledge management and exchange [2, 15, 20, 22-24]. For example, (Cronin) talked about contrast between the existence of companies cultures such as HP Computer Inc. "The HP Way" and the lack of any global culture like this in an universities [25]. Also (Lee) pointed that academic departments are complex and cultures may be different among departments in different disciplines [22]. The fact that remains dominant here is that the academic community have a culture of participation more than other forms of organizations and that cooperation is the essence of knowledge management [26]. One more important factor is organizational structure [2, 22-23]. The structure of educational institutions diverges significantly from the other organizations. This structure might be a major difficulty for the exchange of knowledge, as the physical and psychological issue may be other obstacles which can guide to individualism. For that reason, organizational structure should be flexibly designed to persuade participation and cross-border cooperation inside the organization. The combination between formal organizational structure and nonhierarchical structure enhance knowledge generating and sharing [2, 15, 27-28]. Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 6 Performance Excellence in Universities The educational institutions are service organizations providing education and knowledge to students and conducting scientific research. They are also responsible for providing the society with qualified people for jobs, so they deliberately to achieve high performance in their activities by teaching process. Teaching process represents the intellectual capital for a variety of activities characterized by mental and intellectual nature and a host of other traditional activities. This performance measured by many excellence models such as BSC, Malcolm Baldrige American model, European model and Canadian model [29]. Those models depend on several criteria, leadership, strategic planning, customer orientation, KM, human resource, operations Management and the outcomes. Also the scales might be financial or non-financial. Lee and Teseng pointed that financial scales connected directly with long term objectives, measuring the success of strategic plans and the ability to adapt with changes in external environment. Financial scales consist of ROI, sales growth, income before taxes, net profit, ROA, etc [30]. While operational scales provide a hidden image for performance such as new products, product quality, market share, innovation, customer retention, social responsibility [31-32]. Al-hady defined high performance in universities "The performance that helps in achieving strategic objectives and effectiveness according to quality scales". KM can improve this performance in high rates [8-26]. Rani, Sania, AL-Hayaly and Alnajjar added that KM positively affects organizational outcomes of company innovation, product improvement and employee improvement [33-34]. These researchers [3, 11, 35-36] mention the main fields of performance excellence in universities:  Reduce costs and increase profits: Educational institutions seeking to cut costs by reducing the costs of services provided to students and the level of operational and administrative costs of operations, leading to an increase in profits.  Improve Quality: The overall quality management approach depends on the joint efforts by which the participation of all individuals on an ongoing basis to improve the institution's performance.  Scientific research: Scientific research in educational institutions is the key element of performance excellence, which helps in the advancement of professional practice and gain the confidence of the industry, and demonstrates the intellectual contributions of the faculty member.  Community Service: It is an essential element in evaluation process of performance excellence that clarifies the role of the institution in civil society service and its contribution to solving its problems. Knowledge management maturity Knowledge management maturity determines the level of organization existing capacity affecting on knowledge management processes, where every organization particular track a special sequence of maturity. Knowledge management maturity models describes the steps of growth, which is expected to be up to the organization to develop their knowledge management and organizational performance [37-38]. Also it determines the stages of institutional knowledge maturity, which is expected to pass by any institution on its way to improve their practices and competitive advantages, those institutions that rely mainly on innovation and dissemination of knowledge like universities and thus improve the overall performance of the institution [39]. The maturity models describe the nature of things with the passage of time, such as development of knowledge management, what is necessary to move from a given level to another and stability at a certain level [40-41]. O'Brien, Hoss and Schussed determined the importance of KM measurement as follow [42-43]:  Helps measure the institution to identify knowledge gaps they have.  Determine the impact of knowledge gaps on the performance, growth and development of the institution.  Helps to manage knowledge possessed by the organization more efficiently.  Provides the enterprise with analytical tools works to promote knowledge and address gaps.  Identify strategies and activities to fill those gaps in knowledge. Asian productivity organization developed a model to measure KMM, designed after a study lasted for five months. This model has been adopted by the Asian Organization of Production (APO) to develop tools and knowledge management techniques. Working team consist of experts in knowledge management from Japan, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines [41]. This model consist of a general framework for knowledge management, knowledge management tool and measuring tool to measure the maturity of knowledge management as shown in figure 1. Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 7 Figure 1: KM framework This framework consists of a row of enablers for knowledge management, starting from the organization's mission and vision in the middle of the circle, which sets strategy and organization capabilities. Then we move on to the second frame, which includes knowledge management processes and the factors that accelerate the processes of knowledge management like leadership, individuals, processes and technology. In the last phase, the results of using knowledge management represented by quality, productivity, profitability and growth of the organization. The model defined seven fields to measure KM: KM Leadership, process, people, technology, knowledge process, learning and innovation and KM outcomes. After measuring KM, the results showed on a radar chart identifying the areas that have strength and the areas that need improvement and the organization has an opportunity to improve them. Figure 2: Radar Chart The next step is to determine the level of maturity of knowledge management in the organization and comparing it with the maturity levels model. Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 8 Figure 3: Maturity levels model Knowledge management maturity consists of five levels is composed as follow: 1Reaction: The organization is not interested in knowledge management and focused on enhancing productivity and competitiveness. 2Initiation level: The organization begins to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. 3Expansion: Knowledge management is fully applied. 4Refinement: Organization evaluates knowledge management on an ongoing basis. 5Maturity level: Knowledge management exists primarily as a driver in every organization's process. KMM and performance excellence Knowledge management is not the only factor affecting performance and output of the organization, but it is one of many factors. Factors enabling performance excellence are leadership style, strategic planning, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, customers oriented, human resource management and administrative processes [44]. In first or second level of maturity, KM operations are local and lead to focus on a particular section in the organization without a comprehensive strategy to support those efforts. Here we can say that the impact of KM processes is not dramatically evident on the organization's performance. Therefore we can say that the first and second level of knowledge management maturity levels represent normal performance [45]. When reaching level three and four, organization begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three and four using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. Finally, KMM at level five represent full integrated knowledge management operations and employees understand the role of knowledge sharing and cooperation in improving the performance for individuals and organization. Such behavior supports creative activities, leads to better competitive advantages and enhance the value chain to customers and suppliers [37, 40, 46]. Figure 4: The conceptual framework KMM MODEL HEI EXCELLENCE PERFORMANCE MATURITY LEVEL Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 9 The relation between the model used in this study and performance excellence leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: h1: There is a statistically significant effect for using the Asian knowledge model to measure universities performance excellence. As the previous model suggest, leadership plays a critical role in the success of KM implementation. If there is a strong commitment at executive management level to change the organizational culture, then the organization will be able to create the values that lead to knowledge sharing [3, 47]. To achieve that, organization needs a leadership style able to manage organization elements to achieve the best and maximum advantage of the existing knowledge in organization to improve performance. Also the leadership need to link the mission and the vision and the objectives of the organization with knowledge management strategies. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-1: There is a statistically significant effect for KM leadership on universities performance excellence. Operations are considered a complete knowledge inside organization. As value chain reflect how far can organization add value in each production step to achieve organizational efficiency and increase performance [23, 33]. This leads to the following second sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-2: There is a statistically significant effect for operations on universities performance excellence. Many KM research confirmed individual's impact on performance excellence. These authors [2-3, 26, 37] explained that individual's motivations and method of interpretation, transfer and implementation of knowledge management processes influence greatly in determining the shape and nature of knowledge and how to manage it. Therefore, individual is the most powerful element of an effective knowledge management implementation. This leads to the following third sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-3: There is a statistically significant effect for people on universities performance excellence. New technology plays a major role in performance improving by providing the right information at the right time and using them to rationalize decisions. Add to that technology needed to enhance sharing knowledge and learning inside organization. The integration between knowledge and organizational process enhance performance and competitive advantages [12, 37, 48]. This leads to the following forth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-4: There is a statistically significant effect for technology on universities performance excellence. Knowledge process like generation, storage, distribution and implementation facilitates work within the organization. The presence of a specialist team to capture knowledge and encourage workers to invest and participate it, with the existence of an effective leadership leading those operations to bring harmony between them reduce the total cost of work and increase financial returns for organization. This leads to achieve creativity, innovation and high productivity [5, 21, 49, 50,]. This leads to the following fifth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-5: There is a statistically significant effect for Knowledge process on universities performance excellence. Hila and Sangjae discussed learning and creativity in organization. Modern organizations characterized with continuous learning and applying the gained experience in their daily routine. Organizations seeking to recruit the experience gained from learning process in continuous performance development [20,51]. This leads to the following sixth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-6: There is a statistically significant effect for learning and innovation on universities performance excellence. KM outcomes must reflex on effectiveness and efficiency inside the organization. This leads to performance excellence at individual level and organizational level [2, 5, 37]. This leads to the following seventh subhypothesis in this study: h1-7: There is a statistically significant effect for KM outcomes on universities performance excellence. Other authors and KM experts added other variables and suggested new models which are more manifold. Those models included the pervious variables and variables like intellectual capital, agility, training and cultural capital [52-54]. As established earlier, the current study examines the validity of the Asian productivity model for measuring KMM in universities. Research Design Study population and sampling: This study conducted at Al-Azhar University and Al-Quds Open University in Gaza Strip - Palestine. Both universities are highly reputable one and established in 1991. The population are (762) employees, the control sample (610). The usable sample was (410), which makes the response rate (67%). Research Instrument The first dimension referring to the model used in the study, is a prepared in advance questionnaire by the Asian productivity organization (KM Assessment Tool). This tool contain seven audit criteria categories. The second Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 10 dimension of the instrument which measure performance excellence in universities was developed by the current authors with the help of other research literature [3, 36, 49-50]. These statements were further revised and modified by experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. Table 1: Research instrument Dimension 1: (Ind.V.) KM Assessment Tool No. of statements Dimension 2: (D.V.) High performance in HEI No. of statements Cat 1.0: KM Leadership 6 16 Cat 2.0: Processes 6 Cat 3.0: People 6 Cat 4.0: Technology 6 Cat 5.0: Knowledge Processes 6 Cat 6.0: Learning and Innovation 6 Cat 7.0: KM Outcomes 6 Validity and reliability assessment The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α values for all dimensions were > (0.5). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency. Statistical procedures Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression, OLSOrdinary Least Squares and Step Wise Regression. Data analysis and discussion of results Simple linear regression and "ANOVA" tests were used to test hypotheses. Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable on a single dependent variable (Performance Excellence). The results are shown in Table 2. The results of regression test indicate that sig. is less than (0.05) for all independent variables, which mean that there are significant statistically effect for independent variables on excellence performance. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient sign for all independent variables was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be increase in performance. Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate (r2) of all the changes that occur in performance , and there is a rate (100 r2) due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model , in addition to the random error. The table reveals that the findings of significance level are less than (0.05), which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and each dimension in the independent variable effect individually on the dependent variable. Therefore, we accept the main hypothesis and it is sub-hypotheses Table 2: Simple Linear Regression and "ANOVA" Variable Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 Regression coefficient Pearson coefficient r sign R2 KM Leadership 0.0 Significant 0.218 0.470 + 22.09% Processes 0.0 Significant 0.241 0.480 + 23.04% People 0.0 Significant 0.187 0.372 + 13.83% Technology 0.001 Significant 0.186 0.254 + 6.45% Knowledge Processes 0.017 Significant 0.142 0.210 + 4.41% Learning and Innovation 0.0 Significant 0.201 0.265 + 7.02% KM Outcomes 0.0 Significant 0.232 0.342 + 11.69% Further analysis, using Step wise regression conducted to arrange the effect of each variable in the knowledge management maturity model on the dependent variable and excluding of other insignificant variables. Table 3. Shows that four variables were effecting significantly (Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes,) and three were not effecting (Learning and Innovation, Technology). The explanation for that is the effect for the four variables were very strong on performance excellence more than (Knowledge Processes, Learning and Innovation, Technology) from the point of view of the sample. Naser SSA et al Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 2016, 3(4):4-14 Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 11 Table 3: Step Wise R Rank Variable T Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 1 Processes 3.3 0.001 Significant 2 KM Leadership 2.64 0.005 Significant 3 People 2.31 0.021 Significant 4 KM Outcomes 2.42 0.028 Significant 5 Knowledge Processes 2.17 0. 62 Insignificant 6 Learning and Innovation 0.82 0.49 Insignificant 7 Technology 0.35 0.87 Insignificant According to the model, radar chart had been done by calculating the response of each paragraph in subdomains rates as shown in Table 4. The total score was (129.815) which means that KMM is in level three (Expansion). Universities begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. In that level of maturity, university must expand here KM implementation to reach for level four where KM measuring is a continuous process. Also from table 4 we find that Al-Azhar University leads in dimensions [3-4, 17, 45, 49]. The anthers refer that lead to the diversity of colleges in Al-Azhar University, the stuff qualifications and experience. While Al-Quds open university leads in dimensions [29, 47]. The explanation of that refer to the education system in the university. Table 4: Radar Chart No. Sub-Domain Al-Azhar (5-30) Al-Quds (5-30) Total (5-30) 1 Leadership 24.62 22.16 23.39 2 Processes 26.71 24.13 25.42 3 People 18.82 20.13 19.475 4 Technology 15.94 17.92 16.93 5 Knowledge Processes 12.68 11.23 11.955 6 Learning and Innovation 16.39 14.36 15.375 7 KM Outcomes 17.98 16.56 17.27 Total (42-210) 133.14 126.49 129.815 Conclusion The concept of KM implementation is already known in Palestinian universities. Many studies conducted on KM, but this is the first study measuring KM maturity concept in Palestinian universities using a model designed by top eight manufacturing countries in Asia. The originality of study comes from being the first one as far as the authors knowledge that discuses KMM using a solid model. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring and lead to performance excellence. KMM assessment shows that the university maturity level is in level three where knowledge sharing and collaboration is common. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is sub-hypotheses. The most important factors effecting performance excellence are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes. Furthermore, the model effect totally on performance excellence. One of the important limitation of this study that it was conducted in two Palestinian universities in one geographical region. Comparison study between different regions will be more reliable. To have more accurate results (to generalize the model), another assessment must be done in periodical schedule (6 months for instant) after implementing the improved process. Moreover, a comparison study between AlAzhar and other higher educational Institutions will be more reliable. 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{ "creator": "Abu Naser, Samy S.", "date": "2017", "datestamp": 1562848788000, "description": "In these days, there is an increasing technological development in intelligent tutoring systems. This field has become interesting to many researchers. In this paper, we present an intelligent tutoring system for teaching mathematics that help students understand the basics of math and that helps a lot of students of all ages to understand the topic because it's important for students of adding and subtracting. Through which the student will be able to study the course and solve related problems. An evaluation of the intelligent tutoring systems was carried out and the results were encouraging.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUMIT", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Mathematics Intelligent Tutoring System", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 11 International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research ISSN: 2456-0421; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.32 Volume 2; Issue 1; January 2017; Page No. 11-16 Mathematics intelligent tutoring system Nour N AbuEloun, Samy S Abu Naser Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine Abstract In these days, there is an increasing technological development in intelligent tutoring systems. This field has become interesting to many researchers. In this paper, we present an intelligent tutoring system for teaching mathematics that help students understand the basics of math and that helps a lot of students of all ages to understand the topic because it's important for students of adding and subtracting. Through which the student will be able to study the course and solve related problems. An evaluation of the intelligent tutoring systems was carried out and the results were encouraging. Keywords: intelligent tutoring system, e-learning, mathematics 1. Introduction Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been investigated in AI now for several decades. With the enormous development and increasing availability of the program, the application of intelligent learning systems becomes more probable and accurate and research for intelligent features obtains more care than before. As a result, a number of new ITS have been established over the last years, program, and web page [28]. This project is based adaptive learning environment for mathematics. These systems strive for improving long-distance learning, for complementing traditional classroom teaching, and for supporting individual and life-long learning, and allow a user to learn in his own environment and whenever it is appropriate for him [28]. 2. Literature Review There are many ITS that were developed for: ITS for Learning Java Objects [4], ITS teaching grammar English tenses [10], Java Expression Evaluation [3], Linear Programming [23, 26, 27], ITS for Teaching Mongo Database[18], ITS for C# Language [7], effectiveness of e-learning [5, 31], effectiveness of the CPP-Tutor [25], teaching AI searching algorithms [30], teaching database [24], and ITS for Teaching the 7 Characteristics for Living Things [17], ITS for teaching the right letter pronunciation in reciting the Holy Quran [6], ITS for Health problems related to addiction of video game playing [8], ITS for teaching advanced topics in information security [19], Oracle Intelligent Tutoring System (OITS) [9], ITS for learning Computer Theory[14], e-learning system [29], ADO-Tutor: Intelligent Tutoring System for leaning ADO.NET [15], ITS for Parameter Passing in Java Programming [22], and Predicting learners performance using NT and ITS [27], CPP-Tutor for C++ Programming Language [20], a comparative study between Animated Intelligent Tutoring Systems (AITS) and Video-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems (VITS) [21], ITS for stomach disease Intelligent Tutoring System [13], ITS for diabetes [12], Computer Networks [11], DSETutor for Teaching DES Information Security Algorithm [16]. 3. ITS Architecture In this paper, we used ITSB authoring tool [28]. This tool designed and developed by Professor Samy S. Abu Naser [28]. He used Delphi Embarcadero XE8, 2015 [2]; this tool supported two languages: English and Arabic and has two systems in one application. The first system is the teacher system where it allows the teachers to add course materials, questions and answers. The second system is the student system where it allows the student to study course materials and answer exercises. This tool contains four modules: domain module, teaching module, student module and user interfaces module. The first module stores and organizes the material in chapters or lessons. The second module works as control engine. The third module gives the system all essential information so it can adapt itself to the student. The last module has two sections one for the student and the other for the teacher as shown in Fig 1. Fig 1: Overall System Architecture 3.1 Domain Module This model deals with many important topics of interest in the System for Mathematics. The topics covered in intelligent tutoring system are:  Algebra  Real numbers  Integer Exponents  Roots of real numbers  Rational exponents  Radicals polynomials, International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 12  Addition and subtraction and  Factoring second degree polynomials. 3.2 Student Module A new student account must be created to have a profile where it allows the student to study course materials and answer the exercises. The profile has information about the student such as student name, last session date, student number, current score, overall score, level of difficulty, and problem number during the each session. The current score represents student score for each level. The overall score represents student score for all levels. 3.3 Teaching Module Teaching module works as a manager that controls the functionality of the entire system. Through this module, a student can answer questions on the first level of difficulty and if he/she gets 75% mark or more, he/she can move to the next level. But if he/she fails to get the marks, he/she repeats to the exercises of the same difficulty level again. 3.4 User Interface Module The ITSB tool used for building the current ITS system has an interface that supports two classes of users: teachers and students. When the teacher's log into the system, the teacher can add/modify lessons, exercises, answers, initial information about the student, configure/adjust the color, font name, and size of all buttons, menus, and combo boxes. Therefore, this interface provides the system with the required heftiness and suppleness. A screenshot of the teacher's interface is shown in, Fig 4, Fig 5 and Fig 6. But when the student logs into the system, he/she can study the lessons, examples, solve the exercises for each lesson. A screenshot of the students interface can be seen in Fig 2, Fig 3, Fig 9, and Fig10. Fig 2: Student lessons form. Fig 3: Student lessons and examples form International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 13 Fig 4: Form for adding Lessons and Examples Fig 5: Form for adding constants of the system Fig 6: Form for adding initial students' information International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 14 Fig 7: Form for adjusting Fonts of all screens of the system Fig 8: Form for adding questions and answers Fig 9: Student Exercises form International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 15 Fig 10: Student statistics form. 4. Evaluation We have asked the students who are interested in trying an Intelligent Tutoring System for Mathematics. Almost all students welcomed the idea. After trying the intelligent tutoring system for mathematics, they expressed their felling of the system. They said it is easier for them to study using the new system and it is very efficient in terms of the material and exercises and the difficulty levels of the questions. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we have designed an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching Mathematics by using ITSB authoring tool. The system was designed to facilitate the learning Mathematics to overcome the problems students face during their study. An initial evaluation of the intelligent tutoring system as done using a group of students and the results of the evaluation was encouraging. 6. References 1. , Accessed 05 January 2017. 2. Accessed 05 January 2017. 3. Abu Naser S. JEE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Java Expression Evaluation, Information Technology Journal, Scialert. 2008; 7(3):528-532. 4. Abu-Naser S, Ahmed A, Al-Masri N, Deeb A, Moshtaha E, AbuLamdy M. An Intelligent Tutoring System for Learning Java Objects. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Applications (IJAIA). 2011, 2(2). 5. Abu-Naser S, Al-Masri A, Sultan YA, Zaqout I. A prototype decision support system for optimizing the effectiveness of elearning in educational institutions. International Journal of Data Mining & Knowledge Management Process(IJDKP). 2011; 1:1-13. 6. Akkila AN, Naser SSA. Teaching the Right Letter Pronunciation in Reciting the Holy Quran Using Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 7. Al-Bastami BH, Naser SSA. Design and Development of an Intelligent Tutoring System for C# Language, European Academic Research. 2017, 4(10). 8. Al-Bayed1 MH, Naser SSA. An Intelligent Tutoring System for Health Problems Related To Addiction of Video Game Playing. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 9. ALDahdooh R, Naser SSA. Development and Evaluation of the Oracle Intelligent Tutoring System (OITS), European Academic Research. 2017, 4(10). 10. Alhabbash MI, Mahdi AO, Abu Naser SS. An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Grammar English Tenses. European Advanced Research. 2016; 4(9):77437757. 11. Al-Hanjori MM, Shaath MZ, Naser SSA. Learning Computer Networks Using Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 12. Almurshidi SH, Naser SSA. Design and Development of Diabetes Intelligent Tutoring System. European Academic Research. 2017; 4(9):8117-8128. 13. Almurshidi SH, Naser SSA. Stomach Disease Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 14. Al-Nakhal MA, Naser SSA. An Intelligent Tutoring System for learning Computer Theory. European Academic Research. 2017, 4(10). 15. El Haddad IA, Naser SSA. ADO-Tutor: Intelligent Tutoring System for leaning ADO.NET. European Academic Research. 2017, 4(10). 16. Elnajjar AA, Naser SSA. DSE-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching DES Information Security Algorithm. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 17. Hamed MA, Naser SSA. An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching the 7 Characteristics for Living Things. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development. 2017, 2(1). 18. Hilles MM, Naser SSA. Knowledge-based Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Mongo Database. European Academic Research. 2017, 4(10). 19. Mahdi AO, Alhabbash MI, Naser SSA. An intelligent tutoring system for teaching advanced topics in information security. World Wide Journal of International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research 16 Multidisciplinary Research and Development. 2016; 2(12):1-9. 20. Naser S. Evaluating the effectiveness of the CPP-Tutor an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C++. Journal of Applied Sciences Research. 2009; 5(1):109-114. . 21. Naser SA. A comparative study between Animated Intelligent Tutoring Systems (AITS) and Video-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems (VITS). Al-Aqsa University Journal. 2001; 5(1 Part):1. 22. Naser SA. An Agent Based Intelligent Tutoring System For Parameter Passing In Java Programming. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology. 2008, 4(7). 23. Naser SA, Ahmed A, Al-Masri N, Sultan YA. Human Computer Interaction Design of the LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications (IJAIA). 2011; 2(3):60-70. 24. Naser SSA. Intelligent tutoring system for teaching database to sophomore students in Gaza and its effect on their performance. Information Technology Journal; Scialert. 2006; 5(5):916-922. 25. Naser SSA. Developing an intelligent tutoring system for students learning to program in C++. Information Technology Journal, Scialert. 2008; 7(7):1055-1060. 26. Naser SSA. A Qualitative Study of LP-ITS: Linear Programming Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology. 2012; 4(1):209-220. 27. Naser SSA. Predicting learners performance using artificial neural networks in linear programming intelligent tutoring system. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Applications. 2012; 3(2):65-73. 28. Naser SSA. ITSB: An Intelligent Tutoring System Authoring Tool. Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research. 2016; 3(5):63-71. 29. Naser SSA, Sulisel O. The effect of using computer aided instruction on performance of 10th grade biology in Gaza. Journal of the College of Education. 2000; 4:9-37. 30. Naser SSA. Developing visualization tool for teaching AI searching algorithms, Information Technology Journal, Scialert. 2008; 7(2):350-355. 31. Mahmoud AY, Barakat MS, Ajjour MJ. Design and Development of Elearning University System. (Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS). 2016; 2(5):498-504.
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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1549533199000, "description": "This paper aims to assess knowledge management maturity at HEI to determine the most effecting variables on knowledge\n management that enhance the total performance of the organization. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University in Gaza strip,\n Palestine.\n This paper depends on Asian productivity organization model that used to assess KM maturity. Second dimension assess high\n performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (364). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis\n and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step\n Wise Regression.\n The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring and lead to enhance high performance. KMM\n assessment shows that the university maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses.\n The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes,\n Knowledge Process. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as\n it is the first study at HEI in Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUMKM", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Measuring knowledge management maturity at HEI to enhance performance-an empirical study at Al-Azhar University in Palestine", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 55 International Journal of Commerce and Management Research ISSN: 2455-1627, Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 Volume 2; Issue 5; April 2016; Page No. 55-62 Measuring knowledge management maturity at HEI to enhance performance-an empirical study at Al-Azhar University in Palestine 1 Samy S Abu Naser, 2 Mazen J Al Shobaki, 3 Youssef M Abu Amuna 1 Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Gaza-Strip, Palestine. 2 Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Gaza-Strip, Palestine. 3 Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Gaza-Strip, Palestine. Abstract This paper aims to assess knowledge management maturity at HEI to determine the most effecting variables on knowledge management that enhance the total performance of the organization. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University in Gaza strip, Palestine. This paper depends on Asian productivity organization model that used to assess KM maturity. Second dimension assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (364). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring and lead to enhance high performance. KMM assessment shows that the university maturity level is in level three. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses . The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes, Knowledge Process. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at HEI in Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. Keywords: Knowledge Management, KM Maturity, Enhance Performance, Higher Educational Institutions, Asian Productivity Model 1. Introduction Knowledge management in educational institutions is the main aim of those organizations, where they produce and manage knowledge through human activities and technical practices to link individuals from various administrative levels and sections. This process establishing working groups and trust relationships which produce share and exchange of knowledge they own, support individual and collective learning processes, and then improve and develop individual and organizational performance. Measuring knowledge management maturity is an important process and should not be overlooked simply by knowledge management processes. The purpose of the measurement should be clear and within correct criteria based on successful experiences with the ability to identify knowledge gaps that must be remedied in order to take full advantage of the knowledge, followed by procedures to improve performance and efficiency to meet future challenges and achieve outstanding performance [26, 41]. The objective of this study is to examine the validity of the Asian productivity model in measuring knowledge management maturity in HEI. Also the study aims to define KMM level in HEI to encourage them moving to a higher level. This leads to high performance for individuals and organization. The literature reveals that although this topic has received much attention, in general, the studies concentrate on KM implementation. Many different attempts to standardize a common model have been done, but knowledge management maturity still a concept needs a standard framework to imply in HEI. The current study draws on the literature to explore this topic in depth and then turns to an implied investigation to assess the extent to which the model is accurate and determine the most influential variables. In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Q1. What are the most influential factors on HEI performance resulting from knowledge management maturity? Q2. How to link knowledge management maturity with performance and benefit from it for future performance improvements? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at HEI in Palestine explores the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model. 1.1 Literature review: 1.1.1 Knowledge management in HEI The Higher Education Institutions (HEI) is a cognitive intensity institutions where the primary function is based on knowledge, production of knowledge, documentation and publishing. There is a growing belief that knowledge management in educational institutions help build the future of a dynamic learning environment, development and improvement of the efficiency activities of knowledge sharing and improve the overall performance of the organization [1, 2, 24, 49,]. International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 56 Ramachandran et al. defined KM in HEI as "Systematic attempt to develop and implement knowledge practices in higher education institutions with the support of major strategic assistance factors [40]. Also defined by Petrides and Nodine as A frame or a way for individuals working in the educational institution to develop a set of practices to gather information and share what they know, which resulting in behaviors or actions that will improve the level of services and products offered by the educational institution"[34]. Laal defined it as "the process of converting information and intellectual assets to a continuing value that connect individuals with the knowledge they need to take action when they need it [25]. According to previous definitions, KM in HEI is similar knowledge management in industrial organizations or services, in terms of operations and activities, with a focus on the link between individuals and management to enhance the quality of outputs and achieve a competitive advantage in performance and outputs. HEI offer their services primarily to the community, and represents members of the community the main beneficiaries of HEI. Researchers identified the most reasons why HEI environment is the most suitable to adopt KM: The existence of technology infrastructure, confidence and knowledge sharing is normal in HEI and students enroll in a college to access to knowledge [1, 12, 14, 22, 28, 44,]. 1.1.2 Critical factors for KM in HEI The most critical variables that has an effect on sharing knowledge in HEI are benefits and rewards [48]. While the research about this still few, His lop suggests that the issues that concern to the staff regarding to assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sharing knowledge [16]. Benefits can be real rewards which improve the organization's performance and stability. It will be a big mistake when participation "is likely to" lead to abandonment of a source of strength and experience to others. While Rahman et al. and Bock et al. pointed that social sharing benefits cannot be estimated quantitatively, instead it is a personal commitment, trust and gratitude [7, 39]. Leadership style is another important factor which play a pivotal role in promotion and development of knowledge exchange behavior, by contributing in experiential learning for employees, providing opportunities for managing operations, development information technology systems, rewards and opportunities and interaction systems [41, 42, 43, 48, 53,]. The role of the leader can be completely different in the educational institutions where there are two types of leadership. First type is academic leadership which is interested in highlighting the knowledge, professional cognition, experience, personal qualities and teams. The second type is hierarchical management leadership with features such as: work, responsibilities, control and give power to position rather than ability. Significant tensions can exist when people with administrative capacity control the academic environment [11]. There is a big debate about the role of culture in educational institutions in the field of knowledge management and exchange [10, 26, 30, 41, 43, 48,]. For example, (Cronin) discussed contrast between the existence of company's cultures such as HP Computer Inc. "The HP Way" and the lack of any global culture like this in an educational institution [11]. Also (Lee) pointed that academic departments are complex and cultures may be different between departments in various disciplines [10]. The fact that remains dominant here is that the academic community have a culture of participation more than other forms of organizations and that cooperation is the essence of knowledge management [37]. Another important factor is organizational structure [10, 26, 41,]. The structure of educational institutions differ significantly from other organizations. This structure may be a major obstacle for the exchange of knowledge, as the physical and psychological barriers may be other obstacles which can lead to individualism. For that reason, organizational structure should be flexibly designed to encourage participation and cross-border cooperation within the organization. The combination between formal organizational structure and nonhierarchical structure improve generate and knowledge sharing [9, 41, 48]. 1.1.3 High performance in HEI The educational institutions are service organizations providing education and knowledge to students and conducting scientific research. They are also responsible for providing the society with qualified people for jobs, so they deliberately to achieve high performance in their activities by teaching process. Teaching process represents the intellectual capital for a variety of activities characterized by mental and intellectual nature and a host of other traditional activities. This performance measured by many excellence models such as BSC, Malcolm Baldrige American model, European model and Canadian model [3]. Those models depend on several criteria, leadership, strategic planning, customer orientation, KM, human resource, operations Management and the outcomes. Also the scales might be financial or non-financial. Lee and Teseng pointed that financial scales connected directly with long term objectives, measuring the success of strategic plans and the ability to adapt with changes in external environment. Financial scales consist of ROI, sales growth, income before taxes, net profit, ROA....etc. [27]. While operational scales provide a hidden image for performance such as new products, product quality, market share, innovation, customer retention, social responsibility [8, 38]. Al-hady defined high performance in HEI The performance that helps in achieving strategic objectives and effectiveness according to quality scales. KM can improve this performance in high rates [34, 47]. These researchers [1, 5, 14, 29,] mention the main fields of high performance in HEI:  Reduce costs and increase profits: Educational institutions seeking to cut costs by reducing the costs of services provided to students and the level of operational and administrative costs of operations, leading to an increase in profits.  Improve Quality: The overall quality management approach depends on the joint efforts by which the participation of all individuals on an ongoing basis to improve the institution's performance.  Scientific research: Scientific research in educational institutions is the key element of performance excellence, which helps in the advancement of professional practice International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 57 and gain the confidence of the industry, and demonstrates the intellectual contributions of the faculty member.  Community Service: It is an essential element in evaluation process of high performance that clarifies the role of the institution in civil society service and its contribution to solving its problems. 1.1.4 Knowledge management maturity Knowledge management maturity determines the level of organization existing capacity affecting on knowledge management processes, where every organization particular track a special sequence of maturity. Knowledge management maturity models describes the steps of growth, which is expected to be up to the organization to develop their knowledge management and organizational performance [23]. Also it determines the stages of institutional knowledge maturity, which is expected to pass by any institution on its way to improve their practices and competitive advantages, those institutions that rely mainly on innovation and dissemination of knowledge like HEI and thus improve the overall performance of the institution [46]. The maturity models describe the nature of things with the passage of time, such as development of knowledge management, what is necessary to move from a given level to another and stability at a certain level [20, 51]. O'Brien, Hoss and Schlussel determined the importance of KM measurement as follow [18, 32].  Helps measure the institution to identify knowledge gaps they have.  Determine the impact of knowledge gaps on the performance, growth and development of the institution.  Helps to manage knowledge possessed by the organization more efficiently.  Provides the enterprise with analytical tools works to promote knowledge and address gaps.  Identify strategies and activities to fill those gaps in knowledge. Asian productivity organization developed a model to measure KMM, designed after a study lasted for five months. This model have been adopted by the Asian Organization of Production (APO) to develop tools and knowledge management techniques. Working team consist of experts in knowledge management from Japan, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines [51]. This model consist of a general framework for knowledge management, knowledge management tool and measuring tool to measure the maturity of knowledge management as shown in figure 1. Fig 1: KM framework This framework consists of a row of enablers for knowledge management, starting from the organization's mission and vision in the middle of the circle, which sets strategy and organization capabilities. Then we move on to the second frame, which includes knowledge management processes and the factors that accelerate the processes of knowledge management like leadership, individuals, processes and technology. In the last phase, the results of using knowledge management represented by quality, productivity, profitability and growth of the organization. The model defined seven fields to measure KM: KM Leadership, process, people, technology, knowledge process, learning and innovation and KM outcomes. After measuring KM, the results showed on a radar chart identifying the areas that have strength and the areas that need improvement and the organization has an opportunity to improve them. International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 58 Fig 2: Radar Chart The next step is to determine the level of maturity of knowledge management in the organization and comparing it with the maturity levels model. Fig 3: Maturity levels model Knowledge management maturity consist of five levels is composed as follow: 1. Reaction: The organization is not interested in knowledge management and focused on enhancing productivity and competitiveness. 2. Initiation level: The organization begin to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. 3. Expansion: Knowledge management is fully applied. 4. Refinement: Organization evaluates knowledge management on an ongoing basis. 5. Maturity level: Knowledge management exist primarily as a driver in every organization's process. 1.1.5 KMM and high performance Knowledge management is not the only factor affecting performance and output of the organization, but it is one of many factors. Factors enabling high performance are leadership style, strategic planning, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, customers oriented, human resource management and administrative processes [52]. In first or second level of maturity, KM operations are local and lead to focus on a particular section in the organization without a comprehensive strategy to support those efforts. Here we can say that the impact of KM processes is not dramatically evident on the organization's performance. Therefore we can say that the first and second level of knowledge management maturity levels represent normal performance [6]. When reaching level three and four, organization begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three and four using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and reuse of knowledge in the organization. Finally, KMM at level five represent full integrated knowledge management operations and employees understand the role of International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 59 knowledge sharing and cooperation in improving the performance for individuals and organization. Such behavior supports creative activities, leads to better competitive advantages and enhance the value chain to customers and suppliers [19, 20, 23,]. Fig 4: The conceptual framework The relation between the model used in this study and high performance leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: H1: There is a statistically significant effect for using the Asian knowledge model to measure HEI high performance. As the previous model suggest, leadership plays a critical role in the success of KM implementation. If there is a strong commitment at executive management level to change the organizational culture, then the organization will be able to create the values that lead to knowledge sharing[1,4]. To achieve that, organization needs a leadership style able to manage organization elements to achieve the best and maximum advantage of the existing knowledge in organization to improve performance. Also the leadership need to link the mission and the vision and the objectives of the organization with knowledge management strategies. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: H1-1: There is a statistically significant effect for KM leadership on HEI high performance. Operations are considered a complete knowledge inside organization. As value chain reflect how far can organization add value in each production step to achieve organizational efficiency and increase performance [23, 33]. This leads to the following second sub-hypothesis in this study: H1-2: There is a statistically significant effect for operations on HEI high performance. Many KM research confirmed individual's impact on high performance. These authors [1, 23, 37, 41,]. explained that individuals motivations and method of interpretation, transfer and implementation of knowledge management processes influence greatly in determining the shape and nature of knowledge and how to manage it. Therefore, individual is the most powerful element of an effective knowledge management implementation. This leads to the following third subhypothesis in this study: H1-3: There is a statistically significant effect for people on HEI high performance. New technology plays a major role in performance improving by providing the right information at the right time and using them to rationalize decisions. Add to that technology needed to enhance sharing knowledge and learning inside organization. The integration between knowledge and organizational process enhance performance and competitive advantages [22, 23, 35,]. This leads to the following forth sub-hypothesis in this study: H1-4: There is a statistically significant effect for technology on HEI high performance. Knowledge process like generation, storage, distribution and implementation facilitates work within the organization. The presence of a specialist team to capture knowledge and encourage workers to invest and participate it, with the existence of an effective leadership leading those operations to bring harmony between them reduce the total cost of work and increase financial returns for organization. This leads to achieve creativity, innovation and high productivity [5, 24, 50, 53,]. This leads to the following fifth sub-hypothesis in this study: H1-5: There is a statistically significant effect for Knowledge process on HEI high performance. Hila and Sangjae discussed learning and creativity in organization. Modern organizations characterized with continuous learning and applying the gained experience in their daily routine. Organizations seeking to recruit the experience gained from learning process in continuous performance development [15, 43,]. This leads to the following sixth subhypothesis in this study: H1-6: There is a statistically significant effect for learning and innovation on HEI high performance. KM outcomes must reflex on effectiveness and efficiency inside the organization. This leads to high performance at individual level and organizational level [23, 24, 41,]. This leads to the following seventh sub-hypothesis in this study: H1-7: There is a statistically significant effect for KM outcomes on HEI high performance. Other authors and KM experts added other variables and suggested new models which are more manifold. Those models included the pervious variables and variables like intellectual capital, agility, training and cultural capital [21, 36, 45,]. As established earlier, the current study examine the validity of the Asian productivity model for measuring KMM at HEI. 2. Research design 2.1 Study population and sampling This study conducted at Al-Azhar University in Gaza Strip - Palestine. The university is highly reputable one, first one in Gaza which established in 1991. The population are (456) employees, the control sample (364). The usable sample was (298), which makes the response rate (63%). 2.2 Research instrument: The first dimension referring to the model used in the study, is a prepared in advance questionnaire by the Asian productivity organization (KM Assessment Tool). This tool contain seven audit criteria categories. The second dimension of the instrument which measure high performance in HEI was developed by the current authors with the help of other research literature [1, 5, 29, 50,]. These statements were further revised and modified by experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 60 Table 1: Research instrument Dimension 1: (Ind. V.) KM Assessment Tool No. of statements Dimension 2: (D.V.) High performance in HEI No. of statements Cat 1.0: KM Leadership 6 16 Cat 2.0: Processes 6 Cat 3.0: People 6 Cat 4.0: Technology 6 Cat 5.0: Knowledge Processes 6 Cat 6.0: Learning and Innovation 6 Cat 7.0: KM Outcomes 6 2.3 Validity and reliability assessment The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α values for all dimensions were > (0.5). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency. 2.4 Statistical procedures Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression, OLSOrdinary Least Squares and Step Wise Regression. 2.5 Data analysis and discussion of results Simple linear regression and "ANOVA" tests were used to test hypotheses. Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable on a single dependent variable (High Performance). The results are shown in Table 2. The results of regression test indicate that sig. is less than (0.05) for all independent variables, which mean that there are significant statistically effect for independent variables on high performance. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient Signe for all independent variables was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be increase in performance. Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate (r2) of all the changes that occur in performance, and there is a rate (100 r2) due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model, in addition to the random error. The table reveals that the findings of Significance level are less than (0.05), which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and each dimension in the independent variable effect individually on the dependent variable. Therefore, we accept the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses Table 2: Simple Linear Regression and "ANOVA" Variable Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 Regression coefficient Pearson coefficient r signe R2 KM Leadership 0.0 Significant 0.238 0.462 + 20.6% Processes 0.0 Significant 0.262 0.473 + 21.8% People 0.0 Significant 0.198 0.346 + 12.2% Technology 0.001 Significant 0.194 0.204 + 5.3% Knowledge Processes 0.017 Significant 0.132 0.161 + 4.9% Learning and Innovation 0.0 Significant 0.197 0.247 + 7.4% KM Outcomes 0.0 Significant 0.263 0.325 + 11.4% Further analysis, using Step wise regression conducted to arrange the effect of each variable in the knowledge management maturity model on the dependent variable and excluding of other insignificant variables. Table 3. Shows that five variables were effecting significantly (Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes, Knowledge Processes) and two were not effecting (Learning and Innovation, Technology). The explanation for that is the effect for the five variables were very strong on high performance more than (Learning and Innovation, Technology) from the point of view of the sample. Table 3: Step Wise R Rank Variable T Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 1 Processes 3.5 0.001 significant 2 KM Leadership 2.88 0.004 significant 3 People 2.47 0.014 significant 4 KM Outcomes 2.24 0.025 significant 5 Knowledge Processes 2.21 0.043 significant 6 Learning and Innovation 0.705 0.48 insignificant 7 Technology 0.27 0.78 insignificant According to the model, radar chart had been done by calculating the response of each paragraph in sub-domains rates as shown in Table IV. The total score was (133.14) which means that the university KMM is in level three (Expansion). University begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. In that level of maturity, university must expand here KM implementation to reach for level four where KM measuring is a continuous process. International Journal of Commerce and Management Research 61 Table 4: Radar Chart No. sub-domain (5-30) 1 Leadership 24.62 2 Processes 26.71 3 People 18.82 4 Technology 15.94 5 Knowledge Processes 12.68 6 Learning and Innovation 16.39 7 KM Outcomes 17.98 Total (42-210) 133.14 3. Conclusion The concept of KM implementation is already known in Palestinian universities. Many studies conducted on KM, but this is the first study measuring KM maturity concept on Palestinian universities using a model designed by top eight manufactory countries in Asia. The originality of study comes from being the first one as far as the author's knowledge that discuses KMM using a solid model. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is suitable for measuring and lead to enhance high performance. KMM assessment shows that the university maturity level is in level three where knowledge sharing and collaboration is common. Findings also support the main hypothesis and it is subhypotheses . The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes, knowledge Process. Furthermore, the model effect totally on high performance. One of the important limitation of this study that it was conducted in one Palestinian university Al-Azhar. To have more accurate results (to generalize the model), another assessment must be done in periodical schedule (6 months for instant) after implementing the improved process. Moreover, a comparison study between Al-Azhar and another HEI will be more reliability. 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{ "creator": "Abu Amuna, Youssef M.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1503393797000, "description": "This paper aims to measure knowledge management maturity in higher education institutions to determine the impact of knowledge management on high performance. Also the study aims to compare knowledge management maturity between universities and intermediate colleges.\n This study was applied on five higher education institutions in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian productivity organization model was applied to measure Knowledge Management Maturity. Second\n dimension which assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (917). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including\n reliability correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study show that maturity level is in the second level.\n Findings also support the main hypothesis and its sub- hypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, knowledge management leadership, People, knowledge management Outcomes. Furthermore, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study between universities and intermediate colleges in Gaza Strip that explores the status of knowledge management maturity using the Asian Productivity Model.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUPKM-2", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Promoting Knowledge Management Components in the Palestinian Higher Education Institutions - A Comparative Study", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
Promoting Knowledge Management Components in the Palestinian Higher Education Institutions A Comparative Study Samy S. Abu Naser1,a*, Mazen J. Al Shobaki2,b, Youssef M. Abu Amuna3,c 1,2,3Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine , , Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Maturity, High performance, Higher Education Institutions, Asian Productivity Model. Abstract. This paper aims to measure knowledge management maturity in higher education institutions to determine the impact of knowledge management on high performance. Also the study aims to compare knowledge management maturity between universities and intermediate colleges. This study was applied on five higher education institutions in Gaza strip, Palestine. Asian productivity organization model was applied to measure Knowledge Management Maturity. Second dimension which assess high performance was developed by the authors. The controlled sample was (917). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study show that maturity level is in the second level. Findings also support the main hypothesis and its subhypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, knowledge management leadership, People, knowledge management Outcomes. Furthermore, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first comparative study between universities and intermediate colleges in Gaza Strip that explores the status of knowledge management maturity using the Asian Productivity Model. 1. Introduction: Knowledge Management(KM) in Higher Education Institutions(HEI) is the main aim of those organizations, where they produce and manage knowledge through human activities and technical practices to link individuals from various administrative levels and sections. This process establishing working groups and trust relationships which produce share and exchange of knowledge they own, support individual and collective learning processes, and then improve and develop individual and organizational performance. Measuring Knowledge Management Maturity(KMM) is an important process and the purpose of the measurement should be obvious and within right criteria based on successful experiences with the capability to recognize knowledge gaps that must be remedied in order to take full advantage of the knowledge [26, 41]. The objective of this study is to measure and compare KMM in HEI in universities and intermediate colleges. Also the study aims to define KMM level to encourage them moving to a higher level. In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Q1. What are the most influential factors on HEI performance resulting from KMM? Q2. How to link KMM with performance and benefit from it for future performance improvements? Q3. How far intermediate colleges differ from universities using APO model? As for originality, the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is explore the status of KMM using the Asian productivity model and compare between different types of HEI. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Submitted: 2016-07-25 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 73, pp 42-53 Revised: 2016-09-14 Accepted: 2016-09-15 © 2016 SciPress Ltd., Switzerland Online: 2016-09-29 SciPress applies the CC-BY 4.0 license to works we publish: 2. Literature review: 2.1 Knowledge management in HEI The overall findings of these studies [58,59] suggested that KMM is suitable for measuring performance excellence. KMM assessment showed that Al-Azhar and Al-Quds Open Universities maturity level was three. It was found that the most important factors effecting performance excellence were: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes [58,59]. The overall findings of this study [59] suggested that KMM is suitable for measuring high performance in Al-Quds Open University. KMM assessment shows that maturity level of Al-Quds Open University is in level three. The most important factors effecting high performance are: KM Outcomes and Learning and Innovation [59]. HEI are cognitive intensity institutions where the primary function is based on knowledge, production of knowledge, documentation and publishing. There is a growing belief that knowledge management in educational institutions help build the future of a dynamic learning environment, development and improvement of the efficiency activities of knowledge sharing and improve the overall performance of the organization [1, 2, 24,57 and 49]. Ramachandran et al. defined KM in HEI as "Systematic attempt to develop and implement knowledge practices in universities with the support of major strategic assistance factors "[40]. Also defined by Petrides and Nodine as" A frame or a way for individuals working in the educational institution to develop a set of practices to gather information and share what they know, which resulting in behaviors or actions that will improve the level of services and products offered by the educational institution"[34]. Laal defined it as "the process of converting information and intellectual assets to a continuing value that connect individuals with the knowledge they need to take action when they need it"[25]. According to previous definitions, KM in HEI is similar to knowledge management in industrial organizations or services, in terms of operations and activities, with a focus on the link between individuals and management to enhance the quality of outputs and achieve a competitive advantage in performance and outputs. HEI offer their services primarily to the community, and represents members of the community the main beneficiaries of Universities. Researchers identified the most reasons why HEI environment is the most suitable to adopt KM: The existence of technology infrastructure, confidence and knowledge sharing is normal in universities and students enroll in a college to access knowledge [1, 12, 14, 22, 28, 57, 44]. 2.2 Critical factors for KM in HEI: The most critical variables that has an effect on sharing knowledge in universities are benefits and rewards [48,57]. Hislop suggests that the issues that concern the staff regarding to assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sharing knowledge [16]. Benefits can be real rewards which improve the organization's performance and stability. Rahman et al. and Bock et al. pointed that social sharing benefits cannot be estimated quantitatively, instead it is a personal commitment, trust and gratitude [7, 39]. Leadership style is an additional important factor which play an essential role in endorsement and development of knowledge exchange behavior, by contributing in experiential learning for staff, providing opportunities for supervising operations, development information technology systems, rewards and opportunities and interaction systems [41, 42, 43, 48, 53]. The role of the leader can be completely different in the educational institutions where there are two types of leadership: academic and hierarchical management leadership. Significant tensions can exist when people with administrative capacity control the academic environment [11]. There is an immense dispute about the role of culture in educational institutions in the field of knowledge management and exchange [10, 26, 30, 41, 43, and 48]. (Lee) pointed that academic departments are complex and cultures may be different among departments in different disciplines [10]. The fact that remains dominant here is that the academic community have a culture of participation more than other forms of organizations and that cooperation is the essence of knowledge management [37, 57]. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Vol. 73 43 One more important factor is organizational structure [10, 26, and 41]. This structure might be a major difficulty for the exchange of knowledge. For that reason, organizational structure should be flexibly designed to persuade participation and cross-border cooperation inside the organization. The combination between formal organizational structure and nonhierarchical structure enhance knowledge generating and sharing [9, 41, 48, 56]. 2.3 High performance in HEI: HEI are service organizations providing education and knowledge. They are also responsible for providing the society with qualified people for jobs, so they deliberately achieve high performance in their activities by teaching process. This performance measured by many excellence models such as BSC, Malcolm Baldrige American model, European model and Canadian model [3]. Those models depend on several criteria, leadership, strategic planning, customer orientation, KM, human resource, operations Management and the outcomes. Also the scales might be financial or non-financial. Lee and Teseng pointed that financial scales connected directly with long term objectives, measuring the success of strategic plans and the ability to adapt with changes in external environment. Financial scales consist of ROI, sales growth, income before taxes, net profit, ROA, .etc [27]. While operational scales provide a hidden image for performance such as new products, product quality, market share, innovation, customer retention, social responsibility [8,38]. Al-hady defined high performance in universities "The performance that helps in achieving strategic objectives and effectiveness according to quality scales". KM can improve this performance in high rates [34, 47]. Rani, Sania, AL-Hayaly and Alnajjar added that KM positively affects organizational outcomes of organization innovation, product improvement and employee improvement[54,55]. These researchers [1, 5, 14, 29] mention the main fields of high performance in universities: • Reduce costs and increase profits: Educational institutions seeking to cut costs by reducing the costs of services provided to students and the level of operational and administrative costs of operations, leading to an increase in profits. • Improve Quality: The overall quality management approach depends on the joint efforts by which the participation of all individuals on an ongoing basis to improve the institution's performance. • Scientific research: Scientific research in educational institutions is the key element of high performance, which helps in the advancement of professional practice and gain the confidence of the industry, and demonstrates the intellectual contributions of the faculty member. • Community Service: It is an essential element in evaluation process of high performance that clarifies the role of the institution in civil society service and its contribution to solving its problems. 2.4 Knowledge management maturity: KMM determines the level of organization existing capacity affecting on knowledge management processes, where every organization particular track a special sequence of maturity. Knowledge management maturity models describes the steps of growth, which is expected to be up to the organization to develop their knowledge management and organizational performance [23,57]. Also it determines the stages of institutional knowledge maturity, which is expected to pass by any institution on its way to improve their practices and competitive advantages and thus improve the overall performance of the institution [46]. O'Brien, Hoss and Schussed determined the importance of KM measurement as follow [18, 32]: • Helps measure the institution to identify knowledge gaps they have. • Determine the impact of knowledge gaps on the performance, growth and development of the institution. 44 Volume 73 • Helps to manage knowledge possessed by the organization more efficiently. • Provides the enterprise with analytical tools works to promote knowledge and address gaps. • Identify strategies and activities to fill those gaps in knowledge. Asian productivity organization developed a model to measure KMM, designed after a study lasted for five months. This model has been adopted by the Asian Organization of Production (APO) to develop tools and knowledge management techniques. Working team consist of experts in knowledge management from Japan, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines [51]. This model consists of a general framework for knowledge management, knowledge management tool and measuring tool to measure the maturity of knowledge management as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. KM framework This framework consists of a row of enablers for knowledge management, starting from the organization's mission and vision in the middle of the circle, which sets strategy and organization capabilities. Then we move on to the second frame, which includes knowledge management processes and the factors that accelerate the processes of knowledge management like leadership, individuals, processes and technology. In the last phase, the results of using knowledge management represented by quality, productivity, profitability and growth of the organization. The model defined seven fields to measure KM: KM Leadership, process, people, technology, knowledge process, learning and innovation and KM outcomes. After measuring KM, the results showed on a radar chart identifying the areas that have strength and the areas that need improvement and the organization has an opportunity to improve them (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Radar Chart International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Vol. 73 45 The next step is to determine the level of maturity of knowledge management in the organization and comparing it with the maturity levels model. Figure 3: Maturity levels model Knowledge management maturity consist of five levels (as seen in Figure 3) is composed as follow: 1Reaction: The organization is not interested in knowledge management and focused on enhancing productivity and competitiveness. 2Initiation level: The organization begin to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. 3Expansion: Knowledge management is fully applied. 4Refinement: Organization evaluates knowledge management on an ongoing basis. 5Maturity level: Knowledge management exist primarily as a driver in every organization's process. 2.5 KMM and high performance: Knowledge management is not the only factor affecting performance and output of the organization, but it is one of many factors. Factors enabling high performance are leadership style, strategic planning, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, customers oriented, human resource management and administrative processes [52]. In first or second level of maturity, KM operations are local and lead to focus on a particular section in the organization without a comprehensive strategy to support those efforts. Here we can say that the impact of KM processes is not dramatically evident on the organization's performance. Therefore, we can say that the first and second level of knowledge management maturity levels represent normal performance [6]. When reaching level three and four, organization begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three and four using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. Finally, KMM at level five represent full integrated knowledge management operations and employees understand the role of knowledge sharing and cooperation in improving the performance for individuals and organization. Such behavior supports creative activities, leads to better competitive advantages and enhance the value chain to customers and suppliers [19, 20, and 23]. 46 Volume 73 Figure 4: The conceptual framework The relation between the model used in this study (Figure 4) and high performance leads to the following main hypothesis in this study: H1: There is a statistically significant effect for using the Asian knowledge model to measure HEI high performance. As the previous model suggest, leadership plays a critical role in the success of KM implementation. If there is a strong commitment at executive management level to change the organizational culture, then the organization will be able to create the values that lead to knowledge sharing [1,4]. To achieve that, organization needs a leadership style able to manage organization elements to achieve the best and maximum advantage of the existing knowledge in organization to improve performance. This leads to the following first sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-1: There is a statistically significant effect for KM leadership on HEI high performance. Operations are considered a complete knowledge inside organization. As value chain reflect how far can organization add value in each production step to achieve organizational efficiency and increase performance [23, 33]. This leads to the following second sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-2: There is a statistically significant effect for operations on HEI high performance. Many KM research confirmed individual's impact on high performance. These authors [1, 23, 37, 41] explained that individual's motivations and method of interpretation, transfer and implementation of knowledge management processes influence greatly in determining the shape and nature of knowledge and how to manage it. Therefore, individual is the most powerful element of an effective knowledge management implementation. This leads to the following third subhypothesis in this study: h1-3: There is a statistically significant effect for people on HEI high performance. New technology plays a major role in performance improving by providing the right information at the right time and using them to rationalize decisions. Add to that technology needed to enhance sharing knowledge and learning inside organization. The integration between knowledge and organizational process enhance performance and competitive advantages [22, 23, and 35]. This leads to the following forth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-4: There is a statistically significant effect for technology on HEI high performance. Knowledge process like generation, storage, distribution and implementation facilitates work within the organization. The presence of a specialist team to capture knowledge and encourage workers to invest and participate it, with the existence of an effective leadership leading those operations to bring harmony between them reduce the total cost of work and increase financial returns for organization. This leads to achieve creativity, innovation and high productivity [5, 24, 50, and 53]. This leads to the following fifth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-5: There is a statistically significant effect for Knowledge process on HEI high performance. Hila and Sangjae discussed learning and creativity in organization. Modern organizations characterized with continuous learning and applying the gained experience in their daily routine. Organizations seeking to recruit the experience gained from learning process in continuous performance development [15, 43]. This leads to the following sixth sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-6: There is a statistically significant effect for learning and innovation on HEI high performance. KMM MODEL HEI EXCELLENCE PERFORMANCE MATURITY LEVEL International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Vol. 73 47 KM outcomes must reflex on effectiveness and efficiency inside the organization. This leads to high performance at individual level and organizational level [23, 24, and 41]. This leads to the following seventh sub-hypothesis in this study: h1-7: There is a statistically significant effect for KM outcomes on HEI high performance. Other authors and KM experts added other variables and suggested new models which are more manifold. Those models included the pervious variables and variables like intellectual capital, agility, training and cultural capital [21, 36, 45]. 3. Methodology The main aim of this study is to measure knowledge management maturity in higher education institutions to determine the impact of knowledge management on high performance. Furthermore, the study aims to compare knowledge management maturity between universities and intermediate colleges. 3.1 Study population and sampling: This study conducted during the academic year 2015-2016 at Al-Quds Open University, AlAzhar University, Palestine Technical College, in Gaza Strip - Palestine. It is highly reputable one and established in 1991. The population are (917) employees, the control sample (733). The usable sample was (520), which makes the response rate (71%). 3.2 Research instrument: The first dimension referring to the model used in the study, is a prepared in advance questionnaire by the Asian productivity organization (KM Assessment Tool). The second dimension of the instrument which measure high performance in HEI was developed by the current authors with the help of other research literature [1, 5, 29, and 50]. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint as shown in Table1. 3.3 Validity and reliability assessment: The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α values for all dimensions were > (0.5). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency. Table 1: Research instrument Dimension 1: (Ind.V.) KM Assessment Tool No. of statements Dimension 2: (D.V.) High performance in HEI No. of statements Cat 1.0: KM Leadership 6 16 Cat 2.0: Processes 6 Cat 3.0: People 6 Cat 4.0: Technology 6 Cat 5.0: Knowledge Processes 6 Cat 6.0: Learning and Innovation 6 Cat 7.0: KM Outcomes 6 3.4 Statistical procedures: Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression, OLSOrdinary Least Squares and Step Wise Regression. 48 Volume 73 4. Data analysis and discussion of results: Simple linear regression and "ANOVA" tests were used to test hypotheses. Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable on a single dependent variable (High performance). The results are shown in Table 2. The results of regression test indicate that sig. is less than (0.05) for all independent variables, which mean that there are significant statistically effect for independent variables on performance excellence. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient sign for all independent variables was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be an increase in performance. Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate (r2) of all the changes that occur in performance, and there is a rate (100 r2) due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model, in addition to the random error. Table 2 reveals that the findings of significance level are less than (0.05), which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and each dimension in the independent variable effect individually on the dependent variable. Therefore, we accept the main hypothesis and its subhypotheses. Table 2: Simple Linear Regression and "ANOVA" Variable Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 Regression coefficient Pearson coefficient r sign R2 KM Leadership 0.0 Significant 0.352 0.526 + 27.66% Processes 0.0 Significant 0.320 0.495 + 24.50% People 0.01 Significant 0.423 0.522 + 27.29% Technology 0.002 Significant 0.302 0.427 + 18.23% Knowledge Processes 0.02 Significant 0.269 0.292 + 8.52% Learning and Innovation 0.04 Significant 0.199 0.258 + 6.65% KM Outcomes 0.0 Significant 0.224 0.284 + 8.06% Step wise regression conducted to identify the effect of each variable in KMM model on the dependent variable and excluding of other insignificant variables. Table 3, shows that four variables were effecting significantly (Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes,) and these variables were not effecting (Learning and Innovation, Technology, Learning and Innovation). The explanation for that is the effect for the four variables were very strong on high performance more than (Knowledge Processes, Learning and Innovation, Technology) from the point of view of the sample. Table 3: Step Wise R Rank Variable T Sig. Decision at α = 0.05 1 Processes 3.2 0.003 significant 2 KM Leadership 3.16 0.004 significant 3 People 2.69 0.011 significant 4 KM Outcomes 2.11 0.032 significant 5 Knowledge Processes 1.35 0. 68 insignificant 6 Learning and Innovation 1.52 0.82 insignificant 7 Technology 0.49 0.67 insignificant International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Vol. 73 49 According to the model, radar chart which had been done by calculating the response of each paragraph in sub-domains rates as shown in Table 4. The total score was (126.94) which means that KMM is in level three (Expansion). University begin to integrate knowledge sharing and collaboration in its main operations and set resources for knowledge management. Employees in levels three using technology and standardized tools to capture, transfer, share and re-use of knowledge in the organization. In that level of maturity, university must expand here KM implementation to reach level four where KM measuring is a continuous process. Also from table 4 we found that dimensions (5, 6, and 7) need to be improved. Table 4: Radar Chart No. SubDomain AlQuds (5-30) AlAzhar (5-30) Palestine Technical College (5-30) College of Applied Science (5-30) College of Science and Technology (5-30) Total 1 Leadership 22.16 24.62 20.08 19.65 20.01 21.30 2 Processes 24.13 26.71 18.50 17.61 17.67 20.92 3 People 20.13 18.82 18.01 17.30 16.89 18.23 4 Technology 17.92 15.94 17.57 17.46 16.48 17.07 5 Knowledge Processes 11.23 12.68 16.33 16.24 15.54 14.40 6 Learning and Innovation 14.36 16.39 15.87 15.51 14.90 15.40 7 KM Outcomes 16.56 17.98 14.80 14.51 14.09 15.59 Total (42-210) 126.49 133.14 121.19 118.31 115.60 122.91 5. Conclusions The concept of KM implementation is already known in Palestinian HEI. Many studies conducted on KM. The originality of study comes from being discussing KMM using a solid model. The overall findings of the current study suggest that KMM is leads to high performance. KMM assessment shows that the HEI maturity level is in the second level where the organization begin to realize the need for knowledge management or has already begun in a pilot project for knowledge management. where knowledge sharing and collaboration is common. Findings also support the main hypothesis and its sub-hypotheses. The most important factors effecting high performance are: Processes, KM leadership, People, KM Outcomes. Furthermore, the model effect totally on high performance. Also we can find that KMM for universities is at the third level, while for intermediate colleges is in the second level. 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{ "creator": "Alfarra, Mostafa F.", "date": "2016", "datestamp": 1557334778000, "description": "There is an increase in the use of in-door wireless networking solutions via Wi-Fi and this increase infiltrated and utilized Wi-Fi enable devices, as well as smart mobiles, games consoles, security systems, tablet PCs and smart TVs. Thus the demand on Wi-Fi connections increased rapidly. Rule Based System is an essential method in helping using the human expertise in many challenging fields. In this paper, a Rule Based System was designed and developed for diagnosing the wireless connection problems and attain a precise decision about the cause of the problem. SL5 Object expert system language was used in developing the rule based system. An Evaluation of the rule based system was carried out to test its accuracy and the results were promising.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABURBS", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "Rule Based System for Diagnosing Wireless Connection Problems Using SL5 Object", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 26 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Rule Based System for Diagnosing Wireless Connection Problems Using SL5 Object *1 Samy S. Abu Naser, 2Wadee W. Alamawi; 3Mostafa F. Alfarra 1,2,3Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine E-mail: *, ABSTRACT There is an increase in the use of in-door wireless networking solutions via Wi-Fi and this increase infiltrated and utilized Wi-Fi enable devices, as well as smart mobiles, games consoles, security systems, tablet PCs and smart TVs. Thus the demand on WiFi connections increased rapidly. Rule Based System is an essential method in helping using the human expertise in many challenging fields. In this paper, a Rule Based System was designed and developed for diagnosing the wireless connection problems and attain a precise decision about the cause of the problem. SL5 Object expert system language was used in developing the rule based system. An Evaluation of the rule based system was carried out to test its accuracy and the results were promising. Keywords: Data Based System, Wireless connection, SL5 Object, Diagnosing, Wi-Fi. 1. INTRODUCTION Artificial Intelligence is the field that seeks to "build systems that exhibit intelligent behavior and perform complex tasks with a level of competence that is equivalent or superior to the level currently exhibited by human experts" [1,2,3,6]. Rule Based Systems are one of the subfields of artificial intelligence. Since its beginning, Rule Based Systems have been utilized to help mankind with problems within a limited scope. An Rule Based System is an interactive computer based decision tool that uses both facts, rules and heuristics to solve complex decision making problems, based on knowledge solicited from a human expert, i.e., a Rule Based System is a computer program that imitate the cognitive process of a human expert to resolve complex decision problems in a particular domain [7,8,9,10]. 2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The primary goals of rule based system is:  To make expertise available to technicians and decision makers who need quick response to their questions. There is no sufficient expertise to go around, surely it is not always on hand at the right time and the right place.  To give people a chance to know the problems in their systems by themselves, without the need of a human expert to identify the problem. That mean it is free compared with expert checkup cost.  To assist in publishing wireless communication problems solutions and make dealing with the problem very easy. 3. COMPONENTS OF EXPERT SYSTEM 3.1 Knowledge base Is a set of knowledge, experience, facts and the rules associated with specific field, for example, (medicine, engineering, physics, etc.), This rule set represents the experience gained from the work and research in this field , this knowledge base is in form of (rule based, form based, object based, case based) [21]. 3.2 Inference engine The inference engine apply rational rules to the knowledge base and infer new knowledge. This process would repeat as each new fact in the knowledge base might trigger further rules in the inference engine. Inference engines work mainly in one of two modes either special rule or facts: forward chaining or backward chaining. Forward chaining begins with the given facts and adds new facts. Backward chaining begins with goals, and works backward to find out what facts should be added so that the goals can be attained[22]. 3.3 User interface This is the system that allows a non-expert user to query (question) the expert system, and to receive advice. The user-interface is designed to be a simple to use as possible. Users can communicate with the expert system via[23] :  Lists choice  Natural Languages  Direct interaction with the user 3.4 Knowledge Engineer Works on improvement and development of different programs that represent expert system components, where he/she can insert the facts and the rules into different expert system[22]. 3.5 Domain expert A person who has the experience in a specific field which he/she is working in, for example if the expert system was specialist at psychology so, the domain expert is psychologist[21]. 4. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 27 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering With the increasing use of in-door wireless networking solutions via Wi-Fi and the increasing infiltration and utilization of Wi-Fi enable devices, as well as smart mobiles, games consoles, security systems, tablet PCs and smart TVs, the demand on Wifi connection increased rapidly. In 2014, Cisco estimated that 32% of mobile data traffic indoors was carried using Wi-Fi. This is forecasted to go up to 48% by 2017. A recent report specially made by the European Commission recognized that over 71% of all wireless data traffic that was transported to tablets and smart mobiles in the EU was transported using Wi-Fi [24]. Due to the increase of the number of devices that are connected to the wireless network, maintaining the wireless connection becomes a severe matter which require experts to solve the day by day connection problems. In this paper, a Rule Based System that uses the expertise of communications and networking experts in maintaining the wireless connection has been designed and developed. 5. LITERATURE REVIEW Ruled Based systems had been developed for a variety of domains: diagnosing human diseases of the neck, skin, male fertility, foot, low back pain, genital of infant, genital of men, nausea and vomiting, mouth, shoulder, eye, ear, breast cancer, urination, feeding in infants and children. Diagnosing plant diseases. Diagnosing of electrical and/or mechanical equipment, identification of software/hardware problems and integrated circuit failures, as well as faultdetection in nuclear power systems. Guiding freshmen students for selecting a major. Furthermore, selecting exploratory factor analysis procedures [1-5,7-13,14-23]. It is required for a rule based system to recognize the possible causes that could clarify the symptoms and suggest appropriate solutions. To be able to perform the tasks, a rule based system should gather sufficient domain knowledge regularly and dynamically to emulates the reasoning of a human and decision makings anchored in the most updated knowledge [11]. Rule Based systems are naturally very domain specific. The knowledge engineer of such rule based have to bound his or her scope of the system to just what is required to conquer the target problem. Expert System programming languages are frequently wanted to achieve the specific objectives of the system [14-15]. Rule Based systems tenders the reimbursement of increasing the frequency, consistency and probability of making good decisions, serving dispense human expertise, smoothing the progress of realtime, low-cost expert-level decisions by the non-expert. Rule Based systems consists of major system components and interface with individuals in various roles. The major components are (as shown in Fig. 1) [6,18-20]. Fig. 1 Rule Based System components and human interfaces 6. METHODOLOGY The Rule Based System mainly consists of three parts: The knowledge base, the inference engine, and the user interface. In order to interpolate the expertise into the system, SL5 Object expert system language is used as the knowledge base. SL5 Object is considered to be a declarative programming language, i.e. when implementing the solution to a problem, instead of specifying how to achieve a certain goal in a certain situation, we specify what the situation (objects, rules and facts) and let the SL5 Object inference engine derive the solution for us[14]. SL5 Object has a user friendly interface that explain the available options to the user and show the results after reaching the conclusion. Choosing SL5 Object was due to its effectiveness in implementing the user interface, and its platform independency [14]. We used the flowchart in figure 2 to represent the objects, rules and fact of the knowledge base. The knowledge based was stored in SL5 Object Expert System language. 7. EVOLUTION OF THE RULE BASED SYSTEM This section describes the results of evaluating the Rule Based System for diagnosing the wires communication problems. A evaluation was performed in the labs of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology of Al-Azhar University in Gaza. More than 30 test cases where used to feed data to the rule based system and the diagnosis of each test case was recorded and then compared with the actual diagnosis. At the end of testing rule based system for diagnosing the wires communication problems, 27 cases out of 31 were successfully diagnosed and 4 cases were partially diagnosed. Thus the evaluation shows a success rate of %87. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 28 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Fig. 2 A flowchart of Wireless Connection problem description[25] Figure 3 shows the starting session of the rule based system for diagnosing wireless connection problems. Figure 4 and figure 5 shows part of the dialogue between the end user and the rule based system. Figure 6 shows the conclusion of the rule based system, where the diagnosis of the problem is stated and the recommendation outlined for the end user. ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 29 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering Fig. 3 User Interface display of the Rule Based System Fig. 4 Rule Based dialogue question 1 Fig. 5 Rule Based dialogue question 2 Fig. 6 Result of the Rule Based system 8. CONCLUSIONS There is an increase in the use of in-door wireless networking solutions via Wi-Fi and this increase infiltrated and utilized Wi-Fi enable devices. Maintaining these devices and diagnosing their connection problems requires lots of hard work; therefore, in this paper, a rule based System that used for diagnosing wireless connection problems was designed and developed to help users and technicians in maintaining these devices. An evaluation of the rule based system was performed in the faculty of Engineering and Information. The results of the valuation shows a success rate of 87%. 9. SOURCE CODE OF RULE BASED SYSTEM USING SL5 OBJECT ATTRIBUTE start SIMPLE ATTRIBUTE Do you have A Wi-Fi adapter in your device? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is there's a wireless network in the area? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is your Wi-Fi adapter turned on? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Verify if there's a router active in the area? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is this network considered a HOME network? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is your device able to get other Wi-Fi networks? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Your device support 5 GHz? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Are you close enough to router? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is it a security login problem? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Works on Ethernet? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Blocked by firewall security? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Check it the cable are damaged or not connected properly? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is there's internet in the router? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is the router is on the default settings? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Intermittent connections? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Are you use compatible standards device? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Can you connect your laptop to public networks? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is there's interferer signal like Bluetooth device? COMPOUND Yes, No ATTRIBUTE Is your router firmware updated? COMPOUND Yes, No INSTANCE the domain ISA domain WITH start: = TRUE INSTANCE the application ISA application WITH title display: = introduction WITH conclusion display: = Conc WITH numeric precision: = 8 WITH simple query text" = : ?* is " * WITH numeric query text: = "What is the value of: * of "* WITH string query text" = : * of ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 30 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering "* WITH time query text" = : * of "* WITH interval query text" = : * of "* WITH compound query text" = : * of "* WITH multicompound query text" = : * of "* INSTANCE introduction ISA display WITH wait: = TRUE WITH delay changes: = FALSE WITH items [1]: = textbox 1 INSTANCE textbox 1 ISA textbox WITH location: = 10,10,755,419 WITH pen color: = 700,700,700 WITH fill color: = 1,1,1 WITH justify IS left WITH font: = "Arial" WITH font style IS bold WITH font size: = 14 WITH text "= : Rule Based System for Diagnosing Wireless connection problems Written By WADEE AMAWI MOSTAFA FARRA In this project, we will design an expert system which will be able to anyone to diagnoses wireless problem and detect it.The process involves analyzing this system to specify the required specifications of the design. The analysis includes detect the problems of the wireless connection system, and put the rules to facility the design process. After analyzing, the design will be ready to be executed. The design phase primly will depend on the rules of the analyzing phase. This design must be implemented and tested in order to show if the system is working as intended in the design. The system developed using SL5O Simple Level 5 Object" INSTANCE Conc ISA display WITH wait: = TRUE WITH delay changes: = FALSE WITH items [1]: = title textbox WITH items [2]: = diagnosis textbox WITH items [3]: = advise textbox INSTANCE title textbox ISA textbox WITH location: = 20,10,800,70 WITH pen color: = 0,0,0 WITH fill color: = 200,200,100 WITH justify IS center WITH font: = "Arial" WITH font style IS bold WITH font size: = 14 WITH text: = " Diagnosing Wireless connection problems " INSTANCE diagnosis textbox ISA textbox WITH location: = 20,110,800,130 WITH pen color: = 0,0,0 WITH fill color: = 170,170,170 WITH justify IS left WITH font: = "Arial" WITH font size: = 14 WITH text" "= : INSTANCE advise textbox ISA textbox WITH location: = 20,280,800,130 WITH pen color: = 0,0,0 WITH fill color: = 170,170,170 WITH justify IS left WITH font: = "Arial" WITH font size: = 14 WITH text" "= : RULE r0 IF start THEN ASK Do you have a Wi-Fi adapter in your device RULE r1 IF Do you have A Wi-Fi adapter in your device IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "You don't have A WiFi adapter" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Please contact support to install one" RULE r2 IF Do you have A Wi-Fi adapter in your device IS Yes THEN ASK Is there's a wireless network in the area? RULE r3 IF Is there's a wireless network in the area? IS No THEN ASK Is your Wi-Fi adapter turned on ? RULE r4 IF Is your Wi-Fi adapter turned on IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "Your A Wi-Fi adapter turned off" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Turn it ON Most laptops have a switch or button on the case that powers the wireless network devices the wireless button or switch is(usually)located in one of three places : >==top of the keyboard >==side of the computer or on the front of the computer" RULE r5 IF Is your Wi-Fi adapter turned on IS Yes THEN ASK Verify if there's a router active in the area? ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 31 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering RULE r6 IF Verify if there's a router active in the area? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "The router is not active in the area" AND text OF advice textbox: = " Try to enable the router The active LED should indicate the activity. You can try another laptop in the same room" RULE r7 IF Verify if there's a router active in the area? IS Yes THEN ASK Is this network considered a HOME network? RULE r8 IF Is this network considered a HOME network? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "The network is not a HOME network" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Sometimes the corporate networks might be hidden Ask the network admin for the network settings". RULE r9 IF Is this network considered a HOME network? IS Yes THEN ASK Is your device able to get other Wi-Fi networks? RULE r10 IF Is your device able to get other Wi-Fi networks? IS No THEN text OF advice textbox: = "Possible wireless adapter failure, try to reinstall driver. If problem stays the same, try to use different connection software to connect" RULE r11 IF Is your device able to get other Wi-Fi networks? IS Yes THEN ASK Your device support 5 GHz? RULE r12 IF Your device support 5 GHz? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "Your device is not support 5 GHz" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Some Wi-Fi networks use the 5 GHz connection. Make sure your router is on the 2.4 GHz mode" RULE r13 IF Your device support 5 GHz? IS Yes THEN ASK Are you close enough to router? RULE r14 IF Are you close enough to router? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "You are far away from the router" AND text OF advice textbox: = "You might be on the edge of the coverage area, get closer to the router" RULE r15 IF Are you close enough to router? IS Yes THEN text OF advice textbox: = "The problem might be due to router failure or overheating Try to reset the router to its factory condition Then run the manufacture's setup program to configure the router " RULE r16 IF Is there's a wireless network in the area? IS Yes THEN ASK Is it a security login problem? RULE r17 IF Is it a security login problem? IS Yes THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "You have a problem in a security login" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Try to re-enter the encryption and password" RULE r18 IF Is it a security login problem? IS No THEN ASK Works on Ethernet? RULE r19 IF Works on Ethernet? IS No THEN ASK Blocked by firewall security? RULE r20 IF Blocked by firewall security? IS Yes THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "You are blocked by firewall security" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Make sure that the firewall settings allow you to access the internet Or restore the default settings" RULE r21 IF Blocked by firewall security? IS No THEN ASK Check it the cable are damaged or not connected properly? RULE r22 IF Check it the cable are damaged or not connected properly? IS Yes THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "your cable was damaged" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Change the cable that provide the router with internet" RULE r23 IF Check it the cable are damaged or not connected properly? IS No THEN ASK Is there's internet in the router? RULE r24 IF Is there's internet in the router? IS Yes THEN text OF advice textbox: = "Laptop hardware issue" RULE r25 IF Is there's internet in the router? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "No internet in the router" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Try to reboot the router, ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 32 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering if nothing happens then it is ISP or Hardware failure" RULE r26 IF Works on Ethernet? IS Yes THEN ASK Is the router is on the default settings? RULE r27 IF Is the router is on the default settings? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "the router is not on the default settings" AND text OF advice textbox: = "You should try to reset the router to its factory condition and then run the manufacturer's setup program to configure the router" RULE r28 IF Is the router is on the default settings? IS Yes THEN ASK Intermittent connections? RULE r29 IF Intermittent connections? IS No THEN ASK Are you use compatible standards device? RULE r30 IF Are you use compatible standards device? IS Yes THEN ASK Can you connect your laptop to public networks? RULE r31 IF Can you connect your laptop to public networks? IS Yes THEN text OF advice textbox: = "Check router default set, no security or MAC addressing reboot router continued problem indicate wireless router failure or incompatibility" RULE r32 IF Can you connect your laptop to public networks? IS No THEN text OF advice textbox: = "Laptop wireless adapter fault, or OS software settings. Try latest driver software rescue" RULE r33 IF Are you use compatible standards device? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "you are not use compatible device Like (a/g/n)" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Try compatibility modes but be prepared to update old hardware" RULE r34 IF Intermittent connections? IS Yes THEN ASK Is there's interferer signal like Bluetooth device? RULE r35 IF Is there's interferer signal like Bluetooth device? IS Yes THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "interferer signal in the range" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Try to change the laptop location by moving it away from the interference region" RULE r36 IF Is there's interferer signal like Bluetooth device? IS No THEN ASK Is your router firmware updated? RULE r37 IF Is your router firmware updated? IS Yes THEN text OF advice textbox: = " Possibly >==ISP problem >==or wind and weather affecting the signal" RULE r38 IF Is your router firmware updated? IS No THEN text OF diagnosis textbox: = "your router firmware is not update" AND text OF advice textbox: = "Upgrade the router firmware to the latest version" END REFERENCES [1] Naser, S.S.A. and Ola, A.Z.A., 2008. AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR DIAGNOSING EYE DISEASES USING CLIPS. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology, 4(10). [2] Abu-Naser, S.S., El-Hissi, H., Abu-Rass, M. and ElKhozondar, N., 2010. An expert system for endocrine diagnosis and treatments using JESS. Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 3(4), pp.239-251. [3] Naser, S.A., Al-Dahdooh, R., Mushtaha, A. and ElNaffar, M., 2010. Knowledge Management in ESMDA: Expert System for Medical Diagnostic Assistance. AIML Journal. 10(1). pp.31-40. [4] Naser S.S.A. and Mahdi, A.O., A PROPOSED EXPERT SYSTEM FOR FOOT DISEASES DIAGNOSIS. American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2(4):155-168. [5] Naser S.A. and Aead A.M.,2013. Variable Floor for Swimming Pool Using an Expert System Preparation of Papers for International Journal of. International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER). 3(6). pp-3751-3755 [6] A. B. Badiru and J. Cheung, Fuzzy engineering expert systems with neural network applications, vol. 11. John Wiley & Sons, 2002. [7] Naser, S.S.A. and Hamed, M.A., An Expert System for Mouth Problems in Infants and Children. Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS). 2(4). Pp.468-476. [8] Naser, S.S.A. and Al-Nakhal, M.A., A Ruled Based System for Ear Problem Diagnosis and Treatment. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development,2(4). pp.25-31. [9] Naser, S.S.A. and AlDahdooh, R.M., 2016. Lower Back Pain Expert System Diagnosis And Treatment. Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS), 2(4). pp. 441-446 [10] Naser, S.S.A. and Alhabbash, M.I., MALE INFERTILITY EXPERT SYSTEM DIAGNOSES ©2012-16 International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE, 5 (6) pp. 26-33, DEC 2016 33 ISSN: 2306-708X Volume 5, Issue 6 December 2016 ITEE Journal Information Technology & Electrical Engineering AND TREATMENT. American Journal of Innovative Research and Applied Sciences. 2016; 2(4). [11] Naser, S S.A. and ALmursheidi, S.H.., 2016. A Knowledge Based System for Neck Pain Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development (WWJMRD), 2(4), pp.1218. [12] Naser, S.S.A., Baraka, M.H. and Baraka, A., 2008. A PROPOSED EXPERT SYSTEM FOR GUIDING FRESHMAN STUDENTS IN SELECTING A MAJOR IN AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY, GAZA. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology 4 (9). [13] Naser, S.S.A. and Hasanein, H.A.A.,2016. Ear Diseases Diagnosis Expert System Using SL5 Object. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 2(4).pp.41-47. [14] Naser, S.S.A., SL5 OBJECT: SIMPLER LEVEL 5 OBJECT EXPERT SYSTEM LANGUAGE. International Journal of Soft Computing, Mathematics and Control (IJSCMC), 2015, 4(4) , pp.25-37. [15] Abu Naser, S. , Kashkash K., and Fayyad M. Developing an Expert System for Plant Disease Diagnosis, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. 2008; 1(2):78-85. Available: [16] Azaab, S., Abu Naser, S. and Sulisel, O., 2000. A proposed expert system for selecting exploratory factor analysis procedures. Journal of the college of education, 4(2), pp.9-26. [17] Naser S.S.A., NA Alaa, 2008. A Proposed Expert System for Skin Diseases Diagnosis. Journal of Applied Sciences Research 4 (12), 1682-1693 [18] Naser S.S.A., BG Bastami, 2016. A Proposed Rule Based System for Breasts Cancer Diagnosis. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development 2 (5), pp. 27-33. [19] Naser S.S.A., Mohammed Zakaria Shaath. 2016. Expert system urination problems diagnosis, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development. 2(5). pp.9-19. [20] Naser S.S.A., Hilles M.M.,2016. An expert system for shoulder problems using CLIPS, World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development 2 (5), 1-8. [21] Abu Naser S. S., Al-Hanjori M. M., 2016. An expert system for men genital problems diagnosis and treatment. International Journal of Medicine Research,1(2).pp.83-86. [22] Abu Naser S.S.,Alawar M.W., 2016. An expert system for feeding problems in infants and children. International Journal of Medicine Research. 1(2).pp.79-82. [23] Abu Naser S.S., El-Najjar A. A., 2016. An expert system for nausea and vomiting problems in infants and children, International Journal of Medicine Research. 1(2).pp.114-117. [24] J. Marcus and J. Burns, "Study on impact of traffic offloading and related technological trends on the demand for wireless broadband spectrum," wik-Consult sur mandat de la DG CONNECT, UE, 2013. [25] Raja'a A. Khalid et al , 2014, Expert System to Troubleshoot Connection problems International Journal of Computer Science Engineering and Technology( IJCSET) , 4(8), pp.238-
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{ "creator": "Al Shobaki, Mazen J.", "date": "2019", "datestamp": 1586943040000, "description": "This paper aims to study the impact of Crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking. This study was applied on Arabic Crowdfunding platforms from all crowdfunding models.\n The population of the study consists of individuals, entrepreneurs, investors, employees at electronic-crowd funding Arabic platforms. According to last statics at (2018), there are (12) legit Arabic platforms working in this field. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression. The overall findings of the current paper show that there is a significant statistical impact for financial properties on entrepreneurship and this effect around (25%). Furthermore, the current paper is unique by topic and population as it is the first study on Arabic crowdfunding platforms.", "identifier": "oai:philarchive.org/rec/ABUTIO-4", "language": "en", "subject": "Philosophy", "title": "The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes On Entrepreneurship Risk Taking", "type": "info:eu-repo/semantics/article" }
The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 513 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( "The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes On Entrepreneurship Risk Taking" Youssef M. Abu Amuna Mazen J. Al Shobaki Abstract This paper aims to study the impact of Crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking. This study was applied on Arabic Crowdfunding platforms from all crowdfunding models. The population of the study consists of individuals, entrepreneurs, investors, employees at electronic-crowd funding Arabic platforms. According to last statics at (2018), there are (12) legit Arabic platforms working in this field. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression. The overall findings of the current paper show that there is significant statistical impact for financial properties on entrepreneurship and this affect around (25%). Furthermore, the current paper is unique by topic and population as it is the first study on Arabic crowdfunding platforms. Keywords: Crowdfunding, financial properties, risk taking, entrepreneurship. The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 514 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( Introduction Crowdfunding as an additional financing new model for entrepreneurship is still under theoretical and academic study as it is new phenomenon which starts at 1997. Variables that control crowdfunding still not raise to theoretical phase in literature review and more academic study and depth analysis about it are in need. This paper is an academic study about financial attributes in Arabic crowdfunding platforms that can support entrepreneurship and support additional financial tools. According to (Abu Naser et al., 2018), many dynamic variables affecting crowdfunding (legislations, education system, culture, e-business models, financial technology) (Abu Naser, et al., 2018). The objective of this study is to measure the impact of crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking through (12) Arabic crowdfunding platforms. The history of crowdfunding in the Arab world began late in 2014 through some sites (Eureka) in the United Arab Emirates, (Zomal) in Lebanon and (Ymken, Shukruh) in Egypt. The idea of participatory crowdfunding for entrepreneurship financing still needs further research in the Arab world, with an industry worth $ 59.564 billion in (2017) and a weak Arab market share worth $ 35.76 million. (Abu Amuna, et al., 2018). In view of the literature review, the study raises the question of: Q1. How financial attribute affect Crowdfunding in Arabic region? Q2. What is the impact of financial attribute on entrepreneurship risk taking? Literature Review In addition to the various traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is a modern way of financing that is compatible with e-business models, and there must be certain elements to achieve them and to ensure their success as well as an encouraging culture of entrepreneurship. A few Arabic studies about crowdfunding focus on foreign platforms like kickstarter and Indiegogo, as they are the most famous worldwide plat forms (Abushaban, 2014). Other Arabic studies focus on variables affecting Crowdfunding in general and the readiness to accept this model of e-business as additional tool for financing small and micro projects (El Talla, et al., 2017). In spite that this tool of finance started globally at (2005) when (Kiva) platform for microfinance loans established, and the exist of hundreds of researches studying this field of science from known authors like (Mollick, 2014, Block, 2014, Ahlers, 2015, Agrawal, 2015), the Arabic academic researchers are still rare. The evolution of the concept of funding in recent decades, developed in a remarkable way in terms of its form and those who offer them. This development was due to several reasons, including: Increased competition, The intensification of inflation Direct government intervention Indirect economic activity The global economic crisis (2008( The technological advances The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 515 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( Crowdfunding has been defined under different terms, from different points of view. In simple terms, Crowdfunding relies on the meeting of non-professional investors and entrepreneurs via internet platforms . It is one of the most important funding resources in internet era which contributes to the activation of the sources of funding for economic foundation, especially start-up projects. Also it is considered an alternative to bank financing that does not fit often with the status of small and medium enterprises at the beginning of the evolution of its activity (Sharma and Lertnuwat, 2016). The World Bank defines Crowdfunding as "enabling companies and business organizations relying on the Internet to collect the necessary funds, whether voluntary or investment by many individuals" (InfoDev, 2014). Abu Amuna (2018), Abu Naser et al. (2018), Ahlers et al. (2015) define it as "a broad term used to describe the increasing spread of the fundraising process is done through the Internet, where there are groups of individuals who own the money make small contributions to achieve a particular goal" (Abu Amuna, et al., 2018). Crowdfunding is characterized by its flexibility on the one hand, and its ability to adapt to environmental changes around it to fit with the objectives and policies of each country, and with the patterns of entrepreneurial projects prevailing in each country. There are four main categories of Crowdfunding: Equity, Debt or Peer to Peer lending (financial models), Reward and Donation based Crowdfunding (non-financial models). * Reward base: This type of financing is common in financing a product or project which is still being developed. A form of compensation for the financer is the right to pre-order the product or get the product sent when it is finished. An advantage of this form of financing is that it is an alternative market research; if the investors are not willing to invest, they are not interested in the product or project (Douglas J., et al., 2014). * Donation based: In this model, individuals donate to the project without expecting any financial return or percentage from the project owner (Lehner, 2013). * Equity based: In this model, the financiers have part of the property rights or participate in the profits or management, as previously agreed with the owner of the project. This model can achieve a high financial gains, and capital can be increased significantly as a result of attracting a large number of investors who are looking for shares in a company or a successful project outside the restrictions of stock market, brokers and do not have large amounts of money to speculate in the stock market (Sharma and Lertnuwat, 2016). * Lending based: This model also (Peer-to-Peer). The idea behind this type of Crowdfunding is to cut out the mediators and get cheaper loans or as an investor, get better interest rates (Bruton et al., 2015). Each model has it is own financial attributes which might attract investors to involve in. The following table (1) clarifies those attributes for each model. The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 516 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( Table 1: Financial Attributes Model Investor Entrepreneur Reward Small contribution Raise capital Donation Small contribution Charity Equity Medium contribution Loosing assets is possible Can't sell the share Raise capital Might be debtor Lending High risk Losing money is possible Return is good Bankruptcy is possible High interest Source: Authors Crowdfunding depends on the existence of entrepreneurial culture within the country, and studies on the subject show that factors such as culture, legal environment and economic incentives have an impact on the development and success of entrepreneurship (Josefy et al., 2016) These factors are either restricts or enables stimulating entrepreneurship projects, and therefore governments should encourage entrepreneurial culture by supporting entrepreneurship, business incubators and business accelerators. To achieve success, entrepreneurship requires a supportive ecosystem of interrelated factors ranging from infrastructure to access to financial services. Decision-making institutions play a very important role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Risk taking is one of the important factors that effect on entrepreneur capabilities and passion. Risk taking consists of: 1. Initiative: One of the most important features of entrepreneurship is that it takes more risky steps than environmental conditions. Initiative is to follow the promising opportunity rather than simply respond to competitors' movements and be a leader in innovation and at the forefront of competitors (Alsakarna, 2010). 2. Startup opportunities: Is a measure of start-up companies that are motivated by opportunity but face regulatory constraints. The motivation to start a business is a good indicator of the quality of work. Entrepreneurs who are aware of the opportunities are more skilled and more willing to profit and continue to work as this is an opportunity to increase income or achieve personal goals. On the other hand, nonentrepreneurs are forced to do this because there are no other options (Ács et al., 2017). 3. Risk taking: Is a clear process for selecting projects, collecting basic information in terms of cash flow and return on investment and focusing on negatives and positives that affect project objectives (Alhabeel and Abukarn, 2015). 4. Access to international markets: Access to international markets is the main determinant of growth and export capacity is a key factor in entering foreign markets. This requires capacities beyond those required by companies that are produced only for local markets. This also requires opening up the country to international entrepreneurs, accepting them in the local market and applying globalization (Cieslik, 2017). From previous literature review, the following hypothesis in this paper can be written as: H0: There is a statistically no significant effect for Crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking. The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 517 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( Research design 1. Study population and sampling This study conducted at (12) Arabic Crowdfunding platforms with total members (47.692). A pilot sample of (53) units was used to study the tools of the study, to verify the validity and stability of these tools. The paper sample consist from (545) unit from all platforms. 2. Research instrument Since the nature of hypothesis and the variables involved are the ones that control the selection of the appropriate tool, accordingly, the researchers have prepared a measure for that study commensurate with its objectives and requirements, the elements of financial attributes and risk taking. The process of designing and preparing the study scale has gone through several stages and steps: 1. Review the literature of crowdfunding, and previous studies on the subject of the current study. 2. Collect and define scale paragraphs. 3. Formulation of the standard expressions according to the study sample. 4. Set the meter instructions. 5. Correct the meter. 6. Conduct a study of stability and honesty of the scale. The first dimension referring to Crowdfunding financial attributes prepared by authors from (12) paragraphs. The second dimension of the instrument which measure entrepreneurship risk taking was developed depending on Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) and consist from (6) paragraphs. Also Trustees validity has been conducted by a group of expert in Crowdfunding and entrepreneurship field. Those statements were further revised and modified by the experts in a subsequent stage before drafting the final version of the questionnaire. A five-point Lekert scale of agreement was used for measurement, running from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree", with a Neutral category for scale midpoint. Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing, including reliability Correlation using Cronbach's alpha, "ANOVA", Simple Linear Regression. 3. Validity and reliability assessment The study adopted Cronbach's α to measure the internal consistence reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that Cronbach's α valueS for all dimensions were > (0.5). It indicated that the design of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency as shown in table (2). Table 2: Coefficients of Alpha Cronbach Field No. of paragraphs Alpha-Cronbach stability Financial attributes 12 0.680 Entrepreneurship risk taking 6 0.622 4. Data analysis and discussion of results Simple linear regression used to test whether there is an impact for one independent variable (Financial attributes) on a dependent variable (Entrepreneurship risk taking). The results are shown in Table (3) and table (4). The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 518 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( Table 3: Anova Test Field F Sig. R R2 Entrepreneurship risk taking 181.873 0.000 0.501 0.250 Table 4: Linear Regression Field Model B Beta T Sig. Entrepreneurship risk taking constant 0.877 5.438 0.000 Financial Attributes 0.689 0.501 13.486 0.000 The results of Anova test indicate that sig. is less than (0.05) for independent variable (Financial Attributes), which mean that there is significant statistically effect for independent variable (Financial Attributes) on entrepreneurship risk taking. Pearson coefficient and regression coefficient sign for independent variable was positive. This result means whenever the value of independent variables increase, there will be increase in entrepreneurship risk taking. Changes in the independent variable is responsible for the interpretation of a rate (r2= 25%)) of all the changes that occur in entrepreneurship risk taking, and there is a rate (100 r2) due to other factors specific to the other independent variables and other factors not mentioned in the model, in addition to the random error. Table (3) reveals that the findings of significance level are less than (0.05), which means that we can rely on the previous model and circulating the sample results on research community. Therefore, the results of the analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. According to that, we accept hypothesis H1 and refuse H0. The H1 hypothesis can be written as: H1: There is a statistically significant effect for Crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking. Table (4) determines the figure of linear regression equation for the impact of Crowdfunding financial attributes on entrepreneurship risk taking. This equation can be written as follow: Conclusion: Crowdfunding as a new concept needs more attention and declaration to the community, especially in poor communities where there are high unemployment and less work opportunities. Microfinance has become a tool of democratization of entrepreneurship funding, while Crowdfunding potentially opens entrepreneurship funding to masses. Combining both Crowdfunding and microfinance can lead to an acceleration of poverty eradication. Entrepreneurship risk taking = 0.877 + (0.689 * Financial attributes) The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 519 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( One of the most factors for Crowdfunding that effect on entrepreneurship risk taking is financial attributes for Crowdfunding models. As shown from data analysis, Crowdfunding financial attributes effect on entrepreneurship risk taking. This result encourages entrepreneurs to adopting new financial models to enhance their start-up projects. Other factors which not included in this study such as Crowdfunding models, legislations, Fintech also effect on entrepreneurship and need to be study in future researches. The Impact of Crowdfunding Financial Attributes....... Youssef abu amuna & Mazen alshobaki 520 للعلوم االقتصاديـة واإلداريـة المثـقـال مجـلة مجلد خاص, )مؤتمر جامعة البلقاء التطبيقية( References [1]Abu Naser, S. S., Abu Amuna, Y. M., El Talla, S. A. & Al Shobaki, M. J. (2018), "Crowdfunding Role in Boosting the Entrepreneurial Creativity of University Students", International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR), 2(4): 1-12. [2]Abu Amuna, Y. M. (2018), "the Electronic-Crowd Funding and its Impact on the Entrepreneurship: A Field Study", PHD Dissertation, Suez Canal University, Egypt. [3]Abushaban, R. (2014), "Crowdfunding as a Catapult for Innovation in the Middle East: Obstacles and Possibilities", IEEE 2014 Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, Washington, DC, USA: P.433-440. [4]Abdalhakeem, O., Mostafa, F. (2018), "Crowdfunding platforms as an innovative way of funding projects", Alejtehad Journal for Legal and Economic Studies, 7(1): 291-308. [5]Altaweel, F. (2015), "Crowdfunding as a New Concept for Funding Projects Instead of Loans", The 5th International Conference: Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Developing Small Business, Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine, 1-19. [6]El Talla, S. A., Al Shobaki, M. J., Abu Naser, S. S., & Abu Amuna, Y. M. (2017), "The Effectiveness of a Training Program in Increasing Crowdfunding Awareness, International Journal of Advanced Educational Research, 2(1): 31-37. [7]Abu Amuna, Y. M., Al Shobaki, M. J., & Abu Naser, S. S. (2017), Crowdfunding as One of the Recent Trends in Financing Emerging and Small Projects in the Arab World, International Journal of Business Engineering and Management Systems, 1(1). [8]Sharma, S., Lertnuwat, L. (2016), "The Financial Crowdfunding with Diverse Business Models", Journal of Asian and African Social Science and Humanities, 2(2): 74-89. [9]InfoDev (2014), "Crowdfunding as Potential for the Developing World, Finance and Private Sector Development Department. Washington, DC: World Bank. [10]Abu Naser, S. S., Abu Amuna, Y. M., El Talla, S. A. & Al Shobaki, M. J. (2018), Op Cit.. [11]Ahlers, Gerrit K.C, Cumming, Douglas, Günther, Christina, Schweizer, Denis (2015), "Signaling in Equity Crowdfunding, York University, Ontario, Canada, Pp. 1-45. [12]Douglas J., Leboeuf, Gael, Schwienbacher, Armin (2014): Crowdfunding Models: Keep-it-All vs. All-or-Nothing, Faculté de Finance, Université Lille Nord de France, Pp.1-33. [13]Lehner, O. (2013), "Crowdfunding Social Ventures: a Model and Research Agenda", Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, 15(4): 37-41. [14]Bruton, G., Khavul, S., Donald, S., Wright, M. (2015), "New Financial Alternatives in Seeding Entrepreneurship", Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(1): 9-26. [15]Josefy, M., Dean, T., Albert, L., Fitza, L. (2016), " The Role of Community in Crowdfunding Success: Evidence on Cultural Attributes in Funding Campaigns", Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 11(16): 1042-2587. [16]Alsakarna, B. (2010), "Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Management", Aman: Dar Almasera,Jordan, 2nd. [17]Ács, Z., Szerb, L., Autio, E., Lloyd, A. (2017), "Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018", The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, Washington, D.C., USA. [18]Alhabeel, W., Abukarn, S. (2015), "Reality of Entrepreneurship in Palestinian University", The 5th International Conference: Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Developing Small Business, Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine, 1-19. [19]Cieslik, J. (2017), "Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies", eBook, Palgrave Macmillan.
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