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This research is an initial exploration into the foundational branches of philosophy (axiology, ontology, and epistemology) and their profound implications for the philosophy of language. Investigating the contemporary study of language, the research examines five dissertations to uncover the interplay of these three philosophical domains. The research addresses three key questions: the domains within the philosophy of language covered by the dissertations, the featured interconnection of axiology, ontology, and epistemology in these dissertations, and the development of these domains to bolster arguments. The objectives include discerning how researchers describe these domains in relation to language philosophy, exploring the possibility of discussing a single domain without engaging the others, and fostering an objective discussion of language philosophy within an academic context. The research's significance lies in contributing to a comprehensive understanding of language, its relationship with users and the world, and how the three philosophical domains sustain language existence. It aims to enrich the study of language philosophy for students, particularly those in English Applied Linguistics programs, by emphasizing the correlations between philosophy and language characteristics, acquisition, planning, and translation. The research employs a qualitative approach, analyzing dissertations from a philosophical perspective. Findings reveal that the interconnection of axiology, ontology, and epistemology is intricate, challenging the initial assumption of discussing them separately. Notably, the dissertations exhibit varied emphasis on the three domains. The study concludes with valuable insights into the philosophy of language, highlighting the pivotal role of language in shaping reality, conveying experiences, and expressing cultural influences. The dynamic nature of language and the reciprocal relationship between language and philosophy underscore the need for an open-minded approach and continual engagement in discussions surrounding language philosophy. The research recommends incorporating philosophy as a mandatory course in university curricula to nurture a holistic understanding of language and its philosophical underpinnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Phenomenography emerged from pedagogy to examine the qualitatively different ways that individuals experience and perceive the same phenomenon. Despite its uniqueness, the uptake of phenomenography in nursing research is still limited. Potentially, this may be related to confusion regarding what the design is about, its philosophical underpinnings and how distinct it is from other qualitative designs. Objectives: To offer a better understanding of phenomenography by comparing it with other established qualitative research designs, examining its theoretical foundations, highlighting some studies that have employed the approach in nursing and offering methodological guidance to improve its uptake in nursing. Design: Discussion paper. Findings: Compared to the traditional qualitative designs employed in nursing, phenomenography has been utilized in fewer studies. The ontological, epistemological and methodological basis of phenomenography highlights it as a distinct design. The strength of phenomenography lies in its emphasis on understanding the collective variations between participants and presenting these holistically as an 'outcome space'. Discussion: Phenomenography is a distinct qualitative research approach that presents a unique opportunity for nursing to further its use. Issues regarding bracketing, the inclusion of phenomenography studies in qualitative meta‐synthesis and employing a hermeneutic approach to phenomenography are avenues for further work in nursing. Patient and Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically analyses how Islamization of Knowledge (IOK), Radical Reform (RR), and Maqasid Methodology (MM), three distinct Islamic intellectual projects, attempted to develop discourses of Islamic epistemology in facing contemporary developments of natural and social sciences. Mainly, the paper focuses on similarities, differences, and potential contributions of all three projects respectively. Initially, this paper observes that IOK, RR, and MM have solid agreements among themselves in defining the core crisis of the modern Islamic intellectual tradition, as well as in highlighting the importance of inclusion of Islamic primary sources and its normative guidance in the process of reorienting modern knowledge. Equally, each of those projects presents itself as a new reflection of Islamic primary texts considering current intellectual challenges. Nevertheless, this paper further finds that all three projects have deep disagreements among themselves in terms of defining the scope of epistemic authority of revelation, reason, and spirituality and thereby offer three different visions of Islamic epistemic schema in facing modern knowledge. Finally, this paper reflects how these differences could potentially impact visions of an alternative education system from an Islamic worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the heterodox economic literature on pluralism, attention has predominately focussed on epistemic and methodological levels. The response to the question of what ontological pluralism could mean, and its contribution to the debate, remains limited. This paper argues for greater attention to be given to ontological pluralism, not only because it enriches the existing discussions around pluralism in the heterodox literature but it also provides support for a plurality of epistemological standards and methodological approaches. The paper proposes an alternative definition of ontological pluralism based on the work of McDaniel and Turner. Both argue that ontological pluralism should be understood as saying that there are different ways to exist and that acceptance of the semantic characteristics of ontological questions and statements within different ontological discourses are essential in a proper definition. This paper details their definition and explores its consequences with an analysis of the Searle–Lawson dispute on social objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the special issue 'The point of view of shared agency', a collection of papers that develops, and critically assesses, a striking development in recent philosophy of mind, epistemology, and developmental psychology, that is, the fundamental reappraisal of the time-honoured distinction between a 'first-person' and a 'third-person perspective' on our mental lives. In recent years, the nature of the 'second-person standpoint' has become a major focus of work across a range of disciplines. More recently, the idea of 'first-person plural knowledge', has received some attention, for example in considering knowledge of what 'we are doing' when we are doing things together. This collection explores collective agency, self-knowledge, and knowledge of other minds, from this plural and relational point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilfrid Sellars' 'myth of the given' had a momentous influence on 20th-century epistemology, putting under pressure the internalist foundationalism so prominent in early analytic philosophy. In this paper, I argue that the core themes in Sellars' argument are anticipated in the work of the London philosopher and psychologist Beatrice Edgell (1871-1948). Edgell explicitly argued that "'knowledge by acquaintance' is a myth invented by epistemology" ("Is there 'Knowledge by Acquaintance'?", 196). In some respects, however, Edgell's argument against the myth of the given is even more compelling than Sellars' - or so I will argue. The core of the paper logically reconstructs and historically contextualizes Edgell's line of argument, as emerging out of a critique of Russell's epistemology, with the goal of showing that the 'myth of the given' effectively predated Sellars by four decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Someone acts in a morally worthy way when they deserve credit for doing the morally right thing. But when and why do agents deserve credit for the success involved in doing the right thing? It is tempting to seek an answer to that question by drawing an analogy with creditworthy success in other domains of human agency, especially in sports, arts, and crafts. Accordingly, some authors have recently argued that, just like creditworthy success in, say, chess, playing the piano, or archery, creditworthy moral success is a matter of getting things right by way of manifesting a relevant skill. My main aim in this paper is to bring out an important structural difference between moral creditworthiness and creditworthiness in sports, arts, and craft, undermining attempts to use examples of the latter as a model for understanding the former. As an alternative, I propose an account of morally creditworthy action, according to which such action is a matter of manifesting virtue, not skill—a claim that's based on an important, but underappreciated, difference between the sorts of excellences constituting virtues and skills. The paper thus contributes to a more nuanced picture of normative achievements across different domains of human agency, highlighting largely overlooked structural dissimilarities among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptual framework for the intellectual virtues in the context of online search. Intellectual virtues are dispositions and skills that enable good thinking and wise reasoning, such as intellectual humility and attentiveness. Despite their importance, today the intellectual virtues tend to be underdeveloped across society. In light of the institutional role that online search plays in life today, there is an opportunity (perhaps an obligation) for online search to facilitate the development of intellectual virtue. The framework presented in this paper locates this development in three areas: the Searcher, the System, and Society. Major issues in information ethics and virtue epistemology are discussed for each of these areas, leading to recommendations for education, design, and research. This paper provides specific suggestions in this regard along with an agenda for future research at the intersection of ethics, epistemology, and online search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses an important but relatively unexplored question about the relationship between conceptual ethics and other philosophical inquiry: how does the epistemology of conceptual ethics relate to the epistemology of other, more "traditional" forms of philosophical inquiry? This paper takes as its foil the optimistic thought that the epistemology of conceptual ethics will be easier and less mysterious than relevant "traditional" philosophical inquiry. We argue against this foil by focusing on the fact that that conceptual ethics is a form of normative inquiry. Because of the epistemic difficulties that face normative inquiry, we should not expect conceptual ethics to constitute an epistemic panacea. Instead, although the epistemological upshots can vary from case to case, there are systematic reasons why this shift may exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the epistemic difficulties we face in pursuing philosophical inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the dispute between empiricists and nativists in philosophy and cognitive science has concerned human and animal minds (Margolis and Laurence in Philos Stud: An Int J Philos Anal Tradit 165(2): 693-718, 2013, Ritchie in Synthese 199(Suppl 1): 159–176, 2021, Colombo in Synthese 195: 4817–4838, 2018). But recent progress has highlighted how empiricist and nativist concerns arise in the construction of artificial systems (Buckner in From deep learning to rational machines: What the history of philosophy can teach us about the future of artificial intelligence. Oxford University Press.). This paper uses nativism and empiricism to address questions about the nature of artificial intelligence and its trajectory. It begins by defining the nativism/empiricism debate in terms of the generality of a system. Nativist systems have initial states with domain-specific features; empiricist systems have initial states with only domain-general features. With the debate framed in this way, it then explores a variety of arguments for nativism and empiricism in AI. These arguments revolve around two different questions which must be distinguished: whether nativism the only possible approach to developing human-level AI (HLAI); and whether nativism is the most practical approach to developing HLAI. On the first question, it argues that nativism is quite clearly not the only possible approach to developing HLAI, as is sometimes suggested. It argues that existing arguments for the necessity of nativism are unconvincing, because they analogize from poverty of the stimulus arguments about humans, while AIs often have access to much more data than humans. Then it argues that the case of evolution gives us a compelling argument against nativism. On the second, practical question, the paper argues that there is a tradeoff between the advantages of encoding innate machinery directly, and the advantages of evolving or learning it. However, as the past decade has shown, empiricism is a much more viable path to greater capability levels, given the 'bitter lesson' (Sutton in Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. MIT press.) that encoding the 'correct' knowledge in AI systems is perennially outperformed by more empiricist methods that leverage large-scale data and computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the field of virtue and vice epistemology open-mindedness is usually considered an archetypal virtue. Nevertheless, there is ongoing disagreement over how exactly it should be defined. In this paper I propose a novel definition of open-mindedness as a process of impartial belief revision and use it to argue that we should shift our normative assessments away from the trait itself to the context in which it is exercised. My definition works by three sequential stages: not screening new claims, impartially weighing the evidential strength of claims, and updating beliefs accordingly. Using this definition I argue for a focus on agents' particular circumstances to determine what degrees of credulity, open-, or closed-mindedness are appropriate in any given situation. As well as providing conceptual clarity regarding the concept of open-mindedness this paper indicates the benefits of this contextual approach for our everyday epistemic attitudes. In particular it enables us to recognise, without stigma, when ourselves or others deviate from open-mindedness for appropriate reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African scholarship plays an important role in asserting the value of African epistemologies and those of the global South in the knowledge economy. This is pertinent to higher education in postcolonial Africa, whose indigenous knowledge systems and intellectual legacies have played peripheral roles because of coloniality and the global neoliberal trends. This paper presents a historical review of a generation of African scholarship that spans from the last half of the twentieth century to date. It does so with the view of exploring the developments, challenges and prospects experienced by African scholars in their pursuit of African knowledges and the decolonisation discourse in the higher education sector. The first part of the paper provides a backdrop through an analysis of some selected major research on the nature of African scholarship published in the last half of the twentieth century, and its contributions to the decolonisation discourse on the continent. The second part examines the nature of contribution of African scholarship to knowledge production in the twenty-first century. That section critically analyses the challenges and opportunities which have been encountered in reshaping the discourses of knowledge production and decolonisation in theory and practice. It is concluded that in its distinctiveness in asserting African and marginalised knowledge systems as valid and relevant, and operating in spaces of struggle, the African scholarship should continue to contribute to the interrogation of the objectivity of Eurocentric, neoliberal thought. The paper recommends the promotion of African scholarship in shaping the decolonisation of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael T. Stuart (2021 and 2022) has proposed imagination as an intellectual dual‐process virtue, consisting of imagination1 (underwritten by cognitive Type 1 processing) and imagination2 (supported by Type 2 processing). This paper investigates the consequences of taking such an account seriously. It proposes that the dual‐process view of imagination allows us to incorporate recent insights from virtue epistemology, providing a fresh perspective on how imagination can be epistemically reliable. The argument centers on the distinction between General Reliability (GR) and Functional System Reliability (FSR), for example in relation to Kengo Miyazono and Uko Tooming's (2023) argument for epistemic generativity. Furthermore, the paper claims that the dual‐process virtue account enables us to integrate a wide range of findings from the literature on epistemology and imagination. Moreover, it suggests a novel way to distinguish the virtues of creativity and imagination and presents a case for viewing imagination as a virtue rather than a skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of testimonio methodology, born from Chicana/Latina feminist thought and epistemologies as a way of exploring the languaging and knowledge production practices of minoritized communities as a platform to share their/our wisdom/voices in applied linguistics. As such, testimonio is a methodology that allows racialized scholars and accomplices to foreground their/our languaging and knowledges and thus disrupt deficit framings. This paper explores the benefits of using testimonios in applied linguistics as one way of disrupting epistemological racism. Drawing on examples from three different youth who took part in a multiyear culturally sustaining systemic functional linguistics oriented program we show the power of using various types of testimonios to examine/understand the languaging and literacies practices of racialized youth. Implications indicate that the co-creation of knowledge/understanding is what makes testimonios a powerful and insightful methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global challenges call for timely social--ecological transformation. There is a substantial amount of literature on social--ecological transformation, increasingly replacing and going beyond 'sustainability'. However, the concept itself is used very inconsistently. This paper aims at identifying and systematizing the strains of argumentation that encompass the social--ecological transformation. Adding German-speaking literature to the Anglophone debate, we systematize as we follow the concept's genesis to its varieties of use within context-based (spatial, temporal, and societal) disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary debates. Building on the various strands of contemporary use, this paper aims at contouring the epistemologies of the concept. Lastly, we illustrate the roles of geographical research approaches and the assigned methodology. We argue that the strands tend to drift apart and cannot be seen nor used as a singular uniform approach. We identify the key dimensions of how scholars use social--ecological transformation, unearthing underlying epistemologies. To conclude, we delineate key elements that geographical research on social--ecological transformation must address, laying the foundation for further scholarly debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two objectives. The first objective is a decoupling of the African body from 'blackness'—a discursive formation—that was attached to the body by the slave and the colonial regimes. The second aim is a critique of modern epistemic and epistemological regimes that give 'blackness' its modern currency. To achieve these goals, I use phenomenology, a philosophy of self-responsible beginning according to Edmund Husserl, to return to the African body before colonialism and slavery. Through phenomenology I can 'bracket' what the above regimes and their legacies have been conditioning the African to see and know about the body. The paper is therefore an attempt at a liberatory epistemology aimed at overcoming what Achille Mbembe has referred to as a 'dungeon of appearance'. Since 'blackness' is continental and diaspora Africans (CADA) seen through discursive colonial eyes, phenomenology provides an epistemological freedom to observe the body in-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates, in a comparative fashion, the common quest for the Dao by authors of the Xunzi and the Xici zhuan of the Book of Changes to come to terms with political and social crises in Warring States China. Since the two texts adopt both similar and divergent methodologies in their search of the Dao, this paper first examines their similarities in terms of process cosmology, epistemology, and practice of ritual, and then analyzes the divergences in their approaches to the Dao. In particular, the practice of ritual is unveiled as the marker of the Dao within the philosophical framework of both texts, albeit with differing connotations. In the final analysis, this paper discusses both the underlying pragmatic applications of the two approaches in the nuanced philosophical insights they provide into the coordination of human beings with the processes of the cosmos, and their implications in understanding what A.C. Graham calls "the disputers of the Dao". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When looking for an account that explains how pain changes consciousness, one finds that most studies in the phenomenology of pain focus either on the outcome of the change, or on how it affects the self, as a conscious object, and the self's experiences in the world of objects. This paper focuses on the mechanism of consciousness, exploring the nature of the change that pain creates in consciousness and how exactly that change occurs. The paper provides a systematic, phenomenological inquiry in three phases: one identifies three essential attributes of consciousness, another identifies three essential attributes of pain, and a third analyses the outcome of the integration between both sets of attributes. The paper demonstrates how the change wrought by pain on the self, as a conscious object, allows the self to breach its boundaries as an object, and experience being a non-object, even if only in part and temporarily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what it could mean to say that epistemologies and methodologies are racially just or unjust. It has been argued that this has nothing to do with whether an individual researcher is racist: he or she could be anti-racist but still use an epistemology that is racially biased. To explore this issue, some pioneering research by Allison Davis, an influential African-American scholar in the 1940s and 1950s, is examined. This research dealt with the effects of social class cultures on academic achievement in the United States. While Davis was well-known at the time, his work in this field is now largely forgotten. Two senses of 'racially-just' are examined in this paper, relating: to the intrinsic character or origin of epistemologies and methodologies; or to the implications for and likely consequences of their use. Davis's investigations employed methods and assumptions that are rejected by many educational researchers today. I will address the question of whether these can be criticised as racially unjust; and, if so, on what basis. This evaluation will lead to a consideration of the broader question of the terms in which it is appropriate to assess educational research, and in particular the epistemologies and methodologies on which it depends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the connection between the act of teaching and the imparting of knowledge. Our overarching aim is to demonstrate that the connection between them is less tight than one might suppose. Our stepping off point is a recent paper by David Bakhurst who (on one reading, at least) takes a strong view, opposed to our own. On our reading, Bakhurst argues that there is a tight conceptual connection between teaching and the imparting of knowledge. We argue that this is not the case; the connection does not hold. We then consider several ways we might weaken the alleged conceptual connection between teaching and knowledge, finally considering two ways of severing the conceptual connection altogether, whilst at the same time allowing that much teaching does indeed lead to the imparting of knowledge. We argue that such views are to be preferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applied a critical narrative analysis to narratives of youth self‐identifying as having mental health concerns. Instances of epistemic justice and injustice were identified related to youth's interactions with clinical and educational institutions as well as with parents and peers. Youth experienced instances of institutional ignorance related to their experiences, as well as implicit and explicit silencing of their experiences. Youth also experienced validation from practitioners and teachers who validated their needs and knowledge of their own experiences. Implications for practice and research are discussed around promoting epistemically just practice with youth and in the mental health system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse of deservingness has been mobilised against certain groups in the UK society navigating UK labour markets, among them refugees and asylum seekers. These discourses, leading to the stigmatisation of the unemployed are coupled with an emphasis on the importance of individuals taking responsibility to develop their 'employability'. Little attention has been paid to scrutinise the contrast between the deservingness rhetoric and policy making with the actual conditions newcomers, and in particular refugees and asylum seekers, are confronted with when seeking employment. Our paper fills such a gap by indicating key contradictions at the heart of labour market integration in the UK. On the one hand, the emphasis on deservingness is coupled with policy discourses that construct an environment shaped by welfare and labour market chauvinism. On the other hand, the policy architecture is fundamentally flawed in a number of ways in terms of the support mechanisms necessary to ensure that newcomers can successfully integrate into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is divided into a surveying and argumentative part and a slightly longer documentary part, which is meant to verify or at least make more plausible claims made in the first part. The first part deals in broad outline with the relationship of Frank and von Mises to the Vienna Circle of Logical Empiricism on the one hand and to the physicists and mathematicians in the German-speaking world on the other. The varying special positions, partly the non-conformity of the two Austrian scientists are emphasized, in particular, their adherence to Ernst Mach's epistemology and their shared interest in probability theory and applied mathematics. The impact of emigration and the after-effects in the U.S. are discussed. This leads to new insights into the fine structure of the Vienna Circle and the latter's relationship to German academia within 'Weimar Culture'. P. Forman's interpretation (1971) of von Mises' position is critically discussed. The second, documentary part, uses recently discovered correspondence between Frank and von Mises, and, to a lesser extent, von Mises' personal diary. It aims at further substantiating some of the introductory theses and will at the same time provide material for a thorough biographical appreciation of the two scholars and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While growing empirical evidence suggests a continuity between human and non-human psychology, many philosophers still think that only humans can act and form beliefs rationally. In this paper, we challenge this claim. We first clarify the notion of rationality. We then focus on the rationality of beliefs and argue that, in the relevant sense , humans are not the only rational animals. We do so by first distinguishing between unreflective and reflective responsiveness to epistemic reasons in belief formation and revision. We argue that unreflective responsiveness is clearly within the reach of many animals. We then defend that a key demonstration of reflective responsiveness would be the ability to respond to undermining defeaters. We end by presenting some empirical evidence that suggests that some animal species are capable of processing these defeaters, which would entail that even by the strictest standards, humans are not the only rational animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Rein and Schön developed their approach to policy framing analysis in the1990s, a range of approaches to policy framing have emerged to inform our understanding of policy processes. Prior attempts to illuminate the diversity of approaches to framing in public policy have largely "stayed in their lane," making distinctions in approaches within shared epistemic communities. The aim in this paper is to map different approaches to framing used in policy sciences journals, to articulate what each contributes to the understanding of the policy process, and to provide a heuristic to aid in deciding how to use the diverse approaches in framing analysis and to further the dialogue across different approaches. To develop the heuristic, we manually coded and analyzed 68 articles published between 1997 and 2018 using "frame" or "framing" in their title or abstract from four policy journals: Critical Policy Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, Policy Sciences, and Policy Studies Journal. We identified five approaches, which we label: sensemaking, discourse, contestation, explanatory and institutional. We have found that these approaches do not align with a simple binary between interpretive and positivist but show variation, particularly along the lines of aims, methodology and methods. In the discussion, we suggest that these five approaches raise four key questions that animate framing studies in policy analysis: (1) Do frames influence policies or are policies manifestations of framing? (2) What is the role of frame contestation in policy conflict? (3) How can the study of frames or framing reveal unheard voices? And (4) how do certain frames/framings become dominant? By introducing these questions, we offer a fresh way scholars might discuss frames and framing in the policy sciences across approaches, to highlight the distinct yet complementary ways they illuminate policy processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on societies and individual lives across the globe. In this paper, we address the impact of the pandemic and the protective measures on empirical social scientific ageing research through the lens of 'ethically important moments'. One of the most crucial measures for preventing the spread of the virus includes social distancing; therefore, empirical research methods based on person-to-person direct contact (as in interviews) and first-hand observation have been scaled back since 2020. For ageing research, the challenges are particularly pronounced due to the ongoing discussion regarding vulnerabilities associated with higher age and age-based discrimination. Hence, many researchers focusing on ageing are facing some difficult questions: How and under what conditions can we carry on with empirical research without putting our research participants and ourselves at risk? Firstly, we systematically identify the key dimensions and challenges that have shaped social scientific research during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: fragmentation, fluidity, ambiguity and uncertainty. Then, using insights from two international research projects, we illustrate and critically reflect on the ethically important moments and practical dilemmas that have resulted from these pandemic challenges when researching with and about older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a decision-making approach grounded in rough set theory and evidential reasoning to address the demand for expert decision-making in greenhouse environmental control systems. Furthermore, a decision-making model is developed by integrating the D-S evidence theory with an expert knowledge table for greenhouse environmental control systems. The model's reasoning process encompasses continuous attribute discretization, expert decision table formation, attribute reduction, and evidence combination reasoning. Firstly, the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm is employed to discretize the original environmental data and cluster it. Subsequently, an attribute reduction algorithm based on information entropy is utilized to optimize the decision table by eliminating unnecessary conditional attributes in expert knowledge. The reduced indicators are then combined using evidential theory. Finally, suitable greenhouse control methods are determined by the confidence decision proposed by the D-S evidence theory. To assess the efficacy of this intelligent decision-making algorithm based on rough set and D-S evidence theory, its performance is compared with traditional SVM algorithms and small-shot learning algorithms. The results indicate that this proposed method significantly enhances the credibility of control decision-making processes, with an average running time of 0.002378s for the fusion decision algorithm and 0.017939s for the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, respectively. The SVM accuracy rate after testing and training stands at 90.34%. Moreover, retraining based on information entropy attribute reduction leads to a correct decision rate increase of up to 100%. This method notably improves confidence levels in decision-making processes while reducing uncertainty and demonstrates reliability when applied in making decisions regarding greenhouse environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within IR, scholars are starting to consider difference on the level of ontology rather than epistemology. Other worlds are introduced into IR's political pluriverse, however, these are often encountered in faraway places, thereby playing into the colonial narrative that ontological difference does not exist in the 'West'. This paper introduces another real from within the 'disenchanted North' that is shaped by contemplative activists: people using contemplation as a form of protest. An engagement with contemplative activism challenges our commonly held assumptions about what contemplation and social change are, thereby undermining the institutions of 'science' and 'religion' underlying the universe. It argues that the project of political ontology in IR should consist of two moves: drawing in other, in particular spiritual, realities into the political imaginations of IR and challenging the ontological assumptions underpinning concepts. Consequently, it suggests that the pluriverse in IR should be a methodological rather than an ontological commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word "talent" is used across many sport disciplines – to describe an athlete's prowess (i.e. "he is talented"), as a term for what is sought after during assessment and selection (i.e. talent selection camps) or in reference to players to be developed (i.e. "a group of talents"). While the term has received research attention regarding its definition and criteria, its utility in practical settings is often debated. In this paper, we review several areas of concern researchers have raised for using the term "talent" and why this matters in the context of athlete development. While the notion of talent continues to resonate with coaches, scientists and practitioners, we suggest several areas for future research and recommendations for the use of this controversial term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we defend two claims. First, we argue that a notion of contextuality that has been formalized in physics and psychology is applicable to linguistic contexts. Second, we propose that this formal apparatus is philosophically significant for the epistemology of language because it imposes homogeneous rational constraints on speakers. We propose a Contextuality Principle that explains and articulates these two claims. This principle states that speakers update contextual information by significantly reducing the space of probabilities and variables in a non-commutative way. Some contexts affect other contexts not merely in terms of the information they contain, but also on the basis of their sequential order. In particular, we argue that the Contextuality by Default (CBD) theory provides a formalism that helps explain the role of contextuality in rational linguistic exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the role of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) by analysing and presenting a critique of its report '20 Years of INEE: Achievements and Challenges in Education in Emergencies'. Despite the strides achieved in highlighting the importance of education in humanitarian crises, we identify four critical points related to the ontology and epistemology of Education in Emergencies with a specific focus on refugee education: First, the oxymoron between short-term humanitarianism and future-oriented education, second, the purpose of education; third, the role of knowledge production within INEE as a primary agenda-setter; and fourth, how the INEE as firmly embedded in the humanitarian system reproduces unequal power dynamics. In conclusion and by using a decoloniality continuum (Abdelnour and Abu Moghli [2021]. "Researching Violent Contexts: A Call for Political Reflexivity." Organization. doi:) ranging from complicity to liberation, we offer different possibilities for INEE to address the four critical points and the potential for decolonising the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Undergraduates' collective epistemic agency is critical for their productive collaborative inquiry and knowledge building (KB). However, fostering undergraduates' collective epistemic agency is challenging. Studies have demonstrated the potential of computer‐supported collaborative inquiry approaches, such as KB—the focus of this study, and reflective assessment to foster collective epistemic agency. Objectives: This study used a quasi‐experimental design to examine the impact of reflective assessment on undergraduates' collective epistemic agency and the mechanisms of this impact. Methods: An experimental class, comprising 40 undergraduates, engaged in KB inquiry enhanced by analytics‐assisted reflective assessment, while a comparison class, comprising 41 undergraduates, engaged in portfolio‐supported reflective assessment in KB inquiry. Classroom observations, audio recordings of group discussions and reflections, and student artefacts were collected in both conditions. Results and Conclusions: The experimental class demonstrated significantly higher levels of collective epistemic agency than the comparison class, as indicated by their collective knowledge advancement and epistemic and metacognitive actions. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed that reflective assessment enhanced the undergraduates' collective epistemic agency through their collective monitoring and regulation of inquiry and ideas, negotiation and synthesis of the community's ideas, conceptualization of collective theories and identification of collective inquiry trajectories with an internal reflective structure. Major Takeaways: Higher‐level metacognitive actions are critical for productive collaborative inquiry and higher‐level epistemic agency that does not often occur naturally and should be promoted by appropriate scaffolding strategies. Students need data from learning analytics and accompanying prompt sheets to help them develop the internal metacognitive structure for agency and learning. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic?: Undergraduates' collective epistemic agency (CEA) is critical for productive KB.Analytics‐assisted reflective assessment (AARA) are promising in fostering CEA. What does this paper add?: AARA has positive influences on students' CEAAARA helps students develop CEA through the following mechanisms.AARA supports students' collective regulation and negotiation of collective ideas.AARA enhances conceptualization and deepening of collective trajectories with an internal reflective structure. Implications for practice/or policy: Higher‐level metacognitive actions are critical for collaborative inquiry and CEAAnalytics‐assisted RA can enhance students' higher‐level metacognitive actions.Students should be provided with learning data and appropriate scaffolding strategies.These data and strategies can develop students' internal metacognitive structure crucial for agency and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Open Science' advocates for open access to scientific research, as well as sharing data, analysis plans and code in order to enable replication of results. However, these requirements typically fail to account for methodological differences between quantitative and qualitative research, and serious ethical problems are raised by the suggestion that full qualitative datasets can or should be published alongside qualitative research papers. Aside from important ethical concerns, the idea of sharing qualitative data in order to enable replication is conceptually at odds with the underpinnings on most qualitative methodologies, which highlight the importance of the unique interpretative function of the researcher. The question of whether secondary analysis of qualitative data is acceptable is key, and in this commentary we argue that there are good conceptual, ethical and economic reasons to consider how funders, researchers and publishers can make better use of existing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Anscombe a solitary activity is intentional if the agent has self-knowledge of what she is doing. Analogously one might think that to partake in shared intentional activities is for the agents involved to have plural or collective self-knowledge of what they are doing together. I call this 'the Plural Practical Knowledge Thesis' (PPK). While some authors have advanced related theses about the nature of the knowledge involved in shared practical activities (see Laurence, B. [2011]. "An Anscombian Approach to Collective Action." In Essays on Anscombe's Intention, edited by Anton Ford, Jennifer Hornsby, and Frederick Stoutland. Cambridge: Harvard UP; Schmid, H.-B. [2016]. "On Knowing What We Are Doing Together." In The Epistemic Life of Groups: Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives, edited by Michael S. Brady, and Miranda Fricker. Oxford: Oxford UP; Rödl, S. [2015]. "Joint Action and Recursive Consciousness of Consciousness." Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences 14: 769–779. doi:; Rödl, S. [2018a]. "Joint Action and Pure Self-Consciousness." Journal of Social Philosophy 49 (1): 124–136; Rödl, S. [2018b]. Self-Consciousness and Objectivity. Cambridge: Harvard UP) this alternative remains relatively underexplored in the current literature. The paper offers an account of plural practical knowledge based on the idea that shared activities of the relevant sort share a normative structure given by practical, means-end structures and proposes a paradigmatic methodology that generalizes this account to understand what different cases of collective intentional action have in common. It then discusses the differences between the proposed approach and those due to Schmid 2016. "On Knowing What We Are Doing Together." In The Epistemic Life of Groups: Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives, edited by Michael S. Brady, and Miranda Fricker. Oxford: Oxford UP and Laurence 2011. "An Anscombian Approach to Collective Action." In Essays on Anscombe's Intention, edited by Anton Ford, Jennifer Hornsby, and Frederick Stoutland. Cambridge: Harvard UPand the reasons why it should be preferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Le but de ce travail est d'explorer les multiples aspects du « Praecox Feeling » tels qu'il a été décrit par le psychiatre néerlandais H.C. Rümke et développé dans les suites par ses pairs. Nous proposons une présentation historique sur ce sujet allant des premières descriptions aux études les plus récentes. Nous proposons d'y associer des notions voisines telles que les processus de typification et le jugement expert (Gut feeling) en y intégrant des aspects épistémologiques. Le Praecox Feeling a été présenté par Rümke comme le moyen le plus sensible pour diagnostiquer une schizophrénie. Phénomène singulier de la rencontre clinique, il peut être décrit comme une expérience de bizarrerie ou d'étrangeté vécue par le clinicien au contact de son patient. Rümke conclut que le diagnostic de schizophrénie ne se fait pas strictement par une description précise des symptômes, mais en examinant son propre ressenti. De nombreux auteurs et chercheurs ont travaillé sur ce sujet et sont pour la plupart sensibles à une approche phénoménologique. Ainsi, Minkowski, Binswanger ou Tellenbach, parmi d'autres, ont permis d'affiner cette notion en parlant de « diagnostic par intuition », « diagnostic par pénétration » ou encore « diagnostic atmosphérique ». Malgré un abandon progressif de la subjectivité dans le processus diagnostique en psychiatrie, on retrouve dans la littérature contemporaine un regain d'intérêt de telles approches. On peut ainsi citer les processus de typifications ou encore le jugement expert (Gut feeling) qui proposent d'éclairer les mécanismes en jeu via une approche issue en partie des sciences cognitives et sociales. Ainsi, il apparaît que la question du diagnostic et de ses processus dépasse le strict champ psychiatrique pour rejoindre celui de la médecine au sens large. The aim of this review is to explore the multiple aspects of the « Praecox Feeling » as introduced and developed by the Dutch Psychiatrist H.C Rümke in 1941 and re-assessed over the following years by its peers. We present a historical review of this subject from the first description to the most recent research and proposed related notions like typification processes and gut feeling. The Praecox Feeling, as presented by Rümke, may be considered as the most sensible tool in order to diagnose schizophrenia. This phenomenon appears in the in-between of the clinical encounter (i.e. the intersubjective space). It may be felt by the clinician as an experience of bizarreness during the interaction with a patient suffering from schizophrenia. Those feelings suggest fundamental aspects of schizophrenia that can be recognized as a peculiar form of embodiment. Rümke finally concludes that schizophrenia is not diagnosed by strictly examining patients' symptoms, but psychiatrists' own feelings. The recognition of such feelings remains hard to describe explicitly, since it takes place in a very basic (« pre reflexive ») state. However, numbers of researchers tried to explore praecox feeling more accurately. A phenomenological approach, with Minkowski, Binswanger or Tellenbach among others, developed several related terms: "Diagnostic by intuition", "Diagnostic by penetration" or "Atmospheric diagnosis". Although the precocity of the diagnosis is mentioned in Rümke's original paper, it does not precisely define the Praecox Feeling, contributing to the misunderstanding of the Rümke's original formulation. The very notion of Praecox Feeling in terms of psychiatric diagnoses fell into disuse with the development and the widespread diffusion of criteriological approaches, with the risk of an impoverishment of the clinical diagnosis. However, the study of specific subjective perspectives showed a renewed interest over the last decade, especially with the contribution of cognitive and social neurosciences. Furthermore, studies on psychiatrists' daily-practice suggest that the Praecox Feeling is still relevant. Moreover, "the subjective tool" represented by the Praecox Feeling remains as used today as it was fifty years ago, in a pre-DSM III era. Temporal aspects have, nevertheless, lead to several studies suggesting that many clinical indices are identified during the first minutes of a clinical interview, especially for schizophrenia. In order to specify this very intuitive pathway, authors developed and worked on the typifications processes that lead to such feelings, involving diagnosis through prototypes. The passive synthesis of such subtle clinical clues may induce for the clinician a "pattern recognition" phenomenon that reminds a "gestaltic" diagnosis. This specific aspect of typification may not be specific of psychiatry. The "Guts Feeling" is a notion first developed by Dutchs physicians, particularly in General medicine but also among other medicals disciplines, theoretically very close from the notion of intuitive typification. It may allow benefits in term of diagnoses, reassurance or alarm sense. It suggests that clinical experience added to criteriology provides risks reductions. The crucial role of clinical experience in the diagnosis decision making tends to be underexplored, but still represents a crucial aspect of the evidence-based medicine as firstly described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Thinking with Assent: Renewing a Traditional Account of Knowledge and Belief, Maria Rosa Antognazza offers a historical narrative of pre-modern epistemology. She argues that until very recently, philosophers generally held that "knowing and believing are distinct in kind in the strong sense that they are mutually exclusive mental states". This paper tests, and ultimately confirms, that account by applying it two thinkers of the Islamic world, al-Fārābī (d.950 CE) and Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, d.1037 CE). It is shown that both of them used the term 'assent (taṣdīq)' as an umbrella term covering two very different states, knowledge and belief. In the case of Ibn Sīnā, this contrast is ultimately tied to his sharp distinction between immaterial intellective thinking and embodied thinking that uses a physical organ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive is a documentary fiction that innovatively explores the possibilities and limitations of the novel genre and engenders a precarious aesthetic through its unconventional narrative structure. Drawing on the theoretical framework of precarious texts, as advanced by eminent German cultural critic Sieglinde Lemke, this paper argues that Luiselli's fiction, with its eclectic blend of intertextual references, avant-garde narrative strategies, and incorporation of archival materials, offers a richly nuanced and pluralistic representation of undocumented children at the US-Mexico border. By utilizing child focalization, magic realism, and unreliable narration, in conjunction with the assimilation of archival materials such as posters, reports, and photographs, the author reenacts the novel's story with a second narrator to elicit a precarious gaze, empowering an alternative mode of understanding the complexity of the migration crisis. Rather than resorting to overt political messaging, Luiselli implores readers to engage with the novel's structure and contemplate its representational modes, provoking a creative response that transcends feelings of pity and indignation. By subtly foregrounding the political impasse surrounding the uneven distribution of precariousness, the narrative creates a complex blend of fact and fiction to generate a reflexive understanding that can potentially challenge readers' ethical and epistemological dispositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent authors hold that the role of historical scholarship within contemporary philosophical practice is to question current assumptions, to expose vestiges or to calibrate intuitions. On these views, historical scholarship is dispensable, since these roles can be achieved by nonhistorical methods. And the value of historical scholarship is contingent, since the need for the role depends on the presence of questionable assumptions, vestiges or comparable intuitions. In this paper I draw an analogy between scientific and philosophical practice, in order to float one role for historical scholarship that is nonreplicable and noncontingent. It has long been acknowledged that cognitive values – features of theories that facilitate understanding, such as ontological parsimony, ideological simplicity, computational ease and fecundity – play a key role within science. The role of some of these values within philosophy also has received attention but left understudied are the values of novelty and conservativeness. These values influence theory choice, the selection of methodology, the setting of research agenda, and the presentation of results; and are best assessed with a historically informed evaluation. This role for historical scholarship is not replicable by nonhistorical methods, and is not contingent on the presence of questionable assumptions, vestiges or comparable intuitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are rules? In this paper I develop a view of regulative rules which takes them to be a distinctive normative kind occupying a middle ground between orders and normative truths. The paradigmatic cases of regulative rules that I'm interested in are social rules like rules of etiquette and legal rules like traffic rules. On the view I'll propose, a rule is a general normative content that is in force due to human activity: enactment by an authority or acceptance by a community. Rules are unlike orders in being not necessarily communicative, not an expression's of the giver's will, not evaluable for sincerity, and in that they have propositional content. And they're unlike normative truths in that they're themselves not even truth‐evaluable (though their contents are). This is because rules qua things that are in force are not like constatives which have a mind to world direction of fit, but more like performatives. Furthermore, they differ from normative truths in that their normativity is isolated from their background justification and is therefore not dependent on contributory notions like reasons coming together in a weighing explanation. As such, they occupy a middle ground between orders and normative truths, much like in H. L. A. Hart's opinion law occupies a middle ground between "coercion" and "morality" (Hart 1961/1994). I also illustrate the virtues of this understanding of rules by showing how proper appreciation of how they differ from normative truths helps us defuse a common objection to Hart's practice theory of rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GRADE-CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) was developed to support the use of evidence from qualitative reviews within policy- and decision-making. To date, the approach has been applied predominantly to aggregative synthesis methodologies and descriptive review findings. GRADE-CERQual guidance recommends the approach be tested on more diverse review methodologies and outputs to support its evolution. This paper contributes to this evolution by reflecting on our experiences of applying GRADE-CERQual to findings that emerged from a recent Cochrane meta-ethnography on childhood vaccination. Specifically, we describe the similarities and differences, challenges and dilemmas we experienced applying the approach to more interpretive versus more descriptive review findings. We found that we were able to apply the core criteria and principles of GRADE-CERQual in ways that were congruent with the methodologies and epistemologies of a meta-ethnography and its findings. We also found that the practical application processes were similar across review finding types. The main differences related to the level of demand placed on the evidence and the level of complexity involved with the decisions. Compared to more descriptive findings, more interpretive findings required evidence that was richer, thicker, more contextually situated and methodologically stronger for us to have the same level of confidence in them. Making the assessments for these findings also involved more complicated forms of judgement. We provide practical examples to illustrate these complexities and how we approached them, which others applying GRADE-CERQual to more interpretive review findings could draw upon. We also highlight areas requiring further discussion, in the hope that this will offer a platform for engagement and the potential future refinement of the approach. Ultimately, this could enhance the usability of GRADE-CERQual for a larger range of qualitative review findings and in turn expand the kinds of knowledges that count within decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the expectations regarding university studies and career choice of first-generation university students and graduates. Our interest in this particular population is due to the fact that they are atypical cases. The theoretical perspective is the relationship with knowledge and dispositionalist and contextualist sociology. The methodology is qualitative and we used in-depth interviews with a sample of 35 students from three degree courses at the National University of La Plata. The families and the school experience were central in the construction of expectations, while the choice of career was defined on the basis of the transit through secondary school, in the university experience itself as well as in other non-school environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a "neoclassical" reading of Ernan McMullin's thought on science and theology. McMullin's Augustinian convictions on God and the God–world relation coincide with those of some prominent scholars from two renowned schools of neo-scholastic philosophy of the twentieth century in Louvain and Milan. The school of Milan, thanks to the work of some disciples of its leading figure, Amato Masnovo, developed a neoclassical version of neo-scholasticism, articulating a fundamental theory of knowledge, as well as an essential, rigorous path to God. We recall the main tenets of a neoclassical path to God, and we interpret this path as a possible contribution to the science–theology dialogue, in line with McMullin's Augustinism. A neoclassical approach to science and theology, with its rediscovery and reactualization of some ideas of classic philosophy in an interdisciplinary context, grounds the intelligibility of the universe and safeguards its mystery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiential reality surrounding the Divine Liturgy, a Byzantine rite in Orthodox Christianity that has remained central to Eastern practice globally since Late Antiquity. The article draws on multi-sited ethnography in the glocal context of the Orthodox Church of Finland (OCF), a national church of minority and a site of multicultural interaction. Our analysis shows participants articulate their experiences with the Liturgy in an epistemology of interiority by which (1) they constantly, if unevenly, and agentically engage with the Liturgy in a form of individual, vernacular artistry. This interiority is (2) both sensorial and interpretative, and (3) ambivalently grounded in motifs of being "at home" and, at the same time, "on a journey." That is, participants from different backgrounds make a connection to the Liturgy both as a spiritual and a literal home, relating to different elements—Finnish, Karelian, Byzantine, and Church Slavonic—in its ritualistic aesthetics. At the same time, Liturgy emerges as a perpetual journey of new openings and glimpses, informed by past experiences and life trajectories, and participants relate to these two aspects simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the leadership of the local Catholic Church in a forceful social movement of resistance against long-dated marginalization, inequality, and multi-faceted forms of violence in the main city-port in Colombia's pacific littoral: Buenaventura's Civic Strike process. Based on interviews conducted with religious and lay participants, it explores how spiritual memory, social space, and collective affects act as the enabling condition for this leadership, a condition that the interviewees characterize as a relation of trust between people and Church. The paper argues that this affect of trust implies complex intersections between social protest, Church and State that require, in turn, a different conceptualization of the social space. One that challenges secularism as an epistemology of the social by overcoming its distinctive clear-cut divisions between Church and State, and between State and civil society. The notion of "churchstateness," proposed in recent literature, is hence tested as an alternative analytic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Currently, the specialized literature agreed on the need to democratize knowledge in techno-cognitive decision-making. In particular, some participation mechanisms are questionated because are considered mere exercises used to legitimize preexisting decisions. This accounts for the need to outline new tools to analyze the participatory dynamics in the generation of projects and technologies for local development. Objective: This paper aims to propose an analytical framework to map participatory dynamics, applied to the analysis of local development projects promoted by research institutions through the design and apply of a specific typology. Methodology: This qualitative research is based on two case studies, which involved indepth interviews with relevant actors, documentary analysis and fieldwork in key participatory action research. To carry out the analysis, we use a theoretical-methodological approach based on the sociology of constructivist technology, which proposes to inquire the way in which society and technology are co-constructed. Results: The analysis of two case studies alowed to identify two different trajectories of social participation. The first case initiate with aa broad participation experience, but derived a form of expert control. The second case began with expert control, but participation broadened and intensified throughout the process. Conclusions: Finally, the paper propose some reflections on how participatory dynamics work in the promotion of interactive learning processes and capacity building in technoscientific projects for local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the epistemic inequality of international students as a "new" inequality that is under-represented in the current debates about decolonisation (albeit shaped by colonial discourses depicting international students as in deficit and incapable of meeting the standards of (colonial) universities). In this theoretical context, the paper reflects on a multi-modal digital methodology used in a research project that aimed to understand how international students deploy their epistemological resources to learn the curriculum. The paper describes selected artefacts submitted by the students around which their epistemic frames were expressed, suggesting where these may be concealed by epistemological situatedness of the lecturers. Based on the analysis of these artefacts, the paper develops and interrogates an epistemology for support towards interrogating the role of our own epistemological binaries in adversely affecting students' epistemic frames in the curriculum. As such, it contributes to a gap in the literature around decolonial pedagogy, and its role in tackling educational inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deuteronomy 23:3, says: "No ... Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord". This verse is motivated by a discriminatory tendency embedded in the ontology of the Deuteronomist. Interestingly, Deuteronomy 23:3 was used by Ezra-Nehemiah to discriminate against the "Moabites" during the Second Temple. Such ontology is countered by the author of Ruth in the narrative of Ruth during the Second Temple. This demonstrates an ontological "war" within the Bible itself. The primary contestation lies in whether God is exclusive or inclusive. This development necessitates a hermeneutics of suspicion. In the course of history, the "theology" of Deuteronomy has been used to grossly violate the human dignity of many God-fearing African people and many other people of the South for colonial purposes. To exacerbate the situation, there were persistent attempts from some quarters to universalise such a discriminatory biblical perspective. This would feed into the centre–periphery arrangement, with the centre feeding the periphery with such hermeneutics. For this reason, African scholars are implored to be very vigilant against ardent pressures put on the biblical texts by ontological, epistemological, and contextual biases of interpretations. Accordingly, Andrew Mbuvi identifies African Biblical Hermeneutics perfectly when he says it seeks to undo "the very construct of the 'centre-periphery' binary by allowing the possibility of multiple centres"). Kenneth Ngwa, thus, rightly asserts that African Biblical Hermeneutics considers African epistemologies and conditions "to be invaluable and legitimate contexts and resources in biblical interpretation"), drinking from our own wells). In consequence, this paper intends to set a dialogue between Deuteronomy 23:3 and Ruth 4:18–22. This paper aims to examine the understanding of God behind these verses. This paper will then compare the two theologies with the African philosophical concept of God. Harnessing the African concept of Ubuntu, this paper will de-ideologise the two texts and thus will provide a recommendation concerning the two texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimalism is the view that our concept of truth is constituted by our disposition to accept instances of the truth schema 'The proposition that p is true if and only if p'. The generalisation problem is the challenge to account for universal generalisations concerning logical truths such as 'Every proposition of the form 〈if p, then p〉 is true'. This paper argues that such generalisations can be deduced using a single example of the logical truth in question and a single corresponding instance of the truth schema, employing the logical method of reasoning with arbitrary instances of universal and existential generalisations. Suggesting an inferentialist construal of Minimalism, the paper introduces conditional and general acceptance dispositions, distinguishes inferential meaning constitution from implicit definition, highlights the inferential nature of acceptance of instances of the truth schema, sketches a suitable account of structured propositions, compares higher-order with first-order means of quantification, and argues that the conception of truth Minimalism attributes to ordinary speakers is essentially inferential. It finally applies the deductive strategy to generalisations concerning logical validity as well as more complex logical truths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]