Academic literature on the topic 'Belief systems'

People are behaviorally and psychologically complex to a point that we cannot separate ourselves from our values, beliefs, and assumptions; they affect every part of our lives. In education, beliefs influence what, why, and how something is taught. The many threads of teacher belief literature have deepened our understanding of the teaching phenomenon for many decades. This article suggests that educational quality can be improved if teachers would analyze their own educational belief systems more systematically and comprehensively. The article gives a brief history of teacher belief research and suggests a framework by which teachers could analyze their thinking, beliefs, or assumptions. The article finishes with an example of how one professor integrated teacher belief research into a college course helping pre-service art educators analyze their conflicting belief systems.

In this article it is contended that the centrality (or salience) of beliefs is an important but overlooked feature of belief Systems about unions. This theme is pursued through a study of the centrality of beliefs about unions in a sample of Hamilton, Ontario workers. Each participant sorted 48 separate statements about unions, identifying those statements with which she/he most agreed and most disagreed. These data are analyzed in two distinct ways. First, the article outlines general tendencies in the centrality of belief s for the entire sample. However, people differ in what they think is most important about unions. Therefore, the article also identifies the central belief s for six typical ways of thinking about unions.

This thesis is concerned with the problem of construction of the logical structure of a persuasive discourse. A persuasive discourse can be defined as a monodirectional form of communication, generated by a speaker in order to convince a hearer about the validity (or fallacy) of a specific belief The construction of the structure of a persuasive discourse is realized, in this work, through the adoption of two basic elements: a belief system and a planning system. The planning system is used as a tool for the automatic generation of the discourse structure (or plan), obtained through the decomposition of the assigned (communicative) goals of persuasion, aimed at producing specific effects on the hearer’s beliefs. The belief system is adopted in order to endow the planning process with a formal language of beliefs for the representation of such goals, and with the mechanisms which govern the propagation of their (expected) effects on the rest of the hearer's belief state. The main results presented consist of the formalization of a paradigm for specification of belief systems, and of a method — whose correctness is formally proved — for their integration with planning systems. The formalization of a belief system for discourse structure representation (defined in accordance with the theoretical paradigm) is also given, together with the description of its implementation and integration with a specific planner, which resulted in the actual completion of a system for the automatic generation of persuasive discourse plans.

The goal of this thesis is twofold: first, we want to present the distributed belief accommodation and revision model for multi-agent systems that has been developed and, second, we wish to show its applicability to an appropriate domain. The Distributed Belief Accommodation & Revision model, called DeBAteR model, was developed for co-operative heterogeneous multi-agent systems used to model inherently dynamic distributed problems. In these systems, although the agents are able to detect changes both in the environment and in the problem specifications, each agent has only a partial view of the global picture. As a result the information that represents the current state of affairs is dynamic, incomplete and sometimes uncertain. This non-monotonic kind of data is called beliefs ? a belief is a piece of data that is held as correct as long as no contradicting evidence is found or presented. Each agent is expected to include an assumption based truth maintenance module for representing properly this type of data. Our main effort was concentrated on the task of maintaining the system's information, which consists of updating, revising and accommodating the represented beliefs. Belief updating is necessary for including the changes detected by the agents both in the environment and/or in the problem specifications. Belief revision is essential for solving the inconsistencies detected among the represented beliefs. Belief accommodation and revision is crucial for integrating the multiple disparate perspectives regarding the same data items, which may occur whenever there is overlap of expertise domains between the agents. In order to solve the information conflicts that result from the detection of inconsistencies between distinct beliefs or within multi-perspective beliefs we conceived the DeBATeR model. The DeBAteR is fully distributed, provides individual belief autonomy and is made of two methodologies: the pro-active belief accommodation and revision methodology and the delayed belief revision methodology. Whilst the first methodology is used to solve domain independent conflicts, the second methodology was devised for solving domain dependent conflicts. Both methodologies use argumentation for, in the case of the domain independent conflicts, choosing the most credible perspective between the existing multiple perspectives of a belief, and, in the case of the domain dependent conflicts, finding the best alternative belief support set for the affected concepts. These methodologies are distributed and their scope may be internal or collective. The DeBAteR model main contributions are: (i) the pro-active methodology conceived for solving domain independent conflicts and (ii) the capability, not only to represent and maintain individual beliefs and joint beliefs, but also to accommodate, rationally maintain and make use of multi-perspective beliefs. Finally, we describe the developed decision support multi-agent system for choosing adequate project locations, called DIPLOMAT ? Dynamic and Interactive Project Location Test bed, which has the ability of accommodating and revising the represented beliefs according to the DeBAteR model methodologies.
O objectivo desta dissertação é duplo: por um lado, pretendemos dar a conhecer o modelo de revisão e acomodação de crenças para sistemas multi-agente por nós desenvolvido e, por outro, procuramos ilustrar a sua validade descrevendo a aplicação que realizámos. O modelo, designado DeBAteR ? Distributed Belief Accommodation & Revision, destina-se a sistemas multi-agente cooperativos e heterogéneos que modelam problemas inerentemente distribuídos e dinâmicos. Neste tipo de sistemas, a informação que representa o ambiente é dinâmica (os agentes possuem a capacidade de constatar alterações no ambiente e/ou nas condições do problema) e, muitas vezes, incompleta (os agentes possuem visões parcelares da realidade) e/ou incerta. Este tipo de informação, de carácter não definitivo, designa-se por crenças ? uma crença é uma convicção tida como correcta enquanto não for posta em causa por alguma evidência. Cada agente, a fim de representar e manipular crenças, foi enriquecido com um módulo específico de manutenção de consistência baseado em suposições. O nosso esforço concentrou-se na tarefa de manutenção (actualização, revisão e acomodação) da informação do sistema. A actualização de crenças é essencial para incorporar as alterações que os agentes detectam no ambiente e/ou nas condições do problema. A revisão de crenças é indispensável para resolver inconsistências (conflitos) entre as crenças representadas. A acomodação e revisão simultânea de crenças é imprescindível para a integração das múltiplas perspectivas díspares que surgem em relação a um mesmo item de informação (crenças pluri-perspectiva) quando existe sobreposição de domínios de especialidade entre os agentes. Para tentar solucionar estes conflitos entre crenças concebemos um modelo distribuído que assegura autonomia individual de crença. O modelo de acomodação e revisão de crenças DeBAteR é composto por duas metodologias: a metodologia pró-activa de acomodação e revisão de crenças pluri-perspectiva e a metodologia retardada de revisão de crenças. A primeira, destina-se a resolver conflitos independentes do domínio e a segunda destina-se à resolução de conflitos dependentes do domínio. Estas metodologias são suportadas quase integralmente por um sistema de argumentação que procura, no caso dos conflitos independentes do domínio, escolher a perspectiva mais credível e, no caso dos conflitos dependentes do domínio, encontrar o melhor conjunto alternativo de suporte para os conceitos afectados. Esta actividade é descentralizada e pode decorrer quer no âmbito intra-agente, quer no âmbito inter-agente. É ainda de realçar: (i) o carácter pró-activo da resolução dos conflitos independentes do domínio (crenças pluri-perspectiva) e (ii) a capacidade de, não só, representar e manter crenças de âmbito individual (crenças suportadas por apenas um agente) e crenças conjuntas (crenças suportadas por vários agentes), mas também, de sintetizar, manter racionalmente e utilizar crenças pluri-perspectiva. Por último, descrevemos o sistema multi-agente de apoio à decisão no domínio da localização de empreendimentos desenvolvido, denominado DIPLOMAT ? Dynamic and Interactive Project Location Test bed, o qual possui a capacidade de acomodar e rever crenças de acordo com as metodologias concebidas no âmbito do modelo DeBAteR.

This study compares spiritualist belief systems found in Africa, China and the United States. The purpose is to determine the functions these belief systems serve for their adherents and to isolate the features common to all three systems and find possible explanations for the similarities.Original fieldwork was conducted at Camp Chesterfield, Chesterfield, Indiana to obtain data for the chapter on the United States. The fieldwork and data of other scholars was utilized for the chapters on China and Africa.Belief systems from these three culture areas are described in terms of history, social and economic environment, cosmology, and ritual. Similarities in cosmology and ritual are then discussed. Functions, ritual aspects, and cosmology common to all three areas are identified. Diffusion as a possible cause of the similarities is eliminated in favor of psychological/physiological experiences with are universally possible, even if never actualized, to all human beings.

A rapidly growing number of Americans are embracing life outside the bounds of organized religion. Although America has long been viewed as a fervently religious Christian nation, survey data shows that more and more Americans are identifying as “not religious.” There are more non-religious Americans than ever before, yet social scientists have not adequately studied or typologized secularities, and the lived reality of secular individuals in America has not been astutely analyzed. American Secularism documents how changes to American society have fueled these shifts in the non-religious landscape and examines the diverse and dynamic world of secular Americans. This volume offers a theoretical framework for understanding secularisms. It explores secular Americans’ thought and practice to understand secularisms as worldviews in their own right, not just as negations of religion. Drawing on empirical data, the authors examine how people live secular lives and make meaning outside of organized religion. Joseph O. Baker and Buster G. Smith link secularities to broader issues of social power and organization, providing an empirical and cultural perspective on the secular landscape. In so doing, they demonstrate that shifts in American secularism are reflective of changes in the political meanings of “religion” in American culture. American Secularism addresses the contemporary lived reality of secular individuals, outlining forms of secular identity and showing their connection to patterns of family formation, sexuality, and politics, providing scholars of religion with a more comprehensive understanding of worldviews that do not include traditional religion.
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This thesis is about logical models of belief (and knowledge) representation and belief change. This means that we propose logical systems which are intended to represent how agents perceive a situation and reason about it, and how they update their beliefs about this situation when events occur. These agents can be machines, robots, human beings. . . but they are assumed to be somehow autonomous. The way a fixed situation is perceived by agents can be represented by statements about the agents� beliefs: for example �agent A believes that the door of the room is open� or �agent A believes that her colleague is busy this afternoon�. �Logical systems� means that agents can reason about the situation and their beliefs about it: if agent A believes that her colleague is busy this afternoon then agent A infers that he will not visit her this afternoon. We moreover often assume that our situations involve several agents which interact between each other. So these agents have beliefs about the situation (such as �the door is open�) but also about the other agents� beliefs: for example agent A might believe that agent B believes that the door is open. These kinds of beliefs are called higher-order beliefs. Epistemic logic [Hintikka, 1962; Fagin et al., 1995; Meyer and van der Hoek, 1995], the logic of belief and knowledge, can capture all these phenomena and will be our main starting point to model such fixed (�static�) situations. Uncertainty can of course be expressed by beliefs and knowledge: for example agent A being uncertain whether her colleague is busy this afternoon can be expressed by �agent A does not know whether her colleague is busy this afternoon�. But we sometimes need to enrich and refine the representation of uncertainty: for example, even if agent A does not know whether her colleague is busy this afternoon, she might consider it more probable that he is actually busy. So other logics have been developed to deal more adequately with the representation of uncertainty, such as probabilistic logic, fuzzy logic or possibilistic logic, and we will refer to some of them in this thesis (see [Halpern, 2003] for a survey on reasoning about uncertainty). But things become more complex when we introduce events and change in the picture. Issues arise even if we assume that there is a single agent. Indeed, if the incoming information conveyed by the event is coherent with the agent�s beliefs then the agent can just add it to her beliefs. But if the incoming information contradicts the agent�s beliefs then the agent has somehow to revise her beliefs, and as it turns out there is no obvious way to decide what should be her resulting beliefs. Solving this problem was the goal of the logic-based belief revision theory developed by Alchourrón, Gärdenfors and Makinson (to which we will refer by the term AGM) [Alchourrón et al., 1985; Gärdenfors, 1988; Gärdenfors and Rott, 1995]. Their idea is to introduce �rationality postulates� that specify which belief revision operations can be considered as being �rational� or reasonable, and then to propose specific revision operations that fulfill these postulates. However, AGM does not consider situations where the agent might also have some uncertainty about the incoming information: for example agent A might be uncertain due to some noise whether her colleague told her that he would visit her on Tuesday or on Thursday. In this thesis we also investigate this kind of phenomenon. Things are even more complex in a multi-agent setting because the way agents update their beliefs depends not only on their beliefs about the event itself but also on their beliefs about the way the other agents perceived the event (and so about the other agents� beliefs about the event). For example, during a private announcement of a piece of information to agent A the beliefs of the other agents actually do not change because they believe nothing is actually happening; but during a public announcement all the agents� beliefs might change because they all believe that an announcement has been made. Such kind of subtleties have been dealt with in a field called dynamic epistemic logic (Gerbrandy and Groeneveld, 1997; Baltag et al., 1998; van Ditmarsch et al., 2007b]. The idea is to represent by an event model how the event is perceived by the agents and then to define a formal update mechanism that specifies how the agents update their beliefs according to this event model and their previous representaton of the situation. Finally, the issues concerning belief revision that we raised in the single agent case are still present in the multi-agent case. So this thesis is more generally about information and information change. However, we will not deal with problems of how to store information in machines or how to actually communicate information. Such problems have been dealt with in information theory [Cover and Thomas, 1991] and Kolmogorov complexity theory [Li and Vitányi, 1993]. We will just assume that such mechanisms are already available and start our investigations from there. Studying and proposing logical models for belief change and belief representation has applications in several areas. First in artificial intelligence, where machines or robots need to have a formal representation of the surrounding world (which might involve other agents), and formal mechanisms to update this representation when they receive incoming information. Such formalisms are crucial if we want to design autonomous agents, able to act autonomously in the real world or in a virtual world (such as on the internet). Indeed, the representation of the surrounding world is essential for a robot in order to reason about the world, plan actions in order to achieve goals... and it must be able to update and revise its representation of the world itself in order to cope autonomously with unexpected events. Second in game theory (and consequently in economics), where we need to model games involving several agents (players) having beliefs about the game and about the other agents� beliefs (such as agent A believes that agent B has the ace of spade, or agent A believes that agent B believes that agent A has the ace of heart...), and how they update their representation of the game when events (such as showing privately a card or putting a card on the table) occur. Third in cognitive psychology, where we need to model as accurately as possible epistemic state of human agents and the dynamics of belief and knowledge in order to explain and describe cognitive processes. The thesis is organized as follows. In Chapter 2, we first recall epistemic logic. Then we observe that representing an epistemic situation involving several agents depends very much on the modeling point of view one takes. For example, in a poker game the representation of the game will be different depending on whether the modeler is a poker player playing in the game or the card dealer who knows exactly what the players� cards are. In this thesis, we will carefully distinguish these different modeling approaches and the. different kinds of formalisms they give rise to. In fact, the interpretation of a formalism relies quite a lot on the nature of these modeling points of view. Classically, in epistemic logic, the models built are supposed to be correct and represent the situation from an external and objective point of view. We call this modeling approach the perfect external approach. In Chapter 2, we study the modeling point of view of a particular modeler-agent involved in the situation with other agents (and so having a possibly erroneous perception of the situation). We call this modeling approach the internal approach. We propose a logical formalism based on epistemic logic that this agent uses to represent �for herself� the surrounding world. We then set some formal connections between the internal approach and the (perfect) external approach. Finally we axiomatize our logical formalism and show that the resulting logic is decidable. In Chapter 3, we first recall dynamic epistemic logic as viewed by Baltag, Moss and Solecki (to which we will refer by the term BMS). Then we study in which case seriality of the accessibility relations of epistemic models is preserved during an update, first for the full updated model and then for generated submodels of the full updated model. Finally, observing that the BMS formalism follows the (perfect) external approach, we propose an internal version of it, just as we proposed an internal version of epistemic logic in Chapter 2. In Chapter 4, we still follow the internal approach and study the particular case where the event is a private announcement. We first show, thanks to our study in Chapter 3, that in a multi-agent setting, expanding in the AGM style corresponds to performing a private announcement in the BMS style. This indicates that generalizing AGM belief revision theory to a multi-agent setting amounts to study private announcement. We then generalize the AGM representation theorems to the multi-agent case. Afterwards, in the spirit of the AGM approach, we go beyond the AGM postulates and investigate multi-agent rationality postulates specific to our multi-agent setting inspired from the fact that the kind of phenomenon we study is private announcement. Finally we provide an example of revision operation that we apply to a concrete example. In Chapter 5, we follow the (perfect) external approach and enrich the BMS formalism with probabilities. This enables us to provide a fined-grained account of how human agents interpret events involving uncertainty and how they revise their beliefs. Afterwards, we review different principles for the notion of knowledge that have been proposed in the literature and show how some principles that we argue to be reasonable ones can all be captured in our rich and expressive formalism. Finally, we extend our general formalism to a multi-agent setting. In Chapter 6, we still follow the (perfect) external approach and enrich our dynamic epistemic language with converse events. This language is interpreted on structures with accessibility relations for both beliefs and events, unlike the BMS formalism where events and beliefs are not on the same formal level. Then we propose principles relating events and beliefs and provide a complete characterization, which yields a new logic EDL. Finally, we show that BMS can be translated into our new logic EDL thanks to the converse operator: this device enables us to translate the structure of the event model directly within a particular axiomatization of EDL, without having to refer to a particular event model in the language (as done in BMS). In Chapter 7 we summarize our results and give an overview of remaining technical issues and some desiderata for future directions of research. Parts of this thesis are based on publication, but we emphasize that they have been entirely rewritten in order to make this thesis an integrated whole. Sections 4.2.2 and 4.3 of Chapter 4 are based on [Aucher, 2008]. Sections 5.2, 5.3 and 5.5 of Chapter 5 are based on [Aucher, 2007]. Chapter 6 is based on [Aucher and Herzig, 2007].

AbstractThis chapter overviews Bayesian Belief Networks, an increasingly popular method for developing and analysing probabilistic causal models. We go into some detail to develop an accessible and clear explanation of what Bayesian Belief Networks are and how you can use them. We consider their strengths and weaknesses, outline a brief history of the method, and provide guidance on useful resources and getting started, including an overview of available software.

Around the world, people with disabilities can be the most marginalised in society. Having a disability and being a member of a religious minority or an excluded social group can compound the reasons why some people find themselves on the outskirts of social systems which normally provide financial and moral support and a sense of identity and belonging. A recent study from India found that identity markers such as religion, caste and gender can exacerbate the exclusion already experienced by people with disabilities. Taking deliberate steps to strengthen the social inclusion of people with disabilities who also come from minority religious groups and socioeconomically marginalised backgrounds can help them fulfil their potential to fully and effectively participle in society on an equal basis with others, and strengthen community ties, making the society in which they live more inclusive.

In this paper, the authors share findings from a qualitative analysis of computer science teachers’ perspectives about equity within the context of an equity-focused professional development program. Drawing upon a framework emphasizing educator belief systems in perpetuating inequities in computer science education and the importance of equity-focused teacher professional development, we explored how computer science teachers understand the issue of equity in the classroom. We analyzed survey data from a sample of participants in a computer science professional development program, which revealed that teachers have distinct ways of framing their perceptions of equity and also different perspectives about what types of strategies help to create equitable, inclusive classrooms reflective of student identity and voice.

The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings. Underpinning all five areas is the recognition that human narratives remain crucial for ensuring the widest access to our shared past. There is no wish to see political and economic narratives abandoned but the need is recognised for there to be an expansion to more social narratives to fully explore the potential of the diverse evidence base. The questions that can be asked are here framed in a national context but they need to be supported and improved a) by the development of regional research frameworks, and b) by an enhanced study of Scotland’s international context through time. 1. From North Britain to the Idea of Scotland: Understanding why, where and how ‘Scotland’ emerges provides a focal point of research. Investigating state formation requires work from Medieval Scotland: a future for its past ii a variety of sources, exploring the relationships between centres of consumption - royal, ecclesiastical and urban - and their hinterlands. Working from site-specific work to regional analysis, researchers can explore how what would become ‘Scotland’ came to be, and whence sprang its inspiration. 2. Lifestyles and Living Spaces: Holistic approaches to exploring medieval settlement should be promoted, combining landscape studies with artefactual, environmental, and documentary work. Understanding the role of individual sites within wider local, regional and national settlement systems should be promoted, and chronological frameworks developed to chart the changing nature of Medieval settlement. 3. Mentalities: The holistic understanding of medieval belief (particularly, but not exclusively, in its early medieval or early historic phase) needs to broaden its contextual understanding with reference to prehistoric or inherited belief systems and frames of reference. Collaborative approaches should draw on international parallels and analogues in pursuit of defining and contrasting local or regional belief systems through integrated studies of portable material culture, monumentality and landscape. 4. Empowerment: Revisiting museum collections and renewing the study of newly retrieved artefacts is vital to a broader understanding of the dynamics of writing within society. Text needs to be seen less as a metaphor and more as a technological and social innovation in material culture which will help the understanding of it as an experienced, imaginatively rich reality of life. In archaeological terms, the study of the relatively neglected cultural areas of sensory perception, memory, learning and play needs to be promoted to enrich the understanding of past social behaviours. 5. Parameters: Multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and cross-sector approaches should be encouraged in order to release the research potential of all sectors of archaeology. Creative solutions should be sought to the challenges of transmitting the importance of archaeological work and conserving the resource for current and future research.