Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Q Philosophy'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 381-398).
The central claim of this thesis is that the agent responsible for a variety of phenomena surrounding wh-operators is not those operators themselves, but rather a distinct element that we label a 'Q(uestion)-particle'. In many languages, the Q-particle is phonologically empty, and so its role in various phenomena has not yet been recognized. Most importantly, careful study of these Q-particles reveals that the phenomenon known as 'pied-piping' does not exist, and that all putative examples of it are actually instances of normal phrasal movement of the Q-particle. This thesis starts from the demonstration that wh-fronting in Tlingit (Na-Dene; Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon) does not involve a syntactic relationship between the interrogative C and the wh-word. Rather, it involves a probe/Agree relation between C and an overt Q-particle c-commanding the wh-word. Fronting of the wh-word in Tlingit wh-questions is a mere by-product of fronting the projection of the Q-particle. From this core observation, a syntax and semantics for Tlingit wh-questions is developed. Given the strong similarity between the wh-constructions of Tlingit and those of more widely studied languages, the analysis developed for Tlingit is then applied to a range of other languages. It is found that such a 'Q-based' theory of wh-constructions holds a variety of analytic consequences. Regarding so-called 'pied-piping structures', the Q-based theory provides an analysis of such structures where the very concept of 'pied-piping' is eliminated from the theory of grammar. Furthermore, the Q-based theory provides a semantics for wh-questions that correctly interprets pied-piping structures without recourse to any mechanisms beyond those needed for wh-questions without pied-piping.
(cont.) Finally, the Q-based theory accounts for various constraints on pied-piping, and correctly predicts the scope and limits of its variation across languages. Beyond its treatment of pied-piping, the Q-based theory also provides a novel syntax and semantics for multiple wh-questions, which successfully ties the presence of Superiority Effects to the absence of Intervention Effects, and which correctly predicts a previously unnoticed Intervention Effect in English. Moreover, it provides a novel, unified account of the ill-formedness of left branch extractions, as well as of preposition stranding.
by Seth Cable.
Ph.D.

This thesis is a contribution to the contemporary reassessment of Karl Barth's social philosophy. A close reading of the English translation of the text of a series of posthumously published lectures on ethics which Barth gave in the universities of Münster and Bonn between 1929 and 1933 is the basis of the work. Previous literature includes no discussion of the lectures. The thesis argues that the lectures show the foundation of Barth's thinking both of theology as a science and of ethics as a part of dogmatics, and that his subsequent work developed these ideas. Barth's intellectual debt to Hegel is recognised by showing that he returns to the fundamental theological questions of the relationship between faith and reason, and truth and method in the form in which Hegel discussed them at the end of the nineteenth century. The thesis acknowledges the influence of Barth's helper, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, and contrary to other opinions claims that the impact of Wilhelm Herrmann's thinking on Barth remained until 1933. Although principally about material from the period 1918 to 1933, later work by Barth is included in the study to give evidence for the proposals that his ethical thinking helped shape his dogmatics, and that his later ethics show development, not stages and breaks. A discussion of criticisms of his ethics highlights the problem of choosing a method of enquiry that is appropriate to the object studied. A dialogue with two other ethical projects helps focus attention on his insistence on a proper foundation for Christian social ethics. The thesis argues that Barth's work is a theological ethic, because his social philosophy gives a method for asking appropriate questions and creates a way of considering these questions from a Christian perspective.

This thesis will address two questions: Does philosophy contribute to the ‘public understanding of science’ (PUoS), and if so, how? The popular public image of science is one of methodology. Science is a means for making true statements about the world, where we compare hypothesis with observation against the evidence. This then allows for a body of knowledge that guides further advancements and progress. Philosophy, however, seems to be antithetical to this. A popular notion is that philosophy is either what science was, or it deals with objects and ideas so intangible, that they have no real effect in the world. Either it is an outmoded way of doing science, or it is the preserve of armchair academics. In both cases the average person would be forgiven for thinking it had no relevance to them, and especially their ability to understand science. This thesis will look to challenge this relationship. Using hermeneutics, discourse-textual analysis and deconstruction, I present two interpretations of science and philosophy. These two interpretations I will call the ‘methodological’ and ‘historical’ approach. The ‘methodological’ approach is to understand science as a collection of principles or rules that, if followed, will produce true statements about the world. An example of such a principle that intersected both philosophy and science is ‘falsification’ as understood through the ‘problem of demarcation’ (PoD). The irrelevance of philosophy to science is fortified by the constant failure to produce fixed rules for what makes one thing scientific and another not. The ‘historical’ approach is to understand the actions of scientists as historical events. So rather than ask ‘what is science?’ we might ask, ‘what does it mean to act scientifically?’ I will argue philosophy can be of use in overcoming the antagonism between understanding a methodological question historically and a historical question methodologically. Firstly, I give an uncontroversial reading of the PoD, as argued by Karl Popper, who represents the ‘methodological’ view and oppose this to the ‘historical’ approach of Paul Feyerabend. Due to the dominance of the interpretation of science as a methodology, I argue that historical critiques, like Feyerabend’s, become nonsensical when understood as methodological substitutes. This is what I call the ‘received view’of what both Popper and Feyerabend had to say on science. Here, Popper fails to solve the PoD and Feyerabend appears to deny the method, objectivity or rationality of science. Next, using ideas inspired by Heidegger, I reverse those roles by presenting a ‘methodological’ and ‘historical’ reading of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. I develop two types of language, which I call ‘about’ and ‘of’ language that map on to the methodological and historical distinctions. Using this method I construct two contradictory readings of the text, but unlike the Popper-Feyerabend antagonism, we see how the historical approach is the more fertile interpretation. One version, which I call the ‘strong’ reading, has Kuhn as a relativist, irrationalist or anti-science, which is important if this is the ‘received view’ of Kuhn. This reading carries political weight with ‘interest groups’ who may wish to undermine the epistemic authority of science. That same reading can be used to discredit Kuhn/ philosophy of science, and by extension philosophy as a worthwhile instrument for understanding science. The other version, which I call the ‘weak’ reading, has Kuhn as a supporter and defender of science, but it also resolves old philosophical disputes by framing the problem in a different way. This will not only problematize any notion of a dominant interpretation, but it gives good grounds why one cannot be relativist or irrationalist about ‘truth’. Thus it defends the epistemic authority of science, and also gives philosophy a valuable role in public thinking about science.

The present dissertation discusses the relationship between cultural constructions of climate and practical attempts at regulating the latter’s perceived influence on human beings in the ‘long’ seventeenth century—a time of crucial historical and intellectual changes. Drawing upon a broad range of printed and manuscript sources written in various languages (including travel accounts, missionary letters, scientific papers, political treatises, and medical writings), the research presented here reconstructs the long-term success of classical ‘climate theories’ and the concrete behaviours that these theories inspired in early modern Europe and the American colonies. By investigating the various strategies that were used to cope with, and capitalize on, the perceived influence of climate, the dissertation challenges common characterizations of climate theory as a form of determinism. After a preliminary chapter about the origins, transmission, and circulation of climate theory in its multiple and conflicting forms, the following chapters each explore a different way of negotiating climatic influence in the ‘long’ seventeenth century, notably diet and lifestyle (Chapter 2), geographical displacement (Chapter 3), and environmental engineering (Chapter 4). The ‘Epilogue’ then briefly looks at post-seventeenth-century developments before drawing some general conclusions about the historical evolution and cultural significance of early-modern climate theories. Situating itself at the intersection of several disciplinary fields (including intellectual history, reception studies, and the history of medicine and science), this dissertation examines, on the one hand, the interplay of environmental ideas and practices in specific historical contexts; and, on the other hand, the acquisition, transmission, and circulation of environmental knowledge at, and across, different socio-cultural levels. It thus raises questions of tradition and innovation, consistency and diversity, ‘learned’ and ‘popular’ culture, investigating the ways in which epistemic paradigms are formed and transformed across time and space.

The recent years have witnessed an increased interest in e-learning platforms that incorporate adaptive learning and teaching systems that enable the creation of adaptive learning environments to suit individual student needs. The efficiency of these adaptive educational systems relies on the methodology used to accurately gather and examine information pertaining to the characteristics and needs of students and relies on the way that information is processed to form an adaptive learning context. The vast majority of existing adaptive educational systems do not learn from the users’ behaviours to create white-box models to handle the high level of uncertainty and that could be easily read and analysed by the lay user. The data generated from interactions, such as teacher–learner or learner–system interactions within asynchronous environments, provide great opportunities to realise more adaptive and intelligent e-learning platforms rather than propose prescribed pedagogy that depends on the idea of a few designers and experts. Another limitation of current adaptive educational systems is that most of the existing systems ignore gauging the students' engagements levels and mapping them to suitable delivery needs which match the students' knowledge and preferred learning styles. It is necessary to estimate the degree of students’ engagement with the course contents. Such feedback is highly important and useful for assessing the teaching quality and adjusting the teaching delivery in small and large-scale online learning platforms. Furthermore, most of the current adaptive educational systems are used within asynchronous e-learning contexts as self-paced e-learning products in which learners can study in their own time and at their own speed, totally ignorant of synchronous e-learning settings of teacher-led delivery of the learning material over a communication tool in real time. This thesis presents novel theoretical and practical architectures based on computationally lightweight T2FLSs for lifelong learning and adaptation of learners’ and teachers’ behaviours in small- and large-scale asynchronous and synchronous e-learning platforms. In small-scale asynchronous and synchronous e-learning platforms, the presented architecture augments an engagement estimate system using a noncontact, low-cost, and multiuser support 3D sensor Kinect (v2). This is able to capture reliable features including head pose direction and hybrid features of facial expression to enable convenient and robust estimation of engagement in small-scale online and onsite learning in an unconstrained and natural environment in which users are allowed to act freely and move without restrictions. We will present unique real-world experiments in large and small-scale e-learning platforms carried out by 1,916 users from King Abdul-Aziz and Essex universities in Saudi Arabia and the UK over the course of teaching Excel and PowerPoint in which the type 2 system is learnt and adapted to student and teacher behaviour. The type-2 fuzzy system will be subjected to extended and varied knowledge, engagement, needs, and a high level of uncertainty variation in e-learning environments outperforming the type 1 fuzzy system and non-adaptive version of the system by producing better performance in terms of improved learning, completion rates, and better user engagements.

Astrology is a feature of modern culture. While the academic study of the culture of astrology is on the increase, virtually no scholarship exists on astrology and the Internet. However a large body of literature exists on the relationship between the Internet and religion, and this literature is used as a framework for the study of astrology and Internet. This research investigates the use of the Internet by modern Western Astrologers, within the context of theories of cyberspace. It looks at how the Internet is being used by astrologers and what effects they believe it can have on astrology and its practice. The research was both quantitative and qualitative. Questionnaires were issued at astrological conferences in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In addition sixty-five astrologers were interviewed. In the 1990s a body of literature was produced that associated the physical Internet with the virtual world of cyberspace. From this literature came claims of cyberspace as dualistic or Cartesian. My research was informed by theories of dualism inherited from the classical world, and by previous arguments that astrology is dualistic. The thesis concludes that the majority of astrologers have a dualistic view of the Internet and cyberspace; the online world of cyberspace is viewed as a mental arena in contrast to the offline, physical world. A highly positive use of the Internet is the growth of online astrological communities; connections can be made with astrologers in different parts of the world. The Internet is perceived as a source of vast quantities of astrological information of varying quality. In the views of the astrologers poor quality astrological information can have a detrimental effect on the practice of astrology in the modern Western world.

Laboratory experimentation was once considered impossible or irrelevant in economics. Recently, however, economic science has gone through a real ‘laboratory revolution’, and experimental economics is now a most lively subfield of the discipline. The methodological advantages and disadvantages of controlled experimentation constitute the main subject of this thesis. After a survey of the literature on experiments in philosophy and economics (chapter one), the problem of testing normative theories of rationality is tackled (chapter two). This philosophical issue was at the centre of a famous controversy in decision theory (the ‘Allais controversy’), during which a methodology of normative falsification was first articulated and used to assess experimental results. In the third chapter, the methodological advantages of controlled experimentation are illustrated and discussed with examples taken from the experiments on the so-called ‘preference reversal’ phenomenon. Laboratory testing allows to establish with a high degree of certainty that certain phenomena lie behind the experimental data, by means of independent testing, elimination of alternative hypotheses, and the use of different instruments of observation. The fourth chapter is devoted to a conceptual analysis of the problem of ‘parallelism’. This is the problem of inferring from the occurrence of a phenomenon in the laboratory, to its (possible) instantiation also in non-laboratory environments. Experimental economists have discussed parallelism at length, and their views are presented and criticised. Eventually, it is argued that parallelism is a factual matter and as such can only be established on empirical grounds. The fifth chapter provides an example of how one can argue for parallelism, focusing on the case of experimentation on the ‘winner’s curse’ phenomenon. The role of experiments as ‘mediators’ between theoretical models and their target domain of application is illustrated, and the structure of parallelism arguments analysed in detail. Finally, in the last chapter, economic experiments are compared to simulations, in order to highlight their specific characteristics.

This study analyses students&rsquo
design processes within a graduation project that is devised as to approximate a real-life design task. It comprises a literature search on developments in design methodology, and two field studies, a participant observation study followed by long interviews with a selection of the observation sample. Through the literature search, a framework representing the nature of the design activity is brought together on the basis of three studies in descriptive design methodology. Together with the field studies equipped with this framework, this study sought to elucidate students&rsquo
design processes in order to provide insights for design education. Analysing students&rsquo
processes, their design problems and the academic scheme within which they operated, pertaining to their respective influences on students&rsquo
projects and progresses, implications to facilitate further developments of educational curriculum and academic schemes are reached.

The present thesis is an enquiry into the nature and consistency of the idea of music as a metaphor throughout the works of the English philosopher and physician Robert Fludd (1573/4-1637). Fludd was very fond of a view of the world in which man is made of the same elements and the same proportions of the cosmos. Though this idea was slowly losing credit amongst the intellectuals of the time, Fluddean thought made some impact in the British Isles, and even more so on the continent: Johannes Kepler, for instance, wrote extensively about Fludd’s use of numerical symbolism, and stressed the differences between his own idea of harmony of the spheres and Fludd’s. After Fludd’s death, his ideas were still taken seriously amongst certain intellectual circles, e.g. in England (John Webster) and Poland (John Amos Comenius), and Fluddean thought influenced German musico-theoretical writers such as Athanasius Kircher, Andreas Werckmeister, and Johann Walther. But the subsequent centuries witnessed a general obliviousness towards Fludd. His figure began to re- emerge only in the second half of the 20th century in an increasing number of essays, papers, articles and a few books dedicated to him. What is still lacking, though, is a reassessment relying upon a more organic approach, which takes into account the entirety of Fludd’s publications and the wide range of topics covered in them. My work attempts to address this issue. The musical metaphor is one of the strongest leitmotifs in Fluddean publications, thanks to its being fit for representing man, the cosmos, and their interrelationship. Indeed the monochord, which well before Fludd was the preeminent practical and philosophical demonstration of the Pythagorean ‘divine’ proportions, rules the pages of Fludd’s earlier volumes. In later volumes, though, a new instrument takes its place: the more up-to-date weather-glass, surprisingly also linked to musical proportions. I argue that the new scientific instrument retains some of the monochord’s traits, thus representing an original re-arrangement of ‘ancient’ music; in fact, Fludd even applies it to the human pulse – an under-studied topic that I survey in detail. Following the whole Fluddean opera omnia is a task that gives one a glimpse of Fludd’s reactions to the deep changes that the intellectual and scientific world was undergoing from a perspective that has been, so far, largely neglected. This opens up to new fascinating outlooks on music, medicine and science at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Introduction: Speech and language therapy (SLT) is purported to be a scientifically-based discipline. A commitment to scientific practice is currently best represented by practicing in an evidenced-based way, specifically by the use of research evidence, yet studies examining the use of research evidence both within the profession and across disciplines, consistently suggest that research is less than influential in guiding practice decisions. This suggests practice may not be scientific. Furthermore, unscientific practice may be represented by the use of pseudoscientific and / or non-scientific therapies. Aim: The aim of this research was to explore professional knowledge and decision-making scaffolds in SLT clinical practice with special attention paid to scientific underpinnings. The intention was to gain an authentic understanding of the role of science in practice and thus, a deeper appreciation of the nature of SLT practice. Methodology and Methods: A mixed-methodology approach was undertaken targeting SLTs working in Ireland. The initial quantitative phase consisted of an electronic survey (n=271) focussing on therapy choices in disability and dysphagia, reasons for use and non-use of these therapies, and factors influencing decision-making. The subsequent qualitative phase utilised three focus groups (n = 48). Group one consisted of SLTs working in a disability setting, group two of SLTs working in an acute hospital setting and group three of SLTs working in a community setting. Data were analysed using a variety of techniques including descriptive statistics and inferential statistics for the survey data, and thematic analysis for the focus group data. Results: The therapies SLTs always-use in both areas of practice represent limited approaches to intervention. In disability, practice is effectively represented by seven high-use predominantly augmentative and alternative communication therapies; in dysphagia the three high-use therapies are mainly bolus modification techniques. A limited range of reasons explained use. Across all areas of practice and all therapies and techniques, client suitability and clinical experience dominated as the main reasons interventions were always used. The principal reasons for not using therapies were lack of training, lack of knowledge and lack of suitability. A clinical lifespan is suggested with early-years clinicians being most dependent on external sources, specifically colleagues, to inform decision-making. Clinicians in the middle years of their careers appear more autonomous while those in the later years appear to branch out to external sources again, most specifically research evidence. Disability and dysphagia clinicians are significantly different in their use of all reasons for use and non-use with the exception of clinical experience. Scientific reasons are not well represented in either area of practice. Moreover, there is an apparent disconnect between attitudes and practice. For example, respondents demonstrate clear research values generally but not when therapy-specific reasoning is explicated. Three main themes were identified from focus group data: practice imperfect; practice as grounded and growing, and; critical practice. Practice as defined by clinicians is grey-zoned, eclectic, experimental, developmental and pragmatic, being primarily pivoted upon a clinician’s tool bag and experimental practice. This tool bag is composed predominantly of population-specific experience and facilitates the clinician to construct individualised interventions. Clinicians demonstrate scientific thinking but do not automatically reference scientific scaffolds unless explicated. Conclusion: Clinical practice is narrowly defined being predominantly scaffolded upon a limited range of therapies and case evidence and practical evidence. Practice is also constructed by SLTs as experimental and flexible. Scientific practice as characterised by research evidence is not evident in this study, however clinicians may operate scientifically through the use of scientific behaviours including experimentation, trial and error and on-going learning. This understanding of practice has implications for the dominant model of evidence-based practice.

Values matter in both legal decision (lawmaking and lawapplying) and discourse (lawshaping and lawinfluencing). Yet, their purported subjectivity means that gaining or improving knowledge about values (whether they be epistemic, legal, moral, ethical, economic, political, cultural, social, or religious) in the context of analytic legal thought and understanding is often said to be at odds with its goal of objectivity. This phenomenon is amplified at the international level where the infusion of seemingly subjective political values by sovereigns, and the decisionmakers to whom they delegate, can, and does, interfere with an idealized and objective rule of law. The discourse on value subjectivity, and its relation to the purpose and function of the law, is particularly apparent in evolving international legal orders such as investment treaty arbitration. The primary aim of this work is to provide a new method for gaining empirical knowledge about value subjectivity that can help close a weak link in all nonpositivist (value-laden) legal theory: a weakness that has manifest itself as skepticism about the possibility of measuring value objectively enough to permit its incorporation as a necessary component of analytic jurisprudence. This work proposes a theory of configurative fairness for addressing the problem related to the development or evolution of legal regimes, and how legal regimes perceived as subjectively unfair can be remedied. Such a theory accepts the premise that perceptions of fairness matter in directing the way that legal orders develop, and that perceptions of fairness relate to the manner in which values are distributed and maximized in particular legal orders. It is posited that legal orders perceived as fair by their participants are more likely to be endorsed or accepted as legally binding (and are therefore more likely to comply with the processes and outcomes that such laws mandate). The purpose of a theory of configurative fairness is an attempt to provide a methodological bridge for improving knowledge about value in the context of legal inquiry through the employment of a technique called Q methodology: an epistemological and empirical means for the measurement and mapping of human subjectivity. It is a method that was developed in the early twentieth century by physicist-psychologist William Stephenson: the last research student of the inventor of factor analysis, Charles Spearman. What Stephenson did was to create a way for systematically measuring subjective perspectives, and although not previously used in jurisprudential thought, Q methodology will facilitate a means for the description and evaluation of shared subjectivities. In the context of law generally, and in investment treaty arbitration specifically, these are the subjectivities that manifest themselves as the conflicting perspectives about value that are omnipresent in both communicative lawshaping discourse and authoritative and controlling lawmaking and lawapplying decision. Knowledge about these shared value subjectivities among participants in investment treaty arbitration will allow the legal analyst to delineate and clarify points of overlapping consensus about the desired distribution of value as they relate to the regime-building issues of evolving legal orders. The focus for a theory of configurative fairness pertains to the identification of the various value positions that participants hold about a particular legal order and to configure those values, through its rules and principles, in a manner that is acceptable (and perceived as fair) by all of its participants. If such a value consensus can be identified, then particular rules in the legal order can be configured by decisionmakers in a way so as to satisfy participants’ shared value understandings. To engage such a theory, a means for identifying shared value subjectivities must be delineated. This work conducts a Q method study on the issues under debate relating to regime-building questions in investment treaty arbitration. The Q method study asked participants knowledgeable about investment treaty arbitration to rank-order a set of statements about the way that the values embraced by this legal order ought to be configured. The results of the study demonstrate that there is significant overlap about how participants in investment treaty arbitration perceive the desired distribution of values across the regime. The Q method study identified six distinct perspectives that represent shared subjectivities about value in the context of the development of investment treaty arbitration. The Q method study was also able to identify where there is an overlapping consensus about value distribution across the distinct perspectives. It is these areas of overlapping consensus that are most likely to reflect shared value understandings, and it is proposed that it is upon these shared value understandings that the future development of investment treaty arbitration ought to aim.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) was one of the world's greatest mathematical geniuses. He work extensively in a branch of mathematics called "q-series". Around 1913, he found an important formula which now is known as Ramanujan's 1ψ1summation formula. The aim of this thesis is to investigate Ramanujan's 1ψ1summation formula and explore its applications to number theory and combinatorics. First, we consider several classical important results on elliptic functions and then give new proofs of these results using Ramanujan's 1ψ1 summation formula. For example, we will present a number of classical and new solutions for the problem of representing an integer as sums of squares (one of the most celebrated in number theory and combinatorics) in this thesis. This will be done by using q-series and Ramanujan's 1ψ1 summation formula. This in turn will give an insight into how Ramanujan may have proven many of his results, since his own proofs are often unknown, thereby increasing and deepening our understanding of Ramanujan's work.