This study assessed administrative networking strategies and principals’ supervisory effectiveness in assessing teachers’ notes of lessons, teachers’ instructional delivery, students’ records, and non-academic activities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three null hypotheses were formulated accordingly to direct the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Census technique was adopted in selecting the entire population of 667 secondary school administrators in Cross River State. The instruments used for data collection were two set of questionnaires designed by the researchers including: Administrative (...) Networking Strategies Questionnaire (ANSQ)”, and “Principals’ Supervisory Effectiveness Questionnaire (PSEQ)” respectively. The reliability of the instruments was established through Cronbach Alpha, and reliability estimates of .89 and .92 were obtained for the two instruments respectively. The null hypotheses were all tested at .05 level of significance using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis with the aid of SPSS v21. Findings from the study revealed that; there is a significant relationship between principals’ effective communication, school-community relationship, and teachers’ involvement in decision-making, with their supervisory effectiveness respectively. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others that; secondary school principals should endeavour to communicate relevant ideas, messages, and information to both teaching and non-academic staff of the school; and ensure that appropriate feedback mechanisms are provided based on such information. (shrink)

The study investigated principals’ supervisory techniques for combating corruption and the attainment of quality school governance. Two null hypotheses were formulated. The ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Census technique was used to draw the entire population of 81 principals from all the public secondary schools in Aba Education Zone of Abia State. Data collection was carried out with the use of a research instrument titled: “Principals’ Supervisory Techniques for Combating Corruption and Attainment of Quality School Governance (...) Questionnaire (PSTCCAQSGQ)”. The instrument was validated by two experts of Test and Measurement in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Calabar. The reliability value obtained was .88 using Cronbach Alpha technique. One-way analysis of variance was used in testing the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a significant influence of principals’ clinical and demonstration techniques of supervision for combating corruption on quality school governance. Based on the findings, it was concluded that school governance should be enhanced with supervisory techniques by principals for the attainment of anti-corruption culture in Aba education zone of Abia State, Nigeria. (shrink)

This study examined adolescents’ perception management and attitudes towards sex education in secondary schools in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three null hypotheses that were formulated. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Purposive sampling technique was employed by the researchers in selecting a sample of 1,080 students from a population of 98,915 secondary school students distributed across 271 public secondary schools in Cross River State. Adolescents Perception Management and Attitudes towards Sex Education Questionnaire (APMATSEQ) was (...) used as an instrument for data collection. The null hypotheses were all tested at .05 level of significance using Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analyses. Findings from the study revealed that adolescents' counseling and sensitization are significantly related to their attitudes towards sex education respectively and jointly; both variables accounted for 50.3 percent (R2 = .503, Adj. R2 = .502) of the total variance of adolescents’ attitudes towards sex education. Findings also revealed that adolescents’ counselling and sensitization have a significant composite influence (F = 544.924, p < .05) on their attitudes towards sex education, with adolescents’ counselling being the highest predictor (β = .499, t = 19.392), followed by adolescents’ sensitization (β = .299, t = 11.632). Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that; professional counselors should be employed by the government to enable secondary schools to have at least three counselors per school in order for schools to effectively manage students’ perception. (shrink)

This study assessed human resource management and teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State. Three null hypotheses were formulated accordingly to guide the study. Census technique was adopted in selecting the entire population of 432 teachers. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire designed and administered by the researcher. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the null hypotheses were all tested at .05 level of significance using Pearson Product (...) Moment Correlation Analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there is significant relationship respectively between principals’ interpersonal relationship (r=0.364, p<. 05), teachers’ participation in decision-making (r=0.624, p< .05) and principals’ delegation of responsibilities (r = 0.538, p< .05) with teachers’ job performance in secondary schools. Based on these findings it was recommended among others that; principals should ensure that they create a conducive school climate by building a sound interpersonal relationship with teachers in order to improve their job performance; teachers should be actively involved in making certain decisions for the school especially those within their jurisdiction in order to foster unity and cooperation in the implementation of such decisions. (shrink)

This study investigated problems of school management and secondary school students' academic performance in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was employed in selecting a sample of 3616 students out of the population of 18, 078 students. "Problems of School Management Questionnaire (PSMQ)," and Senior Secondary Mathematics Achievement Test (SSMAT) were the instruments designed by the researcher, were used (...) for data collection. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics; while the null hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance using population t-test and multiple regression analyses where applicable. Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet program was used in the analysis of data. Findings from the study revealed among others that; secondary school students' academic performance in Calabar Education zone is significantly high, disciplinary control, classroom management, and teachers' motivation significantly influence secondary school students' academic performance respectively. Based on these results, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made. (shrink)

This chapter surveys essentialist and anti-essentialist theories of sex and gender. It does so by engaging three approaches to sex and gender: externalism, internalism, and contextualism. The chapter also draws attention to two key debates about sex and gender in the feminist literature: the debate about the sex/gender distinction (the distinction debate) and the debate about whether sex and gender have essences (the essentialism/anti-essentialism debate). In addition, it describes three problems that theories of sex and gender tend to face: the (...) Inclusion Problem, the Definition Problem, and the Exclusion Problem. Lastly, the chapter highlights why the division between essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts of sex and gender is not clear. (shrink)

Examining previous discussions on how to construe the concepts of gender and race, we advocate what we call strategic conceptual engineering. This is the employment of a (possibly novel) concept for specific epistemic or social aims, concomitant with the openness to use a different concept (e.g., of race) for other purposes. We illustrate this approach by sketching three distinct concepts of gender and arguing that all of them are needed, as they answer to different social aims. The first concept serves (...) the aim of identifying and explaining gender-based discrimination. It is similar to Haslanger’s well-known account, except that rather than offering a definition of ‘woman’ we focus on ‘gender’ as one among several axes of discrimination. The second concept of gender is to assign legal rights and social recognitions, and thus is to be trans-inclusive. We argue that this cannot be achieved by previously suggested concepts that include substantial gender-related psychological features, such as awareness of social expectations. Instead, our concept counts someone as being of a certain gender solely based on the person’s self-identification with this gender. The third concept of gender serves the aim of personal empowerment by means of one’s gender identity. In this context, substantial psychological features and awareness of one’s social situation are involved. While previous accounts of concepts have focused on their role in determining extensions, we point to contexts where a concept’s role in explanation and moral reasoning can be more important. (shrink)

It is widely thought that knowledge is factive – only truths can be known. However, this view has been recently challenged. One challenge appeals to approximate truths. Wesley Buckwalter and John Turri argue that false-but-approximately-true propositions can be known. They provide experimental findings to show that their view enjoys intuitive support. In addition, they argue that we should reject the factive account of knowledge to avoid widespread skepticism. A second challenge, advanced by Nenad Popovic, appeals to multidimensional geometry to build (...) a case where it seems intuitive that a person knows p even though p is false. In addition, Popovic argues that we should reject the factive account of knowledge because most of us would not become widespread skeptics if we discovered that ordinary objects in our world are actually four-dimensional. In this paper, we defend the factive account of knowledge against these arguments by challenging the intuitive appeal of the cases and arguing that there is no real threat of widespread skepticism for the factive account of knowledge. (shrink)

Our world is under going an enormous digital transformation. Nearly no area of our social, informational, political, economic, cultural, and biological spheres are left unchanged. What can philosophy contribute as we try to under- stand and think through these changes? How does digitization challenge past ideas of who we are and where we are headed? Where does it leave our ethical aspirations and cherished ideals of democracy, equality, privacy, trust, freedom, and social embeddedness? Who gets to decide, control, and harness (...) the powers of digitization and for which purposes? Epistemologically, do most of us understand these new mediations – and thus fabrics – of our new world? Lastly – how is the new technological landscape shaping not only our living conditions but also our collective imaginary and our self-identities? (shrink)

In this paper we analyses the work of the first century Chinese philosopher Wang Chong as in part grappling with epistemology of testimony. Often portrayed as a curmudgeonly skeptic, Wang Chong actually best seen as a demanding piecemeal non-reductionist, which is to say he believed that testimony was a basic source of evidence unless subject to a defeater (non-reductionism), but also that we should evaluate testimony on a claim-by-claim basis (piecemeal) rather than accepting a whole source on the strength of (...) its reputation or authority, and finally he thought one has a strong duty to search for defeaters (demanding). We defend each of these claims as well as the fruitfulness of applying such anachronistic terminology to an ancient thinker. We end with a discussion of how Wang Chong's epistemology relates to his rhetorical method and then consider some problems he faces because of his epistemic commitments. (shrink)

In philosophical methodology, intuitions are used as evidence to support philosophical theories. In this paper, I evaluate the skeptical argument that variation in intuitions is good evidence that our intuitions are unreliable, and so we should be skeptical about our theories. I argue that the skeptical argument is false. First, variation only shows that at least one disputant is wrong in the dispute, but each disputant lacks reason to determine who is wrong. Second, even though variation in intuitions shows that (...) at least one disputant has the wrong intuition in the thought experiment, it is not evidence of unreliability of any disputant’s intuition regarding the philosophical theory being tested. So, variation in intuitions is not good evidence that one’s own intuitions are unreliable. One reply from the literature in peer disagreement is that we should conciliate if we cannot determine who is wrong. I argue that these disagreements are instead unconfirmed peer disagreements (i.e., no good reason to take or dismiss disputants as an epistemic peer, inferior or superior). I argue that if you have a strong intuition about a case, then it is rational for you to remain steadfast. Thus, variation in intuitions does not call for skepticism. (shrink)

This article argues that Macmurray’s work on education is deserving of serious consideration, because it offers an account of the person that highlights the significance of the emotions and the arts. In particular, the article examines and teases out the areas of Macmurray’s concept of the person that are pertinent to the philosophy of education, which includes the contention that the emotions can and should be educated. Furthermore, on the basis of Macmurray’s work, this article argues that emotional competency is (...) bound up with an education in the creative arts. Consequently engagement with the arts, which is often considered to be a luxury and a hobby, becomes an essential component in the development of human nature and the ability to live well. Finally, by analysing Macmurray’s description of a work of art and bringing Macmurray into conversation with contemporary views regarding the arts and the education of the emotions, in both a critical and a supportive manner, this article concludes that education in the emotions and the arts are key aspects of human well-being. (shrink)

John Macmurray (1891-1976) was born in Scotland and began his philosophical education in a Scottish university. As an academic philosopher, following in the footsteps of Caird’s Scottish idealism - a reaction against the debate between Hume’s scepticism and Reid’s ‘commonsense’ – Macmurray holds that a university education in moral philosophy is essential for producing virtuous citizens. Consequently, Macmurray’s philosophy of human nature includes a ‘thick’ description of the person, which is more holistic that Cartesianism and emphasizes the relation of persons. (...) Hence, Macmurray focuses on community, but, as this chapter reveals, he is not a communitarian in the contemporary sense; rather, he shares Caird’s focus on philosophy as the means to living well. Thus, he opposes increasing specialization in university education and highlights the limits of science, which, Davie notes, is representative of the Scottish metaphysic of Macmurray’s era. Macmuray is the last in this line of the Scottish philosophical tradition. (shrink)

Whether mathematical truths are syntactical (as Rudolf Carnap claimed) or empirical (as Mill actually never claimed, though Carnap claimed that he did) might seem merely an academic topic. However, it becomes a practical concern as soon as we consider the role of questions. For if we inquire as to the truth of a mathematical statement, this question must be (in a certain respect) meaningless for Carnap, as its truth or falsity is certain in advance due to its purely syntactical (or (...) formal-semantical) nature. In contrast, for Mill such a question is as valid as any other. These differing views have their consequences for contemporary erotetic logic. (shrink)

Alvin Plantinga has famously responded to the logical problem of evil by appealing to the intrinsic value of significant free will. A problem, however, arises because traditional theists believe that both God and the redeemed who go to heaven cannot do wrong acts. This entails that both God and the redeemed in heaven lack significant freedom. If significant freedom is indeed valuable, then God and the redeemed in heaven would lack something intrinsically valuable. However, if significant freedom is not intrinsically (...) valuable, then Plantinga’s reply to the logical problem of evil fails. In this paper, we assess three contemporary solutions to the dilemma above. The first is the love solution, which proposes that significant freedom is necessary for agents to love, and loving others is intrinsically good. The second is the soul-making solution, which argues that significant freedom is necessary for self-developing one’s moral character, and having a self-developed moral character is intrinsically good. The third is the derivative free will solution, which argues that significant freedom is necessary for derivative free will in heaven, and derivative free will is intrinsically good. We raise problems against all three solutions and instead defend a fourth solution – the ultimate responsibility solution. That is, significant freedom is instrumentally valuable as it gives agents ultimate responsibility with regards to morally significant acts. Finally, we defend the ultimate responsibility solution against two major objections. (shrink)

The University of the Republic established the objective of diversifying the teaching modalities. Within these, videoconferencing is shown as fundamental tool within the framework of new technologies. The advantages offered by videoconferencing are real-time interaction, teacher control of student activity, the possibility for the teacher to make presentations and integrate questionnaires to assess student understanding, being able to incorporate similar advantages to the teacher-student interaction in face-to- face classes, such as dialoguing with students. In addition, the videoconfere avoids transfers and (...) allows the recording of the class and its reuse. This article shows the first advances of a research that aims to develop videoconferences as a teaching-learning methodology. (shrink)

La actividad de extensión que se presenta está vinculada al Teatros Solís, principal referente de la cultura montevideana. Trata sobre el estudio de la conducta del usuario al momento de la visita al sitio web del Teatro. El análisis se efectúa por medio de Web Usage Mining que consiste en la aplicación de técnicas de Data Mining para la identificación de patrones de uso de dicho sitio web. Se utiliza software de uso público y se diseña e implementa en R (...) el paquete RWeb Sessionizer para contar con un sesionador, siguiendo la metodología propuesta inicialmente por R. Cooley, y que ha tenido varios refinamientos posteriores. (shrink)

El artículo muestra la importancia para las organizaciones culturales de conocer como el “cliente” o consumidor utiliza su sitio web. Para ello un sesionador web (Web Sessioner) resulta de fundamental importancia en Web Usage Mininq. Consiste en la aplicación de técnicas de Data Mining para la identificación de patrones de uso de un sitio web. Se ejemplifica con un análisis aplicado a un teatro público, utilizando el paquete RWeb Sessionizer donde se implementó en R la metodología propuesta inicialmente por R. (...) Cooley, y que ha tenido varios refinamientos posteriores . (shrink)

Für Simone de Beauvoir ist der Existentialismus die einzige Philosophie, die der Aufgabe gewachsen ist, eine ethische Verhaltensweise, die sich auch unmittelbar in die Praxis umsetzen lässt, zu entwerfen. Die Werke, in denen Beauvoir eine existentialistische Ethik formuliert und deren Umsetzbarkeit veranschaulicht, sind allen voran ihr Essay Für eine Moral der Doppelsinnigkeit und ihr Theaterstück Die unnützen Mäuler. Mit der dramaturgischen Darstellung einer Grenzsituation ist es der Philosophin und Schriftstellerin gelungen, eine Synthese von Werten umrisshaft zu erläutern, aus denen sich (...) praktische Handlungshinweise, ohne die Notwendigkeit eines universellen Wertesystems vorzusehen, ableiten lassen. Einer kurzen Einführung, die auf die Umstände bzw. auf die historischen Hintergründe, die Simone de Beauvoir Beauvoir dazu bewogen haben, als engagierte Intellektuelle dezidiert zu sozialen und politischen Fragen Stellung zu beziehen, wird eine prägnante Analyse von Beauvoirs Ethikentwurf folgen. Da vorliegender Beitrag für die Aktualität von Beauvoirs Die unnützen Mäuler plädiert, werden parallele Verhaltensmuster der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart ans Licht geführt werden, um praktische Möglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, wie es heute gelingen kann, sich für eine ethisch vertretbare Lebensweise zu entscheiden. Wohlgemerkt handelt es sich dabei – ganz in Beauvoirs Sinne – um einen Versuch bzw. um einen Entwurf. (shrink)

In this article, we argue that there is an essential difference between social intelligence and creative intelligence, and that they have their foundation in human sexuality. For sex differences, we refer to the vast psychological, neurological, and cognitive science research where problem-solving, verbal skills, logical reasoning, and other topics are dealt with. Intelligence tests suggest that, on average, neither sex has more general intelligence than the other. Though people are equals in general intelligence, they are different in special forms of (...) intelligence such as social intelligence and creative intelligence, the former dominant in women, the latter dominant in men. The dominance of creative intelligence in men needs to be explained. The focus of our research is on the strictly anthropological aspects, and consequently our explanation for this fact is based on the male-female polarity in the mating systems. Sexual dimorphism does not only regard bodily differences but implies different forms of sex life. Sex researchers distinguish between two levels of sexual intercourse: procreative sex and recreational sex, and to these we would add “creative sex.” On all three levels, there is a behavioral difference between men and women, including the subjective experience. These differences are as well attributed to culture as genetically founded in nature. Sexual reproduction is only possible if females cooperate. Their biological inheritance makes females play a decisive role in mate choice. Recreational sex for the purpose of pleasure rather than reproduction results from female extended sexual activity. Creative sex, on the contrary, is a specifically male performance of sexuality. We identify creative sex with eroticism. Eroticism evolved through the transformation of the sexual drive into a mental state of expectation and fantasizing. Hence, sex differences (that nowadays are covered up by cultural egalitarianism) continue to be the evolutionary origin of the difference between social and creative intelligence. (shrink)

In this paper, we deal with the issue of contradictory beliefs, particularly with regard to Philosophical Counseling: both voices from the philosophical tradition (with no claim of being exhaustive!) and concepts developed by philosophical practitioners will be considered, in order to make clear what a wide range of resources for dealing with contradictions is available to the philosopher who may wish to engage in Philosophical Counseling. Among the philosophical practitioners, we devote special consideration to Ben Mijuskovic and Gerd Achenbach, and (...) this for two main reasons: first, because the issue of contradiction plays a central role in their concept of Philosophical Counseling and, accordingly, it is given special consideration in their writings; second, because their approaches to Philosophical Counseling are so different that by looking at them one can get an impression of the variety of the positions one can adopt in Philosophical Counseling with respect to the issue of contradiction. (shrink)

Unter Philosophischer Praxis versteht man professionell betriebene philosophische Lebensberatung. In diesem Artikel werden eine kontinentale Konzeption von Philosophischer Praxis und eine analytische – anhand von Aufsätzen von Gerd Achenbach und Ben Mijuskovic – gegenübergestellt und mit einigen Bemerkungen Wittgensteins in Beziehung gesetzt. Es zeigt sich, dass diese Bemerkungen als Korrektiv sowohl der kontinentalen als auch der analytischen Auffassung gelesen werden können.

Economic diversification has been the glamour of successive administrations in Nigeria, especially amidst the dwindling oil-revenue in recent years, which has resulted from the fluctuations in world crude oil prices. This study aims at investigating the impact of diversifying the economy on the economic growth in Nigeria. Secondary data on GDP growth rate as a proxy for economic growth, non-oil GDP as a proxy for GDP diversification, non-oil export as a proxy for export diversification, investment and exchange rate, between 1981 (...) and 2016, were adopted in the study. An econometric approach of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) was adopted to empirically analyze the collected data and the result revealed that non-oil gross domestic product impacted positively and significantly on economic growth while exchange rate had an inverse but significant nexus on economic growth in Nigeria, within the period covered in the study. However, non-oil export and investment impacted positively but insignificantly on economic growth in Nigeria. The study recommends the encouragement of increased productivity in the real sector as well as the adoption of stable and favourable exchange rate policies by the government in order to accelerate economic growth in Nigeria. (shrink)

Invitation to submit abstracts to the new special issue PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON TRUST AND DISTRUST IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES to be published by Sats. Northern European Journal of Philosophy in spring 2024.

Socioeconomic status refers to the family's social and economic standing in society. It is measured by combining an individual or group's economic and social position, which is often based on income, education, and occupation. It significantly affects academic performance and even one's health status. The pandemic changed the educational system, causing a huge transition from traditional learning methods to online learning. This shift resulted in confusion, burden, and difficulty among students from different walks of life. This study was conducted to (...) determine the academic stress on online learning among nursing students in relation to their economic status and their ability to access technology. The study utilized a quantitative-correlational method aided by a standard questionnaire. Two hundred thirty-six University of Bohol nursing students enrolled in the second semester of SY 2021–2022 were included in the study by random selection. Data revealed a significant correlation between economic status and the level of stress related to academic expectations and a significant correlation between economic status and access to technology after being subjected to the Spearman rho test of correlation. However, no significant correlation was found between access to technology and the respondents' level of academic stress. (shrink)

Das Interesse, welches den Autobiografien aktuell entgegengebracht wird, erlebt zur Zeit eine Renaissance. Der retrospektive Blick auf die eigene Lebensgeschichte bzw. das geschichtliche Verstehen findet sich sowohl in Wilhelm Diltheys als auch in Georg Mischs Theorie der Autobiografie wieder. Der Zweck der Autobiografie, die Person, die sich hinter der Selbstbiografie befindet, zu verstehen, bringt uns zu einer Autobiografin "par excellence", zu Simone de Beauvoir. Durch Persönlichkeiten wie Beauvoir ist es für uns heute möglich, sowohl in ihr Leben als auch in (...) die Epoche, in der sie gelebt und mitgewirkt hat, Einblick zu gewinnen. Was über Simone de Beauvoir in Erfahrung gebracht werden kann, steht in ihren Büchern. So ist die Relevanz ihrer autobiografischen Schriften, sowohl als literarische Meisterwerke als auch als historische Zeugnisse, unumstritten. Beauvoirs Beweggründe ihre Erinnerungen niederzuschreiben, lassen – wie von Dilthey und Misch angedeutet –, deutlich erkennen, dass in der Selbstbiografik "die Selbstbesinnung den Vorrang [hat]". Simone de Beauvoirs Erinnerungsprozess verweist eindeutig auf die Aufgabe, die Wilhelm Dilthey und Georg Misch der Autobiografie erteilen: "So erscheint die Autobiographie sowohl im Hinblick auf ihre Quellen im Selbstbewußtsein des Menschen, als auch in Anbetracht ihrer Leistung, die im Verstehen des Lebens besteht, nicht bloß als eine eigene Literaturgattung, sondern auch als Mittel zur menschlichen Selbsterkenntnis". (shrink)

The study investigated the awareness and utilization of e-learning technologies among vocational and technical education (VTE) students. A descriptive survey research design was used for this study, and the population consisted of 551 VTE students. A simple random sample of 62 VTE students was selected. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha analysis, and the reliability index was found to be within the acceptable limit of 0.70. An online survey using (...) Google Forms was used to collect the data. The study tested two null hypotheses using binary logistic regression models based on age, department level of study, and devices owned. The data was analyzed using frequency, percentages, and mean. The major findings from the data analysis indicated that VTE students had an awareness and utilization rate of 84.8% for the e-learning website, 75.6% for Google Classroom, and 60.6% for smart boards and video conferencing. However, 24.4% of the students were still unaware of the Moodle Learning Management System and the Canvas e-learning platform at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Based on these findings, it is recommended that VTE students receive proper training to effectively utilize the e-learning technologies available to them, which would aid in fostering creativity and innovation. (shrink)

Big History has been developing very fast indeed. We are currently observing a ‘Cambrian explosion’ in terms of its popularity and diffusion. Big History courses are taught in the schools and universities of several dozen countries, including China, Korea, the Netherlands, the USA, India, Russia, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, and many more. The International Big History Association (IBHA) is gaining momentum in its projects and membership. Conferences are beginning to be held regularly (this edited volume has been prepared on (...) the basis of the proceedings of the International Big History Association Inaugural Conference [see below for details]). Hundreds of researchers are involved in studying and teaching Big History. (shrink)

According to the working definition of the International Big History Association, ‘Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods’. In recent years Big History has been developing very fast indeed. Big History courses are taught in the schools and universities of several dozen countries. Hundreds of researchers are involved in studying and teaching Big History. The unique approach of Big History, the interdisciplinary genre of (...) history that deals with the grand narrative of 13.8 billion years, has opened up a vast amount of research agendas. Big History brings together constantly updated information from the scientific disciplines and merges it with the contemplative realms of philosophy and the humanities. It also provides a connection between the past, present, and future. Big History is a colossal and extremely heterogeneous field of research encompassing all the forms of existence and all timescales. Unsurprisingly, Big History may be presented in very different aspects and facets. In this volume the Big History is presented and discussed in three different ways. In its first part, Big History is explored in terms of methodology, theories of knowledge, as well as showcasing the personal approach of scholars to Big History. The second section comprises such articles that could clarify Big History's main trends and laws. The third part of this book explores the nature of teaching Big History as well as profiling a number of educational methods. This volume will be useful both for those who study interdisciplinary macroproblems and for specialists working in focused directions, as well as for those who are interested in evolutionary issues of Astrophysics, Geology, Biology, History, Anthropology, Linguistics and other areas of study. (shrink)

The changes that have occurred as a result of the possibility of accessing the technologies of information inclouds the teaching-learning processes. The objective of this work is to show a project to carry out assesstment using the Moodle platform, whith the implementation of a pilot plan in the first half of 2013. Methodologically, the paper start whith a literature review about the computer-based assessment systems (CBA), then its describe the characteristics of the questionnaires on the Moodle platform. Finally, the project (...) object of the work is presented and an example of the results in July 2012, consisting of the design of an assessment in Management Cost. (shrink)

This paper explores the role of speculative anticipation in ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides a structure to think about ethical decision-making in times of extreme uncertainty. We identify three different but interwoven domains within which speculative anticipation can be found: global, local, and projective anticipation. Our analysis aims to open possibilities of seeing the situatedness of others both locally and globally in order to address larger social issues that have been laid bare by the presence of SARS-CoV-2. Our (...) account of speculative anticipation builds on the analyses of the gendered impact of anticipation in technoscience by Vincanne Adams, Michelle Murphy and Adele Clarke; studies in cultural anthropology by Ann Laura Stoler; and the recent research on speculative fiction by Esther Jones. Like theirs, ours is intended to be useful. We offer it as a tool to recast questions and revisit assumptions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hoped that by using the frame of the ethics of speculative anticipation, one might be able to consider how to avoid those futures that reproduce inequity, and instead actively and responsibly envision those futures that are informed by equity and sustainability. (shrink)

La categoría ‘arte conceptual’ se aplica a una gran cantidad de obras de arte contemporáneo. El artista Sol LeWitt introdujo el término en la jerga del arte al describir obras de arte donde “la idea o el concepto es el aspecto más importante de la obra” (LeWitt 1967: 79, traducción mía). Inicialmente, el término se utilizó para referirse a obras producidas entre finales de los años sesenta y principios de los setenta por artistas como Sol LeWitt, Robert Barry, Lawrence Weiner, (...) On Kawara, Joseph Kosuth, John Baldessari, el grupo Art & Language y otros (véase Lippard 1973). En España fueron relevantes el Grup de Treball, Zaj o Esther Ferrer entre otros. Más tarde se hizo evidente no solo que obras como Fuente (1917) de Marcel Duchamp – un urinario de porcelana, que fue firmado “R. Mutt” y presentado para una exposición de la Sociedad de Artistas Independientes – tenían mucho en común con aquellas producidas a finales de la década de 1960 y principios de la de 1970, sino también que obras de arte conceptual continuaron siendo producidas a lo largo de la década de 1970 y las décadas siguientes, hasta el punto de que podría argumentarse que gran parte del arte contemporáneo es, en cierta medida, conceptual. -/- Es característico de los primeros autores conceptuales el uso del lenguaje natural en obras que son en principio visuales o plásticas, como las frases de Weiner, las definiciones de Kosuth o los ensayos de Art&Language. Se trata de un interés por el significado y el lenguaje heredado de la semiótica y la filosofía analítica de la época. También señala el énfasis (a menudo exclusivo) de todas las obras de arte conceptual en el elemento conceptual, como ocurre en los dibujos y pinturas murales de LeWitt, donde el artista produjo las instrucciones para su ejecución, luego las realizó en colaboración con otros, o transfirió completamente a otros esta tarea. Otra característica de las primeras obras de arte conceptual es que los artistas no manipularon ningún material para producir un objeto (como en Fuente de Duchamp) o usaron materiales excéntricos como el lenguaje natural, su propio cuerpo -como en I am the locus (# 1) (1975) de Adrian Piper, una performance en la que la artista se pegó un bigote en la cara, se puso una peluca Afro y anteojos redondos con montura de alambre y caminó en las calles actuando como un hombre-, o el chocolate con el que Anya Gallaccio revistió las paredes de un viejo edificio agrícola en Stroke (2004), dejando que el público las tocara y que el chocolate se pudriese. -/- Debido a sus características inusuales, el arte conceptual plantea muchas preguntas filosóficas: sobre la definición de arte, sobre la ontología y los medios de las obras de arte y sobre nuestra experiencia apreciativa de ellas. En lo que sigue, presentaré brevemente cada uno de estos temas. (shrink)

PHILIPPA RUTH FOOT was born on 3 October 1920, the second daughter of William Bosanquet, who had done mathematics at Cambridge and became the manager of a steelworks in Yorkshire, and Esther Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland. She was educated mainly at home in the country by governesses, and not well. She said, many years later, that, ‘unsurprisingly’, she had been left ‘extremely ignorant’, and when the last one, ‘who actually had a degree’, suggested to her that she (...) should go to Oxford, she had to work for it. She spent a year with an established Oxford entrance coach and took a correspondence course to acquire the necessary entrance Latin; the result was a place at Somerville College, where she went to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in 1939. (shrink)

The Torah lays out a rich idea of God’s governance in the Scroll of Esther: Circumstance lays the warp, but human choices weave the woof of destiny. God remains unseen. Delegation of agency, including human freedom, is implicit in the act of creation: God does not clutch efficacy jealously to his breast. Biblically, God acts through nature, making the elements his servitors. Miracles do not violate God’s covenant with nature. Maimonides, following rabbinic homilies, finds them embedded in that covenant. (...) Divine agency is clearest today in evolution and its special case, the emergence of autonomy and the rise of consciousness and personhood. (shrink)

In the introduction to her book-length study of Aristotle’s concept of “στάσις” (variously translated in English as civil war, revolution, faction, unrest, but which I will leave untranslated), Esther Rogan writes that “En France, un travail exhaustif et systématique restait donc à accomplir sur la stásis</i> chez Aristote, afin de prolonger et de faire se rejoindre les perspectives développées par Nicole Loraux et par Pierre Pellegrin, mais également afin d’inscrire les débats anglo-saxons dans le champ de la recherche française (...) et, ainsi, prendre position dans ces discussions” (24). Rogan’s book admirably accomplishes all those goals and much more. Although the book focuses on Aristotle’s account of στάσις, her inquiry is wide ranging with substantive insights about both the methodology of interpreting ancient Greek political thought generally and more specifically Aristotle’s political thought. The work engages so many different debates and such a broad range of Anglophone and Francophone scholarship that it should not be pigeonholed as “a book on στάσις”; rather, this is a substantive interpretation of Aristotle’s political thought as a whole, albeit through the fascinating lens of political unrest. (shrink)