Contextualist Framework Research Articles

The Logicality of Language: Contextualism versus Semantic Minimalism

AbstractThe logicality of language is the hypothesis that the language system has access to a ‘natural’ logic that can identify and filter out as unacceptable expressions that have trivial meanings—that is, that are true/false in all possible worlds or situations in which they are defined. This hypothesis helps explain otherwise puzzling patterns concerning the distribution of various functional terms and phrases. Despite its promise, logicality vastly over-generates unacceptability assignments. Most solutions to this problem rest on specific stipulations about the properties of logical form—roughly, the level of linguistic representation which feeds into the interpretation procedures—and have substantial implications for traditional philosophical disputes about the nature of language. Specifically, contextualism and semantic minimalism, construed as competing hypotheses about the nature and degree of context-sensitivity at the level of logical form, suggest different approaches to the over-generation problem. In this paper, I explore the implications of pairing logicality with various forms of contextualism and semantic minimalism. I argue that to adequately solve the over-generation problem, logicality should be implemented in a constrained contextualist framework.

Testing pragmatic genealogy in political theory: The curious case of John Rawls

Starting from the ‘Dewey Lectures’, Rawls presents his conception of justice within a contextualist framework, as an elaboration of the basic ideas embedded in the political culture of liberal-democratic societies. But how are these basic ideas to be justified? In this article, I reconstruct and criticize Rawls’s strategy to answer this question. I explore an alternative strategy, consisting of a genealogical argument of a pragmatic kind – the kind of argument provided by authors like Bernard Williams, Edward Craig and Miranda Fricker. I outline this genealogical argument drawing on Rawls’s reconstruction of the origins of liberalism. Then, I clarify the conditions under which this kind of argument maintains vindicatory power. I claim that the argument satisfies these conditions and that pragmatic genealogy can thus partially vindicate the basic ideas of liberal-democratic societies.

Disagreeing with a Skeptic from a Contextualist Point of View

The paper focuses on the problem of how to account for the phenomena of disagreement and retraction in disputes over skepticism in a contextualist framework. I will argue that nonindexical versions of contextualism are better suited to account for those phenomena than DeRose’s indexical form of contextualism. Furthermore, I will argue against DeRose’s “single scoreboard” semantics and against his solution of ruling that in a dispute over skepticism, both parties to the conversation are expressing something truth-valueless. At the end, I will briefly address the question of whether DeRose’s contextualism combined with his double-safety account and his rule of sensitivity provide an epistemically satisfying answer to the skeptical challenge. It will be argued that by merely explaining (away) the attractiveness of skeptical arguments, DeRose’s contextualism seems to lack the resources to explain some important epistemic issues, as, for example, the question of what knowledge is and when a true belief turns into knowledge.

Competing Architects: Applying Social Contextualist Analysis to Negotiations on the African Peace and Security Architecture

ABSTRACT Social contextualist analysis, by contrast to much of the existing research on international negotiations, emphasizes the social and organizational environment in which negotiations take place and the effect that it can have on the decision-making of participants. This paper applies a social contextualist lens to negotiations held to decide upon the form and function of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Certain elements of the Architecture, which is one of the central pillars of the African Union (AU), present something of a puzzle for theorists, given the cession of sovereignty they represent on a continent where leaders have traditionally been very protective of their authority. After illustrating the limited value of the most prominent approaches to negotiation analysis, the social contextualist framework is outlined. The analysis incorporates negotiations held to decide upon a number of features of APSA. Its findings rest upon interviews conducted with representatives from AU member states and AU officials, as well as examination of a broad range of primary and secondary documents. In highlighting the significance of factors that are generally overlooked by traditional approaches, a case is made for greater consideration of social contextual factors in analysis of international negotiations.

The Epistemology of Understanding. A contextualist approach

Abstract This paper aims to provide a unifying approach to the analysis of understanding coherencies (interrogative understanding, e.g. understanding why something is the case) and understanding subject matters (objectual understanding) by highlighting the contextualist nature of understanding. Inspired by the relevant alternatives contextualism about knowledge, I will argue that understanding (in the above mentioned sense) inherently has context-sensitive features and that a theory of understanding that highlights those features can incorporate our intuitions towards understanding as well as consolidate the different accounts of how to analyse understanding. In developing a contextualist account of understanding, I will argue that an account of the features commonly taken to be central to understanding greatly benefits from a contextualist framework. Central to my analysis will be the claim that a person has to fulfill the function of a competent problem solver in order to qualify for the ascription of understanding. In addition to the theoretical elucidation of my contextualist approach to understanding, a demanding hypothetical scenario will be developed to function as a test case.

On the Insufficiency of Taste Expressivism

It is possible to construct situations (with a suitable kind of setting) in which one speaker utters “This is tasty” and another one responds with “That’s not true.” The aim of this paper is to motivate the idea that typical (broadly) expressivist accounts of taste disagreements are unable to explain such situations (although some of them can successfully explain disagreements in which another kind of dissent phrase — like “Nuh-uh” — is employed). This is because utterances of “That’s not true” are typically used to ascribe falsehood to propositions. Taste expressivism has it, however, that when one utters “This is tasty,” one typically manifests her evaluative attitude (which is non-propositional) toward something rather than describes what attitude she bears toward that thing. Another aim of the paper consists in proposing an alternative account of taste disagreements. It is close to taste expressivism in the case of disagreements in which speakers respond with “Nuh-uh” but departs from it in situations in which they respond with “That’s not true.” The account is developed within a contextualist framework according to which taste utterances express contextually enriched propositions that contain judges who evaluate things as tasty or not.

How to do things with modals

According to a prominent line of thought, epistemic possibility claims do not communicate propositions; instead, they are proposals to leave certain possibilities open. This idea is at the heart of recent arguments that, to make sense of the dynamics of epistemic modality, we must reject the contextualist account of conversational dynamics, on which the fundamental role of assertions—including “might”‐claims—is to communicate information. I argue, on the contrary, that we can capture the dynamics of epistemic modality within the contextualist framework by taking the content of “might”‐claims to be determined by the prospective common attitudes of the conversants.

Un marco epistemológico para el conocimiento indígena

Este trabajo presenta un marco epistemológico capaz de hacer frente a la oposición entre conocimiento indígena y conocimiento científico, una oposición generalizada en la antropología, especialmente en relación con el problema del desarrollo sostenible. En la primera parte del artículo, proporcionamos un marco contextualista que satisfaga dos restricciones: la neutralidad a priori respecto a formas, o tipos, de conocimiento, y (2) la explicitud de las condiciones con respecto a la posibilidad de transferencia de conocimiento. En la segunda parte, aplicamos el marco para el caso específico del conocimiento algonquino del norte. A través de tal marco, se investiga y hace explícito el estándar epistémico subyacente puesto en juego, mediante la identificación de las condiciones en que creencias particulares son calificadas como conocimiento en el contexto algonquino del norte.

Implementing change in the Asia-Pacific region: the contextualist framework

Implementing change in the Asia-Pacific region: the contextualist framework

The Practical Origins of Epistemic Contextualism

This paper explores how the purpose of the concept of knowledge affects knowledge ascriptions in natural language. I appeal to the idea that the role of the concept of knowledge is to flag reliable informants, and I use this idea to illuminate and support contextualism about ‘knows’. I argue that practical pressures that arise in an epistemic state of nature provide an explanatory basis for a brand of contextualism that I call ‘practical interests contextualism’. I also answer some questions that contextualism leaves open, particularly why the concept of knowledge is valuable, why the word ‘knows’ exhibits context-variability, and why this term enjoys such widespread use. Finally, I show how my contextualist framework accommodates plausible ideas from two rival views: subject-sensitive invariantism and insensitive invariantism. This provides new support for contextualism and develops this view in a way that improves our understanding of the concept of knowledge.

Contextualism and the Knowledge Norms

AbstractEpistemic contextualism is widely believed to be incompatible with the recently popular view that knowledge is the norm of assertion, practical reasoning, or belief. I argue in this article that the problems arising for contextualism from the mentioned normative views are only apparent and can be resolved by acknowledging the fairly widespread phenomenon of non‐obvious context‐sensitivity (recently embraced by even some of contextualism's most ardent former critics). Building on recent insights about non‐obvious context‐sensitivity, the article outlines an independently attractive contextualist account of the mentioned epistemic norms and provides a solution to the puzzles they give rise to in a contextualist framework.

Evaluating Complex Collaborative Expertise: The Case of Climate Change

Science advisory committees exercise complex collaborative expertise. Not only do committee members collaborate, they do so across disciplines, producing expert reports that make synthetic multidisciplinary arguments. When reports are controversial, critics target both report content and committee process. Such controversies call for the assessment of expert arguments, but the multidisciplinary character of the debate outstrips the usual methods developed by informal logicians for assessing appeals to expert authority. This article proposes a multi-dimensional contextualist framework for critical assessment and tests it with a case study of the controversies over reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The case study shows (1) how the critical contextualist framework can illuminate the controversy and guide evaluation of the various arguments and counterarguments; (2) how cases of this sort open up avenues for fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration between argumentation theorists and other fields; and (3) where further work is required in argumentation theory.

The Relevance of Credibility Excess in a Proportional View of Epistemic Injustice: Differential Epistemic Authority and the Social Imaginary

This paper defends a contextualist approach to epistemic injustice according to which instances of such injustice should be looked at as temporally extended phenomena (having developmental and historical trajectories) and socially extended phenomena (being rooted in patterns of social relations). Within this contextualist framework, credibility excesses appear as a form of undeserved epistemic privilege that is crucially relevant for matters of testimonial justice. While drawing on Miranda Fricker's proportional view of epistemic justice, I take issue with its lack of attention to the role that credibility excesses play in testimonial injustices. I depart from Fricker's view of the relation between credibility excesses and credibility deficits, and I offer an alternative account of the contributions that undeserved epistemic privileges make to epistemic injustices. Then, through the detailed analysis of To kill a mockingbird, I elucidate the crucial role played by the social imaginary in creating and sustaining epistemic injustices, developing an analysis of the kind of social blindness produced by an oppressive social imaginary that establishes unjust patterns of credibility excesses and deficits.

Contextualism and the development of effective prevention practices.

Widespread and effective implementation of research-based prevention practices will be facilitated by the explicit adoption of a functional contextualist framework for prevention research. Such a framework has as its central goal predicting and influencing behavior and cultural practices. Research within this framework is evaluated in terms of its ability to contribute to that goal. As a result, it contributes directly to the ultimate goals of prevention science-affecting the incidence and prevalence of problems in populations. The approach contrasts with the mechanist framework, which is implicit in much behavioral science research. The mechanist framework has as its truth criterion the predictive verification of models of the interrelationships among variables. Such models can-but need not-identify manipulable variables that can be exploited to affect problems of interest. Such models require the inclusion of multiple cases for testing and this requirement may impede the tendency of scientists to work with a single school or community. Functional contextualism is suited to the study of the individual case. It provides a framework within which researchers can more readily collaborate with practitioners in the development and further evaluation of practices within the settings where practitioners will ultimately use those practices.

A case study in organisational change: implications for theory

Organisational change is typically conceptualised as moving from the status quo to a new, desired, configuration to better match the environment. Change could, therefore, be seen as a departure from the norm, or alternatively as normal and simply a natural response to environmental and internal conditions. Static models of organisations are being displaced by dynamic models, which reflect the discontinuous nature of organisational change. Developments in theory suggest limitations to contingency approaches, which carry the assumptions of static models of change. Analysis of this case at PowerCo in Australia reveals a number of issues related to changes aimed at achieving a more commercial, profit‐oriented, focus. Points out that the contextualist approach is holistic, in which these aspects interact with each other as change unfolds temporally. A contextualist framework permits models of change to be visualised as dynamic rather than static, having a temporal setting which has multiple causes acting as loops rather than simple lines. This enables change to be understood as a discontinuous phenomenon having the benefits, without the limitations, of rational contingency models.

Contextualist viewpoint to Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger paradox

We present probabilistic analysis of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) scheme in the contextualist framework, namely under the assumption that distributions of hidden variables depend on settings of measurement devices. On one hand, we found classes of probability distributions of hidden variables for that the GHZ scheme does not imply a contradiction between the local realism and quantum formalism. On the other hand, we found classes of probability distributions of hidden variables for that the GHZ scheme still induce such a contradiction (despite variations of distributions). It is also demonstrated that (well known in probability theory) singularity/absolute continuity dichotomy for probability distributions is closely related to the GHZ paradox. Our conjecture is that this GHZ coupling between singularity/absolute continuity dichotomy and incompatible/compatible measurements might be a general feature of quantum theory.

Adopting A Relationship Marketing Paradigm: The Case of the National Basketball Association

This paper explores the adoption of a relationship marketing paradigm by the National Basketball Association. A contextualist framework was used to explore the context, content and processes of this change that evolved over a 17-year time period. Personal interviews were conducted with leaders of this league and over 80 documents were reviewed and content analyzed. The results of this study provide insights into relationship marketing and organizational change for sport managers.

Managing information systems for health services in a developing country: a case study using a contextualist framework

Investments in information technology (IT) have been escalating in the health sector in both developed and developing countries. However, the failure rate of applications is of concern especially for countries with scarce resources. There is insufficient understanding of factors that lead to such failures in developing countries. A case study of implementing a computerised information system (IS) for health services in the Philippines is analysed using a contextualist framework. Factors that led to the failure included ambiguity in the organisation and in responsibility for the project, lack of capacity to undertake large information systems development projects and inability to retain appropriate staff. However, when the historical and contextual issues were revealed and the interplay between the content, process and context of the change was analysed it was revealed that the content of the IS was not responsive to the changes in the wider health system. The case study confirms the need to analyse and understand organisational, environmental and cultural issues in adopting models and procedures used elsewhere when managing information systems in developing countries.

Change in the Australian Electricity Industry: A Case Analysis

In this article a contextualist framework is used for theoretical analysis, in which context, content and process are linked over time. Within this framework we begin with the contextual factors which appear to be significant in restructuring the electricity industry, then outline the pathway taken by reform in the United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia, before describing the principal changes to one organisation and the management issues which have arisen as a result of these changes.

Psychosocial Development during Adolescence: Progress in Developmental Contextualism

Adams, Gerald R., Montemayor, Raymond, and Gullota, Thomas (Eds.). (1996). Psychosocial Development During Adolescence: Progress in Developmental Contextualism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 322 pages. Paperback ISBN 0-7619-0533-2. This edition of the Advances in Adolescent Development series focuses on the developmental contextual perspective. This edited book has several aims. Given an expanding interest in approaching adolescence from a developmental contextualist frame work, the editor chooses to focus on the work of John Hill and review the history and progress from Hill's pivotal statements in 1973 to the present. We are also provided a comprehensive discussion of developmental tasks in adolescence based on Hill's proposal to explore these tasks from a bio-psychosocial perspective. Finally, the book describes the unfolding research agendas in studying psychosocial development in adolescence from the developmental contextualist perspective outlined by Hill. Psychosocial Development During Adolescence is organized into an introductory chapter on the legacy of John Hill; seven major chapters, each covering one major psychosocial theme in adolescent development, such as autonomy, intimacy, and identity; and a concluding chapter reflecting past and future use of the developmental contextualism perspective on the study of adolescence. The introduction to the legacy of John Hill is valuable for zeroing in on the developmental contextual perspective. Hill advocated the centrality of psychosocial variables in the study of normal development in adolescence. He also identified bio-psychosocial factors (such as puberty, cognition, or self-definition), and contextual factors (such as gender, race-ethnicity, and social class) as important determinants of adolescent behavior. Hill's influence in identifying intimacy, detachment-autonomy, sexuality, achievement, and identity as the main psychosocial themes in adolescent development is evidenced by the vast array of work from the developmental-contextualist perspective that currently dominates the field. The introductory chapters lay the foundation for subsequent chapters by articulating Hill's ecological theory of adolescent development, which focuses on associations between the person and the situation throughout the life course. The editors offer their historical perspective on Hill as one method of addressing the vast complexity of the discipline and the possibility of seeing how various ideas, methodologies, and theories are related. Chapter two begins with a brief discussion on adolescent autonomy, followed by a more comprehensive presentation of the debate over the adaptive value of emotional distance (detachment) from parents during adolescence. The authors also discuss parent-- adolescent relationships in the context of promoting individuality versus maintenance of emotional connection, reviewing numerous studies on the value of opportunities for decision making in the family context. The last section of this chapter considers the restricted legal rights of adolescents in conjunction with the empirical work that calls these self-governing restrictions into question. In Chapter three, the reader is presented with the most compelling topics and recent trends in adolescent sexuality, such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual violence. The authors note the struggle that researchers face in attempting to address the topic of sexuality amidst problem-focused agendas and varying social perceptions surrounding adolescent sexual behavior. The presentation of trends in sexual behavior is followed by a review of key findings on sexual development, including sexual identity formation, behavior patterns, and aberrant sexual experiences. A lucid discussion of the differences between trends and developmental sequences helps the reader distinguish between social change and perceptions of sexual deviance in adolescence. Of significance in this chapter, the authors claim that because comparatively little research exists on noncoital behaviors (i. …