Explanatory Objectives Research Articles

A noetic account of explanation in mathematics

Abstract We defend a noetic account of intramathematical explanation. On this view, a piece of mathematics is explanatory just in case it produces understanding of an appropriate type. We motivate the view by presenting some appealing features of noeticism. We then discuss and criticize the most prominent extant version of noeticism, due to Inglis and Mejía Ramos, which identifies explanatory understanding with the possession of well-organized cognitive schemas. Finally, we present a novel noetic account. On our view, explanatory understanding arises from meeting specific explanatory objectives. We defend a cluster-concept account of explanatory objectives and identify four important subfamilies within the relevant network of resemblance relations. The resulting view is objectivist (in the sense that it takes explanatory success to be a matter of observer-independent fact), broader in scope than why-question-based accounts, compatible with empirical findings on experts’ explanatory judgments, and capable of generalizing (with appropriate provisos) to scientific explanation as a whole. It thus fulfills Friedman’s half-century-old demand for a general and objectivist theory, which accounts for the link between explanation and understanding.

For Every Love, A Pain: Impacts of Anthropic Use of Amazon Resources and Preservation Proposal

Objective: This work aims to identify how anthropogenic actions have been limiting the natural resources of the region and how the reduction of the availability of these same resources also limit anthropic actions. Theoretical Reference: Topics such as the Amazon biome, climate change and the anthropic use of natural resources were addressed. To understand the social universe of the Amazon, he also delved into traditional communities and peoples and their agrarian trajectories for the use and preservation of the environment. Method: It is a research of a social and applied nature, of a qualitative approach, with exploratory and explanatory objectives, with case study delineation as a technique of investigation, with bibliographic analyzes. Results and discussion: This research identified the anthropic actions that most affected the Brazilian Eastern Amazon and brought as a proposal alternatives of environmental planning in a sustainable way that can reduce the consequences of these activities to sustainable limits and thus bring a balance between the activities of nature and the activities of man. Research Implications: It contributes to the development of future research on the social and environmental impacts that each of the anthropic activities generates (or can still generate) in the Brazilian Eastern Amazon. Originality/value: This is an unprecedented piece of research for the Brazilian Eastern Amazon that, at the moment, is about severe environmental alterations as a result of the anthropic use of its natural resources and brings light, proposals for the preservation of the region's sociobiodiversity.

Explaining Recommendations through Conversations: Dialog Model and the Effects of Interface Type and Degree of Interactivity

Explaining system-generated recommendations based on user reviews can foster users’ understanding and assessment of the recommended items and the recommender system (RS) as a whole. While up to now explanations have mostly been static, shown in a single presentation unit, some interactive explanatory approaches have emerged in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), making it easier for users to examine system decisions and to explore arguments according to their information needs. However, little is known about how interactive interfaces should be conceptualized and designed to meet the explanatory aims of transparency, effectiveness, and trust in RS. Thus, we investigate the potential of interactive, conversational explanations in review-based RS and propose an explanation approach inspired by dialog models and formal argument structures. In particular, we investigate users’ perception of two different interface types for presenting explanations, a graphical user interface (GUI)-based dialog consisting of a sequence of explanatory steps, and a chatbot-like natural-language interface. Since providing explanations by means of natural language conversation is a novel approach, there is a lack of understanding how users would formulate their questions with a corresponding lack of datasets. We thus propose an intent model for explanatory queries and describe the development of ConvEx-DS, a dataset containing intent annotations of 1,806 user questions in the domain of hotels, that can be used to to train intent detection methods as part of the development of conversational agents for explainable RS. We validate the model by measuring user-perceived helpfulness of answers given based on the implemented intent detection. Finally, we report on a user study investigating users’ evaluation of the two types of interactive explanations proposed (GUI and chatbot), and to test the effect of varying degrees of interactivity that result in greater or lesser access to explanatory information. By using Structural Equation Modeling, we reveal details on the relationships between the perceived quality of an explanation and the explanatory objectives of transparency, trust, and effectiveness. Our results show that providing interactive options for scrutinizing explanatory arguments has a significant positive influence on the evaluation by users (compared to low interactive alternatives). Results also suggest that user characteristics such as decision-making style may have a significant influence on the evaluation of different types of interactive explanation interfaces.

Cordel literature in two 8th grade public school textbooks: reflections on literary literacy

The present article has the general objective of conducting a comparative study between two Portuguese language textbooks for the 8th year of Elementary School – Final Years: “Singular e Plural: leitura, produção e estudos de linguagem”, by Balthasar and Goulart (2015) and “Tecendo Linguagens: Língua Portuguesa”, by Oliveira and Araújo (2018), used in municipal public schools in the city of Carpina-PE. Based on the assumptions of Literary Literacy developed by Cosson (2014), Marinho and Pinheiro (2012), the guidelines for the teaching of Portuguese language present in the PCN (BRASIL, 1997; 1998), the BNCC (BRASIL, 2018) and the Curriculum of Pernambuco (PERNAMBUCO, 2019), we analyze the data collected in order to reflect on the space of cordel in the textbook and its performance in the classroom. The methodology applied in this article is of qualitative approach with basic nature, explanatory objectives and bibliographic procedure. The results obtained demonstrate that cordel, even being present in the two selected textbooks, is not placed in a way that promotes literary literacy, being crucial the critical look of the teacher before the treatment given to cordel in the textbooks and its value for the formation of the student.

Entrepreneurial Action in Public School Managemen

Research objective: Besides identifying actions developed by municipal public actors in the education department of a municipalitylocated in the south of Minas Gerais to fulfill the National Education Plan, this article seeks to explain and analyze them fromthe theory of entrepreneurial action.?eoretical framework: ?e study of entrepreneurial action seeks to fully understand an enterprise, its driving motives,development, and actors involved. ?e entrepreneurial action can occur in different environments, being inherent to any processmodified by creativity despite not being an innovative concept and being present in school management in Brazil, its effectivenessposes a challenge for the public managers. In the public sector, entrepreneurial action can be defined as a successful result of theintertwining between public agents, organization, and society, resulting in new goods and services, or restructuring processes thatmeet public demands. Methodology: ?e research has a qualitative approach, with explanatory objectives, becoming a case study. ?e goal of thisstudy is the education department of a municipality in the south of Minas Gerais, which stands out for the creative way inwhich it manages its demands. ?e research actors are public workers assigned to the municipal education department. Datacollection took place through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Initially, a focus group carried out with four actors from themunicipal education department enabled to map out the potential entrepreneurial actions. A?erward, six in-depth interviewscollect thorough information about them. ?e data collected were analyzed by the methodological procedure of content analysis.Results: Data analysis allowed us to identify four entrepreneurial actions linked to the service of students, parents/society, teachers,management, also goals 4, 18, 19 of the PNE-2014/2024; being the creation of the service of attendance and support to theinclusion, the young permaculturist fair, the time-activity regulation, and the outsourcing of school meals the ones identified.?e actions emerged from tensions in the institutional logic, being carried out by research actors mobilized in creating innovativeexchanges that led to improved management.Originality: ?e entrepreneurial action investigation is a new topic with few studies developed in Brazil. Studying schoolmanagement from the entrepreneurial action perspective with all action steps detailed to understand how public managerscreatively and innovatively articulate to solve existing demands can help promote the already shaken public policy managementstigmatized by its inefficiency and improve the theoretical development of entrepreneurial action. ?erefore, this article providesa new way of understanding public entrepreneurship through the study of entrepreneurial action, investigating the intertwiningof various actors and how it allows the creation and use of opportunities.?eoretical and practical contributions: ?is study contributes to the field of social sciences, notably, to the study of publicadministration, by highlighting the assumption of entrepreneurial action as an identifiable phenomenon in public institutionsthat makes it possible to improve management. It also contributes by discussing the phenomenon of entrepreneurial actionand providing a theoretical framework for application in other studies. In terms of practical contributions, the identifiedentrepreneurial actions demonstrate the public managers' search for effective, competent, innovative school managementcommitted to social results, being a phenomenon of extreme value for the Brazilian public administration. Besides, the use ofcreativity, dialogue and innovation allows the public managers to bring about changes and improvements in facing the existingtensions.

The New Explanatory Objection Against the Fitting Attitude Account of Value

The explanatory objection against the fitting attitude account of value states that if the properties of attitudes explain fittingness facts, but do not always explain value facts, then value facts cannot be identical with or reduced to fittingness facts. One reply to this objection is to claim that the constitutive properties of attitudes also explain value facts, for they are enablers for the value possessed by an object (the “enabling maneuver”). In this paper we argue that the enabling maneuver exposes FA to a new explanatory objection, to the extent that the explanatory role played by the constitutive properties of attitudes in value facts is assumed to be different from the explanatory role they play in fittingness facts.

Explaining value: on Orsi and Garcia\u2019s explanatory objection to the fitting-attitude analysis

Orsi and Garcia (Philos Stud, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-020-01471-6) argue that fitting-attitude analysis of value (FA-analysis, for short) is vulnerable to an explanatory objection. On FA-analysis, for an object to be valuable is for it to be a fitting target of an attitude—a pro-attitude if its value is positive and a con-attitude if it is negative. For different kinds of value different kinds of attitudes are fitting: desire for desirability, admiration for admirability, etc. To explain the fittingness relation we therefor need to appeal to the features of the relevant attitude, but these seldom, if ever, are needed for explaining the object’s value. This explanatory disparity between the analysans and the analysandum implies that FA-analysis must be incorrect. In our reply to Orsi and Garcia, we provide a refutation of their objection. We argue that the features of a fitting attitude do have a right place in the explanation of an object’s value, even though they are not among the properties that make the object valuable. They help to explain this value-making relation itself.

Methods of teaching the basics of programming in Python

The article discusses the main trends in the study of programming languages in the school course of informatics. The programming languages (Basic, Pascal, C, Python, algorithmic language) that are acceptable for use at the Unified State Exam in informatics and ICT and their main features are listed. The analysis of the use of the proposed programming languages in educational and methodological kits on informatics is carried out. The program of the elective course for teaching the basics of programming in Python is proposed. It contains an explanatory note, goals and objectives of the course, thematic planning, course content, expected learning outcomes. The methodical material on the theme "Programming of branching algorithms" in Python is considered.

The explanatory objection to the fitting attitude analysis of value

The fitting attitude analysis of value states that for objects to have value is for them to be the fitting targets of attitudes. Good objects are the fitting targets of positive attitudes, while bad objects are the fitting targets of negative attitudes. The following paper presents an argument to the effect that value and the fittingness of attitudes differ in terms of their explanations. Whereas the fittingness of attitudes is explained, inter alia, by both the properties of attitudes and those of their fitting targets, the explanation of value tends to have a different content. In particular, objects have value in virtue of the features that make them valuable, and these need not involve any attitudinal properties. If this is right, then there are reasons to doubt the claim that for objects to have value is just for them to be the fitting targets of attitudes. Insofar as value is a property, it appears to be distinct from the property of objects being the fitting targets of attitudes.

Debunking material induction

In this paper, we present an explanatory objection to Norton's material theory of induction, as applied to predictive inferences. According to the objection we present, there is an explanatory disconnect between our beliefs about the future and the relevant future facts. We argue that if we recognize such a disconnect, we are no longer rationally entitled to our future beliefs.

A SEGURANÇA PÚBLICA E A ESTRATÉGIA GARANTISTA PARA A REVOLUÇÃO CULTURAL GRAMSCIANA

Este trabalho pretende apresentar algumas reflexões sobre a influência da revolução cultural na segurança pública brasileira, apregoada pelo filósofo italiano Antonio Gramsci para impor a ideologia marxista. A estratégia, denominada de guerra cultural, visa obter o poder e a hegemonia da ideologia de esquerda, atingindo e subvertendo o senso comum de uma determinada cultura. Busca-se, ainda, verificar o impacto dessa postura ideológica nas teorias jurídico-penais que visam minimizar o papel social das instituições de distribuição da justiça, mormente aquelas que exercem o poder de polícia, que poderiam impor dificuldades no avançar das pretensões revolucionárias. Para embasar o presente estudo, foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica, através do método dedutivo, por meio de objetivos explicativos, ainda sob uma abordagem qualitativa. Chegou-se ao resultado de que há fortes influências da ideologia gramsciana no Brasil e no direito penal mínimo. Conclui-se, portanto, que há imbricada relação de causa e consequência do gramscismo como fator de importante impacto na segurança pública brasileira, em decorrência da guerra cultural.

The Enhancement of Work Motivation in Agrarian Affair Office of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The employees’ motivation is considered low because employees do not comply with applicable regulations. Even though in terms of income and benefits provided considered quite adequate, the low level of motivation of course will affect the work results of employees. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of increased work motivation at the Agrarian Affair Office of Makassar city. This research is quantitative research with explanatory objectives, namely to explain the causal relationship (influence) of variables increasing work motivation at the Agrarian Affair Office of Makassar city. To measure the variables in this study, questionnaires are used. The results showed that work motivation at the Agrarian Affair Office of Makassar city was in a fairly good category. The implications of this research are to increase work motivation at the Agrarian Affair Office of Makassar city.

Natural Selection and Contrastive Explanation

This article defends the Negative View of natural selection explanation, according to which natural selection cannot explain of any given individual why it has the traits it does. Over the years, this view has been criticized on empirical, metaphysical, and explanatory grounds. I review the debate and offer additional reasons for rejecting the empirical and metaphysical objections. The explanatory objection, which holds that the Negative View is rooted in a flawed account of contrastive explanation, initially seems plausible. However, I argue that a closer consideration of the desiderata of contrastive explanation shows that this objection fails as well.

Analysis of the Influence of Coordination and Supervision in Right to Cultivate Issuance Service on the Performance of Plantation Companies in Jambi Province

Right to Cultivate (HGU or Hak Guna Usaha ) as a legal capital for a plantation business takes a long time to be issued because getting permits as one of the requirements from various institutions is complicated in-process and expensive. This affects the quality of issuance service and comfort for HGU holders to invest and improve their performance in business activities. This study aims to describe and analyze the coordination between agencies related to the issuance of HGU, internal supervision of agencies related to the issuance of HGU, services of HGU issuance, and the performance of HGU holders in Jambi Province. Methodologically, this research fulfills descriptive, explanatory, and exploratory objectives. The population of the study is 120 plantation companies that have obtained HGU in Jambi Province, and there are 165 respondents. Hypothesis testing uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study show that the coordination between agencies related to the issuance of HGU and the supervision of related agencies positively and significantly affects the service of HGU issuance and the performance of HGU holder companies in Jambi Province. However, those elements have not conducted as expected. Keywords: Coordination, Supervision, Service, Company’s Performance DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-22-12 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Deficiencies in the reporting quality of RCTs in neurosurgery: How can we do better?

Background: Deficiencies in design and reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) limit their validity. The quality of recent RCTs in neurosurgery was analyzed to assess adequacy of design and reporting. Methods: A high-yield search of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases (2000-present) was conducted. The CONSORT and Jadad scales were used to assess the quality of design/reporting. A PRECIS-based scale was used to designate studies on the pragmatic-explanatory continuum. Spearman’s test was used to assess correlations. Regression analysis was used to assess associations. Results: Sixty-one articles were identified. Vascular was the most common sub-specialty (37%). The median CONSORT and Jadad scores were 36 (IQR 27.5-39) and 3 (IQR 2-3). Blinding, sample size calculation and allocation concealment were most deficiently reported. The quality of reporting did not correlate with the study impact. The majority of studies (83%) had pragmatic objectives; while pragmatic studies had compatible design factors, trials with explanatory objectives were less successful. Conclusions: The prevalence and quality of neurosurgical RCTs is low. Many study designs are not compatible with stated objectives. Given the role of RCTs as one of the highest levels of evidence, it is critical to improve on their methodology and reporting. Alternative methodologies merit discussion.

The Limits of Normalization: Taking Stock of theEU‐USComparative Literature

AbstractThis article contributes to the research on the normalization ofEuropeanUnion (EU) studies by presenting an analysis and assessment of theEU‐UScomparative literature. Using an original and comprehensive data set of 104 publications, it shows not only that these comparisons have grown considerably since the early 1990s, but also and more interestingly thatEU‐USscholarship itself has increasingly conformed to mainstream political science by becoming more diverse, causal in nature and empirically inclusive. Unlike other accounts of normalization, however, it is argued here that these transformations are only partly desirable, and that a better direction for the future is to developEU‐USresearch as a distinct programme withinEUstudies, centred on a ‘dual mission’ – theoretical and empirical – that accepts political science's scope and explanatory objectives, but at the same time sees the two cases as worthy of being studied in isolation owing to their importance and the political value of their comparison.

Enriching the Tapestry: Expanding the Scope of Life Course Concepts

UANE Alwin is to be thanked for an ambitious effort to provide a systematic review of the diverse array of meanings of “life course” and related terms and to contrib-ute to the discussion of the possibilities of integration of this important but often unwieldy literature. It is an undertaking that invites reaction at many points. Of course, space pre-cludes a comprehensive response to the full range of ideas and issues Alwin presents. I limit my comment to three top-ics that warrant further attention: (a) the importance of the life course as a social institution, (b) the relation of the “life span” and “life course” concepts, and (c) the need to address what I have earlier identified as theoretical deficiencies that are common to both life span and life course perspectives.At the beginning of his essay “Integrating Varieties of Life-Course Concepts” (hereafter termed “IVLC”), Alwin counter-poses the risks that may be present when a single term is used to connote “a multiplicity of meanings that are at variance with one another” with the benefits that may come from a concept whose breadth offers “rich tapestry of different emphases.” I am sympathetic to Alwin’s caution of the dangers inherent in requiring a single term—life course—to carry a “multiplicity of meanings,” which is the more worrisome when the use of the term is accompanied by unexamined assumptions and a lack of consistency in explanatory objectives. In attempting to bring some order to this unwieldy domain, I applaud and appreciate the taxonomic and integrative objectives of IVLC. In this comment, I will note some significant arenas in which the formulation offered in IVLC needs to be extended in terms of conceptual scope, precision, and critical analysis.Although the array of terms, concepts, and issues intro-duced in IVLC do indeed represent quite a varied collec-tion, I must begin by taking note of the need to add yet even more “richness to the tapestry.” The task of integration pre-supposes that the components essential to the integrative ef-fort have been identified, and it is necessary to begin by pointing out at least one omitted but essential class of phe-nomena, which revolve around the concept of the life course as a social institution.

HOWCONCEPTUALPROBLEMSMIGRATE: Rational Choice, Interpretation, and the Hazards of Pluralism

▪ Abstract When they assess competing theories, political scientists typically rely almost exclusively and rather naively on criteria of empirical performance. They have correspondingly little to say about conceptual problems and seem generally unaware of the extent to which their assessments of empirical performance are parasitic on conceptual commitments. This blind spot, in turn, hinders their ability both to persuasively conduct and critically assess substantive research. I call attention to the importance and complexity of conceptual problems for ongoing social and political research. As a vehicle for this argument, I examine and criticize recent attempts to integrate interpretive and rational choice theories in hopes of improving our understanding of how culture and politics intersect. I argue that these efforts are plagued by important, mostly unrecognized conceptual problems that, in turn, subvert their explicitly stated explanatory objectives. I also show, in light of this same example, how conceptual problems unintentionally can frustrate laudable pluralist aspirations. This essay illustrates why, if we take conceptual problems seriously, calls for methodological and theoretical pluralism are significantly more demanding than they often appear.

Description, explanation, prediction – the evolution of bankruptcy studies?

This paper describes a number of models used in bankruptcy studies to date. They arise from two basic model designs used in studies of financial distress: cross-sectional studies that compare healthy and distressed firms, and time-series formulations that study the path to failure of (usually) distressed firms only. These two designs inherently foster different research objectives. Different instances of the most recent work taken from each of the above research groups, broadly categorized by design, are described here including new work by this author. It is argued that those that investigate the distress continuum with predominantly explanatory objectives are superior on a number of criteria to the studies that follow what is essentially a case-control structure and espouse prediction as their objective.

The philosophy of economic modelling: a critical survey

Economic modelling, the heart of orthodox economics, has long been accused of neglecting the interpretation of its models needed to generate knowledge claims about the real world. It is argued that recent developments in the philosophy of model and theory can help us to evaluate the scientific and policy relevance of economic models. McCloskey's attempt to finesse this issue by reference to the rhetoric of economics is argued not to be congruent with economics' revealed explanatory and policy objectives. Blaug's adherence to a Popper-Lakatos mode of appraisal may be a little dated, but none of the more recent approaches to the metaphysical foundations of economics—such as scientific realism, constructive empiricism or 'causal holism'—seem able to rebuff the criticism explicit and implicit in the recent work of, for example, Hausman and Rosenberg. An example of 'modelling without theory' and Rapport's recent defence of economic modelling's practice suggest the need for further detailed evaluation by case-studies of the development and application of economic models.