Interpretive Assumptions Research Articles

Ideological rug-pulling: race, reds, and red herrings in Jordan Peele’s Us

ABSTRACT Viewers of Jordan Peele’s 2019 Us are likely to approach the film expecting it to be about race. Undercutting current cultural orthodoxy about which marker of identity has priority, the story reveals itself instead to be about class, as doppelgängers emerge from underground to free themselves from the affluent originals allegorically oppressing them in a capitalist culture. In what Vera Tobin calls a “narrative rug-pull,” the revelation of the main character’s real identity invites viewers to reinterpret what they have seen and to rethink what their loyalties were and should be. Us thereby performs a rug-pull of a specifically ideological variety, as, prior to the reveal, viewers only make the specific interpretive assumptions they do because of deeper ideological ones. Where Tobin writes against the notion that cognitive biases are necessarily bad, since they can be deployed for aesthetic pleasure, I argue further that they can be weaponized in narrative to artfully combat ideological bias. There is untapped potential for rug-pulling to be used in ideology critique, though I end with some pessimistic caveats about the possibility of doing so in a capitalist culture.

Seneca’s Thyestes: Ode 920-969 as an Amoibaion

Abstract This article aims to revise the editorial and interpretive tradition that regards Thy. 920-969 as a monody. Based on a systematic analysis of attribution differences in three selected plays by Seneca and, comparatively, in several other problematic places, it confirms earlier general findings: the A-branch of the MS tradition shows traces of conscious interpolation, while the codex Etruscus (E-branch) contains largely mechanical errors, which—in the case of Thy. 920-969—makes its attribution more plausible. The article further discusses the problematic passages of the ode that might have motivated interpolations, provides a critique of the interpretive assumptions supporting the A reading, and demonstrates that the attribution in the E-branch is correct in the light of the rules of Senecan poetics, as well as from the point of view of the internal logic of the text and the ethopoeia of the eponymous hero.

Paradox of Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Interpretative Assumptions on Entrepreneur Archetypes

Paradox of Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Interpretative Assumptions on Entrepreneur Archetypes

Knowledge Transfer Practices: A Means of Sustainable Career Development among Non-Academic Senior Members in Ghana

The goal of this article is to look into how knowledge transfer practices might help non-academic senior members in Ghana maintain their career progress. The research was founded on interpretive philosophical assumptions, and a multiple case study design was employed to gain a comprehensive understanding of knowledge transfer methods among non-academic senior members of Ghanaian universities. Non-academic senior members of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and University of Cape Coast (UCC) and University of Ghana (UG) make up the study's population. The non-academic senior members of the study were chosen from fifteen (15) colleges within the institutions, and data was acquired through semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that face-to-face interaction, after-action reviews, discussion forums, documentation, workshops, brainstorming and seminars were the most common methods for knowledge transfer. Non-academic senior members benefit from this type of information transfer in their career paths and development. Institutions should build up a knowledge portal where personnel may readily access material from other units or sections within their context, according to the recommendations.

Augustine on Hope and Politics: A Response to Peter Iver Kaufman

This is the first of two responses to Peter Iver Kaufman’s article, “Hopefully, Augustine.” Michael Lamb, author of A Commonwealth of Hope: Augustine’s Political Thought, analyzes the conceptual and interpretive assumptions related to hope and politics implicit in Kaufman’s account. Lamb defends an account of hope as a virtue that allows properly ordered hope for political goods and considers the implications of a more expansive view of politics for understanding Augustine’s thought.

God's Patients: Chaucer, Agency, and the Nature of Laws

God's Patients: Chaucer, Agency, and the Nature of Laws

Sustainability of the Amazon Nut in Mato Grosso: An Application of the MuSIASEM Method

The Amazon biome occupies 60% of Brazilian territory, configured as a complex metabolism due to its diversity and the history of occupation by humans in the exploitation of its services. The Amazon nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) occurs in the entire Amazon biome, which is essential for its sustainability. The Amazon nut production chain in the northwest of the State of Mato Grosso presents itself as a relevant case of analysis of the extractive activity of non-timber forest products (NTFP). Based on interpretative assumptions, the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach is applied to the data collected in a farmers’ cooperative. The objective of this study was to analyze the socio-environmental metabolism of the productive chain of the Amazon nut in the northwest region of the Mato Grosso State (MT) in Brazil. As the MuSIASEM approach can generate an integrated set of indicators measured at different scales and dimensions of analysis, the results show a lack of sustainability in the social dimension, in the environmental dimension, and the presence of intermediaries that serve companies that function as an illegal part of the metabolism. As a next step, the defined method needs testing on different NTFPs and in other micronarratives.

Family Dynamics, Fertility Cults, and Feminist Critiques: The Reception of Hosea 1–3 through the Centuries

This article examines a number of contested and contentious issues in the reception of Hosea 1–3, exploring how readers through the centuries have engaged with the interpretive challenges found in the initial chapters of this prophetic text. These include (1) debates concerning whether the marriage of Hosea and Gomer should be understood literally or figuratively; (2) questions concerning the identity of the woman in chp. 3 in relation to the events of chp. 1; (3) proposals on how to understand the metaphorical elements related to Hosea’s marriage and Israel’s infidelity; (4) ethical, theological, and rhetorical concerns raised by these chapters, including feminist critiques; (5) the place of Gomer’s children in the opening chapter of the book; (6) the themes and rhetoric of chp. 2, including the punishment and wooing of the wife and Israel; and (7) the role of Hos 1–3 in Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions. This study offers soundings from across historical, religious, and interpretive traditions that give a sense of the wide-ranging ways in which this book has been read and understood through the centuries. In particular, it highlights that while specific questions and issues related to Hosea have persisted through the years, the underlying interpretive assumptions and approaches to these questions have shifted considerably in various historical periods, which in turn has led to considerable diversity in the reception of this prophetic text.

Between worlds and elites at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the Lower Danube Basin: a pluridisciplinary approach to personal ornaments

The territory situated to the north of the Lower Danube represents the ideal space for observing the interaction between local communities, local environment and newcomers who arrived here at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Thousands of burial mounds and relatively few flat graves present an array of common or exceptional inventories, indicating a very dynamic society. Among these grave inventories, the ornaments, beyond their primary symbolism (religious, social, cultural), generate important information which, properly exploited and systematically treated, allows the exploration of social practices in the context of the development of elites in prehistory. This study highlights the results of pluridisciplinary investigations (anthropological, isotopic, metallographic, technological, traceological, malacological and archaeozoological) of the ornaments discovered in a grave of the Early Bronze Age (the first third of the 3rd millennium BC) from Șoimești, Prahova County, with the richest inventory in Romania. The exploration of various aspects, such as the variety of basic materials used (animal teeth, molluscs, metal), ornamental forms and settings, their large number and their distribution in the burial space, allowed for interpretive assumptions about the deceased individual’s relation with the environment (through the fauna in the grave), and cultural and social identity (including status) analysed from different spatial perspectives, including the Lower Danube, Carpathian Basin and the North Pontic steppe.

Histories of mathematical practice: reconstruction, genealogy, and the unruly pasts of ruly knowledge

Histories of mathematical practice account for mathematical knowledge and action by interpreting presently-available evidence as traces of the events, contexts, and relations that make up the past. Interpretations depend on the assumptions one makes about how mathematical knowledge works, insofar as it is knowledge and insofar as it is mathematical. Though the specific rules and their meanings can differ from context to context, mathematics is a kind of ruly knowledge, expected to follow orderly patterns and principles wherever it is found. The contexts and activities of mathematical practice—how that knowledge is made, shared, applied, and understood—are necessarily less ruly, and different practices leave or occlude different kinds of evidence for historical interpretation. The apparent ruliness of mathematics can be both a resource and an obstacle for understanding its unruly pasts. Historians’ interpretive assumptions and goals have been shaped by centuries of interaction between mathematics research, history, and education.As a guide for mathematics educators and education researchers to historical perspectives on mathematical practice, this article briefly introduces four major interpretive traditions that inform the present discipline of mathematics history. It then illustrates some interpretive approaches and challenges through the history of blackboards in mathematical practice before explaining the two broad kinds of historical interpretation applied to mathematical practices. Reconstruction involves understanding the conditions and contexts of practices in a single historical moment. Genealogy, by contrast, connects elements of the past across time through transmission, interpretation, adaptation, and other kinds of preservation and change.

Quaestio Disputata: Aquinas’s Virtuous Vision of the Divine Ideas

Paul DeHart has recently proposed that Thomas Aquinas did not elaborate on the ethical and anthropological implications of his position on the divine ideas. The author challenges DeHart’s interpretive assumption by demonstrating that Thomas consciously and deliberately extended the divine ideas into his vision of virtue through a network of subtle allusions to the doctrine in the Summa Theologiae. Specifically, the article considers the place of the divine ideas in Thomas’s appeal to Macrobius’s categorical division of the cardinal virtues into political, purifying, purified-in-mind, and exemplar. It further examines the relation of this gradation of virtue to Thomas’s thought on the ontological correlation between each person’s creational formation and the eschatological perfection of virtue.

A NEW STUDY ON ASYMPTOTIC OPTIMALITY OF LEAST SQUARES MODEL AVERAGING

In this article, we present a comprehensive study of asymptotic optimality of least squares model averaging methods. The concept of asymptotic optimality is that in a large-sample sense, the method results in the model averaging estimator with the smallest possible prediction loss among all such estimators. In the literature, asymptotic optimality is usually proved under specific weights restriction or using hardly interpretable assumptions. This article provides a new approach to proving asymptotic optimality, in which a general weight set is adopted, and some easily interpretable assumptions are imposed. In particular, we do not impose any assumptions on the maximum selection risk and allow a larger number of regressors than that of existing studies.

A New Study on Asymptotic Optimality of Least Squares Model Averaging

In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of asymptotic optimality of least squares model averaging methods. The concept of asymptotic optimality is that in a large-sample sense, the method results in the model averaging estimator with the smallest possible prediction loss among all such estimators. In the literature, asymptotic optimality is usually proved under specific weights restriction or using hardly interpretable assumptions. This paper provides a new approach to proving asymptotic optimality, in which a general weight set is adopted, and some easily interpretable assumptions are imposed. In particular, we do not impose any assumptions on the maximum selection risk and allow a larger number of regressors than that of existing studies.

Introducción a las categorías conceptuales del bioderecho en la discrecionalidad jurídica

La identificación de la denominada dispersión epistemológica en las decisiones en bioderecho se evidencia en la incorporación crítica al materialismo, en particular, y a las nuevas formas de fisicalismo, ya que su base epistemológica se encuentra en un contexto mucho más amplio que la explicación unificadora de la relación mente-cerebro. De ahí que teorías de la argumentación adoptadas por autores como Wroblesky, Aarnio y Alexy identifican una doble exigencia en la justificación: por un lado, la llamada justificación interna, regulada por la lógica a la hora de conectar las premisas o conectar los enunciados que forman parte del razonamiento judicial y, por el otro, la justificación externa, focalizada en los argumentos o razones utilizadas para justificar aquellas premisas o enunciados. El bioderecho implica reconocer que se plantea una crítica al materialismo y al fisicalismo, camino que ya la psicopatología recorrió para entender fenómenos como la intencionalidad, la interpretación de conductas humanas y los supuestos interpretativos de la arquitectura de la decisión jurídica.El estudioso del bioderecho debe identificar esos supuestos, muchas veces irreflexivos; ello implica dar razones acerca de la relación mente-cuerpo subyacente; de los elementos que componen la acción humana jurídicamente relevante; la configuración de los bienes humanos básicos involucrados en la litis en el bioderecho; elementos todos estos que hacen necesario repensar el estatuto cognoscitivo del derecho, en general, y del bioderecho, en particular.

Provable Subspace Tracking From Missing Data and Matrix Completion

We study the problem of subspace tracking in the presence of missing data (ST-miss). In recent work, we studied a related problem called robust ST. In this work, we show that a simple modification of our robust ST solution also provably solves ST-miss and robust ST-miss. To our knowledge, our result is the first `complete' guarantee for ST-miss. This means that we can prove that under assumptions on only the algorithm inputs, the output subspace estimates are close to the true data subspaces at all times. Our guarantees hold under mild and easily interpretable assumptions, and allow the underlying subspace to change with time in a piecewise constant fashion. In contrast, all existing guarantees for ST are partial results and assume a fixed unknown subspace. Extensive numerical experiments are shown to back up our theoretical claims. Finally, our solution can be interpreted as a provably correct mini-batch and memory-efficient solution to low-rank Matrix Completion (MC).

ERP Sand Clock Barriers and Antecedents Model: From the Lens of Task Technology Fit Theory

The deployment of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems worldwide has become an evidence of the unprecedented movement towards integration of information technologies. The importance of continuance usage during the post implementation stage should not be neglected as to secure an optimal advantages offered by ERP system, that is achieved through minimizing ERP system usage barriers. As such, successful implementation of an ERP system does not necessarily guarantee that the system will be comprehensively used or accepted by users of the system. ERP benefits can only be realised and sustained if users continue to have favourable experiences in using the system. While many previous studies have examined ERP system during the implementation phase, only a few have revealed barriers to ERP usage as well its antecedent factors during the post-implementation phase. The purpose of this paper is to determine ERP system usage barriers and unearth the root causes to the barriers. To achieve the aim, this research was guided by the ‘soft-positivism’ paradigm, a paradigm that combines elements of positivism and interpretivism. By using this paradigm, the investigator brought certain prior expectations to the data analysis which are consistent with positivist research and which also build rich explanations from the data, consistent with the interpretive assumption. Based upon the lens of Task Technology Fit theory, this study adopts a qualitative method using multiple case studies. Three Malaysian organisations that had implemented ERP were investigated by conducting 30 semi–structured interviews and reviewing archival records and documents. The interviews were guided by the research objectives. Data were analysed by using open and thematic coding.The finding indicated four major areas of ERP usage problems: system, data, and technical infrastructure and interface problems. Besides that, several antecedent factors to the problems were identified. These factors fall into four major categories: organisation, user, task and technology, and include lack of support from either external or internal expertise, lack of individual strength and limited technology affordance. The outcome of this study was encapsulated in the form of the ERP Sand Clock Barriers and Antecedents Model.The paper contributes to post-implementation ERP system literature by stressing the complex relationships between usage barriers and antecedent factors. By identifying the underlying causes of SAP usage barriers, it could become the motivating factor for individual users to undertake reflective feedback and to achieve extended use of the implemented ERP system.

It is not a game: soccer and China’s search for world hegemony

ABSTRACTRecent signings of well-recognized soccer players and the acquisition of clubs in Europe from Chinese business tycoons have captured the attention of soccer fans, worldwide. This paper looks beyond the widely published details of those transactions trying to unveil the fundamental reasons for the government`s support of its local league. This article proposes that the Chinese government intends to reach a soccer superpower status, as part of a broader plan for securing global hegemony. The research draws upon the theoretical assumptions of neo-Gramscian interpretation, with hegemony seen as an expression of consent from a broader base. The hegemon state does not need to use military or economic force, as power itself comes from the recognition of its superiority. The paper also describes the challenges for the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the process of consolidation as a soccer superpower, as well as the long journey lying ahead before achieving success in major competitions.

ERP Sand Clock Barriers and Antecedents Model: From the Lens of Task Technology Fit Theory.

The deployment of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems worldwide has become an evidence of the unprecedented movement towards integration of information technologies. The importance of continuance usage during the post implementation stage should not be neglected as to secure an optimal advantages offered by ERP system, that is achieved through minimizing ERP system usage barriers. As such, successful implementation of an ERP system does not necessarily guarantee that the system will be comprehensively used or accepted by users of the system. ERP benefits can only be realised and sustained if users continue to have favourable experiences in using the system. While many previous studies have examined ERP system during the implementation phase, only a few have revealed barriers to ERP usage as well its antecedent factors during the post-implementation phase. The purpose of this paper is to determine ERP system usage barriers and unearth the root causes to the barriers. To achieve the aim, this research was guided by the ‘soft-positivism’ paradigm, a paradigm that combines elements of positivism and interpretivism. By using this paradigm, the investigator brought certain prior expectations to the data analysis which are consistent with positivist research and which also build rich explanations from the data, consistent with the interpretive assumption. Based upon the lens of Task Technology Fit theory, this study adopts a qualitative method using multiple case studies. Three Malaysian organisations that had implemented ERP were investigated by conducting 30 semi–structured interviews and reviewing archival records and documents. The interviews were guided by the research objectives. Data were analysed by using open and thematic coding.The finding indicated four major areas of ERP usage problems: system, data, and technical infrastructure and interface problems. Besides that, several antecedent factors to the problems were identified. These factors fall into four major categories: organisation, user, task and technology, and include lack of support from either external or internal expertise, lack of individual strength and limited technology affordance. The outcome of this study was encapsulated in the form of the ERP Sand Clock Barriers and Antecedents Model.The paper contributes to post-implementation ERP system literature by stressing the complex relationships between usage barriers and antecedent factors. By identifying the underlying causes of SAP usage barriers, it could become the motivating factor for individual users to undertake reflective feedback and to achieve extended use of the implemented ERP system.

Fictionality as a rhetorical resource in Zuozhuan

Zuozhuan (Spring and autumn annals with Zuo’s commentary) initiated a narrative practice in Chinese historiography, which features not only records of historical events, but also various mysterious and unsubstantiated phenomena, such as divinations, omens, acts of mystical justice, apparitions and dreams. They played important roles for interpreting fictionality as a rhetorical resource in Zuozhuan. To elaborate fictionality and its competing relations with factuality, this paper subscribes to some Chinese scholars’ idea that it is from Zuozhuan on that fictionality endows Chinese historiography some “literary cover”, and analyzes those events in Zuozhuan. Moreover, enlightened by a rhetorical approach to fictionality proposed by Nielson, Phelan, and Walsh, this paper examines fictionality in Zuozhuan in terms of communicative intent, sender of fictionality, receivers of fictionality, and consequences on the logos and ethos. It argues that the communicative intent of Zuozhuan facilitates its compiler to utilize various means of fictionality so that the receivers conceive many interpretive assumptions, thus shedding much light to later generations in composing history.

The Social Condition of Lepers in the Gospels

It has become a common interpretive assumption that the people with leprosy whom Jesus encounters in the gospels would have been shunned by Second Temple Jewish society, which makes Jesus's interactions with them all the more remarkable. In this article, I examine the underpinnings of this assumption by attending carefully to what is said about leprosy in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Second Temple and rabbinic sources. I argue that the evidence for the exclusion of the leprous from first-century Jewish society is much less certain than is generally realized. Without this assumption, the gospel texts themselves do not convey the message that lepers were excluded. Indeed, there is evidence in the gospels that lepers had relatively unhindered social access. Interpretations that see the overcoming of social stigma in Jesus's healings of leprosy stem not so much from consideration of the textual evidence as from a latent tendency to construe Judaism negatively in order to make Jesus appear in a more positive light.