Subject Of Inquiry Research Articles

A Participatory Method for Systems-Problem Research: Rehabilitating Marginal Uplands in the Philippines

SUMMARYA participatory method that promotes farmer involvement in systems-problem research was developed in response to the failure to adopt improved cropping patterns among upland farmers. Techniques to identify systems problems involved group and individual farmer meetings. Problems concerning the cultivation of marginal cogonal (Imperata cylindrica) uplands were identified. An informal random sample survey, guided by topics of inquiry and biological measurements that employed systems analytical tools, was used to obtain a farmers' perception of ‘systems-problems’. Systems diagrams also provided a framework for searching and screening solutions. A sequence of vining legumes was tested in rehabilitating the marginal uplands. For this experiment farmers elaborated hypotheses on control of Imperata, recovery of soil fertility, and reduced labour costs in re-cultivation. Extensive research activity among the farmers indicates the value of this participatory method.

Introduction

The topic of this section is the federal role in improving educational practice. As I looked over the conference program, it seemed to me that the other topics of inquiry,though very interesting, were relatively obvious areas of description and analysis: the historical context of the federal role in education, the federal role in increasing equality of educational opportunity, and the federal role in educational research. But practice and federalism seemed odd partners, distant territories, disconnected spheres. How could the human endeavor of educational practice—so intimate, so localized, so craftlike—be scrutinized, supported, or directed from afar? How could national governmental directives, inspired by science, rationality, politics, and order, be linked with processes that are largely shaped by personality, subjectivity, and intuition? Are there any discrete, learnable technologies that can be successfully transplanted to school systems,to classrooms, to individual teachers? If some aspects of pedagogy and curricular design can be defined and successfully replicated en masse, how might they complement the more immediate experiential practices defined by person and place? Who has power over the definition of practice—the policymakers, who articulate the educational and political agendas and who distribute the resources, or the practitioners, who negotiate their use and who can close the classroom doors and make relatively autonomous choices about how they will proceed? Are practitioners aware of the larger context within which they work, or is their focus on immediate clinical experience an effective buffer against the broader constraints? If practitioners have, in fact, this myopic perspective, does it support their autonomy and their potential resourcefulness, or does it undermine it?

A survey of inquiries received at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic Library

Results are reported of a survey of all inquiries received at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic Library during one week. Analysis was designed to show whether enough—and appropriate— staff were available in relation to the population served. The rate of inquiry work was assessed and the type of inquiry was compared for different service points. Subject and general inquiry staff answered a proportion ( 20 per cent) of general and subject inquiries respectively. Some 10 per cent of inquiries took more than five minutes to answer. Comparison was made with a previous survey and showed a growth in volume and some change in the nature of inquiries.

Private Lives and Public Accounts

A discussion is presented of the assets and liabilities inherent in doing so-called life study research. Among the topics considered are the nature of the subjective inquiry, the limitations and advantages of phenomenological research, the unintended political implications of participant observational methods, and the problems encountered in research work with people of distinctly different backgrounds from the researcher. Finally, some words are offered regarding the meaning of the research and its merits to those "under study."

The regional drug information service: a factor in health care?

Most regional health authorities throughout the United Kingdom have established drug information units to provide health service staff with a wide range of information about drugs and drug use. The units, which are staffed by drug information pharmacists, provide their service mainly by answering inquiries, although some disseminate information more positively through lectures and bulletins.An analysis of inquiries received by regional information units during 1976 showed that most were submitted by hospital doctors or pharmacists; comparatively few were received from general practitioners. Topics of inquiry included adverse effects of drugs, source of supply and identification, current treatment, dosage, route, precautions, and pharmaceutical problems such as stability or formulation of drug preparations. A more detailed analysis of the inquiries received by the North-western Regional Drug Information Service at Manchester over three years showed that the number of inquiries gradually increased and that more were received from general practitioners after a programme of lectures had been introduced to tell them about the service. The North-western service also received more requests from hospital pharmacists than other units, though many originated from clinicians.The regional drug information units consulted widely with clinical and other specialists in answering questions, but about a quarter of all inquiries were pharmaceutical, relating to stability and incompatibility. A multidisciplinary approach therefore seems necessary to provide a comprehensive and advisory drug information service.

Some Topics for Philosophical Inquiry Concerning the Theories of Mathematical Geometrodynamics and of Physical Geometrodynamics

John Wheeler is the effective owner of the trade mark ‘geometrodynamics’, since he coined the word, so we look to him for the definition. In his introduction, Professor Grünbaum has quoted a number of things from Wheeler. I would like to point out that in recent papers Wheeler refers to “Einstein's standard battle-tested 1915 geometrodynamics.” Wheeler therefore takes geometrodynamics as simply another name for standard general relativity. I think there is no doubt that he intends to exclude aberrations, such as the cosmological constant or the scalar-tensor (Brans-Dicke) theory of gravity. The central feature, in this view, is that geometry is part of physics. Geometry may even be such a blindingly beautiful part of physics as to nearly eclipse everything else. But there is no assertion (although also no denial) that all of physics is geometry. The coupled Einstein-Maxwell equations are a standard basis for current discussions of geometrodynamics.

The Importance to Philosophers of the Bertrand Russell Archive

It is a great pleasure to be asked to describe to philosophers the papers of Bertrand Russell. Russell's papers were acquired by McMaster University in the spring of 1968. Professor William Ready, the University Librarian, who is almost solely responsible for their acquisition, has created a special department for them in the library with ample funds for their expansion and scholarly exploitation. Before their arrival in Canada, I had had the privilege of working on the papers for a year while they were being catalogued in London. After their sale to McMaster, Professor Ready hired me as someone who knew his way in the dozens of cabinet drawers and trunks. Although my interests in the papers are primarily bibliographical and personal, I shall try to outline what philosophers, especially those with an historical interest, could find of importance in them. In doing so, I shall mention some topics of possible inquiry and suggest specific manuscripts to study in connection with them, but I shall not attempt to trace in detail the development of any of Russell's ideas. That is for philosophers to do.

Design of an On-Line Computer-Based Textile Information Retrieval System

A design is reported for a compatible time-sharing system for textile information storage and retrieval. Simultaneous utilization of an IBM 7094 by 25 to 30 independent users is indicated, some solving mathematical problems, others retrieving information. The principal files of the information system permit the recording and retrieval of document data as to authors, subject matter, and other necessary bibliographic infor mation. During posting and updating of the files, a structured thesaurus is employed as an automatic filter for data input. Varied searching techniques are described, some based on subject inquiry, others on authors, references, or citations. Emphasis is given to action by the user to immedi ate computer response to his inquiries. A sample dialogue between man and machine is reported. Successful interstate and transatlantic demonstrations of the system are reported.

Hume's Philosophy of Belief: A Study of His First Inquiry (review)

128 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The result is that this Hellenistic-Middle Age syncretism has had a far-reaching influence upon Paracelsus's thought. Because he was in no way a systematic philosopher, his writings are full of contradictions, developments, unitarian and dualistic tendencies, theistic and pantheistic trends, Christian and pagan elements, spiritualism, and occultism. According to Pagel, the originality of Paracelsus is not to be found in detailed discoveries and theories but in his attempt to create the great synthesis of the fundamental correlations of things above and below throughout the whole realm of nature and medicine. By that, medicine and alchemy were given a new direction. The work closes with five pictures and a subject index. As one expects from an author like Pagel, this book shows a profound knowledge of the text material. It should be emphasized that the relevance is by no means limited to the field of the history of medicine, but that it is equally important for the history of philosophy, religion, and theology. HANs DIETER B~TZ Claremont Graduate School Hume's Philosophy of Belief: A Study of His First Inquiry. By Antony Flew. (New York: The Humanities Press, 1961. Pp. ix -~ 286. $6.00.) This book, neither a commentary nor an independent work, holds a place intermediate between the two, and a place that is to be heartily welcomed. It is not a commentary because, though it treats in sequence the chief topics of Hume's Inquiry Concerning the Human Understanding , there is no attempt to discuss the full text in detail. For example, Section III, "Of the/kssociation of Ideas," is all but ignored. The nature of Flew's book can best be grasped in terms of his two stated purposes, the first of which is to consider Hume's Inquiry "as a book standing on its own, rather than as a miscellany of appendices, restatements, and irrelevant notoriety-hunting insertions" (p. 15). The second purpose, which explains the intermediate status of Flew's study, is "to take Hume's arguments as starting points for discussions of the main philosophical issues which he selected for treatment in this Inquiry" (p. 16). In fulfilling this second purpose what Flew does is not merely to expound Hume's positions in Hume's terms but to expound them by considering whether they are tenable, and in studies of traditional philosophers this kind of consideration, as an alternative to plain exposition, is always to be welcomed. It ought, however, to be said that "main philosophical issues which Hume selected" does not mean main philosophical issues which the Inquiry can be read as provoking but for the most part just those issues named in the section titles of Hume's work. The first question apt to arise concerning such a study as Flew's is why discuss Hume's theories and contentions concerning belief and understanding only as put forth in the Inquiry. Flew offers no satisfactory answer to this question, which he does not distinguish from the closely associated question, answered at length: Why focus on the first Inquiry? In his first chapter, Flew observes that the Inquiry merits special study because it is much more than a radical abridgement of Book I of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature. For one thing, a good quarter of the Inquiry is occupied with topics not considered in the Treatise, the topics of miracles and of providence. And for another, the program of the Inquiry is not the same as that of the earlier work, though both programs intersect in that the aim, proposed in the Introduction of the Treatise, to pursue "the science of man," reappears in the Inquiry, Section I, as the aim to discover "the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations." But the Inquiry is primarily polemical, whereas the Treatise aspires ambitiously to be scientific, with Hume daring "to march up directly to the capital or center of these sciences [of Logic, Morals, Criticism, and Politics]; which being once masters of, we may everywhere else hope for an easy victory." In contrast the concern uppermost in the later Inquiry is to carry a "war into the...

Neobehavioristic psychotherapy: Quasihypnotic suggestion and multiple reinforcement in the treatment of a case of postinfantile dyscopresis

In both theory and practice, most forms of Behavior Therapy exclude insight as a treatment goal and even as a means to the attainment of other treatment goals. In modern behavior theory, however, the phenomena of cognition and insight are admissible and important topics for scientific inquiry. Recent studies show that learning can be dramatically facilitated by awareness. Ignoring the human capacity for insight in a psychotherapeutic system may be foolishly inefficient. These principles are clarified in an illustrative case.

SUBJECT INQUIRIES AND LITERATURE SEARCHING

In this talk I am going to discuss subject inquiries—that is, inquiries for information about a subject, necessitating a literature search, however trivial, as compared with requests for specified documents. Subject inquiries are numerous. Preliminary results of a current Aslib investigation show that in thirteen industrial libraries forming the sample, nearly half the ‘acts of library use’ on the test day comprised searches for information on a subject.

Review of the Netherlands Study of Noise Control in Multiple Dwellings

A review will be given of the most interesting results of an extensive research program carried out under the auspices of the Organization T.N.O. in the Netherlands since 1945 with the objective to evaluate the insulation of sound in dwellings. The properties of a limited number of constructions were investigated by a subjective inquiry in 1200 flats in Rotterdam and The Hague. Following the preliminary international code for measuring the airborne and impact sound insulation between rooms a rather great number of floor and wall types have been studied in a set of 48 experimental flats in Rotterdam. Some typical results will be given. A new method for estimating the amount of flanking transmission has been found and will be described. A tentative Netherlands standard for sound insulation in dwellings will be sketched in outline. It is based on a classification of walls and floors as to their “over-all” capability of insulating sound. Future research will be concentrated among other things on statistically measuring sound spectra prevailing in dwellings. An automatically recording analyzer is being built for that purpose.

The logic of existence

IT IS commonly believed that questions of existence are properly topics of enquiry belonging to the empirical sciences or to some branch of philosophy-like metaphysics-other than logic. In this paper, I hope to show that logic has never completely avoided some involvement with certain questions about existence; that when certain of these involvements which had been implicit were made explicit, the power and utility of the logic were enhanced; that there still remain tacit or implicit involvements of logic with questions of existence; and that these can be removed in ways that will make modern logic a more powerful instrument of analysis than it can become in its present form. Tacit Presuppositions of Abstract Systems. Every system of logic is an abstract, formal system. Every abstract, formal system-hence every system of logic-is developed against a background of presuppositions and assumptions. Some of these presuppositions or assumptions are made explicit in

Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt: The Patman Inquiry

THE documents produced by the Patman inquiry are a remarkable contribution to monetary literature. The first title, Compendium for short, consists of replies to questions propounded by the committee. The first volume of the Compendium contains the careful answers of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to the lengthy questionnaires submitted to them. The second volume includes replies from the Presidents of Federal Reserve Banks, the Council of Economic Advisers, federal and state bank-examining authorities, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, economists, bankers, life insurance executives, and dealers in United States government securities. The questionnaires varied with the respondent and were designed to obtain both factual information and expressions of opinion. The answers provide a wealth of legal, institutional, statistical, and historical information. Whether you wish, for example, a complete chronology of Federal Reserve policy actions since I9I4, a summary of the reserve requirements of nonmember banks, a world survey of Treasurycentral bank relationships, or a study of the density of banking offices relative to population in the several states, the Patman Compendium is your source. The replies also provide a variety of opinion, comment, and theory concerning the role of monetary policy in the postwar United States economy. The second title, Hearings for short, reports oral testimony on these same subjects and includes also numerous documents and written statements submitted to the committee. The committee heard testimony from the principal contributors to the Compendium and from many others; the witnesses represented a wide variety of experience, interest, and viewpoint. The Hearings include four panel discussions on aspects of monetary policy. Two of these, How should our monetary and debt management policy be determined? (pp. 747 ff.) and What should our monetary and debt management policy be? (pp. 685 ff.), are especially deserving of the attention of the reader who can only hit the high spots of these volumes. The third title, Report for short, gives the findings and recommendations of the committee majority, with dissenting observations by Senator Douglas. The Report is an admirable review of the events investigated by the committee; and its findings on the issues discussed in the Compendium and Hearings are, in my opinion, well balanced and moderate. For this Report, and indeed for the skillful design of the whole inquiry, there can be no doubt that Henry C. Murphy, the committee's economist, deserves tremendous credit. It is patently impossible for a review to do justice to the masses of material in these three documents. I hope I have given some idea of their scope. For the rest, I shall confine myself to three major topics of the committee's inquiry: (i) the Treasury-Federal Reserve conflict, (2) the theory of the operation of monetary controls, (3) the place of monetary restriction in an anti-inflationary program. -

Work for the Field-Clubs

Without the slightest wish to interfere with the management, or any desire to criticize the past doings of Natural History Societies and Field-Clubs, we may be permitted, without any imputation of meddling, to suggest how much good work the forthcoming year may produce, through a little forethought and pre-arrangement. Spring time will now soon be upon us, and the time for field-excursions will have come on again. Would it not be well if the Councils of Societies organized their arrangements with a view to some practical ends?In the districts of crystalline and metamorphic rocks, examples of transitional states bearing on the great origin-of-granite question might be designated as one of the topics of inquiry, and members solicited to search for and study examples, and to send notices of them to the Societies before the excursions were decided upon. In the districts of the Secondary rocks, examples of unconformability and thinning out, and the intercalation of special deposits, would also form a most valuable subject of inquiry.Palaeontology, as such, should not be neglected: and by selecting given genera or families of fish, mammals, or mollusca, and tracing the ranges of species upwards and downwards stratigraphically through the separate beds of the various deposits of any geological formation or formations, the most valuable data for geological progress would be obtained; and contemporaneously with this investigation, another, devoted to the geographical extent at each horizon of the same species, should also be carried on.