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Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models : Extensions and Applications
This volume covers extensions of the Rasch model, one of the most researched and applied models in educational research and social science. This collection contains 22 chapters by some of the most recognized international experts in the field. They cover topics ranging from general model extensions to applications in fields as diverse as cognition, personality, organizational and sports psychology, and health sciences and education.
Intuition and the Axiomatic Method
All of Hilbert, Gödel, Poincaré, Weyl and Bohr thought that intuition was an indispensable element in describing the foundations of science. They had very different reasons for thinking this, and they had very different accounts of what they called intuition. But they had in common that their views of mathematics and physics were significantly influenced by their readings of Kant. In the present volume, various views of intuition and the axiomatic method are explored, beginning with Kant’s own approach. By way of these investigations, we hope to understand better the rationale behind Kant’s theory of intuition, as well as to grasp many facets of the relations between theories of intuition and the axiomatic method,
Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures
The second edition of this landmark encyclopaedia will contain approximately 1000 entries dealing in depth with the history of the scientific, technological and medical accomplishments of cultures outside of the United States and Europe. The entries consist of fully updated articles together with hundreds of entirely new topics.This unique reference work includes: Intercultural articles on broad topics such as Mathematics and Astronomy Philosophical articles on concepts and ideas related to the study of non-Western Science, such as Rationality, Objectivity, and Method, Religion and Science, East and West, and Magic and Science Articles on topics such as Native American Mathematics, Polynesian Navigation, Korean Maps, and African Metallurgy Biographical articles for those cultures where individual scientists are known to us, such as China and the Islamic world.
Knowing Art : Essays in Aesthetics and Epistemology
Knowing Art collects ten original essays written by leading philosophers who distill and build upon recent work at the intersection of aesthetics and epistemology. Specific topics addressed include the objectivity of critical knowledge, the quality of critical testimony, the roles of principles and perception in critical reasoning, phenomenal knowledge of what a work of art is like, the acquisition of factual information and psychological understanding from fictions, and the limits of images as sources of historical evidence. In addressing these topics, the volume also explores the challenges that art poses for theories of knowledge as well as the challenges that artistic knowledge poses to traditional views about art.
Ambiguities in Decision-oriented Life Cycle Inventories: The Role of Mental Models and Values
Shows for the first time how mental models and values influence this attribution in the life cycle inventory step of LCA. One of the key findings is that the different management rules for a sustainable use of materials must be taken into account for the attribution of material and energy flows to a product. Otherwise, improvement options recommended by an LCA might turn out to even worsen the environmental situation if reassessed from a meta-perspective. As a consequence of this book, the claim of unambiguitiy (‘objectivity’) of the life cycle inventory must be abandoned. A group-model building process for LCA is developed that allows one to grasp the decision makers' mental models and values in the inventory analysis on a case- and situation-specific basis. Only by this, LCA results will become relevant in a decision-making process. Two case studies on the modelling of recycling and other end-of-life options of aluminium windows and beech wood railway sleepers in LCA complement the methodological part.
Aesthetics in digital photography
Aesthetics in Digital Photography presents theories developed over the last 25 centuries by philosophers and art critics, who have sometimes been governed by the objectivity of perception, and other times, of course, by the subjectivity of human judgement. It explores the advances that have been made in neuro-aesthetics and their current limitations.
A new deal for an effective European research policy : The design and impacts of the 7th Framework programme
It underlines an important truth: that science has always advanced most rapidly when it is a collective endeavour, with a strong circulation of knowledge.This book will show how the new Framework Programme was put together and explain why it took the shape it did. It will also set out its potential impacts and the conditions necessary for it to be a success.
