Amalgamating evidence from heterogeneous sources and across levels of inquiry is becoming increasingly important in many pure and applied sciences. This special issue provides a forum for researchers from diverse scientific and philosophical perspectives to discuss evidence amalgamation, its methodologies, its history, its pitfalls, and its potential. We situate the contributions therein within six themes from the broad literature on this subject: the variety-of-evidence thesis, the philosophy of meta-analysis, the role of robustness/sensitivity analysis for evidence amalgamation, its bearing on questions (...) of extrapolation and external validity of experiments, its connection with theory development, and its interface with causal inference, especially regarding causal theories of cancer. (shrink)

This article compares the material pollution of life's elementary resources, i.e., water, soil, and air, with the semiotic pollution of the elementary resources of sign-processes, i.e., channel, sign-matter, and message; code, signifier, and signified; as well as context, sender, and recipient. It is claimed that semiotic pollution interferes with sign-processes as much as material pollution interferes with the fundamental processes of life; both types of pollution are similar in that they produce stress for human beings in current societies. It is (...) argued that semiotics is able to provide the conceptual tools necessary to develop policies that can reduce semiotic pollution. As is shown, however, additional research is required to operationalize and metricize generalized concepts of semiotic pollutionsuch as "channel-related", "semiosis-related", and "situation-related noise". (shrink)

Although postmodernist thought has become prominent in some educational circles, its influence on science education has until recently been rather minor. This paper examines the proposal of Michalinos Zembylas, published earlier in this journal, that Lyotardian postmodernism should be applied to science educational reform in order to achieve the much sought after positive transformation. As a preliminary to this examination several critical points are raised about Lyotard's philosophy of education and philosophy of science which serve to challenge and undermine Zembylas’ (...) project. Subsequently, the three main theses of Lyotard that Zembylas considers beneficial and wishes to transpose onto science classrooms and pedagogy are scrutinized and found to be more of a hindrance than a help to curriculum reformers. (shrink)

A preeminent philosopher of education in the United States, Jane Roland Martin challenges conventional wisdom that education consists of small, incremental changes. Using case studies of personal transformations, or metamorphoses, Martin examines Malcolm X, Shaw's Eliza Doolittle, Victor of Aveyron and others to demonstrate how education is a fundamental determinant of the human condition.

This rich and human document is a testament to the words and wisdom of Confucius--whose simplet truths continue to influence the moral and ethical codes of the Far East. A timeless guide to proper living as significant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

v. 1. Relation and logical formula.--v. 2. Model theory.

La religion serait, aux yeux de la psychanalyse, une névrose obsessionnelle. Les écrits de Freud touchant à la religion, de Totem et tabou à L’Avenir d’une illusion, alimentent cette vulgate. On peut néanmoins s’interroger sur le sort que Freud réserve, dans Moïse et le monothéisme, à ses coreligionnaires juifs persécutés par les nazis : le « testament » du fondateur de la psychanalyse à l’égard du judaïsme est plus ouvert qu’on ne croit. De plus, on ne s’est guère avisé du (...) fait que la qualification de névrose ne constitue en rien une définition. Quand Freud cherche à donner quelque chose de tel, il s’appuie volontiers sur l’étymologie et sur les significations souvent contradictoires que celle-ci livre. La même démarche peut être tentée à propos de la religion, qui n’est pas seulement rassemblement sous un principe mais aussi œuvre de lecture, comme l’illustre la promesse faite à Abraham, le père des religions du Livre. (shrink)