The concept of silence in Ludwig Wittgenstein's early work Abstract The work deals with the concept of silence in the early work of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). The aim is to explore the dichotomy of being silent-speaking and describe cases that fall into each category. Work will concentrate on the criteria of meaningfulness and meaninglessness, according to which the individual sentences classified in one category or the other. The work also offers a comparison of the reference theory in Tractatus and cognitive realism proposed by G. Lakoff and on their background shows the role and importance of silence in shaping the semantic theory of language.

Through a direct application of two cognitive science theories, conceptual metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) and structure mapping (Gentner, 1983, 1989; Gentner & Markman, 1995), this project defined an instructional design model for the design, development, and assessment of metaphor-enhanced, computer-mediated learning environments. It used the model to produce an instructional product with a metaphor-based interface. The project also built a parallel learning environment that employed a concept map interface. To test the metaphor-based product's effectiveness at enabling learners to build rich mental models of a complex, abstract concept, the project ran fifty-seven preservice teachers (55 female, 2 male; mean age of 21) through the instruction, randomly assigning half to the concept map interface environment and half to the metaphor-based interface environment. Participants completed four essay-type assessment questions. Trained raters, blind to participant assignment, isolated any of the 13 targeted concepts present within participants' protocols and, through consensus, constructed a concept map for each participant, representing that participant's mental model of the targeted domain. Map attributes were translated into four weighted subscores (nodes, branches, levels, and cross-links) and summed. Comparison across the two groups indicated no significant difference for richness of mental model, t(55)=-.72, p > .05, although the discussion suggests methods for increasing the power in subsequent experimental sessions. A significant interaction between Subscore and Achievement, F(3,51)=33.42, p < .01, suggests that concept map cross-links are much more sensitive to differences in domain integration and the general richness of a participant's mental model than the level and branch subscores. This result has implications for classroom application. Concept maps have taken a place as a learner's, a teacher's, and a researcher's tool. With cross-domain validation and domain-specific extensions, specification of the relative sensitivity of various subscales, that is, the structure of the concept map, will enable educators to justify weighting scales and identify learner achievement. Credible concept map weighting scales also enhance learners' self-reliant and impartial assessment of personal growth in domain-specific knowledge. Results suggest that learners who have difficulty integrating domain concepts require direct, explicit instruction to help them to make connections between disparate conceptual strands. / Ph. D.

This dissertation examines the academic debate that surrounds the new field called "Evolutionary Psychology." Evolutionary psychology has emerged as the most popular successor theory to human sociobiology. Its proponents search for evolved psychological mechanisms and emphasize universal features of the human mind. My thesis is that in order to flourish evolutionary psychologists must engage other researchers on equal terms -- something they have not been doing. To show this, I examine the stances of practitioners from three other social science fields whose claims have been shortchanged by evolutionary psychology: Barbara King in biological anthropology, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in empirical linguistics and Annette Karmiloff-Smith in developmental psychology. These researchers are also involved in cognitive science investigations that bear on evolutionary psychology's key claims about the mind and how it works. Evolutionary psychologists make three key claims about the mind. The first (1) is that the mind is massively modular; the second (2) is that this massively modular mind has been shaped by the processes of natural selection over evolutionary time; and the third (3) is that it is adapted to the Pleistocene conditions of our past. Evolutionary psychologists seek to elevate these three claims to the status of meta-theoretical assumptions making them the starting place from which our deliberations about human cognition ought proceed. These claims would constitute the framework for a new paradigm in the ultimate sense. I argue that elevating these claims to such a status is not only premature, but also unwarranted on the available evidence. This result is justified by evidence produced outside evolutionary psychology by those disciplines from which evolutionary psychologists explicitly seek to distance themselves. / Ph. D.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T15:09:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 906802 bytes, checksum: 2bcaa63940462e5bcfe8c5c42dec541b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The object of this study is the institutional interlocution that could turn viable a Collaboration Regime among the Spheres or Levels of Government &#8722; a constitutional clause aiming at organizing and developing all Brazilian educational systems: Municipal, State, Federal District and Federal Union, in a country with deep regional inequalities. The macro-structural aspects that constraint the definition of public policies are not underestimated, but we chose an approach that focuses on the contradictory and conflicting performances of a restricted number of people that take part in the proposition and management of educational public policies. The indefinite character of the Collaboration Regime is treated in the perspective of a possible construction and enlargement of the Public Sphere of Rights, as an interface of educational policy in its indissoluble relation to political life. Our subject-matter is situated in a field of tensions delineated by, and based on, the state of the art. What is the meaning of that Collaboration Regime for the proposition of democratic management of educational policies? How does it relate to the contents of democratic management thought in the light of the State/Society relation? We argue that one of the innovative institutional facts generated in the process of democratization of the Brazilian society is the performance of people striving to construct and enlarge the public spaces for proposing and managing public policies. The methodology is based on interpretative ethnography, using ideas of Geertz, Ricoeur, and Lakoff, and moves towards Habermasian tradition on the configurations of the public sphere, which is understood in the spirit of Habermas endeavour to widen the idea of rationality by constructing a discursive theory of rationality for politics and rights. The empirical target of our ethnographic investigation is Prof. Dr. Neroaldo Pontes de Azevedo s professional itinerary as an educational manager. His professional route from 1992 to 1996 as a Rector of the UFPB, and then as a Municipal Secretary of Education of João Pessoa (from 1996 to 2001) made it possible for him to earn a national projection through the presidency of Undime during a period of educational reform. The results of this investigation highlight the Collaboration Regime as a mechanism of reciprocal regulation of the performances of common and concurrent competences among the spheres of Government, supported by institutional interlocution. The silence on the Collaboration Regime points to the interlocution as something to which we should pay attention when we think about the contents of democratic management, in spite of the conceptual and empirical indefinite character of the constitutional clause under discussion. / O objeto deste estudo é a interlocução institucional para viabilizar o Regime de Colaboração entre as esferas de governo &#8722; dispositivo constitucional visado para organizar e desenvolver os Sistemas Federal, Distrital, Estaduais e Municipais de Ensino, em um país com profundas desigualdades regionais. Os aspectos macro-estruturais que pesam sobre a definição das políticas públicas não são subestimados, mas o recorte da abordagem incide sobre a atuação contraditória e conflituosa de um número restrito de pessoas que intervêm na proposição e na gestão das políticas públicas educacionais. A indefinição do Regime de Colaboração é tratada sob a temática da construção e da ampliação do espaço público de direitos, como uma interface da política educacional em sua relação indissociável com a vida política. A problematização está situada em um campo de tensão delineado a partir do estado do conhecimento. Qual é o significado do Regime de Colaboração para a proposição da gestão democrática das políticas educacionais? Como se relaciona com os conteúdos da gestão democrática pensados a partir da relação Estado/sociedade? Argumenta-se em favor da tese segundo a qual um dos fatos institucionais inovadores gerados no processo de democratização da sociedade brasileira é a atuação que visa construir e ampliar os espaços de proposição e de gestão das políticas públicas. A metodologia está apoiada em uma etnografia interpretativista, baseada nas idéias de Geertz, Ricoeur, Lakoff e converge para a tradição habermasiana sobre as configurações do espaço público, interpretada no esforço de Habermas para ampliar a idéia de racionalidade, ao investir na construção de uma teoria discursiva da política e do direito. A investigação etnográfica auxilia a construção da referência empírica com o foco sobre a atuação do Prof. Dr. Neroaldo Pontes de Azevedo, como o interlocutor central. Sua passagem na gestão da UFPB e na gestão da Educação Municipal de João Pessoa (1996/1997-2001) possibilitou o protagonismo em uma interlocução nacional, por meio do exercício da presidência da Undime durante a reforma da educação. Os resultados da investigação apontam o Regime de Colaboração como um mecanismo de regulação recíproca do desempenho das competências comuns e concorrentes entre as esferas de governo, sustentado pela interlocução institucional. O silêncio sobre o Regime de Colaboração remete a interlocução para o centro das atenções lembrando os conteúdos da gestão democrática, apesar da indefinição conceitual e empírica do dispositivo constitucional visado.

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An analysis of President George W. Bush's first Secretary of Education Rod Paige's speeches in 2001 explains the way in which the Bush Administration articulated its educational policy agenda. Literature on No Child Left Behind tends to focus on the specifics of whether the law helps children learn better or worse without recognizing or engaging with the broader policy agenda. This study attempts to bridge connections between No Child Left Behind and the broader Bush Administration ideology. A major connection this work highlights is between welfare policy and education, and by doing so utilizing George Lakoff's theory of moral politics examines highlights an overarching philosophy of governance, which shapes educational policy, perhaps even without regard to classroom outcomes. This analysis utilizes an interactive-hermeneutic model to crunch the text of Rod Paige's speeches. By coding and explaining major themes from the speeches, analyzing the language and rhetorical choices against itself and then comparing it to extant research on education policy and welfare rhetoric, this study provides a different way to examine political maneuvering on educational policy, which positions politics and language at the center of educational policy rather than efficacy and policy. This analysis finds by applying Lakoff's theory and work that Rod Paige's rhetoric, on behalf of the George W. Bush administration, is about reducing Federal responsibility for social problems and reducing the government's role overall. This is a "slippery slope policy" aimed at eliminating public responsibility for schools and privatizing education in service to the goal of creating an "ownership society" of privatized services and personal responsibility for success. / Urban Education

In the wake of the misbegotten US invasion of Iraq in 2003, we have to acknowledge that there are critical flaws in how our intelligence community (the CIA and its “sister-agencies”) produces knowledge. Instead of arguing that the intelligence community acted in bad faith, or that the mistaken pre-war intelligence was a “perfect storm” of bad luck, as others have, this dissertation argues that the intelligence community’s rhetorical culture led it into fatally flawed epistemological practices, demonstrated most dramatically in the mistaken pre-invasion allegations of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs. Chapter one explains the problematic assumptions behind the question of whether or not the intelligence community overtly politicized its pre-war intelligence estimates. In chapter two, the intelligence community’s theories of language are explored. Chapter three addresses how the intelligence community teaches and practices writing. The intelligence community’s inflexible commitment to writing in a “clear” prose style proves problematic when that clarity belies the uncertainty of its estimates. The fourth and final chapter addresses issues of disciplinarity in the intelligence community, explores the possibility of a rhetorical theory of intelligence, and offers conclusions. / text

<p>Den här uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka tystnadens kommunikativa funktion i två svenska teaterpjäser, Leka med elden av August Strindberg och En talande tystnad av Erland Josephson. I min metod använder jag mig av en anti-essentialistisk hållning och intresserar mig i första hand för tystnadens funktion.</p><p>Tystnaden analyseras utifrån tre ingångar: dess relevans, konceptualisering och distanserande/förenande funktion. Analysen visar skillnader pjäserna emellan vad gäller tystnadsindikationer i teatertexten. En talande tystnad regisserar oftare explicit pauserna medan tystnaden i Leka med elden endast är antydd i texten och får sin relevans i Holms regi. Metaforer som avslöjar tystnadens konceptualisering förekommer i En talande tystnad men inte alls i Leka med elden. Tystnaden konceptualiseras både som en aktivitet och som ett tillstånd. I En talande tystnad har tystnaden främst en distanserande funktion, i Leka med elden en förenande funktion i högre grad men denna visar också exempel på en distanserande funktion hos tystnaden.</p><p>Min slutsats är att tystnadens funktion sammantaget i Leka med elden är att skapa en form för scenisk effekt, det vill säga, att vara dramatiskt effektiv. I En talande tystnad är tystnaden tematisk och en del av pjäsens själva innehåll.</p>

Religious language has been theorized in multiple ways. I will look at how religious language has been theorized in the work of Jürgen Habermas and in the field of cognitive linguistics. I will compare these approaches to religious language and assess the results. In doing so, I will indirectly assess the confluence of these two theoretical approaches. My conclusion is that even with the similarities between these theoretical frames, religion is thematized differently under each method. Jürgen Habermas’s definition of religion as the output of ritual praxis is not compatible with the normative place of religious language found in cognitive linguistics.