The thesis develops solutions to two main problems for mental realism. Mental realism is the theory that mental properties, events, and objects exist, with their own set of characters and causal powers. The first problem comes from the philosophy of science, where Psillos proposes a notion of scientific realism that contradicts mental realism, and consequently, if one is to be a scientific realist in the way Psillos recommends, one must reject mental realism. I propose adaptations to the conception of scientific realism to make it compatible with mental realism. In the process, the thesis defends computational cognitive science from a compelling argument Searle can be seen to endorse but has not put forth in an organized logical manner. A new conception of scientific realism emerges out of this inquiry, integrating the mental into the rest of nature. The second problem for mental realism arises out of non-reductive physicalism- the view that higher-level properties, and in particular mental properties, are irreducible, physically realized, and that physical properties are sufficient non-overdetermining causes of any effect. Kim’s Problem of Causal Exclusion aims to show that the mental, if unreduced, does no causal work. Consequently, given that we should not believe in the existence of properties that do not participate in causation, we would be forced to drop mental realism. A solution is needed. The thesis examines various positions relevant to the debate. Several doctrines of physicalism are explored, rejected, and one is proposed; the thesis shows the way in which Kim’s reductionist position has been constantly inconsistent throughout the years of debate; the thesis argues that trope theory does not compete with a universalist conception of properties to provide a solution; and shows weakness in the Macdonald’s non-reductive monist position and Pereboom’s constitutional coincidence account of mental causation. The thesis suggests that either the premises of Kim’s argument are consistent, and consequently his reductio is logically invalid, or at least one of the premises is false, and therefore the argument is not sound. Consequently, the Problem of Causal Exclusion that Kim claims emerges out of non-reductive physicalism does not force us to reject mental realism. Mental realism lives on.

This research attempts to identify the factors which influence the choice of science subjects in Mauritius among girls at the end of the third year of secondary education, the level up to which science is a compulsory subject. This low uptake of science subjects by girls beyond the compulsory level is a matter of concern. The study was undertaken in four purposely selected schools in Mauritius, two mixed-sex and two girls’ schools. Using mainly a qualitative approach, data were collected through: (i) non-participant observations of 60 science and 20 non-science lessons, (ii) 16 semi-structured face-to-face interviews of teachers, and six group interviews with pupils and (iii) 135 questionnaires administered to the parents of the pupils in the classes observed in the four schools. Based on the results of a pilot study, modifications were made for the main study. The data provided insights into teachers’ teaching approaches, the behaviour and interest of pupils in the lessons and other factors such as pupils’ perceptions of science, their self-identity and role models, and the extent to which parents and peers influence the choice of subjects among girls. The findings show that teaching approaches were mainly traditional and that both girls and boys prefer hands-on activities and contextual examples reflecting real-life situations. The majority of the girls’ experiences of science were negative and this deterred them from taking science beyond the compulsory level although they were aware of its importance. Teachers had positive opinions about girls’ ability to do science but stated that lack of infrastructure facilities did not allow them to involve the pupils in practical work as much as they would wish. However, brighter girls’ decisions to study sciences were not outweighed by these factors. Parents felt that they did not influence their daughters in the choice of subjects or eventual careers though they held science in high esteem.

Kontroll och övervakning i arbetslivet har ökat i samband med utvecklingen av informationsteknologin. Tidigare forskning om kontroll och övervakning visar att en för påträngande övervakning kan leda till motstånd. Det finns även forskning som visar att det går inte att på förhand avgöra hur de anställda kommer att påverkas av kontroll och övervakning. Den här studien kommer att undersöka och beskriva teknologiska kontroll- och övervakningssystem ur de anställdas perspektiv på en hemtjänst och en kundtjänst. Två olika arbetsplatser och branscher har att studerats för att få ett bredare empiriskt underlag. Genom intervjuer med de anställda undersöks upplevelserna av kontroll och övervakning, samt hur det påverkar arbetet. Jag har valt att använda mig av en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer. Åtta intervjuer har genomförts, fyra intervjuer på en hemtjänst och fyra intervjuer på en kundtjänst. Resultaten visar att de båda företagen använder sig av elektroniska kontrollsystem. På hemtjänsten kontrolleras de anställda genom att de anställdas starttider och sluttider registreras i ett system som kallas för Mobipen. På kundtjänsten kontrolleras och övervakas de anställda genom att ledningen för statistik och lyssnar på inspelade samtal.  På hemtjänsten framgår det att både upplevelserna och påverkan av kontroll och övervakning är beroende av hur ledningen agerar och använder informationen som samlas in. När ledningen använder informationen för att påpeka effektivitet eller brukartid, då upplevs den som mer negativ. Det framgår att det finns positiva aspekter med Mobipen. Det ger en möjlighet att bevisa vad man har gjort. På hemtjänsten påverkas arbetet av dokumentationen som Mobipen skapar. Den ständiga och kontinuerliga dokumentationen tar mycket tid som istället hade användas till brukaren. Arbetet på hemtjänsten beskrivs som stressigt. Det framgår av intervjumaterialet att om ledningen använder statistiken för att i detalj granska varje individ, då ökar upplevelsen av stress hos vissa intervjupersoner. På kundtjänsten är upplevelserna och påverkan av kontroll och övervakning till viss del beroende av hur de anställda presterar. När de presterar sämre, eller när det ställs höga krav på att de ska prestera på grund av att det ringer mycket eller att de får komplicerade samtal. Då upplevs kontrollen och övervakningen som mer påfrestande. Det här beror på då att det blir svårare att hålla en bra statistik när arbetskraven ökar. En intervjuperson på kundtjänsten visar ett sorts motstånd mot kontrollen genom denne skapar egna strategier för att kunna ta korta raster när det ringer mycket. På kundtjänsten kan de anställda tänka på att de blir inspelade vilket leder till att de ändrar sitt sätt att prata under samtalet. Både på hemtjänsten och kundtjänsten upplevs kontroll och övervakning som nödvändig och rimlig. Intervjupersonerna utgår från att så länge man sköter sitt jobb har man inget att oroa sig över. Överlag visar det sig att legitimiteten av kontroll och övervakning är beroende av hur ledningen använder informationen som samlas. Båda företagen fokuserar mer på belöningar än straff, vilket jag anser är en anledning till att kontroll och övervakning accepteras av de anställda.

This study investigates the challenges to the legitimacy and authority of scientific research in late modern philosophy of science. The author suggests that the different challenges to the legitimacy of science have led to relativism and amount to a crisis. Keeping in mind the positivist background, he illustrates the legitimacy crisis of science in the period from Popper to the present. In particular his analysis focuses on the "historical school" (Kuhn, Feyerabend etc.) in philosophy of science. The main question of this study is: what are the causes and the nature of the legitimacy crisis emerging in the contemporary philosophical assessment of science? To answer this question, a few specific challenges to the legitimacy of science emerging in particular areas are analysed: for example the difficulties of anchoring scientific certitude to its proper object of study, the loss of objectivity, growing scepticism about the possibility of communication and scientific progress. After substantiating the gradual emergence of relativist and sceptical approaches in the abovementioned areas, this study provides a "diagnosis" aiming at identifying the causes of the crisis. The humanist ground motive of nature and freedom and the choice of anchoring scientific certainty either in the subject or in the object of knowledge are considered the main sources of the crisis. They lead to arbitrary absolutisations of particular aspects of the scientific enterprise and (in the case of subjectivist approaches) to sceptical approaches to the possibility of scientific objectivity, communication and progress. This study also indicates a few possible resources, available in the reformational tradition, to counteract the legitimacy crisis of science. The main resource indicated in this study is the recognition of the structural order for reality, which is accessible to scientific analysis, "constrains" scientific research but also constitutes a common ground for researchers. Other important resources are the recognition of the link between scientific and pre-scientific knowledge and the acknowledgment that universality and individuality are traits of everything that exists. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Philosophy))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The Japanese scientist Kitasato Shibasaburo (1853-1931) was one of the founders of microbiology. A devoted student of Robert Koch, his successful collaborations with European scientists resulted in anti-serums for tetanus and diphtheria, the discovery of the causative agent of the bubonic plague, and a number of other major contributions to both science and public health. He achieved this in spite of condescending attitudes on the part of many of his peers and even resistance from within his own government. Yet there remains a paucity of academic writing on Kitasato in the English language, particularly when compared to his eminent contemporaries. What does exist constructs a narrative of an historically weak Japanese scientific establishment. This work challenges that perspective, and will examine Kitasato’s interactions with his fellow collaborators in the context of the considerable social, political, cultural, and linguistic pressures acting upon them in order to elucidate what made them so extraordinarily successful in surmounting these barriers. In so doing it aims to provide insight for the scientists of today – for whom international collaboration is the ever-increasing norm – as to how they have succeeded historically and can now successfully interact with both each other and the powers that organize them. / Graduate

Observations of consistency in behavioural responses in animals suggest that animals have personality, a term previously mainly used when describing humans. The expression of differences in personality, similar to expression of variation in behaviour, is in principle dependent on genetic background, environmental factors and experiences. Therefore, by estimating heritability one can determine to which extent the genes affect the phenotypic expression of behaviour. This has rarely been done for variation in animal personality. The aim of the present study was therefore to estimate the consistency and heritability of personality traits in red junglefowl chicks (Gallus gallus). Consistency of behaviours within individuals (n=100) was determined from their responses to repeated novel arena tests, novel object tests and tonic immobility tests. A comparison between the offspring and the parent generation, both with known personalities, through a linear regression enabled me to estimate heritability of behavioural responses in these birds. The results showed a consistency in exploratory, boldness, risk-taking behaviour, and fearfulness in red junglefowl. Additionally, heritability estimates for exploratory, risk-taking and foraging behaviours were found. Taken together, this shows that in the red junglefowl, similar to in other species, personality have both a heritable and an environmental component. An important aim in biology education is the scientific approach, where hypothesis, experimentation, processing results and discussing the results are in focus. Learning and gaining knowledge through the process is a key factor, and will hopefully increase the interest in science among Swedish pupils.

The following essay aims to determine what textbooks and teaching media educators in the county of Västerbotten use when teaching the relation between religion and science. Based on educational science theory and through analyzes of factual texts, the teaching materials was examined to determine how much focus they put on the thematic of religion and science. The result shows how the different teaching materials affect this thematic differently. The main conclusion is therefore that students in Sweden could, depending on the teaching materials used in their education, be taught by different standards to reach the same requirements.

In einer Liste von Regeln, die nach Tim O’Reilly das Web 2.0 definieren, hebt der Autor eine Regel besonders hervor: „Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I’ve elsewhere called ,harnessing collective intelligence.‘).“1 Es ist demnach offensichtlich. dass solche Netzwerkeffekte in den bestehenden geschlossenen E-Learning- Systemen sich nicht entfalten können. Es bedarf hochschulübergreifender Strukturen, um die kollektive Information, die tatsächlich als kollektive Intelligenz von Wissensgemeinschaften verstanden werden kann, mit der sozialen Dynamik des Netzes zu verbinden.

Neue Technologien und Praktiken – wie z.B. die Kommunikation über soziale Netzwerke wie Facebook – können die Entstehung und Erhaltung sich selbst organisierender Wissensgemeinschaften fördern. Diese Gemeinschaften gehören häufig unterschiedlicher Kulturen an und unterscheiden sich daher in den ihnen zugrunde liegenden Werten, Einstellungen und Vorgehensweisen, welche wiederum die Akzeptanz von Bildungstechnologien beeinflussen können. Inwieweit neue Technologien in einem gegebenen kulturellen oder interkulturellen Kontext akzeptiert werden und sich so tatsächlich dazu eignen, Wissensgemeinschaften zu unterstützen, wird erst seit wenigen Jahren untersucht.

The ‘Demarcation Problem’ is to mark the boundary between things that are scientific and things that are not. Philosophers have worked on this problem for a long time, and yet there is still no consensus solution. Should we continue to hope, or must we draw a more sceptical conclusion? In his paper, ‘The Demise of the Demarcation Problem’, Larry Laudan (1983) does the latter. In this thesis, I address the three arguments he gives for this conclusion. / The Pessimistic Induction: From the failure of many specific past attempts at demarcation, Laudan infers that all future attempts at demarcation will fail. For his argument to be fully convincing, Laudan needs to show that each attempt has been a complete failure, and that these failures have never led to progress in the theory of demarcation. I argue that many past attempts at demarcation have only resulted in partial failure, and many of these failures have led to some cumulative progress. So I think we can draw a more optimistic conclusion: future attempts at demarcation may be even more successful than past attempts. / The Pseudo-Problem: Laudan argues that the demarcation problem presupposes an ‘epistemic invariant’: something common to all and only the sciences, which makes them epistemically special. But, says Laudan, this presumption is false – so, by definition, the issue is merely a pseudo-problem. I find Laudan’s argument unconvincing. I present reasons for thinking that the demarcation problem does not, in fact, presuppose an extremely simple epistemic invariant. Furthermore, there may still be a satisfactory, moderately complex epistemic invariant to be found. So I do not think any false assumption is presupposed. / The New Problem: Laudan argues that we should replace the original demarcation problem with a new demarcation problem. I take this to be the problem of demarcating between well-confirmed and ill-confirmed theories. I argue that scientific status is relevant to the confirmation of theories, so the two problems are closely related. I also argue that science has other purposes; so scientific status indicates other virtues besides well-confirmedness. Thus we do want to know which theories and activities are scientific, because this will help us to decide which theories and activities to pursue. So this new demarcation problem is not a suitable replacement for the original problem. / My central question is ‘Has Laudan killed the demarcation problem?’, and my answer is ‘No!’.