In his influential essay “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme”, Donald Davidson argues that we cannot make sense of conceptual relativism, the doctrine that there could be incommensurably different systems of concepts applicable to a single world. According to Davidson, there is no criterion of identity for language that does not imply or presuppose the possibility that we interpret that language by means of our own language. Given some plausible assumptions, this implies that there is at most one conceptual scheme, one way of interpreting or representing the world. But then the very idea of a conceptual scheme is empty. The dissertation is an examination of Davidson’s reasoning, and a defence of a different position regarding conceptual relativism. I reject much of Davidson’s argumentation, and his radical (subordinate) conclusion that we would be able, at least in principle, to make sense of any language. Languages that we would be unable to translate or interpret, even in principle, are at least logically possible, in my view. However, this possibility should not be thought to imply or encourage conceptual relativism. In this respect, I think that Davidson and many of his critics have conflated the notion of a difference in conceptual scheme, which requires incommensurability between languages or systems of concepts, and mere conceptual difference. I argue that a genuinely alternative conceptual scheme would be associated with language unintelligible to us because of its relation to our language. For what is at issue, supposedly, is a conceptual relation: a relation between languages, not a relation between speakers, or their capacities, on the one hand, and languages, on the other. I try to show how some of Davidson’s arguments, suitably modified, can be deployed against the possibility of an alternative scheme, so understood, and provide some additional arguments of my own. My position is thus significantly weaker than Davidson’s: there could not be languages that we would be unable to interpret because they are incommensurable with our own.

In his influential essay “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme”, Donald Davidson argues that we cannot make sense of conceptual relativism, the doctrine that there could be incommensurably different systems of concepts applicable to a single world. According to Davidson, there is no criterion of identity for language that does not imply or presuppose the possibility that we interpret that language by means of our own language. Given some plausible assumptions, this implies that there is at most one conceptual scheme, one way of interpreting or representing the world. But then the very idea of a conceptual scheme is empty. The dissertation is an examination of Davidson’s reasoning, and a defence of a different position regarding conceptual relativism. I reject much of Davidson’s argumentation, and his radical (subordinate) conclusion that we would be able, at least in principle, to make sense of any language. Languages that we would be unable to translate or interpret, even in principle, are at least logically possible, in my view. However, this possibility should not be thought to imply or encourage conceptual relativism. In this respect, I think that Davidson and many of his critics have conflated the notion of a difference in conceptual scheme, which requires incommensurability between languages or systems of concepts, and mere conceptual difference. I argue that a genuinely alternative conceptual scheme would be associated with language unintelligible to us because of its relation to our language. For what is at issue, supposedly, is a conceptual relation: a relation between languages, not a relation between speakers, or their capacities, on the one hand, and languages, on the other. I try to show how some of Davidson’s arguments, suitably modified, can be deployed against the possibility of an alternative scheme, so understood, and provide some additional arguments of my own. My position is thus significantly weaker than Davidson’s: there could not be languages that we would be unable to interpret because they are incommensurable with our own.

O sistema educacional enfrenta inúmeras dificuldades para atender às demandas de sua clientela. A busca incessante por novas estratégias de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação faz parte do cotidiano do professor que deseja que seus alunos aprendam e que o façam significativamente. Sabe-se que o educando requer atividades que despertem sua curiosidade e atenção em sala de aula, por isso é importante que o professor encontre novas alternativas de ensinar e avaliar para que o aluno perceba o quanto é relevante fazer parte do processo de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Com o intuito de estimular o aluno a envolver-se mais nesse processo, foi proposto o uso de esquemas conceituais, baseados nos mapas de conceitos, como instrumento de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Esta estratégia está fundamentada na Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa de Ausubel e requer envolvimento tanto do aluno quanto do professor, pois ambos devem estar cientes de que a metodologia proposta supõe um nível bem maior de participação da que ocorre quando uma abordagem mecânica é empregada. Isso se deve ao fato de o aluno ter a oportunidade de refazer seu trabalho e, portanto, para que a nota seja alterada o professor precisa assessorá-lo em mais de um momento. Como essa estratégia envolve professor e aluno, oportuniza troca de ideias entre os próprios autores do esquema conceitual, e entre eles e o professor. Essa interação favorece a aprendizagem significativa, pois o aluno ao refazer seu trabalho a partir das sugestões dadas pelo professor precisa estudar novamente o assunto abordado e, com isso, está acrescentando significados aos subsunçores já existentes na estrutura cognitiva, o que evidencia a ocorrência de aprendizagem significativa. Esse envolvimento no processo de aprendizagem auxilia os alunos a perceber que desempenham papel fundamental na aprendizagem, no ensino e no processo de avaliação e que, além disso, tudo depende de seu desejo de participação e de seu próprio desempenho, ajudando-os dessa forma, a sentirem-se mais responsáveis por sua aprendizagem. / The educational system faces nowadays difficulties to meet the demands of its clientele. The ongoing search for new teaching, learning, and evaluation strategies is part of the daily life of the teacher who is interested in their students’ learning and wants them to learn meaningfully. It is known that learners require activities that call their curiosity and attention so that it is important for the teacher to find new alternatives for teaching and evaluating that can lead students to perceive how much it means to be actively engaged in the teaching, learning and evaluation processes. The use of conceptual schemes, based on concept maps as a tool for teaching, learning, and evaluating, is proposed here with the aim of encouraging students to get more involved in their own educating process. The theoretical framework for this proposal is Ausubel’s Theory of Meaningful Learning and requires the participation of both teacher and learner because the two of them must be aware that such methodology asks for a much higher level of participation than when a rote learning type of approach is applied. This stems from the opportunity students have of redoing their task until they are satisfied with it, and the teacher, on the other hand, has to assess it more than once. As this strategy brings together students and teacher, it facilitates the sharing of ideas among the authors of the conceptual schemes, and between these students with the teacher. Such an interaction favors meaningful learning as the students can redo their work based on suggestions offered by peers and teacher, and, furthermore, they feel encouraged to review once more the contents they have studied in class. This action helps students add meanings to the subsumers they already have in their cognitive structure, and this stands as an evidence of the occurrence of meaningful learning. This involvement in the learning process helps students feel that they play an important role in the learning, teaching, and evaluation process and, furthermore, that all depends on their willingness to participate and on their own performance, thus, helping them become more responsible for their own learning.

O sistema educacional enfrenta inúmeras dificuldades para atender às demandas de sua clientela. A busca incessante por novas estratégias de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação faz parte do cotidiano do professor que deseja que seus alunos aprendam e que o façam significativamente. Sabe-se que o educando requer atividades que despertem sua curiosidade e atenção em sala de aula, por isso é importante que o professor encontre novas alternativas de ensinar e avaliar para que o aluno perceba o quanto é relevante fazer parte do processo de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Com o intuito de estimular o aluno a envolver-se mais nesse processo, foi proposto o uso de esquemas conceituais, baseados nos mapas de conceitos, como instrumento de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Esta estratégia está fundamentada na Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa de Ausubel e requer envolvimento tanto do aluno quanto do professor, pois ambos devem estar cientes de que a metodologia proposta supõe um nível bem maior de participação da que ocorre quando uma abordagem mecânica é empregada. Isso se deve ao fato de o aluno ter a oportunidade de refazer seu trabalho e, portanto, para que a nota seja alterada o professor precisa assessorá-lo em mais de um momento. Como essa estratégia envolve professor e aluno, oportuniza troca de ideias entre os próprios autores do esquema conceitual, e entre eles e o professor. Essa interação favorece a aprendizagem significativa, pois o aluno ao refazer seu trabalho a partir das sugestões dadas pelo professor precisa estudar novamente o assunto abordado e, com isso, está acrescentando significados aos subsunçores já existentes na estrutura cognitiva, o que evidencia a ocorrência de aprendizagem significativa. Esse envolvimento no processo de aprendizagem auxilia os alunos a perceber que desempenham papel fundamental na aprendizagem, no ensino e no processo de avaliação e que, além disso, tudo depende de seu desejo de participação e de seu próprio desempenho, ajudando-os dessa forma, a sentirem-se mais responsáveis por sua aprendizagem. / The educational system faces nowadays difficulties to meet the demands of its clientele. The ongoing search for new teaching, learning, and evaluation strategies is part of the daily life of the teacher who is interested in their students’ learning and wants them to learn meaningfully. It is known that learners require activities that call their curiosity and attention so that it is important for the teacher to find new alternatives for teaching and evaluating that can lead students to perceive how much it means to be actively engaged in the teaching, learning and evaluation processes. The use of conceptual schemes, based on concept maps as a tool for teaching, learning, and evaluating, is proposed here with the aim of encouraging students to get more involved in their own educating process. The theoretical framework for this proposal is Ausubel’s Theory of Meaningful Learning and requires the participation of both teacher and learner because the two of them must be aware that such methodology asks for a much higher level of participation than when a rote learning type of approach is applied. This stems from the opportunity students have of redoing their task until they are satisfied with it, and the teacher, on the other hand, has to assess it more than once. As this strategy brings together students and teacher, it facilitates the sharing of ideas among the authors of the conceptual schemes, and between these students with the teacher. Such an interaction favors meaningful learning as the students can redo their work based on suggestions offered by peers and teacher, and, furthermore, they feel encouraged to review once more the contents they have studied in class. This action helps students add meanings to the subsumers they already have in their cognitive structure, and this stands as an evidence of the occurrence of meaningful learning. This involvement in the learning process helps students feel that they play an important role in the learning, teaching, and evaluation process and, furthermore, that all depends on their willingness to participate and on their own performance, thus, helping them become more responsible for their own learning.

O sistema educacional enfrenta inúmeras dificuldades para atender às demandas de sua clientela. A busca incessante por novas estratégias de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação faz parte do cotidiano do professor que deseja que seus alunos aprendam e que o façam significativamente. Sabe-se que o educando requer atividades que despertem sua curiosidade e atenção em sala de aula, por isso é importante que o professor encontre novas alternativas de ensinar e avaliar para que o aluno perceba o quanto é relevante fazer parte do processo de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Com o intuito de estimular o aluno a envolver-se mais nesse processo, foi proposto o uso de esquemas conceituais, baseados nos mapas de conceitos, como instrumento de ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação. Esta estratégia está fundamentada na Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa de Ausubel e requer envolvimento tanto do aluno quanto do professor, pois ambos devem estar cientes de que a metodologia proposta supõe um nível bem maior de participação da que ocorre quando uma abordagem mecânica é empregada. Isso se deve ao fato de o aluno ter a oportunidade de refazer seu trabalho e, portanto, para que a nota seja alterada o professor precisa assessorá-lo em mais de um momento. Como essa estratégia envolve professor e aluno, oportuniza troca de ideias entre os próprios autores do esquema conceitual, e entre eles e o professor. Essa interação favorece a aprendizagem significativa, pois o aluno ao refazer seu trabalho a partir das sugestões dadas pelo professor precisa estudar novamente o assunto abordado e, com isso, está acrescentando significados aos subsunçores já existentes na estrutura cognitiva, o que evidencia a ocorrência de aprendizagem significativa. Esse envolvimento no processo de aprendizagem auxilia os alunos a perceber que desempenham papel fundamental na aprendizagem, no ensino e no processo de avaliação e que, além disso, tudo depende de seu desejo de participação e de seu próprio desempenho, ajudando-os dessa forma, a sentirem-se mais responsáveis por sua aprendizagem. / The educational system faces nowadays difficulties to meet the demands of its clientele. The ongoing search for new teaching, learning, and evaluation strategies is part of the daily life of the teacher who is interested in their students’ learning and wants them to learn meaningfully. It is known that learners require activities that call their curiosity and attention so that it is important for the teacher to find new alternatives for teaching and evaluating that can lead students to perceive how much it means to be actively engaged in the teaching, learning and evaluation processes. The use of conceptual schemes, based on concept maps as a tool for teaching, learning, and evaluating, is proposed here with the aim of encouraging students to get more involved in their own educating process. The theoretical framework for this proposal is Ausubel’s Theory of Meaningful Learning and requires the participation of both teacher and learner because the two of them must be aware that such methodology asks for a much higher level of participation than when a rote learning type of approach is applied. This stems from the opportunity students have of redoing their task until they are satisfied with it, and the teacher, on the other hand, has to assess it more than once. As this strategy brings together students and teacher, it facilitates the sharing of ideas among the authors of the conceptual schemes, and between these students with the teacher. Such an interaction favors meaningful learning as the students can redo their work based on suggestions offered by peers and teacher, and, furthermore, they feel encouraged to review once more the contents they have studied in class. This action helps students add meanings to the subsumers they already have in their cognitive structure, and this stands as an evidence of the occurrence of meaningful learning. This involvement in the learning process helps students feel that they play an important role in the learning, teaching, and evaluation process and, furthermore, that all depends on their willingness to participate and on their own performance, thus, helping them become more responsible for their own learning.

This thesis aims at formulating a human rights justification based on the assumption that disbelief in human rights is found in communicative grounds, rather than some sort of unreasonable evil. I first identify what I believe to be a flaw in the communicative strength of existing human rights justifications in explaining why rights should be. I suggest that there is a gap between the justifications of human rights that contain metaphysical narrative, and the justifications that rely on subjective experience of rights as good. I further explain how this is a gap that political consensus and the idea of Kantian moral reason cannot seem to fill. I subsequently boil this gap down to the concept of value, since the foundation for each justification is based on a type of value. These are categorized as either given value – which applies to all attributes of value that is “given” to us independently of our actions or opinions, or created value – which applies to all attributes of value that stem from social interaction (thus action) and experience. As justifications are funneled into either of these two categories of value, it begins to look like no other type of value exist, and as a result no one looks for it. To respond to this problem, I formulate a philosophical explanation, in Robert Nozicks terms. This explanation shows that there may be other routes to apply to value than sticking to simply given or created value. My explanation utilizes the three theories of philosophical anthropology, internal metaphysical realism and Wittgensteins philosophy of language, and it is based on the result of an analysis of material consisting of human rights justification arguments by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Alasdaire MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum and Richard Rorty. The actual philosophical explanation I formulate utilizes the metaphysics of Helen Steward to provide a given-value foundation for the primitive reactions of Stefan Eriksson, which creates value through social organization. Overall, I find that there are untried possibilities which may allow for a different type of value to act as the foundation for a human rights justification. My contribution to the field rests in the novelty of the theories used in my explanation, and the angle of the problem formulation.

Esta tesis se enmarca en los procesos de recuperación de información en la Web, mediante la aplicación de tesauros y orientada hacia las propuestas de representación de información en la Web Semántica. Se plantea la creación de un modelo conceptual para desarrollar aplicaciones web para la gestión colaborativa de tesauros basados en SKOS y su aplicación en la indización de recursos de información, agrupados en repositorios y descritos mediante metadatos. Se han estudiado modelos de recuperación de información aplicados a la Web, junto con el significado, estructura, tecnologías y evolución de la Web Semántica, así como la representación de tesauros en este ámbito a partir de iniciativas basadas en RDF, analizando detalladamente SKOS. Se ha llevado a cabo una descripción funcional de las principales características de una aplicación de este tipo. La formalización de la propuesta se ha realizado con diagramas UML de casos de uso y de clases. / The field of this thesis is the web information retrieval process applying thesauri and its orientation is the representation of information in the Semantic Web. It raises the creation of a conceptual model in order to develop web applications for the collaborative management of SKOS based thesauri and the information resorces indexing, group by repositories and using metadata to describe it. Web information retrieval models has been analized, likewise meaning, structure, technologies and evolution of the Semantic Web and the representation of thesauri in this enviroment using RDF specifications, specially SKOS. Main characteristics of this type of applications have been studied. The author use case of use and class UML diagrams to formalize the proposal.