One question raised when creating, evaluating and appraising art work is 'How do we know what we know?' This exegesis attempts to answer this by establishing the important role intuitive knowledge plays in decision making in general, and within the author's own art practice specifically. The study reviews some of the literature on intuition from philosophical and psychological perspective in order to validate intuitive knowledge and intuitive decision making within contemporary art practice. However, just because intuition may drive the process, it does not mean that the product of intuitive practice is necessarily good or has any value. Consequently, the importance of aesthetics, and the values of integrity, honesty and truth are explored from a philosophical perspective. These are discussed in relation to the art practice of other artists from this century as well as that of the writer. Having constructed a philosophical framework to work within and be guided by, the final part of this study documents the development of the practical work and how this framework influences the art practice and the outcomes of that practice. It is hoped that the results of the study will reassert the validity and relevance of this form of art practice and philosophy within contemporary art practice. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Visual Art)

<p>Managers operating within the dynamic society of today are said to rely on intuition when effective and quick decisions are to be made. This skill or phenomenon has aroused an interest within the academic world of management whom has explored intuition, its relation to decision making and its influencing factors, especially in the private sector. Intuitive decision making is however not isolated solely to this sector but also involved in decision making associated to the public sector. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala involve intuition in decision making and to what extent the factors time, amount of information, individual experience and decision complexity influence the intuition.</p><p>The theoretical framework includes academic research regarding how intuition and rationality affect decisions, the concept of intuition and factors influencing the intuitiveness of decision making. Furthermore the theoretical discussion explores intuition connected to leadership, negative aspects of intuitive decisions and a comparison between different factors that separates public and private sector in terms of decision making. The study was conducted using a quantitative research method. Information was collected through a web based survey sent to 225 managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala and the response rate was 56 %. The results from the survey indicated that intuition is involved in the majority of decisions taken by the managers at the hospital. The conclusions were that the managers at Akademiska tend to take more intuitive decisions when they are under time pressure and when facing complex decision situations. The results also revealed that larger amounts of information and different experience levels did not influence how intuitive managers are in their decision making. Research regarding the human intuition, connected to decision making, can be associated with difficulties concerning the measurement of intuition. However, the results of this study show that situational factors can influence to what extent managers use intuition in decision making, even in the public sector.</p>

Vår upptäcktsresa bygger på att få fram så mycket information som möjligt om vad tyst kunskap är. Vi har intervjuat yrkesmän som besitter lång rutin från både våra yrken, elektrikeryrket samt kökschefyrket, samt ett par professorer och höra vad de hade att säga om vad begreppet tyst kunskap innebär. Vi frågade även hur vi som lärare på bästa sätt skall lära ut kunskap som är tyst till gymnasieelever och hur vi skulle kunna lära ut och sätta ord på ett handlande som är svårt att sätta ord på. Med våra intervjuer och genom bilddokumentation försöker vi visa vad fallenhet för yrket är och hur man ser eller genomför ett jobb på ett fackmannamässigt sätt. Efter analys av intervjuerna kom vi fram till att man skall försöka lära ut och att man skall berätta om den tysta kunskapen. Tyst kunskap är enligt oss och våra respondenter bland annat när man som yrkesman utövar sitt yrke på ett sätt som är invant genom upprepningar.

Managers operating within the dynamic society of today are said to rely on intuition when effective and quick decisions are to be made. This skill or phenomenon has aroused an interest within the academic world of management whom has explored intuition, its relation to decision making and its influencing factors, especially in the private sector. Intuitive decision making is however not isolated solely to this sector but also involved in decision making associated to the public sector. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala involve intuition in decision making and to what extent the factors time, amount of information, individual experience and decision complexity influence the intuition. The theoretical framework includes academic research regarding how intuition and rationality affect decisions, the concept of intuition and factors influencing the intuitiveness of decision making. Furthermore the theoretical discussion explores intuition connected to leadership, negative aspects of intuitive decisions and a comparison between different factors that separates public and private sector in terms of decision making. The study was conducted using a quantitative research method. Information was collected through a web based survey sent to 225 managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala and the response rate was 56 %. The results from the survey indicated that intuition is involved in the majority of decisions taken by the managers at the hospital. The conclusions were that the managers at Akademiska tend to take more intuitive decisions when they are under time pressure and when facing complex decision situations. The results also revealed that larger amounts of information and different experience levels did not influence how intuitive managers are in their decision making. Research regarding the human intuition, connected to decision making, can be associated with difficulties concerning the measurement of intuition. However, the results of this study show that situational factors can influence to what extent managers use intuition in decision making, even in the public sector.

1. Intuitions are often treated in philosophy as a basic evidential source to confirm/discredit a proposed definition or theory; e.g. intuitions about Gettier cases are taken to deny a justified-true-belief analysis of ‘knowledge’. Recently, Weinberg, Nichols & Stitch (WN&S) provided evidence that epistemic intuitions vary across persons and cultures. In-so-far as philosophy of this type (Standard Philosophical Methodology – SPM) is committed to provide conceptual analyses, the use of intuition is suspect – it does not exhibit the requisite normativity. I provide an analysis of intuition, with an emphasis on its neural – or connectionist – cognitive backbone; the analysis provides insight into its epistemic status and proper role within SPM. Intuition is initially characterized as the recognition of a pattern. 2. The metaphysics of ‘pattern’ is analyzed for the purpose of denying that traditional symbolic computation is capable of differentiating the patterns of interest. 3. The epistemology of ‘recognition’ is analyzed, again, to deny that traditional computation is capable of capturing human acts of recognition. 4. Fodor’s informational semantics, his Language of Thought and his Representational Theory of Mind are analyzed and his arguments denied. Again, the purpose is to deny traditional computational theories of mind. 5. Both intuition and a theory of concepts – pragmatic conceptualism - are developed within the connectionist computational paradigm. Intuition is a particular sort of occurrent signal, and a concept is a counterfactually defined set of signals. Standard connectionist theory is significantly extended to develop my position, and consciousness plays a key functional role. This extension – taking connectionism seriously – is argued to be justified on the basis of the failure of the traditional computing paradigm to account for human cognition. 6. Repercussions for the use of intuition in SPM are developed. Variance in intuition is characterized – and expected - as a kind of bias in the network, either inherent or externally-provoked. The WN&S data is explained in the context of this bias. If SPM remains committed to the use of intuition, then intuition must be taken as a part of a larger body of evidence, and it is from experts – not the folk – that intuitions should be solicited.

1. Intuitions are often treated in philosophy as a basic evidential source to confirm/discredit a proposed definition or theory; e.g. intuitions about Gettier cases are taken to deny a justified-true-belief analysis of ‘knowledge’. Recently, Weinberg, Nichols & Stitch (WN&S) provided evidence that epistemic intuitions vary across persons and cultures. In-so-far as philosophy of this type (Standard Philosophical Methodology – SPM) is committed to provide conceptual analyses, the use of intuition is suspect – it does not exhibit the requisite normativity. I provide an analysis of intuition, with an emphasis on its neural – or connectionist – cognitive backbone; the analysis provides insight into its epistemic status and proper role within SPM. Intuition is initially characterized as the recognition of a pattern. 2. The metaphysics of ‘pattern’ is analyzed for the purpose of denying that traditional symbolic computation is capable of differentiating the patterns of interest. 3. The epistemology of ‘recognition’ is analyzed, again, to deny that traditional computation is capable of capturing human acts of recognition. 4. Fodor’s informational semantics, his Language of Thought and his Representational Theory of Mind are analyzed and his arguments denied. Again, the purpose is to deny traditional computational theories of mind. 5. Both intuition and a theory of concepts – pragmatic conceptualism - are developed within the connectionist computational paradigm. Intuition is a particular sort of occurrent signal, and a concept is a counterfactually defined set of signals. Standard connectionist theory is significantly extended to develop my position, and consciousness plays a key functional role. This extension – taking connectionism seriously – is argued to be justified on the basis of the failure of the traditional computing paradigm to account for human cognition. 6. Repercussions for the use of intuition in SPM are developed. Variance in intuition is characterized – and expected - as a kind of bias in the network, either inherent or externally-provoked. The WN&S data is explained in the context of this bias. If SPM remains committed to the use of intuition, then intuition must be taken as a part of a larger body of evidence, and it is from experts – not the folk – that intuitions should be solicited.

The dissertation investigates the role of autobiographical memories with emotional significance in architectural design conjecturing. The dissertation is structured as a set of individual articles (chapters), each can be read independently. To set the background to the empirical research, an overview of models of the design process, intuition in design, memory, emotion and place are presented. The empirical research consists of comparison of two case studies. Ethnographic methods were used for data collection. Direct analysis, indirect analysis (content analysis of protocols) and analysis of language for affect were used to scrutinize the data. Findings clearly indicate the utilization of autobiographical memories with emotional significance in design conjecturing. The study describes the types of autobiographical memories with emotional significance and purpose of their use in design conjecturing. In general, the dissertation study indicated that half of thought content used by architects during design conjecturing comes from their autobiographical experience. At the same time, personal experiences of students are neglected in architectural education. Overview of the current status of architectural education leads to the argument that academia is due for a paradigm change. The dissertation provides suggestion on the direction of changes in design education.

<p>Historically, decision support systems have been used in organizations to facilitate better decisions. Business Intelligence has become important in recent years because the business environment is more complex and changes faster than ever before. Organizations have started to realize the value of existing information in operational, managerial, and strategic decision making. By using analytical methods and data warehousing, decision support can now be used in a flexible way and assist decision makers in decision making processes. Increasing investments in Business Intelligence indicate that it can bring value to organizations. Benefits such as the ability to access relevant and timely decision support when it is needed can be of tremendous value when the use of existing information has become more a question of survival or bankruptcy for an organization, than profit or loss. Thus, it would be interesting to see how decision support and decision making have changed in organizations after implementing a Business Intelligence system. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if and how Business Intelligence has changed decision support and decision making processes.A deductive approach using a qualitative method has been used with semi-structured elite interviews. The thesis aims to investigate the manufacturing industry located in the Jönköping region in Sweden. The interviewed organizations are Husqvarna AB, Fläkt Woods AB, Myresjöhus AB, and Kinnarps AB. Our analysis shows positive effects of Business Intelligence in organizations with improvements of decision support due to timeliness, accessibility, quality, and better control of organizational information. As improvements in decision support has occurred, decision making has become better. Complicated problems are now easier to interpret by decision makers. Our research also concludes that intuition still has a major impact in decision making processes.</p>

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed March 2, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 55).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-142). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.