Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-239).

The view that large-scale, long-range social theories cannot be predictive other than "in principle" is sufficiently widespread as to be considered the orthodox view. It is widely held that, lacking this predictive quality, social theories are cut off from a crucial form of vindication enjoyed by the experimental sciences. Thus many would agree with Ryan's assessment that while with regard to large-scale social changes "long-range prediction is not in principle impossible," nonetheless as a matter of practical methodology such a goal is of "dubious value." The reason commonly proffered as to why social theories cannot be predictive is the causal complexity of social life. Because of this feature, it is held, while we may be able to unearth interesting social generalizations, we will not be able to predict the many initial conditions together with which they predict. Alternately, due to this complexity we are able to achieve no better than tendency laws which do not permit predictions of sufficient precision to allow for predictive testing. This has been held to be true for other causally complex fields as well. Thus, Scriven has argued that Darwin was "the paradigm of the explanatory but non-predictive scientist" due to the constraints imposed on his methodology by the causal complexity of the biosphere. As a result of both an uncritical acceptance of the orthodox view and an inadequate analysis of Marx's methodology, Daniel Little has argued that Marxian theory is non-predictive. However, a thorough analysis of Marx's labour process theory shows it to be both clearly predictive and subject to justification by predictive assessment. Moreover, a formalization of the theory indicates that available data confirm it as regards both its central hypothesis and the matrix of social causation it exhibits. Little's position in regard to Marxian theory is strongly similar to Scriven's in regard to Darwinian theory. In both cases, faulty theoretical presuppositions combine with inadequate analysis to buttress false conclusions as to the asymmetry of explanation and prediction. Adequate analysis dispels Little's and Scriven's conclusions and exhibits important methodological parallels between Marx and Darwin. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

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The presentation in this study is the result of a critical inquiry into the nature, extent and direction of the current trends towards the marketisation of education which constitutes a major structural change which has substantially impacted on teachers work. The inquiry has been prompted by the conviction that these trends represent quite a fundamental change in the provision of education and in the role of teachers which is not compatible with the goals of human development. / The investigation has revealed that a Marxian critique needs to be developed for its subject matter because it is a dynamic process rather than a set of prescribed methodological principles. In this regard it is important to understand that Hegels dialectic forms the essential operating rubric of the critique but its form in Marxs schema is materialist. In this sense Marxs critique is a development of Hegels foundational dialectical principles. The finding is one of the major contributions this inquiry has brought to knowledge. / The inquiry also revealed that the current trends in educations marketisation are to be explained as arising from within the internal contradictions of the capitalist economy: 1) between the necessity to reproduce and to accumulate capital; 2) between the social relations of exploitation in the sphere of production, where surplus value is extracted from workers labour, and the social relations of competition among capitalists in the sphere of the market, where surplus value is realised as capital; and 3) between the necessity to raise production through technological change and to resolve the ensuing economic crises through enterprise restructuring. In severe crises, however, the restructuring is extended to services such as education. The latter is a major finding for the inquiry because it revealed that capital actually thrives and survives on economic crises. / Finally, the inquiry revealed that the effect of the current trends is the subjugation of education and teachers work to a similar production regime to that operating in material production. This can occur because marketisation demands that entities to be exchanged must be reduced to quantifiable units of value in order that they can be equalised, in which case regardless of their form they can be treated as indistinguishable from any other entity. In this sense marketisation for education means that it can be managed and organised like any other production process. / The result of these trends is that education becomes a capitalist mode of production in which teachers work is subsumed under the regime of technological work processes and scientific management regimes. As the inquiry shows, this development is an expression of the capitalist exchange economys expansionary drive for world domination. / These are trends which cannot be compatible with the goals of human development for it forecloses what should be and open future. Informed intervention is therefore an imperative if education is to be redirected toward humanist goals. It is towards this kind of informed action that this study is intended to make a contribution. / Thesis ([PhDEducation])--University of South Australia, 2001

The presentation in this study is the result of a critical inquiry into the nature, extent and direction of the current trends towards the marketisation of education which constitutes a major structural change which has substantially impacted on teachers work. The inquiry has been prompted by the conviction that these trends represent quite a fundamental change in the provision of education and in the role of teachers which is not compatible with the goals of human development. / PhD Doctorate

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1988. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2006. / Thesis directed by David F. Ruccio for the Department of Economics. "July 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-302).

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