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<p>This thesis examines the methodological context, nature, strengths and weaknesses of an unconventional approach to the explanation of human action: 'the argument from rationality.' The study focuses on Martin Hollis' innovative presentation of this alternative method of social science. The argument from rationality proposes that in the explanation of human actions consideration must be given to an asymmetry in modes of explanation: nonrational actions are subject to causal analyses, but rational actions are their own explanations. A rational action, that is, is a free action; and the social scientist is under a methodological obligation to discover whether an action is free prior to formulating a causal explanation. The argument from rationality suits the needs of students of the social scientific study of religion. With its development and legitimation two points of antagonism between the scientific and the religious worldviews are ameliorated. The argument from rationality directly curbs the reductive thrust of scientific accounts of religion by giving methodological voice to the freedom of will asserted by the great religious traditions. Indirectly, the epistemological framework of the argument indicates that reference to the transcendent is a conceptual a priori of 'talk of religion,' just as rational human agency is for 'talk of human action.' The thesis has three parts. First, the parameters of the problem of human freedom are established through discussion of the two sociologies conflict. the positivism-humanism debate, and the struggle of determinists and libertarians. Second, the epistemological and methodological legitimacy of the argument from rationality is argued through a critique of positivist and conventionalist alternatives and the specification of the analytical constituents of Hollis' qualified idealist perspective. Third, the argument is applied to the debate over reductionism in religious studies and defended against the charges of vacuity and decisionism by proposing that the rationality of an action is a question of 'degrees' and hence open to empirical investigation.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The gradual blending of classical science and epistemology with indigenous/traditional practices and modes of understanding (particularly magic and religion) in the early western Middle Ages tends to be misunderstood. The purpose of this study is to address the reason(s) why the early medieval West has been labeled an irrational, unscientific "Dark Age" in order to point out that this conception's existence has more to do with limited historical perspectives than with reality. The anachronistic superimposition of modern presuppositions and methodological expectations is a very old phenomenon. Ironically, however, it has crept into the history of science and extended to ostensibly objective "scientific" historiography to such a degree that dismissiveness regarding the other ways of knowing that have informed our scientific and epistemological development frequently tends to obscure historical continuity. My goal in this undertaking is to firmly establish how we may understand that the intellectual revolution beginning in twelfth-century Europe was founded on a rich and multifarious tradition of knowledge and understanding; the preceding seven or eight centuries of the early Middle Ages was not one of intellectual "darkness" and should not be discarded as such. The approach I have taken is intended to demonstrate, rather than simply state, this goal by roughly imitating of the process of intellectual transmission in the early Middle Ages. Therefore, primary sources are supplemented by numerous secondary interpretations from various academic disciplines in the hope that collecting and reforming ideas in this fashion will draw out the inherent connectivity of ideological thought structures and approaches to the natural world. / Master of Arts

Yes / Based on Herbert Simon's conceptualization of bounded rationality, this study develops and tests an integrative model of the strategic decision-making process (SDMP) and outcomes in public organizations. The model integrates different SDMP dimensions—procedural rationality, intuition, participation, and constructive politics—and examines their impacts on the successful implementation of strategic decisions. Additionally, it analyzes the influence of implementation on the overall outcomes of strategic decisions. The model was tested with multi-source data on 170 strategic decisions collected from senior executives working in 38 public organizations in Qatar—a context in which studies on decision-making are rare. With the exception of intuition, this study shows a positive impact of all SDMP dimensions on the successful implementation and outcomes of strategic decisions. Successful implementation fully mediates the relationships between procedural rationality, participation, and constructive politics and the outcomes of strategic decision.

Bayesian epistemology provides a promising framework for a theory of epistemic rationality. But the way in which this framework has been built upon thus far yields an unfortunately mechanical picture of rationality, on which rational agents are mere data crunchers who receive evidential input and spit out numeric credal output. This picture is rightly criticized, most prominently by Bas van Fraassen, for being too narrow and restrictive and thus failing to account for certain features which rationality plausibly has, such as a degree of permissiveness, and for certain unconventional rational phenomena, such as conversions. Unfortunately, van Fraassen’s apt criticism of mechanistic rationality overshoots its mark in seeking to topple the entire Bayesian framework. Bayesian epistemology suffers a guilt by association with the robotic picture. This dissertation aims to restore Bayesianism from the mechanistic but often implicit assumptions which corrode it, and to rebuild, from the Bayesian foundation, an alternative picture of rationality as a property of sentient agents who are capable of understanding and mentally engaging with the objects of their credences. Along the way I account for some basic Bayesian objects such as credence and evidential input. I also accord a central role to the ability of representational experiences, largely sidelined in many Bayesian discussions, to give rise to surprising evidence. On these building blocks I develop theory of rationality, Expansive Bayesianism, which evades the criticisms launched at the robotic picture and shows that Bayesianism itself is a fruitful and powerful framework for a theory of rationality.

O presente trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa que teve por objetivo analisar as motivações e justificativas dos fruticultores da Serra Gaúcha para associar-se a organizações. Foram utilizadas como fundamento, duas bases teóricas: os princípios, objetivos e características das organizações cooperativas e o paradigma paraeconômico segundo as proposições de Guerreiro Ramos. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em caráter qualitativo, através de contato com associados, ativos e não ativos e ou não associados, com interesse e sem interesse em associar-se à organizações cooperativas agropecuárias, que trabalham com armazenagem, classificação e comercialização de frutas in natura. O contato com esses fruticultores pertencentes a Região 4 da OCERGS – Organização das Cooperativas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, denominada Serra foi realizado através da técnica bola-de-neve e se constituíram então no público-alvo desta pesquisa. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados constituíram-se de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, pesquisa documental e observação direta e, para análise dos dados adotou-se o método de análise de conteúdo. A análise de dados aconteceu levando em consideração o aspecto externo do sistema social de acordo com as dimensões propostas na lei dos requisitos adequados e, por um conjunto de categorias de valores, que configuram o aspecto interno do sistema social. Ao final se expõem as razões que levam os fruticultores a associar-se ou a abandonarem as organizações cooperativas nesta região, identificando que tipo de racionalidade orienta suas decisões. / The present work presents a research that had for objective to analyze the motivations and justifications of Serra Gaucho's fruit growing to associate to organizations. They were used as foundation, two theoretical bases: the beginnings, objectives and characteristics of the cooperative organizations and the paradigm paraeconômico according to Guerreiro Ramos propositions. The field research was accomplished in qualitative character, through contact with associates, assets and no assets and or no associates, with interest and without interest in associating to agricultural cooperative organizations, that work with storage, classification and commercialization of fruits in natura. The contact with those Area 4’ fruit growing of OCERGS Organization of the Cooperatives of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, denominated Serra was accomplished through the technique ball-of-snow and they were constituted then in the public-objective of this research. The data collection instruments were constituted of semi-structured interviews, document retrieval and direct observation. The method of content analysis was adopted for analysis of the data. The data analysis happened taking into account the external aspect of the social system in agreement with the dimensions proposed in the law of the appropriate requirements and, for a group of categories of values, that configure the internal aspect of the social system. At the end the reasons that take the fruit growing to associate or abandon the cooperative organizations in this area were exposed, identifying what rationality type guides their decisions.

O presente trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa que teve por objetivo analisar as motivações e justificativas dos fruticultores da Serra Gaúcha para associar-se a organizações. Foram utilizadas como fundamento, duas bases teóricas: os princípios, objetivos e características das organizações cooperativas e o paradigma paraeconômico segundo as proposições de Guerreiro Ramos. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em caráter qualitativo, através de contato com associados, ativos e não ativos e ou não associados, com interesse e sem interesse em associar-se à organizações cooperativas agropecuárias, que trabalham com armazenagem, classificação e comercialização de frutas in natura. O contato com esses fruticultores pertencentes a Região 4 da OCERGS – Organização das Cooperativas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, denominada Serra foi realizado através da técnica bola-de-neve e se constituíram então no público-alvo desta pesquisa. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados constituíram-se de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, pesquisa documental e observação direta e, para análise dos dados adotou-se o método de análise de conteúdo. A análise de dados aconteceu levando em consideração o aspecto externo do sistema social de acordo com as dimensões propostas na lei dos requisitos adequados e, por um conjunto de categorias de valores, que configuram o aspecto interno do sistema social. Ao final se expõem as razões que levam os fruticultores a associar-se ou a abandonarem as organizações cooperativas nesta região, identificando que tipo de racionalidade orienta suas decisões. / The present work presents a research that had for objective to analyze the motivations and justifications of Serra Gaucho's fruit growing to associate to organizations. They were used as foundation, two theoretical bases: the beginnings, objectives and characteristics of the cooperative organizations and the paradigm paraeconômico according to Guerreiro Ramos propositions. The field research was accomplished in qualitative character, through contact with associates, assets and no assets and or no associates, with interest and without interest in associating to agricultural cooperative organizations, that work with storage, classification and commercialization of fruits in natura. The contact with those Area 4’ fruit growing of OCERGS Organization of the Cooperatives of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, denominated Serra was accomplished through the technique ball-of-snow and they were constituted then in the public-objective of this research. The data collection instruments were constituted of semi-structured interviews, document retrieval and direct observation. The method of content analysis was adopted for analysis of the data. The data analysis happened taking into account the external aspect of the social system in agreement with the dimensions proposed in the law of the appropriate requirements and, for a group of categories of values, that configure the internal aspect of the social system. At the end the reasons that take the fruit growing to associate or abandon the cooperative organizations in this area were exposed, identifying what rationality type guides their decisions.

O presente trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa que teve por objetivo analisar as motivações e justificativas dos fruticultores da Serra Gaúcha para associar-se a organizações. Foram utilizadas como fundamento, duas bases teóricas: os princípios, objetivos e características das organizações cooperativas e o paradigma paraeconômico segundo as proposições de Guerreiro Ramos. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em caráter qualitativo, através de contato com associados, ativos e não ativos e ou não associados, com interesse e sem interesse em associar-se à organizações cooperativas agropecuárias, que trabalham com armazenagem, classificação e comercialização de frutas in natura. O contato com esses fruticultores pertencentes a Região 4 da OCERGS – Organização das Cooperativas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, denominada Serra foi realizado através da técnica bola-de-neve e se constituíram então no público-alvo desta pesquisa. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados constituíram-se de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, pesquisa documental e observação direta e, para análise dos dados adotou-se o método de análise de conteúdo. A análise de dados aconteceu levando em consideração o aspecto externo do sistema social de acordo com as dimensões propostas na lei dos requisitos adequados e, por um conjunto de categorias de valores, que configuram o aspecto interno do sistema social. Ao final se expõem as razões que levam os fruticultores a associar-se ou a abandonarem as organizações cooperativas nesta região, identificando que tipo de racionalidade orienta suas decisões. / The present work presents a research that had for objective to analyze the motivations and justifications of Serra Gaucho's fruit growing to associate to organizations. They were used as foundation, two theoretical bases: the beginnings, objectives and characteristics of the cooperative organizations and the paradigm paraeconômico according to Guerreiro Ramos propositions. The field research was accomplished in qualitative character, through contact with associates, assets and no assets and or no associates, with interest and without interest in associating to agricultural cooperative organizations, that work with storage, classification and commercialization of fruits in natura. The contact with those Area 4’ fruit growing of OCERGS Organization of the Cooperatives of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, denominated Serra was accomplished through the technique ball-of-snow and they were constituted then in the public-objective of this research. The data collection instruments were constituted of semi-structured interviews, document retrieval and direct observation. The method of content analysis was adopted for analysis of the data. The data analysis happened taking into account the external aspect of the social system in agreement with the dimensions proposed in the law of the appropriate requirements and, for a group of categories of values, that configure the internal aspect of the social system. At the end the reasons that take the fruit growing to associate or abandon the cooperative organizations in this area were exposed, identifying what rationality type guides their decisions.

Submitted by Sandra Raquel Correa (sandracorrea42@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-04T00:36:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 0000010800.pdf: 1441534 bytes, checksum: c436d9dde218e35965ed59ae3dd83994 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T00:36:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 0000010800.pdf: 1441534 bytes, checksum: c436d9dde218e35965ed59ae3dd83994 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / Esta tese apresenta um estudo a respeito do Ser sob duas perspectivas: a Racionalidade Metafísica e a Racionalidade Ambiental. Consideramos que tal discussão tem profundas implicações em nossa existência, visto que a crise ambiental é compreendida como uma crise da civilização, pois está ancorada em nossas formas de ser-no-mundo. Partindo da pergunta: "Em que medida o horizonte da Racionalidade Ambiental pode contribuir para (re)significar e situar o Ser?", intenta-se ampliar a noção de educabilidade a partir dos pressupostos da Racionalidade Ambiental. O estudo sinaliza que, no horizonte da Metafísica Ocidental, foi concedido ao ser humano o maior estatuto ontológico entre os entes, nos entronizando como senhores da Razão e da natureza. Com a exacerbação da dimensão instrumental da Razão no contexto da Modernidade, sociedade e natureza foram paulatinamente afetadas pelas relações de produção. A adoção de um sistema unificado de Racionalidade, justificada pela posse/domínio/consumo, passou a dar sentido e identidade ao Ser. Neste sentido, a crise ecológica é compreendida para além dos fenômenos naturais, pois está relacionada intimamente com pressupostos da racionalidade predominante na atualidade, ou seja, a Racionalidade Instrumental. Considerando que a Educação Ambiental está comprometida com novas formas de enfrentamento aos paradigmas do mundo contemporâneo e que tal desafio passa pela modificação dos valores sobre os quais se alicerçam as sociedades ocidentais modernas, entendemos que se faz necessário reconstruir nossas relações sobre o legado de outra Racionalidade. Visando alargar a compreensão das categorias postas para este estudo, optamos por uma abordagem metodológica de cunho hermenêutico. Temos a hipótese de que a Racionalidade Ambiental, além de superar as patologias da Racionalidade Instrumental, pode constituir-se em um novo indicador para nosso modo de ser-no-mundo. Tomando como referência a perspectiva teórica de Leff, propusemos alternativas para pensar um novo lugar para o Ser no horizonte da Racionalidade Ambiental, defendendo que este processo passa pela recuperação do sentido da physys; pela ressignificação do sagrado; pela superação do paradigma da subjetividade pelo da intersubjetividade; pelo reposicionamento dos saberes e da ciência; pelo engajamento ético e político e pela refuncionalização do modelo socioeconômico. Assim, se entendermos que a Racionalidade Ambiental é um processo de construção social, faz todo sentido buscar, no campo da educação, a desconstrução do saber onicompreensivo e totalizante, integrando o conhecimento sensível e o racional, valorizando os saberes e restaurando a relação entre Ser, vida e conhecimento. / This thesis is a study about Being from two perspectives: the Metaphysical Rationality and Environmental Rationality. We regard such discussion has having profound implications for our existence, once the environmental crisis is understood as a crisis of civilization, as it is anchored in our ways of being in the world. From the question: "To what extent the horizon Environmental Rationality can contribute to (re) define and locate the Being? ", attempts to expand notion of educability from the rationality of environmental assumptions. The study showed that on the horizon of Western metaphysics, it was granted to the human being the highest ontological status among other beings, being enthroned as masters of reason and nature. With the intensification of the instrumental dimension of Reason in the context of modernity, society and nature were gradually affected by relations of production. By adopting a unified system of Rationality, justified by the possession / domain / consumption, it began to give meaning and identity to the Being. In this sense, the ecological crisis is understood beyond the natural phenomena, because it is closely related to assumptions of rationality prevalent today, that is, the Instrumental Rationality. Considering that environmental education is committed to new ways of coping with the paradigms of the contemporary world and that this challenge involves the modification of the values on which are founded the modern Western societies, we believe that it is necessary to rebuild our relations on the legacy of another Rationality. To broaden the understanding of the categories mentioned in this study, we chose an approach of hermeneutic nature. We hypothesized that the Environmental Rationality, can both overcome the pathologies of Instrumental Rationality and constitute a new window to our way of being in the world. Assuming Leffs theoretical perspective as reference, we proposed alternatives to think of a new place to the Being on the horizon Environmental Rationality, arguing that this process means recovering the sense of physys; redefining the sacred; overcoming the paradigm of subjectivity by the intersubjectivity; repositioning of knowledge and science; the ethical and political engagement and refunctioning the social and economical model. Thus, if we understand that the Environmental Rationality is a social construction process, it is meaningful to seek, in the field of education, the deconstruction of knowledge omnicomprehensive and totalizing, integrating the sensitive and rational knowledge, valuing the knowledge and restoring the relationship between Being, life and knowledge.