Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- American Politics (3)
- International Relations (3)
- International and Area Studies (3)
- Near and Middle Eastern Studies (3)
- Political Science (3)
-
- Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration (3)
- Terrorism Studies (3)
- Animal Sciences (1)
- Animal Studies (1)
- Arts and Humanities (1)
- Dynamical Systems (1)
- Engineering (1)
- History (1)
- Life Sciences (1)
- Mathematics (1)
- Medicine and Health Sciences (1)
- Other Animal Sciences (1)
- Other Engineering (1)
- Other Sociology (1)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (1)
- Psychology (1)
- Science and Technology Studies (1)
- Theory and Philosophy (1)
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- System analysis (4)
- Sociology and Anthropology (3)
- System theory (3)
- Al-Qaeda (2)
- Complexity (Philosophy) (2)
-
- Reconstructability analysis (2)
- Research Symposium (2)
- AQO (1)
- Al-Qaeda Organization (1)
- Animal emotion (1)
- Cellular automata -- Mathematical models (1)
- Chaotic behavior in systems (1)
- Chaotic behavior in systems -- Mathematical models (1)
- Classical theory (1)
- Cognition (1)
- Cognitive science (1)
- Contemporary theory (1)
- Cybernetics (1)
- Dogs (1)
- Double bind (Psychology) (1)
- History -- Mathematical models (1)
- ISO (1)
- Information theory (1)
- Islamic State Organization (1)
- Kieran Healy -- Criticism and interpretation (1)
- Machine learning (1)
- Mario Bunge (1919- ) -- Criticism and interpretation (1)
- Materialism (1)
- Meaning (Philosophy) (1)
- Network analysis (1)
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Theory, Knowledge and Science
The Sociological Theory Reader, Alecea Ritter Standlee
The Sociological Theory Reader, Alecea Ritter Standlee
Open Educational Resources
This reader brings together open-access excerpts of the writings of key figures in sociological theory. Excerpts from the works of Marx, Gilman, Addams, Durkheim, Cooley, Weber and DuBoise are included. This reader also includes limited biographical data and open access resources for further research.
Performativity Of Models, Rajesh Venkatachalapathy
Performativity Of Models, Rajesh Venkatachalapathy
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
Inspired by Latour's work in social studies of science and technology, Callon, MacKenzie and others developed a performativity critique of economics. Building on this, Healy (2015) recently discussed the performativity of network models. While useful, I move away from French continental philosophy to avoid unavoidable comparisons with Foucauldian conceptions of performativity. Instead, I use ideas from vanilla historical sociology of science and technology and cognitive science to understand performativity.
I first discuss Healy's critique of network models. Keeping with the worst traditions in systems science, I greedily apply this concept to all models in science and engineering by first critiquing …
What If Our Beliefs About A System Are Not Wholly Accurate? What If?, Gary Langford
What If Our Beliefs About A System Are Not Wholly Accurate? What If?, Gary Langford
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
For most people, a system is a construct with vexing complexities, many many parts, and perhaps wrapped with a goal or intention. Add to that simple construct a set of terminologies that are commonly applied when speaking of “systems” and we just might have veered away from discoveries of imminent importance. Ask yourself, “You said it was a system, but how did that statement help you solve your problem? How far off would we have to be in our perception of systemsness for us to make mistakes of consequence? One Hundred Billion are lost annually in software projects that failed …
The Al-Qaeda Organization And The Islamic State Organization: History, Doctrine, Modus, Operandi, And U.S Policy To Degrade And Defeat Terrorism Conducted In The Name Of Sunni Islam, Paul Kamolnick
ETSU Authors Bookshelf
The al-Qaeda Organization (AQO) and the Islamic State Organization (ISO) are transnational adversaries that conduct terrorism in the name of Sunni Islam. It is declared U.S. Government (USG) policy to degrade, defeat, and destroy them. The present book has been written to assist policymakers, military planners, strategists, and professional military educators whose mission demands a deep understanding of strategically-relevant differences between these two transnational terrorist entities. In it, one shall find a careful comparative analysis across three key strategically relevant dimensions: essential doctrine, beliefs, and worldview; strategic concept, including terrorist modus operandi; and specific implications and recommendations for current USG …
Crafting A System Of Profound Knowledge Management In Long Term Care, Charlotte Johnston
Crafting A System Of Profound Knowledge Management In Long Term Care, Charlotte Johnston
2017 Program & Posters
Healthcare industries face regulatory and funding challenges to improve quality and close knowing-to doing gaps in healthcare. The study presents a substantive conceptual theory for crafting knowledge management (KM) in long-term-care (LTC); and extends Deming’s theory of profound knowledge from an organizational to the individual level of action and decision making.
Dogs & Society: Anglo-American Sociological Perspectives (1865-1934), Michael R. Hill, Mary Jo Deegan
Dogs & Society: Anglo-American Sociological Perspectives (1865-1934), Michael R. Hill, Mary Jo Deegan
Zea E-Books Collection
HUMANS AND DOGS have a long, wonderful and sometimes problematic association. At a personal level, dogs have been integral to our lives, and our parents’ lives, for as long as the two of us can remember. As sociologists, we also recognize that dogs are important at the macro level. Here, we introduce a selection of early sociological arguments about dogs and their social relationships with humankind. Our interest in developing this book began when we encountered the delightful essays on dogs by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Annie Marion MacLean — two insightful Anglo-American sociologists who present opposing sympathies regarding the …
Using Multi-Theory Model For Physical Activity Behavior Change, Manoj Sharma
Using Multi-Theory Model For Physical Activity Behavior Change, Manoj Sharma
2010-2016 Archived Posters
Physical inactivity is a major public health problem. College students are a vulnerable group. This study was aimed at using multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to predict physical activity behavior change in college students. Regression revealed that 26% of the variance in the initiation of physical activity was explained by advantages outweighing disadvantages, behavioral confidence, work status, and changes in physical environment. About 30% of the variance in sustenance of physical activity was explained by emotional transformation, practice for change, and changes in social environment.
Countering Radicalization And Recruitment To Al-Qaeda: Fighting The War Of Deeds, Paul Kamolnick
Countering Radicalization And Recruitment To Al-Qaeda: Fighting The War Of Deeds, Paul Kamolnick
ETSU Authors Bookshelf
This Letort Paper proposes that actions, policies, and deeds—those of the U.S. Government and al-Qaeda—be leveraged as a means of delegitimizing al-Qaeda terrorist propaganda. Two chief fronts—changing deeds and challenging deeds—is proposed. Changing deeds requires that the United States carefully and systematically examine its own foreign and military policies and their specific consequences for the Arab and Muslim world. Challenging deeds comprises systematically countering with evidence and fact al-Qaeda’s two greatest propagandistic fabrications: that the United States is a crusader at war with Islam, and that al-Qaeda is the vanguard defender of a besieged and oppressed Muslim Umma. Provocative at …
Delegitimizing Al-Qaeda: A Jihad-Realist Approach, Paul Kamolnick
Delegitimizing Al-Qaeda: A Jihad-Realist Approach, Paul Kamolnick
ETSU Authors Bookshelf
Disrupting, dismantling, and ultimately defeating al-Qaeda based and inspired terrorism is a declared policy of the U.S. Government. Three key strategic objectives have been identified for accomplishing this: attacking al-Qaeda’s terror network, undermining radicalization and recruitment, and hardening homeland defense. The present monograph proposes a distinct "jihad-realist" approach for undermining radicalization and recruitment to al-Qaeda. First, a brief discussion of six means for ending terrorist organizations is provided. Second, the premises of a jihad-realist approach are described. Third, a jihad-realist shari’a case against al-Qaeda’s terrorism is presented. In conclusion, key assertions are summarized, and several specific policy recommendations offered for …
The Limits Of Control, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Regulation (Discussion), Joshua Hughes
The Limits Of Control, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Regulation (Discussion), Joshua Hughes
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
When we want to solve a problem, we talk about how we might manage or regulate—control it. Control is a a central concept in systems science, along with system, environment, utility, and information. With his information-theoretic Law of Requisite Variety, Ashby proved that to control a system we need as much variability in our regulator as we have in our system (“only variety can destroy variety”), something like a method of control for everything we want to control. For engineered systems, this appears to be the case (at least sometimes). But what about for social systems? Does a group of …
What Makes A Meaningful Universe?, Todd Duncan, James Butler
What Makes A Meaningful Universe?, Todd Duncan, James Butler
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
A common line of thinking says that although we feel subjectively that our thoughts and actions matter in some way, this perception is an illusion. According to this view, an honest look around at the universe shatters this myth and reveals that our lives are ultimately meaningless. If we are to be hard-nosed realists, limiting ourselves to scientific, evidence-based reasoning, then we must accept that human existence is an inconsequential accident of no ultimate significance in the grand scheme of things. Is this attitude really justified by the evidence? We'll explore this question by taking a step back and asking …
Holism And Human History, Martin Zwick
Holism And Human History, Martin Zwick
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
This paper uses a systems-theoretic model to structure an account of human history. According to the model, a process, after its beginning and early development, often reaches a critical stage where it encounters some limitation. If the limitation is overcome, development does not face a comparable challenge until a second critical juncture is reached, where obstacles to further advance are more severe. At the first juncture, continued development requires some complexity-managing innovation; at the second, it needs some event of systemic integration in which the old organizing principle of the process is replaced by a new principle. Overcoming the first …
Reconstructability Analysis Of Elementary Cellular Automata, Martin Zwick, Hui Shi
Reconstructability Analysis Of Elementary Cellular Automata, Martin Zwick, Hui Shi
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
Reconstructability analysis is a method to determine whether a multivariate relation, defined set- or information-theoretically, is decomposable with or without loss (reduction in constraint) into lower ordinality relations. Set-theoretic reconstructability analysis (SRA) is used to characterize the mappings of elementary cellular automata. The degree of lossless decomposition possible for each mapping is more effective than the λ parameter (Walker & Ashby, Langton) as a predictor of chaotic dynamics.
Complete SRA yields not only the simplest lossless structure but also a vector of losses of all decomposed structures, indexed by parameter, τ. This vector subsumes λ, Wuensche’s Z parameter, and Walker …
Criticisms Of Systems Science, Joshua Hughes
Criticisms Of Systems Science, Joshua Hughes
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
A new year often begins with a sense of optimism, but we (ever the contrarians) will begin it with a healthy dose of pessimism. This week's seminar will be a discussion about criticisms of systems science. As Winston Churchill said, "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." Is the systems project in an unhealthy state? Since its emergence in the 1940s and 1950s, a number of people have believed that to be the case, and a few have …
Creating Insanity In Learning Systems: Addressing Ambiguity Effects Of Predicting Non-Linear Continuous Valued Functions With Reconstructabilty Analysis From Large Categorically Valued Input Data Sets, William D. Eisenhauer
Creating Insanity In Learning Systems: Addressing Ambiguity Effects Of Predicting Non-Linear Continuous Valued Functions With Reconstructabilty Analysis From Large Categorically Valued Input Data Sets, William D. Eisenhauer
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
Being told to give two different, and potentially counter, responses to the same stimulus can set up a double bind in humans, leading to a type of insanity. So what how do you deal with it when it comes up quite frequently in modeling through simplification and removal of predictive variables?
In his current dissertation research Ike Eisenhauer is using reconstructability analysis to implement K-System, U-System, and B-System approaches to predict a continuously valued function through discrete categorically valued input variables [e.g. textual data]. One of the key issues is how to address the inability of K-Systems and U-Systems to …
Generalists, Specialists, And The Best Experts: Where Do Systems Thinkers Fit In?, Joshua Hughes
Generalists, Specialists, And The Best Experts: Where Do Systems Thinkers Fit In?, Joshua Hughes
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
GENERALIST / SPECIALIST: A generalist is someone who has studied a little bit of everything, and in the end knows nothing well in particular. By contrast, a specialist is someone who has studied a single subject, and as a consequence does not even know his own subject, because every item of knowledge is related to other components of the whole system. The good scholar or scientist--like the good chef, manager, clinician, or orchestra conductor--is an expert in one field or craft, and knowledgeable in many. Like a mouse, he can explore the details of a terrain; and, like an owl, …