The ideas of cultural-historical psychology have led to a new understanding of the human psyche as developing in the process of the subject acting in social and historical contexts. Such a “non-classical” reinterpretation of psychological concepts should be based on a theoretical and philosophical framework in order to explain genetic sources of these concepts. For this purpose, Il’enkov’s philosophy is of great significance. This is illustrated by discussing a possible cultural-historical understanding of the concept of intelligence.

We describe sets of partial Boolean functions being closed under the operations of superposition. For any class A of total functions we define the set ????(A) consisting of all partial classes which contain precisely the functions of A as total functions. The cardinalities of such sets ????(A) can be finite or infinite. We state some general results on ????(A). In particular, we describe all 30 closed sets of partial Boolean functions which contain all monotone and zero-preserving total Boolean functions.

This article discusses the different meanings of ‘keyword’ and related terms such as ‘keyphrase', ‘descriptor’, ‘index term’, ‘subject heading’, ‘tag’ and ‘n-gram’ and suggests definitions of each of these terms. It further illustrates a classification of keywords, based on how they are produced or who is the actor generating them and present comparison between author-assigned keywords, indexer-assigned keywords and reader-assigned keywords as well as the automatic generation of keywords. The article also considers the functions of keywords including the use of (...) keywords for generating bibliographic indexes. The theoretical view informing the article is that the assignment of a keyword to a text, picture or other document involves an interpretation of the document and an evaluation of the document’s potentials for users. This perspective is important for both manually assigned keywords and for automated generation and is opposed to a strong tendency to consider a set of keywords as ideally presenting one best representation of a document for all requests. (shrink)

A table of contents is a kind of document representation as well as a paratext and a kind of finding device to the document it represents. TOCs are very common in books and some other kinds of documents, but not in all kinds. This article discusses the definition and functions of ToC, normative guidelines for their design, and the history and forms of ToC in different kinds of documents and media. A main part of the article is about the role (...) of ToC in information searching, in current awareness services and as items added to bibliographical records. The introduction and the conclusion focus on the core theoretical issues concerning ToCs. Should they be document-oriented or request-oriented, neutral, or policy-oriented, objective, or subjective? It is concluded that because of the special functions of ToCs, the arguments for the request-oriented view are weaker than they are in relation to indexing and knowledge organization in general. Apart from level of granularity, the evaluation of a ToC is difficult to separate from the evaluation of the structuring and naming of the elements of the structure of the document it represents. (shrink)

Rooftop gardens, rooftop greenhouses and indoor farms have been established or planned by activists and private companies in Berlin. These projects promise to produce a range of goods that could have positive impacts on the urban setting but also carry a number of risks and uncertainties. In this early innovation phase, the relevant stakeholders’ perceptions and social acceptance of ZFarming represent important preconditions for success or failure of the further diffusion of this practice. We used the framework of acceptance to (...) investigate the stakeholders’ attitudes and to identify the key factors that might hinder or promote the introduction of ZFarming. The results are based on an analysis of 38 qualitative interviews conducted with key stakeholders in Berlin. As the results show, major perceived benefits of ZFarming include improved consumer awareness, education, and the creation of experimental spaces. Stakeholders further perceive opportunities for resource savings, new business models, repurposing of abandoned buildings and improved aesthetics. Major perceived risks are associated with growing techniques that are considered “unnatural”, health risks, conflicts with images of traditional agriculture, the rejection of animal production in urban areas, the risk of projects being too expensive and too complex or being implemented too early, i.e. before the mechanisms are fully understood. The analysis further reveals which contextual factors—political, legal, market-related, spatial or societal—might negatively or positively influence ZFarming acceptance. (shrink)

There have been several calls from LIS researchers for practical or applied research not to ignore the epistemological assumptions underlying the systems and artifacts they design lest they showcase only the dominant theory at a given time. Others have also deplored the "epistemological promiscuity" or "eclecticism" of the field, its incessant borrowing of theories and models from elsewhere and the fact that the field has largely neglected the contributions that philosophy and epistemology could have made in its research. This problem (...) raises that of the boundaries of LIS and is all the more troublesome because boundaries between epistemological theories are fuzzy. Indeed, some epistemological theories share the same basic assumptions or are historically derived from one another. Gathering a wide array of acknowledged theorists in philosophy of science and epistemology, this panel aims to examine how research work in the LIS field can clearly articulate the epistemological assumptions underlying that research and under what constraints this can be achieved. The topic is of prime importance to Information studies as a whole and to ASIST as the scientific flag bearer of information scientists worldwide. (shrink)

A citation index is a bibliographic database that provides citation links between documents. The first modern citation index was suggested by the researcher Eugene Garfield in 1955 and created by him in 1964, and it represents an important innovation to knowledge organization and information retrieval. This article describes citation indexes in general, considering the modern citation indexes, including Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Crossref, Dimensions and some special citation indexes and predecessors to the modern citation index like (...) Shepard’s Citations. We present comparative studies of the major ones and survey theoretical problems related to the role of citation indexes as subject access points (SAP), recognizing the implications to knowledge organization and information retrieval. Finally, studies on citation behavior are presented and the influence of citation indexes on knowledge organization, information retrieval and the scientific information ecosystem is recognized. (shrink)

Die biomedizinische Forschung hat ein Kommunikationsproblem. Um die Ergebnisse ihrer Arbeit darzustellen, greifen einzelne Forschergruppen auf unterschiedliche und oft inkompatible Terminologien zurück. Für den Fortschritt der modernen Biomedizin ist die Integration dieser Ergebnisse jedoch unabdingbar.

This article analyzes a developmental tendency of the digital economy, namely the increasingly perspicuous personalization of marketable goods and services. Pro-files of user preferences relevant to consumption, calculated from innumerable traces left in digital space, engender unprecedented ways of addressing potential buyers anticipatorily. Such ways cater to desires of recognition on consumers; and they simulate a benevolent authority shepherding the individual.

The reasons why upland farmerson the Indonesian island of Sulawesi areengaged in a cacao boom and its long termimplications are addressed in the context ofprotected area management regulations, andpolitical and economic conditions inPost-Suharto, Indonesia. In the remote casestudy village of Moa in Central Sulawesi, wefound that while few households cultivatedcacao in the early 1990s, all had planted cacaoby 2000. Furthermore, the vast majoritycultivate cacao in former food-crop focusedswidden fields under full-sun conditions.Farmers cultivate cacao to establish propertyrights in light of a (...) land shortage driven inpart by the prohibition of farming and forestproduct collecting in a nearby national park,and to secure a future source of income, aconcern that has been exacerbated byIndonesia's economic crisis. However,conversion of swidden fields to sun-grown cacaoconstrains future food productionopportunities, increases susceptibility todrought stress and potential soil nutrient andorganic matter losses, and increases householddependence on a commodity that is subject toextreme price volatility. These factors raisesignificant concerns for local food securityand agricultural sustainability. (shrink)

This manuscript seeks to provide a fresh and comprehensive re-interpretation of the ideas of the world-renowned Canadian Political theorist, C.B. Macpherson.

"This manuscript seeks to provide a fresh and comprehensive re-interpretation of the ideas of the world-renowned Canadian Political theorist, C.B. Macpherson."--.

The constructionism is an epistemology that is discussed in several social and educational disciplines. The key thesis is that the human world is based on perception and is a construction of a reality that lies outside of the knowing subject. Everything that can be known of this external reality is created by the observer. The following article describes the tradition of this epistemological position of skepticism and the different perspectives and,,schools" of this constructionist paradigm. Some unsolved questions are discussed, and (...) it is asked whether this paradigm is really new and innovative. The last section concerns the reception of these ideas within the educational sciences and pedagogical practice. (shrink)

In a wide variety of publications,1 Johannes B. Metz programatically represented a new political theology of subject, society, history, and future. This theology participates intensely in the lively, ongoing discourse on the political and theological actuality and significance of the critical theory of society, religion and future set forth by the Marxist, Walter Benjamin.2 The purpose of this study is to illuminate several connections between Benjamin's critical theory and Metz's political theology, particularly with respect to the present stage of development (...) in advanced capitalistic society and to their future. (shrink)

This chapter argues for the History of England’s importance in Hume’s overall achievement. The chapter describes the History’s genesis, reception, methods, and aims. In the role of historian, Hume shared with the ancients the assumption that history is an elevated genre functioning as the “Mistress of Wisdom.” Yet this long work is more notable for historiographical innovation. Like William Robertson and Edward Gibbon, Hume wrote conjectural or philosophical history. Like Machiavelli, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, Hume wrote civil or cultural history, including (...) detailed information on political events, law, commerce, and manners. In a larger sense, the History demonstrates a great philosopher leaving his study to deal with that practical, sometimes intractable world outside the study. A priori reasoning is tested against that a posteriori reality provided by historical evidence. Thus, in writing the History, Hume became an empiricist in an almost literal sense. (shrink)

SAMUEL JOHNSON IS SOMETIMES VIEWED AS A DOGMATIST WHOSE POLEMICAL SUCCESS OWED MORE TO THE THUNDER OF HIS VOICE THAN TO THE SUBTLETY OF HIS ARGUMENTATION. HOWEVER, IN THOSE PASSAGES OF BOSWELL WHICH RECORD JOHNSON’S REACTIONS TO HUME’S SKEPTICISM, JOHNSON DEMONSTRATES A FAMILIARITY WITH HUME’S REASONING AND A FAIRLY DEFT USE OF HUME’S OWN WEAPONS TO OPPOSE HIM. THOUGH BOSWELL SEEMS NOT TO HAVE RECOGNIZED WHAT HIS MENTOR WAS DOING, JOHNSON’S WIT TENDS TO IMPLY THAT WHEN HUME PROFESSED URBANE ALOOFNESS (...) TO THOSE FEARS AND WEAKNESSES WHICH BESET MOST MEN--AN ATTITUDE THAT DISTURBED BOSWELL PROFOUNDLY--HUME HIMSELF HAD BECOME A SELF-INTERESTED EXPLOITER OF THE MIRACULOUS. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) gilt als Entdecker des Orion-Nebels (M42). Als solcher ist er seit neunzig Jahren bekannt. Der französische Astronom und Wissenschaftshistoriker Guillaume Bigourdan zog diesen Schluss aus Aufzeichnungen, die er in Peirescs unveröffentlichtem Journal des observations entdeckt und 1916 veröffentlicht hatte. Demnach soll Peiresc den Orion-Nebel im November 1610 beobachtet haben. Peirescs Zeitgenossen jedoch war diese Beobachtung verborgen geblieben, und niemandem sonst gelang sie so früh nach Einführung des Teleskops. Mittlerweile sind Zweifel an Peirescs Entdeckung (...) angemeldet worden. Die von Bigourdan veröffentlichten Notizen sind bislang keiner eingehenden Prüfung unterzogen worden. Der vorliegende Aufsatz liefert eine neue Transkription sowie erstmals eine Übersetzung der lateinischen Handschrift. Im Vergleich dazu erweist sich die Bigourdansche Edition häufig als nicht korrekt. Peirescs Orion-Bericht, der hier erstmals in Gänze lesbar vorliegt, wirft neue Fragen auf. Denn aus ihm geht nicht hervor, welche Region im Sternbild Orion, welche Sterne und welche Nebelobjekte Peiresc 1610 beobachtete. Die vollständige Lektüre von Peirescs Notizen verlangt nach einer neuen Interpretation seiner Beobachtungen im Sternbild Orion. Nur so ließe sich klären, ob tatsächlich schon Peiresc den Orion-Nebel sehen konnte oder ob womöglich M42 erst später sichtbar wurde. (shrink)