1,721,008 research outputs found
<Memorial Articles>The Use of Subjective Probability in the IPCC Reports and Translucent-Boxing
No full textIn the IPCC assessment reports on climate change, the authors use language of confidence and likelihood in the main conclusions such as whether global warming is progressing or whether the warming is caused by human influences. The usage of such language has been scrutinized in detail and every assessment report adds some sophistication in the language. As to likelihood, qualitative expressions like ‘virtually certain’ are accompanied by numeral interpretations like ‘99-100 percent’. This case is very interesting in that scientists themselves seem to express subjective probability consciously. One of the reasons why such language is called for is that the IPCC assessment reports are intended for non-experts, rather than experts inside of the research community. In this paper, I examine the relationship between confidence and likelihood in IPCC assessment reports and what Bayesian philosophers has called subjective probability. Then, I propose the notion of ‘translucent-boxing’ as a role of such subjective probability language in science communication. At the end of the paper, I also make proposal for a better language of confidence and likelihood in IPCC assessment reports from this point of view
<Editorial>On Passing Away of Professor Kazuyuki Ito and the Memorial Issue of This Journal
No full textIndependence and Autonomy of Engineers: From the viewpoint of profession studies
Get PDF 京都大学吉田キャンパス総合研究11号館, 12月13日(土) 13:00〜17:30, テーマ「技術倫理」In this paper, we take up the issue of the institutional backgrounds required for conscientious engineers to act ethically. Two keywords used in this context are 'independence' and 'autonomy' (both of which are pronounced as 'Jiritsu' in Japanese, with different Chinese characters). We elaborate these notions using insights from professional ethics and sociology of professions
What is the desirable relationship between humans and animals? : elaborating the idea of animal welfare
Get PDFIs a fruitful integration of STS and critical thinking education possible?
Get PDFIn this paper, I propose to integrate two developing subjects of humanities education, namely Critical Thinking (CT) and Science, Technology and Society (STS). The two educational subjects have some motivations in common (such as fostering critical attitude and understanding science and technology), but there are aspects in which they do not fit together well. For example, the deficit model of communication is accused in STS, but the main mode of education in CT is actually based on the model. To solve the problem, I introduce a series of conceptual devices (such as 'bilateral CT model' and 'meta CT') that help the integration of two subjects. I also briefly propose a concrete model of education, namely debate-induced CT education, which naturally integrates CT and STS
How should we teach the Ford Pinto case?
Get PDFフォード・ピントの設計上の欠陥の事例は, その設計のもとになったとされる非倫理的計算を示す「ピント・メモ」とともに, 日本の技術者倫理教科書の中で頻繁に言及されてきた. しかし、この事例についての「通説」には多くの不正確な点があり, とりわけ, 「ピント・メモ」は実はピントの設計に直接は関係しない文書であることが分かっている. この問題についての注意喚起はすでになされているが, 技術者倫理教育コミュニティの反応はそれほど敏感とはいえない. 本論文では「通説」の不正確な部分をより一次資料に近い文献をもとに確認するとともに, 現行の技術者倫理教科書でこの事例がどのように扱われているか, 具体的に検討し, 分類する. さらに, 現行のさまざまな取り上げ方に長短があることを踏まえ, 本論文で「フィクション派」と名付ける, 別の取り上げ方を提案する
Is Whig history inadnlissible?
Get PDFThis paper surveys the discussions on a Whig historiography in history of science, and proposed a more contextualized treatment of the issue. Since the mid-60s. a Whig historiography. i.e. reconstructing the history as a progress toward the present, has been accused as a wrong way of writing history. However, subsequent discussions of the issue, especially by David Hull and Stephen Brush, tend to allow a certain amount of presentism, i.e. writing history from the point of view of the present. What is needed is a clarification of various different types of prcsentism, and I propose four of them (perspective, negative, positive and evaluative). Some authors also suggest that Whig historiography is OK for historical writings by scientists themselves. Even though such context sensitivity is reasonable, the transcontextuality of written works makes it hard to pigeonhole various contexts if the case of history-of-science writings
科学コミュニケーションとしてのクリティカルシンキング教育(Session 6:教育の改革に向けて,京都大学基礎物理学研究所研究会「科学としての科学教育」,研究会報告)
Get PDFこの論文は国立情報学研究所の電子図書館事業により電子化されました
Fictions as Arguments
No full textシンポジウム「事実と虚構」Critical thinking is a skill to critically examine arguments, i.e. claims with reasons. The typical object of critical thinking is factual claims or value judgements; fictional works like novels, movies and mangas are not within usual scope of such examination. This is understandable because it does not make much sense to ask the validity of factual statements in fictional works. However, there are other types of fictions that need to be critically examined; namely, so-called fake news. This paper tries to offer an integrated account of critical examination of fictions utilizing Grice's principle of cooperation. This paper regards fictional works and fake news as two subcategories of fiction. Fictions are defined as a storytelling where the sender of the story is aware that the story does not correspond with the reality. The difference between fictional works and fake news is the format of the information; while fictional works are sent in a format that signals the work is a work of fiction for aesthetic appreciation, fake news have apparently similar formats as other factual information. These two types of fiction can be the subject of critical thinking in two ways; As claims themselves, and as arguments that lead to implicit claims. The latter type of understanding is implicit when we call certain films as ‘anti-war films’; the claim that war is bad or something is implicit in such films and the events in the film serve as grounds for such a claim somehow. We can use Grice’s theory to reveal such an implicit claim behind a fictional work. By comparing fictional works and fake news, we can also analyze more deeply what is wrong with fake news
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