Meaning Criteria

This book aims to provide an in-depth understanding of linguistic meaning, a central theme in twentieth-century philosophy, and its various connections with criteria. Part I examines four major recent theories of meaning, linguistic rules and conventions, and practices. In Part II, after an extended analysis of the concept of criterion against the backdrop of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and the post-Wittgenstein period, various connections between criteria and meaning are revealed in relation to both non-evaluative and evaluative concepts. The last chapter details various sorts of error and confusion in a host of important philosophical views resulting from an improper understanding of criteria, conditions, and evidence.

First published in 2000. This is Volume V of eight in the Library of Philosophy series on the Philosophy of Mind and Language. Written in 1957, this book enquires how we use language as an instrument of reason, and whether our present use of it is efficient. The use of language for communication is treated as subsidiary.

Truth: Its criteria and conditions is an in-depth critical-and-constructive inquiry in almost equal measure. The theories of the nature of empirical truth critically considered include two forms of the traditional correspondence theory; truth as appraisal; truth as identity of proposition and truth; en emotive theory of truth; P.F. Strawson’s performative theory, and N. Rescher’s novel theory of a coherentist criterion of truth. The constructive parts include an analysis of the concept of “a fact,” the meaning and uses of ‘true’ and ‘false’ in empirical statements, together with the various sorts of conditions for their correct application; the appraisive/evaluative uses of true and false statements; and the performative-cum-cognitive uses of ‘true’ empirical statements; and the conditions of the performative uses of ‘true.’ A significant claim about the concept of truth is its indefinablity; albeit for quite different reasons from Gottlob Frege’s reason based on his argument against the correspondence theory of truth.

This book provides a systematic way of how to make better decisions in water resources management. The applications of three weighting methods namely rating, ranking, and ratio are discussed in this book. Additionally, data mining on keywords is presented using three popular scholarly databases: Science Direct, Scopus, and SciVerse. Four abbreviated keywords (MCDM, MCDA, MCA, MADM) representing multi-criteria decision-making were used and these three databases were searched for different popular weighting methods for a period of 13 years (2000-2012). The book provides also a review of weighting methods applied in various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and also presents survey results on priority ranking of watershed management criteria undertaken by 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

In many schools and higher education institutions it has become common practice to share assessment criteria with students. Sometimes it is required for accountability purposes, at other times criteria are used as a means to communicate expectations to students. However, the idea that explicit assessment criteria should be shared with students has been contested. On the one hand, research has shown that explicit criteria may positively affect student performance, reduce their anxiety, as well as support students’ use of self-regulated learning strategies. On the other hand, there are fears that explicit criteria may have a restraining influence on students’ learning, as well as limiting their autonomy and creativity. There are also indications of students becoming more performance oriented, as opposed to learning oriented, when being provided with explicit assessment criteria. Taken together, it is not fully understood under which circumstances it is productive for student learning to share explicit assessment criteria, and under which circumstances it is not. In particular, empirical research on the proposed negative effects of sharing criteria with learners is limited and most fears voiced in the literature are based on individual experiences and anecdotal evidence. In this book, we therefore bring different perspectives on transparency in assessment together, in order to further our understanding of how students are influenced by the use of explicit assessment criteria. A deeper understanding of the influence of explicit assessment criteria on students’ understanding of criteria, motivation, and learning is equally imperative for future research and educational practice, both of which need to go beyond individual opinions and convictions.

“Scientific Studies on the Work of the ‘Haus der kleinen Forscher’ Foundation” is a regularly published series of scientific reports authored by distinguished experts from the field of early education. This series serves to pursue professional dialogue between the Foundation, academia and practice, with the aim of lending sound support to all child-care centres, after-school care centres and primary schools in Germany in their educational mission. This ninth volume of the series, with a foreword by Ilan Chabay, deals with the goals and requirements of computer science education in the elementary and primary sector. In their expert report, Nadine Bergner, Hilde Köster, Johannes Magenheim, Kathrin Müller, Ralf Romeike, Ulrik Schroeder and Carsten Schulte specify the pedagogical and content-related goal dimensions of computer science education at child-care centres and primary schools. In addition to establishing a theoretical basis for various goal dimensions, the authors discuss the success criteria for effective and efficient early computer science education in practice. They also provide recommendations for the further development of the Foundation’s offerings and scientific accompaniment of the work of the Foundation in the field of computer science. In their expert recommendation, Nadine Bergner and Kathrin Müller describe a selection of informatics systems for children at child-care centres and primary schools and offer suggestions for particularly suitable systems and their use in elementary and primary education based on professional criteria. The final chapter of the volume describes the implementation of these professional recommendations in the programmes of the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” Foundation – with and without computers.

One of the main novelties of this book is its establishment of a clear relationship between social and public choice on one hand and multiple criteria decision analysis on the other. This relationship leads to the new concept of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE). SMCE is proposed as a policy framework to integrate different scientific languages, for example, when concerns about civil society and future generations have to be considered along with policy imperatives and market conditions.