This text provides a generalized framework for understanding how knowledge is developed, acquired, tested, and applied to human affairs, enabling the reader to evaluate and criticize the thinking process.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Exercises
2. The Human Situation and Human Purposes
The Three Prime Purposes
Limits and Possibilities
Exercises
3. The Theory of Knowledge I
Organizing and Generalizing Experience
Exercises
4. The Theory of Knowledge II
Notation
Generating Expectations/Predicting
Controlling Events
Choices
Exercises
5. Description: Inroductory
Description
Exercises
6. Description: Concepts and Indicators
An Illustration of Conceptual Development
Exercises
7. Description: Conceptual Frameworks
Conceptual Frameworks
Exercises
8. Description: Definitions and Measurements
Definitions
Measurements
Exercises
9. Generating Expectations I
Generating Justified Expectations
Predicting with Classifications
Uses and Limitations
Exercises
10. Generating Expectations II
Predicting with Forecasts or Theories
Exercises
11. Controlling Events I
Causality
Preventing/Producing Change
Structures and Process
Imperfections of Fit and the Fudge Factor
Exercises
12. Controlling Events II
Introductory
A Theory of Roasting
Lessons and Implications
Exercises
13. Finding Causes
Mill's Methods: How to Locate Causes
The Five Methods
Exercises
14. Criticizing Theories I
Is the Purpose Valid?
The Diagnosis Problem
A Second Example
Improving Diagnosis
Exercises
15. Criticizing Theories II
Introductory
The Internal Structure of Theories
The Fit to Established Knowledge and History
Experimentation
Exercises
16. Choice: Introductory
Choice and Action
The Critical Focus
Comparison as the Basis for Preference
Exercises
17. Choice: Instruments and Processes
Determining the Options
The Normative Variables
Assigning Priorities
Applying Priorities: Policies
Exercises
18. Choice: What Are the Options?
Projecting the Options
Chain Reactions
The Normative Variables
The Decision Matrix
Exercises
19. The Normative Variables
The Structure of the Normative Variables
Some Applications
Exercises
20. Priorities I
Meaning
Developing Priorities
Exercises
21. Priorities II
Justifying Preferences
Exercises
22. Policies I
Policy: Meaning and Function
Corollaries and Implications
Exercises
23. Policies II
Policy Making
Exercises
24. Propositions and Arguments
Propositions and Arguments
The Constituent Elements of an Argument
An Extended Example
Exercises
25. Creating a Checklist
A Generalized Checklist
Summary Checklist
26. Writing and Reading
Writing
Organization
Some Dos and Don'ts
Parting Advice
27. Critiques
An Illustration: X on Values and Social Inquiry
Bio(s)
Eugene J. Meehan, University of Missouri-St. Louis
