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101 Xu Guangqi (Hsu Kuang-Chhi)
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 1562 Chinad. 1633 China[br]Chinese writer and reporter on agricultural practice.[br]Living during the troubled Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi combined his energy and interest in scientific improvement to develop and strengthen the State: his interest in military technology was used in the formation of the defence of the State, whilst his interest in irrigation and crop husbandry was put to use in programmes of famine relief. He was a friend and protector of the Jesuit community in China, and between 1607 and 1610, when he was forced to absent himself from the political scene, he devoted his time to the study of the irrigation systems practised by the Jesuits, and also the cultivation of new crops.Stimulated by these studies he continued to collect information on agricultural technology even after he returned to political life. In addition he prepared a number of draft texts of an agricultural treatise, which he intended to provide a practical guide to agricultural practice, but which would also give an indication of the solutions to China's economic problems at the time. Despite the fact that he had amassed a huge amount of material, it was left to the Chinese scholar Chen Ziling (Chhen Tzu-Ling) to edit the draft, which was finally published six years after the death of Xu Guangqi in 1633.The treatise, called the Nong Zbeng Quan Shu (Wade-Giles transliteration: Nung Cheng Chhuan Shu), is a massive work quoting from some 299 sources, sometimes verbatim. In addition to parts dealing with husbandry, there are also large sections devoted to rural administration and to the development of rural light industry, as well as to the introduction of cash crops such as cotton. The Ming dynasty fell in 1644, and the policies set out by Xu Guangqi within this treatise were never implemented.[br]Further ReadingF.Bray, Vol. VI. 2 in J.Needham (ed.), Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge (devotes an early chapter to her sources in a comprehensive account of Chinese agriculture).APBiographical history of technology > Xu Guangqi (Hsu Kuang-Chhi)
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102 Intelligence
There is no mystery about it: the child who is familiar with books, ideas, conversation-the ways and means of the intellectual life-before he begins school, indeed, before he begins consciously to think, has a marked advantage. He is at home in the House of intellect just as the stableboy is at home among horses, or the child of actors on the stage. (Barzun, 1959, p. 142)It is... no exaggeration to say that sensory-motor intelligence is limited to desiring success or practical adaptation, whereas the function of verbal or conceptual thought is to know and state truth. (Piaget, 1954, p. 359)ntelligence has two parts, which we shall call the epistemological and the heuristic. The epistemological part is the representation of the world in such a form that the solution of problems follows from the facts expressed in the representation. The heuristic part is the mechanism that on the basis of the information solves the problem and decides what to do. (McCarthy & Hayes, 1969, p. 466)Many scientists implicitly assume that, among all animals, the behavior and intelligence of nonhuman primates are most like our own. Nonhuman primates have relatively larger brains and proportionally more neocortex than other species... and it now seems likely that humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas shared a common ancestor as recently as 5 to 7 million years ago.... This assumption about the unique status of primate intelligence is, however, just that: an assumption. The relations between intelligence and measures of brain size is poorly understood, and evolutionary affinity does not always ensure behavioral similarity. Moreover, the view that nonhuman primates are the animals most like ourselves coexists uneasily in our minds with the equally pervasive view that primates differ fundamentally from us because they lack language; lacking language, they also lack many of the capacities necessary for reasoning and abstract thought. (Cheney & Seyfarth, 1990, p. 4)Few constructs are asked to serve as many functions in psychology as is the construct of human intelligence.... Consider four of the main functions addressed in theory and research on intelligence, and how they differ from one another.1. Biological. This type of account looks at biological processes. To qualify as a useful biological construct, intelligence should be a biochemical or biophysical process or at least somehow a resultant of biochemical or biophysical processes.2. Cognitive approaches. This type of account looks at molar cognitive representations and processes. To qualify as a useful mental construct, intelligence should be specifiable as a set of mental representations and processes that are identifiable through experimental, mathematical, or computational means.3. Contextual approaches. To qualify as a useful contextual construct, intelligence should be a source of individual differences in accomplishments in "real-world" performances. It is not enough just to account for performance in the laboratory. On [sic] the contextual view, what a person does in the lab may not even remotely resemble what the person would do outside it. Moreover, different cultures may have different conceptions of intelligence, which affect what would count as intelligent in one cultural context versus another.4. Systems approaches. Systems approaches attempt to understand intelligence through the interaction of cognition with context. They attempt to establish a link between the two levels of analysis, and to analyze what forms this link takes. (Sternberg, 1994, pp. 263-264)High but not the highest intelligence, combined with the greatest degrees of persistence, will achieve greater eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with somewhat less persistence. (Cox, 1926, p. 187)There are no definitive criteria of intelligence, just as there are none for chairness; it is a fuzzy-edged concept to which many features are relevant. Two people may both be quite intelligent and yet have very few traits in common-they resemble the prototype along different dimensions.... [Intelligence] is a resemblance between two individuals, one real and the other prototypical. (Neisser, 1979, p. 185)Given the complementary strengths and weaknesses of the differential and information-processing approaches, it should be possible, at least in theory, to synthesise an approach that would capitalise upon the strength of each approach, and thereby share the weakness of neither. (Sternberg, 1977, p. 65)Historical dictionary of quotations in cognitive science > Intelligence
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103 Logical Positivism
There have been many opponents of metaphysics from the Greek sceptics to the empiricists of the nineteenth century. Criticisms of very diverse kinds have been set forth. Many have declared that the doctrine of metaphysics is false, since it contradicts our empirical knowledge. Others have believed it to be uncertain, on the ground that its problems transcend the limits of human knowledge. Many anti-metaphysicians have declared that occupation with metaphysical questions is sterile. Whether or not these questions can be answered, it is at any rate unnecessary to worry about them; let us devote ourselves entirely to the practical tasks which confront active men every day of their lives!The development of modern logic has made it possible to give a new and sharper answer to the question of the validity and justification of metaphysics. The researchers of applied logic or the theory of knowledge, which aim at clarifying the cognitive content of scientific statements and thereby the meanings of the terms that occur in the statements, by means of logical analysis, lead to a positive and to a negative result. The positive result is worked out in the domain of empirical science; the various concepts of the various branches of science are clarified; their formal, logical and epistemological connections are made explicit.In the domain of metaphysics, including all philosophy of value and normative theory, logical analysis yields the negative result that the al leged statements in this domain are entirely meaningless. Therewith a radical elimination of metaphysics is attained, which was not yet possible from the earlier anti-metaphysical standpoints. (Carnap, 1959, p. 60)Historical dictionary of quotations in cognitive science > Logical Positivism
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104 environmental awareness
осведомленность о состоянии окружающей среды
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[ http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/alphabetic?langcode=en]EN
environmental awareness
The growth and development of awareness, understanding and consciousness toward the biophysical environment and its problems, including human interactions and effects. Thinking "ecologically" or in terms of an ecological consciousness. (Source: UNUN)
[http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/alphabetic?langcode=en]Тематики
EN
DE
FR
осведомлённость о проблемах окружающей среды
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[А.С.Гольдберг. Англо-русский энергетический словарь. 2006 г.]Тематики
EN
Англо-русский словарь нормативно-технической терминологии > environmental awareness
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105 project report
отчет по проекту
Отчетный документ (или набор отчетных документов для предоставления на разные уровни), в частности содержащий информацию о статусе выполнения запланированных работ и освоению бюджета, оперативные планы на будущий отчетный период, список открытых вопросов (рисков, проблем, предложенных изменений). Формируется на регулярной основе.
[Департамент лингвистических услуг Оргкомитета «Сочи 2014». Глоссарий терминов]EN
project report
Accounting document (or a package of them for submitting to various levels) containing among other things information on planned works progress and budget development, short-time plans for a current accounting period, list of open issues (risks, problems, proposed changes). Project report is developed on a regular basis.
[Департамент лингвистических услуг Оргкомитета «Сочи 2014». Глоссарий терминов]Тематики
EN
Англо-русский словарь нормативно-технической терминологии > project report
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