...A profitable $200 million company with 100-plus stores on both sides of the Tasman, clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson knows more than most about what it takes to prosper in the pressure cooker business of retailing. IT and retailing is a potentially volatile mix. Multiple retail outlets require point of sale (POS) systems that can handle customer peaks and troughs and an army of system users. There is significant potential for both operator error and systems downtime. The company had rolled out a new POS system to its network of stores, but wanted to centralise support and ‘cookie cut’ IT. If each store could use identical systems then support and maintenance would be simpler and largely troublefree. Graeme Popplewell, finance director, Hallenstein Glasson Holdings, says his interest in outsourcing the management and support of the group’s trans-Tasman POS and back office systems was its criticality to business and the knowledge and resources a specialist provider could bring to the job. “Outsourcing is really horses for courses. If were to handle our own helpdesk that’s a seven days a week affair and you really have to be able to over-staff to manage it correctly. The job was ideally suited to someone with a depth of IT resource,” he says. Paramount was speed of issue resolution. He didn’t want his stores exposed when things went wrong. Rather than relying on the availability of key staff and ongoing staff training, Popplewell wanted to identically...
Words: 564 - Pages: 3
...philosophers and other scientists have created several theories about the economy. Many of them tried to convince others with their subjective view on this area of interest. Among them there were several great scientists who created a widely discussion among their fellow scientists because they really added something to the endless discussion: “what is this thing called science” Karl Popper was one of them; he was known for ruthlessly attacking the logical positivism supporters. He even took responsibility for the collapse of the Vienna Circle. In short he stated that observations only became valuable if there were previously marked observations. Those previously discovered observations were created and viewed through people’s eyes and therefore science was “peoples work” and people are fallible creatures thus subjective.[1] Over the years many of them supported Popper while many others heavily discussed his opinion. In this essay we will discuss another view of Popper and we try to reflect it on today’s International Business. We will discuss an example and in the end we will try to see if we support Poppers view or not. Popper’s Falsificationism Claim associated especially with Austrian philosopher Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) that science should aim not to verify or confirm hypotheses - as verificationists and inductivists in general claim - but to falsify them. Even more important is the possibility to falsify certain...
Words: 888 - Pages: 4
...Fallacy Summaries with Examples Name: Institution: Fallacy Summaries with Examples Appeal to Authority The fallacy of appeal to authority also referred to as the Fallacious Appeal to Authority, irrelevant Authority or Ad Vercundiam takes the following form, the first person is claimed to be an authority on subject S and hence makes a claim C about subject S hence making C true. The fallacy is mostly committed when the individual in question is not a lawful authority on the subject. This implies that if an individual A does not merit making reliable claims on a subject B, the argument becomes fallacious. The reasoning becomes fallacious when the individual under focus is not necessarily an expert hence the given cases makes the reasoning flawed since there is no justification for the claim since an unauthorized person made the claim. In the event that a person falls prey to the fallacy, then it implies that the individual is accepting a claim as being true in the absence of adequate evidence to do so. Additionally, the individual accepting the claim does so erroneously on belief that the individual making the claim is an expert which implies that the claim is reasonable to accept. Example 1 An argument about the morality of abortion Individual A: I strongly believe in abortion as being morally acceptable simply because a woman aught to have a right over her own body. Individual B: I strongly disagree. Findings from numerous medical researches say that abortion is morally...
Words: 1757 - Pages: 8
...Chapter 8 Logical Positivism I want neither that plutocracy grasping and mean, nor that democracy goody and mediocre, occupied solely in turning the other cheek, where would dwell sages without curiosity, who, shunning excess, would not die of disease, but would surely die of ennui. — Poincar´ (quoted in Runes, ToP, p. 966) e Science itself, therefore, may be regarded as a minimal problem, consisting of the completest possible presentment of facts with the least possible expenditure of thought. — Mach (Newman, WM, Vol. 3, p. 1792) 8.1 Historical Background In this chapter we will look at logical positivism, the most influential phi- Logical Analysis losophy of science in the twentieth century. In spite of the fact that logical positivism has been abandoned by most philosophers of science, its influence continues in many disciplines, including physics, linguistics and psychology. We will be especially concerned with logical positivism’s view of knowledge, which is, roughly: (1) the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge; (2) by a process of logical analysis scientific knowledge can be reduced to symbolic formulas constructed from “atomic facts.” Certainly assertion (1) is nothing new; Socrates said as much when he distinguished “scientific knowledge” 303 304 Empiricism Anglo-American Roots Continental Roots Auguste Comte: 1798–1857 CHAPTER 8. LOGICAL POSITIVISM (episteme) from a “practice” (empeiria); see Section 2.4.3. Furthermore...
Words: 10216 - Pages: 41
...INTRODUCTION The article “Marketing: philosophy of science and “epistobabble warfare” is a commentary by the author Michel Rod published as a qualitative research in an International Journal, Vol. 12 Iss. 2, pp. 120- 129. Throughout the article Rod articulated his viewpoints on the variety of philosophies involved in legitimizing the science of marketing research and sought to establish his own perspective of what he actually believes marketing research should accomplish. This was stated in his thesis statement that: “Rather than argue one particular perspective, it is this paper’s central thesis that no one philosophical perspective does or should have a monopoly on what makes a useful contribution to our understanding of marketing phenomena. “ Consequently, what Rod proposes is that rather than trying to establish an allegiance to any one particular philosophy one should be free to research, understand and articulate all the questions and results that can ‘contribute meaningful information to the study of marketing phenomena’. In other words, whilst Rod understands that a philosophy might be needed to establish foundations of ontology and epistemology to determine the methodology (POEM): - * Type of questions or problem one attempts to answer in their research * The manner in which these questions should be posed…. * The best methodological approach to shed some light on the particular question(s) being posed or the phenomenon of interest being investigated...
Words: 1353 - Pages: 6
...Master List of Logical Fallacies Fallacies are fake or deceptive arguments, arguments that prove nothing. Fallacies often seem superficially sound, and far too often have immense persuasive power, even after being clearly exposed as false. Fallacies are not always deliberate, but a good scholar’s purpose is always to identify and unmask fallacies in arguments. Ad Hominem Argument: Also, "personal attack," "poisoning the well." The fallacy of attempting to refute an argument by attacking the opposition’s personal character or reputation, using a corrupted negative argument from ethos. E.g., "He's so evil that you can't believe anything he says." See also Guilt by Association. Also applies to cases where potential opposing arguments are brushed aside without comment or consideration, as simply not worth arguing about. Appeal to Closure. The contemporary fallacy that an argument, standpoint, action or conclusion must be accepted, no matter how questionable, or else the point will remain unsettled and those affected will be denied "closure." This refuses to recognize the truth that some points will indeed remain unsettled, perhaps forever. (E.g., "Society would be protected, crime would be deterred and justice served if we sentence you to life without parole, but we need to execute you in order to provide some sense of closure.") (See also "Argument from Ignorance," "Argument from Consequences.") Appeal to Heaven: (also Deus Vult, Gott...
Words: 4282 - Pages: 18
...Use of Information Search Techniques and Tools on Web By Prof. A. B. Bhosle* A university, a college or an institution of higher learning is rightly described as community where teachers and scholars are the head, students are the body and the library is it’s heart. If the body is to perform its function properly and efficiently its hearth must be well maintained and strong in its functioning. Thomas Carlyle was not exaggerating when he described a ‘true university as a collection of books’.[1] The library is obviously the source of power of knowledge. In higher education and research, the use of library is a matter of concerns to students, teachers, and researchers. The exponential growth of literature often creates problems for them to access appropriate literature and their use. The problem has, however, considerably been resolved with the help of information and communication technology (ICT). The use of information technology for management and handling of information and data has grown significantly even in many least-developed countries, despite their economic constraints. The use of information technology in libraries has been profoundly affecting all aspects of information acquisition, storage, and transfer. Its magnificent development has dramatically changed the mode of library operations and information services; we have now started to speak of a new type of information source, ‘knowledge base’.[2] Computer-based communications have not only widened...
Words: 2293 - Pages: 10
...feel holds a particular importance to me reports on the subject of outsourcing manufacturing of goods by American companies and is written by Roger Pol. In this paper I will attempt to disprove Pol’s (2011) article, “China Is Not the Biggest Threat to American Manufacturing”, by scrutinizing the reliability, credibility, and validity of the author and underlining logical fallacies. Providing facts from credible sources to validate that outsourcing by large corporations are causing damage to the American economy, not laws designed to protect employees and the environment. Facts and Credibility The opposing viewpoint article states that Roger (Pol) is a lifelong entrepreneur and the founder of the World Distance Learning Institute. Pol (2011) insists that the United States government is to blame for companies relocating their manufacturing to China. With a brief description of his past business venture, Pol (2011) describes his attempt to open a carbon fiber manufacturing plant and insists that it is impossible for small businesses to begin with “all of the bureaucratic red tape” therefore, forcing them to take business to other countries. Gregory Mankiw (2006), an expert from the Department of Economics at Harvard University, states that the main reasons that most companies relocate work to foreign countries include; avoiding taxes to produce more profit, the low cost of labor, and the overabundance of highly educated and skilled workers that reside abroad. Pol (2011) states...
Words: 702 - Pages: 3
...observation, empirical evidence or it is a tautology as these are non-cognitive. This was devised by logical positivists who said the evidence that we obtain from our senses is the highest form of evidence and with logic, it is the only real knowledge. They believed that philosophers had no business to say anything about the world and any questions should be answered by science. The movement of verificationism was influenced largely by science, and stressed the importance of confirming any statement with evidence, especially that from the senses. One of logical positivisms presuppositions is that ‘language mirrors the world’, if a statement could not be observed to be true with empirical sense evidence then it is factually meaningless. Verificationists and logical positivists do not have a particularly high opinion of religious claims of God, worldly knowledge or anything beyond our experience. For a verificationist or those such as Moritz and Schlick, language tells us something about the way the world is, and the way a statement becomes meaningful is shown in the method of its verification, therefore language that talks about God is utterly meaningless, it has no meaning in a factual sense since it cannot be backed up by sense evidence and it is not a tautology. All “knowledge” that cannot be verified using the verification principle such as metaphysical speculation should according to logical positivists should be abandoned. They also believed that religion was a system of belief which...
Words: 1187 - Pages: 5
...DIALOG The Dialog service is the world's most comprehensive online information Retrieval service and has been serving users since 1972. With over 600 databases from a broad range of disciplines, Dialog provides international access to information in a broad scope of subject areas. The volume of data available combined with the system's searching capabilities make Dialog the largest and most powerful online service of its type. The Dialog content collection contains hundreds of databases comprised of millions of documents drawn from a multitude of sources. Dialog brings you scientific and technical literature; full-text trade journals, newspapers and newswires; details on millions of chemical substances; information on patents and trademarks issued worldwide; demographic data; and company financial statistics. Accessing Dialog. All Dialog Command Language interfaces are accessible via the Internet using TCP/IP protocols, most commonly using: A Web browser. Internet Explorer 5.X or higher or Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher are recommended. Internet access is available at the desktop in most businesses and academic institutions. Internet Service Providers (ISP) also provides Internet access for a fee by means of a telephone dial-up connection, DSL broadband cable, or wireless service. In addition to Internet access, you will also need a valid user account for Dialog. Each account is assigned User ID and password that are required in order to log on to the service. Institutions...
Words: 2834 - Pages: 12
...Click a fallacy on the left and drag it over to the correct example on the right. Repeat until all fallacies are correctly matched with their corresponding examples. Congratulations! You have completed this activity. Apple Polishing Of course, Cory, a generous, kind and giving brother, would let us play with his racetrack. Ad Hominem Todd agrees with the referee's call and says the referee made a good decision when he called the pass incomplete; however, this cannot be considered true because Todd is the head coach for the opposing team. Two Wrongs Make a Right On the way to his car, George noticed he was not charged for his second gallon of milk. He decides not to return to the store because if he had overpaid on the item, the store would not have returned his money. Slippery Slope If I do not pass Critical Thinking, I will not be able to move to the next course. If I do not move to the next course, I probably will not be able to continue in school, and if I do not continue in school, I will not earn my degree. Straw Man We might as well forget what Bishop Simon has to say about abortion and ethics. After all, he is a Catholic bishop so it is natural he would have those views. Begging the Question Critical Thinking must be a difficult class because Andrea said so. Red Herring I know you didn't get all your homework done because the Internet is out. But, if you had done the work days ago, you wouldn't be worried now. Appeal to Popularity I read the other day that...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...UNDERSTANDING BOOLEAN LOGIC AND ITS APPLICATIONS In the 1800’s (1815-1864), George Boole, a English mathematician who did extensive work in the subject of logic, invented a system of mathematics in which the abstract concepts of true and false can be used in computations. In an attempt to create a new form of mathematics, Mr. Boole identified certain patterns of logic that were later found to be easily translated into an electronic language—essentially, a "switchon/switchoff" pattern. Today, using tiny electronic switching mechanisms inside the computer, "decisions" are made with lightning speed within the central processing unit (CPU). These decisions are based on whether a tiny switch is on or off at any given time. Computer programmers follow prescribed sets of instructions to "teach" computers how to make decisions to carry out instructions. Programming is made possible by sets of instructions called languages. Many of these languages are made up of the logic building blocks identified by Mr. Boole more than 100 years ago, long before computers. The building blocks that Mr. Boole identified are AND logic, OR logic, NOT logic, NAND logic, and NOR logic. Computer decisions are made from these patterns of logic. All programming languages allow you to create expressions that can be evaluated as either true or false, which are called Boolean expressions. A Boolean condition is a conditional statement containing a Boolean expression, and another name for a conditional...
Words: 703 - Pages: 3
...this paper I want to address the coincidence of two powerful cultural forces of the early 20th century: modernist design in architecture and the philosophy of logical empiricism. This coincidence is most dramatically represented in the connection between two groups, who have each had powerful cultural influence in this century: The Bauhaus (1919 - 1933: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago) The “Vienna Circle” (1922 - 1938: Vienna, Amsterdam. The former became the premier school of modernist design, and contained as faculty many of the most influential artists, designers and architects of the century. The Vienna Circle was a group consisting mostly of non-philosophers, who met weekly for discussion of philosophical issues. These informal meetings brought about the birth of logical empiricism, a movement which set the agenda for philosophy in America after the second world war. Herbert Feigl, Otto Neurath and Rudolph Carnap, central participants in the Vienna Circle, gave public lectures at the Bauhaus beginning in summer of 1929, when the Bauhaus was in Dessau under the leadership in Hannes Meyer. Their influence was sufficiently strong that logical empiricist philosophy became part of the standard curriculum of the school. A second very clear connection between modernist architecture and logical empiricism is the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Although Wittgenstein was not a licenced, practicing architect, he oversaw the construction of one of the most...
Words: 3702 - Pages: 15
...Week 1 Textbook Exercises Jessica Pollock MTH/221 October 28, 2013 Leslie Fife Week 1 Textbook Exercises Chapter 1 Supplementary Exercises #7. There are 12 men at a dance. (a) In how many ways can eight of them be selected to form a cleanup crew? Order does not matter Cannot repeat N = 12 R = 8 (b) How many ways are there to pair off eight women at the dance with eight of these 12 men? Order does matter Cannot repeat N = 12 R = 8 Exercises 2.1 #3 Let p,q be primitive statements for which the implication is false. Determine the truth values for each of the following. a. = false True and false b. = false not true or false c. = true False implies true d. = false Not false implies not true Exercises 2.2 #17 For any statements p,q, prove that a. P | q | | | | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | b. p | q | | | | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Exercises 2.3 #1 The following are three valid arguments. Establish the validity of each by means of a truth table. In each case, determine which rows of the table are crucial for assessing the validity of the argument and which rows can be ignored. a. P | Q | R` | | | | | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1...
Words: 844 - Pages: 4
...AO1 Candidates may begin with an account of the work of the Logical Positivists, possibly even giving an account of the forming of the Vienna Circle and the writings which led these philosophers to come together. Some may mention Wittgenstein’s Tractatus but they should be aware that he was not himself a member of the Circle. This may lead to an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of the Verification Principle, with some demonstration of the self-refuting nature of the principle itself. Some may use examples from religious language of the kinds of statements which the Vienna circle were accusing of meaninglessness such as; ‘God is all-loving, all powerful, your God is a jealous God.’ Some candidates may take their arguments towards an explanation of the later writings of Wittgenstein and introduce the ideas of language games; and his claim that language gets its meaning from the context in which it is used or the rules of the game you are playing at any given time. Others may explore the approach taken by the Vienna Circle to analytic and synthetic statements, explaining the need for synthetic statements to be verifiable by empirical evidence if they were to be considered meaningful. In this context some may address the issue of strong and weak verification. AO2 In their evaluation candidates may assess the underlying assumption of Logical Positivism that it is only scientific propositions which can accurately describe the reality of our world. Arguably not religious...
Words: 367 - Pages: 2
