Curiosity and Acquaintance: Ways of Knowing

Curiosity has rightly received much attention in epistemology and educational research. Although, through the centuries, it has been regarded with a degree of ambivalence, the trend now is towards its championing as an intellectual or epistemic virtue. The present discussion juxtaposes it against a contrasting way of knowing, which I refer to as knowledge by acquaintance. The notion of acquaintance pursued here parts company with Bertrand Russell's adoption of the expression, taking up instead a more ordinary use of the term. It is suggested that both curiosity and knowledge by acquaintance can present problems. Working through an example drawn from Stephen Poliakoff's film Close My Eyes, the paper seeks to reappraise the value of knowing by acquaintance for epistemology and for educational practice and research.     

Recollecting R.S. Peters: Four Essays and a Supplement

This short text provides an introduction to the five papers that follow, all of which reflect on R.S. Peters, his founding importance for contemporary philosophy of education, and his continuing relevance. It sets the scene by referring to Peters’ early and important encounter with Israel Scheffler before going on briefly to acknowledge other work published over the past decade that examines Peters’ achievement. In addition, it explains the background to the fifth paper in this suite. This is Ieuan Lloyd's record, posthumously published, of conversations about the philosophy of education with Rush Rhees, in which Peters’ work is considered.     

Urn Models and Kompeitoh: an Industrial Application

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

The teaching of probability theory and statistics to engineering students should contain non-trivial real life examples of how randomness enters complex modelling. The present paper contains such an example in the form of the sugar-candy (Kompeitoh) process. It is shown how ideas from urn modelling are relevant. The final solution is a combination of analytic theory and simulation methodology.

Der Unterricht in Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie und Statistik für Ingenieurstudenten soil nicht-triviale Beispiele aus dem wirklichen Leben enthalten und zeigen, wie der Zufall in komplexe Modelle einbezogen werden kann. Die vorliegende Arbeit enthält ein solches Beispiel in Form eines Kandiszuckers (Kompeitoh) Prozesses. Es wird gezeigt, wieweit das Urnenmodell hier angewendet werden kann. Die Lösung ist eine Kombination von analytischer Theorie und Simulationsmethodologie.     

The Supervision of Doctoral Dissertations Using a Collaborative Cohort Model

The Collaborative Cohort Model (CCM) for research supervision was developed and piloted as an alternative to the Apprentice Master Model (AMM), which is currently used with most doctoral dissertations. The CCM was developed in response to concerns about completion rates and the quality of research supervision. The feedback from the initial cohort of doctoral students who have experienced the model is presented.