This anthology is devoted to the implications of necessary conditions for social science research, logic, methodology, research design, and theory. Rarely is the contrast between the prevalence of a concept in scholarship and its absence in methodology texts so wide. This book presents hundreds of necessary condition hypotheses representing all areas of political science and all methodologies, and authored by many of the most influential political scientists of the last 50 years. This volume brings together under one cover essential work that deals not only with the analysis of common methodological, logical, and research design errors, but also the proper means to analyse the many ramifications of necessary condition hypotheses and theories.

Necessary Conditions of Learning presents a research approach (phenomenography) and a theory (the variation theory of learning) introduced and developed by Ference Marton and taken up by his wide and varied following around the world—together with their practical applications in educational contexts. Reflecting Marton’s whole lifetime's work, the unique and significant contribution of this book is to offer an evidence-based answer to the questions "How do we make novel meanings our own?" and "How do we learn to see things in more powerful ways?" The presentation makes use of hundreds of empirical studies carried out in Europe and Asia which build on the theory. The line of reasoning and the way in which the examples are put together is consistent with the theory—it is both presented and applied. The main argument is that in order to learn we have to discern, and to discern the intended ideas we must be presented with carefully structured variation, against a background of invariance. We then go through processes of contrast, generalization, and fusion in order to make sense. These insights form a practical framework for those who design teaching and teaching materials. Necessary Conditions of Learning is a major original work for which scholars of pedagogical theory have been waiting a long time.

A monograph that derives necessary conditions of optimality for a general control problem formulated in terms of a differential inclusion. It expresses The Euler, Weierstrass and transversality conditions.

This book presents a theory of necessary conditions for an extremum, including formal conditions for an extremum and computational methods. It states the general results of the theory and shows how these results can be particularized to specific problems.

The present book is the outcome of efforts to introduce topological connectedness as one of the basic tools for the study of necessary conditions for an extremum. Apparently this monograph is the first book in the theory of maxima and minima where topological connectedness is used so widely for this purpose. Its application permits us to obtain new results in this sphere and to consider the classical results from a nonstandard point of view. Regarding the style of the present book it should be remarked that it is comparatively elementary. The author has made constant efforts to make the book as self-contained as possible. Certainly, familiarity with the basic facts of topology, functional analysis, and the theory of optimization is assumed. The book is written for applied mathematicians and graduate students interested in the theory of optimization and its applications. We present the synthesis of the well known Dybovitskii'-Milyutin ap proach for the study of necessary conditions for an extremum, based on functional analysis, and topological methods. This synthesis allows us to show that in some cases we have the following important result: if the Euler equation has no non trivial solution at a point of an extremum, then some inclusion is valid for the functionals belonging to the dual space. This general result is obtained for an optimization problem considered in a lin ear topological space. We also show an application of our result to some problems of nonlinear programming and optimal control.

Part of SAGE′s Mastering Business Research Methods series, conceived and edited by Bill Lee, Mark N. K. Saunders and Vadake K. Narayanan and designed to support students by providing in-depth and practical guidance on using a chosen method of data collection or analysis. Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) is an emerging method of data analysis, based on the idea that research factors can be necessary for an outcome: if the condition is not there, then the result will not occur. These necessary conditions are everywhere, and NCA is an intuitive and straightforward means of finding and testing data, either as a standalone tool or as a complement to other research methods. This book is an invaluable guide to using NCA effectively in business and management dissertations, and offers practical guidance and insight into how to successfully transcribe and analyse data using the NCA approach in research projects. Jan Dul is Professor of Technology and Human Factors at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

Alan Gewirth's Reason and Morality, in which he set forth the Principle of Generic Consistency, is a major work of modern ethical theory that, though much debated and highly respected, has yet to gain full acceptance. Deryck Beyleveld contends that this resistance stems from misunderstanding of the method and logical operations of Gewirth's central argument. In this book Beyleveld seeks to remedy this deficiency. His rigorous reconstruction of Gewirth's argument gives its various parts their most compelling formulation and clarifies its essential logical structure. Beyleveld then classifies all the criticisms that Gewirth's argument has received and measures them against his reconstruction of the argument. The overall result is an immensely rich picture of the argument, in which all of its complex issues and key moves are clearly displayed and its validity can finally be discerned. The comprehensiveness of Beyleveld's treatment provides ready access to the entire debate surrounding the foundational argument of Reason and Morality. It will be required reading for all who are interested in Gewirth's theory and deontological ethics and will be of central importance to moral and legal theorists.

This informative volume presents the first comprehensive review of research and theory on dual-process models of social information processing. These models distinguish between qualitatively different modes of information processing in making decisions and solving problems (e.g., associative versus rule-based, controlled versus uncontrolled, and affective versus cognitive modes). Leading contributors review the basic assumptions of these approaches and review the ways they have been applied and tested in such areas as attitudes, stereotyping, person perception, memory, and judgment. Also examined are the relationships between different sets of processing modes, the factors that determine their utilization, and how they work in combination to affect responses to social information.

In Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason, Peg Tittle empowers students with a solid grounding in the lifelong skills of considered analysis and argumentation that should underpin every student’s education. Starting with the building blocks of a good argument, this comprehensive new textbook offers a full course in critical thinking. It includes chapters on the nature and structure of argument, the role of relevance, truth and generalizations, and the subtleties of verbal and visual language. Special features include: • an emphasis on the constructive aspect of critical thinking—strengthening the arguments of others and constructing sound arguments of your own—rather than an exclusive focus on spotting faulty arguments • actual questions from standardized reasoning tests like the LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, and GRE • graduated end-of-chapter exercises, asking students to think critically about what they see, hear, read, write, and discuss • numerous sample arguments from books, magazines, television, and the Internet for students to analyze • many images for critical analysis • analyzed arguments that help students to read critically and actively • an extensive companion website for instructors and students A companion website features: • for instructors: an extensive instructor’s manual; a test bank; and PowerPoint slides • for students: extended answers, explanations, and analyses for the exercises and arguments in the book; supplementary chapters on logic and ethics; downloadable MP3 study guides; interactive flash cards; and thinking critically audio exercises. www.routledge.com/textbooks/tittle

This book analyzes Talcott Parsons’ largest-scale effort to overcome the relativism and subjectivism of the social sciences. Harold J. Bershady sets forth Parsons’ version of the characteristics desirable for social knowledge, showing that Parsons deems the relativistic and subjectivistic arguments as powerful challenges to the validity of social knowledge. Bershady maintains that all Parsons’ intellectual labors exhibit a deep and abiding concern for social knowledge. From his first major work in the 1930s to his later writings on social evolution, Parsons’ theoretical aim has been to provide an unassailable answer to the question, "how is social knowledge possible?" Ideological criticisms of Parsons’ work, Bershady argues, not only miss his awareness of ideological influences upon social thought, but also miss the logical and epistemological strands of his thinking. This book sheds light on the persistent importance of the work of a major theoretical sociologist of the twentieth century. It also brings into the open and discusses issues of deepest concern to the philosophy and methodology of all of the social sciences.