Reestablishing the Foundations: Investigating the Theoretical and Practical Boundaries of Criminology

Symbolic boundaries are essential to social functioning and, more narrowly, to the social functioning of academia. Yet the boundaries of the field of Criminology remain deeply ambiguous. What are the parameters of the field? What is agreed upon as foundational theory? What are the core research agendas? This lack of clarity and consensus hampers internal dialogue between interdisciplinary scholars and constrains efforts to meaningfully address critical societal ills. As such, with this review we seek to promote cohesion in the field and improve our ability to understand crime as a social phenomenon. To accomplish this, a team of researchers conducted a thorough review of criminology textbooks and top journals in the field. We first examine explicit and implicit definitions of criminology and next identify the major avenues of current research. We further highlight major avenues and oversights of research, making recommendations for further study to promote productive cohesion amongst criminologists. Finally, we combine theoretical conceptions of criminology with current research to offer a new, comprehensive definition: Criminology is the theoretically informed scientific study—and the resulting body of knowledge—of crime broadly understood as a socially constructed and embedded phenomenon as well as its causation and prevention.

Understanding Wisdom: An Investigation of Gender Difference in Old Age

Understanding wisdom contributes to a larger dialogue on how best to serve older adults as they go through the aging process. Namely, by identifying gender differences in wisdom conceptualization, research can further gather information regarding the complex, implicit definitions. To investigate how older men and women differ in conceptualizing wisdom, semi-structured qualitative interviews with seven men and eight women (age range: 64-86 years) who scored above average on the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS), the Adult Self-Transcendence Scale (ASTI), and the Foundational Values Scale (FVS) were compared. In-depth analysis of semi-structured interviews uncovered spiritual and non-spiritual experiential-based knowledge, “good” or spiritual-based decision-making, and a selfless care for others as common themes among women. Men invoked similar themes, such as spiritual-based decision-making and experiential-based knowledge, yet also differed in conceptualizing wisdom by emphasizing themes such as growth through hard times and overcoming obstacles. Men also considered wisdom to be related to an open-mindedness about life and rarely noting selfless care for others as a characteristic of wisdom in contrast to female respondents. The findings confirm earlier quantitative research results on implicit wisdom theories that men are more likely than women to have a cognitive understanding of wisdom, whereas women are more likely than men to characterize wisdom as an integrative construct.

Digitizing Cultural Complexity

One of the major terminological forces driving information and communication technology (ICT) integration in research today is “big data.” The characteristics of big data make big data sound inclusive and integrative. However, in practice such approaches are highly selective, excluding input that cannot be effectively structured, represented, or digitized; in other words, excluding complex data. Yet complex data are precisely the kind that human activity tends to produce, but the technological imperative to enhance signal through the reduction of noise does not accommodate this richness. The objective of this chapter is to explore the impact of bias in digital approaches to knowledge creation by investigating the delimiting effect digital mediation and datafication can have on rich, complex cultural data. If rich or complex data prove difficult to fully represent on a small-scale level, in the transition to a big data environment, we run the risk of losing much of what makes this material useful or interesting in the first place. We will begin by reviewing some of the existing implicit definitions of data that underlie ICT-driven research. In doing so will draw attention to the heterogeneity of definitions of data, to identify the key terms associated with data demarcation and data use, and to then expand on the implications of this heterogeneity.

Defining Undertreatment and Overtreatment in Older Adults With Cancer: A Scoping Literature Review

PURPOSE The terms undertreatment and overtreatment are often used to describe inappropriate management of older adults with cancer. We conducted a comprehensive scoping review of the literature to clarify the meanings behind the use of the terms. METHODS We searched PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information), Embase (Elsevier), and CINAHL (EBSCO) for titles and abstracts that included the terms undertreatment or overtreatment with regard to older adults with cancer. We included all types of articles, cancer types, and treatments. Definitions of undertreatment and overtreatment were extracted, and categories underlying these definitions were derived through qualitative analysis. Within a random subset of articles, C.D. and K.P.L. independently performed this analysis to determine final categories and then independently assigned these categories to assess inter-rater reliability. RESULTS Articles using the terms undertreatment (n = 236), overtreatment (n = 71), or both (n = 51) met criteria for inclusion in our review (n = 256). Only 14 articles (5.5%) explicitly provided formal definitions; for the remaining, we inferred the implicit definitions from the terms’ surrounding context. There was substantial agreement (κ = 0.81) between C.D. and K.P.L. in independently assigning categories of definitions within a random subset of 50 articles. Undertreatment most commonly implied less than recommended therapy (148; 62.7%) or less than recommended therapy associated with worse outcomes (88; 37.3%). Overtreatment most commonly implied intensive treatment of an older adult in whom the harms of treatment outweigh the benefits (38; 53.5%) or intensive treatment of a cancer not expected to affect an older adult in his/her remaining lifetime (33; 46.5%). CONCLUSION Undertreatment and overtreatment of older adults with cancer are imprecisely defined concepts. We propose new, more rigorous definitions that account for both oncologic factors and geriatric domains.

Carnap’s Structuralist Thesis

This chapter investigates Carnap’s structuralism in his philosophy of mathematics of the 1920s and early 1930s. His approach to mathematics is based on a genuinely structuralist thesis, namely that axiomatic theories describe abstract structures or the structural properties of their objects. The aim in the present article is twofold: first, to show that Carnap, in his contributions to mathematics from the time, proposed three different (but interrelated) ways to characterize the notion of mathematical structure, namely in terms of (i) implicit definitions, (ii) logical constructions, and (iii) definitions by abstraction. The second aim is to re-evaluate Carnap’s early contributions to the philosophy of mathematics in light of contemporary mathematical structuralism. Specifically, the chapter discusses two connections between his structuralist thesis and current philosophical debates on structural abstraction and the on the definition of structural properties.

Arithmetical Datatypes, Fracterms, and the Fraction Definition Problem

Datatypes and abstract datatypes are positioned as results of importing aspects of universal algebra into computer science and software engineering. It is suggested that 50 years later, by way of a transfer in the opposite direction, outcomes of research on datatypes can be made available via elementary arithmetic. This idea leads to the notions of an arithmetical signature, an arithmetical datatype and an arithmetical abstract datatype and to algebraic specifications for such entities. The area of fractions in elementary arithmetic is chosen as an application area and while taking a common meadow of rational numbers as the basis, an arithmetical datatype equipped with an absorptive element. The use of datatypes and signatures makes syntax available for giving precise definitions in cases where lack of precision is common place. Fracterm is coined as the name for a fraction when primarily understood as a syntactic entity. The main contribution of the paper is to provide a detailed terminology of fracterms. Subsequently the fraction definition problem is stated, a distinction between explicit definitions of fractions and implicit definitions of fractions is made, and an outline of a survey of both forms of definitions of the notion of a fraction is given.

What are Implicit Definitions?

The paper surveys different notions of implicit definition. In particular, we offer an examination of a kind of definition commonly used in formal axiomatics, which in general terms is understood as providing a definition of the primitive terminology of an axiomatic theory. We argue that such “structural definitions” can be semantically understood in two different ways, namely (1) as specifications of the meaning of the primitive terms of a theory and (2) as definitions of higher-order mathematical concepts or structures. We analyze these two conceptions of structural definition both in the history of modern axiomatics and in contemporary philosophical debates. Based on that, we give a systematic assessment of the underlying semantics of these two ways of understanding the definiens of such definitions, by considering alternative model-theoretic and inferential accounts of meaning.

Axioms in Frege

Frege’s conception of axioms is an old-fashioned one. According to it, each axiom is a determinate non-linguistic proposition, one with a fixed subject-matter, and with respect to which the notion of a ‘model’ or an ‘interpretation’ makes no sense. As contrasted with the fruitful modern conception of mathematical axioms as collectively providing implicit definitions of structure-types, a conception on which the range of models of a set of axioms is of the essence of those axioms’ significance, Frege’s view is a dinosaur. This essay investigates some of the philosophically-important aspects of that dinosaur, in order to shed light on Frege’s understanding of the foundational role of axioms, and on some of the ways in which our current conception of such axiomatic virtues as independence and categoricity have (and in some cases have not) been informed by a move away from Frege’s understanding of the foundational role of axioms.

Defining undertreatment and overtreatment in older patients with cancer: A scoping review of the literature.

e23020 Background: The terms “undertreatment” and “overtreatment” are often used to describe the management of older adults with cancer. The aim of this scoping review was to explore the explicit and implicit definitions associated with the use of these terms. Methods: We searched PubMed (NCBI), Embase (Elsevier), and CINAHL (EBSCO) for titles and abstracts that included the terms "undertreatment" or "overtreatment" (overtreat OR undertreat OR over treat OR under treat) of older adults with cancer. We included all types of articles, cancers, and treatments. We excluded studies that only included patients younger than 60 years old or studies without a defined focus on older adults. CD and KL independently reviewed a subset of included articles to assess for inter-reviewer reliability. Results: We identified 224 primary and secondary research articles that used the terms “undertreatment” (192), “overtreatment” (72), or both (45) regarding the management of older adults with cancer. Only 14 (6.3%) articles provided an explicit definition; for the remaining articles, we derived the implicit definitions from the terms’ surrounding context. There was substantial agreement between CD and KL in their interpretation of definitions of these terms (kappa 0.81). “Undertreatment” was commonly used to imply less than “standard” therapy (130 articles, 67.7%), or less than “standard” therapy that contributed to worse outcomes (62, 32.3%). Many articles did not account for the underrepresentation of older adults in trials leading to “standard” therapy, and 24 primary studies performed no or limited adjustment for geriatric domains (e.g., function) in their analyses that suggested worse survival in older adults treated with substandard therapy. “Overtreatment” was commonly used to imply cancer treatment in an older adult whose cancer would not have caused symptoms in his/her remaining lifetime (31, 43.1%), or aggressive treatment in whom the harms of treatment outweigh its benefits (41, 56.9%). Conclusions: Nearly all articles used the terms “undertreatment” and/or “overtreatment” without an explicit definition, and we identified variability and limitations in the meanings implied by these terms.

Induction and Epistemological Naturalism

Epistemological naturalists reject the demand for a priori justification of empirical knowledge; no such thing is possible. Observation reports, being the foundation of empirical knowledge, are neither justified by other sentences, nor certain; but they may be agreed upon as starting points for inductive reasoning and they function as implicit definitions of predicates used. Making inductive generalisations from observations is a basic habit among humans. We do that without justification, but we have strong intuitions that some inductive generalisations will fail, while for some other we have better hopes. Why? This is the induction problem according to Goodman. He suggested that some predicates are projectible when becoming entrenched in language. This is a step forward, but not entirely correct. Inductions result in universally generalised conditionals and these contain two predicates, one in the antecedent, one in the consequent. Counterexamples to preliminary inductive generalisations can be dismissed by refining the criteria of application for these predicates. This process can be repeated until the criteria for application of the predicate in the antecedent includes the criteria for the predicate in the consequent, in which case no further counterexample is possible. If that is the case we have arrived at a law. Such laws are implicit definitions of theoretical predicates. An accidental generalisation has not this feature, its predicates are unrelated. Laws are said to be necessary, which may be interpreted as ‘“Laws” are necessarily true’. ‘Necessarily true’ is thus a semantic predicate, not a modal operator. In addition, laws, being definitions, are necessarily true in the sense of being necessary assumptions for further use of the predicates implicitly defined by such laws. Induction, when used in science, is thus our way of inventing useful scientific predicates; it is a heuristic, not an inference principle.