A Philosophical Understanding of Researching Gangs in the NTE Essay

A Philosophical Understanding of Researching Gangs in the NTE - Essay Example As postulated by Plato, the Greek philosopher (427-347 BC), knowledge can be distinctively considered as â€Å"Justified True Belief†. The theory encompasses major queries regarding the basis of knowledge, the methodical approach of its acquisition, people’s understanding level, and how & why is it necessary to know what one perceives. There is a subtle difference epistemologically between the theory and practical (of what is gathered by experience) aspects of knowledge. (Watson, 2004) John Locke advocates the idea of Innatism, which proposes that the knowledge accumulated in an individual through experience, is actually born of that person’s pre-existing sub-conscious knowledge base. Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that lays emphasis on the role of experience, especially the experience based on constant observations by the five senses. Some empiricists think that all the knowledge is empirical while others separate mathematics and logic from the stream. (Fum erton, 2005) The German philosopher Immanuel Kant of the 18th century states, "although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience" (Taylor, 1989, p.80). From here also we get the essence of â€Å"Transcendental Absolute† as guided by the theorists of Innatism. In his works of Personal Knowledge, Michael Polanyi attempts to bring out the distinction between â€Å"knowing that† and â€Å"knowing how†. The level of consciousness is heightened through the attainments of multiple experiences and different perception levels. The epistemological approach identifies two basic types of knowledge; one is â€Å"A priori† which interprets the structure of knowledge is independent of empirical experiences and the other one â€Å"A posteriori† is justified by the experiencing through the practical way. Hume’s epistemological treatise on natural knowledge

Statistics - P-Values versus Critical Values Essay

Statistics - P-Values versus Critical Values - Essay Example However, if the calculated value is less than the critical value, the null hypothesis is accepted and the alternative hypothesis is rejected. The advantage of this method is that it helps define the rejection region in terms of the sample mean and therefore if the same experiment is repeated many times in the field, one can draw the conclusion of the hypothesis test right then without having to make any other calculations (Statistics Glossary, para 22). The disadvantage of this method is that one is stuck with a fixed level for the test. The probability value or p-value method is a measure of how likely the sample results are, assuming the null hypothesis is true. Small p-values suggest that the null hypothesis is unlikely to be true. The smaller the p-value, the more convincing is the rejection of the null hypothesis. The advantage of this method is that, by reporting the p-value one allows the reader to decide if the result is significant or not (Statistics Glossary, para 26). For e.g., one might think that the 5% level of significance is good while the reader may prefer 2% level of significance. Therefore, the p-value allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. The disadvantage of this method is that one can’t make quick conclusions based on just the sample values as can be done in the critical value method.