In-class notes for 02/20/2020

CS 263 (ESD), Spring 2020

• Moodle site and course home page

Hermeneutical literature searches

• Reading

• Comments:

  • Hermeneutics is an iterative methodology for developing better and better understanding, for example, of a text.

  • A generalized hermeneutical cycle diagram:

    

    Starting with an understanding of the "whole", perform analysis that results in an expression of "parts". After exploring what can be learned from those "parts", perform synthesis in order to arrive at a better understood "whole"

  • This process is iterative and non-linear.

  • Compare:

    • The hermeneutical methodology compares to the dialectic process of philosophical analysis

    • The goal of hermeneutical methodology is deeper and deeper understanding, getting beyond our preconceptions and biases towards viewpoints we don't originally have. This compares to the goal of "non-obvious" STS entries

Literature search exercise

As a team, apply the hermeneutical cycle process for your ethics literature search by carrying out the following steps.

Stage 1 - team indentify a paper

As a team, find a paper in the ACM Digital Library dl.acm.org that appears to be relevant to your team's project focus.

• Anyone at St. Olaf has on-campus access to the ACM Digital Library. You should be able to view information about a paper (title, authors, abstract, citations, where published, etc.) and download a PDF of that paper.

• To identify promising papers, consider issues such as publication date (a lot may have taken in some older paper's topics), and read the abstract.

  • The abstract of a CS paper succinctly signals the content of the paper, typically referring to themes, technologies, and findings that may be of interest to a reader.

• The ACM is one of two major computing professional societies, the other being IEEE/Computer Society. (IEEE/CS also has a digital library that you can search through, but St. Olaf doesn't subscribe to that one).

Your team should identify one paper for the team for this exercise, to be analyzed by everyone in the team.

• The paper you choose for this exercise may or may not end up factoring in your literature review (depending on what your team finds through its analysis).

• If you find other interesting-looking papers, keep track of them for later consideration for your literature search.

• Your team should identify this exercise's paper before the end of class today.

Stage 2 - individual hermenutical cycle(s)

Each individual team member should create a google doc to record their process of hermeneutical methods on some or all of the team's agreed-upon paper.

• Don't share your google doc with your team until everyone has had a chance to do their own initial hermeneutical analysis.

• Apply the hermeneutical cycle approach as you see fit. You may use the specific cycles described in the reading (p.264), or a variant of one or both of them, or use your own analysis and synthesis strategy in the more general cycle diagram above.

• Record your hermeneutical cycle by listing steps in your google doc. For example, if you are following the general cycle diagram above, make a list of five items to describe your cycle:

  • The "whole" for your chosen elements of the paper (for this cycle)
    Describe what you are seeking to understand better.

  • Your analysis
    Describe your process for breaking up that "whole" into "parts".

  • The "parts" and their further consideration.
    List what your "parts" are (for this cycle). Then identify considerations of these parts that lead to new understandings about some or all of them.

  • Your synthesis
    Describe your process for relating the "whole" to your findings from considering the "parts" and

  • Your new understanding of the "whole"
    Express what you understand better now.

• You don't need to tackle the whole paper for your analysis. In many cases, only some sections or aspects of the paper will be relevant to your team's project, and you could pick a manageable subset of those relevant elements for your analysis.

  • If you can fit in more than one hermeneutical cycle, you may choose different relevant parts for other cycles if you wish.

• Remember: The purpose of your hermeneutical cycles is to develop better understanding.

• The goal is for each team member to complete a hermeneutical cycle or two on their own within a day or two, recording their work in their own google doc.

Stage 3 - team discussion

After each person has completed stage 2 above, share your google docs with everyone else on your team, then meet as a team to discuss your findings and search for a better common understanding.

• Record your team's conversation for this exercise in a new team shared google doc.

  • Include a list of links to each team member's individual google doc near the top of the team document.

  • If a hermeneutical cycle seems appropriate for your discussion, record it in the step format above.

  • Plan on meeting for a half hour or so to complete this stage.

  • Please add these items to your team google doc:

    • Formal citation for your paper, near the top of your team google doc (and perhaps to your individual google docs, too).

      • Obtain this from the ACM Digital Library entry for that paper: click on the citation icon, then select ACM Ref format for the citation, and copy/paste into your team google doc.

    • Feedback on this assignment, at the end of your team google doc in a separate section. Was it useful? Can you suggest improvements? etc. (You may further add feedback in individual google docs if you want.)

To submit your work for this exercise:

• By Sat 2/22: Each individual should use this form to submit a PDF of your stage 2 cycles document

• By Mon 2/24: Each team should use this form to submit a PDF of your stage 3 discussion document

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