In this dissertation I examine the conceptions of opinion (<italic>doxa</italic>}), knowledge (<italic>gnosis</italic>), and understanding (<italic>episteme</italic>) that are presented by the character Socrates in Plato's <italic>Meno</italic> and <italic>Republic</italic>. A central claim I make, and one that sets my interpretation apart from…

This dissertation focuses on the specific strategies by which authors of the travel writing genre seize narrative agency. Throughout its centuries-long history, the genre of travel writing has offered multiple generations of authors a means by which to convey observations…

This dissertation studies nonlinear panel data models with multiple fixed effects. The first two chapters consider the adaptability of estimation methods for nonlinear panel data models to multiple fixed effects. The first chapter investigates whether existing methods can be modified…

Network-based modeling of complex systems with emergent behavior is increasingly being employed across different disciplines. Much of the focus in such efforts has been on detailed, "microscopic" modeling, in which the dynamics is described in terms of the individual nodes…

This paper describes a new statistical, model-based approach to building a contact state observer. The observer uses measurements of the contact force and position, and prior information about the task encoded in a graph, to determine the current location of…

This dissertation is a history of astronomy in three cultural locations in late Ottoman Egypt: the scholarly culture of Muslim ulama, the state institution of the Viceregal Observatory, and the Arabic press. Through an interwoven history of these cultures, the…

The United States is struggling to provide health care in the face of ever increasing demand. As medical students continue their decades long march toward specialization, questions of how to provide generalist care become quickly intertwined with that of who…

During the twentieth century, tobacco farmers in rural North Carolina quietly changed the relationship between the government and citizen in America . Flue-cured tobacco growers produced not only the finest cigarette leaf, but also new systems of marketing, regulating, and…

This report concentrates on progress during the last two years at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Topics covered include the representation of knowledge, understanding English, learning and debugging, understanding vision and productivity technology. It is stressed that these various areas…

The Knowledge-Based Editor in Emacs (KBEmacs) is the current demonstration system implemented as part of the Programmer's Apprentice project. KBEmacs is capable of acting as a semi-expert assistant to a person who is writing a program ??king over some parts…