Excellence stems from people

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Excellence stems from people

• Identifying various forms of excellence
• Gretty M. Mirdal
• University of Copenhagen
• Turku, 27/8/07

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Meno by Plato Written 380 B.C.E
Translated by Benjamin Jowett Persons of the
DialogueMENOSOCRATESA SLAVE OF MENOANYTUS

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Meno, the youth from Thessaly
Meno comes from Thessaly to Athens in order to
find out whether or not arete can be learned.
He talks with many people, among others,
Socrates.
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The meaning of arete
The word "arete", is generally translated as
Human Virtue. More specifically arete means
political success and skill in a technical or
artistic sense - something in which one excels,
is brilliant and outstanding. In other words
excellence.
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Meno Can you tell me, Socrates, whether arete
is acquired by teaching or by practice or if
neither by teaching nor practice, then whether
it comes to man by nature, or in what other
way?
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Socrates I am certain that if you were to
ask any Athenian whether excellence was natural
or acquired, he would laugh in your face, and
say Stranger, you have far too good an opinion
of me, if you think that I can answer your
question. And I myself, Meno, living as I do in
this region of poverty, am as poor as the rest
of the world and I confess with shame that I
know literally nothing about arete.
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Meno But are you in earnest, Socrates, in
saying that you do not know what excellence is?
And am I to carry back this report of you to
Thessaly?
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Socrates does not seem to be embarrassed about
this lack of insight, and he convinces Meno that
they must define together what excellence is
before they can begin to discuss whether it can
be taught or not. And so the Socratic dialogue
begins, and Meno gives his first definition of
excellence.
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Menos first definition of excellence Let us
take first the excellence of a man - he should
know how to administer the state, and in the
administration of it to benefit his friends and
harm his enemies and he must also be careful
not to suffer harm himself. A woman's
excellence, if you wish to know about that, may
also be easily described her duty is to order
her house, and keep what is indoors, and obey
her husband. Every age, every condition of life,
young or old, male or female, bond or free, has
a different excellence there are virtues
numberless, and no lack of definitions of them
for excellence is relative to the actions and
ages of each of us in all that we do.
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But Socrates is not satisfied. For Meno gives
examples of arete, but cannot say what it
is tell me what is the quality in which they
do no differ, but are all alike. Would you be
able to answer?
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Meno. Courage and temperance and wisdom and
magnanimity are virtues and there are many
others. Socrates. Yes, Meno and again we
are in the same case in searching after one
virtue (one kind of excellence) we have found
many, () but we have been unable to find the
common virtue which runs through them all.
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This goes on and on, until Meno becomes
desperate O Socrates, I used to be told,
before I knew you, that you were always doubting
yourself and making others doubt and now you
are casting your spells over me, and I am simply
getting bewitched and enchanted, and am at my
wits' end. () I do not know how to answer
you. And though I have delivered an infinite
variety of speeches about excellence before now,
and to many persons (and very good ones they
were, as I thought)- at this moment I cannot even
say what excellence is. And I think that you are
very wise in not voyaging and going away from
home, for if you did in other places as you do
in Athens, you would be cast into prison .
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The conclusion of the dialogue

• The dialogue ends with the suggestion that
  excellence cannot be defined, and cannot be
  induced technically.
• The communication of excellence is a mystery. It
  is a kind
• of knowledge, and in a sense, it is
  communicable, i.e.,
• it can be transmitted, but it is more often
  caught than taught,
• (Young, 1988).
• Excellence is recognisable you know it when you
  see it but it is fundamentally elusive, and
  therefore not quantifiable.

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A concrete example of evaluation of excellence
The first phase of the ERCs Starting Grants -
First pan-European funding agency for frontier
research. - Funding directed to individual teams
and projects selected solely on the criteria of
excellence. - Operates according to the
principles of scientific excellence, autonomy,
efficiency, and transparency.
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The applications
In the first round, candidates sent in 1) a
curriculum vitae (CV), 2) a self-appraisal, 3)
a research proposal, and 4) a description of
their scientific environment on an eight-page
form. The applications were read and graded
generally by four (minimum three) evaluators
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Number of submissions and rates of succes
- 9 167 proposals were submitted, 559 have now
been selected for the second stage of the peer
review evaluation process. The rate of succes at
this first stage is thus around 6. - It is
currently estimated that a little less than half
of the 559 candidates will be rewarded a grant.
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How does one come down from 9 167 to 559 ? (1) I.
Criteria regarding the project -originality,
-the adequacy of the proposed method to answer
the presented question, -solidity of the
application (knowledge of the literature,
balanced self presentation), -the track-record
of the applicant and of the collaborators,
including senior advisors. -the feasibility of
the project within the given time and economic
constraints
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How does one come down from 9 167 to
559? Criteria regarding the applicants Peer
recognition - degrees, awards - position in
international networks of science - presence in
various committees/boards Classical bibliometric
performance measures- production,-
productivity,- citation visibility Previous
funding from research councils
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TROUBLING CONSIDERATIONS -
Bibliometrics are not sufficiently refined (e.g.
large sales of a book or a high index of
citation do not necessarily indicate research of
high standard - Frequency of citation vary
with the size of the community and the field -
Research income can be an indication of the cost
of research rather than its quality - The
Mathew-principle there is a strong feedback in
the system, the rich become richer -
Historical data, (a brilliant future in the
past!) are a reflection of the past, they
should be constantly updated
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• There are discrepancies from field to field,
  regarding form of
• Publication from journal articles to chapters, to
  manuscripts, etc.
• - There is heterogeneity of citation practices
  in different sciences
• There is diversity of approaches and theories,
  especially in the
• Humanities and Social Sciences
• In the human sciences, we speak different
  languages, we have
• different disciplines and subdisciplines, and
  even different schools of
• thought within the subdisciplines we use
  different methods and
• different approaches, based on different
  traditions we have very
• different types of universities and research
  institutes and different forms and
• amounts of support for carrying out humanistic
  research in the
• different European countries

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• We need greater precision in
  assessments of originality
• - Differentiate between contributions that
  accept and those that
• reject current paradigms
• - Distinguish between contributions that (a)
  leave the field where it
• Is move the field in the direction it is already
  going suggests new
• ways
• Specify whether the originality consist of a
  redirection, a
• reconstruction, a re-initiation or an
  integration.
• (STERNBERG, 2003).

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Different forms of creativity 1.
Formulation of new ideas (or set of new ideas)
that open up a new cognitive frame or brings
theoretical claims to a new level of
sophistication. Example Einsteins theory of
specific relativity in physics 2. Discovery of
new empirical phenomena that stimulates new
theorizing. Example Darwins theory of
evolution, (Freuds psychoanalysis?) 3.
Development of a new methodology, by means of
which theoretical problems can be empirically
tested. Example Factor analysis Spearmans
theory on mental abilities 4. Invention of
novel instruments that opens up new search
perspectives and research domains. Scanning
tunneling microscopy Nanotechnology 5. New
synthesis of formerly dispersed existing ideas
into general theoretical laws enabling analyses
of diverse phenomena within a common cognitive
frame. Example General systems theory (Biology,
Cybernetics,Sociology),
Heinze et al., 2007
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• Hollingworths facilitating factors
• (characteristics of research organizations which
  repeatedly make major
• discoveries across time. )
• Organizational flexibility
• - Scientific diversity and integration
  (scientists
• in diverse fields must have intense and
• frequent professional as well as social
• interactions with one another. )
• Leadership (providing a nurturing environment
  (an
• environment in which there is rigorous criticism,
  
• with a high degree of sensitivity).
• Organizational autonomy .
• (Hollingsworth, 2002)

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• Hollingworths hampering factors
• Differentiation. (too sharp boundaries among
• scientific areas
• (2) Hierarchical authority and bureaucratic
  coordination.
• (e.g. centralized budget controls,
  decision-making about research programs, (c)
  centralized
• decision-making about number of personnel,
  standardization
• of rules/procedures.
• (3) Hyperdiversity. (no effective communication
• among actors across diverse fields of science)

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An excellent researcher is good An
excellent team is better!