Eugene J. Meehan's immediate purpose in this study is to explain the essentials of a promising approach to measuring and improving cognitive performance, and to summarize the exceptional results obtained thus far from years of experimental applications in the United States and abroad. The approach depends upon two primary constructs: first, a concept labeled cognitive skill or cognitive competence, which is identified with the individual's capacity to acquire, assess, and apply knowledge; and second, a theory of knowledge that is limited in scope but focused on the development and use of knowledge in the conduct of human affairs. Meehan's extended purpose, the reason for being concerned with measuring and improving cognitive competence, is the glaring inadequacy of intellectual performance of those educated in the United States and elsewhere, compared to current needs. This study details the strong theoretical base, examines the process of testing cognitive skill, and investigates the relationship between cognitive skill and real-world achievement. Meehan argues that a useful measure of the concept of cognitive skill testing can be created and stabilized, and that the skills included can be improved selectively and systematically. The book concludes with a discussion of the principal areas of uncertainty, including the long-range effects of cognitive training and the factors that influence retention--particularly in societies that maintain a generally anti-intellectual environment, or where methodological and analytical criticism is not a regular part of everyday practice, even among the well-educated. The significant research, testing, and results which show actual progress in improving educational practice as detailed in this book will interest methodologists, educators, and social scientists.

In Ethics for Policymaking Eugene Meehan presents a sustained argument in favor of a particular perspective on the relationship between normative judgments or arguments and policymaking, based upon a radically different approach to providing a justification for actions, whether individual or collective. Meehan's overall objective is to establish the knowledge requirements, empirical and normative, for defensible/corrigible policymaking and thereby to produce an analytic apparatus that can be used to improve intellectual performance in the conduct of real world affairs. By grounding the meanings of fundamental concepts such as "knowledge" and "policy" within a suitable analytic framework, a major source of disagreement and misunderstanding among those concerned to further the quest for useful knowledge is eliminated, and the possibilities of productive knowledge transfers among specialized disciplines are much enhanced. Following a detailed introductory essay, Meehan approaches his complex subject by developing the intellectual requirements for directing actions, focusing on criteria of adequacy applicable to inductive cognitive systems and on the theoretical assumptions underlying them. After a brief summary of empirical requirements the normative apparatus required for defensible policymaking is examined at length in three stages: first an analysis is made of the kind of conceptual apparatus that the enterprise requires; second, a way of justifying preferences that avoids the major pitfalls inherent in limited human capacity is produced; third, other constraints and possibilities that flow from the need to make policy within a social context are explored. The discussion concludes witha brief examination of the major intellectual, social, and political implications of the analysis. Those involved in activities in which major policy decisions will profoundly affect the well-being of client populations and students and scholars of applied political theory will also find this text invaluable.

This study provides an analytic framework---a theory of knowledge than identifies the kinds of structures and processes required for directing human action and the criteria for evaluating them. Eugene Meehan applies his theories empirically to the real world and provides normative approaches for his generalizations about governmental and individual policies. This theoretical study builds on his earlier works and is intended for political and social scientists and graduate students. The book opens with a description of the the author's theory of knowledgement, and then identifies how to fulfill empirical and normative requirements, and how to apply the critical apparatus to governmental actions. It examines the outlook for the future, the role of the university, and past performance. It calls for an agreed epistemological base, grounded in experience for critiquing governmental policy and behavior and improving it.