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A multidimensional understanding of human nature based on biology can provide a very useful framework of analysis and bring some understanding and coherence to the very fragmented perspectives within moral, political, and legal philosophy. A useful four-part framework of analysis can be based on the evolution of the brain as described by Paul MacLean (1973, 1990) and Sir John Eccles (1989). A similar pattern of development of our mental and moral capacities through experience in childhood was also described by Jean Piaget (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958) and Lawrence Kohlberg (1981). This multidimensional understanding of human nature considers the individual, social, rational, and metaphysical perspectives. Because this four-part multidimensional understanding of human nature is based on a naturalized epistemology related to the development of our mental capacities in both evolution and through experience, this pattern can be seen across a wide variety of disciplines. Medical ethics, US constitutional democracy, and legal philosophy will be used as examples of the usefulness of this multidimensional understanding of human nature.

As the neurosciences endeavor to explain increasingly complex aspects of human biology and behavior, domains of human life that can only be assessed in social interaction become ever more important, if formally unacknowledged, dimensions of scientific research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 14 researchers who study epilepsy genetics, this chapter examines how neuroscientists encounter ‘the social.’ We find that at the beginning of their careers, researchers are intrigued by epilepsy as a disease of the brain and a means of exploring “the last frontier in medicine.” However, as they begin their investigations, the importance of building social relationships, gleaning the subtleties of seizure experience available only in patient narratives, and engaging with families in the field quickly emerge as important parts of epilepsy genetics research. Some researchers hope for and work toward a day when new techniques or models will allow them to forgo the time consuming, painstaking, and often invisible work of gathering detailed histories, combing through patient narratives, and traveling to field sites to meet with families. However, these accounts make clear that, at the current moment, much of “the molecular work” of epilepsy genetics research is built upon social interactions, relationships, and experiences.

Online bibliographic databases are currently available for a wide range of disciplines. At the present time, however, there is no online database devoted specifically to anthropological literature. The field of anthropology is generally divided into four sub‐fields: social and cultural anthropology; archeology; anthropological linguistics; and physical anthropology, or bioanthropology. Anthropologists in these four subfields represent a very wide range of subject interests, and the field as a whole places strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research. As a result, it is sometimes possible to perform satisfactory computerized literature searches using databases which cover the literature of related disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of emotion in learning, specifically, e‐learning and its relationship to the phenomenon called energetic learning.

After first presenting operation definitions, the paper looks through the lens of new findings in neuroscience to build an understanding of the role of emotions in learning, then focuses specifically on how e‐learning systems contribute to energetic learning, providing examples of e‐learning platforms and software programs currently available that have specific attributes contributing to energetic learning.

With technology comes a natural excitement in terms of connectivity and its support of self‐driven, experiential learning which is part of the evolutionary heritage. As the understanding of the neuroscience and biology of human learning advances, the personal needs of individual learners are being begun to understand better. Bringing these needs together with e‐learning system capabilities will offer a significant jump in the learning rate and efficiency as we move into a future filled with change, uncertainty, complexity and anxiety.

The paper introduces the concept of energetic learning with specific focus on the contribution of e‐learning to energetic learning.

Scholars from developing countries have limited access to research publications due to expensive subscription costs. However, the open access movement is challenging the constraint to access. Consequently, researchers in developing countries are often mentioned as major recipients of the benefits when advocating open access (OA). One of the implications of that argument is that authors from developing countries are more likely to perceive open access positively than authors from developed countries. The present study aims to investigate the use of open access by researchers from developing countries and is thus a supplement to the existing author surveys and interviews.

Bibliometric analyses of both publishing behaviour and citing behaviour in relation to OA publishing provides evidence of the impact of open access on developing countries.

The results of the multivariate linear regression show that open access journals are not characterised by a different composition of authors from the traditional toll access journals. Furthermore, the results show that authors from developing countries do not cite open access more than authors from developed countries.

The paper argues that authors from developing countries are not attracted to open access more than authors from developed countries.

I take as a starting point the disparaging comments about the place of history and philosophy of education in initial teacher education (ITE) made by the chair of the Teacher Education Expert Panel established by the Australian Government in 2023, which I take to be the most recent attempt at resurrecting the tired debate over “the art versus science of teaching”. I draw on an example from my own ITE classroom to tease possibilities for how historical research and research in the sciences of learning can be in dialogue and collaborate to deepen educational scholarship.

The purpose of this essay is to reflect on the scholarly discussions and debates in the sciences of learning that historical researchers of education have largely been absent or excluded from. I argue that historical researchers have an important role to play as “critical friends” to the burgeoning fields of cognitive science and educational neuroscience.

From my cursory and singular account, I highlight two key areas of education where historical research and the sciences of learning can be fruitfully in dialogue and collaboration: Firstly, on the cultural dimension that prefigures learners' approach to learning; and secondly, on the factors that enable or disable effective learning.

This essay sets an agenda for historical researchers in education to exercise “critical friendship” with the cognitive and brain sciences of learning, specifically by adding temporal considerations to the way biology, psychology, and sociality interact to produce different educational outcomes. This will be of “practical” service to ITE – and to students in schools.