Substance and Property

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-60
Author(s):  
John Heil

Substances are property bearers. Properties are particular ways substances are, modifications of substances, modes, not universals, not repeatable ‘general’ entities. Substances are simple, lacking parts that are themselves substances. Ordinary objects are probably not substances, hence not themselves property bearers. Modes are qualities of substances that empower those substances in distinctive ways. Qualities and powers of complex objects resolve themselves into the qualities and powers of their constituents organized as they are. The possibility of ‘coinciding objects’—a statue and a lump of bronze, for instance—is considered and rejected in favor of the idea that a particular lump of bronze could be the truthmaker for ‘this is a statue’ and ‘this is a lump’.

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-79
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson

Robert Jackson examines the work of the German artist Florian Slotawa. Beginning with his first works, “Hotelarbeiten”, Slotawa recomposes and reconfigures the order of ordinary objects – in this case, the furniture of hotel rooms. In reconstructing these rooms in another order without altering these objects in any way, photographing them, and then subsequently restoring them to their previous configuration, the artist reveals the ordinary function of the objects and by withdrawing from their function shows their material and factual character. To elucidate the specificity of Slotawa’s intervention, Jackson critiques Heidegger’s conception of facticity in its exclusive account of Dasein and its being-in-the world, in contrast to the factuality of “things-within-the world.” Drawing on Harman’s extension of finitude beyond Dasein to all things, he encourages us to see Slotawa as engaged in “facticity of things” that is characterized by dispossession, lack of reason, and radical contingency. As Jackson argues, Slotawa is trying to find a way to dwell in a world that has no room or possibility for the given coordinates of dwelling; a world that is a fact without reason. In concluding he explores a reading of Slotawa that explores the intersecting yet radically different approaches to thinking about a speculative realism in the work of Harman and Meillassoux, and their differing attitudes to the finite and the infinite, facticity and factiality, contingency and necessity, without presuming to assume that either of these accounts cover the speculative facticity of things revealed in Slotawa’s work.


Author(s):  
D. N. Radnaev ◽  
Yu. А. Sergeev ◽  
А. А. Abiduev ◽  
S. V. Petunov

Currently, agricultural science and practice has a large amount of experimental data that need to be taken into account in the development of new technological processes and working bodies. Therefore, there is a need to design technical processes in order to identify their effectiveness. In this regard, the use of methods of synthesis of technological processes based on the characteristics of tillage, seeding and production system of the economy, in which it is necessary to implement the projected process. In the General statement of the problem, the design of technological processes is one of the complex problems with the following characteristic feature: lack of knowledge about the methods of designing technological processes, suitable for system - structural modeling and algorithmization of design processes. To overcome this incompleteness, a systematic approach is needed. The system approach proceeds from the fact that the specificity of complex objects and processes is not limited to the features of its constituent parts and elements, but lies in the nature of relationships and relationships between them. In this paper, the design methodology is based on the formulated fundamental assumptions and principles of the whole system of more specific statements, revealing the structure and content of design operations, the synthesis of the choice of solutions. The principles of technological compatibility and emergence suitable for system-structural analysis of complex technical means and technological processes, consisting of statements having a hierarchical structure, where the degree of detail of the goals from level to level increases, and the approval of the last level determines the direction of the search for the optimal solution to the problem.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Nowakowska ◽  
Alasdair D F Clarke ◽  
Jessica Christie ◽  
Josephine Reuther ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt

We measured the efficiency of 30 participants as they searched through simple line segment stimuli and through a set of complex icons. We observed a dramatic shift from highly variable, and mostly inefficient, strategies with the line segments, to uniformly efficient search behaviour with the icons. These results demonstrate that changing what may initially appear to be irrelevant, surface-level details of the task can lead to large changes in measured behaviour, and that visual primitives are not always representative of more complex objects.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiru Makuuchi

Symbolic behaviours such as language, music, drawing, dance, etc. are unique to humans and are found universally in every culture on earth1. These behaviours operate in different cognitive domains, but they are commonly characterised as linear sequences of symbols2,3. One of the most prominent features of language is hierarchical structure4, which is also found in music5,6 and mathematics7. Current research attempts to address whether hierarchical structure exists in drawing. When we draw complex objects, such as a face, we draw part by part in a hierarchical manner guided by visual semantic knowledge8. More specifically, we predicted how hierarchical structure emerges in drawing as follows. Although the drawing order of the constituent parts composing the target object is different amongst individuals, some parts will be drawn in succession consistently, thereby forming chunks. These chunks of parts would then be further integrated with other chunks into superordinate chunks, while showing differential affinity amongst chunks. The integration of chunks to an even higher chunk level repeats until finally reaching the full object. We analysed the order of drawing strokes of twenty-two complex objects by twenty-five young healthy adult participants with a cluster analysis9 and demonstrated reasonable hierarchical structures. The results suggest that drawing involves a linear production of symbols with a hierarchical structure. From an evolutionary point of view, we argue that ancient engravings and paintings manifest Homo sapiens’ capability for hierarchical symbolic cognition.


2012 ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Thi Chau Anh Nguyen ◽  
Hoang Bach Nguyen ◽  
Hai Duong Huynh ◽  
Nu Xuan Thanh Le ◽  
Xuan Cuong Le ◽  
...  

Background: The Nested IS6110 PCR is used for detecting tuberculosis, however IS6110 sequence is not present in the genome of all strains of M.tuberculosis, the result may be false negative. The gene coding 16S ribosome always contains a short sequence specific to M. tuberculosis complex. Objects: Performance of the 16S Real-time PCR to detect M. tuberculosis and combining to the nested IS6110 PCR to determine the rate of Mtb strains without IS6110 from clinical samples. Materials and method: Performance of 16S rDNA PCR by commercial kit of Viet A Inc. for all 480 samples, the samples which were positive with the 16S rDNA PCR were retested in IS6110 PCR assay by in-house kit. Results: The Realtime 16S rDNA PCR detected 258 cases (53.8%) of tuberculosis. There were 3 (1.2 %) M. tuberculosis strains which do not harbor IS6110 sequence in genome. Conclusion: The IS6110 nested PCR can be applied more widely than the 16S rDNA realtime PCR. In case of using IS6110 PCR assay, results may show a low proportion of false negative. Combining 16S rDNA PCR with the IS6110 based PCR allowed detection of deletion of IS6110 sequence in M. tuberculosis isolates.


Author(s):  
Joseph F. Boudreau ◽  
Eric S. Swanson

Specialized techniques for solving the classical many-body problem are explored in the context of simple gases, more complicated gases, and gravitating systems. The chapter starts with a brief review of some important concepts from statistical mechanics and then introduces the classic Verlet method for obtaining the dynamics of many simple particles. The practical problems of setting the system temperature and measuring observables are discussed. The issues associated with simulating systems of complex objects form the next topic. One approach is to implement constrained dynamics, which can be done elegantly with iterative methods. Gravitational systems are introduced next with stress on techniques that are applicable to systems of different scales and to problems with long range forces. A description of the recursive Barnes-Hut algorithm and particle-mesh methods that speed up force calculations close out the chapter.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet E. Baber

Abstract Modal counterpart theory identifies a thing’s possibly being F with its having a counterpart that is F at another possible world; temporal counterpart theory identifies a thing’s having been F or going to be F, with its having a counterpart that is F at another time. Benovsky, J. 2015. “Alethic Modalities, Temporal Modalities, and Representation.” Kriterion: Journal of Philosophy 29: 18–34 in this journal endorses modal counterpart theory but holds that temporal counterpart theory is untenable because it does not license the ascription of the intuitively correct temporal properties to ordinary objects, and hence that we should understand ordinary objects, including persons, as transtemporal ‘worms’. I argue that the worm theory is problematic when it comes to accounting for what matters in survival and that temporal counterpart theory provides a plausible account of personal persistence.


2021 ◽  
pp. 153-180
Author(s):  
Hayden Taylor ◽  
Hossein Heidari ◽  
Chi Chung Li ◽  
Joseph Toombs ◽  
Sui Man Luk

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