scholarly journals A pragmatic approach to the ontology of models

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonis Antoniou
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Models ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Fictional Entities ◽  
Metaphysical Question ◽  
Scientific Modelling ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
Practical Question ◽  
Linguistic Framework

AbstractWhat are scientific models? Philosophers of science have been trying to answer this question during the last three decades by putting forward a number of different proposals. Some say that models are best understood as abstract Platonic objects or fictional entities akin to Sherlock Holmes, while others focus on their mathematical nature and see them as set theoretical structures. Although each account has its own strengths in offering various insights on the nature of models, several objections have been raised against these views which still remain unanswered, making the debate on the ontology of models seem unresolvable. The primary aim of this paper is to show that a large part of these difficulties stems from an inappropriate reading of the main question on the ontology of models as a purely metaphysical question. Building on Carnap, it is argued that the question of the ontology of scientific models is either (i) an internal theoretical question within an already accepted linguistic framework or (ii) an external practical question regarding the choice of the most appropriate form of language in order to describe and explain the practice of scientific modelling. The main implication of this view is that the question of the ontology of models becomes a means of probing other related questions regarding the overall practice of scientific modelling, such as questions on the capacity of models to provide knowledge and the relation of models with background theories.

Illness-conceptions in the persuasive sections of Hungarian medical recipes from the 16th and 17th centuries

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ágnes Kuna
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
General State ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Instructional Unit ◽  
Linguistic Framework ◽  
Text Construction

AbstractIllnesses and their names constitute a significant indicator of cultural levels, as they reveal a lot about the convictions, healing practices as well as the general state of medicine. Besides the naming of illnesses, their conceptualizations are also present in certain genres and text sections, which are, in turn, associated with specific functions. The present paper outlines illness-conceptions in 16th and 17th-century Hungarian medical recipes by means of a qualitative analysis of seven contemporary manuscripts in a cognitive linguistic framework.The investigation takes the schema of the recipes as the analytical framework, as it was one of the most typical genre within the medical discourse domain in the 16th and 17th centuries. A recurring topic of recipes is usefulness, which is elaborated along the ‘how-to-do-it’ function. We can observe three functional units in the text construction: the initiator, the instructional unit and the persuasion. The conceptual elaboration of illnesses typically occurs in the first and third units. In the initiators, it manifests through the names and symptoms of illnesses, while in the persuasive sections through the description of how the illness departs. The present paper concentrates on this last aspect and gives a detailed description of the conceptual categories concerning the departure of the disease (cleansing, easing, soothing, stopping, starting etc.), their frequency and co-ocurrence. The research attempts to give a discourse pragmatic approach to the topic, expanding on the semantic analysis based on the names of illnesses and the symptoms.

scholarly journals The two most important questions for ethical public health

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Coggon ◽  
Lawrence O Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
Practical Question

AbstractPublic health ethics is a distinct and established field, and it is important that its approaches and rationales are understood widely in the public health community. Such understanding includes the capacity to identify and combine principled and practical concerns in public health. In this paper, we present a background to the ideas that motivate public health ethics as a field of research and practice, and rationalize these through a critical ethico-legal approach to analysis. Two essential points of inquiry are identified and formulated to allow philosophical and practical agendas regarding public health to be combined. These come through asking the theoretical question ‘what makes health public?’; and the practical question ‘how do we make health public?’. We argue that these two questions require to be addressed if we are to achieve a robust and rigorous, ethical public health.

THE DILEMMA OF RESILIENCE, AS A SECURITY STRATEGY, FOR THE DONORS AND THE HOSTS IN RESPONSE FOR THE SYRIAN CRISIS׃ IN THE CASE OF THE EURPOEAN UNION AND JORDAN

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Al Eassa
Keyword(s):  
Main Question ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Bright Side ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Near Future ◽  
The Eu

Since 2015, both the donors (the European Union) and the hosts (Jordan) of the Syrian refugees have started to adopt resilience as a better security strategy. When dealing with crises, particularly those linked to prolonged wars with no foreseeable solutions in the near future, resilience has become a means and a goal. Yet, it may represent a dilemma for the EU and Jordan. Scholars like Giulia Sinatti and Rosanne Anholt argue that the EU, with its focus on resilience of the origin and transit countries of migrants and refugees, could jeopardize the stability of refugee-hosting states. These already burdened states with its own problems cannot handle more refugees. In addition, the refugees are facing many difficulties to find jobs and they are struggling to find their way to Europe. As a result, resilience may seem threatening rather than safeguarding the security of Europe. Thus, the paper’s main question is How are the donors and the hosts trying to resolve the dilemma of resilience, as a security strategy, in response for the Syrian crisis in the case of the EU and Jordan? Based on document analysis for the EU and Jordan׳s documents including their official bilateral and multilateral agreements, reports from their official websites and textual analysis of the current literature on building resilience, this paper argues that resilience may appear as a dilemma, however, the EU and Jordan are trying to resolve it by adopting resilience as a pragmatic approach, focusing on its bright side, and tackling the challenges, which appear as a result of adopting it. The EU׳s resilience building in Jordan aims to enhance the capacities of the refugees and the local communities and keep a balance between them. What's more, it aims to support those refugees’ self-reliance and Jordan׳s social cohesion. Thus, to keep the refugees in place and prevent them from flooding into Europe.

The Question of Practical Reason

Reasoning ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Nicholas Southwood
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
Practical Question

Practical reasoning is often said to involve undertaking to settle the practical question of how we are to act. But what is this “question?” One view—that it is a theoretical question with a practical subject matter—cannot capture both the correct responsiveness aspect and the authoritative aspect of practical reason. An alternative holds that it is a distinctively practical kind of question—the question of what to do—that is distinct from the question of what one will do and the question of what one ought or has reason to do. Such a view can easily accommodate the authoritative aspect of practical reason. This chapter argues that it can also accommodate the correct responsiveness aspect once we appreciate that correct answers to the question of what to do depend exclusively on our actual attitudes. It concludes by considering the implications of this view for several important issues in meta-ethics and the philosophy of normativity.

Complementation with Verbs of Choice in English

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Duffley ◽  
Rafika Abida
Keyword(s):  
Strict Sense ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Temporal Effects ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
Lexical Content ◽  
Practical Question

AbstractThis study addresses both the practical question of what forms of complementation are found with verbs expressing the notion of choice in English and the theoretical question of explaining the control and temporal effects found with these verbs. The explanation proposed is based on an approach in which syntax is taken to be driven by semantics. Semantics is defined in terms of the meaning-content associated with the linguistic forms occurring in the constructions examined, namely the to-infinitive, the gerund-participle, and the lexical content of the different verbs of choice themselves, together with the semantic value of the complement’s function with respect to the main verb. Although it does not utilize a corpus in the strict sense of the word, nor employ statistical argumentation, the study is based mainly on an examination of attested usage in Canadian English as reflected by Canadian websites accessed in the fall of 2006.

scholarly journals On assigning pragmatic functions in English

Pragmatics ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Lachlan Mackenzie ◽  
Evelien Keizer
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Theory ◽  
Verbal Interaction ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
Practical Question ◽  
Linguistic Material ◽  
Selection Of

This paper presents a discussion of the treatment of the pragmatic functions Topic and Focus in Functional Grammar (Dik: 1989, ch. 13). Two questions will be addressed: (a) the theoretical question of how the interface between the static grammar (dealing with a discourse as the product of text-creating activity) and the dynamic theory of verbal interaction (dealing with discourse as the ongoing text-creating process itself) is handled with regard to pragmatic functions; and (b) the practical question whether the reader of Dik (1989) finds a set of proposals that can be operationalized in the analysis of linguistic material. With regard to the former question we conclude that in the present FG treatment of Topic and Focus, the static and the dynamic approaches do not connect and that, as a result, the speaker’s selection of constituents for Topic or Focus function is left unaccounted for. As for the second question, we show that Dik’s proposal can be put into practice, but that the resultant analysis suffers from a number of inconsistencies and unclarities. Finally, we argue that most of these inconsistencies and unclarities can be solved if (1) we accept a different classification of Focus, and (2) assume that Topic assignment is irrelevant in English, as there is no consistent way in which Topic constituents are given special treatment, and Pl-placement can be accounted for without having to resort to Topic function.

Negative Existentials

2019 ◽  
pp. 202-235
Author(s):  
Lenny Clapp ◽  
Marga Reimer ◽  
Anne Spire
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Compelling Argument ◽  
Fictional Entities ◽  
Theory Of Descriptions ◽  
Historical Block ◽  
Negative Existentials

This chapter presents a critical discussion of the problem of negative existentials in the tradition of analytic philosophy of language. Firstly, it presents the problem as a compelling argument in support of the counterintuitive conclusion that sentences such as ‘Pegasus does not exist’ cannot be used to make true and informative assertions. Then, seven influential proposals for solving the problem are considered, each of which is construed as a response to this argument. The proposals considered are Russell’s (1905) theory of descriptions, Quine’s (1948) prescribed elimination of names, Donnellan’s (1974) ‘historical block’ view, Kripke’s (1973/2013) ‘no such proposition’ view, Salmon’s (1998) fictional entities view, Braun’s (1993) gappy proposition view, and Katz’s (1990) pure metalinguistic descriptivism. Though the official stance with regard to these proposals is neutral, the chapter concludes with a brief reactive summary that endorses a general pragmatic approach to the problem.

scholarly journals A COMPARISON OF A VIRTUAL LAB AND A MICROCOMPUTER-BASED LAB FOR SCIENTIFIC MODELLING BY COLLEGE STUDENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-173
Author(s):  
Wing-Kwong Wong ◽  
Kai-Ping Chen ◽  
Hong-Ming Chang
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Posttest Score ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Average Score ◽  
First Year ◽  
Virtual Lab ◽  
Scientific Modelling ◽  
Comparison Of The Results

This research aimed to explore the effects of a virtual lab (VL) and a Microcomputer-based Lab (MBL) on students’ performance in scientific modeling. A web-based virtual lab and a low-cost MBL were proposed to help first-year engineering students build scientific models. Empirical research was done in a slope motion experiment. The participants were 118 first-year engineering students in Taiwan, and they were divided into a VL group and an MBL group. From the results of the questionnaire, these groups of students thought that the systems were usable and easy to use, and they expressed positive attitudes towards the labs. The post-test’s average score was higher than that of the pre-test for both groups, and the average posttest score of the VL group was better than that of the MBL group. From the students’ learning sheets, many students successfully manipulated the experimental variables and built correct models after gradual revision of earlier models. According to the results of the empirical research, these systems helped the students understand the meaning of the experiment and increased students' interests with hands-on labs. A comparison of the results of these two groups\suggests the integration of VL and MBL to facilitate students’ learning. Keywords: experimental design, MBL, scientific modelling, slope motion, virtual lab.

Fictional entities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lamarque
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Anna Karenina ◽  
Fictional Entities ◽  
Real Objects ◽  
The One

By ‘fictional entities’, philosophers principally mean those entities originating in and defined by myths, legends, fairy tales, novels, dramas and other works of fiction. In this sense unicorns, centaurs, Pegasus, the Time Machine and Sherlock Holmes are all fictional entities. A somewhat different category of fictional entities is associated with empiricist philosophy. It includes entities apparently assumed by common discourse but which admit of no direct empirical experience. Thus Jeremy Bentham classified as ‘fictitious entities’ motion, relation, power and matter, as well as, notoriously, rights, obligations and duties. David Hume called substance, the self, even space and time ‘fictions’ and Bertrand Russell thought ordinary things, such as Piccadilly or Socrates, were fictions, on the grounds that they are ‘constructed’ out of simpler, more immediate objects of acquaintance. Philosophical interest in fictional entities thus covers a surprisingly wide area of the subject, including ontology and metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, and aesthetics. The first question that arises is how the distinction should be drawn between fictional and nonfictional entities. As the examples from Bentham, Hume and Russell show, this is by no means a straightforward matter. The next question concerns what to do with fictional entities once they have been identified. Here the primary philosophical task has been to try to accommodate two powerful yet apparently conflicting intuitions: on the one hand, the intuition that there are no such things as fictional entities, so that any seeming reference to them must be explained away; on the other hand, the intuition that because ‘things’ like Sherlock Holmes and Anna Karenina are so vividly drawn, so seemingly ‘real’, objects of thoughts and emotions, they must after all have some kind of reality. Broadly speaking, we can discern two kinds of philosophical approach: those which incline towards the latter intuition, being in some way hospitable to fictional entities; and the less hospitable kind, which incline towards the former and seek only to show how fictional entities can be eliminated altogether in the strict regime of rational discourse.

A pragmatic approach to teaching clinical physical diagnosis

1981 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 585-588
Author(s):  
MJ Kutcher ◽  
TF Meiller ◽  
CD Overholser
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Physical Diagnosis ◽  
Approach To Teaching
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