scholarly journals What are empirical consequences? On dispensability and composite objects

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex LeBrun
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Scientific Realist ◽  
The World ◽  
Composite Objects ◽  
Theoretical Equivalence ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractPhilosophers sometimes give arguments that presuppose the following principle: two theories can fail to be empirically equivalent on the sole basis that they present different “thick” metaphysical pictures of the world. Recently, a version of this principle has been invoked to respond to the argument that composite objects are dispensable to our best scientific theories. This response claims that our empirical evidence distinguishes between ordinary and composite-free theories, and it empirically favors the ordinary ones (Hofweber 2016, 2018). In this paper, I ask whether this response to the dispensability argument is tenable. I claim that it is not. This is because it presupposes an indefensible thesis about when two empirical consequences are distinct or the same. My argument provides some insight into what our empirical consequences are, and I conclude that empirical evidence is radically metaphysically neutral. This gives us some insight into the significant content of our scientific theories—the content that a scientific realist is committed to—and I show how this insight relates to questions about theoretical equivalence more broadly.

Instrumentalism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Kyle Stanford
Keyword(s):  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Restricted Class ◽  
Scientific Realist ◽  
Scientific Domain ◽  
The World

This chapter seeks to explore and develop the proposal that even our best scientific theories are not (as the scientific realist would have it) accurate descriptions of how things stand in otherwise inaccessible domains of nature but are instead simply powerful conceptual tools or instruments for engaging practically with the world around us. It describes a number of persistent challenges facing any attempt to apply the American Pragmatists’ global conception of all ideas, beliefs, theories, and cognitions quite generally as such tools or instruments to only a restricted class or category of such entities (such as our best scientific theories) instead. It then seeks to overcome these challenges by regarding scientific instrumentalism as simply applying the scientific realist’s own attitude toward a theory like Newtonian mechanics to even the most empirically successful and instrumentally powerful theory we have in any given scientific domain.

Ultrastructure of neuromuscular relationships in the canine heartworm (dirofilaria immitis)

1986 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 278-279
Author(s):  
W. L. Steffens ◽  
Nancy B. Roberts ◽  
J. M. Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Dirofilaria Immitis ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
Pharmacological Effects ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Canine Heartworm ◽  
The World ◽  
Synaptic Region ◽  
Muscle Innervation ◽  
Insight Into

The canine heartworm is a common and serious nematode parasite of domestic dogs in many parts of the world. Although nematode neuroanatomy is fairly well documented, the emphasis has been on sensory anatomy and primarily in free-living soil species and ascarids. Lee and Miller reported on the muscular anatomy in the heartworm, but provided little insight into the peripheral nervous system or myoneural relationships. The classical fine-structural description of nematode muscle innervation is Rosenbluth's earlier work in Ascaris. Since the pharmacological effects of some nematacides currently being developed are neuromuscular in nature, a better understanding of heartworm myoneural anatomy, particularly in reference to the synaptic region is warranted.

On Metaphysics and the Political: A Polemics of Reading Baudelaire in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.

Humans, common household pets and farm animals can theoretically mutually infect each other with SARS-CoV-2 and develop the COVID-19 pathology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Metere
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
The World

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is spreading fast throughout the world, and often the new cases are reported as community spread, which means that it is not possible to identify a specific cause for contagion. Household pets and farm animals live closely to humans and even if currently there is no empirical evidence of animal to human transmission, it has not been reported yet if transmission is in principle possible. This work addresses such hypothesis, confirming that transmission is theoretically possible, and highly likely to occur between humans and mammals. Less likely or not likely at all between humans and birds. Further research is needed to validate the birds to humans transmission. -- THIS ARTICLE IS CURRENTLY BEING EXPANDED AND REVISED --

Women and Agency in Bankim’s Rajmohan’s Wife and Tagore’s The Home and The World

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manju Dhariwal ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
English Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Status Of Women

Written almost half a century apart, Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) and The Home and the World (1916) can be read as women centric texts written in colonial India. The plot of both the texts is set in Bengal, the cultural and political centre of colonial India. Rajmohan’s Wife, arguably the first Indian English novel, is one of the first novels to realistically represent ‘Woman’ in the nineteenth century. Set in a newly emerging society of India, it provides an insight into the status of women, their susceptibility and dependence on men. The Home and the World, written at the height of Swadeshi movement in Bengal, presents its woman protagonist in a much progressive space. The paper closely examines these two texts and argues that women enact their agency in relational spaces which leads to the process of their ‘becoming’. The paper analyses this journey of the progress of the self, which starts with Matangini and culminates in Bimala. The paper concludes that women’s journey to emancipation is symbolic of the journey of the nation to independence.

Critical Insight into the Attributes of Emerging Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in India and Across the World

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Gaurav M. Doshi ◽  
Hemen S. Ved ◽  
Ami P. Thakkar
Keyword(s):  
Review Article ◽  
World Health ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
The World ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Old Drugs

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently announced the spread of novel coronavirus (nCoV) globally and has declared it a pandemic. The probable source of transmission of the virus, which is from animal to human and human to human contact, has been established. As per the statistics reported by the WHO on 11th April 2020, data has shown that more than sixteen lakh confirmed cases have been identified globally. The reported cases related to nCoV in India have been rising substantially. The review article discusses the characteristics of nCoV in detail with the probability of potentially effective old drugs that may inhibit the virus. The research may further emphasize and draw the attention of the world towards the development of an effective vaccine as well as alternative therapies. Moreover, the article will help to bridge the gap between the new researchers since it’s the current thrust area of research.

Financial Literacy among Rural Women in Darbhanga District:An Empirical Evidence.

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. F.B. SINGH ◽  
POOJA JHA
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Scenario

Financial Literacy is defined as the possession of knowledge and understanding of elementary financial concepts which results in developing the ability to make conversant, poised and effective financial decisions. In current scenario, the concern to increase the level of financial literacy among common masses has been witnessed by many countries of the world through various Financial Literacy center, programme and initiatives but all these programmes and policies are crafted and implemented taking into consideration the male as ultimate receiver and so women who constitute half of the rural population are lagging behind in terms of a making informed financial decisions and financial wellbeing. Hence Strategies should be formulated taking into consideration the women as the main spectators. This paper is an attempt to analyze the current status of the financial literacy among the rural women of the Darbhanga district.

Becoming the World's Biggest Brewer

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Bertrams ◽  
Julien Del Marmol ◽  
Sander Geerts ◽  
Eline Poelmans
Keyword(s):  
Local Environment ◽  
Success Story ◽  
Beer Industry ◽  
National Market ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Global Company ◽  
Insight Into

AB InBev is today’s uncontested world leader of the beer market. It represents over 20 per cent of global beer sales, with more than 450 million hectolitres a year flowing all around the world. Its Belgian predecessor, Interbrew, was a success story stemming from the 1971 secret merger of the country’s two leading brewers: Artois and Piedboeuf. Based on first-hand material originating from company and private archives as well as interviews with managers and key family actors, this is the first study to explore the history of the company through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The story starts in the mid-nineteenth century with the scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized the beer industry and allowed both Artois and Piedboeuf to prosper in a local environment. Instrumental in this respect were the respective families and their successive heirs in stabilizing and developing their firms. Despite the intense difficulties of two world wars in the decades to follow, they emerged stronger than ever and through the 1960s became undisputed leaders in the national market. Then, in an unprecedented move, Artois and Piedboeuf secretly merged their shareholding in 1971, though keeping their operations separate until 1987 when they openly and operationally merged to become Interbrew. Throughout their histories Artois, Piedboeuf, and their successor companies have kept a controlling family ownership. This book provides a unique insight into both the complex history of these three family breweries and their path to becoming a prominent global company, and the growth and consolidation of the beer market through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Psalm 104: The Panorama of Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Robert Gnuse
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
The World ◽  
Formal Presentation ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Insight Into

Psalm 104 is a majestic hymn to creation, a dynamic corollary to the more formal presentation of the creation of the world in Genesis 1. Reflection upon some of the passages provides us with insight into the biblical author’s appreciation for nature, an attitude that needs to inspire us in this age of ecological crisis. Though the biblical text is unaware of such an ecological crisis; nonetheless, passages shine forth that can speak to us in our modern age of global warming and environmental collapse.

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