scholarly journals Testimonial Knowledge and Context-Sensitivity: a New Diagnosis of the Threat

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Alex Davies
Keyword(s):  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Testimonial Knowledge ◽  
New Diagnosis

scholarly journals TESTIMONY, PRAGMATICS, AND PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

Episteme ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Peet
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Testimonial Knowledge ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Buck Passing

AbstractI outline what I call the ‘deniability problem’, explain why it is problematic, and identify the range of utterances to which it applies (using religious discourse as an example). The problem is as follows: To assign content to many utterances audiences must rely on their contextual knowledge. This generates a lot of scope for error. Thus, speakers are able to make assertions and deny responsibility for the proposition asserted, claiming that the audience made a mistake. I outline the problem (a limited version of which Fricker 2012 discusses), before explaining why it is problematic. Firstly it blocks testimonial knowledge according to assurance views. Secondly it prevents epistemic buck passing (the importance of which is emphasized by Goldberg 2006 and McMyler 2013). Finally, it removes a key disincentive to dishonesty. The recent literature on context sensitivity (particularly Cappelen and Lepore 2004) seems to entail that the problem applies to a very wide range of utterances. I consider a series of responses which fail to provide a solution, but which help us narrow down the scope of the problem.

Diabetic lipemia − acute pancreatitis and new diagnosis of diabetes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Ventress ◽  
Waqar Ahmad ◽  
Satish Artham
Keyword(s):  
Acute Pancreatitis ◽  
New Diagnosis

Testimony and Assertion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Owens
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Epistemic Norms ◽  
Testimonial Knowledge ◽  
Epistemology Of Testimony ◽  
Ethical Norms

Two models of assertion are described and their epistemological implications considered. The assurance model draws a parallel between the ethical norms surrounding speech acts like promising and the epistemic norms that govern the transmission of testimonial knowledge. This model is rejected in favour of the view that assertion transmits knowledge by (intentionally) expressing belief. The expression of belief is distinguished from the communication of belief. The chapter goes on to compare the epistemology of testimony with the epistemology of memory, arguing that memory and testimony are mechanisms that can preserve the rationality of the belief they transmit without preserving the evidence on which the belief was originally based.

Discourse, Context, and Coherence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Una Stojnić
Keyword(s):  
Prima Facie ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Pure Indexicals

On the received view, the resolution of context-sensitivity is at least partly determined by non-linguistic features of utterance situation. If I say ‘He’s happy’, what ‘he’ picks out is underspecified by its linguistic meaning, and is only fixed through extra-linguistic supplementation: the speaker’s intention, and/or some objective, non-linguistic feature of the utterance situation. This underspecification is exhibited by most context-sensitive expressions, with the exception of pure indexicals, like ‘I.’ While this received view is prima facie appealing, I argue it is deeply mistaken. I defend an account according to which context-sensitivity resolution is governed by linguistic mechanisms determining prominence of candidate resolutions of context-sensitive items. Thus, on this account, the linguistic meaning of a context-sensitive expression fully specifies its resolution in a context, automatically selecting the resolution antecedently set by the prominence-governing linguistic mechanisms.

Usage problems in American English

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktorija Kostadinova
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Language Context

This chapter explores the complexity of attitudes to the usage problems ain’t, literally, and like in American English, from the point of view of both prescriptivist discourse found in usage guides and speakers’ ideas about these usage problems. I argue that the stakes for speakers involved in using certain usage problems are different in different contexts, and that these usage problems merit more serious sociolinguistic attention. I pay particular attention to how the attitudes of speakers towards the usage problems considered in this chapter differ from those expressed in usage guides. One of the conclusions of this analysis is that different usage problems have different social implications for different speakers. Grammatical usage problems in particular seem to be more closely associated with education, although regional and language context sensitivity play a role as well.

Suppose and Tell

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Probability ◽  
Natural Deduction ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Modal Operator ◽  
Counterfactual Conditionals ◽  
Deduction Rules ◽  
Psychological Sense

The book argues that our use of conditionals is governed by imperfectly reliable heuristics, in the psychological sense of fast and frugal (or quick and dirty) ways of assessing them. The primary heuristic is this: to assess ‘If A, C’, suppose A and on that basis assess C; whatever attitude you take to C conditionally on A (such as acceptance, rejection, or something in between) take unconditionally to ‘If A, C’. This heuristic yields both the equation of the probability of ‘If A, C’ with the conditional probability of C on A and standard natural deduction rules for the conditional. However, these results can be shown to make the heuristic implicitly inconsistent, and so less than fully reliable. There is also a secondary heuristic: pass conditionals freely from one context to another under normal conditions for acceptance of sentences on the basis of memory and testimony. The effect of the secondary heuristic is to undermine interpretations on which ‘if’ introduces a special kind of context-sensitivity. On the interpretation which makes best sense of the two heuristics, ‘if’ is simply the truth-functional conditional. Apparent counterexamples to truth-functionality are artefacts of reliance on the primary heuristic in cases where it is unreliable. The second half of the book concerns counterfactual conditionals, as expressed with ‘if’ and ‘would’. It argues that ‘would’ is an independently meaningful modal operator for contextually restricted necessity: the meaning of counterfactuals is simply that derived compositionally from the meanings of their constituents, including ‘if’ and ‘would’, making them contextually restricted strict conditionals.

Microlanguages, Vagueness, and Paradox

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ludlow ◽  
Bradley Armour-Garb
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Dynamic Theory ◽  
Liar Paradox ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Static Picture ◽  
The Liar ◽  
The Liar Paradox

This chapter follows recent work in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology, which rejects the standard, static picture of languages and highlights its context sensitivity—a dynamic theory of the nature of language. On the view advocated, human languages are things that we build on a conversation-by-conversation basis. The author calls such languages microlanguages. The chapter argues that thinking of languages in terms of microlanguages yields interesting consequences for how we should think about the liar paradox. In particular, we will see that microlanguages have admissible conditions that preclude liar-like sentences. On the view presented in the chapter, liar sentences are not even sentences of any microlanguage that we might construct (or assertorically utter). Accordingly, the proper approach to such a paradoxical sentence is to withhold the sentence—not permitting it to be admitted into our microlanguage unless, or until, certain sharpening occurs.

scholarly journals Diagnostic Yield of Electroanatomic Voltage Mapping in Guiding Endomyocardial Biopsies

Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (13) ◽  
pp. 1249-1260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Casella ◽  
Antonio Dello Russo ◽  
Marco Bergonti ◽  
Valentina Catto ◽  
Edoardo Conte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Diagnostic Yield ◽  
Gadolinium Enhancement ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Voltage Mapping ◽  
Few Data ◽  
New Diagnosis ◽  
Complications Rate

Background: Electroanatomic voltage mapping (EVM) is a promising modality for guiding endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs). However, few data support its feasibility and safety. We now report the largest cohort of patients undergoing EVM-guided EMBs to show its diagnostic yield and to compare it with a cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)–guided approach. Methods: We included 162 consecutive patients undergoing EMB at our institution from 2010 to 2019. EMB was performed in pathological areas identified at EVM and CMR. CMR and EVM sensitivity and specificity regarding the identification of pathological substrates of myocardium were evaluated according to EMB results. Results: Preoperative CMR showed late gadolinium enhancement in 70% of the patients, whereas EVM identified areas of low voltage in 61%. Right (73%), left (19%), or both ventricles (8%) underwent sampling. EVM proved to have sensitivity similar to CMR (74% versus 77%), with specificity being 70% and 47%, respectively. In 12 patients with EMB-proven cardiomyopathy, EVM identified pathological areas that had been undetected at CMR evaluation. Sensitivity of pooled EVM and CMR was as high as 95%. EMB analysis allowed us to reach a new diagnosis, different from the suspected clinical diagnosis, in 39% of patients. The complications rate was low, mostly related to vascular access, with no patients requiring urgent management. Conclusions: EVM proved to be a promising tool for targeted EMB because of its sensitivity and specificity for identification of myocardial pathological substrates. EVM was demonstrated to have accuracy similar to CMR. EVM and CMR together conferred a positive predictive value of 89% on EMB.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document